Ushi No Tane Forum

Mikodesu wrote: ↑Jul 04, 2023 8:01 pmStill playing Star Rail more than Genshin, not sure why. (Beyond the fact that half the game plays itself, so it's like my freebie.) I did look at the character reveals for Fontaine and...I am so far not impressed. Sumeru was kind of the same way though, the VAs brought a lot of character to designs that fell flat for me. The location of Sumeru at least felt fresh. Anime France on the other hand...is very tired.

Hopefully the writing keeps up with Sumeru... that would help. We shall see, I guess.

I felt the same way with Sumeru when the characters were first leaked/revealed. I was really only into Nilou design wise and didn't care for anyone else until the story kicked into high gear. Sumeru is probably the only cast in the game where I like everyone, and I think it's because they all feel like this big family while the previous three regions all feel like their in their own cliques. Sure they cross over every once in awhile, but it's missing that little something the Sumeru cast has. Even Wanderer, detached as he is, still has had his moments with a large chunk of the cast.

When it comes to Fontaine, I am again only drawn to one character, that being Navia, because I like her hat, she's yellow (my favorite color), AND HOLY « Puppy Doodoo », SHE'S A GEO. ITS BEEN A YEAR AND A HALF SINCE OUR LAST GEO. I'll be interested to see what her kit is. Everyone else is going to have to either impress me with their personality/story involvement because I tend to be immune to drooling over 2D waifus/husbandos unless they look close to my age or older. These young'ns do nothing for me lol.

Anime France is sure going to be... something. I'm honestly glad there's not going to be any more desert because I'm sick to death of sand. Having to explore the sewers will be... interesting, but as of now I'm just 'eh' on the new locale. Diving will probably be interesting, but I hope it doesn't overstay its welcome either.

The new event is fun so far. I love the music when you're riding the kart. I do miss the Golden Apple Archipelago, I was hoping we'd get more character deeps dives this summer, especially for some of the severely undeveloped 4*s, but alas, not this year. As for pulls I wanted Klee and Mika, got Dehya first then the others came home soon after. Out of gems for the Wanderer rerun, but whatever, I work full time, I can afford to splurge now and then. Now I have all the 4*s and I'M STILL ONLY MISSING MONA FOR STANDARD 5*S. WHY IS SHE SO ELUSIVE??? I WANT HER SO BADLY. -sobs-

I will say there is one other character I'm looking forward to, but they're a leak. A verified leak, but as they were nowhere in the trailer (and they most likely belong to another region) I don't expect to see them for a long, loooong time. There was also a colossal shitton of concept art leaked by one dude around a week ago that had a lot of interesting designs, but almost none of them were confirmed characters. There was this absolutely adorable beagle girl who looked like she came right out of an Atelier game and I want her to be real so baaaad.

Been playing a lot SoS A Wonderful Life since it came out. On my second year, near the end of fall. Overall, I've had a pretty good time with this game. It definitely reminds me of the original games, but has a more modern touch. The things I like the most is the music, the people, the animals, the family aspect, and the town itself. I also like how straightforward the gameplay is. The reason for this is I haven't been feeling the best, and sometimes it's nice to play a farming game that's pretty simple. Things I don't like so much is being forced to marry (yeah I know it's the point, but I kind of wish the modern version gave a bit more freedom), the slightly boring heart events, and lack of interesting dialogue. Also, while i do like the more simple gameplay, I also do wish there was more to do. I know, it's a dual opinion, but I normally play and enjoy simulation games where there is a lot to do. Another problem with a lack of things to do is that once I get later into the game, I may get bored with it because of the lack of variety. I also wish the dialogue was better. Just like PoOT, the games dialogue isn't the best. It can get interesting though, should one talk to the people enough. Overall, it's been fun playing and I do see myself playing A Wonderful Life on and off.

I also finally played some more of The Legend of Zelda-Breath of the Wild. This is my third time starting over these past two months. I did this because the first two times I ended taking too long to get back to the game. I hope this time, I won't need to restart. I don't think I will, even if I take a long break, because it's a long game. Anyway, I finished the tutorial and am now heading to my first villager. It's pretty fun so far. I have some gripes with the controls, but everything else has been good. I don't really have a plan for this game. I'll likely play it on and off. Hopefully, I can finish it before summer is over. I will say, I won't touch Skyrim for a while and will instead focus on Breath of the Wild.

