#I’m not really a fan of the ui tho so I’m probably not gonna use it moving forward

[mccbrackets]

[theeeveetamer]

I just wanna talk about the new Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon game for a second because honestly like

A(nother) Wonderful Life (the OG for the GameCube) was always such a fascinating entry to me because it’s quite literally one of the most barebones and easiest entries in the entire series. Like, there’s only four festivals, only a handful of random events, probably the smallest farm of any entry, it’s super easy to build friendship and villagers don’t have that much dialogue… yet if you ask any fan of the series they’ll probably still rate it highly. And I’m the same! I absolutely love the game!

I really do think the game’s simplicity is what makes it stand out in the grand scheme of things. It’s just a chill lil game that doesn’t require much from you and you can kind of take it at your own pace. And it has less of the like… massive farming empire vibes? of other entries or a game like Stardew Valley. More like a little homestead.

I think the remake really captures that essence too, but with improvements. I wanna talk about what I think they improved on a bit, more under the cut cuz it’s gonna get long.

I haven’t timed it, but the days feel MUCH quicker in the remake. In the OG it felt like you could get absolutely everything done (farming, running around and gifting + collecting all the flowers and such) by about 2 pm. I thiiiiink that was to give you time to do the archaeology and fishing and whatnot, but IMO the days in the original still moved way too slowly (also didn’t the game time pause while fishing and stuff? It doesn’t anymore)

Tool upgrades! The tools now have copper, silver, and gold variants that can be bought from Van assuming certain criteria are met, which means you can easily upgrade your stuff without having to know obscure triggers (e.g. befriending Romana and coming to her room at a certain time to get the watering can that can water 9 squares at a time). This makes it actually worthwhile to use all of your farmland AND water it twice a day, since it’s no longer going to take you hours of button mashing just to water everything.

Obvious but all the glitches are fixed now too. So Van no longer comes every day of the week, selling a calf doesn’t permanently lock a barn slot (what killed my first playthrough), etc.

The bulletin board is a nice way to help players gain friendship/pass the time but in a slightly different way. Plus it will notify you of important items, like the alarm clock!

The festivals are MUCH harder to miss now

I believe they added more little cutscenes (or at least possibly made them easier to trigger)

You can marry anyone! You can also pick your character’s pronouns so you can officially play a non-binary character. They do only let you pick between he/him, she/her, and they/them tho.

Adding onto that, they let you have a daughter finally, without any bullshit.

There’s kind of an inbuilt achievement system, which I think actually does wonders for helping give you direction while playing. Stuff like fish up so many types of fish, have so many animals born on your farm, etc. I don’t know if it’s possible to get all of them in a single playthrough but I am actually trying

The UI is MUCH clearer and more informative with stuff like showing you your exact stamina and energy levels

The cows no longer have to be bred to continue giving milk. I know some people probably won’t like this much since it added a bit of realism to the game, but I prefer it this way tbh. Because of the way breeding worked in the old game you basically always had a cow that wasn’t giving you milk, cutting into your profit margins

The goat. iykyk

Downgrades

They Bishiefied Cody (Gordy now) :( I wish the SoS games allowed their bachelor(ette)s to have more body diversity in general. Woulda married that man in a heartbeat with his OG design lemme tell you

The fucking territory mini game is still here. And you have to win ten games to earn a music record. Help.

[jourdannf]

Looking for new friends and company!!!

Hi! I haven’t been on tumblr on months which has been great for me but that also means that I’m pretty sure a lot of the people I follow have forgotten who I am. I’m currently looking to make some cool friends who are interested in music, tv shows, and tea (like the drink, not the gossip variety). I will say now that I will constantly share with you the music that I make as I am an aspiring singer-songwriter, so you’re gonna have to be okay with that. Here are some things that I like:

my dog

dodie

tessa violet (esp when she’s on twitter)

katelyn tarver

cavetown

old disney music

aly and aj

big time rush

laundry day

lorde

phoebe bridgers

lucy dacus

boygenius

taylor swift

oh wonder

conan gray

claud

snail mail

sabrina carpenter

any music really just send it to me and i’ll probably like it

tea (like i said before the drink not the gossip type; my fav is earl grey)

pasta,,, like any type of pasta i’m a fan of

beyond meat as i am vegan and this is my preferred expensive meat substitute

legacies/tvdu (i’m kind of getting into it w the podcast i make called afterbite podcast if you’re interested)

the 100 (their fandom is kind of toxic tho so idk)

degrassi

teen wolf

one tree hill

the oc

killing eve

netflix documentaries/docu-series

the good place

the office

brooklyn nine nine (basically all the mike schur shows i’ve watched them)

h20 just add water

runaways

cloak and dagger

probably more stuff but you get the vibes

ummmmm this is a long list but idc. anyways in my free time i make music and stickers and i used to make gifs but not really anymore. i also am planning on going into a career of ui/ux design since the whole youtube thing isn’t working out too well. anyways please follow me i beg of thee bc i need company. goodbye

[aurimeanswind]

Your E3 Predictions!—Sunday Chats—6/3/18

I’m very excited about this week’s Sunday Chats because it’s all about E3 predictions! This time next week, we’ll BE INSIDE E3! I’ll have seen Microsoft/EA/and Bethesda’s pressers come the next Sunday Chats, and I’ll be writing about them, probably! I may or may not do a Sunday Chats, but we’ll see!

