The Harvest Season by Al McKinlay

September 11, 2024 I Have Many Things to Say

Al and Micah talk about Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune

00:00:30: Intro

00:02:09: What Have We Been Up To

00:12:01: Game News

00:39:50: New Games

01:15:05: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home

02:18:35: Outro

Links

Let’s Build a Zoo “Monstrous Structures” Update

Cat Cafe Manager 2 Kickstarter

Super Zoo Story Kickstarter

Wylde Flowers “Magical Creatures” Update

BokuMono: Life and Love

Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Boardgame

My Time at Evershine

Dreamland Farm

Danchi Days

Amber Isle

Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Apple

Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Android

Contact

Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot

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.

(0:00:33) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games.

(0:00:34) Micah: And I’m Micah

(0:00:39) Al: Woo.

(0:00:40) Micah: Yay

(0:00:40) Al: So excited.

(0:00:42) Micah: It’s still as much as I have heard you say cart cottagecore games, it’s still always those

(0:00:50) Al: I keep like bouncing between like should it be cottagecore should it be farming

(0:00:56) Al: it’s like I was running something over in my head today I was like games that

(0:01:01) Al: quite often have a farming component but not always and are sometimes considered

(0:01:05) Al: cozy but not always like we’d

(0:01:06) Micah: I think it’s I think for me it’s because every time you have me on we are

(0:01:15) Micah: talking about farming games specifically like you know the core the core farming

(0:01:17) Al: Yeah, you have you have a niche.

(0:01:20) Al: Ah. (laughs)

(0:01:23) Micah: game groups the harvest moons the story of season

(0:01:29) Al: Exactly. I mean, well, the thing is, right, most people don’t want to spend a lot of time

(0:01:35) Al: on a lot of those games. I just want to go back to stardew. And this is the cheapest

(0:01:37) Micah: understandable. I am more than happy to, uh, to bite the bullet for everybody else to be able to

(0:01:46) Micah: experience, uh, you know.

(0:01:49) Al: Harvest Moon game we’ve paid for in quite a long time. So, you know. OK, well, we’ll

(0:01:52) Micah: Ah! Sure. Yeah, sure.

(0:01:55) Al: get to that. So, before we get to that, we have…

(0:01:59) Al: News. We’ve got a bunch of news to talk about.

(0:02:03) Al: Oh yeah, I didn’t actually say… We’re going to talk about the new Harvest Moon game.

(0:02:06) Al: Harvest Moon’s home to be home.

(0:02:08) Al: But we’ve got news before that.

(0:02:10) Al: First of all, Maika, what have you been up to?

(0:02:12) Micah: I have been very busy. I have been

(0:02:17) Micah: Very busy doing a few things I have work has been

(0:02:22) Micah: Really crazy, and I I love that like I love when I’m busy, so it’s not a complaint. You know I love when I’m my time is

(0:02:30) Micah: Caught up and preoccupied so I it’s it’s great, but it has not left me a lot of time for games

(0:02:38) Micah: so

(0:02:40) Micah: Primarily what I have been playing.

(0:02:42) Micah: I have some personal projects that I’ve been working on too that are not work-related,

(0:03:12) Micah: taking up a lot of time, which is great, and I’m really happy about that.

(0:03:17) Micah: There is one where I have had some time to be able to play some older Pokémon games,

(0:03:25) Micah: and I can’t really say why yet, but I have been enjoying that.

(0:03:28) Al: I’m intrigued. I wasn’t intrigued until he said you can’t say why.

(0:03:34) Micah: It is a big project that I’ve been working on for months now, and it is becoming a…

(0:03:42) Micah: It’s one of those projects where you start and you’re like, “This is a really small,

(0:03:46) Micah: fun idea,” and then it just grows over time, and you’re like, “This is getting really

(0:03:49) Micah: out of hand, and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get a hold of this.”

(0:03:53) Micah: But it’s been really fun, and it has allowed me some time to do work and stay busy, but

(0:03:58) Micah: also play games, play some games.

(0:04:01) Micah: But primarily it’s been Pokémon, is what I’ve been playing.

(0:04:04) Micah: I did download, I bought and downloaded Fields of Mistria.

(0:04:09) Micah: I have not played it yet.

(0:04:10) Micah: I’m very excited.

(0:04:12) Micah: But I haven’t had a chance to touch it yet.

(0:04:14) Al: I haven’t bought that one yet, that’s on my list of “I will probably pay this at some point, maybe.”

(0:04:18) Micah: Yeah, yeah.

(0:04:20) Micah: I just had seen, you know, the the most buzz around a farming

(0:04:26) Micah: sim since I think maybe Stardew in like communities that were

(0:04:32) Micah: specifically excited about like Stardew and you know that that

(0:04:39) Micah: type of farming sim.

(0:04:40) Micah: So I that.

(0:04:42) Micah: Intrigued enough to be like, okay, if this is if people are like, you know, recognizing

(0:04:47) Micah: it as a not a like competitor or anything or like the new Stardew or anything like that.

(0:04:52) Micah: But if there’s enough interest there, then maybe it’s something to, to look into.

(0:04:56) Micah: So, and I like the art style.

(0:04:58) Micah: I like the pixel art and stuff.

(0:04:59) Micah: So it’s a little, we’ll see have yet to play it.

(0:05:02) Al: So, other than obviously Harvest Moon Home, Sweet Home, I have been trying to get back

(0:05:02) Micah: So I can’t really say anything about it.

(0:05:05) Micah: What about you?

(0:05:06) Micah: What have you been up to?

(0:05:13) Al: into Coral Island after their 1.1 update. Sometimes when you go back to a game, it takes

(0:05:20) Al: a while to get yourself back into the zone. I spent over a month, I spent 100 hours in

(0:05:29) Al: in Carl Island.

(0:05:30) Al: So I’m not back at–

(0:05:32) Al: at that point yet, but we’ll see.

(0:05:34) Al: I mean that in and of itself might–

(0:05:36) Al: will be interesting to talk about, you know,

(0:05:38) Al: when we get to that, if I– if I don’t end up.

(0:05:40) Al: But–

(0:05:41) Micah: world’s biggest coral island fan.

(0:05:42) Al: because–

(0:05:45) Micah: As far as I know, at least he are.

(0:05:48) Al: I like it! It’s a really fun game.

(0:05:50) Al: But I think it’s interesting because if I–

(0:05:52) Al: if I don’t manage to push myself back into it,

(0:05:54) Al: that says something.

(0:05:56) Al: Because I’ve managed to– I’ve managed to get obsessed

(0:05:58) Al: about Stardew every single time I’ve gone back to it.

(0:06:00) Al: to it. And

(0:06:02) Al: that, you know, so if I can’t that says something, you know, like I started a new

(0:06:07) Al: save for 1.6 when it came out and got perfection for the first time on it. So like, you know,

(0:06:14) Micah: Oh, nice. That’s awesome.

(0:06:15) Al: that’s how obsessed I got over it last time. So we’ll see. We’ll see.

(0:06:17) Micah: Yeah.

(0:06:19) Micah: I love that, though. I love when you…

(0:06:22) Micah: That feeling of, like, finding a game that lets you do that, like, lets you obsess over it in that way.

(0:06:28) Al: Yeah.

(0:06:30) Al: I don’t know why does it happen though.

(0:06:32) Al: Why do I keep coming back to stardew and keep playing it?

(0:06:35) Micah: It’s your comfort game you know same reason why probably I’ve watched I don’t know the office

(0:06:43) Micah: 18,000 times over not because it’s like incredible really and

(0:06:48) Micah: Not because you know the a lot of the jokes are especially early on are not like questionable

(0:06:52) Al: Heh.

(0:06:54) Al: Yeah.

(0:06:54) Micah: Especially today, but just cuz it’s Scott like you know

(0:06:59) Micah: I don’t I don’t have to I don’t gotta think too hard about it. I just know what it is

(0:07:05) Micah: It’s it becomes a comfort thing

(0:07:08) Al: Fair.

(0:07:08) Micah: Stardew Stardew Valley is your the office. I don’t let’s let’s let’s not use that let’s better on that comparison

(0:07:14) Micah: I’m that I apologize that me. I don’t know why that made me think of it, but

(0:07:18) Micah: I have been looking

(0:07:21) Micah: looking at getting

(0:07:23) Micah: back into

(0:07:24) Micah: Pocket camp too recently cuz I kind of want to see it off

(0:07:26) Al: Oh, good timing. Are you… are you gonna buy the offline version?

(0:07:29) Micah: You know I’d put a lot of time into it

(0:07:33) Micah: and money

(0:07:36) Micah: I

(0:07:37) Micah: Don’t probably here and there. I think part of it is that I just there were so many events that I

(0:07:43) Micah: Didn’t feel like I could keep up with it as much. I will say

(0:07:49) Micah: My wife Becky has is devastated. She is I

(0:07:53) Micah: Think probably the biggest Animal Crossing fan

(0:07:56) Micah: I I know like by far and I would have said years ago. I would have said that’s me

(0:08:02) Micah: I am the biggest Animal Crossing fan that I know.

(0:08:05) Micah: But that has, she has since taken that crown.

(0:08:08) Micah: She has never stopped playing New Horizons.

(0:08:12) Micah: She, she played New Leaf a ton.

(0:08:14) Micah: She played through, you know, all of the, the previous

(0:08:16) Micah: Harvest Moon’s, or Harvest Moon’s god.

(0:08:19) Micah: I’m already in Harvest Moon Brain.

(0:08:21) Micah: Uh, she’s played through the previous Animal Crossings, but

(0:08:27) Micah: she has been, uh, nonstop playing New Horizons.

(0:08:32) Micah: And I believe she’s literally, it’s, it’s Sunday.

(0:08:35) Micah: So, you know, it’s her call, she calls her Goblin Day.

(0:08:39) Micah: She’s literally out there playing New Horizons right now.

(0:08:42) Micah: But in addition to that, she has never stopped playing Pocket Camp.

(0:08:46) Micah: She has like thousands of hours, I would guess, in Pocket Camp.

(0:08:53) Micah: And there are people that she knows only through Pocket Camp that

(0:09:01) Micah: she’s like sad that it’s closing because she doesn’t know these

(0:09:05) Micah: things outside of it.

(0:09:05) Micah: Like she’s got, you know, hundreds of like friendship interactions

(0:09:10) Micah: where they trade gifts or they trade, you know, items or whatever

(0:09:13) Micah: in the game, but she doesn’t know who these people actually are.

(0:09:16) Micah: So like when the game shuts down, that’s just going to go away, which

(0:09:16) Al: Yeah. Well, and being a Nintendo game, it’s not going to have, like, free text,

(0:09:20) Micah: is like an incredibly sad thing.

(0:09:21) Micah: But like, how do you resolve that?

(0:09:23) Micah: You know, like, what do you, right?

(0:09:28) Al: so you wouldn’t have a way to be able to save that. Yeah.

(0:09:28) Micah: There’s no social aspect to it.

(0:09:31) Micah: Like broader social aspect to it that you can, you know, uh,

(0:09:36) Micah: converse with the people outside of outside for good reason, right?

(0:09:39) Micah: Like for kids games, but, but also in situations like this, it’s just

(0:09:44) Micah: kind of, kind of weird and sad and like an interesting thing, but yeah.

(0:09:48) Micah: So I, that has, has like touched me enough that I’m like, I kind of just

(0:09:54) Micah: want to go back and see it off and, you know, be there when it shuts down

(0:09:58) Micah: and stuff, because I’ve put so much time and unfortunately money into it.

(0:10:02) Micah: so…

(0:10:02) Al: Yeah, fair enough. Speaking of mobile games, I have gotten back into Marvel Snap quite

(0:10:03) Micah: Bye.

(0:10:06) Micah: So that’s next on the roster.

(0:10:14) Micah: Oh, okay.

(0:10:16) Al: a lot as well, like I have put so much time into it the last couple of months that I’m

(0:10:26) Al: not quite at the top rank this season, but I’m close, and if I hit it, it’ll…

(0:10:32) Al: be the first time I’ve hit it ever. So yeah, big. That’s big. 100. Or, oh, what’s the 100?

(0:10:38) Micah: what is the top rank in marvel snap what’s the like the title for oh okay it’s not like a okay

(0:10:43) Al: Platinum, I think. I don’t really pay attention to the names, I just pay attention to the number,

(0:10:48) Al: right? Big number. Number go big. But I think it’s platinum. Oh no, it’s infinite. Infinite.

(0:10:56) Micah: Oh, okay. All right

(0:10:57) Al: So yeah, I’m at like 83 just now, so we’re…

(0:11:01) Micah: Yeah, well I

(0:11:04) Micah: Have heard nothing but good things about Marvel snap from those who play it, but I have never I’ve never

(0:11:11) Al: Yeah, I find it really fun. I like its simplicity but also how complicated you can make it if

(0:11:20) Micah: Mm-hmm sure

(0:11:21) Al: you want to. Like I’ve got a deck that is like if I get the right cards basically unbeatable

(0:11:29) Al: but you have to have a different way to win as well because you sometimes don’t get those

(0:11:32) Micah: right yeah can I get those multiple win engines

(0:11:34) Al: cards so it’s yeah, it’s fun. Exactly, exactly.

(0:11:42) Al: It’s fun. I’m really enjoying it. They added a lot of stuff while I wasn’t playing it as well so

(0:11:47) Al: trying to get back into that and being like oh they’ve got these alliances and leagues and all

(0:11:54) Al: these cards that I don’t have because I hadn’t unlocked them etc etc but it’s good fun. Cool,

(0:11:59) Micah: No, awesome

(0:12:02) Al: so that’s what we’ve been up to. Now we’re going to talk about some news. First of all,

(0:12:06) Al: Let’s build a zoo have announced a new update the

(0:12:11) Al: structures update and this I mean it’s like there’s big balloons

(0:12:21) Al: it’s interesting they call it a monsters monstrous structures I think it’s basically

(0:12:26) Al: just because there are two massive balloons.

(0:12:30) Micah: I do see, in the images, a giant warthog thing and a giant bear, but that’s the

(0:12:37) Al: Exactly. There’s a lot of quality, well exactly, there’s a lot of quality of life improvements

(0:12:40) Micah: extent of what I see. As far as monstrous goes, you know,

(0:12:47) Al: as well, but like the name seems to be entirely hinging on those two balloons. Yeah, maybe.

(0:12:54) Micah: Or just the concept that there’s a lot of stuff, you know, there’s like it’s a big update. Maybe I don’t know

(0:13:01) Al: It’s a lot of little things, I think, right? Like you can now rename animals is the first

(0:13:05) Al: thing in the patch notes, right?

(0:13:07) Al: Like that’s not a mate, I mean, it’s fine, it’s good.

(0:13:10) Al: Like I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s not like this is a game changer.

(0:13:10) Micah: Mm-hmm.

(0:13:14) Micah: Right, yeah.

(0:13:16) Al: Yeah, it just, there’s lots of quality of life improvements.

(0:13:19) Al: So if you’ve been playing, enjoy those updates.

(0:13:22) Al: If you haven’t been playing because you couldn’t rename your animals, now you can.

(0:13:26) Micah: or because there weren’t giant monster balloons.

(0:13:31) Al: Yeah, yeah.

(0:13:32) Al: Next we have Cat Cafe Manager 2.

(0:13:36) Al: big city bliss.

(0:13:37) Al: The Kickstarter is now live.

(0:13:39) Al: Micah, have you seen this game yet?

(0:13:40) Micah: I have not.

(0:13:41) Al: Had you seen the original Kat Kaffee manager?

(0:13:44) Al: Kat Kaffee manager.

(0:13:44) Micah: I have not.

(0:13:46) Micah: I can’t say that.

(0:13:47) Micah: I so I should what I should say is I have seen games that feel similar in that, you

(0:13:56) Micah: know, I’ve been on the Switch eShop and there’s a lot of games that look similar, I guess.

(0:14:03) Micah: But is this the the original?

(0:14:06) Micah: Is this the OG cafe manager?

(0:14:10) Al: a good question. That I don’t have the answer to. Yeah, it’s quite a big difference to the

(0:14:11) Micah: I like the art for this much better than all the other stuff

(0:14:21) Al: previous game. So the previous one came out in 2022. It’s not like it looked bad, right?

(0:14:28) Al: But it’s different art style. I do prefer the newer one. It’s very, I guess, shiny Paper

(0:14:39) Al: from REO.

(0:14:40) Micah: Okay. Yeah.

(0:14:40) Al: It’s how I would describe it. This one, right? I like the look of it. It’s interesting. So they

(0:14:47) Al: seem to… I’ve noticed that they are planning on having like an actual story here in this one,

(0:14:56) Al: because I think the previous one didn’t have that. So if you look at one of their updates on

(0:15:00) Al: Kickstarter, they say “Cat Caffe Manager 1 had a nice but fairly straightforward storyline

(0:15:06) Al: with the sequel, we’re excited to introduce more complex characters, mysteries and even

(0:15:10) Al: somewhat of a villain. Well, yeah, there you go. Yeah, it’s in. I’m intrigued to see what

(0:15:12) Micah: Oh a villain in my cat cafe?

(0:15:18) Micah: I I there are a lot of things that that could mean and that scares me

(0:15:24) Micah: We’re talking about like, you know adoptable animals i’m worried about who the villain is but

(0:15:28) Al: happens. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m excited to find out.

(0:15:33) Micah: It’s really

(0:15:35) Micah: It is a very cute art style though. I like it a lot. I do like that. Um

(0:15:40) Micah: kind of flat 2D characters in a 3D space.

(0:15:42) Micah: kind of thing. Obviously, you know, things like Snacko and stuff like that. Paper Mario, like you said.

(0:15:48) Micah: I like that concept.

(0:15:52) Micah: So, yeah, it looks really cool.

(0:15:54) Al: it hasn’t hasn’t hit its goal yet but it’s going to let’s be honest it’s it’s

(0:15:59) Al: 32,000 of 40,000 so it’s it’s it’s nearly there and it’s try

(0:16:06) Micah: I should clarify too, when I had said, you know, I’ve seen games similar to this, I don’t mean art style gameplay, stuff like that, more just like the branding of it feels, you know, like it felt very, obviously cat cafe manager, it’s very straight to the point, you know, like, and I see a lot of like, I don’t know, whatever tycoon, whatever, you know, like, manager, whatever, it’s there’s so many of those that I just, I could have seen this and I wouldn’t

(0:16:34) Al: So the first one does have an 84% steam rating, very positive with 1,500 reviews. So it’s

(0:16:36) Micah: know, because I kind of, you know,

(0:16:44) Micah: - Wow.

(0:16:50) Al: obviously some people liked it, so that’s good. And the fact that they’ve successfully

(0:16:55) Al: made a game before makes me much more encouraged about backing a Kickstarter. It’s not just

(0:17:01) Al: one of these Skinner boxes that they’ve thrown together in a week and throw

(0:17:04) Al: on the eShop, which happens so often. Yeah, it’s getting so much worse with that.

(0:17:05) Micah: Right, God, the AI art, so much of it on there.