Outside of that, I've played some Animal Crossing and the Ace Attorney series on Switch. With Ace Attorney I'll play on and off during the summer. Same with Animal Crossing. Not sure what else I'm going to play outside of the things I mentioned. I've kind of been going back and forth with games, but it's because I've lacked energy and focus to stick or get into most games. I have an idea of some things I want to play, but I'm not sure how it'll go. Anyway, hope everyones having an okay summer. I know it's been a difficult time for some people, so I hope you're doing okay.

List of games I want to play and finish List of games I want to play test

Currently playing:

Pikmin 1 (Nintendo Switch)

Recently beat:

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (first trilogy/first 3 games) (Switch)
Digimon Survive (first playthrough) (Switch)
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch)

Hey, guys. A few days ago I beat the Pikmin 4 demo.

Now, I'm trying to beat Pikmin 1 for the Nintendo Switch, but my first run isn't going very well. Although, I have made it farther already than my attempts when I was a kid. (on Gamecube)

No Place Like Home is complete. REALLY complete. I didn't go for achievements, as it involves things like having 15 chickens, 15 cows, etc (I already have too many products piling into my messy inventory with just 5-10 of each animal.)

It REALLY suits my tastes, with repairing diseased, damaged and polluted ol' Earth, though it didn't go nearly far enough with the visual changes, imo. It's about a 20 hour game, I'd say, depending on what you go for. I got the full main story, EVERY side quest, EVERY recipe and blueprint, every animal (except I never bothered to get the lone raccoon, though I made the house for it, for some reason.) So I did all the content, but I'm not interested in doing repetition of content to get the achievements for harvesting X-many of this or owning X-many of that.

The ending was absolute « Puppy Doodoo ». It was so under-written, it's joke-worthy. The whole story reads like a grade 8-ish project, by a student that doesn't particularly care for the topic they were given. It was childish and so simple as to be bordering on the moronic. The thoughts were supposed to be deep...the topic is plenty deep...but the writing was about as deep as a single sheet of lightweight tracing paper. You had to come up with the depth yourself. But the game doesn't mislead you...the story was shallow from the very beginning. Great idea with no nuance. Characters are quite static. You don't play this game for clever wordplay or deep characters or story, that's for sure.

Really fun gameplay and I love the goals and quests. Definitely worth buying, even twice, and I don't even mind that I had to restart to be able to complete it.

After this...I may try Harvestella. I don't feel up to the latter half of Trails to Azure...Trails is just too complex and detail-oriented. It's plenty deep, but it takes a lot more energy to play. Trails into Reverie comes out in a few days, but I don't think I'll get it. Definitely not on release. It's sad to be at this point with an all-time favourite series, but here I am.

EDIT: Managed to be half-awake for fifteen minutes, tried the Ghost Trick demo. That's not just a no, it's a hell no. Hurry up, time is passing, her time is running out! Ugh, puzzles, okay...but time limits with tense 'clock is ticking' type danger music? I don't need the anxiety, thanks, game. I woke up and JUMPED out of bed several times this week because I was convinced I urgently had to be doing something, everything, why was I asleep, omg...! (Of course, there was nothing.)

I'll pass. I don't need a game supplying me with oodles of false anxiety when for some reason, real life already wants to hand it out for free. Before this last year or so, I was never an anxious person...

Bluie wrote: ↑Jul 05, 2023 3:57 pm I felt the same way with Sumeru when the characters were first leaked/revealed. I was really only into Nilou design wise and didn't care for anyone else until the story kicked into high gear. Sumeru is probably the only cast in the game where I like everyone, and I think it's because they all feel like this big family while the previous three regions all feel like their in their own cliques. Sure they cross over every once in awhile, but it's missing that little something the Sumeru cast has. Even Wanderer, detached as he is, still has had his moments with a large chunk of the cast.

When it comes to Fontaine, I am again only drawn to one character, that being Navia, because I like her hat, she's yellow (my favorite color), AND HOLY « Puppy Doodoo », SHE'S A GEO. ITS BEEN A YEAR AND A HALF SINCE OUR LAST GEO. I'll be interested to see what her kit is. Everyone else is going to have to either impress me with their personality/story involvement because I tend to be immune to drooling over 2D waifus/husbandos unless they look close to my age or older. These young'ns do nothing for me lol.

