Ushi No Tane | https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=blogs&p=updates https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss PHP-Update XSeed Game Anniversary Sale, Free Farmagia Monster Skins, and a HM GBC3 Comic https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1731104303 Happy Farm'n Friday! Last Sunday was the dreaded daylight savings reset in Canada and the US. While all the clocks are now back one hour compared to the previous week, my doofy brain has yet to adjust to the new schedule. All this week, it has woken my body up between 6:00 am and 6:30 am, when previously it was 7:00 am to 7:30 am. I've been going to bed at the normal clock time, but my brain is still synced to something external. It could be the birds outside or the morning antics of the interns that are triggering my internal alarm clock. Neither group knows how to read a clock.
Though maybe it is because I'm hyped for the Christmas light season. Last weekend, the Halloween decor came down, and some Christmas lights went up. The current light count is only 350, but that'll change soon because the annual two weeks of project time begins today! No office work until the week of Thanksgiving, with the display turning on every evening starting on the 29th.

Free Farmagia Skins
Players of anime trope-heavy monster farming and battling game Farmagia will be receiving weekly free DLC during November. Four reskins for existing battle buddies will be released every Thursday:

November 7 (yesterday): Baby Tomato skin for the Afanc battle buddy
November 14: Great Sphinx skin for the Griffie battle buddy
November 21: Honey Flan skin for the Kissie battle buddy
November 28: Melty skin for the Buncle battle buddy

Seeds to grow these battle buddies first must be unlocked from the game's Research Notes. The skin can then be activated from the Option > Change Skin menu. I'm in Chapter 2, and I still can't grow the above-mentioned monsters yet because the items needed to unlock those skill panels aren't available until later in the story. So, "yay" for free skins, but "boo" for not being able to utilize them.

XSeed 20th Anniversary
Founded in 2004, XSeed Games is celebrating its 20th anniversary by giving luscious discounts on physical games through its online store in North America. These discounts are available until November 19 at 10:00 am Pacific Time:

Rune Factory 3 Special - 50% off Standard Edition, 30% off Golden Edition
Rune Factory 5 - 50% Standard Edition, 30% off Earthmate Edition
SoS: A Wonderful Life - 50% off Standard, 50% off Premium Edition (with mini-plushie goat)
SoS: Friends of Mineral Town - 50% off only PS4 and Switch Editions (Sorry Xbox...)
SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town - 50% off Standard Edition (Premium Edition is Out of Stock)

For fellow farmers looking for digital game discounts, XSeed/Marvelous has you covered there, too! The digital discounts on PlayStation games expire on November 22, while the discounts on Switch and Steam games end on November 19. The below discounts are not available on the Microsft XBox or Game Pass platforms.

Rune Factory 3 Special (Switch) - 60% off (NA) or 70% off (EU/AU)
Rune Factory 3 Special (Steam) - 60% off (all regions)
Rune Factory 4 Special (PS4/Switch) - 70% off (NA) or 80% off (EU/AU)
Rune Factory 4 Special (Steam) - 70% off (all regions)
Rune Factory 5 (Switch) - 60% off (NA) or 75% off (EU/AU)
Rune Factory 5 (Steam) - 60% off (all regions)
SoS: A Wonderful Life (PS5/Switch/Steam) - 50% off (all regions)
SoS: Friends of Mineral Town (PS4) - 80% off (EU/AU only)
SoS: Friends of Mineral Town (Switch) - 75% off (NA) or 80% off (EU/AU)
SoS: Friends of Mineral Town (Steam) - 75% off (all regions)
SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town (PS4) - 70% off (EU/AU only)
SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town (Switch) - 65% off (NA) or 70% off (EU/AU)
SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town (Steam) - 65% off (all regions)

Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin and Silent Hope are also discounted on various platforms.
Speaking of other farming games, the latest Doraemon: SoS game from Bandai Namco, Friends of the Great Kingdom Special Edition for PlayStation 5, is also 70% off until November 22 in all regions. The standard version of the game, without the included Season Pass, is not on sale. The game is not on sale on Steam or Switch.

HM3 GBC Comic
I haven't done one of these in a while, so let's check out the latest capers of Pete and Sara from the Shogakukan Harvest Moon Gameboy 3 guidebook, illustrated by Igusa Matsuyama!

Igusa recently befriended a new doggie friend, a chihuahua named Guriko. Maybe we'll soon see images of this puppy appear in BokuMono character illustrations like Igusa's last doggie-buddy Konbu, such as on the Wonder-Fur Life Outfit in SoS: AWL.


Until next time!

-Cher
(I should also clean the gutters while I'm on the roof...)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1731104303 Fri, 08 Nov 2024 22:18:23 +0000
More Arcade Center Plushies in Japan, and a Breakdown of Marv's Newest Farming Game, Farmagia https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1730508525 Happy Farm'n Friday! It is November 1. Mariah has defrosted. It is officially the Christmas season here at FOGU HQ, though someone forgot to tell the Harvest Goddess. It will rain all weekend, and I'm not permitted to go onto the roof to install lights while it's wet. Technically, I can, but Mr.Fogu said he wouldn't help me if I fell off the roof after I ignored his warning. Bah, fine. No roof.
It also means no tree wrap or icicle light installation since the ground will be wet to safely use the ladder. Double bah humbug!
On the bright side, I still have a covered front porch to decorate. There are the columns, the banister, the eves, and so on. Plus, all the garland to fluff up and more decorative orbs to complete - I finished 9 out of 30 so far.
A few trick-or-treaters' adults mentioned last night how much they enjoyed the Christmas lights and looked forward to this year's display. Gotta make it super cool!

November Plushies

FANS Club will offer a new batch of BIG-style Bokujou Monogatari plushies at game centers in Japan this month. These three plushies are manufactured using fuzzy material. The two cows are simply larger versions of the original fuzzy-cow group released this past July (19 cm versus 29 cm), but the chicken design is new. The prior chicken plushie was released back in 2021 and was designed after the curly-tailed poultry in Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Farmagia Released

The monster farming game from Marvelous, Farmagia, released today on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. The game costs about $50 and is promoted as having characters designed by Hiro Mashima, creator of the Fairy Tail manga.
I haven't covered much Farmagia on the Farm'n Fridays since its initial announcement last summer, primarily because there's something odd about it. Maybe it's because the protagonist is often portrayed with a closed fist as though he wants to punch someone in the face or that the girls in the promotional materials essentially never wear pants. But, it is a farming game, so to be fair, I gotta try it out before completely dismissing the game. Maybe I'll end up enjoying it?
Besides, there's a big "ANIME COMING SOON" image on the official EN Farmagia website, so more farming in other forms of media is always good.
The game contains voiceovers in either English or Japanese, with text support in English, French, German, and Spanish on Steam, Switch, and PS5. Language support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean is exclusive to the Steam version. The Steam version requires 9.91 G, the PS5 version requires 9.16 G, while the Switch version is much smaller at 4.4 G. The Steam version has keyboard and controller support. The game offers Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty levels for those who want to control the gameplay challenge.
The story takes place in the underworld called Felicidad, where human-like creatures live on five islands ruled by powerful Farmagia generals, with a Magus ruling over them. Alas, the Magus dude died, resulting in a power shift, as one of the island generals took over as ruler, and not in a good way. The general of the island of Avrion doesn't like the new Magus' plan to build his vision of a perfect utopia, with those deemed lower-class being reduced to slavery. She rises up and starts a rebellion. Now, there's a war between two factions; the game's protagonist, Ten, is aligned with the rebellion faction. This is where the game's story begins; in the middle of this existing war between Magus Glaza and General Neras.