To catch folks up, this week has been a full-force build up to E3 for me. A new Episode of Get Acquainted posted, with my friend Brandon Gann, who is just an incredibly wonderful and amazing loquacious individual, and we spend two plus hours talking E3! We had a ton of predictions and great conversations around all of them! You should give it a listen!

http://irrationalpassions.com/brandon-gann-e3-predictions-get-acquainted/

On this week’s Irrational Passions Podcast we had my other good friend Logan Moore on to make some E3 BETS! Nabeshin was kind enough to put together 25 amazing bets for us and a ton of lightening round bets on top of that, and it was super fun. You can watch the video version of that WITH bonus content right now, and the fully edited version will post on Tuesday.

So it’s all about E3, but before we get to that, a little personal update.

Personal Update for June

So any one close to me will no that the last week of my life has been exceptionally difficult. Some folks close to me, both physically and emotionally have been making decisions that have been pretty toxic, I can’t lie. It’s led to a pretty unhealthy living situation that I’d rather not get into, and whether things blow over, get worse, I’m not sure. I obviously don’t want to spill any personal juice here, but anyone who has seen me out here tweeting like the dramatic boi I am on the inside about how I need some good vibes, that’s a general overview of the situation, if you were concerned.

I’m thankful for all my close friends out there texting me, checking on me, and making sure I am doing okay, even if I’m not. It is upsetting that this just so happens to coincide with the busiest time of the year in video games, so if this bleeds over into our content over on Irrational Passions I apologize. Sometimes its a bit unavoidable.

Anyway, I appreciate you all taking the time to interact and be a part of my silly Selfie Saturdays or Sunday Chats, it means the world. I’ve been working hard with the team @ Irrational Passions to make some really fun stuff, including a new show that acts as a spiritual successor to our roundtables from 2017 Game of the Year talks.

That’s all we need to dwell on in regards to the bummer business, let’s get to games!

What’s on Tap

Moonlighter

So I just started this tonight and I have to say: right away I just love it.

The idea is you live in a small town that neighbors these ancient ruins that lead to these very dangerous dungeons, and once upon a time travelers and adventurers used to come here to explore those dungeons, and merchants would sell supplies and goodies to gear them up for those journeys. Eventually it grew too dangerous, but you are someone who Moonlights as an adventurer and runs a shop on the front end.

You dive into these dungeons and get awesome treasure and loot and goodies to then sell in your shop to expand your shop, get better weapons and armor, and continue deeper into the dungeons. It’s an amazing idea, and it’s executed on so well.

The game sustains such a great and rewarding loop, and it’s also got tons of charm and amazingly well executed on pixel art.

On top of that the UI is also just very good? It’s super slick and smooth. 

I’m only a couple hours in but I just adore it. Mike Burgess, producer at IP, did a video review on it that I saw the first cut of today and it’s actually what sold me on it. See it soon!

Detroit Become Human

I’ve already said so much about this game I’m exhausted. I love this game.

It has so many issues and in spite of all that, I genuinely adored my time with Detroit.

Our roundtable discussion was about this very game, so look for it soon.

Dark Souls Remastered

This game is still so good. I think I may like it even more than Dark Souls 3, a game I picked up just very briefly a few weeks ago.

I’ve now got the power to fast travel and am just warping around and exploring again. I even dipped my toe into the DLC area which I have never seen before. 

It’s excellent, and seeing it run smooth has been super rewarding for me, a longtime fan of the title.

Your E3 Predictions

Let’s get to it! This week, something I haven’t done in a bit, I asked you for your boldest E3 predictions, and while some of you gave me a good joke, a lot of you came back at me with some great predictions!

Let’s get into it!

Remember to look for my tweet on Sunday afternoons/evenings with #SundayChats in it and respond to it with your reply to be a part of Sunday Chats!

Now listen, I know this was clearly written as a joke Sam, but I think that this announcement is coming, just not here. It’s a PSX announcement, if ANY, because that’s the only place it can be really gernally accepted as an “announcement”. It’d get a big riot of an applause.

I’d love this. I think they have such a “robust” (#branding) library of handheld games that it’d make too much sense to carry them over to their now partially handheld big console.

Will it happen? Well, I mean Nintendo has said no virtual console on Switch. But they’ve changed their mind, even if it has been rare, in the past before. While it could happen down the line, this up coming direct is about 2017, so I don’t think we’ll see it there.

Nah John.

You need to stop.

But... Well

I mean maybe?

MAYBE.

Maybe?

Finally. Some announcements we, as “hardcore gamers” care about.

Some cars

Fuckin.

On stage.

The cars have sex.

And birth a motorcycle.

