Backlog 2022

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
User avatar
Mikodesu
Huggy Chickens
Huggy Chickens
Posts: 313
Joined: Apr 07, 2016 7:45 pm

Post  Posted:

When I went to bed last night, laying in bed pretending to sleep (as you do), I realized I didn't level Nahida's talents up at all. That girl is going to be really, really powerful when she's fully built. The mass mushroom slaughter to get her there, though. Learned something today about her skill, I was just using the press version last night, but the hold version is something else... sort of like electro shock for dendro, chaining damage on enemies.

And I've had some more time with her in the wild. After this long picking up flowers and bird eggs and what have you one by one...I don't wanna go back. I think I got at most 6 things in one swipe. I paid a heavy primo toll for the tiny child, but I regret nothing. Mostly nothing.

Purely out of curiosity I went back and calculated everything, just exactly how many wishes it took. Posting here in case I ever want to go back and wallow. :lol: By far the most unlucky I've been in this game. It serves as a nice warning for the future, though.
Spoiler:
16 pages (-2 wishes) = 78 wishes for 50/50
Full 32 pages from 0 to guaranteed - 160 wishes made exactly

Characters pulled-
Noelle - 2
Benny - 4
Razor - 8
Mona - 1
Nahida - 1

Weapons pulled-
Rainslasher, Flute, Sac Greatsword, Eye of Perception, Flute, Sac Sword, Fav Codex

So in 16 10-pulls, I got 23 4 or 5 star 'items'. Which is...okay? Could have been worse though, by exactly 2 10-pulls... :mrgreen:
User avatar
Bluie
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 3262
Joined: Jun 29, 2005 11:02 am

Post  Posted:

I finished Genshin's 3.2 story quest after an unexpected struggle. I have learned my lesson to not have character quests active while also trying to do the MSQ. I got stopped TWICE because both Nilou and Cyno we're already spawned for their character quests and Hoyo can't seem to figure out how to have the same NPC spawned twice for seperate reasons. Thankfully with Nilou I was able to keep going once she despawned for a second, but with Cyno, I had to do his whole damn quest before he was free again. Like, he was perfectly fine until post boss and then I got told he was busy with his character quest. I JUST WANNA SEE HOW THE STORY ENDS, WHY. I usually unlock the quests and then leave them for later when I feel like it, but apparently that's a no-no, so I guess I'm doing them asap from now on. Currently doing Nahida's and then I'll finish up Nilou's.

Annnd then I'll be going back to 100%ing Inazuma. I have one Island left; Serai. I was working diligently on it and then I got hit with the maintenance warning, so I was only able to get a little bit done. I'm really hoping this one isn't as much of a pain as Watasumi, because it took me aaaaages due to it's layout hiding so many puzzles and seelies. I let out a frustrated sigh when the percentage was finally full. I hope Enkanomiya also isn't too much of a pain, but it's core mechanic certainly already is, so I might postpone it until I feel up to it. With Serai I feel like I've already unlocked most of the secret areas, but I also haven't finished the cat shrine quest fully yet too, so I'll have to see.

I was hoping to find all the electroculus to fully upgrade the statue, but I'm currently missing 20+ and I bet they're not all on Serai. Looks like I'll be making resonance stones again... *groan*
User avatar
Kikki
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 4252
Joined: Apr 14, 2015 6:01 am

Post  Posted:

I am in such a daze. Normally, I'm a morning person. I mean, REALLY a morning person, not ambiguously. I naturally wake between 5 and 6AM and do my best work before noon. I am always stupefyingly tired somewhere in the 11AM to 3PM time stretch, and that remains true even now...nothing seems to ever change that I'm always exhausted in that time frame. (No idea why, or why it's so very consistent!) This drug though, seems to make me stupid all day and my head only starts to clear around supper. I do still get some stuff done, but very haphazardly. Even turning the TV on seems beyond my brain's ability, like it's too complicated to think about. I don't quite get it. I take it evenly spaced, 3x per day, so it's not like I have a heavier dose at night. Can't figure it...but then, the time is shifting dramatically, this time of year. Wake up in pitch black at 7AM...my brain is NOT convinced it's morning at all. Sun is nearly touching the horizon now, a little before 5PM. YUCK. I think between the baclofen and the shifting daylight hours, and shifting punctuation levels, my body is just really confused.