So far, the game doesn't have a walkable overworld. You navigate from place to place by selecting the location from a map. The farm, ranch, and mazes have some directional control, but the shops and castle do not. Instead, interacting is via menus. Striking up a conversation by selecting the Talk menu and then selecting the name of the person you want to chat with. You then read a bit of dialog while a generally static image of the individual appears next to the dialog box, like in an old-style Bokujou Monogatari game. The individual's mouth moves and their eyes blink, but you won't see them using their legs, hands, or arms. Poor Charlot is permanently stuck in her one-arm-in-the-air pose.

You'll start the game with a pack of 20 dogs (Fangs). The battle monsters have one of four battle types (e.g., short-range attacks, long-range attacks, support, or formation), so it's good to obtain a variety of little buddies to help during story battles or maze exploration. During the battle, buddy monster species are each associated with a four-slot grid in the battle screen's lower-right corner depending on the battle buddy's battle type - there's one short-range battle buddy group, one long-range battle buddy group, etc. You then order the monsters into battle, similar to Pikmin or Little King's Story (for those who remember that Marvelous game), by pressing the appropriate button on the controller or keyboard associated with that battle group. The little battle buddies of the same type can Unite into a larger form after an enemy takes enough damage. If enough Fusion energy is earned, then all the little buddies of all types can super-merge briefly into a high-damage monster.

The farm is where you grow more monster buddies. Farming expends Farmagia Points (FP); tilling takes 2 points, watering takes 1 point, and so on. You can't do any farming actions once you're out of FP. Monster seeds can occupy a single square of tilled soil or require more space, such as a 2x2 square. After some time, the monster buddy seeds will mature. Return to the farm space via the world menu to harvest (which takes no FP) and add the monster buddies to your monster ranch inventory. Once you have the maximum number of that buddy in your ranch inventory, extra harvests are automatically sold for Magica (i.e., money).
Applying fertilizer to the growing monster plants can influence the produced crop. Some fertilizers shorten the growth period of a research buddy plant, others increase the number of battle buddies harvested, and so on. Fertilizer is acquired at the Magic Shop by exchanging materials and Magica.
Recharging FP is done by exploring mazes (i.e., dungeons). The mazes contain area levels to be cleared of bad monsters, with a boss monster at the end. These mazes are also where you can receive benefits by acquiring temporary fairy cards that are active during the current maze. You can also collect magic shop materials and acquire more monster seeds to grow on the farm space. Materials from mazes can also be exchanged for training and strengthening battle monsters on the monster ranch. Mazes are accessible for a period noted before entering the maze depending on the time of day, such as 25 minutes for evening mazes or 40 minutes for daytime mazes. Keep this in mind when picking a dungeon to explore.
If Ten gets on your nerves, you can change party leaders before exploring a maze. Each character has a leader skill (when they're in charge) and a party skill (when they aren't).

Some monsters are for battle, while others are for research. Harvesting research buddies earns Research Points (RP) that are used to unlock abilities. Some of the research skills are expanding the range of the crop watering skill, increasing max FP, unlocking new varieties of monster seeds dropped by defeated enemies, expanding farm space and ranch inventory, and bag inventory upgrades. Basically, instead of a blacksmith, carpenter, etc., you collect research buddies to upgrade your equipment and abilities.
Research monsters can be swapped in for the battle monster's Unite mode, where they all combine to form a more powerful monster. You'll want to grow battle and research monsters as they benefit each other.
Besides mazes and farming, there is the Shuffling Sheep Tavern with quests from the townsfolk. The quest can send you into mazes, though the more challenging ones have some sort of restriction, such as using a specific battle buddy. You'll also find farm-related quests and item fetch quests at the tavern. Complete the tasks and return to the Shuffling Sheep to receive the rewards. Pretty simple.

After playing for a few hours, the gameplay cycle seems to revolve around getting a bit of story, heading to a maze, beating the boss, and then returning for some more story. In between, there is farming and monster care squeezed in there, but you always have to go to a maze to gain FP energy to care for the growing monster crops.
It's beginning to grow on me. I don't dislike it as much as I thought I would. Yes, the mid-2000s character designs are a bit awkward (seriously, the girls' skirts look terrible...), but I like the monster crops, the massive skill board to unlock, and the Pikmin-like battles. The music is nice, too. There are a LOT of monsters to collect for those of us who like to catch 'em all. And if I wanted to go through the story faster, I could simply change the difficulty level in the game's options.
So I'll probably play Farmagia some more; perhaps give it a score of 7.5 out of 10 Turnips. Lookie-Loo is beginning to grow on me.


Until next time!

-Cher
(One week of office work left before the annual two weeks of Christmas decorating!)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1730508525 Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:48:45 +0000
Details About the Great Outdoors DLC For HM: The Winds of Anthos https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1729900476 Happy Farm'n Friday! With one week to go before this year's Christmas Light extravaganza starts, I've been repurposing new strings on decorative wire orbs to place along the edge of the front yard. I can definitely say that nobody has lights like these! What I didn't calculate is how long it takes to set up each new light orb. Heh, but it will be worth it once all 30 are done!
This weekend is predicted to be rainy. Hopefully, next weekend will be sunny, so I can install the new roofline lights. Those are the first strings that go up because the weather becomes wetter as the weeks pass.
Will I surpass 2021's 30,100 bulb count this year? Possibly, since that year, I had put up strings of lights all over the front yard like a ground cover. It didn't look as cool as I had envisioned; won't be doing that again.

Echoes Update
The fall update for colonial farming game Echoes of the Plum Grove was released on Wednesday. This new content brings management options for the player's inventory and any storage boxes (including the cellar). Just select an option to magically organize the inventory.
You can now give sick villagers and family members medicine to heal their disease. Previously, doing so would just act as a normal gift. Luckily, the members of Clan Fogu tend to heal on their own, though it's always alarming when one of them becomes unwell. There should also be fewer family congregations next to the two-story house staircase. Players can now own up to 5 pets on their farm.
Plum Grove is currently 30% off until October 30.
Echoes of the Plum Grove | Steam Store

Evershine Funded
The crowdfunding campaign for My Time at Evershine concluded this week, reaching a total of $2.8 million in 30 days. There is a lot of public support for this farming/crafting game, though this time, it is a settlement development game, too. With this much funding, the game will only have an alpha release (for Kickstarter backers who pledged at that level) and a final release; there will be no year-long early access period, which they've noted takes management time and resources that could be better used towards other tasks.
Pathea is still accepting late pledges if you want to support the game and haven't pledged any funds yet. Simply visit the Kickstarter campaign page and click the Back This Project button. The late campaign will be open until November 8.