(0:17:13) Micah: Yeah, they really gotta get a handle on that.

(0:17:15) Micah: You know, nevermind.

(0:17:17) Micah: I don’t wanna start to get riled up a little bit.

(0:17:23) Micah: I’ll keep it brief.

(0:17:24) Micah: Nintendo made a big deal about not having, you know,

(0:17:26) Micah: shovelware on their systems like they did with the Wii.

(0:17:29) Micah: And then they just instead opened up the eShop

(0:17:32) Micah: to literally everything.

(0:17:34) Al: Yeah, and it’s a bit of a balance, right? Because I think it’s important that we have

(0:17:40) Al: open access to develop and share your games. But…

(0:17:41) Micah: oh yeah for sure but like maybe some level of regulation like

(0:17:48) Al: Well, this is the thing they do. It’s not like with Steam where it’s like you can literally

(0:17:51) Al: just create it and launch it with no, like, oversight. On the Switch, you have to go through

(0:17:56) Micah: Mm-hmm.

(0:17:57) Al: a process where they approve it. That’s what’s weird is, like, how are they approving all this

(0:18:02) Al: nonsense like they’re not they’re clearly not

(0:18:04) Al: approving it they’re just clicking the button they’re not actually looking at

(0:18:07) Al: it so why do they have the process there why do they bother

(0:18:08) Micah: Or they have some like automated process that’s relying on some artificial intelligence to be like it checks these boxes. So it is approved

(0:18:17) Al: yeah yeah maybe they’re just going is it a game does it run there you go that’s

(0:18:21) Al: fine but I don’t know

(0:18:25) Al: next we have super zoo story they have announced that their kickstarter goes

(0:18:30) Al: live on the first of October. It’s just another…

(0:18:34) Al: It’s another Zoo Tycoon game. Yeah, that’s it.

(0:18:41) Micah: It definitely looks like a Z-Teku.

(0:18:42) Al: Am I gonna play this game? I don’t know. It’s it. So I will say, I will see. The one

(0:18:49) Al: thing that makes me more interested in this is it does appear to be like you…

(0:18:54) Al: It’s an RPG style game rather than like a God style management game. And that

(0:19:01) Al: interests me, because I am not a huge fan.

(0:19:02) Micah: I agree, that-

(0:19:04) Al: I am a fan of management games, but I am a fan of RPG management.

(0:19:10) Micah: I agree with that. I’m also in that same boat where if it’s if it says tycoon and it’s got a you know

(0:19:17) Micah: Like you’re you’re kind of like managing resources and filling a space and then

(0:19:23) Micah: Making money. I’m not as interested in it

(0:19:26) Micah: But the the RPG the added RPG element sounds more interesting to me

(0:19:32) Micah: You know same way that like was a golf story like to be fair like loved Mario golf

(0:19:36) Al: Yes, Golf Story is fantastic!

(0:19:40) Micah: You know

(0:19:41) Micah: Some of the like more goofy golf game games like

(0:19:46) Micah: non-traditional golf games big fan of those but

(0:19:49) Micah: Things like golf story sports story like that where they add an RPG element to it definitely makes it much more

(0:19:55) Micah: You know exciting and more unique of an experience. So

(0:20:00) Al: Yeah, yeah. I’m not a huge golf fan. I mean, I don’t even mean in real life, right? Because

(0:20:04) Micah: Oh me neither. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about golf

(0:20:09) Al: that’s a whole different discussion. I will rant about golf if you want me to, but I don’t think

(0:20:13) Al: we want to. But game-wise, I like Mario Golf, and that’s probably about it. But yeah, Golf Story

(0:20:24) Al: absolutely adored it. It was fantastic in so many ways. The actual golf was fun,

(0:20:29) Al: But also, it was just–

(0:20:30) Al: just my kind of humor.

(0:20:31) Al: The story was just enough to be interesting,

(0:20:35) Al: but not too much that you felt completely overwhelmed.

(0:20:38) Al: It was my perfect RPG.

(0:20:40) Al: It was just enough.

(0:20:41) Al: Just enough RPG in–

(0:20:44) Al: just enough RP in my G. Yeah, sports story was good as well.

(0:20:49) Al: A little bit rushed, but I still really enjoyed it.

(0:20:55) Al: Yeah, so I mean, I’m probably going to play this one purely

(0:20:58) Al: because it’s rather than the kind of, you know.

(0:21:00) Al: Tycoon style game, it is an RPG style game.

(0:21:03) Al: It’ll be interesting to see how they balance that, obviously,

(0:21:05) Al: because these things have to be on a much smaller scale

(0:21:08) Al: because you’re doing everything every time.

(0:21:11) Al: And will there be some level of automation to that?

(0:21:13) Al: Like how, you know, Stardew adds that in as you go.

(0:21:16) Al: We’ll just, you know, we’ll see what happens.

(0:21:20) Al: Next, we have a new update from Wildflowers,

(0:21:22) Al: which came out a few days ago.

(0:21:23) Al: This is the magical creatures update.

(0:21:26) Al: And can you guess what this brings to the game?

(0:21:29) Micah: I’m gonna guess some magical creatures. No way

(0:21:30) Al: You are correct. I know, imagine that. Go for it. I need to find if there’s a list.

(0:21:37) Micah: Can I guess some of the magical creatures unicorn, oh, okay, never mind abort abort

(0:21:48) Al: Oh, here we go. I can’t see a unicorn, but no, you’re correct. I think they’re trying to,

(0:21:50) Micah: Okay, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not there, you know

(0:21:55) Al: you know, not spoil everything, but what I do see is what looks like a cross between

(0:21:59) Al: a tiger and an elephant.

(0:22:00) Al: This is like tiger legs, elephant head, but also the size of a small dog.

(0:22:00) Micah: Mm-hmm

(0:22:04) Micah: Don’t don’t know that I’ve I know that one don’t know that I

(0:22:09) Micah: Do see that one. It is very cute though. Do you’re like

(0:22:14) Micah: Description of it, you know tiger with the head of an elephant just

(0:22:19) Micah: Was did not prepare me for what it looks like and it is very cute

(0:22:23) Al: that’s what it is though, right? Like you can’t say I’m wrong. Yeah. And then like some sort of

(0:22:24) Micah: It is you’re totally right, but it is it’s really cute

(0:22:32) Al: lizard gecko type thing with chicken legs. And then a Shiba Inu, of course.

(0:22:34) Micah: Yep.

(0:22:35) Micah: Chicken Lizard?

(0:22:37) Micah: The classic mystical creature?

(0:22:40) Micah: Yep.

(0:22:42) Al: It’s like, what makes that magical? I don’t know. That’s the main thing. There’s other things as

(0:22:49) Al: as well. There’s some more story about the lighthouse.

(0:22:51) Al: Um, I don’t know.

(0:22:53) Al: So this is the time, I mean, well, when I mentioned it to him, he said, oh, I guess

(0:22:58) Micah: Oh, okay.

(0:23:01) Micah: Is Kevin going to be okay?

(0:23:05) Micah: That this is their final update?

(0:23:08) Al: I need to get back into the game then.

(0:23:09) Al: Uh, so I think it’s been a while since he’s played, he’s played it.

(0:23:12) Al: So we’ll, we’ll see, we’ll see how he feels once he’s actually played it.

(0:23:16) Micah: Got it.

(0:23:17) Al: The update.

(0:23:18) Al: Be interesting to see what the studio do next.

(0:23:20) Micah: Yeah, definitely.

(0:23:22) Micah: And now that they have got such a, like, you know, well-loved thing under their belt, there’s…

(0:23:27) Al: Yeah, the moment you see from the makers of Wild Flowers, you’re like “OK, I’m paying attention”.

(0:23:34) Al: So next we have possibly one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in a while, and this is

(0:23:40) Al: “Bokumono Life and Love”, which is a G-mode phone game from a long time ago that has been ported

(0:23:50) Al: to Steam and Switch.

(0:23:52) Micah: I cannot tell you how happy I am about this for a couple reasons just also for

(0:24:02) Micah: full clarification it is not in English there is no English for this it is a

(0:24:06) Al: Yes, I’m important to point that out.

(0:24:09) Micah: straight-up port of the Japanese phone game that’s it they’re not doing

(0:24:14) Micah: anything else with it

(0:24:16) Al: The good thing is the Steam page does make that very clear, it’s above the buy button,

(0:24:18) Micah: yeah

(0:24:21) Al: it says “English language not supported” in red letters.

(0:24:22) Micah: right

(0:24:25) Micah: there is uh it looks like well it says partial controller support but it it

(0:24:32) Micah: looks like there are controller controls like you know I see like L&R buttons and

(0:24:39) Micah: the screenshots and stuff like that so you know there’s not like you won’t need

(0:24:43) Micah: some t9 cell phone flip phone peripheral to control the game or whatever it’s

(0:24:47) Al: Yeah.

(0:24:52) Micah: it is straight up that port though and I love that there are a couple reasons

(0:24:56) Micah: why I love that one really stupid really dumb right like really like unexpected

(0:25:02) Micah: weird bizarre decision from marvelous great I love it but also because there

(0:25:10) Micah: are so many lost media games that are caught in this like g-mode old Japanese

(0:25:19) Micah: phone game that like… maybe this o-

(0:25:22) Micah: opens the door for more of those to be able to release- get- be released like this?

(0:25:24) Al: Well, that’s an interesting question. Are they going to make this technology that they’ve

(0:25:30) Al: clearly built as an emulator or whatever? I don’t know exactly what they’ve done,

(0:25:34) Al: but something. Are they going to be able to share that with other people? That would be really cool.

(0:25:35) Micah: Mm-hmm

(0:25:39) Micah: Right, definitely. Well, the other positive there is that

(0:25:44) Micah: even just releasing the game gives way to a lot of

(0:25:48) Micah: really brilliant people in the

(0:25:51) Micah: homebrew community to be able to dissect it and figure out

(0:25:56) Micah: what they did as far as you know emulation goes and

(0:26:00) Micah: maybe be able to just find a way to

(0:26:04) Micah: to… to…

(0:26:05) Micah: you know, port some of that stuff themselves, or you know, I don’t know if there’s a lot

(0:26:10) Micah: of opportunities here for some really interesting and really cool, like, lost games to be able

(0:26:20) Al: So it looks like they’re not the first people to do this.

(0:26:23) Al: So it looks like Gmail themselves

(0:26:25) Al: released released a bunch of games on Steam a couple of years ago.

(0:26:31) Al: So maybe this is,

(0:26:34) Al: you know, because of this, like maybe that technology has then been used in this

(0:26:39) Al: situation.

(0:26:39) Micah: Mm-hmm. There are also some on the switch as well

(0:26:44) Micah: But this I think is the like most

(0:26:48) Micah: Popular franchise I could be wrong about this, but I think this is the most popular franchise to be

(0:26:52) Al: I don’t think you’re wrong. I think saying a bokumono game on a really niche Japanese

(0:27:03) Al: phone brand is possibly the most popular game on that. I believe you. I think probably.

(0:27:11) Micah: yeah I I think that that’s possible to at least that’s my impression right is

(0:27:17) Micah: that like that’s you know we’re we’re you know in a world now where like being

(0:27:23) Micah: able to people people may be more aware of it now as being a thing I know that

(0:27:29) Micah: there was a persona game that was like last year

(0:27:32) Al: I was just… that is what I was just about to say. I have immediately

(0:27:35) Al: changed my opinion on that. When I saw on their list that Persona 3 is one of them.

(0:27:40) Micah: Yeah, well it’s so it’s a persona it and it is like a such a like small. I don’t know. Maybe I where is the the

(0:27:51) Micah: The like chart that shows the growth between like persona fan base and

(0:27:58) Micah: The like harvest moon fam, you know, that’s the story seasons fan base because I

(0:27:59) Al: Yeah.

(0:28:04) Micah: feel like you know prior to persona 5 that was definitely not like the you know

(0:28:11) Micah: Either way

(0:28:11) Al: Yeah, but I feel like people are going back to the older games, especially with, you know,

(0:28:15) Al: 3 getting its Switch release. I feel like people are going back to the older ones when they started

(0:28:18) Micah: oh yeah for sure it is a huge franchise now for sure I just don’t know if like

(0:28:28) Micah: you know how big is the heart like how big is the harvest moon name you know

(0:28:32) Micah: how big is the story of seasons name you know

(0:28:32) Al: Well, and it’s more complicated obviously because like the name in Japan is as big as

(0:28:38) Micah: it’s not right

(0:28:39) Al: it has ever been, but like what does the main name mean over here? And they don’t use either

(0:28:43) Micah: mm-hmm

(0:28:47) Al: name because obviously they don’t have an English name for this, right? They obviously

(0:28:52) Al: would be calling it Story of Seasons if they had, but then it would be like because it’s

(0:28:57) Al: a port. They’ve not done a port, right? So this is the weird thing. They’ve not done

(0:29:00) Al: on a port, so actually that’s not true.

(0:29:02) Al: I guess they did. They did the original Harvest Moon on Nintendo Switch Online, didn’t

(0:29:07) Al: they? And they called that Harvest Moon. They didn’t call that a story of seasons. So maybe

(0:29:10) Micah: True. Yeah, you’re right

(0:29:12) Al: they would, and maybe they would call this Harvest Moon then if they released it in the

(0:29:16) Al: West. What I find interesting is they’re about this game, they have an English description

(0:29:16) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know

(0:29:20) Al: of this game on Steam.

(0:29:23) Micah: Right, like it is it is on the the American Steam store like it is accessible

(0:29:29) Al: Even if it’s not just that, it says “enjoy a heartwarming” and this isn’t auto-translated

(0:29:34) Al: in Chrome or anything, it just says “enjoy a heartwarming farm life while growing crops

(0:29:38) Al: and interacting with animals”.

(0:29:39) Al: This title is a port of a title released in 2007 for feature phones in the popular series,

(0:29:44) Al: which has been developed for numerous hardware platforms.

(0:29:47) Al: It simultaneously includes For Boy, in which a boy is the main character, and For Girl,

(0:29:51) Al: in which a girl is the main character.

(0:29:52) Micah: No way

(0:29:53) Al: Funny that they decided to just add them both and just like smash them together into one

(0:29:57) Micah: Yeah

(0:29:59) Micah: I’d be curious to like how that plays it like is it just a selection right?

(0:29:59) Al: Fair enough.

(0:30:03) Micah: Do you just like select which game it is or they kind of just like blood them together? Yeah

(0:30:03) Al: I suspect so.

(0:30:05) Al: I suspect so, yeah.

(0:30:08) Micah: I can’t imagine. There’s a lot of you know

(0:30:08) Al: Like, they’re calling it a port.

(0:30:10) Al: They’ve not changed it.

(0:30:11) Micah: Yeah

(0:30:13) Micah: Development going on there. Yeah, so I don’t know I guess between persona and this

(0:30:19) Micah: you know, and persona happening with

(0:30:22) Micah: in the last within a like, a year, almost a year to date, I

(0:30:26) Al: Yeah.

(0:30:27) Micah: think. No, September 23, it looks like. But yeah, either

(0:30:33) Micah: either way, you know, the fact that bigger games now are

(0:30:38) Micah: getting these like G mode ports is kind of exciting. So I don’t

(0:30:43) Micah: know, even beyond G mode, there are other mobile games from that

(0:30:50) Micah: time period that are just like, you know.

(0:30:51) Al: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I look forward to playing Gregory Horror Show, which is another

(0:30:52) Micah: Completely lost. That would be great to be able to see some of that stuff.

(0:30:58) Micah: Go this route, so.

(0:31:04) Al: one, which comes out in October.

(0:31:07) Al: All right. Can’t believe we spent that much time talking about a G-mode game. What is

(0:31:10) Micah: I mean.

(0:31:13) Al: this podcast? Finally, before we get into it, we’ve got a few new games to talk about.

(0:31:19) Al: For that, we have.

(0:31:21) Al: A board game based on Mika and the Witch’s Mountain that’s coming to Kickstarter.

(0:31:28) Micah: Okay, I can’t could not have expected that honestly

(0:31:32) Al: No. No. I don’t really know what to say. Yes, yes, I’ll probably buy it. Stop asking. It’s,

(0:31:38) Micah: I don’t either.

(0:31:43) Al: I mean, it’s very, with the intro, so, okay, I have, my brain’s doing the brain thing.

(0:31:50) Al: There’s, it’s called Delivery Witches, right? But it’s not branded Mika on the Witches Mountain

(0:31:57) Al: or anything like that, but it’s very definitely Mika, right? Like, it’s the same art.

(0:32:02) Al: Chibig shared it on their Twitter, so it’s like very clearly in collaboration with them. And,

(0:32:08) Micah: same fonts

(0:32:09) Al: and all the characters are the same. They’ve got all their art, etc. Like, it’s very much,

(0:32:15) Al: it is the Mika and the Witches Mountain game. They just didn’t call it that.

(0:32:20) Micah: Right, right.

(0:32:22) Al: Which is fair, I guess. Like, you don’t have to call it the same thing,

(0:32:25) Al: But it just I just find it interesting

(0:32:27) Al: Um, I.

(0:32:28) Micah: yeah it is I i guess I didn’t even think about like you know I i think if I had seen this on its own

(0:32:35) Micah: without you telling me um and without drawing that association I probably would have been like

(0:32:41) Micah: this looks really familiar but it just seems weird that like they wouldn’t do something to

(0:32:42) Al: Yeah

(0:32:49) Micah: like further I don’t know maybe that’s enough or I just don’t know if that game is has the uh the

(0:32:56) Micah: popularity to be able to.

(0:32:58) Micah: to say, like, oh, it is very loosely referential to it, but that’s enough for people to know that it’s based on this game, right?

(0:33:07) Micah: Like it’s not, I don’t know, I could see that with other franchises, but maybe not this one.

(0:33:13) Al: I think what I find weird is like there’s not a single mention of the game or the game

(0:33:19) Al: developer on this Kickstarter page so far. Now granted it’s quite small, like they’ve

(0:33:23) Al: not gone live, but they still have like five paragraphs of text and not once does it mention

(0:33:29) Al: that it’s based on a game. And the company that’s making it is not the same, right, they’ve

(0:33:32) Micah: Yeah, it’s very odd

(0:33:36) Al: I’ve obviously been farmed out to another company that makes games.

(0:33:40) Micah: But it is the you said it like, how is the developer related?

(0:33:47) Al: Well, presumably they own like they are because it is the same characters, right?

(0:33:52) Al: They use the same character art that you see in game.

(0:33:56) Micah: Yeah, I just meant not not in that way. I meant like how was the other than say the the

(0:34:02) Micah: Chibig retweeted it or something, you know, like what what is their relay?

(0:34:06) Micah: Is there any other relation to like if they said we’re collaborating with them. I guess I do see

(0:34:12) Al: Yeah, I think they made it clear that it was a collaboration.