Anime France is sure going to be... something. I'm honestly glad there's not going to be any more desert because I'm sick to death of sand. Having to explore the sewers will be... interesting, but as of now I'm just 'eh' on the new locale. Diving will probably be interesting, but I hope it doesn't overstay its welcome either.

I think I was hoping Fontaine would lean more heavily into a steam punk aesthetic, with the character we met...last patch? Legit can't remember. Steam punk in a water setting would be perfect, too! At least they would have a LITTLE more to play with in terms of "Anime France", but... yeah. It's not bad, just really heavily played out.

Aesthetically it has a lot of the same problems Inzazuma does... Which, to be fair, I thought a lot of the natural environments in Inazuma were gorgeous, but... the rest of it. Sigh. Mihoyo devs do better when they get to let their imaginations go a little more, imo.

Yellow girl is pretty cute! I think it'll depend how heavily she influences what geo can do as to if I have any interest, though. I have...I think I have all the currently available geo characters, and I love all of them. Except for Goro, I think they may be some of if not generally my favorites. But in terms of gameplay, geo is hard to love. There's still a chance, though!

--
Through Chapter 7 of Ghost Trick now. Pretty impressed with the storytelling so far. (Stories that manage to successfully blend large casts are my probably my favorite... because I'm not that good of a writer. Not the BEST job I've ever seen of doing that, but it's pretty great. Hard to pull off in a typical game dev setting.) A couple puzzle mechanics have been REALLY obtuse, but fun overall.

I don't see myself being a Ghost Trick evangelist, but...I'm already a fan, for sure.

I started playing harvest moon a wonderful life though I only played through the first day. I have to finish what I was playing first before I can continue that, but I didn't want to wait to start it. Got a little frustrated with the right joystick camera drifting too which at least helped with being able to put it down but really sucked. I tried to play some Pokemon a while back and it was literally impossible to play because the drift was so bad I couldn't click on anything I actually wanted to.

I got first events with gordy and then rock I think. If I'm remembering their names right. I have a full heart with rock and nobody else. I bought a bunch of seeds and planted them and only figured out where my milker was and remembered that I hadn't actually milked my cow late in the evening before I went to bed for the day. I don't know how I missed it because it really wasn't that hard to find. My character got dangerously close to fainting because I didn't start buying and planting seeds until late in the day but I fed him a weed and ran to bed as soon as I milked my cow. I'm much more organized now that I have all my seeds purchased and planted and I remembered milk exists. So I'll be ready for when I pick it up again.

So I've been building my backlog up while continuing to play Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life. I've added FFXVI, Atelier Marie, Oxenfree 2, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and two others on Steam that I can't remember right now.

I'm currently in Chapter 4 of SoSAWL and loving this remake much more than the other three versions. It'll be hard to even go back to the originals after playing this one.

So, when you're not playing with a deadline, Harvestella is great. I'm not far enough into the story to know what's going on, but it doesn't really matter...the gameplay balance is fantastic. And the environments are so magically pretty and the music is really nice, too.

Now that I don't have any reason to rush through the story to see as much as I can in the 15 days you're limited to by the demo (which is barely enough time to see the first story segment/dungeon...only if you rush.) Anyway, I'm really liking it, but I am SO TIRED...my head is in a permanent deep fog. Even when I'm not 'napping', I feel more asleep than awake. Even while really enjoying a game, book or movie (etc), I very frequently have to set it aside to lay down because I get heavier and heavier, and also increasingly stupid.

So I expect progress to continue to be sloooooooooow, even if I'm liking what I'm playing (though even worse when I'm not, of course!) Still, even with the combat, it's quite a chill game that you can take just as you want it, ime so far. I got a weapon upgrade, since I want as much of an edge in fighting as I can get. And I managed to grab the kitchen counter... reconstruction? not sure what they call it in game, since it's already IN your house, but you can't use it until the Reconstructor guy or whatever he's called fixes it back up for you. I guess you're basically living in an abandoned farm cottage/house that's gotten rickety over time, so everything needs some fixin'.