Anthos DLC 5
The Great Outdoors download content for Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos released this week, adding more collectible content and a few QOL improvements.

The first addition is the Animal Tag Along Pet Permit, mailed to you by Judy's dad, Mathis. This new function lets players select a pet to tag along with them while they walk around Anthos; the pet won't enter buildings or go into the mines. The pet can also follow while using a mount.
One benefit for a tag-along pet is an expanded rucksack. Bringing a small pet unlocks an extra 10-slot bag in the game's inventory screen; larger pets have more extra space (e.g., the snow leopard has 20 extra bag slots). Transferring items is done by selecting the item in your inventory and pressing the R Shoulder button to activate the pet inventory. You can then move items to the extra bag. This is handy when hunting for Harvest Wisps during the Harvest Moon. You'll need a lot of bag space during this nighttime event to hold the bonus crop and flower seeds, so having an extra 10 slots helps!
Alas, the pet won't pick up "your bag is full" items left on the ground. The pet inventory isn't automatic, so you'll have to manually move items to the pet's inventory to make room for items left on the ground because of a full inventory message.
The tag-along pets also have abilities, which you can locate from the Animal Notebook, the Doc Pad Animal Encyclopedia, or the animal merchant inventory menu. For example, domestic dogs and bears are good at hunting down treasures, wild dogs and rabbits will restore a little stamina, cats and domestic birds restore bonus stamina while using camping gear, and so on. Sometimes, a pet will locate items or point you toward rare Harvest Wisps (and prevent the wisp from fleeing). Just listen for the chime indicating something good has happened.

The second is the new camping set. This new function comes from Dave, the lost camper. Camping allows players to sleep outside while exploring the world instead of having to go home to restore stamina and prevent exhaustion status. Simply press Left on the controller's directional pad to set up camp for the night. Cooking campfire meals, such as Corn on the Cob and Skewered Marshmallows, will restore stamina hearts. Some meals restore only a few hearts, but you can cook multiple meals when you have enough ingredients in the rucksack; the campfire cannot access ingredients stored in the farmhouse refrigerator.
There are 30 campfire recipes to collect, which are tracked in the Doc Pad Encyclopedia.
The campfire scene is cute, too. Any animals you have with you, such as a mount or a tag-along pet, will appear in the scene. Your family does not appear, though. They're stuck at home while you're out gallivanting around the world.
Dave sells more recipes and seasonings too. Simply track him down by looking for his icon on the Doc Pad world map.

The third addition is the treasure-hunting mechanism. Elena the researcher ask for help with retrieving mysterious treasures found around Anthos. She'll install a treasure-hunting mode on the Doc Pad, adding a little pick-axe icon above the on-screen mini-map. When this icon flashes blue, there's a treasure to be found nearby! Yaaarr! Simply press Right on the directional pad to activate the dowsing option. The area where the treasure is hidden appears within a smaller circle in the treasure-hunting area. If the pick-axe icon turns grey, you've gone too far from the hiding spot.
When you have a tag-along pet, and depending on the affection level of the pet, your little buddy might locate the treasure spot for you. The greater your friendship, the more likely this will happen. Once, I was hitting the ground to locate the treasure, and while I might have been getting closer, my alpaca buddy did a "Hold my beer" moment and beelined right to the spot where the treasure was buried. Au, thanks, little dude!
There are 52 treasures to collect. While hunting, you can find basic items, such as Bronze Ore and seed bags, common treasures, and rare treasures. Elena will send you on treasure-hunting quests to locate the rare treasures. When found, these are stored in the important items section of the rucksack and cannot be sold. You may find some special treasures from older Natsume games while helping Elena.
There are DLC achievements for going on all of Elena's treasure hunts, upgrading the camping tent to its maximum level, and having a pet tag along on your adventure. So there's plenty to do for completionist players.
One thing I noticed changed recently is that the sasquatch mounts no longer have a skill listed on their profile description. Previously, these DLC pets had the skill to make seasonal crops healthier. Now, their skill description reads "????", which makes sense since the skill didn't appear to influence crop health, as far as I could tell. Nevermind, the sasquatch skills are back to normal after a little bit and no longer display as "???". Guess it just needed some time or something...


Until next time!

-Cher
(The orchid still lives!)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1729900476 Fri, 25 Oct 2024 23:54:36 +0000
Steam NEXT Fest, Farm'n Crowdfunding Updates, and the Tales of Seikyu Beta https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1729290900 Happy Farm'n Friday! I spent last week trying to meet up with Clarabelle the cow during my visit to Disneyland. While my niece reported she saw the cow on Monday, I didn't learn until the end of the week that she was spotted in a cavalcade. Since Disney does fireworks on the weekends and has no grand mid-day parades at the moment, they send out a few cars and costumed folks to walk through the park as a substitute. I had caught only the tail-end of the small caravan a few times (Curella de Ville was in the back seat of the last car) and didn't realize that's where Clarabelle was hiding the whole time.
I missed Clarabelle during the Oogie Boogie Halloween party too! The kids wanted to wait for the late-night parade, which was almost an hour overdue, cutting our party (and trick-or-treating) time short. She's a crafty cow to catch, that's for sure. However, dressing up in full Christmas attire and wishing the villains we did meet a "Merry Christmas" resulted in humorous responses. Plus we did manage to collect enough candy that we're still going through it a week later. Would have liked to keep getting candy, but everything was cut off at exactly 11:00 pm. Need more candy!
Mr.Fogu's sister already wants to go back. lol. I did manage to participate in some pin trading and collected smashed pennies, but I missed out on eating my way through the parks because of how hot it was outside. Opted to drink more water than chow down on churros and other tasty treats. Next time we'll pick a cooler time of year to visit.

Kickstarter Updates
A few crowdfunding campaigns updated while I was out of town:
The campaign for Artisan Story successfully concluded, receiving over $20,000 from their initial request of about $7,000. Adventroupe Studio released a preliminary gameplay video of their farming and monster care game. Huzzah for the ability to skip field tutorials!
Artisan Story Official Gameplay Trailer | Youtube

The underwater farming game Forgotten Waters reached the campaign's first stretch goal and will be adding three more areas to explore in the game: the Glowing Caverns, the Abyssal Forest, and the Lost Citadel. Kickstarter backers will also receive a sea turtle mount for quickly traveling to areas outside of the underwater town. There are 4 days left in the campaign to help Ducktail Studios fund the development of additional features:
Forgotten Waters | Kickstarter