(0:34:15) Micah: Okay, I because it

(0:34:18) Al: I guess what I know, I’m not trying to say that it’s as popular as Stardew,

(0:34:21) Al: but it would be like if the Stardew Valley board game came out and they called it

(0:34:26) Al: “farming game”. Right? Like, it would just feel weird.

(0:34:28) Micah: Right, like my immediate my immediate reaction would be like they’re ripping off

(0:34:33) Micah: Stardew Valley not like oh, it’s a Stardew Valley game, but they’re but they’re calling it something else

(0:34:34) Al: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And there’s nothing that makes it clear on this Kickstarter

(0:34:41) Al: page.

(0:34:42) Al: This is an official collaboration, but it is.

(0:34:44) Micah: And that’s why I was asking well, how were they related to this other than like, you know, but obviously they have cosigned on it because they’re

(0:34:53) Micah: Sharing it and like the art, you know, like if it weren’t

(0:34:57) Micah: Theirs, they would probably be in litigation with them or something. I’m sure so

(0:35:02) Al: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like it’s not, it’s not even like, you know, close.

(0:35:08) Micah: Yeah, it’s really interesting it’s very it’s a very pretty looking board game like every

(0:35:14) Micah: Looks cool that some of the like, you know card effects and stuff look neat

(0:35:19) Micah: The the character pieces are really really cute. I like almost want to get in on it just for the the little

(0:35:29) Micah: What do you call those little guys from the

(0:35:30) Al: You can’t call them meeples anymore.

(0:35:33) Micah: You can’t call them meeples anymore no, I did not

(0:35:35) Al: Oh, did you not hear this news?

(0:35:37) Al: All right. Sidebar.

(0:35:38) Al: So Carcassonne have trademarked meeples and they’re suing anybody that uses the name now.

(0:35:41) Micah: Uh-huh

(0:35:44) Micah: Oh

(0:35:46) Al: So let me find out what they…

(0:35:46) Micah: That’s

(0:35:49) Al: It’s very, it’s very stupid.

(0:35:52) Al: What is the name that is that people have kind of agreed they should call it instead?

(0:35:59) Al: Oh, apparently it’s not.

(0:36:00) Al: Not being trademarked in the US, so maybe they’ll continue, people will just continue

(0:36:02) Micah: Oh.

(0:36:04) Al: to use the word ‘meeple’ and make their games in the US.

(0:36:05) Micah: Yet, at least.

(0:36:07) Micah: Obviously, they’re trying, so…

(0:36:08) Al: Can’t remember, because there was one in particular, so it’s an EU trademark ‘meeple’, because

(0:36:16) Al: Carcassonne are German, and what?

(0:36:19) Al: Oh yeah, so this was, so a company was making a game called ‘Meeple Inc’, and they were

(0:36:26) Al: sued by Carcassonne, so they’re now calling it ‘Table Inc’.

(0:36:30) Micah: Leave it to a, you know, a lawsuit to ruin the fun for her.

(0:36:35) Al: I know it’s so like seriously nobody is confusing their game with carcass on

(0:36:43) Al: just because it says meeple like come on I can’t see anywhere what the

(0:36:46) Micah: but uh what do we call these um meekles because it because meika and the you

(0:36:54) Al: which which which pole

(0:36:55) Micah: know which pool um we’ll just we’ll call them meeples with the asterisk that it

(0:37:03) Micah: spelled MI PLE because because meekah and the you know yeah yeah yeah they’re

(0:37:06) Al: It’s my poles.

(0:37:09) Al: Oh, meekles, meekles, yeah, okay, right, I get you.

(0:37:13) Micah: really cute though they’re I that’s probably my favorite part of this whole

(0:37:16) Micah: thing like they’re very cute game pieces and I hope that they don’t get

(0:37:22) Micah: sued by Carcassonne

(0:37:23) Al: Well they’re not using- I don’t see meeple being written anywhere and I don’t think they’re trying

(0:37:27) Al: to like trademark the concept of having a meeple, it’s just the name that they’re

(0:37:31) Micah: Not yet, at least, you know, it’s opens the doors, you know, the next thing, the next litigation.

(0:37:39) Micah: This is, yeah, this is interesting, though, this is such a like strange thing, like a strange decision.

(0:37:46) Micah: Maybe part of it is like that they are working with this team and they want to give them because that team is like working as hard as they are in this game and everything they’re giving all of the, you know, like they’re setting it up in a way.

(0:38:01) Micah: So that undigital owns the rights to this without having to like, you know, there being any question about who owns the rights to their game that they’re working on because it’s related to something else.

(0:38:14) Al: I’m sure they’ve got, I’m sure they have all their legal things in a row, right?

(0:38:17) Al: Like it’s not like they, they launched this, they announced it on the same day.

(0:38:22) Al: It looks like on Twitter, like it’s very clearly like done together.

(0:38:26) Al: So I, I’m sure they know.

(0:38:28) Micah: Oh sure, I just mean that, like, that would be a positive thing, you know, if they had given them the, you know, had them just change the name so that in the future there was no potential for any possible, like, you know, legal issues or something, and they could just claim all of the rights to this board game and the profits and whatever without having to, you know, answer to Chibig or whatever, which would be a cool thing for Chibig to do.

(0:38:58) Micah: You know, people will say like, hey, just, this is yours. You make all the money from it. But who knows, I don’t, I don’t know what the decision was to do this, but it’s an interesting

(0:39:08) Al: I have fallen into a deep dark hole of trademark stuff now. It looks like

(0:39:16) Al: the EU trademark doesn’t actually cover toys and games, but there’s a

(0:39:21) Micah: All for meeples?

(0:39:23) Al: Germany trademark that does cover them. I’m so confused.

(0:39:35) Al: What have I done? Why have I started reading this?

(0:39:37) Al: Um…

(0:39:38) Al: OK, right, no, we’re done with that, right? Anyway, game, uh, the Kickstarter isn’t live yet.

(0:39:46) Al: You can go and save it if you want to get notified when it goes live. Link will be in the show notes.

(0:39:51) Al: All right, we have a few new games as well. Uh, so a new My Time At game, My Time At Evershine,

(0:39:59) Al: um, is coming out. The Kickstarter is launching sometime this month. You want another My Time game?

(0:40:06) Micah: Uh, I am.

(0:40:09) Micah: Yes, I do.

(0:40:10) Micah: I do, because I think that my time at Portia

(0:40:14) Micah: was such a like, what do they call it?

(0:40:17) Micah: Bottled lightning or whatever.

(0:40:20) Micah: For what it was at that time, which was, you know,

(0:40:24) Micah: a time shortly after Stardew Valley is like massive success.

(0:40:29) Micah: And shortly before the boom in.

(0:40:36) Micah: Farm Sim type, like Life Sim type games, you know.

(0:40:41) Micah: And I think that there were a lot of really positive things

(0:40:43) Micah: about my time at Portia, but I think my time at Sandrock,

(0:40:47) Micah: on the other hand, was not what I would have wanted it to be

(0:40:52) Micah: or would have expected.

(0:40:53) Micah: And just personally, not for me.

(0:40:56) Micah: So I’m interested to see.

(0:40:58) Al: Did you play it? Did you play Sandra?

(0:41:01) Micah: No, I did not.

(0:41:02) Micah: I from listening to

(0:41:06) Micah: and watching things and seeing how the game played, and especially after my time at Portia Port,

(0:41:12) Al: Yep.

(0:41:13) Micah: I made the conscious decision not to, but just because I didn’t think that it was really for me,

(0:41:20) Micah: you know? But I’m excited to see, like clearly they’re capable, right? That’s what I’m getting

(0:41:26) Micah: at, is like they’re a very capable studio, and they have some really great ideas. I think there

(0:41:34) Micah: there were a lot of really awesome ideas

(0:41:36) Micah: in my time at Portia had that just maybe weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been

(0:41:40) Micah: especially now that we have had this boom of, you know, Farm Sims and Life Sims and stuff

(0:41:45) Micah: that have, you know, made a lot of differences in how these games are played and stuff like

(0:41:53) Micah: that.

(0:41:54) Micah: So I’m excited to see what they can do with more games, like, I’m always interested in

(0:42:00) Micah: seeing, you know, a talented developer make new stuff.

(0:42:05) Al: Yeah. So, I mean, just looking at some numbers on Steam. Yeah, well, that’s the thing. I

(0:42:06) Micah: Um…

(0:42:07) Micah: This is also-

(0:42:12) Al: mean, we’re interested to see what they continue on and what they don’t. I mean, to me, Sandrock

(0:42:16) Al: always looked just like the same game, but slightly more. And I was like, I’m not interested

(0:42:20) Al: in that. But the, so looking on Steam, so they had, so they both have very, very positive

(0:42:28) Al: reviews. So we’re ignoring Switch, right? The Switch debacle, we’re just ignoring that,

(0:42:33) Al: Right? These things happen.

(0:42:34) Micah: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(0:42:35) Al: They should just not.

(0:42:40) Al: So Portia had 33,000 reviews, and Sandrock had 20,000 reviews.

(0:42:48) Al: But Portia’s alt, 33,000 versus 20,000.

(0:42:50) Micah: Wait how many did Portia have?

(0:42:53) Micah: That’s so close. That’s way closer than I would have thought.

(0:42:57) Al: It’s a… Yeah, but interestingly, there are all-time peaks of concurrent players.

(0:43:03) Al: Porsche was 13,000.

(0:43:05) Al: 1.3, and Sandrock was 21,000. It was higher.

(0:43:10) Micah: Wow, yeah, I mean, people, I think people knew that,

(0:43:13) Micah: you know, by the time that Sandrock came out,

(0:43:16) Micah: people had already known Portia so well

(0:43:19) Micah: and have been like preaching it

(0:43:20) Micah: that I guess maybe even beyond what Portia was,

(0:43:24) Micah: people were more excited about it or interested in it.

(0:43:27) Micah: I don’t know, I remember the conversation

(0:43:30) Micah: around my time at Sandrock being like,

(0:43:32) Micah: people were very excited about it.

(0:43:34) Micah: I think a big part of it for me was that

(0:43:36) Micah: I I’m not a like humongous fan

(0:43:40) Micah: of the Southwestern American motif motif in like games and I get really

(0:43:41) Al: Yeah, fair, fair.

(0:43:48) Micah: really bummed out when I get to the point in games where it’s like okay now

(0:43:52) Micah: you got to do the desert level and I’m like I just don’t wanna I don’t wanna do

(0:43:57) Micah: that and it kind of looked like Porsche but in that setting and with the whole

(0:43:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

(0:44:02) Micah: the whole game is desert level basically is what it felt like so and it looked

(0:44:07) Micah: Like a lot of the say I mean obviously a lot

(0:44:10) Micah: more but you know it looked like a lot of the same of what Portia had that I

(0:44:15) Micah: was kind of like I’ll just play Portia you know that’s more in my setting

(0:44:18) Al: Yeah, you’re still, I mean, you’re still essentially a builder, right? Like, it’s the same core

(0:44:20) Micah: that’s more me

(0:44:23) Al: loop of building things, which, if you like, that’s good. I really didn’t like, so I’m

(0:44:30) Al: obviously not gonna like it when it has the same core mechanic that I didn’t like.

(0:44:32) Micah: - Right.

(0:44:35) Micah: There is also something that about the character design

(0:44:39) Micah: that I didn’t really love in Porsche or Sandrock,

(0:44:44) Micah: but I was more like forgiving obviously with Porsche

(0:44:47) Micah: ‘cause it was such a, like at the time it was,

(0:44:51) Micah: you know, kind of like unique and exciting thing

(0:44:54) Micah: where now this is a little bit more common of a game,

(0:44:57) Micah: like a game style and stuff like that.

(0:44:59) Micah: So, but.

(0:45:02) Micah: It’s just, I don’t know. There’s something about the character design that I didn’t really love.

(0:45:06) Micah: And I think for the new thing, this new thing, what is it my time at Evershine?

(0:45:10) Al: Evershine, yeah.

(0:45:10) Micah: The character design looks so different and like, more aged up. Right, right.

(0:45:12) Al: Well, so we just have one image to go by, right? Just to point there, like this could

(0:45:18) Al: - because if you look at, for example, the original image that was released for - what

(0:45:24) Al: was that game you were talking about before? Why have I forgotten the name of it? The one

(0:45:28) Al: you’ve bought but not played yet. The farming game. Yeah, it feels a mystery. If you look

(0:45:30) Micah: Oh, fields of mystery.

(0:45:32) Al: at the original image, that does not look anything like the game. So you can’t rely

(0:45:36) Micah: Yes, you’re right. Absolutely right.

(0:45:40) Al: on that first initial image. But yes, it does look very different to the actual art

(0:45:48) Al: style of Porsche and Sandrock. So maybe that’s going to do something different? I don’t know.

(0:45:48) Micah: Mm hmm. And I should say.

(0:45:54) Micah: Yeah, I should say contextually, the you know, the looking at the

(0:45:59) Micah: the key art illustrations they’ve had for Portia and for Sandrock,

(0:46:03) Micah: the character design in those has matched what the character design is.

(0:46:08) Micah: Roughly, you know, like proportions and facial,

(0:46:11) Micah: you know, facial features and stuff like that.

(0:46:13) Micah: So again, yeah, we don’t know.

(0:46:16) Micah: There’s only one image.

(0:46:17) Micah: We don’t know what the game actually looks like.

(0:46:18) Micah: Based on that, contextually, this feels like it’s it’s going to be a little bit

(0:46:25) Micah: more aged up, a little bit more mature looking, maybe feeling.

(0:46:29) Micah: So that at on its own intrigues me that it’s, you know, kind of taking

(0:46:35) Micah: like a little bit more serious tone with this key art.

(0:46:39) Micah: So we’ll see. Maybe it’s not.

(0:46:39) Al: we’ll see. I think also, if we’re going to over-analyze this one image that we have,

(0:46:40) Micah: Maybe it’s exactly the same.

(0:46:44) Micah: And I’ve been played, but.

(0:46:49) Al: because why not? It’s fun. I’m also getting fantasy vibes from it. There’s a floating

(0:46:54) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah, like

(0:46:57) Al: island, there’s a very prominent tree behind people with swords and wispy flowing hair

(0:47:04) Micah: Yeah, you know, the classic Yggdrasil tree and I say that as a Dragon Quest fan who that’s like,

(0:47:05) Al: and clocks up.

(0:47:09) Al: So I’m… It’s giving RIN Factory. That’s what I’m feeling.

(0:47:12) Micah: you know, they all the Yggdrasil tree is a, you know, whatever, but

(0:47:19) Micah: yeah, it does feel like that there is some like, we’re maybe this is something that existed in

(0:47:26) Micah: Sandrock and Portia that I just didn’t probably mourn Sandrock because I don’t remember this at

(0:47:31) Micah: with Porsche at all, but there’s a little bit,

(0:47:34) Micah: like elements of like a, um, like feeling like a military vibe to it.

(0:47:42) Micah: Like there’s, I mean, there’s a guy with like a, you know, captain,

(0:47:46) Micah: military captain hat, whatever that is. Um, and then the,

(0:47:48) Al: Yeah, I was just assuming he was a train driver.

(0:47:51) Micah: you know, the, uh, the Cape on the central figure in the background has got kind

(0:47:57) Micah: of like a, looks like some sort of emblem on it.

(0:48:00) Micah: It kind of feels like there’s like a tack on Titan sort of like.

(0:48:04) Micah: Uh, uh, military type of vibe to it with some of these character designs.

(0:48:08) Al: possibly we’ve also got we’ve also got like superhero vibes on the character

(0:48:13) Al: at the bottom middle with like you know the mask and I don’t it’s very we got

(0:48:15) Micah: Yeah, the mask and there’s like a professor, maybe, I don’t know.

(0:48:20) Al: yeah yeah and then you got the farmer clearly and I don’t know how to describe

(0:48:26) Al: this other than just like persona dude in the middle do you know did you get

(0:48:30) Micah: yeah like yeah he’s he looks confident and uh cocky and um young and handsome and that’s you know

(0:48:31) Al: what I’m saying he looks a little bit like Joker

(0:48:39) Al: - Yeah, yeah, I just, there’s a lot happening here,

(0:48:44) Al: but almost no information.

(0:48:44) Micah: the best that’s that’s it and also the the the character next to him she has a flower in her

(0:48:52) Micah: hair or a clip in her hair that matches the scarf on the the male character so maybe those are are

(0:48:53) Al: - Mm-hmm.

(0:48:56) Al: - Oh, yeah.

(0:49:00) Micah: main characters you know this is completely useless speculation that we’re both doing but

(0:49:05) Micah: I will be really excited to see how close we were when we get more information about this game

(0:49:06) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if we’re going to do it, we’re going to go all in, you know?

(0:49:13) Micah: it’s something though it’s yeah yep

(0:49:18) Al: Okay. We’ll cover it more when the Kickstarter launches. We’ll see what happens. Next we

(0:49:24) Al: have Dreamland Farm. There’s no gameplay footage for this game at all. So I know nothing really,

(0:49:35) Al: But if it doesn’t.

(0:49:37) Al: Since childhood, you’ve dreamed of being close to nature, but being born and raised in a busy city stood in the way of that.

(0:49:43) Al: The closer you were to childhood, sorry, am I sounding bored reading this out?

(0:49:48) Al: The closer you were to adulthood, the more time you spent with your grandma who showed you all around her farm, from crops to berries and mushrooms, everything she taught, she knew she taught you.

(0:49:58) Al: She prepared you to be her successor.

(0:50:01) Al: Now, you can step into those shoes and look, it’s a farming game, right?

(0:50:07) Al: It’s the Stardew intro, like, but there’s nothing, there’s no, like, there’s no gameplay at all.

(0:50:14) Micah: Hm, hm, there, I will say there are three comments on this.

(0:50:22) Micah: This is a YouTube video announcement.

(0:50:25) Micah: And all of them are pretty much,

(0:50:27) Micah: all three are basically saying no gameplay.

(0:50:29) Micah: Where’s the gameplay?

(0:50:31) Micah: However, the publishers replied to them and has said,

(0:50:35) Micah: we’ll show it off soon.

(0:50:36) Micah: One person said, still shots with text is pretty lazy,

(0:50:40) Micah: lazy to know if visual novel.

(0:50:42) Micah: And they replied and said, it is not.

(0:50:45) Micah: There’s at least that info,

(0:50:46) Al: I’m going to be honest I wasn’t thinking it was.

(0:50:47) Micah: that it is not a visual novel.

(0:50:51) Micah: And it wasn’t thinking it was either,

(0:50:52) Micah: but it’s good of them to clarify, I guess.

(0:50:56) Al: My assumption is stardew clone, we’ll see whether it’s more than that or not.

(0:51:00) Micah: Mm-hmm.

(0:51:03) Micah: And I should say from there,

(0:51:04) Micah: I think they’re questioning that

(0:51:07) Micah: because the trailer is basically like slide shows with text.

(0:51:12) Micah: So it felt there is, you know, it’s.

(0:51:15) Micah: I can see where they draw that, but yeah, I don’t, I didn’t think that either.

(0:51:19) Micah: But at least we know it’s not, you know.