I wasn't sure if that was what I should go for first. I need to make MONEY, to get all the basic stuff. Wasn't 100% sure if I should go for the fishing lesson (or licence) for 800G or if I should get the kitchen (2000G!) to help me make money faster, but since I don't like fishing, I figure the kitchen's probably the better solution, since I do like the farming a lot. I still LOVE the watering wand. (Which is what I use in my own garden.) I love all the farming controls, actually. But I liked them even in the demo. The problematic parts of the demo seem to have been rebalanced since I played it...time on the world map is definitely slower, thank goodness. I wanted some tree saplings, but the grape is 2,000 and the chestnut is 2,200. But I got one for free out of a chest Higan Canyon, woot! Soon I can get the fishing option and the backpack upgrade, I hope. I should have planted just cucumbles from as early as I could, but you can't know that without experimenting, first.

Renovator! That's the guy who repairs your house bits.

Anyway, it's quite fun.

@Kikki

I think I remember people saying you don't really get much more money from cooking for the most part, but it's really important to have because you're going to want dishes for healing and to help you regain stamina so you can do stuff longer. Since you can't really attack or anything if you run out of stamina.

You can turn certain requested dishes you cook in to the inns once, for some money and other rewards though.

@Kikki

I just recently got back to playing Harvestella, myself! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. ^^
I can't remember what I did first, but I think getting the kitchen first is a good choice. The cooked dishes really do come in handy in when fighting, and also the art for the food is so darn pretty, so I always get excited about cooking new stuff for that if nothing else.
Money can be tough because seeds are SO expensive, but finding them as loot in dungeons like you mentioned is super helpful. I think you get them as quest rewards sometimes too, thankfully.

For Harvestella I found fishing to be pointless as I do in many games. Cooking is most valuable for healing, and getting those cute picnic conversations with your party sometimes. If I ever get back to it I need to find another means of healing though, you get full after eating so much then can't heal with food when you are getting trampled by a boss. That's where I got stuck last time I borrowed it, but it wasn't really an issue earlier on.

Had to delete the Pikmin 4 demo off my Switch as I was getting tired of playing the one stage 5 or 6 times, even to 99%. (Not sure what was missing) The other kids were disappointed, but took it in stride. My oldest still asks about it daily, sometimes multiple times! I briefly tried the demo for 3 to mix it up, thinking it would be a good idea since it was Pikmin also. No. Not at all. She hated it. I couldn't even get through the second character's intro. She kept saying, "No! Pikmin 4!" To be fair, after reading a synopsis of 3 it sounds like it would be quite different than 4, so I guess it's not Pikmin, it's Pikmin 4 she loves. Lol. I do think that Pikmin 4 may join the family for Christmas.

Not much else new getting played, just doing some shiny hunting and Stardew lately. Looking forward to Sandrock, but that's not until September.

@Kikki:
More Harvestella thoughts.

How valuable fishing is depends on how much you want to min-max. Early game it's kinda vital. In my entire time playing the game I never found a game breaking, make/grow/cook a bunch of X to get all the money you need. The game REALLY encourages you to do a little of everything. (Which for the most part was great. Almost as good as Portia for an addictive gameplay loop.) For ME personally I fished at least until my stamina was drained every day for most of my playthrough. That was the best way to keep up enough pocket money to keep buying more seeds. (Otherwise it's fine to sleep early and cycle through seasons quicker. If I ever replay the game, that's probably what I'd do. There's no penalty either way.)

Cooking is shockingly undervalued, money wise. If you're not cooking for yourself, or party conversations, it's pointless. (Party conversations were something I never did much of either, since they were so situational. And even cooking for healing was kind of expensive, compared to harvestable herbs.)

Oh hey, everybody here's played Harvestella, huh? That makes it easier for me, who's coming in late on it, after others have already finished it.

Yes, I have TWO inn quests for food, though I don't have any Nemean recipes yet, just Lethe. I've managed to turn in 3 so far. Each inn asks for what I think are regional dishes, about 10 of them, and the reward increases with each one. The first one is already 1,000G! The last one is 10,000G. All together it adds up to 38,500 G PLus that's just one inn's requests. I think you get the same thing in each seasonal town, probably for the same rewards, which is 154,000 G in all.

I think that's why everyone was saying to get that kitchen right away when I looked up how to make money. Also, repeating crops are pretty good cash, especially if they overseason, like tomatoes.

As for eating for healing, I read that you're better off to go with juices, as they either don't contribute to fullness, or contribute much less, so you can take way more of them even though they heal just as much. (They also only take one food item, so it's very economical use of supplies.)