Pathea's campaign for My Time at Evershine is getting close to wrapping up, with 5 days remaining. So far, over 24,000 farmers and crafters have pledged $2.1 million to fund the development of the next entry in the My Time series. The next stretch goal is at $2.5 million when they'll have the funding for developing a clothing customization system that allows you to keep the visual style of your preferred outfits while using stats from other gear. That's pretty neat because in Sandrock, I like the look of the Adventurer Goggles, but the next head equipment upgrade is the ugly Kitty Helmet, a visually awkward full-cover hat with cat ears.
Pathea also noted that they only anticipated between a half-million and $1.5 million for their campaign, not over $2 million! Along with the clothing customization goal, reaching $2.5 million would allow the developer to significantly shorten or possibly omit an Early Access period. The company point-of-contact wrote:
Early Access is a double edged sword, while we’re able to get funding and feedback from players well before the end product, it significantly affects our development schedule in a negative way. Each big update we put out will cost us up to a month of packaging, QA, and optimization time, forcing some development to literally stop for a few weeks as key developers work on the release build. If we don’t do Early Access, we will have 4-5 months of extra development time, allowing for a smoother and more traditional development schedule (which we will share later this year). We’ll still get our essential feedback from the numerous KS beta players (who have Alpha access ). It means less crunch for the team and a more polished product for the players. That’s a win for everybody.
There are still a few days to financially support the development of the next game:
My Time at Evershine - The Next My Time Tale | Kickstarter


Speaking of My Time at Sandrock, the next free update for the game is now available on Steam/EGS and will be released on November 1 for PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox platforms. Version 1.4 adds a lot of smooching, a post-marriage quest associated with 10 of the marriage candidates, a follow-up story quest with Miguel that can trigger after the main story concludes, a Kickstarter backer-designed quest, a bus from the station that runs to Portia (I'm assuming player can't actually travel to Portia and it's just for show), more house floor options, and some home editing upgrades. Also on November 1 is the release of a paid Love Chronicles DLC, unlocking a romance quest for Fang, Logan, Mi-an, and Nia, along with more voiceover and additional interactive content for those four characters.
Sandrock is discounted 30% on Steam/EGS until October 30:
My Time at Sandrock | Steam StoreMy Time at Sandrock | Epic Game Store

Steam Next Fest
The latest celebration of upcoming games, including plenty of farming games, is on Steam until October 21 (next Monday). Several in-development games have free demos available, showcasing interesting mixes of farming gameplay styles:

Abyss: New Dawn (Free Demo, world exploration + farming)
Ana's Farm (Free Demo, idle farming)
Crop Chronicles (Free Demo, competitive farming, releases Nov 15)
Cryptid Farm (Free Demo, multiplayer horror, releases Oct 25)
Farming Isles (Free Demo, retro farming)
Lucky Farm (Free Demo, strategy farming)
Luma Island (Free Demo, multiplayer, releases Nov 20)
Ooze Keeper (Free demo, tactical slime farming)
Tiny Pasture (Free demo, idle ranching)
Wind Story (Free Demo, ranch population revitalization)


Seikyu Beta
The playtest for monster-transformation farming game Tales of Seikyu starts next Friday, October 25, and runs through November 4. If you want to participate, select the Request Access button from the game's Steam Store page. Developer ACE Entertainment will be selecting 1000 participants to test out the game for 10 days, with a feedback survey required upon the playtest's conclusion.
Tales of Seikyu | Steam Store


Until next time!

-Cher
(The repotted orchid only has one shriveled root left...)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1729290900 Fri, 18 Oct 2024 22:35:00 +0000
New BokuMono Plushies, Evershine Kickstarter Update, and Abyss Demo https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1728091676 Happy Farm'n Friday! The cold weather is creeping in as autumn comes around. The furnace kicked on this week, resulting in Intern Hondo taking up a spot on top of the air vent by his bird-watching glass patio door. It is the same spot Intern Reba would park herself on for months after summer. The two of them got along well enough (given Reba's grouchy demeanor), so it's no surprise that he picked up on that fantastic butt-warming spot from her.
On the other hand, Intern Captain is less savvy than his brother regarding where the household heat radiates. Instead, the cap'n has decided blankets are a better option, with his new preferred sleeping spot being a wadded-up blanket on the couch. He'll eventually end up here every night when the timer on the electric blanket expires. I don't recall the electric blankets when I was a kid automatically turning off for safety reasons, but the modern-day one we have only runs for about 4 hours. For sure Intern Captain would prefer the blanket to be on all day!
There will be no Farm'n Friday next week (October 14), as I will be intern-free visiting California, where churros are plentiful and the weather there is nice and warm.

Evershine Update
The crowdfunding campaign for My Time at Evershine has undoubtedly reached the $1.7 million mark, which allows us to vote for one new core romantic marriage candidate once the Kickstarter campaign is over. Backers will vote for one bachelor and one bachelorette, and a final vote will decide who becomes a candidate in the new game. The options to choose from are new characters in Evershine, predetermined by Patha, so Pen won't be part of this after all. Well drat.
Patha explained that the "core" group of characters are the marriage candidates, which will have the most content and will be introduced through the game's story. After the core group, there are 20+ named characters that unlock through the story, sidequests, and recruitment. These fellows have background stories but not as in-depth as the core characters. Lastly, the random non-player characters are intended to be workers reserved for settlement project work.
Along with the new candidate will be a post-Kickstarter vote on a settlement visitor from either Portia or Sandrock, and good 'ol Cooper is one of the potential visitors who could make an appearance in the new game. I guess that makes up for a lack of Pen.
My Time at Evershine | Kickstarter

More BM Plushies

FANSClub revealed this week that a set of four plushies will be available as prizes starting the second week in October at participating game centers. The black-and-white 18cm-long stuffed cow has been released in the past, but the other three are new releases. The coffee cow and the fruit cow are similar in design to the super-fuzzy plushies available during July, while the horse is a smaller version of the horse included in one of the BIG collections from a few years ago.
I'm expecting someday to see BIG and XL versions of those fuzzy cows because they are dang cute. I need to find somewhere to store all these limited-release plushies FANSClub and Marvelous are producing...

Abyss: New Dawn Demo Update
Multi-leveled world farming and crafting game Abyss: New Dawn has recently updated the free demo currently offered on its Steam store page.

Developer Aloya Studio has updated their game's user interface, added graphic options, changed the visual aspects of the weather and sky, and reworked the player hunger system. The next progress update will be for the upcoming early-access version of their game, which will include more world floors to descend and explore.
Abyss: New Dawn | Steam StoreAbyss: New Dawn | Official Website


Until next time!

-Cher
(The repotted orchid looks a little sadder. Its roots were in poor shape, hence why it was repotted. Might have been too late to save the plant...)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1728091676 Sat, 05 Oct 2024 01:27:56 +0000
More Farm'n Game Kickstarters, Anthos DLC Delay, New Farm'n Games Announced, and Seikyu Closed Playtest Applications https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1727481826 Happy Farm'n Friday! We only have a few more days to go until October and the beginning of the spooky season. Oooooh spooooooky. A few houses in the neighborhood have already decorated for Halloween with skeletons and creepy-looking things. One of the neighbors even had Halloween string lights around their tree. I have a few spider decorations that I place out on the porch rafters, along with some ceramic jack-o-lanterns and battery-powered lights to make the pumpkins' eyes light up. All the decor is needed to offset the bummer-ville loss of daylight that happens every day until the first day of Winter on December 21.