(0:51:20) Al: think part of the problem is there aren’t very many people who can go, “Here’s the most ridiculous,

(0:51:27) Al: uninformative teaser. Go crazy,” and people are excited about it. ConcernedApe did it with

(0:51:34) Al: Haunted Chocolatier. It gave us basically no information. It was just like, “Here’s one

(0:51:39) Al: screenshot. I’m making a thing,” and people went crazy for it. Most games companies can’t do that.

(0:51:50) Al: They don’t want to give away too much all at the beginning, but the problem is you need to get

(0:51:56) Micah: Um, can I, can I say a very short thing about the publisher for this?

(0:52:01) Micah: I feel like maybe this is necessary to temper expectations.

(0:52:02) Al: Go for it.

(0:52:05) Micah: Uh, the publishers Red Deer games, who is, uh, they are very good about publishing

(0:52:13) Micah: like indie titles that I feel like probably would not get an opportunity

(0:52:17) Micah: otherwise, like they, they give a lot more opportunities to indie titles

(0:52:21) Micah: to be published by them but they are

(0:52:26) Micah: notorious on the Switch eShop for being

(0:52:29) Micah: the… have you ever seen the games that

(0:52:34) Micah: have like… it’s an Ultimate Edition and

(0:52:37) Micah: then you see the same game like two

(0:52:40) Micah: weeks later on the eShop and now it’s a

(0:52:42) Micah: like it’s in the new releases as a like

(0:52:45) Al: Oh, yeah.

(0:52:46) Micah: extra Ultimate Edition that is Red Deer

(0:52:51) Micah: they are notorious for that and it is

(0:52:56) Micah: it just I don’t know I don’t know it

(0:52:59) Micah: irks me because it feels so like

(0:53:03) Micah: disingenuine to just throw like a new

(0:53:07) Micah: thing on it with like a couple new added

(0:53:10) Micah: features and rather than like it’s I

(0:53:12) Micah: don’t know a content update or something

(0:53:14) Micah: they put it out as a like new release

(0:53:18) Micah: it just doesn’t it feels weird and not

(0:53:21) Micah: great but is that you know the offset

(0:53:23) Al: but equally, it’s a really bad place with lots of difficulty actually getting anything sold,

(0:53:26) Micah: right right and and the the other side

(0:53:30) Al: so it’s a complicated thing, yeah.

(0:53:36) Micah: of that being that like it everything

(0:53:38) Micah: that did they’re doing is like indie

(0:53:40) Micah: titles and they’re you know I guess I

(0:53:42) Micah: don’t know you know I don’t know the the

(0:53:44) Micah: what they’re caught is like what they’re

(0:53:47) Micah: getting or what I you know some games

(0:53:49) Micah: like Sprout Valley was published by Red

(0:53:52) Micah: Red Deer, if you remember, Sprout Valley.

(0:53:53) Al: Yeah, I do.

(0:53:56) Micah: There’s been some good ones. There’s another one.

(0:54:01) Al: So it looks like they did above snakes as well, which they’ve published that, which

(0:54:05) Micah: Garden Buddies, that’s the other one that I was thinking of that I couldn’t recall.

(0:54:06) Al: is interesting, and also garden buddies, which is interesting.

(0:54:12) Micah: That was the other one.

(0:54:14) Al: Which I think garden buddies, I think people like it, I’ve not played it.

(0:54:18) Micah: Yeah, I liked it. I thought it was a lot of fun, but yeah, it’s, you know, I don’t know, there’s just…

(0:54:26) Micah: I jumped on the eShop just while we’ve been talking just to see. I had to scroll like, you know, down

(0:54:35) Micah: three

(0:54:36) Micah: like rows of games to get to one and I already found it. I already found Red Deer.

(0:54:41) Micah: I mean, it’s like their whole backlog is just like tons of these games that they just like keep

(0:54:49) Micah: repackaging as new.

(0:54:51) Micah: Little mouse’s encyclopedia was one of theirs which a great game

(0:54:56) Micah: Very cute very fun. But yeah, there’s just like but then they have things like Hantai golf happy, you know

(0:54:58) Al: I think we’re going to have to wait and see what else we can do.

(0:55:00) Al: We’re going to have to wait and see what else we can do.

(0:55:00) Al: So we’re going to have to wait and see what else we can do.

(0:55:02) Al: So that’s what we can do.

(0:55:02) Micah: Like it’s just all over the place

(0:55:02) Al: So we’re going to have to wait and see what else we can do.

(0:55:04) Al: So we’re going to have to wait and see what else we can do.

(0:55:06) Micah: So, I don’t know I I guess take with that what you will I

(0:55:10) Micah: There’s something about the Red Deer games publishing

(0:55:15) Micah: Process that just doesn’t feel right to me and I would love to know more about it

(0:55:20) Al: Yeah.

(0:55:21) Micah: so I guess just take that with

(0:55:24) Micah: what you will for

(0:55:26) Micah: Dreamland farm because they are it is it is a red deer games published

(0:55:32) Al: Next we have Danchi Days, when they call themselves… I’m gonna try not to vomit

(0:55:40) Al: while saying this phrase. A post-cosy slice of life game. I don’t know what that means.

(0:55:46) Micah: I

(0:55:49) Al: What does post-cosy mean? I don’t… I don’t… Oh, a post…

(0:55:51) Micah: Don’t know but I love that I love that we’re at the point where we just got to make up terms

(0:55:58) Al: It’s like post-modern. I just… no.

(0:56:02) Micah: Yeah

(0:56:02) Al: Can we not? Like there are other words. Just make up a word. Right? Don’t take a word.

(0:56:06) Micah: Maybe

(0:56:08) Micah: Just just put it putting this out. They’re just quick assessment. Maybe post cozy means there has been the period

(0:56:16) Micah: Of like coziness in this world where nothing has been going wrong

(0:56:20) Micah: There’s no you know, whatever and now this is the post cozy era where maybe there is something that’s gonna happen. That’s you know, I don’t know

(0:56:28) Al: knows. Anyway, let me get through this sentence. A post-cozy slice of life game about sensing the

(0:56:33) Al: world, exploring the internet, and reviving the summer festival of a Japanese “danshi”

(0:56:38) Al: housing complex. Fans of Hamtouro, Moon, Boku no Natsu Yasumi, I always struggle with that one,

(0:56:46) Al: will find something both nostalgic and novel. Oh!

(0:56:49) Micah: I’m so excited. I’m very excited.

(0:56:52) Al: Oh, they’ve talked about what post-cozy means. Right, okay, post-cozy.

(0:56:58) Al: What is this? They’ve just like… Someone said “What is post-cozy?” and they’ve replied with

(0:57:03) Al: a quote tweet of an image of a tweet of a screenshot of a discord message.

(0:57:08) Micah: incredible. I love them. I love this.

(0:57:11) Al: So… No, no, like, okay, goodness me, right, okay.

(0:57:16) Micah: Since somebody on their discord, one of the developers set it in

(0:57:21) Micah: discord, somebody then screenshotted that, then posted

(0:57:23) Al: Yep.

(0:57:25) Micah: it to Twitter, somebody else then screenshotted that and then

(0:57:28) Micah: replied to the original developer who’s in the discord

(0:57:33) Micah: screenshot. And they took that tweet and replied with it as a

(0:57:34) Al: I chose that term because it’s definitely related to the cosy game phenomenon, an atmosphere

(0:57:37) Micah: a quote to it when someone.

(0:57:38) Micah: In the replies to this tweet asked, what’s post cozy?

(0:57:49) Al: in some ways, but we’re not using a lot of the game design structures they tend to use,

(0:57:54) Al: working to make money, growing something like a small business, farming, friendship points

(0:57:58) Al: systems, cosy combat, and grinding, etc.

(0:58:04) Al: Very slice of life, atmosphere, and gameplay style.

(0:58:06) Al: I feel like they have an idea of what cosy means as a genre, which is not,

(0:58:11) Al: and we’re not that, but we’re s- we’re- it’s like…

(0:58:15) Al: Like, I just, but.

(0:58:16) Micah: Don’t know I can see what they’re saying like I think every game that we’ve talked about so far

(0:58:21) Micah: for news at least has had those elements right like

(0:58:26) Micah: small business farming friendship point system a

(0:58:30) Micah: Cozy combat such a like funny term, but I get where they’re using it as far as like you know

(0:58:36) Micah: It’s not like brutal. It’s like you bop something with your little wooden sword and it

(0:58:42) Micah: Poofs into a cloud like that kind of you know

(0:58:42) Al: sure. Okay. I guess my issue is more like I agree, but that’s not what I would call

(0:58:46) Micah: you

(0:58:50) Al: cosy, right? That’s a specific kind of game, which I would probably say is a stardew like, but it’s

(0:58:50) Micah: Sure

(0:58:58) Micah: Or just like a like a life sim, you know or like a sim type game. I don’t know

(0:58:58) Al: not… Yeah, I just I don’t like the word like, I think the cosy, I mean, first of all, game developers

(0:59:09) Al: should not call the game cosy. That’s not for you to decide.

(0:59:12) Micah: That’s true, you’re right.

(0:59:12) Al: But if you’re going to, I did see someone on TikTok complaining and they were like,

(0:59:20) Al: “Oh, you know that? I presume you’ve seen The Good Place.”

(0:59:24) Micah: Uh, I’ve seen like clips of it. I haven’t actually

(0:59:28) Al: OK, right. Well, so you’ll probably have seen the meme which is like, “Oh, I have the notes

(0:59:34) Al: from Eleanor’s file.” And he’s like, “Oh, do you actually have them or do you have a cactus?”

(0:59:40) Al: And he’s like, “No, I actually have it.”

(0:59:42) Al: And it just turns out to be a cactus.

(0:59:45) Al: And so that audio is used quite a lot, and they were using this audio, and it was like,

(0:59:49) Al: “You know, I’m looking for a cosy game without farming in it.”

(0:59:53) Al: And it’s like, “Oh, I have a cosy game without farming in it.”

(0:59:56) Al: And it’s like, “Oh, do you actually have it, or is it a farming game?”

(1:00:00) Al: And then it turns out, obviously, to be a game with farming in it.

(1:00:03) Al: So I understand that.

(1:00:04) Al: There are a lot of that, and I totally understand.

(1:00:07) Al: So I guess my point is, I don’t think that cosy and farming sim should be like, you know,

(1:00:12) Al: blended together.

(1:00:15) Micah: Yeah, no, I mean, I agree. I think that people immediately when you say a cozy game, a lot of people’s brains immediately go to like Stardew because that is a lot of people’s like, like initial experience with a quote unquote cozy game, which is just like, you know, a game that doesn’t require a lot of combat or like, serious, I mean, to be fair, Stardew does incorporate a lot of

(1:00:15) Al: I’m probably overthinking this.

(1:00:45) Micah: serious topics, but in a, you know, on the deeper level, right, like the surface level of it, where a lot of people mostly wind up staying is that they’re just like, doing something somewhat, not brainless, but like, going through the motions, and it’s comfortable, and it’s not like something that is taking a ton of focus in the way that like, a Twitch shooter is or something like Valorant, or, you know, like, League or something,

(1:01:15) Micah: you know, and so to them in that regard, I guess it’s like, that’s cozy, right? Like, it’s, it’s a relaxing game more than it is, like a really high stress, high, obviously can be very high stress, high energy, if you are min maxing everything, and you’re like, super late in the game, and you’ve got 18 billion things that are running, and you have to, you know, maximize your time and your money and everything, like, obviously, it gets to that point. But,

(1:01:45) Micah: I think that can be said with probably any game, maybe? I don’t know. I definitely get what you’re saying. I think it’s…

(1:01:50) Al: I probably get a bit too amped up about genre definitions and people describing their games.

(1:02:01) Al: I understand it’s complicated to explain them though, and like, sure, maybe I should kill

(1:02:05) Al: a lot on that. I don’t know. But anyway, you’re excited about this.

(1:02:08) Micah: Yeah, we’re in a in a world to we’re like, it is so we’re we’ve

(1:02:15) Micah: have so many terms to describe so many things. As far as genres

(1:02:20) Micah: go in the gaming world in like game development stuff that like,

(1:02:25) Micah: you know, I mean, it’s so hard to get like a like the the good

(1:02:31) Micah: place joke that you made like it’s so hard to get a good idea

(1:02:34) Micah: of what actually is you know, so many people say and I’ve been

(1:02:38) Micah: saying like, Oh, it’s a soul’s like, you know, it’s like demon

(1:02:41) Micah: it’s like demons or like Dark Souls or whatever. But it’s just

(1:02:44) Micah: like, it’s hard combat, you know, like, the combat is hard.

(1:02:48) Micah: It’s more challenging than like what maybe you’re used to. But

(1:02:53) Micah: describing genres and describing games has become such an absolute

(1:02:58) Micah: dog fest that like, you know, it’s, it’s all kind of a joke at

(1:03:02) Micah: this point. But yeah, it’s I am excited

(1:03:08) Micah: about this because I like that type of game where it’s, you

(1:03:11) Micah: know, there’s like story to it. And it’s, it’s got, you know,

(1:03:18) Micah: really like, pleasant look and feel to it. But there’s

(1:03:21) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah.

(1:03:21) Micah: definitely like, I don’t know, mature ish elements to it. Yeah,

(1:03:28) Micah: it’s he I like slice of life stuff like this too, where it’s

(1:03:31) Micah: like, you know, it’s a like Japanese housing complex, and

(1:03:35) Micah: when you’re reviving a summer festival.

(1:03:38) Micah: that’s not you know it’s not like fantasy it’s not like you know military

(1:03:44) Micah: whatever it’s not it’s not it’s just it’s just life it’s just like you’re

(1:03:49) Micah: just living this alternate life you know that’s kind of something about that is

(1:03:53) Al: Yeah. So I think I do want more games that are Lifesims that aren’t farming games. Like

(1:04:01) Al: I think that is a good thing. My problem is I think it’s really difficult to get a good

(1:04:08) Al: daily loop out of those, right? Because the thing about farming is it’s so very clear

(1:04:14) Al: what the loop is, right? You wake up, you do your farming and then you can also do some

(1:04:18) Micah: Sure. Right.

(1:04:21) Al: other stuff. Right. But it’s very

(1:04:23) Al: clear. Like these are the four things that I do every single day. I water my crops. I

(1:04:28) Al: check if anything needs done with like any ripe and if so replace them and I check on

(1:04:34) Al: my animals. Right. Like it’s very clear the things that you do. And I think a lot of times

(1:04:39) Al: it’s the, if you don’t have that cord, this is the thing you do every day on top of everything

(1:04:45) Al: else. I feel a little lost in games. So it’ll be interesting to see what they have as they’re

(1:04:47) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah

(1:04:51) Al: like this is the thing that you do if it’s just

(1:04:53) Al: like, Oh, you just, you do some stuff and you explore and you get to, and I’m just

(1:04:57) Al: like, yeah, but I don’t, why am I.

(1:05:00) Micah: yeah I would guess it’s my impression of it so far at least is it’s much more story based than it is

(1:05:09) Micah: like uh cycle based or like you know daily rotation based uh because that is kind of what

(1:05:18) Micah: you know boku no nazi asumi games were is that you’re it’s a life sim right like you’re you’re

(1:05:26) Micah: living out the daily life of this kid.

(1:05:29) Micah: during s…

(1:05:30) Micah: there’s summer vacation, and not every day is gonna be the same because there’s new things happening every day like one day you, you know, may have nothing to do so you can go and catch bugs and catch fish and, you know, goof around and explore things but then another day, someone will come into town to sell something at the market and they have an item that will lead you on this like little adventure to find something.

(1:06:00) Micah: And that I think to me is fun, the idea of like playing out this comfortable simulation of a life that is like not high stress, you know, like, it’s, it’s not like, you know, highly intense consequences and high stress, like the whole premise of that is to just like the whole, you know, point of Boku no Natsu Yasumi was

(1:06:30) Micah: for, you know, the original at least was for adult men in Japan that that worked office job like soul crushing office jobs to be able to relive their like, you know, childhood summer vacation with way less stress way less pressure way less, you know, so that I think, you know, that kind of idea of like you’ve lived this life that doesn’t there’s there’s little things the game that are, you know, high stress and

(1:07:00) Micah: to to a kid, but to as an adult, it’s like, just such a comfortable little experience, I don’t know. And and it’s there is a little bit more story structure to it than it is just like, I’m doing the same thing every day I’m doing, you know, that the world grows as you as you, you know, as you live out live out your vacation, the world changes as you you know, each day is a little bit different.

(1:07:08) Al: Yeah, I just I think I just need to

(1:07:27) Al: Yeah, I guess that’s the thing, right? Like, to me, like, a game is either, like, you know,

(1:07:34) Al: psycho-based and you’re doing, like, there’s a clear, like, “Here’s what you’re trying

(1:07:37) Al: to do.” Or it’s, like, exploration-based and it’s, like, “Here’s where you’re trying to

(1:07:40) Al: get to.” And, you know, I guess I just struggle with games that is, like, “Yeah, the story

(1:07:47) Al: will happen and that’s fine, but that’s, you’re just existing,” sort of thing. You know, and

(1:07:54) Al: I feel, I mean, maybe I could like these types.

(1:07:57) Al: I just need to like force myself into trying one sometime properly, but yeah, I just, it’s

(1:08:04) Al: really hard for me to get into games sometimes. And I’ve talked about this. I do game procrastination,

(1:08:09) Al: where if I’m not like really into a game that I’m meant to be covering for the podcast,

(1:08:14) Al: I will play no games. Like I won’t replace, I won’t be like, “Oh, well, I’m clearly not playing

(1:08:19) Al: this. I’ll play something else.” I will just not play anything, right? And I’ll just feel guilty

(1:08:23) Al: about it, which is silly, you know, my brain just being silly.

(1:08:27) Al: But it does mean that, like, it makes it harder to get back into it.

(1:08:31) Al: You know, and that has happened for many games before, but we’ll, we’ll see.

(1:08:36) Al: We’ll, I’m sure we’ll have plenty more to talk about games like this,

(1:08:39) Al: possibly in a future episode, no promises.

(1:08:40) Micah: Oh maybe, maybe, hmm, yeah it’s yeah yeah and we’ve talked a little bit about like

(1:08:45) Al: We’ll see. We’ll see.

(1:08:47) Al: Uh, no deadline on that one just now.

(1:08:52) Micah: you know Shinshan games and stuff like that we’re we’re that like that’s it

(1:08:56) Micah: that’s exactly what it’s the Millennium Kitchen you know it’s the same but yeah

(1:09:00) Micah: it’s it’s definitely something that you kind of have to I think for me the

(1:09:05) Micah: stressors of them is the idea that like I can miss something

(1:09:10) Micah: that’s the like you know because there is stuff that you can miss like you

(1:09:14) Micah: can’t do everything in one day so the stress to me of like missing out on

(1:09:20) Micah: something that I then have to replay the entire game over again to experience is

(1:09:25) Micah: like that to me is the stressor whereas you know to to other people it’s you know

(1:09:30) Micah: not a big deal but yeah so but I am excited for this I like the art style I

(1:09:34) Al: - Fair.

