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cursedwateringcan · 4 years ago

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Alright, I feel like I've played enough PoOT now to give you guys a run down on what I think. The TL;DR version of what I think is that, while there is still fun to be had, its a fairly mediocre experience and thats unfortunate. let’s start off with the bad. The Bad - Frame rate issues are still a thing despite the update. Now, I have literally the oldest switch, like its literally from launch in 2017 so I don't know if that has anything to do with it, so please keep that in mind. I’d be interested to know if people with newer switches are still experiencing any frame rate issues after the patch. The only thing I can think as to WHY this is, is that perhaps there is some asset optimisation issues and potential occlusion culling issues, which CAN be solved with further updates, but as of now, frame rate is still a thing. It’s not like its chugging all the time, just when I have a lot on screen, like when my sprinklers go off. Loading times between areas seem fine though? - I read the reviews about the dialogue, and it IS pretty bad. The events and heart events are so far pretty fun and give you a good idea about characters but this doesn't carry over to the daily conversations. And its a shame because there is such a big cast! Characters don’t seem to have special heart lines, or at least, I’m not good enough friends with characters to be able to tell? They talk a lot about town improvements, farming tips and festivals but all seem fairly cardboard cut out. I know they are potentially addressing this in a patch, so hopefully it improves. - While it was pointed out to me that there has been a bunch of Harvest Moon games without character portraits, I have to say I think that this game certainly seems to either need portraits, or sort out their cameras when talking to NPCs, because you can’t often see their faces when you talk to them. (although, having the camera too shallow would cause more frame rate issues lawl) - I don’t like that you can basically only have one meal (except you can have as much dessert as you like) for most of the day. Makes going to the mines really annoying, because I can’t top up my energy. - I can tell the makers are going to peeve me off eventually. I wish you could load them as much as you like, not just one thing as at a time. I swear this was done in Trio of Towns? - I don’t like that I can order a pizza at the cafe, but still be eating a fish in the cutscene. - Speaking of cutscenes, this is just a minor pet peeve but some of the introduction cutscenes just don’t seem to appear very naturally like they have in the past, like, store scenes triggered before I even met the store owner? Also the ‘harvest goddess’ cut scenes I don’t understand at all. I have no idea what I’m doing to trigger them or what her point is. The Mediocre. - It seems like its going to be a pretty easy game. I’m only in summer now but I’ve already made three improvements to the town. Town improvements requests don’t make sense to me because the mayor might ask for 5 lumber, 10 glass, and a brick, but give him the brick and you don’t need to give the rest? - Overall there isn’t much to explore, and that will change with the DLC, but a lot of people don’t want to buy/can’t afford it! At least a couple of other areas would have been nice. - Its quite obvious they’re taking influence from SDV and Animal Crossing. (Which I’m sure is funny for the creator of SDV since that game is basically a love letter to Harvest Moon!) but I don’t think any of it is pulled off particularly well. Its not terrible, but it’s not great. I like the tent at the beginning (although it felt obvious that it was animal crossing inspired?) because it makes sense in context. But the museum I’m not super into, the items you get are annoying because they don’t stack so they take up so much room and you can’t appraise multiple things at once. I am absolutely not a fan of the new fishing. I still don’t understand it. - I don’t understand why some things are makers, and some things are recipes? Like, why do I need a maker to make bricks, but I just have a recipe for mortar? The Good

- I do actually like the farm land, its keeping me very busy and I like being able to customise all of it. - Despite the characters seeming like cardboard to interact with, the character models are actually quite awesome. - I like the details in the town. Being able to run around and take pictures with the camera is fun and seeing all the baby pics on the wall! - Mines are back!! Mines Mines Mines! Hooray! - Character customisation is good, its interesting the way that gender is presented in PoOT. I think thats it’s really good not being locked into ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ style of dress/body shape. (although you still have to pick between female/male pronouns and they can’t be changed). - Events and heart events are good. - All the animals are super cute, and I have a dog called B E A N B O Y. Ok the good list seems really short because I can’t think of anything else. I’ll keep playing because i’m still having fun, I still have plenty to do. But it certainly did grip me as much as trio of towns. I think it’ll be better when they patch it.

#story of seasons #story of seasons pioneers of olive town #lets see if I enjoy the rest

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love-bokumono-fics · 4 years ago

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in your opinion, which harvest moon or sos games are worth playing and which are not? Are the older titles worth it?

So I have to confess, I have played relatively few HM/SoS games to completion. "Completion" meaning: over a year in-game played, got married, had a kid, and/or completed whatever story there is to be done. I am also of the mind that if something makes me happy, regardless of how old, or objectively "bad" it might be considered, it's worth playing. It makes me happy, it's time well spent.

So if you're looking for an actual critical, and well thought out review of the games, I am not the blog to ask. There are lots of other people out there who have given more thought to the matter than I have.