Evershine Kickstarter Progress
The crowdfunding campaign for the newest My Time game, My Time at Evershine launched this week, easily reaching $500,000 in just three hours. Pathea's farming/building game has since passed $1.2 million. Egads! Pathea also released a new trailer for the game that is a little different from the one last week:

Unlike Portia and Sandrock, Pathea also clarified that the settlement is not called Evershine. The name of the new outpost is simply "Settlement 2." The true reason why the game is called Evershine is being kept secret for now, though it stems from a legend of when the world's savior, Peach, was breaking through the clouds that kept the land forever in darkness.
Pathea notes that the new game's story will be about the same length as the story in Portia, which is shorter than Sandrock. I haven't finished it yet, 'cuz the person I wanted to marry turned out to not be marriageable...
Profiles for many of the individuals who will be part of the game's story were posted to the Kickstarter campaign, showcasing the variety of characters the developer has designed. Each person seems to have a troubled or traumatic past, including one who was a former soldier from the Duvos Empire. Well, if Stev can be in the game, I hope we can request Pen to return after we get past the $1.7 million hidden goal, triggering a backer vote to bring an old character from the past games into the new one. Backers have already unlocked the Sandrock protagonist and Logan story quests in Evershine, so it is just a matter of time before we get to vote on returning candidates.
My Time at Evershine | Kickstarter

Anthos DLC 5 Delay
Natsume announced today that the surprise 5th DLC for Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos, The Great Outdoors Pack, needs another week before publication and is now scheduled to be released on October 10 instead of October 3. This is fine since I have that week off from office work anyway, though I'll be busy participating in offline activities...

Forgotten Water - New Kickstarter
Along with last week's Evershine and Artisan Stories campaign launches comes a new farming game looking for public funding via Kickstarter. Indie developer Ducktail Studio's Forgotten Water is an underwater-themed farming story where you play as a young royal who was cursed by some bad sorcerors, transforming them into a fishy-like person.

Along with their equally cursed king-dad (stuck in an octopus body), the prince or princess must adapt to their new lifestyle among fellow underwater beings who live under the waves. The protagonist will grow aquatic crops and befriend jellyfish, which can then be bred to create baby jellies that have a mix of unique characteristics of the parent jellyfish. Players can adapt ancient technology for modern farming purposes, allowing for automated machine sowing and harvesting.
Other features of a classic farming sim are part of this game too. Romance the available human and merfolk candidates, scour the depths to search for exotic seaweed and minerals, explore the secrets hidden within ancient temples, and fight off those who want to dominate the underwater realm.
The crowdfunding campaign is about 75% of the way through its starting goal with 25 days left. As the game has been in process for a few years already, Ducktail Studios hopes to have an alpha build available after the campaign concludes. The game will initially be released on Steam/Epic, with potentially a Nintendo Switch version in the future.
Forgotten Waters - an Underwater Farming Sim | Kickstarter

New Farm'n - Dreamland Farm

RedDeer Studio's Dreamland Farm was digitally released today on Nintendo Switch, with a launch-day discount of 81% (only $1.99, £1.79, or 1.99€ !!) until October 17. In this pixel-based farming game, players escape city life to take over grandma's old farm. Raise crops, care for farm animals, and solve the problems of the local villagers to earn blueprints for building farm expansions. Solve the secret of Grandma's farm to learn why she loved the place so much.
Dreamland Farm | Nintendo

Tales of Seikyu Closed Beta Applications

Development studio ACE Entertainment is accepting applications from farmers interested in trying their upcoming shape-shifting farming game, Tales of Seikyu. The 1,000-player closed playtest for this game will occur via Steam between October 24 and November 4. ACE will also request playtesters to complete an online form to give feedback on how the game played, whether positive or negative experiences. To sign up for a chance to try out the game for 10 days, head over to the Steam store page and click the Request Access button. This fantasy farming game is scheduled to enter Steam early access in early 2025.
Tales of Seikyu | Steam Store

Oh, we're not done! More farm'n incoming!

Cattle Country Open Beta

Another farming game that will be in open beta soon is Cattle Country, a pixel country-western-themed farming game from studio Castle Pixel and publisher Playtonic Friends. Become a settler in the Wild West by tending to the land and raising cattle, romance up to 18 nearby townsfolk, partake in shootouts with bandits, and prospect for jewels in the nearby mine. Plus check out that knee-slapping soundtrack! Yeaaaa haaww!
The open beta for this game will begin October 25. You can learn more and wishlist on the game's Steam profile page:
Cattle Country | Steam Store

New Farm'n - Gaucho and the Grassland

From southern Brazil comes a new farming adventure game called Gaucho and the Grassland. Developed and published by indie studio Epopeia Games, this South American cowboy tale will have the protagonist Gaucho/Gaucha taking over their father's farm to rebuild the once-thriving ranch. Besides crops, livestock, fishing, villager helping, and farm-building customization, this game has a supernatural aspect based on the folklore of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
This Latin-inspired farming game has an estimated release of February 25 on Steam. A free demo will be available in November.
Gaucho and the Grassland | Steam Store

Fae Farm Platform Expansion
Phoenix Lab's fairy farming game with very giggly NPCs, Fae Farm, will be released on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, and Windows Store on October 22. The game will be available as a stand-alone offering or with the deluxe edition that includes the two DLC packs, Coasts of Croakia and Skies of Azoria. This game is currently available on Steam, Epic Game Store, and Nintendo Switch.


Until next time!

-Cher
(I repotted my orchid last weekend; so far, so good! It isn't dead yet!)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1727481826 Sat, 28 Sep 2024 00:03:46 +0000
New My Time Details, Artisan Story Kickstarter, Orange Season EA Ends, and New Luma Island Farm'n Game https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1726878293 Happy Farm'n Friday! The cover crop planted in the front-yard garden boxes has sprouted. Despite my efforts to hand-sow as evenly as possible, the seedlings are still glomped together where they landed. I thought I did a better job this time; apparently not! I do have a seed spreader, but its spread distance is much larger than the raised garden box. I don't want cover crop seedlings growing on the walking path. I wonder if a kitchen strainer or flour shifter is the best thing to use for small areas...
And I guess I should try streaming a game someday? I'll have to check with my local information technology guys (i.e., Mr.Fogu and Intern Captain) and see what they can set up.

Evershine Trailer

Pathea released a sneak-peak of their next entry in the My Time series called My Time at Evershine. Showing the new character models, the trailer introduces the player's role in the game as builder and governor of a new settlement near the edge of the Free Cities territory, close to the Duvos Empire.
The game's timeline takes place three years after the events of My Time at Sandrock. The Duvos Empire has claimed the Orzu Ruins over the objection from the Ethea Empire to the west; the quarrel over the ruins was hinted at in Sandrock. In response, the Alliance of Free Cities developed a plan for the Northern Eufala, establishing a new city-state by building six new outposts. One of these outposts is the game's location, Evershine.
In this new game, we'll build the town's facilities and decorative objects, such as fencing and wells. Since establishing a whole town is a lot of work for a builder, this time we can recruit (and customize, according to the press release) other characters as workers to handle the day-to-day tasks (like gathering resources), freeing us up for exploring and other fun activities. The player can also recruit up to three special followers to party with, such as battling or assigning them other tasks. Followers must be cared for, as any good manager would do, by tending to their morale, hunger, and exhaustion.
This game will also include a four-player co-op mode, where you and up to three friends can play Evershine together. Players can work together, collecting resources and sharing funds, while the host player leads everyone through the game's story.