(1:09:36) Micah: like that what they’ve shown so far I’ve went and followed all the like

(1:09:40) Micah: developers on their individual accounts just to like keep up with the development

(1:09:47) Micah: of it as it happens because they post little like progress shots and stuff

(1:09:51) Micah: like that so we’ll see we’ll see it looks cool

(1:09:54) Al: And finally, I don’t know how I haven’t talked about this game already because I feel I thought

(1:10:00) Al: I had because it’s like on my Steam wish list but somehow like I searched through I don’t see any

(1:10:06) Al: mention of it in the podcast but this is Amber Isle which is basically Harvest Moon not Harvest Moon

(1:10:13) Al: I did that the same thing Animal Crossing I did the exact same thing you did as you did earlier

(1:10:17) Al: in the episode it’s basically Animal Crossing but you’re a dinosaur. I mean that’s what it feels

(1:10:21) Micah: Okay.

(1:10:22) Al: like, right? Like you’re running.

(1:10:24) Al: You’re, I mean, you’re not the mayor or anything, but you are like running a shop

(1:10:29) Al: in a village on an island full of dinosaurs.

(1:10:30) Micah: I had to my brain had to like process this because I know that you were saying animal

(1:10:37) Micah: crossing but for some reason I was picturing like oh it’s uh what’s the what was the what

(1:10:44) Micah: was the dinosaur farming sim um paleo pines that’s right when you were saying yeah yeah

(1:10:46) Al: Uh, paleopines?

(1:10:49) Al: Yeah, no, you are the dinosaur, not you have dinosaurs, you are a dinosaur. Very different.

(1:10:53) Micah: because I because some of the art feels like the dinosaur models and stuff feel a little

(1:10:58) Micah: bit similar, some of the like illustration.

(1:11:02) Micah: So my brain is like, oh, it’s like paleo pines.

(1:11:04) Micah: But then it was like, but animal crop.

(1:11:06) Micah: Oh, cause you’re the dinosaur, but yeah, it’s, that’s, you’re exactly right.

(1:11:11) Micah: That’s what it, that’s what it.

(1:11:14) Al: and they have announced that their release date is the 10th of October. It does. Oh really?

(1:11:18) Micah: Looks really cute. Becky loved paleopines, so… and she loves Animal Crossing, as I said, so she will probably go bananas for this.

(1:11:23) Al: Oh that’s good. Cool. It’s a shop based one and I’m always a little bit wary of shop based ones

(1:11:33) Al: where it’s like I have never enjoyed running a shop in a game.

(1:11:38) Micah: Yeah, I’m in the same boat.

(1:11:40) Al: I think, what’s it called, Nightgarden Nightmark.

(1:11:44) Micah: Night Market, Manicos Night Market.

(1:11:44) Al: Maneko. That’s what it is. Maneko’s Nightmarket is the best shop and I think that works well

(1:11:51) Al: because it’s like very limited. It’s like once a week and you’ve got this is your list and it’s

(1:11:57) Al: like bam bam bam bam bam bam you’re done. Whereas the idea of like restocking a shop and being there

(1:12:03) Al: and like it’s just oh no none of that sounds fun to me and none of them have been fun.

(1:12:06) Micah: Yeah, I

(1:12:09) Micah: Think that same I that same feeling for

(1:12:14) Micah: Faith arm had like a little bit of that where it’s just like you put your stuff on the table and then you leave

(1:12:17) Al: Yeah.

(1:12:20) Micah: like that is the extent of

(1:12:20) Al: Yeah, well, and then that’s essentially not a shop, that’s just your shipping bin in stardew,

(1:12:22) Micah: Farm of like shops in that I want

(1:12:24) Micah: Like let me drop my stuff off and leave and then I never have to think

(1:12:32) Micah: Right. Yes. Yep

(1:12:33) Al: right?

(1:12:34) Al: So it’s like what we’re basically saying is the ideal shop is not a shop.

(1:12:36) Micah: Just give me a shipping bin.

(1:12:38) Micah: Yes. Yep.

(1:12:39) Al: But I don’t know, maybe Amber Isle have cracked it, because surely there must be a way to

(1:12:40) Micah: That’s… You’re right.

(1:12:48) Micah: Yeah, I mean it looks cute like that. Yeah, I think that implementing some level of like it’s Animal Crossing probably helps that for sure like interacting with your villagers, you know, as, as the the shop owner probably is like, you know, help set experience, but I guess we’ll

(1:13:10) Al: I guess, yeah, I guess the problem, I think the problem I have with these is like you’re

(1:13:16) Al: having to balance time in the shop and time not in the shop. So games where you’re entirely in

(1:13:23) Al: the shop, they’re great because you’re just focusing on the shop, right? Like, what was

(1:13:27) Al: it called? Lemon cake. Did you ever play lemon cake?

(1:13:31) Micah: I played a very little bit of lemon cake, but I watched

(1:13:37) Al: Yeah. I loved Lemon Cake, and that was great because it was like the shop was the point.

(1:13:42) Al: This was the game. Whereas, you know, something like, for example, Ooblets added in a shop.

(1:13:48) Al: And I tried that and I was like, “But am I in here not doing other things?” Right? Like

(1:13:53) Al: I want to be doing stuff with my Ooblets. I don’t want to be selling stuff in this shop.

(1:13:58) Micah: Right.

(1:14:01) Al: So it’ll be interesting to see how they do that balance. We’ll see.

(1:14:06) Al: Maybe it works if it’s the only.

(1:14:07) Al: A building you have, because then you’re like the design aspect that you would normally put into your house is instead put into your shop.

(1:14:17) Micah: Yeah, yeah, maybe.

(1:14:21) Al: We’ll see, we’ll see.

(1:14:22) Al: So that’s all the new games as well, and an hour and a half into the podcast.

(1:14:28) Al: We’re finally going to talk about, no, no, do not, do not apologize.

(1:14:28) Micah: I’m sorry. I always feel sorry about it. I just come on here and

(1:14:34) Al: Funnily enough, we keep talking, Micah, because it’s fun.

(1:14:37) Al: Right?

(1:14:38) Micah: I just come on here and make you do, you know, triple the work you would normally do.

(1:14:45) Al: I am enjoying myself.

(1:14:46) Al: I hope you are too.

(1:14:47) Micah: Oh, I am.

(1:14:48) Al: Um, the listeners always like a long podcast.

(1:14:51) Al: Uh, so we’re not, we’re not going to hit the record this time though, but maybe we will let our game of the year episode this year.

(1:14:57) Al: Who knows?

(1:14:58) Micah: Yeah, you put me on, I can’t stop yappin’, so.

(1:15:00) Al: They’re always, they’re always long.

(1:15:07) Al: Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home, uh, do you want to talk about your thing first?

(1:15:14) Micah: Sure

(1:15:15) Al: Does it fit in first?

(1:15:16) Micah: Sure, I started this conversation with well, okay, so I have played the game. I will say that I have played

(1:15:17) Al: Why Micah hasn’t played the game.

(1:15:25) Micah: Less of the game that I would have liked to play

(1:15:30) Micah: So I originally

(1:15:32) Micah: when we talked about Al came to me as

(1:15:36) Micah: He usually does and says hey, there’s a new harvest moon

(1:15:38) Al: Every time there’s an announcement of a harvest min game.

(1:15:41) Micah: There’s a new harvest moon game. Do you want to expand?

(1:15:44) Micah: experience it together and talk about it and I always say yes, of course because I

(1:15:51) Micah: You know, I love putting myself through this every single time

(1:15:58) Al: Maybe this time it will be different.

(1:15:59) Micah: Yeah, maybe then well that’s the like hope right is like every time we do it we’re like well

(1:16:04) Micah: They’re they’re getting better slowly. So hopefully, you know, it’s gonna you know, eventually it’ll be like we finally have the episode where it’s the harvest moon game that we

(1:16:14) Micah: love and they’ve finally figured it out and

(1:16:17) Micah: You know times are changing and they’re catching up to story of seasons and all this though cuz you know

(1:16:22) Micah: The their little battle or whatever

(1:16:26) Micah: So, of course I wanted to take part in it and

(1:16:30) Micah: When the game finally came out I went to go get it

(1:16:34) Micah: Not realizing that it is an $18 mobile only game

(1:16:39) Micah: I mean, I knew it was a mobile only game

(1:16:40) Micah: but every mobile game that I have played in the last

(1:16:44) Micah: I would say almost, I don’t know, close to 10 years,

(1:16:48) Micah: maybe at this point has been, it’s free to play

(1:16:52) Micah: and then there’s some element to it, right?

(1:16:54) Micah: Like there’s some money-making aspect to it,

(1:16:57) Micah: whether it’s like gotcha or ads or whatever.

(1:17:01) Micah: This is an interesting time where like previously

(1:17:04) Micah: I would have loved for it to be a you pay the price once

(1:17:10) Micah: and you get in, there’s nothing else involved in it, right?

(1:17:14) Micah: This was the one time that I’ve been able to like remember

(1:17:20) Micah: where I’ve seen a price tag on a game,

(1:17:22) Micah: saw that there were no like in-app purchases

(1:17:24) Micah: and was like, but I kinda wish it was free

(1:17:27) Micah: and that there were in-app purchases

(1:17:30) Micah: ‘cause I can make the conscious effort once

(1:17:31) Micah: I’m playing the game to not spend money on it, right?

(1:17:34) Micah: But I can’t not spend money on it

(1:17:38) Micah: if I have to spend money on it in order to play it.

(1:17:41) Micah: And it’s $18 is a pretty hefty price.

(1:17:44) Micah: Okay, let me get a demo of it, right?

(1:17:49) Micah: Quote, unquote, demo of it.

(1:17:51) Micah: Let me see how it plays ‘cause it came out on iOS

(1:17:53) Micah: and on Android and I very legally played the game

(1:17:58) Micah: through Bluestacks, which is an Android emulator,

(1:18:03) Micah: just to experience it, right?

(1:18:05) Micah: And I got a pretty good impression of it right away

(1:18:07) Micah: and I was like, okay, this is actually kinda fun.

(1:18:09) Micah: I’m playing it on PC, so I’m playing with a keyboard

(1:18:11) Micah: and mouse and I’m like, you know,

(1:18:12) Micah: This isn’t like the greatest experience.

(1:18:14) Micah: But it looks pretty good, like not bad for the game and the more I thought about it

(1:18:19) Micah: I was like, you know, I’ve I paid $60 or whatever it was for Winds of Anthos, but I can spend $18 on on this

(1:18:26) Micah: The thought of like being tied to my phone to play it was a little bit

(1:18:32) Micah: you know daunting not exciting, but I went pulled the trigger anyways, but the bullet bought the game on

(1:18:40) Micah: iOS and

(1:18:42) Micah: started playing it on

(1:18:44) Micah: my phone before I realized that there was no gamepad support no controller support so

(1:18:52) Al: Not, so not tech, not none, there is one controller support because I, there is, so yeah, so I

(1:18:59) Micah: is there what is the one controller support because I didn’t know that this was a

(1:19:04) Al: was like, cause I, oh goodness, I have a whole, I have a whole story as well.

(1:19:09) Al: So this is going to be fun.

(1:19:12) Al: I bought it on Android first and then it crashed on my phone.

(1:19:15) Al: So I refunded it and bought it on my, on my iPad instead.

(1:19:18) Micah: Okay.

(1:19:19) Al: And then I was like, oh, let me connect controller to it, right?

(1:19:23) Al: I connected up my, my switch pro controller to my iPad and I was like, great.

(1:19:26) Al: And, uh, you know, I was in a conversation at the point.

(1:19:29) Al: So I was like, okay, let me just advance through this conversation.

(1:19:31) Al: It was working great.

(1:19:33) Al: And then nothing else did anything.

(1:19:34) Al: So you can advance the conversation with the controller, but nothing else.

(1:19:37) Micah: Oh interesting

(1:19:40) Al: And I don’t know why that works.

(1:19:42) Al: Why does that work?

(1:19:44) Al: And nothing else does.

(1:19:45) Micah: I did not know that

(1:19:50) Micah: Yeah, that’s crazy cuz I had I’d gotten to a point where you know

(1:19:54) Micah: I played through it and then I was like, okay, let me skip through

(1:19:57) Micah: You know some of the like the intro dial because I already saw the intro dialogue on bluestacks, right?

(1:20:02) Micah: I’m like, let me get through all this

(1:20:05) Micah: And then get to the actual

(1:20:07) Micah: game and then when I did, I have a it’s called Backbone.

(1:20:10) Micah: I don’t know if you’re familiar with this or not.

(1:20:11) Al: Yeah, yeah, I’ve had one of those-

(1:20:13) Micah: Yeah, it’s like a little sandwiching gamepad.

(1:20:16) Micah: It’s like, you know, having little joy cons that you’ve strapped to the side of your

(1:20:20) Micah: phone, which is great.

(1:20:22) Micah: It’s a great device.

(1:20:24) Micah: I use it a lot for other games, other mobile games that I played that require

(1:20:29) Micah: the require like like landscape view, you know, because the majority of mobile games

(1:20:33) Al: Yeah

(1:20:35) Micah: I play. That’s the other thing. At this point, our ports.

(1:20:37) Micah: I play games on my Switch all the time. I play, you know, every other game landscape view. Why is it, you know, that it’s such a but it’s because the platform is so different. It’s just become its own platform. And that’s why I play games on my Switch all the time.

(1:20:39) Al: Yeah

(1:20:47) Micah: Just because it’s, it’s, you know, I think about that and I’m like, that’s weird. Why is it like that for me? Because I play games on my Switch all the time. I play, you know, every other game landscape view. Why is it, you know, that it’s such a but it’s because the platform is so different. It’s just become its own platform. And that’s why I play.

(1:21:08) Micah: It’s not like I’m expecting things to be able to function in portrait mode or function.

(1:21:10) Al: But also, if you have something in landscape, it forces you to use two hands.

(1:21:17) Micah: yes right right right and you know that’s the same can be said about any

(1:21:18) Al: I think that’s why it’s annoying, because in portrait you can do the most things with

(1:21:23) Al: one hand, but landscape, you can’t even hold the phone with one hand in landscape.

(1:21:32) Micah: other game that you play right and that’s where my my you know my internal

(1:21:38) Micah: struggle came into play where it’s like well I do that with the switch I can’t

(1:21:42) Micah: hold it with you know one hand when I’m playing this I mean I can but I don’t

(1:21:47) Micah: getting the same kind of gameplay out of it or whatever like I’m not actually

(1:21:51) Micah: playing the game unless I’m playing with both hands on the on the switch but the

(1:21:56) Al: Yeah, it’s much more active versus passive, the switch, right?

(1:21:57) Micah: platform has evolved right the platform the mobile platform has evolved to the

(1:22:04) Micah: point where you need to be able to eat you expect to be able to play it

(1:22:11) Micah: passively with one hand right like or in you know just in portrait mode in

(1:22:15) Micah: general thing, you know.

(1:22:18) Micah: Uh, I, I trapped the, the, uh, backbone to it and just found out that it, I like

(1:22:25) Micah: couldn’t get it to work and I was like, why is it the case?

(1:22:27) Micah: And then I googled it and saw, oh, there’s no controller support.

(1:22:29) Micah: And I was like, okay, strike one, strike, strike two, technically strike one

(1:22:36) Micah: was, I had to pay $18 for this to even, you know, just experience it to decide

(1:22:41) Micah: if it was something that I was going to like or not, which is a big ask

(1:22:45) Micah: considering the the

(1:22:47) Micah: Track record of Harvest Moon from Natsume at this point

(1:22:51) Micah: So then I played it through a good port like I played the majority of it just on my phone in

(1:22:58) Micah: In Lance in landscape both hands on it. Whatever eventually I found that you can enable a

(1:23:06) Micah: virtual

(1:23:08) Micah: Joystick on screen joystick, which was not the default setting

(1:23:12) Micah: The default setting is that you tap somewhere and the character runs to that location

(1:23:18) Micah: Which is very hard to play

(1:23:20) Micah: in

(1:23:22) Micah: landscape view with both thumbs on it because you have to reach your if you want to go to the left or whatever you

(1:23:29) Micah: Got to reach your thumb all the way over to the left, you know, it I don’t know just very poor controls in general

(1:23:35) Micah: Once I added the on-screen joystick that changed things, but then I thought

(1:23:40) Micah: You know what? Why am I doing all this?

(1:23:43) Micah: When I could be just playing it on my iPad like Al

(1:23:48) Micah: and instead of just playing it on my iPad and you know just tapping on a bigger screen I have the

(1:23:57) Micah: Whatever it is like the like keyboard case right the like with the little trackpad because I use my iPad as my laptop

(1:24:04) Micah: and I thought I could probably just use the trackpad as

(1:24:08) Micah: the

(1:24:09) Micah: You know to click around on the screen and like point my character where I want them to go and it’ll feel much more

(1:24:14) Micah: like how it was playing on PC, which was, you know…

(1:24:17) Micah: point and click and mouse and keyboard felt more comfortable than playing at landscape on my phone. So let me try that. And lo and behold, it works. It’s great. Here comes strike three. I boot up the game, and I’m like, oh cool. Trackpad works. I can click around. It’s great. I cannot load my game. And I’m like, why can’t I load my game? That’s weird. So I thought maybe because I already had it open on my phone, I’ll force close the app. Maybe it’ll, you know,

(1:24:47) Micah: update then, whatever. Still didn’t work. It turns out that there is no I there’s no cloud support for saves for the game. So you just

(1:24:56) Al: There is no cloud save. Why is there no cloud save on this stupid game I do not understand?

(1:25:04) Micah: I don’t get it. I don’t understand. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.

(1:25:09) Micah: There are a couple things that are like, you know, not just that, and this goes back to the price tag of it, too.

(1:25:14) Micah: Like, you know, why was it, why is it not

(1:25:18) Micah: part of maybe like Apple Arcade or something where like you pay the service fee?

(1:25:22) Micah: Probably because it’s also on Android so that is a little bit complicated for what people are gonna wind up paying for it, but…

(1:25:27) Al: I mean, Android also have one, they have the same similar.

(1:25:31) Micah: So why is it not, you know,

(1:25:34) Micah: included in that kind of service, but in those services, I think it is

(1:25:39) Micah: expected to then that your save file is saved to the cloud for any Apple Arcade game, so…

(1:25:44) Al: Well, I think that’s expected for most people, for most things anyway, right? Like, this

(1:25:46) Micah: Right. Yes.