Sure is nice out, though. November 3 and I have my window open and the heat hasn't needed to be on :) Helps construction proceed well, too! The walls are half up already...a second inspection and cement pour is already scheduled for, uh...I think the 15th. It should be quite doable to get the trusses on before snow sets in, which means construction can continue MUCH more efficiently even after the snow does set in. :D

~

I mentioned forgetting that you HAVE to unlock Rod first and that means unlocking the sheep first, as well, before you can get the mine. I was sure I had unlocked the mine before Fall in previous plays! I don't trust my memory, though, so I assumed I was just wrong about that. But I ALSO forgot that actually, you can unlock sheep (and thus wool) before Fall 1 by placing Yuri's shop. D'OH! Coulda gotten that done a few days sooner, but just wasn't braining keenly enough!

Placed the Gardening Space and I plan on just rotating the Weather Vane and Lattice Fence layouts over and over to win every contest every time without having to think much, lol. Gonna have to get a bit more money before I can afford all the iron, but it's worth it to not have to put any effort into that Gardening Show or whatever it was called. Will also do the combo that gives you an extra 100pts every time, I think I already have the blueprint for at least one of the items, though I don't know if you need 10x of ONE of the items, or a mixture of all 4, totalling 10 items in all. Probably 10 in all, of just one or a mix?

Well, I got my sheep today (in-game 'today', that is) and will be able to get my clippers 'tomorrow'. Not gonna wait...as soon as I get my clippers, I will go into multiplayer and snatch me 5 wools to use to build the cottage, so that I can get that mine unlocked after music sheets 4 and 5. Always forget how many unlockable features there are in this game. (I really like that since it means you can really affect how quickly things get done, but it's hard to keep track of.)

I don't remember what else I was doing. Oh...Zero. Right! I had a brief inkling to play it the other day, but it passed pretty quickly because I remembered I left off in the middle of a dungeon with no map. :mrgreen: I always try to make sure to save at a place where I actually want to continue, rather than a spot where I actually WANT to quit, because that makes it a lot more compelling to get back to the game the next time, but...that just doesn't always work out.

Graveyard Keeper was neat, but too much for me right now...as complicated as Bokumono game, but unfamiliar, so I don't have the built-in advantage that I've got with ANB. I've got a lot of games waiting on me to become a little less stupid... Problem is, a looooooot of areas of life would benefit from me being less stupid, and they all take priority over gaming, so when those rare times pop up, I've gotta use them on other things!
User avatar
Mikodesu
Huggy Chickens
Huggy Chickens
Posts: 313
Joined: Apr 07, 2016 7:45 pm

Post  Posted:

Thought I would finish The Last Campfire last night and it was just a bit too long, so I gave up and pushed it to tonight. SUCH a lovely little game. So glad I finally picked it up. Probably the best balance of any narrative puzzle game I've ever played. Puzzles could be pretty challenging toward the end, but never overwhelming. Simple, but very satisfying story. Overall the writing was really good. Having a narrator grew on me over my time with it. For a game made primarily by 3 people...you kinda have to be impressed. It ran well, it looked nice, very few glitches. (All of them visual, iirc.)

I'd love to see little teams at Hello Games spin off into more games like this in the future. And maybe they well. They seem to have settled into a nice spot with No Man's Sky, where maybe more passion projects would be feasible.

If I had to make ANY complaint, it would be that some of the puzzles don't really add anything to the narrative. But they were fun puzzles, so it doesn't matter that much. Also, Ember plushie. *grabby hands*


Now I have to decide if I get Harvestella or not. A FEW reviews are up, but I still can't find anything for PC, which leaves me in limbo. PC demo doesn't exist, which makes sense only so the game doesn't get datamined pre-release. Some PC players just ruin it for everybody. :lol: I won't get it until I know how it runs. And Green Man Gaming has a November code up that covers an early opt-in discount, so... I'll be playing the wait and see game. Surely by Saturday Steam or Reddit will be able to tell me.
User avatar
Bluie
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 3262
Joined: Jun 29, 2005 11:02 am