Naturally, there will be romance, with Pathea stating there are plans for between 8 and 10 marriage candidates available during the story campaign.
The trailer also includes a reference to Ursula/Everglade from My Time at Portia. The game will have a few returning characters, which have not been formally announced yet. Maybe Pathea will make self-absorbed Pen come to his senses and find his way to the Northern Eufala, where I await his return.
The crowdfunding campaign for Evershine will launch next Tuesday (Sept 24) on Kickstarter. Pathea plans to launch the game on PC, PlayStation 5, XBox X|S, and "future Nintendo platforms yet to be announced." Super Nintendo 3DS, anyone? That'd be awesome...
My Time at Evershine - The Next My Time Tale | Kickstarter
Feedback on the new character designs appears to be positive, though personally, I prefer the skinny-arm character designs from Portia and Sandrock.
Pathea announced in May of last year their plans for a new mobile game called Project Me set in the same My Time universe, where the player became the governor of a new outpost. That experimental project appears to have morphed into Evershine.

New Kickstarter - Artisan Story
Inspired by Rune Factory, Pokemon Ranger, and Atelier Story, this monster farming and crafting game from Adventroupe Studio is looking for public funding to continue its already-4-years-along development. Artisan Story is a 3D + pixel game where players take on the role of an artisan crafter, making various goods using materials found in the wild and collected from monsters raised on the player's farm.

Players will take over their grandpa's old farm in the Clover Islands, a group of four islands with their own fauna, monsters, and villagers. Build a monster farm with the friendly dragon-like "cat" named Thea to show the residents of the islands how monsters and humans can peacefully coexist.
Besides monster care, you'll find festivals to participate in, recipes to complete, friendships to raise, and a little bit of romance to experience. Between the four islands, there are 18 marriage candidates (so far), but you'll need to craft the proposal item if you want to take a relationship to the next level. Players are taking on the role of a master crafter, after all.
The campaign launched this week and is already about 60% funded. You can learn more about the game on the Kickstarter campaign page and on the Steam store page:
Artisan Story: A Fantasy Farming Monster Ranching Sim | KickstarterArtisan Story | Steam Store

Orange Season Release Date
After about 10 years in development and 7 years in early access, retro-style farming game Orange Season will finally be fully released by developer Innerfire Studios on October 24 on Steam and Epic Game Store for a price of $19.99 (normal) or $24.99 (digital deluxe). The game will also be released digitally and physically for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and XBox X|S for $29.99.

Players start their life on a farm in Orange Town. Grow crops, care for animals, explore the mines, go fishing, and hang out in the town. There are festivals to attend and residents who need help. Though the game will be exiting its early access, there are a few features still missing for now, such as an in-game map, marriage, and the planned rival marriage system.
A free demo is currently available on Steam/EGS:
Orange Season | Steam Store

New Farm'n - Luma Island

Another cozy farming game releasing soon is Luma Island from Feel Free Games. In this game, farmers explore a mysterious island filled with puzzles and dangers while building the homestead of their dreams. Play solo or with three online friends, working towards upgrading the starter caravan trailer into a full-fledged farm. Farmers will also care for Lumas, critters who live on the island, and produce Luma Energy used for discovering the secrets hidden on the island.
While there is a nearby town, there isn't a marriage/dating system available at release.
Luma Island will be released for Steam/PC on November 20. A free demo will be available during next month's Steam Next Fest on October 14.
Luma Island | Steam StoreLuma Island | Official Website


Until next time!

-Cher
(Bah, all the tree leaves are turning red and orange. It is pretty, but someone has to pick them up off the ground when they fall...)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1726878293 Sat, 21 Sep 2024 00:24:53 +0000
New Anthos DLC, BokuMono Plushies, Indie Game Updates, and RF Piczle Cross Announced https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1726277493 Happy Farm'n Friday! I finished switching out the C7 bulbs in the roof and yard border light strings this week. Took out about 750 bulbs from the strings and screwed in the new color scheme of white/turquoise/blue. My fingers were a little sore! I was concerned I might not have ordered enough of each color, but everything fit together well, with only a few bulbs of each color left over. I've one more large order of new lights coming in a few weeks, which should be the last of the changes I'm making to the Christmas light display this year.

Anthos DLC #5
To celebrate the upcoming release day anniversary of Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos on September 26, Natsume announced a fifth DLC for their open-world farming game. The Great Outdoors DLC will be free for players who have already purchased the Season Pass (Switch, XBox, and PlayStation 5). For players who didn't prepay for the previous DLC packs, the new DLC will cost $9.99. This DLC will be available on October 3.

A new super-needed feature included in this DLC are two machines: A farmhouse automatic mini feeder to fill the small pet bowls and a livestock barn auto pooper-picker-upper for cleaning the compost off the barn floor. In Anthos, I eventually gave up picking up the compost every day because it took too much time with all the animals I owned. It was easier to simply let the animals spend time outdoors to counter-balance the dirty living conditions inside the barn. Plus, it was a pain to clean when ignored for several days, as the game displayed one compost per barn animal on the ground, while the days' worth of accumulated compost would not appear unless you left and reentered the barn. That won't be a problem anymore with the chicken-shaped auto compost cleaner hard at work. I'm guessing these will need to be crafted.

Camping outdoors will also be included in this DLC, a way to restore stamina while exploring the wilderness. No need to teleport home for the night and be forced to backtrack in the morning to where you left off! Just set out a tent and sleep to refill those hearts. You can also cook camp-themed meals with the ingredients in your rucksack. This reminds me of the camping scenes in another Natsume game, Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure, where making a meal would unlock fishing benefits the next day. Players can also upgrade their camping tent.

Hidden treasures will be found throughout the non-town areas of the world, where Elena will start you on your journey to locate hidden goodies using the Doc Pad. Searching for treasure appears to use the dowsing function, which is also used to locate ores, gems, and the ladder down to the next floor while mining. The variety of treasure types will be mixed between Anthos-themed treasures and items referencing other Natsume games.

Lastly, the pets have a purpose besides the Critter Crawl competitive festival. Pets can now have abilities that will make it easier to explore Anthos. For example, a dog may point the player in the direction of a Gold Harvest Wisp. Any non-ridable pet can become a tagalong friend, whether a small house pet (dogs, cats, small birds, weasels, and rabbits) or a large pet (bears and tigers). The Sasquatch pets are ridable, though I am not sure yet if the alpaca and llama can follow you around Anthos. These two pets grant a cold protection status when interacted with, so they already have an ability benefit. The pets aren't part of the treasure hunt content.
The two new characters, Elena the treasure hunter, and one other fellow, are not marriage candidates.
When I learned about the DLC earlier this week, I lamented to Mr. Fogu how I hadn't even finished the Anthos guide yet. He asked why, and I pointed to my work laptop and everything else adulty I had to do instead. Then he chuckled and said, "Well, maybe you should stop?" Turns out, he wasn't talking about farm'n stuff but my day-to-day office job, replacing it with becoming a farming game streamer on Twitch. I'm pretty sure nobody will want to watch a woman in her late 40s play farming games (lol), but he keeps mentioning it.