I love this Peter. I mean, for some reason I guess folks think that Emma Stone will be the female actress pulled into Death Stranding, and I think there will likely be a big female reveal at some point, I don’t know why everyone thinks it’ll be Emma Stone? I bet there is a good reason out there, I just don’t know. I’m not complaining, Emma Stone is great.

I am definitely with you on the “deep dive”, though I don't think there will be a long explanation of things, just a nice gameplay demo. My theory I posited on Get Acquainted was like an 8 minute trailer that leads into about four minutes of gameplay at the end, but it’s just enough cinematic that we’re convinced there will be no gameplay, and then BOOM. There is.

I could see them saying 2019 at the end too, though I doubt they’ll hit it.

YOU DONT BRANDON GOODBYE.

Nah of course. 

We talked about this on our show, obvs, everyone please go listen to it, but NO FINAL FANTASY 7. IT WONT HAPPEN. Square Enix needs to figure that shit out, and so they’ll come back to it when it, and more importantly, THEY’RE ready to.

Here’s hoping for some dope Xbox Avatars.

I mean, it’s gotta be the time, right? I need to know what this Resident Evil 2 Remake looks like. I know the director was out there talking about it not terribly too long ago, and it just feels like ages since we heard about it. With Capcom announcing RE7 and then releasing it 6 months later, on top of Monster Hunter World’s recent success, they are on a great path! Time to continue it!

As for DMC 5 I mean everyone seems convinced it’s coming and I just don’t care.

I love the Rocksteady prediction, because they’ve been cooking that bad boy for a good long while. I hope it’s Superman because I have supreme faith they’ll knock it out of the park. Maybe even an origin story? I’d love to see Rocksteady do one of those.

And I do, also, believe that Shadows Die Twice is Tenchu.

Dishonored getting a reboot I just don’t see happening. I think it’s time Arkane moves onto some new IP. Something that is hopefully a bit more eye-catchy so they get get back into a popular circle, then maybe spend a few years making iterations of that. Maybe in a few years past that they can return to Dunwall and take another crack at Dishonored.

Doom 2 can be wherever the hell it wants and I am HERE for it. But judging by the sounds of things that may not be at this E3, and that’s okay. It makes me sad, but it’s okay.

Man. I fucking wish.

Them or Bioware. I’d love to have just an original story told at Hogwarts where you create your character and go through 7 years at the school and it’s great and it has dialogue wheels and it’s great. Feed me Bioware.

It’d never happen tho.

This would be very cool. I feel like this Star Fox Grand Prix rumor is too big to ignore, but it’s still a little far fetched. I wonder how they’d sell it, if it is real.

Honestly, not that far out there. Kingdom Hearts don’t give a fuck about Red Dead.

Here is my thing, I just don’t think an ARMs character will make it into the Smash roster because no one cares about ARMs and I don’t think they’d be crazy interesting. Who would it be? Twintelle? I mean she is super cool, but who knows!

THey’d make great assist trophies, and I know that’s a slight but I’m sorry.

PUT GENO IN.

Anyway, if they put Banjo and Kazooie in I’d literally start crying right then and there, and it may happen, who knows, but I would. I’d cry.

I think there could be a direct apology. It depends. I think within 15 minutes or so we will know if EA has changed their tone or not. Hell, within 2 minutes we’ll know. If they want to actually be well regarded, they need to start making big moves, and right now, they’re not. Period. Come out and own up to what you’ve done wrong, or GTFO. They need to make up ground on the PR front, even if they’re still making money hand over fist. 

I’m sorry times are tough Silver, but know that I’m sending good vibes your way!

I wonder if Microsoft would make such a bold move. Regardless, it’s a great bold prediction. I hope that they are gonna give it some more time, and let this generation cook a little more. I’m digging my Xbox One X, and them implying a replacement is coming next year or so would bum me out.

Finally. The battle Royale Battle Royale we’ve all been waiting for. 

And as the dust settles, there’s sha’boi Griffin. Standing on top. Winner of them all.

And let’s not front: I’d kill to listen to Donald Glover sing Parappa songs.

Thank you all so much for your predictions! I’ve had a ton out there all week, and the Get Acquainted Episode I think has them out there in the best way. Go check them out! Either way, I’m so excited for E3, not necessarily to see if my predictions came true, but just for the hype of it all and my inevitable editorial after its all said and done about my thoughts and feelings coming out of it.

So. Big Sunday Chats update. I may be making a BIG CHANGE to Sunday Chats in the coming weeks. There is some ironing out I need to figure out personally, but I just wanted to give you faithful readers a little heads up. This could be something that becomes a proper part of IrrationalPassions.com, and for that, I’m very excited. The biggest thing is it may mean I start soliciting questions on Saturday! Stay tuned for my twitter for that.

It wouldn’t be a big change for you all, so don’t stress about it too much, but I wanted to seed it out there.

I love you all and your support, especially in these dark dog days of summer I am in. Thank you for the perpetual good vibes. 

I hope you all are here for the E3 hype, but if not, that’s okay. Regardless, thank you for reading, and

keep it real.

(the Naruto kick not only continues, but never ends.)