Post  Posted:

The evil is defeated; I have 100%ed Inazuma, including the dumb tree (which was not my intention, I just managed to do). I legit only have to finish Enkanomiya and get my Electro Glider and then I'll never have to come back to this clusterfuck of a nation outside of the occasional event and my weekly Raiden fight (I need it for Nilou of all people). Looks like I unfortunately won't be getting my glider next week because I did the math and I'll be 300 rep short, so I have a minimum of 2 weeks left with Sad Purple Japan™. I know I hate on Inazuma a lot, but I didn't despise everything about it either. Some characters were well done and some of the music is great, but it was overall just not a good expansion. It felt like Hoyo threw everything at the wall to see what stuck and then put it all in anyways. The puzzles are asinine, exploration is a chore, and to be completely honest; the story was extremely mid. It's not like the previous two nations were amazing or anything, but they were fun to play and discover. Inazuma just feels like this unruly middle child, and now that Sumeru is out, it really shows how inferior the islands are to a full sprawling map. I will still never get over the whole reason Inazuma's story happened is because 'thunder « Harvest Goddess » is sad and makes bad decisions, then tried to kill anyone who doesn't agree'. "Hey, maybe don't make others suffer for your mistakes?" "No, « Snuggly Bunny » you, die", basically. She literally gets called a tantruming child by one of the characters. Regardless, was never able to connect to any of the characters outside Kazuha and I like Heizou&Itto for their personalities. Oh wait, I actually love Scaramouche as he's one of the most fleshed out villains we have and he's actually interesting. I'm really looking forward to what Hoyo is going to do with him since they've already released his promo art for his playability.

And speaking of that, I've seen his leaked model and kit and I uh, might need him. I'll keep the specifics in spoilers:
Spoiler:
« Weed Picker » LEVITATES, AND IT'S CONTROLABLE. HE JUST RISES AND MAKES CLIMBING IRRLEVANT. I stopped using Venti for Kazuha in exploration, but I might retire Kazuha now. IF I can managed to get him, pity is slowly rising...
In other news: Pokemon is in 2 weeks! I hope I get the day off...
User avatar
FarmingForDaysMan
Snazzy Sheep Sweeper
Snazzy Sheep Sweeper
Posts: 249
Joined: Jan 10, 2022 5:57 am

Post  Posted:

I beat the main storyline of Pokémon Sword last week. I started out battling every trainer that I could find, but after battling Nessa, I just went from gym to gym and tried to avoid trainers. I was extremely lazy in my gameplay, and my team remained the same through the entire game: Scorbunny (Blaze), Woolio (Wooly), Nickit (a SHINY NICKIT which I wasn’t even aware that it was shiny and my brother died when I asked him why my Nickit was dull and everyone else’s Nickits had bold, bright colors; anyways his name is Nolan), Rookidee (Rachael), Skwovet (Simon), and Dottler (Dorothy). I spent a ton of time in the Wild Area when the area was introduced to me, so by the time I battled in the grass gym, my Pokémon were at level 30+ I think (might’ve been 20, I can’t remember), so I pretty much flew through the game.

I’ve just started the postgame, and I’m about to battle my buddy Hop. I love that kid xD

I keep forgetting to preorder Pokémon Violet. I need to do that because I want to play co-op with my brother. Does anyone know if you can start the game co-op? I’m not sure how that works.
User avatar
Roinda
Posts: 0
Joined: Apr 12, 2022 8:24 am

Post  Posted:

Still playing AC, but took a break from it the other day to take a look at BotW. I bought a copy for the switch. Man is the game confusing. I did look online for a guide but it didn’t help too much. I actually did have a guidebook for the game but I got rid of it for some reason and I’ve been kicking myself for being stupid.

Preordered both Pokémon Violet and Scarlet, looking forward to them arriving.
User avatar
yzafre
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 14
Joined: Mar 30, 2021 12:03 pm

Post  Posted:

jfiepajfk;ajifd I haaaaate this time of year. Every summer I start thinking "oh, it couldn't possibly have been that bad", and then mid-October rolls around and the SAD hits me in the face and oh. Yeah it actually is Like That. I've spent the last two weeks negotiating with my brain trying to get it to just. Let me make soup.