More Arcade Plushies

Near the end of September, FANS Club will make another set of Bokujou Monogatari plushies available as crane-game prizes in Japan. The black and white cow and the white alpaca were released previously, but the BIG edition pink sheep is a new prize. The last sheep release was a smaller version with white fur.

Piczlecross: Rune Factory

With the popularity of the Story of Seasons nonogram game, puzzle game publisher Rainy Frog and developer Score Studios announced a version based on another popular farming series. Piczle Cross: Rune Factory will be released for Steam/PC and Nintendo Switch next year. Solve 300 normal and 20 collage puzzles as you build a farm in Rune Factory 5's Rigbarth farm space. You can customize the look of the farm and even select a spouse to partner with. Players will also participate in nonogram battles to capture monsters. Completing puzzles will add profiles about past Rune Factory villagers to the game's encyclopedia. Looks pretty interesting! You can wishlist the game on Steam today:
Piczle Cross: Rune Factory | Steam StorePiczle Cross: Rune Factory | Official Website

Indie Game Update

The release of Roka Play's Sugardew Island will be delayed from late 2024 to early 2025. Not because of something bad, but because of something good. Roka Play received a financial boost from a local government to help further the game's development, allowing Roka Play to add a feature many followers have asked about. While they don't say what exactly the feature is, they hint about it having to do with a player's relationship with the game. They are also busy building a release of Sugardew for the Nintendo Switch, with an eventual release for PlayStation 5.
Sugardew Island | Steam Store


Though not a cozy farming game, the upcoming Steam game The Last Farmer from Geekon and Midnight Games will contain changes based on player feedback from the free prologue demo. In this survival game, players are tasked with revitalizing a Texas farm after the collapse of civilization. Grow crops to restore the land, while the manure from livestock will be used to revitalize the soil. Craft weapons to defend the farm from hoards of zombies, which may seem relentless, but these undead corpses can be processed into fertilizer for better crop production.
It's definitely a different kind of farm'n...
You can learn more about this walking dead farming game over on Steam:
The Last Farmer | Steam Store


Until next time!

-Cher
(Went to the dentist today to have 20-year-old silver fillings replaced. Face still feels weird from the numbing agent!)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1726277493 Sat, 14 Sep 2024 01:31:33 +0000
The Fogu Potato Harvest, A New My Time Game, BokuMono GMode, and Indie Game Updates https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1725666994 Happy Farm'n Friday! Last weekend, I harvested the potatoes from this year's grow experiment. We had planted two potato varieties using two potato planting techniques.

Potato #1 (pictured) are Masquerade potatoes. These potatoes were planted in the front yard garden box using the deep bury method, where you dig a deep hole, toss in the spud, and then cover the hole up to the soil line. I also spent weeks burying table scraps deep in the boxes before the potatoes were planted in April.
Potato #2 are Austrian Crescent fingerling potatoes. These were planted in fabric bags in the backyard using the trench-fill method, where you dig a hole, add enough soil to cover the potato, and then continue to fill the hole as the potato sprouts. About once a week, I added more soil/compost to the fabric bags as the plants grew taller until the soil level reached the top of the grow bags.

As for the results, we got about 4 pounds (~1.8 kg) from Potato #1 and about 3 pounds (~1.3 kg) from Potato #2. That's not a lot of potatoes, but this was a grow experiment. I wasn't looking to produce enough spuds to feed a small army of Harvest Sprites.
For Potato #1, I started with 2 pounds of seedling potatoes to plant and got about 4 pounds in return. So, while we got more volume from Potato #1, burying them deep didn't result in an impressive harvest in contrast to what I started with.
For Potato #2, these buried spuds were the scraps of potatoes that I had saved from growing the same variety in 2023. I kept about 16 small nickel-sized potatoes from last year's disappointing harvest, where I had used the deep bury method and harvested about 1 pathetic pound of potatoes. So I knew deep bury didn't work with this variety, which is why I tried the trench-fill method instead.
The 16 tiny Austrian Crescent potato seedlings weighed maybe 5 ounces (14 grams) at most, and that's being generous. So, planting the Potato #2 tiny spuds using the trench-fill method netted a greater yield (~1:10 when rounded to 50 ounces) than the deep bury method (1:2) used with Potato #1, at least in my home environment. I'll be trench-fill planting with the leftover tiny spuds saved from both varieties next year since potatoes are the one crop I can grow without it being eaten by those dang tree-rat squirrels.
Though, I noticed my beekeeping uncle was using straw to grow his potatoes... hmm...

My Time Game #3
Pathea Games formally announced today the next entry in the My Time series is called My Time at Evershine.

The character design for this game, according to Pathea's information, is different from My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock. The developer has moved to proportionally realistic body shapes compared to the larger-head character models of the previous games.
As with the prior games, Pathea will launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter later this month to help pay for the development of the new game, citing that Sandrock had an overall budget of $12 million, of which about $525,000 came from the initial crowdfunding campaign. Every little bit helps!
My Time at Evershine - the Next My Time Tale | Kickstarter

BokuMono: Life and Love
The PC port of the old GMode mobile phone game, Bokujou Monogatari: Life & Love was released on Steam this week. A Switch version is also available on the Nintendo eShop in Japan. The game is in Japanese, but at a skill level that anyone with some experience shouldn't have a problem. For others, the game is navigable when using a translation app on your mobile phone.
This game is a simple farming game using the graphic style of the Gameboy Advanced Friends of Mineral Town series, sized to display like a mobile phone screen. You choose your gender and farm name, and then off you go! Traversing the world is by selecting the destination from the game. Some places you can walk around, while others (like the town) are just menu interactions. There is the farm space, the town, and the mine.

The farm space is the main area where you can plant crops and raise animals. Seeds are 9 seeds per bag and can be grown in multiple seasons (depending on the seed). Crop seeds are planted in the field, while flower seeds are planted in the plaza. Sometimes, you can find seeds by pushing against the large boulders in the crop field. You switch between tools using the rucksack menu, the pickaxe for mining must be purchased at the store, and the watering can is always full.
If you run out of stamina, you can nap in the house once daily. Then you can return to work until you run out of stamina again, in which case you can go to bed for the day. You can only travel to the town if you've stamina, or you'll be told to rest first.
You can buy seeds, tool upgrades, farm animals (cow, chicken, sheep, and pig), accessories for gifts, etc., in the town, as long as you have space in your rucksack for the items. The only downer is the library, which no longer connects to the special BokuMobile service.