Thanks to all my inn rewards, plus some decent farming (Cucumbles! Also constant replanting of gifted and looted carrops and lettuces.) I've managed to upgrade one weapon, upgrade the farm once, get the fishing rod, a backpack expansion, and some accessories. Not doing too bad for still being in the first season, I think, though I don't have anything to compare to. It's not stressful at all, though...I'm really comfortable going at my own pace, and the blend of things to do in this game is fantastic, suits me perfectly.

This is not a game for someone who specifically wants a farming sim, though, nor for someone who is expecting a JRPG, imo. You have to like both a lot for this to be the perfect game, cuz you can't get around doing both about equally, at least the way I'm playing it. Having 3 party members has also made the fighting way easier. My two up-close fighters are really good at keeping the enemies away from me when I take on the mage role. (I normally don't care for distance fighting, but this gives me more room to do healing and item using, as well, since the other party members don't do that.)

They have done a few annoying things, kind of typical Square Enix style, but it seems great, so far...the little annoyance don't add up to much.

Still haven't caught a single fish, lol. Tried it about half a dozen times, but I'm supposed to wait for the bobber to go down and a splash, but when that happens and I yank the line back, it says I didn't catch anything, so I must have to wait for a bigger splash, or something. Maybe I'm drawing the line it at a mere nibble rather than the full bite.

~

EDIT: So, I was right about fishing...I was pressing Catch on just a nibble. The good news is, fishing in this game is fool-proof. At least for me. The SPLASH is so loud and startling, I JUMP when I hear it and my thumb reflexively slams down on the Catch button, lol, so it's insta-catch every time, so far.

I have so much stuff...I think it's going very well. Managed to get a cluffowl pen (I think that's what they're called) and a cluffowl and feed and a feed maker, plus all the Nemean recipes. Now I'm getting poor again but I think I can get a cow pen (though I'm sure they're called something else) before too long...or whatever other upgrade I should get. And JUST when I was about to run off to buy more stellar wheat, my little farm buddy shouted to me that I had mail...and it was 9 wheat seeds from the mayor. He's given me a lot of good stuff!

It's a great game I drank some tea just to wake myself up enough to play this evening. Nice to have a clear head for a little while!

Seems like a lot of people have played... I remember there being a few people on the forum who beat it besides me, too!

Yeah, iirc juices don't contribute anything to fullness... They do only take one item slot, but stacks only go up to 9 for drink items, so it's neither here nor there. You'll still fill up your inventory. Drinks also don't provide any stat buffs...and are pretty minimal healing as the game goes on. For as early as you are, probably herbs for everything but bosses and FEARs, and juices will let you knock those down easy enough. As the game goes on you'll get a better sense of what works for you. Iirc...there are dishes that contribute to certain jobs as well, physical damage boost, magic boost, as well as defense boosts. So they're very worthwhile, just situationally. Trash mobs you'll never need them.

I think I did a lot of fishing just because I was trying to min-max. They're not worth a lot individually, but if you can earn an extra 3-500 G per day, that's that many more crops to fill the field with, or start saving up for next season's trees, etc. And especially if you can fish while you're waiting on a quest to trigger, it's free money.

Game definitely rewards engagement... It says something that talking about it is making me want to do another playthrough. It would probably be enough to scratch the farming sim itch until Sandrock releases.

Edit: Either Steam is freaking out or there's a way to skip content in Ghost Trick... because more people have finished Chapter 9 than Chapter 8. I don't get it. Maybe there's some way to just...roll right into 9 without finishing 8? NO idea. May have to Google it once I beat the game. Not worth the spoiler risk now though.

Ah, Kikki, I had the same problem with fishing when I first started playing. I kept reeling in early and going "...What am I doing wrong??"
Past that, it's super easy though, so when I have extra stamina at the end of the day I just fish and sell everything I catch.
The rewards from turning in dishes to the Inns were so helpful! They helped me get a lot of upgrades that I was lagging behind on otherwise.

Mikodesu wrote: It says something that talking about it is making me want to do another playthrough. It would probably be enough to scratch the farming sim itch until Sandrock releases.

That's exactly the reason I've gone back to it, haha. I put Sandrock EA down so that I can come back to it fresh after the full release, but I've been missing it, so I'm glad to have other farming sims to fall back on while I wait!