So far, no dice.

In related news, I have not made a ton of progress on games. I've had new files open for ANB, Slime Rancher, A Hat in Time, and Pokemon Let's Go, all of which got dropped after a handful of days. Hollow Knight has been the most recent one, and it's looking like I might actually be able to replay this one all the way through. We'll see.


Mikodesu wrote: Nov 03, 2022 7:59 pm Thought I would finish The Last Campfire last night and it was just a bit too long, so I gave up and pushed it to tonight. SUCH a lovely little game. So glad I finally picked it up. Probably the best balance of any narrative puzzle game I've ever played. Puzzles could be pretty challenging toward the end, but never overwhelming. Simple, but very satisfying story. Overall the writing was really good. Having a narrator grew on me over my time with it. For a game made primarily by 3 people...you kinda have to be impressed. It ran well, it looked nice, very few glitches. (All of them visual, iirc.)
I had to go look up what you were talking about, because narrative puzzler sounds right up my alley. I can't believe I hadn't heard of this one! It looks really cute. Another one to add to my "someday" list!
User avatar
Kikki
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 4252
Joined: Apr 14, 2015 6:01 am

Post  Posted:

yzafre wrote: Nov 04, 2022 9:25 am jfiepajfk;ajifd I haaaaate this time of year. Every summer I start thinking "oh, it couldn't possibly have been that bad", and then mid-October rolls around and the SAD hits me in the face and oh. Yeah it actually is Like That. I've spent the last two weeks negotiating with my brain trying to get it to just. Let me make soup.

So far, no dice.
Ha ha...yeah. I actually NEVER forget, even in the height summer sun, how much I hate winter (primarily because of the darkness; the vicious weather and several feet of snow we get in an average year is just a somewhat expensive and labour-intensive inconvenience.) But even remembering the pit of despair, you forget how deep it can go. I managed a bit better last winter by storing up loads of things to do in advance. I had shelves of gardening and crafting books, crafting supplies, a big list of outdoorsy games, plans to do a bunch of interesting small-batch canning (I still need to get to that melon jam!) and other projects, as well as a new pair of snowshoes so that big snowfalls couldn't be an excuse not to go outside and get what pitifully meager sun could be scrounged up from our continually overcast winter skies. I collected some interesting new teas and made myself some music playlists, all to fight SAD with. Supplements and food to be helpful (especially things that could naturally boost the happy brain chemicals that dry up from lack of sunlight) too. I didn't DO all, or even most of the things I planned as options, but having it all set up for me like a treasure hoard was quite helpful as mental fortification. I always had something to try to make me feel better, if I felt like I was falling. Still had to deal with my already low energy being lowered even further, but emotionally at least, it wasn't as bad. I still have a lot of stuff set up, so I hope I can get through this year well, too. It's great that I have fun plans for spring and a great new bike set-up. I've got some cool-fun-sparkly options for everything...hopefully enough to combat The Gloomening. Extra nice is that the good weather was really stretched out this fall...we had another 20C day, today! THat's extraordinary, here, in November. My sister is having wonderful luck with her house construction. :)

This year I have my seeding set-up ready to go, plus all the lists of arts/crafts and books and games and home projects. Will be growing greens for eating starting this week, hopefully (just need to get my board back from my uncle, who offered to plane it for me...it's actual solid maple so I should treat it nicely!) and will be starting my summer seed indoors under a brand new grow light, probably beginning in February with peppers. Sister will also be setting herself up my parents' cast-off little hoop greenhouse, so that's going to be great; just knowing it's THERE makes me feel reassured, given...(temporarily redacted).