The shopkeepers are the marriage candidates; a set of girls for the male protagonist and a set of guys for the female protagonist. Back home, your mom keeps track of the relationship status with the candidates and explains how you can give gifts once you're past the black heart color, go on a date at a blue heart color, and propose marriage at a red heart color. She's pretty handy to have around the farm. Mom can cook, too!
Overall, it is a cute game for being so old. The game has an ending once you marry, as I understand it, but it is a fun bit of BokuMono history that wasn't available outside of Japan until now. Thanks GMode!
Bokujou Monogatari: Life & Love | Steam Store

Indie Farm'n Game Updates

A free demo is now available for the plague-tale farming game Grimshire. In this game, players revitalize an old farm to help the new mountain village they recently settled in because of a plague that wiped out their hometown. Take on the responsibility of filling the town's root cellar and feeding the residents, preserving food to prevent rot, romancing one of ten available candidates, decorating your farm, exploring the mine, and more. Your efforts will determine how well the town survives through the plague.
Grimshire | Steam Store


The one-person developer of the procedurally-generated farming and action game Cloudscape recently posted an update about Limbo, the game center where players will go if they run out of health. Instead of the typical respawn with low HP or a money deduction penalty, farmers will end up in Limbo, where they can play games and exchange Spirit Tokens for prizes. Some of the in-development games are card-matching games, roulette games, crane games, and high-card games. Death isn't the only way to access Limbo, though; there's said to be a weird potion that will take you there, too. Konitama has also worked on the protagonist's skill tree, fossils for players to excavate, and various decor items.
Cloudscape | Steam Store

The game update patch for the home console versions of SunnySide is now available for PlayStation players (yay!), with the XBox patch expected to drop next week. This patch includes corrections for saving within caves, in-game photographs working properly, and a size increase to the cursor and associated tooltips.
SunnySide | Steam StoreSunnySide | PlayStation Store

PlayStation Dealmania
The PlayStation version of Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom is currently 70% off as part of the Dealmania sale, going on now until September 11. The game's season pass (DLC) and the game+DLC bundle are not discounted.


Until next time!

-Cher
(The delivery guy dropped off a package labeled "Christmas" and chuckled at how I was already starting with this year's decor.)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1725666994 Fri, 06 Sep 2024 23:56:34 +0000
Marriage in HM:HSH, New Farm'n Game, and the Nintendo Direct Reveal for RF: Guardians of Azuma https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1725060172 Happy Farm'n Friday! I had a busy, office-free week. Got the marionberry canes prepared for next year's harvest, cleaned up a bunch of overgrown weeds, repotted the lemon tree (now 1.5 years old!), took the interns to the vet for a check-up, and put the blood orange seedling (~3 months old) into a larger pot, among other things. I started on some Christmas projects, too, of course. There are only two months before this year's Christmas Light Extravaganza installation can begin!
Good Smile Company also sent confirmation this week that the Nendoroid for Bokujou Monogatari's Claire will be released in "the next couple of months." If you pre-ordered the farm-y protagonist figurine earlier this year, double-check to ensure your on-file shipping address is still correct.

I also managed to complete the marriage requirements in Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home. Since I could not marry the silver fox again, I settled on the fisherman Harriet. The improved dialog style in Home Sweet Home was obvious when Abraham accepted that his daughter was getting married. A whole drama ensued after proposing using the Blue Feather. Initially, he refused to acknowledge that she was getting married, but some convincing from Philip helped him accept that it was happening no matter what. Then, there was a pre-ceremony speech in which he was sad about his baby girl growing up. Those types of experiences were unavailable in Anthos, making me a bit curious about the other HSH candidates' proposals and marriage events.
The steps for marriage are similar to Anthos, whereby you see the 5 music note romance events, give a Token of Love, and then see the couples' event before you can propose marriage. You can give everyone a Token of Love to see their events, then settle on the one person you want to give a Blue Feather. You also have to maximize the size of the farmhouse, which puts a second bed in the bedroom the day after the wedding (rather than one large bed). Since there is a limit of 7 Token of Love to create at the carpenter's shop, matching the 7 marriage candidates, it's pretty clear that there are no secret marriage candidates. Bah.
I mainly wanted to get married to finish the walkthrough, as marriage is one of the game's chapters. Been writing everything down this time!

Abyss Demo
The farming and village-building game Abyss: New Dawn has a free demo available on Steam. Development studio Aloya Games seeks player feedback about their multi-tiered world game.

In Abyss, players can explore 10 biome levels stacked together, with each being more challenging than the floor above. Each level of the abyss has a boss that needs to be conquered. Farm and explore each biome alone or with friends to discover the mystery of the abyss.
You can learn more about this game on the Steam store page:
Abyss: New Dawn | Steam Store Page

New Farm'n - Dreamland Farm
A new pixel-based farming game from indie game publisher and developer RedDeer Games (Garden Buddies, Bit Orchard, and Sprout Island) was recently announced. Dreamland Farm, a cozy farming sim, is coming to Nintendo Switch in the next few months.

There's little to go on besides the story about a grandkid taking over their grandma's farm. Initially, it looks cute. We'll have to watch this one to learn more about its gameplay.

Rune Factory Dragooooonz
This week's indie/partner Nintendo Direct included a surprise announcement for the Project Dragon RF game, now officially titled Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma in English while keeping Rune Factory: Dragon's Country in Japanese.

Playing as either protagonist Subaru or Kaguya, we'll be restoring the natural beauty of Azuma that vanished after a great calamity caused the destruction of the eastern-themed world's runes. Using the sacred parasol and drum, boogie your way through the desolate land as an Earth Dancer to revive hope and life in Azuma.
The protagonist will also be tasked with rebuilding the Asian-themed village, overseen by springtime spirit Ulalaka, who was awoken from a sleeping cherry blossom tree. Place buildings to design your custom village, setting aside spaces for growing crops using the sacred parasol and drum. Besides the home village, you'll visit other season-themed villages ruled by other gods, befriend the residents, and participate in local customs. Sidekick Woolby, the talking wooly/dragon creature, guides the protagonists on their journey to restore the land.
Naturally, there is some bad-guy element that has the goal of destroying the remaining gods of Azuma. Fighting is a natural element of Rune Factory games, including recruiting in-game friends to form a battle party. Some of the latest trailers include Chipsqueek and Buffamoo monsters in the village, so there's most likely a recruit function somewhere. Nintendo's direct trailer mentions restoring "certain monsters to their human forms," most likely defeating monster-cursed gods to restore their normal shape.

Azuma also includes an appearance from Hina, all grown up from her days in Rune Factory 5. Now a SEED ranger, she and a blond-haired ranger fly in on their airship and have a role in the game's story. The second SEED ranger kinda reminds me of the protagonist's kid in RF5, but that's just a guess.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma has a Spring 2025 release date for Nintendo Switch and Steam/PC.
This is the second of the games referenced in Marvelous' fiscal report earlier this year, with Farmagia being the other game the publisher planned to release during this fiscal year (4/1/2024 to 3/31/2025). This means no Bokujou Monogatari game releases until at least next April. Granted, there could be an announcement about a new game during this time, with a later 2025 release date, so keep your chin up, fellow farming fans!


Until next time!

-Cher
(The dianthus plant sprouted from seed still hasn't bloomed... I assumed it was annual, but maybe it's a perennial...)
https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1725060172 Fri, 30 Aug 2024 23:22:52 +0000