(1:25:48) Al: is the thing that gets me, is it’s not even difficult, right? The Cloud Save stuff is

(1:25:55) Al: so easy to do. Like, you basically just say to Apple, “Here’s my save,” and they deal

(1:26:02) Al: with it, right? You don’t have to do anything. They’ve just, like, not done that thing where

(1:26:07) Al: they say what it is. And it’s so frustrating. It’s especially frustrating because you can

(1:26:14) Al: play iPad and iPhone games on Mac now, just install them in the App Store. Like, it’s

(1:26:20) Al: officially supported. And developers can opt out of that, but they have to specifically

(1:26:27) Al: opt out of it. And that’s not opted out of. So you can install this game on your Mac,

(1:26:31) Al: and you can play it on your Mac, but it doesn’t have Cloud Save. And so, like, I started…

(1:26:32) Micah: Mm-hmm

(1:26:37) Al: This is the annoying thing for me, is I started on my 13-inch iPad Pro, right? Because I was

(1:26:42) Al: Like, well, this is the one that can.

(1:26:44) Al: It’s next to me during the work day.

(1:26:45) Al: I’ll have it here.

(1:26:46) Al: It’s nice, big screen.

(1:26:47) Al: And then, you know, when I want to go and play it in front of the TV, I’ll

(1:26:50) Al: either get it on my Mac or I’ll get it on my iPad mini.

(1:26:52) Al: No, no, it’s stuck on my iPad pro 13 inch now.

(1:26:57) Micah: Yeah, it’s it’s insane.

(1:27:00) Micah: And I think maybe the most frustrating part about this, too, is that, you know,

(1:27:05) Micah: we’ll get to the like actual reviewing the actual gameplay shortly, I’m sure.

(1:27:11) Micah: But the frustrating part about this is that I know because of how the game plays,

(1:27:17) Micah: because of how it is set up, this was this is going to be on other platforms.

(1:27:24) Micah: they’re going to release this on switch on

(1:27:28) Micah: You know

(1:27:29) Al: You think?

(1:27:29) Micah: Xbox us I I can almost guarantee it

(1:27:34) Micah: because the reason that I feel like that is because all of these things that are missing or are like

(1:27:41) Micah: You know could have been implemented. It feels like they did the bare bones to get it published

(1:27:47) Micah: So that they could generate income from it

(1:27:50) Micah: To continue development on it to port it to other things. That’s my guess I could be wrong

(1:27:57) Micah: you know things like I had seen one person say that they’re they opened their game and it was all in gibberish and

(1:28:05) Micah: they found that it was because but partially in French and they found that it was because

(1:28:09) Al: Yeah.

(1:28:10) Micah: Currently there are only two language options English and German, I think

(1:28:15) Micah: but there are blank boxes for other languages and

(1:28:19) Micah: The one of the blank boxes was selected which they think is probably going to be French

(1:28:25) Micah: Given that some things were

(1:28:26) Al: But it’s not finished.

(1:28:27) Micah: But it’s not finished so and it doesn’t exist as an actual like visible thing on the UI so

(1:28:35) Micah: I’m guessing also because of how much it just plays like a

(1:28:41) Micah: Like a console game just on mobile on a mobile device in a very like antiquated format

(1:28:47) Micah: I feel like it is intended for I feel like this is intended for

(1:28:54) Micah: Console and they are just it’s it is not

(1:28:57) Micah: developed enough or maybe that was the plan originally and they just gave up

(1:29:03) Micah: and said okay close enough what we can do with it is put it on mobile without

(1:29:08) Micah: all of the you know because it is a little bit easier to develop for mobile

(1:29:13) Micah: platform you know like publish on mobile platforms that it is on some other

(1:29:16) Micah: platforms but I I don’t know I don’t know I

(1:29:20) Al: It’s an interesting one. I don’t think I would be super surprised if they did bring it to

(1:29:30) Al: other platforms, but I’m not like, “Yeah, this is definitely happening. I guess we’ll

(1:29:39) Al: see.” I have many things to say about this game.

(1:29:50) Al: I find it interesting. Before we get into the other stuff, the mobile-only thing, the price,

(1:29:58) Al: the cloud save, all stupid things. Cool. Great. Fun times. You were talking about

(1:30:04) Al: the movement. I have a question for you. Do you know about the other movement options?

(1:30:06) Micah: Uh-huh

(1:30:09) Micah: Okay, so I’m gonna read you because this was something that threw me and I think why I originally didn’t realize that it was

(1:30:16) Micah: An option to have a like virtual joystick on screen

(1:30:20) Al: No, no, I don’t mean that.

(1:30:21) Al: I don’t mean that.

(1:30:23) Al: I mean the other option that you’ve not talked about.

(1:30:24) Micah: Okay, so no I only have two on on phone at least I didn’t look on iPad

(1:30:30) Al: You don’t?

(1:30:30) Al: Nope, nope, you do not.

(1:30:32) Micah: Okay, all right, okay

(1:30:32) Al: You have another one.

(1:30:33) Al: It’s just they don’t tell you about it.

(1:30:36) Micah: good I

(1:30:37) Al: So, have you got the game open?

(1:30:39) Micah: Am opening it right now so that I can read these because I because I wanted to read to you what the other one

(1:30:41) Al: Right, so.

(1:30:45) Micah: Was or the the kiss that the um, what do you call it? The like virtual joystick?

(1:30:51) Micah: They called it relative pad, which I was like, what does that mean?

(1:30:52) Al: Yeah, so it’s called, I know, it’s movement is follow movement mode and relative pad mode.

(1:30:56) Micah: Why would I have?

(1:30:59) Al: I understand why they’ve said those two things, but yeah, it’s confusing.

(1:31:04) Al: Okay, so yeah, I think the relative movement is like you put your finger down and then

(1:31:09) Al: you move relative to where your finger was originally.

(1:31:10) Micah: Right. It makes sense when you like really think about it, but on first read you’re like what could that pop? What does that mean?

(1:31:22) Al: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I’m gonna blow your mind. Open up the map.

(1:31:24) Micah: Okay. Uh, is this the, uh, you tap on the thing and it auto-runs for you?

(1:31:29) Al: Yes.

(1:31:30) Micah: Okay, I do know about that, yes. I do know about that.

(1:31:31) Al: Okay, you do know about that one. It is… I love it.

(1:31:34) Micah: Yeah, it’s great. That is great. That’s a great, like, addition.

(1:31:37) Al: I want this in every game now.

(1:31:40) Micah: I do love it too. I think that if I could use that in every scenario, this wouldn’t be an issue for me.

(1:31:42) Al: It doesn’t save the game, but I think it’s fantastic.

(1:31:51) Micah: But the fact that like moving around your farm, moving around inside houses, you know, uh, that I still have to do the like stupid on-screen joystick to, or tap to do anything else, right?

(1:32:05) Micah: Like, and especially because you can tap to say you want to go talk to, uh,

(1:32:10) Micah: you know, a, a villager, which is like, that’s my primary use for it has been, oh, I have to, this is my, probably my greatest, uh, praise for this game that I can give is that they show you on the map, where all of the villagers are at all times, it’s a live view of where they’re go, where they’re going, like what they’re doing, um, and so you can just tap on them and just use that as your like checklist to go, okay, I have to talk to these people.

(1:32:41) Micah: For my like daily interaction with them and you just go right to them and that’s it. It’s great. That’s so much better than, you know, uh, it, any other experience, it helps you breeze through the social aspect of it really, really well, however, you know, the, the drawback to some of that is that, or like the, the, where it isn’t as easy to use as that I can tap on somebody.

(1:33:11) Micah: Uh, and my characters will start to run across the map to them. By the time I get to them, they, they may have moved and now I gotta like,

(1:33:16) Al: Yeah, it feels like it feels like you should be running because you like specifically are

(1:33:19) Micah: Mm-hmm.

(1:33:22) Al: clicking on a character, right? And it highlights the character and like I see Christina, I click

(1:33:27) Al: on it, it says Christina, I click run, and Christina’s not there. That’s weird. And I’m

(1:33:31) Micah: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

(1:33:33) Al: not sure why they chose that, like you would surely follow the character. Yeah, so that’s

(1:33:38) Al: not, but what I will also say is if you click on a house and you run to that house, you’ll

(1:33:43) Al: walk into the house as well automatically.

(1:33:44) Micah: Yeah!

(1:33:46) Al: Which is another great part of that, like it’s not, you know.

(1:33:49) Micah: It’s great.

(1:33:51) Micah: Alternatively, if you tap on something inside the house, you cannot because you have to leave the house first.

(1:33:57) Al: Yes, yeah, bad, yeah, it’s such an interesting mix of like really weird and really good ideas.

(1:33:57) Micah: In order to… which is weird, but…

(1:34:05) Al: I would say, so I think I would describe this game as the best Harvest Moon game since the split,

(1:34:14) Al: that I’m still probably not going to play.

(1:34:18) Micah: Right, so yeah, my, my like, all of that was to say, my take on this so far, at least,

(1:34:26) Micah: was that, you know, all of these like, issues leading up to like figuring out how to play

(1:34:31) Micah: the game, the game itself, I agree, I love it.

(1:34:35) Micah: As far as a like, you know, a Harvest Moon farm sim, like New Age Harvest Moon farm sim,

(1:34:42) Micah: it’s really pretty good.

(1:34:44) Micah: Like a, it’s an enjoy, like I can see my,

(1:34:46) Micah: I could see myself playing.

(1:34:48) Micah: And if it were, if it were just on Switch or Steam or PlayStation or whatever, and I

(1:35:16) Micah: Knew I was gonna pick up a-

(1:35:18) Micah: controller or I was gonna pick up my switch or my steam deck or whatever and just play the game the same way I would

(1:35:23) Micah: play any other game

(1:35:25) Micah: that I would expect to be able to play this one it would have been a great experience and I probably would have really enjoyed it

(1:35:32) Micah: Because they put it on such a weird platform and because it has so many weird developmental, you know

(1:35:39) Micah: Issues, and there’s so many control restrictions and things like that

(1:35:44) Micah: It kind of ruined that experience for me

(1:35:48) Micah: And I don’t I don’t know that I would continue to to to play it like yeah, I don’t know

(1:35:55) Al: Yeah, I’m even up for playing it as they want, like on mobile devices. I’m up for that. I

(1:35:56) Micah: It’s just such a confusing feeling, you know

(1:36:08) Al: just give me cloud save, right? And also, you know, controller support. Like, it doesn’t

(1:36:17) Al: feel like those are big asks.

(1:36:18) Micah: No, I don’t think it is. I think the controller support is like should have been an easy given but that is

(1:36:26) Micah: you know such a like common thing that people that games have controller support that that’s what makes me feel like maybe there is a

(1:36:35) Micah: you know, like it was unfinished and that’s why they put it on mobile because you know

(1:36:42) Micah: having touchscreen controls or whatever is way easy to

(1:36:47) Micah: You know

(1:36:49) Micah: From the like development portion of it than it is to like, you know

(1:36:54) Micah: Map controls on a bunch of platforms or whatever like, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know the reason but

(1:37:00) Al: Yeah, I guess that would also explain why it was like, because they announced this,

(1:37:05) Al: I think, in July or maybe June and they were like, oh, yeah, we’ve got a new game.

(1:37:11) Al: It’s coming out in in August.

(1:37:14) Al: No more information.

(1:37:16) Al: And that was weird.

(1:37:20) Al: And then they showed us basically nothing until the game came out.

(1:37:24) Al: So I guess that would explain all of the

(1:37:25) Al: weirdness around that, if that was if you’re right, which.

(1:37:30) Al: We’ll find out, I guess, because.

(1:37:31) Micah: I yeah, we’ll see. I don’t know. It’s just I did also have issues with with crashing like you would add

(1:37:39) Micah: I saw that there was that was a I

(1:37:43) Micah: Specifically had some issues with crashing on iPad which I saw people also on iPad specifically had

(1:37:49) Micah: Crashing issues. I also saw that Android has some pretty notorious and they actually push a patch pretty quickly

(1:37:50) Al: I haven’t had a single one.

(1:37:53) Al: Yeah, so the Android one was pretty bad because the game just wouldn’t launch.

(1:38:00) Al: So I bought it on the day it came out and I loaded the game and no, it didn’t work.

(1:38:05) Al: So I was like, hmm, that’s weird and I went back to the store and saw there was a refund

(1:38:08) Al: button and went, yes, I’ll do that then, and I’ll go buy the one on iPad instead.

(1:38:16) Al: part of the fun of my situation where I have an Android phone and an iPad.

(1:38:20) Al: which means that I can’t buy for both which is annoying but whatever I will

(1:38:25) Al: deal with that problem at some point but yeah it’s yeah weird okay on the note

(1:38:32) Micah: It’s just, you know, all that aside.

(1:38:36) Al: of so on the note of things that are good about this game I love that when

(1:38:43) Al: you go to sleep it shows you the calendar when you load up the next day

(1:38:48) Al: It’s like, Oh, you see.

(1:38:50) Al: On the calendar and you see the thing moving across to the next day and you can see someone’s

(1:38:54) Al: face on it if it’s on their birthday. Or if, for example, I don’t know if you’ve had this or not,

(1:38:58) Al: but the shop had a sale one day. And so it showed that on the calendar as well. So like all the

(1:39:04) Al: things that are happening shows up there. Absolutely fantastic feature. Every farming

(1:39:08) Al: game should have that. I so bad at remembering these things and I’m so bad at checking what

(1:39:14) Al: was happening, you know, and the number of times I would be like going into like.

(1:39:15) Micah: Me too, I agree

(1:39:20) Al: Stardew or whatever. I’d go like, Oh, I need to buy some stuff tomorrow. Great. And then

(1:39:26) Al: you wake up and Oh, it’s a festival day. So everything’s closed. Whereas if you’re seeing

(1:39:30) Al: the calendar every single day, you see it moving closer to that festival and you know, Oh,

(1:39:36) Al: if I’m going to need stuff on that day, I need to buy it now rather than wait till then.

(1:39:40) Micah: Yes, yep, I completely agree. I I think that’s great. I think the like

(1:39:45) Micah: How you know obvious they make things on the calendar too is nice

(1:39:49) Micah: It’s it’s not and I think it’s the like simplicity of it, right? Like it’s a pretty simple

(1:39:56) Micah: UI and simple calendar that it’s not like there’s like it if there’s a 30% off sale at the store it just

(1:40:05) Micah: Says 30% or like sale or whatever. It says on the calendar. It’s

(1:40:10) Micah: pretty like obvious and clear. It’s simplified. It’s not,

(1:40:13) Micah: you know, anything crazy. So I I don’t know. It’s it’s really

(1:40:21) Micah: nice. It’s really nice. There is that did bring up something

(1:40:27) Micah: for me, though, that I had a little bit of an issue with,

(1:40:31) Micah: though, was there are like quest, there’s like side quests,

(1:40:37) Micah: Right? Like, uh, what do they call them? They call them–

(1:40:40) Micah: Um, favors, I think? Uh, where a villager will say, “Hey, I need, you know, X-Crop or whatever. I need three of whatever.”

(1:40:48) Micah: Um, and then you just– that shows up in your, in your, uh, in your menu, in the, like, quest menu or whatever it is.

(1:40:58) Micah: Um, and the way that it shows up is, uh, the quest, who asked for it, what it is, and then an icon that has, like, a calendar thing and it says “three.”

(1:41:10) Micah: The first one that I encountered said “eight,” so I was like, “Oh, I have to do this by the eighth. That’s in two days.”

(1:41:16) Micah: So, I better get moving, ‘cause, uh, I have to get, you know, this crop that I haven’t even started growing yet.

(1:41:24) Micah: I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to finish it, probably not, and then I’m like, “What is it gonna do when I can’t finish it? It’s probably just gonna go away, right?”

(1:41:32) Micah: Well, it turns out that that eight is actually just– it’s eight days. It’s eight days for that, that thing to–

(1:41:40) Micah: you have eight days to do it, but it doesn’t really make that clear, and it– because of the, like, calendar icon, you think, like, “Oh, it’s the eighth, right?”

(1:41:48) Micah: Like, I don’t know, it just seemed like a weird thing to me that it just– it– like the, you know, the relative pad, there’s just, like, little things that, like, don’t– aren’t obvious enough, like, you know.

(1:42:02) Al: Yeah, there’s definitely a few things where it’s like they’re missing more information.

(1:42:07) Al: So like, for example, the icon for your relationship status with characters, it’s music icons.

(1:42:21) Al: They add more icons as you go, so it’s like you start off with just one, so you have literally

(1:42:29) Al: no idea how much it is.

(1:42:32) Al: Like what percentage of this am I doing?

(1:42:35) Al: You just have no clue.

(1:42:36) Al: Whereas Stardew, it shows you the maximum number of arts.

(1:42:40) Al: So you know what you’re getting to.

(1:42:42) Al: It’s like once you’ve got one, you know that’s one out of eight.

(1:42:44) Al: Or 10 or whatever it is.

(1:42:45) Al: I can’t remember off the top of my head.

(1:42:49) Al: I just have no idea.

(1:42:49) Al: Is this one out of eight musical notes?

(1:42:51) Al: Is it one out of 25?

(1:42:53) Al: Is it one out of four?

(1:42:54) Al: I have no idea.

(1:42:56) Al: So there’s a bunch of things like that that you’re just like,

(1:42:59) Al: I don’t know what’s happening here.

(1:43:02) Al: And you’re missing telling me some information for me to make an informed decision about

(1:43:10) Micah: Which is so interesting that like, you know, then on the flip side, you have things like you said with the calendar where it is like really obvious what’s going on.

(1:43:19) Micah: Like, I don’t know, just strange decisions for how certain.

(1:43:28) Al: It’s like they have a different team working on different parts of the game, and one team

(1:43:31) Micah: that

(1:43:32) Al: actually has someone who knows how to design games.

(1:43:35) Micah: right yeah that is definitely what it feels like

(1:43:38) Micah: or like you know the teams are in completely separate

(1:43:42) Micah: I don’t know not rooms because I think everybody probably at this point is

(1:43:47) Micah: is working remotely but you know they’re in separate discord channels

(1:43:47) Al: Yeah, they’re not talking to each other.

(1:43:53) Micah: you know nobody and there’s no conversation happening

(1:43:57) Micah: between it I don’t know whatever it is but

(1:43:59) Micah: yeah there’s there’s definitely a

(1:44:01) Micah: miscommunication which leads to then miscommunication to us the player and

(1:44:07) Micah: it’s not as obvious what you’re supposed to be doing or what how something works

(1:44:10) Micah: so which you know when the initial impression of the game is I how do I

(1:44:16) Micah: find cloud save oh it’s not there how do I find controller support oh it’s not

(1:44:20) Micah: there how do I do that you know I’m already anticipating that like something

(1:44:27) Micah: as raw or like I’m not reading something right or like some.

(1:44:31) Micah: Thing is, you know, like, if I’m not reading it right, then it just must not exist.

(1:44:36) Al: I mean there’s another example I’ve got as well so there’s a mechanic in this called happiness

(1:44:40) Al: which is where as you talk to people and you do things for them you get more happiness and it’s

(1:44:45) Al: like in the menu there’s like this little star jar and it fills with a sparkly liquid and that’s

(1:44:51) Al: great. But what does it do? I don’t know. I have a full star jar. I don’t know what that did.