~

I got Rod into town, got the mine unlocked, and am only 2 glass bricks from making the inn and completing Plan #3. (Must say there that it makes NO SENSE that you can mine glass bricks. Or masonry bricks. That's about as probable as mining a box of Jello or a candle.) So I'll be done with #3 right away...almost as soon as I go into my next play session in ANB. Woo! So glad to have that mine, and tomorrow, the pet! Another think that makes NO sense is physically pushing your livestock out of the barn. Just try to shove a cow anywhere it doesn't already wanna go...I dare ya. I get that it gives the pets a use, but it's ridiculous. And very time-consuming! Well, will be glad to get that nonsensical mechanic out of the way, anyway :)

Fall is when the game gets really busy, with all the major options now open. I have my best soil fields now, though...managed to get them unlocked by mid-summer. I wish you started the game off with more than just 5 gravel fields...it'd be great to be able to unlock the best fields by the end of the first spring while also getting enough potatoes grown to unlock the Foliage Festival. Guess that's unrealistic, though.

Things are about to get busy in ANB for me, now. I don't know if that'll get me MORE into it, or if it's going to end up making me stop playing because I lack the brain-power to keep things going. Guess we'll see! I have no idea what I'd tackle if I wasn't doing this. I don't feel like going back to Zero, yet, nor into Graveyard Keeper, even though they're both great. I guess I'll try to tackle Egglia or RF5?
User avatar
cinnamon_yuki
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1568
Joined: May 12, 2008 3:51 am

Post  Posted:

I wasn't able to play Dreamlight Valley and Coral Island last night because of house-sitting duties. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have work the next day though which is supposedly my day off. But I was able to sneak in a couple of minutes of Dreamlight before going to work. It's odd that my soybeans and cotton didn't grow. I thought the crop-growing mechanic is tied to real-time. I lower my liking for it if it depends on your time log in-game which I don't plan on the long-run. :lol:

After work, I'll probably play Dreamlight, Coral Island and I feel like finishing DA 2 (I'm already on the latter part of Act 3 it seems). I'm also looking into Harvestella's price and it costs $60... yikes... and the reviews are not looking so good. I admit that I play farm-life simulation games for the characters and romances and there seems to be only one male companion as well..:? If Rune Factory 5 didn't get a good discount this month, I'll probably get Midnight Suns in December. :lol:
User avatar
Kikki
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 4252
Joined: Apr 14, 2015 6:01 am

Post  Posted:

You don't have to be logged in for your crops to grow, but you do have to water them every time they become dry, or the growing completely stops. Soy takes 90 minutes to grow, which probably means you have to water them 2 or 3 times before they'll mature. (Checked: it's twice. So you'd have to water them at 30 minutes and again at 60 minutes, most likely.) The 90 minutes halts when the plant is dry...so if you go 30 minutes in and they need watered again, the growth freezes at the 30 minute mark and will resume once the plant is watered.

It's hard to imagine that anyone has gotten far enough in Harvestella to even see any but the first candidate characters since others are probably in later regions that unlock further in the story, and it was only released today. I haven't heard anything about *any* of them, though. I did see that you apparently can't romance anybody before completing the main story. (I hate when they do that. There's no motivation to continue beyond that if the story's already over. Or so far I haven't seen a game that provided any such motivation; I guess they could be the first. Maybe the majority of farming doesn't even unlock until post-game? Perhaps if the game turns into more of a life-sim only after the story is over, that'd be enough left to do...definitely glad I waited on this, I really need more info before I'll know if it's for me.)
User avatar
Mikodesu
Huggy Chickens
Huggy Chickens
Posts: 313
Joined: Apr 07, 2016 7:45 pm

Post  Posted:

yzafre wrote: Nov 04, 2022 9:25 amI had to go look up what you were talking about, because narrative puzzler sounds right up my alley. I can't believe I hadn't heard of this one! It looks really cute. Another one to add to my "someday" list!
Glad to have unearthed a little gem for you! :) Seems like it goes on sale pretty often, so it'll be there when you're ready. Also, if you were making soup today, hope it gave you some kind of comfort! Gotta get it where you can.

--
I've been watching Steam discussions on Harvestella to get some idea of how it runs on PC, and I wouldn't say its getting review bombed, but it's pretty close. 30 minutes after the game unlocked it was "Mixed" on Steam. In the discussions thread, it's pretty evenly split between people baby raging over an "ugly game" being full price and the fact that neither protagonist looks masculine or feminine enough. The incels have come out of the woodwork against the male protagonist.