For the record, the games I have played are: Back to Nature, HM 3 GBC, (More) Friends of Mineral Town, Island of Happiness, Save the Homeland, SoS1, Trio of Towns, SoS Friends of Mineral Town, and I'm working my way through Pioneers of Olive Town.

I've played a little bit of Tale of Two Towns, and A New Beginning, but I didn't get very far in either of those before getting distracted with other things. I enjoyed them while I was playing, but also neither of them captured my attention enough to stay invested long term. Make of that what you will.

I never played any of the titles that were released on Game Cube or Wii, and I basically didn't play anything between 2007 and 2014. Which some people will say is when the best games came out, and I missed out on the best titles, but I never played them so I can't offer an opinion on them. And I haven't played any of the Harvest Moon titles since the split.

So of the ~25 games that we have under the Hm/SoS umbrella, I've played 10, and 4 of them are technically the same game remade on different consoles so let's say 6. Several of the games I played as a literal child, and when I upgraded to the next technology generation, I lost my ability to play them. Others I picked up again as an adult and thoroughly enjoyed my time playing.

As for the "worth" of the game, it really depends on what you, personally, want from your game. I've already given you my definition of "worth". I realize it is not Everyone's definition of "worth". Nonny, I suspect, that since you're asking me in the first place, "it makes me happy" isn't the only reason you want/need to invest time and effort into playing a game. I cannot tell you which games you think will be "worth it."

I think each game has it's own value. It offers something that other's don't. Different characters, different farming mechanics, different stories, and I think each one, in its own way has some value to impart on the players.

My long-time favorite game has been the Mineral Town games, ever since we got BTN in 2000 I fell in love with the premise, the characters, the setting. I bought the gameboy versions when they hit stores, and they are the games I most consistently return to when I want something comfortable.

Compared to recent games though, the Mineral Town ones are Really Basic. And while I love the games for their nostalgia, I know some people will be bored to tears by them of they go from playing the more recent games to that. Even when FoMT hit the switch last sumer I had a bit of whiplash going "oh, there's so little on the calendar, and I only have how many different crops to grow? nothing grows in winter? okay." because I had just come off from playing Trio of Towns.

If you want to be busy and have 100 goals to meet, stick to the newer games. If you just wanna chill and do whatever, try some of the older games if you can.

I think, if you have the time/ability to go back and play the old games, and you want to do it, then by all means, go for it!

A lot of them are only available to play on technology that a lot of people don't have floating around their homes anymore. If they didn't get a next gen port to an easily accessible console, so unless you still have a functioning PS2 or GBA, you're not going to have the chance to play them. Yeah, emulators are out there and they work, but in my experience they're also annoying and buggy, and not an ideal way to play the games. If you have the consoles, but not the games, getting your hands on copies can be very expensive.

You are already prone to play the old games. You're gonna play them regardless of my opinions on them. You're gonna shell out the cash or set up the emulator, or dust off the Wii and pray it still works, and i hope you enjoy your time playing!

These games have been coming out over 20+ years at this point, and while many of them are just remakes/reskins/girl versions, that's still so much time covered in video game technology. And comparing the earliest games to the most recent ones is more of an exercise in frustration and futility. You're never going to find the right answer.

(I also don't know what your personal gauge for 'old' is, Nonny. Because Old for me are games that are 20 years old. Old for you might be games that are 5 years old, which was like... last week from my perspective, so...)

All this to say, I guess I'll give a brief opinion on the games I have played, and y'all can make your decisions as you please from there.

Back to Nature/Mineral Town Games: My OG game. Always holds a dear spot in my heart for nostalgia. Love the town, love the characters, love the music, can do no wrong, a very enjoyable, if basic, farming game. Easy to play for a bit, set down for a while, and pick up and play again without feeling like you've forgotten you were in the middle of something important.

HM GBC 3: Pretty sure I was 10 last time I played it, so grain of salt. I found it more boring than the MT games, the town and maps were smaller, none of the characters had portraits, I didn't really get all of the details to make the farm work. I'm sure if I went back now as an adult I would have a better time, but I have no desire to emulate it. If you want to emulate it, go for it, but be warned that if you play as a girl, the game ends after you get married. Doesn't do that if you play as a boy so...

Save the Homeland: I kept going back to replay this game for years. I thought the premise was fun, and I always wanted to try and get all of the endings, but never did. I would buy it again in a heartbeat if it got remastered. Different from other games tho, in that you only get one year to play and get an ending, and once you do, the game restarts you at Spring 1 and nobody knows who you are again. You get to keep your animals and house upgrades, but there's no dating and marriage.

Island of Happiness: I love the setting and the characters, but god FUCK that weather system. Can't get shit to grow unless you obsessively track if it rains and how sunny it is and it completely ruined the game for me. I tried playing it again a couple years back and couldn't be bothered to keep tracking stuff. I never once unlocked all of the crops or livestock on any of my playthroughs. Did manage to play long enough to get married once.