(1:44:56) Micah: Oh. Okay. I, I was going to ask you because I thought maybe I just didn’t get far enough

(1:45:05) Micah: in the game. Um, cause I, I also got a full star jar, but then I was like, Oh, okay. My,

(1:45:13) Micah: my like even not knowing what it did or what it does, you know, my gripe with it was that

(1:45:18) Micah: like I had a full, you know, when I, I only had a little bit left to go in my jar when

(1:45:24) Micah: I finished the day and I had a bunch.

(1:45:26) Micah: of happiness and it filled the jar but then it didn’t stop you know it just

(1:45:28) Micah: kept filling that one jar so it felt like all of this extra happiness was

(1:45:34) Micah: going nowhere like it was wasted or whatever I was like in my head I’m like

(1:45:38) Micah: okay wait no fill the next jar like I don’t know what it does but fill the

(1:45:41) Al: “Well, I’ve got a second jar. I have a second jar now, and it’s filling the second jar.”

(1:45:42) Micah: next I don’t know whatever it is okay okay but you don’t know what it does

(1:45:48) Micah: because I don’t I didn’t see anything

(1:45:48) Al: But nothing happened. When it filled the jar, it was like, “Tada!” And then it put that

(1:45:53) Al: on a shelf and brought me a new jar, and that’s all that happened.

(1:45:56) Micah: okay I thought maybe I either missed something or like I just didn’t get far enough

(1:45:59) Al: Nope. Nope. Nope.

(1:46:03) Al: So the description in the settings is, “Happiness is necessary to advance the story. It is increased

(1:46:11) Al: such as shipping and selling crops and items talking to the locals and ordering gifts.

(1:46:14) Al: However, it’s easier to increase happiness through requests.”

(1:46:18) Al: OK, great. All makes sense. “As your happiness level increases, the villagers’ opinion

(1:46:23) Al: of you and the village itself will gradually change. Actively try to accumulate happiness.”

(1:46:29) Al: It’s not really telling you anything. It’s like, “Oh, things will happen.” But nothing

(1:46:37) Al: has happened. So I don’t know. Like, I was expecting it would do that, and it would be

(1:46:41) Al: like, “Oh, great, you’ve unlocked this thing.” With the Stardew in the Junimo Huts, it would

(1:46:48) Al: go, “Oh, you’ve unlocked this new part of the map.” But no.

(1:46:51) Micah: and maybe it’s that like you know you just are so good at keep the game that

(1:46:58) Micah: like you haven’t hit a restrict like you’ve already passed the restrictions

(1:47:00) Al: Possibly? I- ahh. Yeah.

(1:47:02) Micah: but it’s still not obvious what it is or what it does or maybe it’s you know

(1:47:08) Micah: there’s like some deeper thing for it that like once you get to it then it’s

(1:47:13) Micah: obvious but I don’t know that doesn’t really give me a good idea of why I

(1:47:19) Micah: I should be doing there, focus.

(1:47:21) Micah: How limiting it is to be able to do the things that you need to do, but that’s a separate

(1:47:44) Micah: conversation.

(1:47:45) Micah: I think being able to see clearly things like that, like, “Oh, this can’t work.”

(1:47:51) Micah: Like, this favor says eight, and I think that it means by the eighth, which is in two days,

(1:47:57) Micah: so I’m going to spend the next day focusing on trying to make that thing happen any way

(1:48:03) Micah: that I can, and then I find out that I actually have eight full days to do it.

(1:48:10) Micah: That is a … I just wasted a day, but it’s not a whole day, but I wasted time.

(1:48:17) Micah: Or I’m focusing all of my days on like, filling a-

(1:48:21) Micah: talking to all the villagers so I could fill up this happiness jar, but I don’t know what it’s gonna do and

(1:48:27) Micah: you know, maybe it turns out that it really doesn’t do anything or the thing that it does is something that I didn’t really care about

(1:48:32) Micah: or like would have not focused on, but I don’t know that so I don’t know, you know

(1:48:38) Al: Yeah, this is a really niche thing around the request list because we’re talking about that.

(1:48:47) Al: So there’s three request lists, right? There’s one which is like the story-based stuff,

(1:48:50) Micah: Yes.

(1:48:51) Micah: Mm-hmm

(1:48:53) Al: there’s one which is things you need to upgrade. I don’t know why that’s not included in the

(1:48:58) Al: story-based stuff because you need to progress them to progress the story, but whatever.

(1:49:02) Al: And then there’s the optional quests, the side quests, whatever. I can’t remember what.

(1:49:08) Al: It was called either because they did have a name, but it’s not on the UI. The UI doesn’t

(1:49:10) Micah: I think they call them, I think they call them favors.

(1:49:14) Micah: Oh, yeah.

(1:49:14) Al: tell you a name, which is weird. And those three, there’s no, this is such a small thing,

(1:49:20) Al: there’s no all list, but in every other thing they have, there’s an all list, right? So like

(1:49:27) Al: showing you all of it. Like that is a thing in every other, so if you go to like the list of

(1:49:34) Al: tips that you get. There’s an ‘all’ at the top and then they have it broken down.

(1:49:38) Al: Why is that not the same for quests? That’s a weird decision and especially then if you

(1:49:46) Al: click on, this is getting even more niche but this is particularly frustrating for me.

(1:49:51) Al: If you then go into the upgrades request list and if you don’t have any active quests so

(1:50:02) Al: you’ve completed everything, it will auto select the first complete…

(1:50:08) Al: and then show you on the right-hand side what needs to be done but that’s already done.

(1:50:14) Al: So you’re looking at this list and you automatically assume “oh I’ve got something to do”

(1:50:18) Al: because it highlights something and shows you something and then you realise “wait no I’ve

(1:50:21) Al: already done that one” but if…

(1:50:22) Micah: Yeah.

(1:50:27) Al: This is such a niche issue. I have one more really niche complaint that later on when we

(1:50:30) Micah: No, I agree.

(1:50:32) Al: talk about the farming stuff but it’s just these lots of these little things that just make me

(1:50:36) Al: Be Annoyed.

(1:50:37) Micah: Yeah, and that’s really what it is.

(1:50:39) Micah: It’s like, you know, a lot of little things that feel either rushed or like poorly

(1:50:44) Micah: communicated that make up the greater experience of like, it feels incomplete or

(1:50:52) Micah: not as good as it could be, I guess.

(1:50:54) Al: Yeah, all right, okay. Oh yeah, other minor point. There doesn’t seem to be a setting

(1:51:00) Al: to turn off the volume on the main screen. So if you load up the game, it starts blasting

(1:51:05) Al: music at you until you load your save file when you’ve turned off the volume in the save

(1:51:10) Al: file.

(1:51:12) Micah: OK, I mean, when I played on PC, I definitely had the issue.

(1:51:16) Micah: But it was I was unsure if that was just like because everything on my PC

(1:51:21) Micah: launches at max volume and then I have to turn it and it’s always jarring.

(1:51:25) Micah: But I always had it mute like my iPad or my phone muted when I would play.

(1:51:31) Micah: So it would, you know, I had to like enable my volume in the first place.

(1:51:36) Al: Yeah, whereas like my iPad is like I use that for like watching stuff on so it defaults

(1:51:36) Micah: I. Mm hmm.

(1:51:41) Al: to just always having music, you know, sensible volume. And I’m like booting up the game while

(1:51:42) Micah: Yeah.

(1:51:48) Al: I’m on a meeting at work or whatever and it blasts out this music. I’m like and then I

(1:51:52) Al: click on the save and it turns off the music. I don’t understand why when there’s only one

(1:51:57) Al: save file on this whole game, why you would still have the volume on on the main screen

(1:52:03) Al: and there’s no way to turn it off.

(1:52:06) Al: Okay, right.

(1:52:09) Al: Shall we talk about farming?

(1:52:10) Micah: Yeah, I guess.

(1:52:13) Al: So I learnt something today that will improve the farming as we go on, but they don’t make

(1:52:16) Micah: Uh-huh.

(1:52:20) Al: it clear to you that this is a thing until after you unlock more farming plots.

(1:52:25) Al: So the way this works is you have your standard grid and you tap on it to, like, hoe it.

(1:52:32) Al: I don’t know what, tell it, there you go, that’s the word.

(1:52:35) Micah: Till it, there you go.

(1:52:36) Al: To till it, and then you tap on it again to select, to sow a seed.

(1:52:42) Al: You tap on it, you select a seed.

(1:52:44) Al: I have a very nice complaint about that, that I’ll get to in a minute.

(1:52:47) Al: And then you tap it to water it and then you tap it to fertilise it.

(1:52:50) Micah: Uh-huh. Yes.

(1:52:51) Al: Right.

(1:52:51) Al: Pretty much kind of like, it actually is not horrific.

(1:52:57) Al: Like it kind of, it works reasonably well for what a mobile game farming should work

(1:53:02) Al: Like, I actually don’t dislike that.

(1:53:06) Al: But it feels like you should - what I’ve written here, which was what I thought was

(1:53:12) Al: the case until literally three hours ago - it feels like you should be able to like tap

(1:53:18) Al: and drag and get it to automatically do them, but that doesn’t work, but that is actually

(1:53:22) Micah: Okay

(1:53:24) Al: a thing that apparently you unlock later.

(1:53:26) Micah: Okay, but oh you unlock it later, okay, so uh when I was trying to figure out

(1:53:34) Micah: When I was trying to figure out something specific

(1:53:36) Micah: I don’t remember what it was I was like

(1:53:38) Micah: Oh, let me just look on like watch somebody’s video of them playing it and see and I saw them doing it

(1:53:43) Micah: I saw them clicking and dragging to like do the whole area and I was like

(1:53:48) Micah: Oh, I didn’t realize I could do that because they show you that box, right?

(1:53:52) Micah: It’s like it’s six areas or whatever and I was like, oh, oh my god

(1:53:58) Micah: I can’t believe I missed this so then I started doing that and I realized that I couldn’t and I was like

(1:54:02) Micah: Well now why would I not be able to?

(1:54:05) Micah: Why would that be the case?

(1:54:08) Micah: And I just didn’t know why and I didn’t know how to fix that

(1:54:12) Micah: So I just I didn’t like care enough. I was like, I’ll just I’ll just keep playing

(1:54:17) Micah: There’s already enough that I’m like fighting with this game about I’ll figure it out later

(1:54:22) Micah: and I never did so I’m

(1:54:26) Micah: That’s kind of interesting that it’s it’s just so like locked behind a I don’t know. It’s like time gated. That’s weird

(1:54:34) Al: Yeah, I think it’s I think it’s like meant to be for like

(1:54:40) Al: You as you upgrade the tools, I think I’m not 100% sure because I so I unlocked extra plots, right?

(1:54:48) Al: so you start off with our

(1:54:50) Al: What size is this?

(1:54:52) Al: five by six plot and then as you progress the story

(1:54:58) Al: This I guess this could be it’s possible that this is what the

(1:55:04) Al: Happiness meter are unlocked

(1:55:06) Al: But I got like two more sets of plots which are slightly bigger. I think another four by

(1:55:13) Al: Why are they different shape?

(1:55:15) Al: Four by eight. I have to do math to figure out if that’s bigger or not forward by eight is

(1:55:20) Al: 32 of course and five by six is 30. So it’s too bigger. Oh

(1:55:28) Al: This stupid game, um, so that might be what the happiness meter unlocked

(1:55:32) Al: I don’t know, because it did happen after that.

(1:55:34) Al: Anyway, so I unlocked it and it was like, oh yeah, great.

(1:55:39) Al: Here’s this thing that you can do as well.

(1:55:41) Al: You can click and drag to do it, but it still doesn’t work.

(1:55:47) Al: So I’m assuming, this might be a big assumption, but I am assuming that I have

(1:55:53) Al: to do something else to actually unlock it.

(1:55:55) Al: Why they would tell you about the feature when you can’t still can’t do it?

(1:55:59) Al: I don’t know.

(1:56:00) Micah: yeah I don’t know I don’t I don’t understand I don’t understand why there’s a lot of things

(1:56:09) Micah: about this that I don’t understand but it’s it’s definitely um I it would it would greatly improve

(1:56:18) Micah: the experience right out of the gate too right like and I get that it’s like oh maybe it’s a

(1:56:24) Micah: because it’s not even really just that it’s like time saving right like in previous games it would

(1:56:29) Micah: would be like, “Oh, you.”

(1:56:30) Micah: Save time by, you know, you’d water everything at once, but it takes more stamina, but you still save time, so it’s better in that way, right?

(1:56:43) Micah: It doesn’t save time, like you’re still doing them one by one.

(1:56:43) Al: Yeah. Yeah.

(1:56:46) Micah: Like, nothing is changing, it’s just that you are not physically tapping it.

(1:56:52) Al: It’s just a quality of life improvement. They’ve gated behind progression like it shouldn’t mean

(1:56:58) Micah: And it’s a quality of life on like my end right not the gate like not the game’s end

(1:57:00) Al: anything else. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not gonna get RSI from holding my hand at a weird angle to

(1:57:04) Micah: It’s just my like physical quality of life. I guess is I don’t know it’s weird

(1:57:10) Micah: weird.

(1:57:12) Al: to tap on an iPad.

(1:57:13) Al: Okay, right, so yeah. Other than that, I don’t hate the farming, it’s fine. One thing

(1:57:21) Al: that’s weird is that if you’re constantly farming on the same soil, the quality of your

(1:57:27) Al: crops goes down. So you can’t have every… I mean, you could have every single plot always

(1:57:34) Al: farming, but your crops won’t be as high quality. And I get what they’re doing with that, but

(1:57:43) Al: please don’t do that. I just don’t like it.

(1:57:50) Micah: Yeah, I don’t like it either. I and see this is I did not get very far into that

(1:57:56) Micah: But I did see you know that like when you get to a certain point you have you unlock like

(1:58:02) Micah: larger plots, you know not just larger plot yes larger plots, but more plots and they’re like all spaced out on the hills above your

(1:58:11) Micah: house or whatever right and

(1:58:13) Micah: So that’s cool. Like I like that idea, but then it gets into you have to start rotating your

(1:58:20) Micah: Crops across those so it’s like a deeper and maybe some people love that. I don’t know me personally

(1:58:26) Micah: I don’t I can’t see myself enjoying that in a situation where I’m already like

(1:58:32) Micah: really having to pay attention to like time management and

(1:58:36) Micah: you know

(1:58:37) Micah: Like resource management and stuff like that that I then also have to worry about whether or not I’m rotating my crops and how quickly

(1:58:45) Micah: The the soil is you know depleting for the specific crop that I’m using

(1:58:50) Micah: Whatever it is. It just seems like an added thing. That’s not like

(1:58:52) Al: As with every simulation game you have to make a balance of what is realistic and what is fun and it’s a difficult balance to do and I think that crop rotation, soil rotation is too close to the real rather than the fun.

(1:59:14) Micah: I would completely agree with that.

(1:59:17) Micah: I don’t know, maybe, and like I said, maybe some people really love that idea and they

(1:59:21) Micah: think it’s a cool new addition, but I just, to me personally, and it sounds like to you

(1:59:25) Al: maybe they do nope not it’s

(1:59:26) Micah: as well, it does not sound like a fun aspect of it.

(1:59:33) Micah: I do like the idea of the, talking about the crops, how they have, you maybe know a little

(1:59:45) Micah: because I’ve only touched the surface of it, but the, when you sell high quality crops,

(1:59:53) Micah: you sell enough of them, then they become, shoot, I forgot what they were, what it’s,

(2:00:02) Al: Oh yeah they love inventing these terms don’t they? I haven’t actually experienced that

(2:00:07) Al: but yet it like increases how much you can sell them for I think is what it does.

(2:00:11) Micah: Yeah, yeah, see but it’s when you sell enough of them then like the crop overall, I think then

(2:00:19) Micah: Increases in value right so like if you sell enough

(2:00:22) Al: It’s like when in, I guess, probably Wins of Anthos and the other one. What was the one

(2:00:24) Micah: Some term that it’s not like prestigious or something. I don’t know

(2:00:35) Al: before that I called? The really weird one. Something of something. One world, one world.

(2:00:37) Micah: I should know this, but I don’t.

(2:00:44) Micah: One world, that’s it.

(2:00:45) Al: So I think in both of them, because they were like focused on crops don’t exist anymore,

(2:00:51) Al: need to like bring them back.

(2:00:53) Al: Um, after you shipped a certain amount, you could then buy them in shops.

(2:00:58) Al: So it’s kind of, I think trying to do the same mechanic, but in a different way.

(2:01:03) Micah: Mm hmm. Yeah, it’s.

(2:01:04) Al: It’s fine.

(2:01:06) Al: It doesn’t, it’s a cool idea, but it doesn’t make me go, “Oh, I must now put 100 hours into this.”

(2:01:11) Micah: Right, right.

(2:01:13) Micah: Like, it’s a neat way to solve the problem of like, we have a limited

(2:01:17) Micah: amount of crops and things that you can grow, but you still need to improve

(2:01:22) Micah: like how to make money without having to go down the road of like min maxing,

(2:01:29) Micah: you know, fertilizer and, you know, I don’t know, whatever.

(2:01:33) Micah: Like min maxing how you’re growing the crops just that like if you continue to grow the crops and you get enough

(2:01:40) Micah: Good ones, then you will increase the amount that that crop is worth

(2:01:46) Micah: Directly, then if you want to go the step further and do

(2:01:46) Al: I think Coral Island did it best where how that works is one of the late game upgrades

(2:01:56) Al: is increasing the quality of all the crops you grow and it’s just another unlock and

(2:02:04) Al: you do it based on the same of all your other unlocks.

(2:02:08) Micah: Mm hmm. Yeah, there’s also they also did mutations in a neat way

(2:02:17) Micah: where it’s like, also sort of passive, which like, that can

(2:02:22) Micah: happen. You know, that has happened before, but it seems a

(2:02:26) Micah: lot more common now. At least in my experience, maybe this

(2:02:30) Micah: wasn’t your experience, but I feel like the majority of the

(2:02:32) Micah: time when I grew something, I got a mutation of that crop. So

(2:02:35) Micah: Like, I grew carrots for the first time I got-

(2:02:36) Al: Yeah, yeah.

(2:02:38) Micah: I grew cabbage for the first time I got dome cabbage, or whatever, right away for the first time.

(2:02:46) Micah: And that’s kind of neat in that, like, there are aspects of it that, like, at least in the early game, make it a little bit more easy to find things that would otherwise be hidden in, like, later portions of the game in other farm sims or, like, previous harvest moons or other, you know, story of seasons, stuff like that.

(2:03:08) Micah: Experience pretty early, but, yeah, I agree with you that there is, you know, there have been other better ways to do how the, like, improving the crops, I don’t know.

(2:03:22) Micah: I just think that that is- it’s- they’re good, like, bare bones features to improve that experience, right, without, like, adding a ton of stuff, but then they do something counterproductive, like, forcing you to rotate your crops, which is-

(2:03:38) Micah: like, you know, what do we really- why? What are we doing? What are we- especially in a situation where I don’t mean to go back to the, like, rotating crops, it’s just thinking about it, like, especially in a situation where, like, in a game where things are not growing at the same time, so, like, you really then have to start maximizing what you’re putting where.