MOST people seem to have the feeling that the game seems pretty good, but it's really too early to say. Nobody I would personally trust the opinion of has reviewed the game, but I think I'll end up looking at some more reviews before I make my final decision.

Haven't heard any real complaints about how it runs on PC, though. Even seems to run well on Steam Deck. Some people have gotten hiccups in cutscenes, others haven't. But it runs at 60 fps on Deck, whereas Switch is locked to 30.
User avatar
Kikki
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 4252
Joined: Apr 14, 2015 6:01 am

Post  Posted:

I was concerned about this after I played the demo. To me, as a major fan of farming-sims, it did NOT feel like a farming sim, and I knew there were going to be others who felt the same. I just don't understand what market Squeenix was trying to capture with Harvestella, because if you're hardcore farming fan, or hardcore RPG fan, it misses the mark in both directions. If you go into it for farming, it feels insufficient. But I daresay if you go into it as an RPG, it also feels insufficient, like the farming mechanics are too demanding of your time for a side-issue.

That's what I'm seeing, though! Farming fans complaining that this isn't a good farming sim because it's too RPG, and RPG fans complaining that it's not a good RPG because it's too much of a farming sim. Which is exactly what I was afraid was going to happen. :?

I still think it looks pretty and that the farming mechanics are cool, the music is blissfully un-annoying (so many farming sims have incredibly annoying, ear-grindingly repetitive music, but Harvestella did not) and if I can find out when the farming gets deeper, and how deep it goes, and how social it ends up being, how long the main story is and what kind of post-game it has, then I can finally decide if I want it or not, and at what price. Right now I'm just kind of hanging here, not knowing if I'd end up finding Harvestella worthwhile or not. I'd like it to succeed because it's a rare type, but rare types almost always flop because they don't have a defined market. For now, I'll be sticking to replays of the farming games I already know I love. Still open to being convinced to play Harvestella, but I need more people to get to the post-game portion before I'll have enough info to make a decision on. I still don't even know if I, for my own enjoyment, should think of this more as a JRPG, or as a farming sim. From the demo, I felt it was more of a JRPG, but maybe that shifts when you play beyond the demo portion of the game.

Just won Intermediate at the Harvest Festival in ANB, so Fall is barrelling toward me, and my game is getting busier and busier. Gotta get going to the Southern Island to befriend that turtle, cuz I must have greenhouses at the earliest possible opportunity. (I kind of like the travelling options, but it makes the game hectic!)
User avatar
cinnamon_yuki
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1568
Joined: May 12, 2008 3:51 am

Post  Posted:

Kikki wrote: Nov 04, 2022 6:05 pm You don't have to be logged in for your crops to grow, but you do have to water them every time they become dry, or the growing completely stops. Soy takes 90 minutes to grow, which probably means you have to water them 2 or 3 times before they'll mature. (Checked: it's twice. So you'd have to water them at 30 minutes and again at 60 minutes, most likely.) The 90 minutes halts when the plant is dry...so if you go 30 minutes in and they need watered again, the growth freezes at the 30 minute mark and will resume once the plant is watered.
I double checked and my crops didn't let me water them. They have this water droplets animation... I'm not sure if it's a bug. xD
User avatar
Kikki
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 4252
Joined: Apr 14, 2015 6:01 am

Post  Posted:

cinnamon_yuki wrote: Nov 05, 2022 3:51 amI double checked and my crops didn't let me water them. They have this water droplets animation... I'm not sure if it's a bug. xD
There IS a bug where some people get crops that don't progress and stay in the 'watered' state permanently (where they're shown with drips on them). I thought it had been patched but DDV has a LOT of bugs and they're continually rolling out fixes and sometimes the fixes cause other problems. I feel like DDV will always be buggy, at this rate...every time they add new content, players are going to have to go through this kind of thing. Sometimes the bugs are just a tad annoying, other times they completely halt progression. I was pretty lucky to be able to finish all the content (prior to Scar, since I stopped playing when I finished all the content available on release...I had every character before him to max friendship, all questlines done, all regions open, all crops available, etc.)
Locked