(2:03:58) Micah: And I’m a big, you know, I have a minor in specific ways, but I have, you know, diagnosed OCD where, like-

(2:04:08) Micah: there are things to me that, like, I love to be able to, like, you know, plant all of the same crop in one area or whatever, and this kind of prevents me from doing that by having to, like- and that just is- makes the experience less fun for me when I can’t, like- you know, it’s forcing me to do something that is so, like, arbitrary and isn’t giving me any kind of, like, direct benefit for anything.

(2:04:15) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah

(2:04:37) Al: Oh, there’s no benefit at all. Yeah, that’s the problem if it gave you something else

(2:04:38) Micah: Only giving me a negative. Right.

(2:04:42) Al: like oh, you know, it’ll just be default, you know, if you keep farming, but if you

(2:04:47) Al: crop rotate, then things will get better, but it’s things get worse if you don’t rather

(2:04:50) Micah: right right like give me let me just I don’t know

(2:04:58) Al: I think they’re clearly not listening to us, right? Because we’ve been trying to - we’ve

(2:05:02) Al: been doing this now for like four years and we keep giving them suggestions on how to

(2:05:06) Al: make their games better.

(2:05:07) Micah: yet the the the options are there you know if they would just if they just tune

(2:05:14) Micah: in once to one harvest moon episode maybe they would be they would catch

(2:05:18) Micah: wind of but I I think again all that being said like we said earlier in the

(2:05:20) Al: Yeah.

(2:05:28) Micah: review portion of this it is I think the best farm sim that they have done so far

(2:05:36) Micah: are as far as.

(2:05:37) Micah: Like focusing on the farming and the that that you know like it there’s not a ton of like one world was had these mechanics of like hopping from location to location right and you’re jumping and winds of Anthos did that too where it was like you’re constantly changing your location where that is not really ever been a big thing in farm sims and it was a neat thing for them to try to do.

(2:06:05) Micah: but ultimately didn’t feel

(2:06:08) Micah: And I think that this is their best attempt at that classic Farm Sim where you have your home base, you have your farm, you’re working on your farm, and building up your base, and you’re communicating with the villagers and you’re growing friendships and so on

(2:06:28) Micah: So it’s just the classic Farm Sim, right? And this is the best that they’ve done with that so far, I think, and I would just

(2:06:37) Micah: have loved to be able to experience it in a better way, like, from the start

(2:06:42) Al: Yeah, I

(2:06:42) Micah: I think if I had just been able to boot it up on my Switch, this would be a completely different conversation

(2:06:51) Micah: I mean, I would still notice all of the other things that we’ve noticed, but, you know, but, I don’t know, weird, weird Natsume to say

(2:06:59) Al: I don’t really know what to say anymore, right? I think I’ve got other things listed. I didn’t

(2:07:11) Al: play the fishing, the tree chopping in the mining. You have to tap every single time.

(2:07:19) Al: Why can’t I just hold it, at the very least, hold it and it will do that? There’s so much

(2:07:27) Al: in this game that’s like good and there’s so much

(2:07:29) Al: that’s bad and it’s… I don’t know. Yeah.

(2:07:32) Micah: There’s also a lot of time-based limitations early on too like things take up so much of your stamina are not time-based stamina based

(2:07:40) Micah: Things are early I like limitations early on like things take up so much of your stamina like, you know

(2:07:47) Micah: I mean like chopping down one tree takes like an entire heart and

(2:07:51) Al: Well, yeah, so that’s actually the first thing I was thinking about. So you were talking

(2:07:52) Micah: then chopping down the trunk of the tree takes like another half a heart or whatever like

(2:08:01) Al: about how, like, the, the, oh, they called it, I need to double check what the name of

(2:08:09) Al: this was, repeated actions. That’s what they call the thing where you like drag and swipe

(2:08:15) Al: and do lots of, do the same thing over and over again. Repeated actions. The thing about

(2:08:21) Al: repeated actions is, as you said, it doesn’t actually improve anything. You know, you’re

(2:08:27) Al: not like reducing the amount that you have to, you know, the amount of energy it takes,

(2:08:34) Al: et cetera. But I’m guessing that as you upgrade the tools, you get their standard thing there

(2:08:39) Al: where everything is slightly less. But this is where you’ve, you’ve essentially got the

(2:08:44) Al: same, you have to do two things to get the advantage here, right? So you have to upgrade

(2:08:48) Al: your tools to get less stamina.

(2:08:51) Al: And then you also have to, or you have to upgrade your hearts because you can get more hearts.

(2:08:56) Al: But then you also then have to upgrade this to give you the automated, the repeated actions as well.

(2:09:02) Micah: Right

(2:09:02) Al: And it feels like you should only have to do one of those things.

(2:09:05) Micah: Yes, I agree and one and the other one is is just really pointless and not needed

(2:09:12) Micah: It doesn’t really add much of a benefit, but yeah, I agree

(2:09:17) Micah: It’s just create it’s like creating limitations for the sake of creating limitations so that you can implement

(2:09:21) Al: Yep.

(2:09:23) Micah: What seems it lay the illusion of more later right which doesn’t feel very genuine as far as?

(2:09:26) Al: Yep, yep.

(2:09:31) Micah: You know, like per-

(2:09:32) Micah: progression through the game goes

(2:09:36) Al: It feels very mobile game though. I’ll give them I’ll give them that

(2:09:38) Micah: It does yeah, it does and like

(2:09:41) Al: It may not have in app purchases, but it feels like a mobile game

(2:09:45) Micah: And not an $18 mobile game that’s like the I don’t know I don’t know

(2:09:52) Micah: the the thought of paying like

(2:09:55) Micah: $18 for a console game or a PC game, right is like, okay, that’s pretty cheap

(2:10:02) Micah: a lot of paying $18 for something that I can only play on my phone

(2:10:06) Micah: is a

(2:10:07) Al: …which would probably be an easier ask if you could cross-save and play it on your iPad

(2:10:08) Micah: very hard I ask

(2:10:15) Al: as well, and with a controller. It’s tiny things that make it feel much better.

(2:10:22) Micah: Yeah.

(2:10:22) Al: Because I don’t think $18 is ridiculous. Now, I do think that we’ve been conditioned to

(2:10:25) Micah: No, I don’t either.

(2:10:26) Al: think that it’s ridiculous for mobile games, because mobile games aren’t valued, right?

(2:10:31) Micah: Oh, yeah, for sure. And that’s kind of the, what I would say, like, you know, that’s the, that’s what how the platform has evolved in that, you know, you want to, you expect to play things and be able to play things in portrait mode with one hand, or you expect that it’s free, and then you pay for something in the game, which is not a great experience either, right?

(2:10:51) Micah: like but

(2:10:52) Micah: It’s kind of the expected experience and I have because that has been the experience for so long

(2:10:58) Micah: I think me and many other people have

(2:11:02) Micah: found the way to navigate that in being that you play the free portion of it and you don’t spend money on the

(2:11:10) Micah: The rest of it like and you just kind of expect that that’s that’s what’s gonna happen, right? Like

(2:11:16) Micah: Or if you do want if you’d like it enough and you want to support it

(2:11:20) Micah: you know, then you do pay.

(2:11:22) Micah: You know, you buy a pack of something or whatever it is you

(2:11:25) Micah: supported by the thing to disable ads or whatever it is.

(2:11:31) Micah: And you kind of tailor the experience yourself where

(2:11:36) Micah: there’s no option for that, you know, in this. So I don’t know.

(2:11:41) Micah: I don’t I don’t know how I feel about it. Like I, I, I

(2:11:41) Al: I don’t know

(2:11:46) Micah: understand that we’ve been conditioned to expect certain

(2:11:50) Micah: things but like because that expectation-

(2:11:52) Micah: is set now and we’ve adapted to it in a way that makes sense. Having to then go back to

(2:11:59) Micah: you know the the old ways of like paying

(2:12:04) Micah: what feels like an exorbitant amount for a- a mobile game is kind of hard to swallow

(2:12:09) Micah: I guess and I think that sentiment is

(2:12:14) Micah: echoed a lot in the

(2:12:16) Micah: replies to a lot of the stuff that they post to which I think for anything people are gonna say that’s too expensive

(2:12:22) Micah: but you see it much more for this than you see it on a lot of other things you know especially for an

(2:12:29) Micah: eighteen dollar price tag rather than like uh you know I don’t know a thirty dollar price tag or

(2:12:33) Micah: something like that. Also there are a lot of games a lot of mobile games that are incredibly good like

(2:12:41) Micah: I’ve come to expect now too that like there are a lot of really great mobile game experiences

(2:12:49) Micah: But what I’m paying for, typically, for…

(2:12:52) Micah: Or those are things like Apple Arcade, or whatever the Android equivalent is.

(2:12:58) Micah: Like Fantasian, incredible JRPG that was on mobile.

(2:13:03) Micah: It’s finally coming to consoles now, but just a masterpiece in visuals, because it’s made

(2:13:11) Micah: by some of the greatest JRPG developers of all time.

(2:13:16) Micah: And it’s a great game, it came out on Apple Arcade, it was a great experience.

(2:13:22) Micah: You play it with controllers, you know, all this stuff.

(2:13:25) Micah: The Hello Kitty Island Adventure, actually a good game, and a mobile game, also coming

(2:13:28) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah, also coming to switch

(2:13:32) Micah: to Switch.

(2:13:33) Micah: There’s the Tamagotchi game, which is very similar to Hello Kitty Island Adventure, beautiful

(2:13:40) Micah: game, really well done.

(2:13:42) Micah: So there are games like this where it’s like, I could expect it to be worth the money, or

(2:13:52) Micah: worth the value if it’s in that same setting, you know.

(2:13:55) Micah: But when it’s not a part of these programs that have been kind of like the standard for

(2:14:03) Micah: what to expect good games to be in on mobile, and it’s not part of that program, and it’s

(2:14:12) Micah: also $18, and you don’t find out until later, like there’s no controller support, there’s

(2:14:16) Micah: no cloud save, like all of these things added up, it just really takes away from that experience.

(2:14:22) Micah: It really makes it not worth the money.

(2:14:25) Micah: It feels very antiquated, it feels like it’s kind of behind on the times in the way that

(2:14:32) Micah: they’re handling the, at least the mobile release of this.

(2:14:37) Micah: And I swear there’s going to be a console, I promise, I don’t know, maybe the list of

(2:14:40) Micah: this will be like, abort it, shut it down.

(2:14:44) Micah: Not one guy said it was going to be a console, and we can’t let them win.

(2:14:47) Al: Yeah.

(2:14:48) Micah: No, I don’t, I don’t, you know, I- my expectation is that they’re gonna-

(2:14:53) Micah: Once they have enough time to, like, finish it and polish it, and add controller support and multi-language and all this stuff, and, and, you know, uh, uh, develop it, like, add the- the necessary development time for the different platforms and release it on multiple platforms and stuff, I think it may see a release on it.

(2:15:18) Al: Look, I mean, I won’t be angry with that if they port all those changes to the mobile

(2:15:24) Al: release as well. Like, give us the controller support and all these things. Like, fine.

(2:15:24) Micah: Right.

(2:15:30) Al: If you do a console release as well, fine, but give us all the stuff on mobile as well.

(2:15:34) Al: Right? Like, that won’t, I won’t be angry if they don’t do that.

(2:15:38) Micah: uh yeah I yes I i will say that with the like caveat that I will also be angry

(2:15:48) Micah: that it just didn’t release it they didn’t just wait to release it on console first or at least

(2:15:52) Al: That’s what, yeah, two different things.

(2:15:52) Micah: be like like you know coming to mobile on this date and then coming to other platforms later

(2:15:54) Al: Two different complaints.

(2:15:59) Micah: you know like because then I can make the decision to not spend the eighteen dollars on a uh eighteen usd on

(2:16:00) Al: Yeah.

(2:16:08) Micah: uh you know an app that’s tied specifically to my phone or my ipad and nothing else

(2:16:15) Micah: uh and just wait for a version that I can play uh comfortably I don’t know

(2:16:16) Al: Yeah, yeah.

(2:16:24) Micah: so we’ll see we’ll see what happens yeah of course

(2:16:24) Al: All right, well, thank you for joining me to talk about… I’m not… I’ve got another bullet point,

(2:16:31) Al: which is character slash story, and I’m not… No, we’re not. OK, go for it.

(2:16:35) Micah: I got one thing to say about that…

(2:16:38) Micah: People are very mean, or very early in the game [LAUGH]

(2:16:42) Al: Yeah, yeah. Am I trying to, you know, romantically follow the Mean Girl? Yeah.

(2:16:43) Micah: NPCs are not nice to you [LAUGH]

(2:16:54) Al: Yes, I am. Because that’s just what I do.

(2:16:54) Micah: I, well, were one and the same, you know, but sometimes, you know, when I walk up to

(2:16:59) Al: That is what I did my first RG run, and that’s what I’m going to do this one as well.

(2:17:03) Micah: her and she just says, stop talking, get away from me, I’m like, okay, I’m sorry.

(2:17:11) Al: Yeah, I think…

(2:17:11) Micah: She at one point said, do what do you even do on your farm?

(2:17:14) Micah: And I was like, oh, okay, I’m sorry.

(2:17:17) Al: There’s a bit where you talk to her, and she’s like, “Why do you have time to talk to people?”

(2:17:23) Al: It’s like you should be working.

(2:17:24) Al: And I’m like, what? You have this whole conversation trying to explain to her

(2:17:28) Al: about how actually, no, it’s okay to not spend your entire life working.

(2:17:33) Al: It’s such a bizarre… I feel like it’s maybe they’re leaning a bit

(2:17:36) Al: too hard on the mean girl aspect of things. I don’t know a bit.

(2:17:38) Micah: Yeah, yeah, there’s also something weird about like when she’s like go away don’t talk to me

(2:17:44) Micah: I’m like, I should I should respect that but like the game requires me to build up a friendship with you

(2:17:47) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah fair

(2:17:55) Micah: But everybody was just so like not everybody obviously

(2:17:59) Micah: But like the old couple was very the old man specifically very mean also, you know start who did the same thing

(2:18:06) Micah: The guy by the K very mean

(2:18:08) Micah: The the the blonde girl very mean they’re just you know

(2:18:10) Al: Very mean, why is he so mean?

(2:18:14) Micah: They’re real man, and I get that it’s like you got to turn them around to you know

(2:18:20) Micah: Sell them on yourself, but it really makes me not want to talk to them

(2:18:26) Al: I’m going to try that again, thank you for joining me to talk about yet another Harvest

(2:18:27) Micah: But that’s all that’s all I got for characters. I don’t really have anything on obviously it

(2:18:32) Micah: Didn’t get crazy far in the game, but you know

(2:18:42) Al: Moon game.

(2:18:43) Micah: Hey, anytime.

(2:18:44) Al: Maybe the next one will be it, I don’t know, we’ll see.

(2:18:48) Micah: Hopeful, they keep making them.

(2:18:50) Micah: I mean, they gotta be selling cuz they keep making them.

(2:18:54) Micah: I don’t know if it’s a front for something or what, but they keep making them.

(2:18:57) Al: Yeah, we will keep talking about it.

(2:18:59) Micah: They’re still in business.

(2:19:00) Micah: So as long as they keep making them, I’ll keep trying.

(2:19:04) Micah: And we’ll keep talking about it.

(2:19:08) Al: You’re not wrong there.

(2:19:10) Al: Uh, where can people find you on the internet, Micah?

(2:19:13) Micah: - You can find me on pretty much anywhere

(2:19:17) Micah: at Micah the Brave.

(2:19:20) Micah: You can, mostly spending my time on Instagram right now,

(2:19:24) Micah: I think.

(2:19:27) Micah: Not a huge fan of threads, but blue sky is kinda neat.

(2:19:31) Micah: But there’s not a lot of people there.

(2:19:33) Micah: So if you’re on blue sky, come find me there, I guess.

(2:19:35) Micah: I’m still on Twitter, but I don’t wanna be.

(2:19:37) Micah: Um…

(2:19:38) Al: But yeah, I, I very, I like, I basically just use it to follow all the farming games that

(2:19:39) Micah: Which I think is everybody’s sentiment at this point.

(2:19:47) Al: refuse to be anywhere else. And so I pop onto it and like every so often there’s just, oh,

(2:19:48) Micah: Yeah

(2:19:53) Al: here’s a micro tweet.

(2:19:55) Micah: Yeah, it’s like a you know

(2:19:57) Micah: Necessary evil at this point for some things like some of the stuff I do for work

(2:20:03) Micah: I kind of have to like keep up with on there

(2:20:05) Micah: But yeah

(2:20:06) Micah: I don’t if I if I didn’t if I don’t need to be then I won’t be and that time may be coming soon. So

(2:20:13) Micah: Instagram blue sky

(2:20:15) Micah: threads, I guess sometimes

(2:20:18) Micah: I also have a YouTube channel that doesn’t have anything on it yet and

(2:20:23) Micah: I have a twitch channel that has not been touched in a long time, but maybe again soon

(2:20:29) Micah: But anywhere you go you can find me at Mike of the brave

(2:20:38) Al: You can find me on mastodon.scot and for some reasons still on Twitter at thescotbot. You

(2:20:46) Al: can find the podcast on Tumblr and also on Twitter at THSPod. You can send us feedback

(2:20:52) Al: from our website harvestseason.club and also find links to everything to do with the podcast,

(2:20:56) Al: including a link to our Patreon, patreon.com/THSPod where we have Slack and we also have a lot

(2:21:06) Al: of bonus podcasts.

(2:21:08) Al: I haven’t done any recently, the last month or so, but we will be having lots very soon.

(2:21:14) Al: So keep updated there.

(2:21:16) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything.

(2:21:18) Al: Thank you Mike again for joining me.

(2:21:20) Micah: for having me. Always a pleasure. Have a good harvest. Have a good cozy. Have a good cottage.

(2:21:22) Al: Thank you listeners for listening, and until next time, have a good harvest.

(2:21:25) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our

(2:21:26) Al: Woo! (laughs)

(2:21:36) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.

(2:21:40) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave and our music is done by Nick Burgess.

(2:21:44) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed

(2:21:50) Theme Tune: in this episode.

(2:22:00) Al: I once heard that someone who podcasts who says that whenever there’s something that

(2:22:05) Al: he wants to edit out of the podcast, he’ll just like go into the record. And it’s like,

(2:22:10) Micah: Laughter Yeah Laughter That’s pretty funny. Laughter

(2:22:12) Al: okay, I get what you’re doing, right? Because that’s very visible in this. But like, I feel

(2:22:17) Al: sorry for your co-host. It’s like, you’ll just be talking about something and you’ll

(2:22:21) Al: like say something and you’ll fumble over your words and you’ll just go, “Ah!” and then

(2:22:25) Al: keep talking. Sounds terrifying.

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