SoS1: The game that convinced me to go back to buying new stuff after IoH kind of put me off new HM games for the better part of a decade (I had FoMT to replay it was fine). Liked it well enough, thought some of the characters were a bit bland, but still enjoyable enough to get married and have a kid. Unlocking all the vendors is a bitch though, and I still haven't gotten them all. A fine game, but if you're only going to play One 3DS game, I wouldn't suggest this one.

Trio of Towns: This one ties with FoMT as my favorite game! I love everything about it. The Characters, the setting and premise, the music, the depth of events. There's so much to do, there's never a boring day, but that can also feel overwhelming if you're the kind if person who tries to do everything at once. Not as easy to pick up and put down as some of the more basic games, but it's very replayable in my book and I keep coming back to it.

Pioneers of Olive Town: It's a middling game for me. Like SoS1, it's fine, but unlike SoS1, there's very little to do in the game. I completed the "main story" in less than a year without putting in much effort to complete things in a timely manner. The characters and the game had So Much Potential, particularly after 3oT, and all of it fell flat in my expectations. Plus some of the technical issues we all experienced at launch. Now, I'm still playing it, I don't hate the game, and the updates have made things better. But with the story done and all of the characters feeling a bit Flat, I'm biding my time between DLC updates to see if I want to marry any of the special candidates instead of the base game characters. I'll probably keep playing long enough to get married and probably unlock everything on the farm, but beyond that I'm not super invested.

My final verdict is, if you have a 3DS, get Trio of Towns, if you only have a Switch, get Friends of Mineral Town. If you want to put forth the time and effort into acquiring the old games, or emulating them, by all means go for it.

#this is probably not a satisfactory answer but I am not the person to ask to make objective declaration on what is the best/worst #especially when there are over 20 games to pick from and 20+ years to look through!#nothing made in the 90s is ever going to be on the same fair playing field as stuff made in the 10s #comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges. both round tree fruits but beyond that they differ so much #replies #anonymous #this got so long. idk how to have concise opinions #i must over explain everything so people don't misinterpret me

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playernumberv · 4 years ago

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Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Review—The game where inventory management is the true villain

Platform played on: Nintendo Switch

Hours played: 50+ hours; played till Spring of Year 2, completed all pioneering events and married Linh

Reviewer’s Note: This game launched with major issues, and I hence waited until most of them were fixed via patches before starting the game. This review is hence based on version 1.0.5 of the game.

I expected to write this review with an overwhelmingly negative tone, chastising the series for having lost its way, for completely missing the mark—and this, to some extent, does indeed hold true. But the fact is: I also had a lot of fun with Pioneers of Olive Town. It is wildly imperfect, and a thorough list of every single problem with this game would probably be enough to write an entire novel with, but still: I had fun. The game scratched an itch I had for a relaxing farming simulator, and it did so competently enough that I managed to keep going for fifty hours before I finally got bored and decided to call it quits. See, Pioneers of Olive Town does get a lot of the fundamentals right. The basic reward loop it establishes of building up a new farm, gradually upgrading your facilities, expanding the game-play options available to you, customizing aspects of your farm, etcetera is quite satisfying. I enjoyed the sense of reward and accomplishment I felt watching the untamed wilderness of my farm gradually come within my control. I enjoyed watching my farm grow from a few measly disorganized patches of crops to large, organized areas of farming patches outfitted with automated sprinklers. I enjoyed increasing the variety of animals I was able to rear. I enjoyed venturing into newer mines, mining for more valuable ores, and eventually upgrading my tools and my house with the new materials available. I enjoyed watching my profit margin go exponentially upwards as I gained better and better control over the mechanics of the game. Farming simulators—and life simulators in general—are fundamentally built on such a reward loop. Pioneers of Olive Town at least gets this fundamental aspect right, and it happened to fill a particular desire I had to play a game like this, and so I enjoyed it very much.

None of this is to say that Pioneers of Olive Town isn’t ridiculously flawed in an exceedingly large number of ways. As my sub-headline might have suggested, inventory management in this game is an utter nightmare. Previous games in the series have always utilized an integrated storage system that can be expanded in capacity and had convenient sorting functions. Pioneers of Olive Town inexplicably requires you to use separate storage boxes which do not allow for shared access and has no sorting function whatsoever. In other words, inventory management in this game is completely manual—you have to remember exactly which storage box you placed a certain item is, and if you want it organized neatly, you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time organizing it by hand. It’s completely insensible and incomprehensible why such a design was employed. The removal of character portraits is yet another insensibly bad design choice as it drastically undermines engagement and investment in the characters of the game—without the portraits to convey expression, these characters simply feel far more lifeless and far less charming. In the same vein, the absence of a wide variation in seasonal festivals—as was traditional in the series—makes the game feel more like a mechanical simulation of farming rather than one that feels alive. On a more technical level, the Nintendo Switch also genuinely struggles to run the game—I am unsure if this is down to hardware limitations or poor optimization, but I experienced severe frame rate drops, stutters, and even temporary freezes very frequently, and this is on patch 1.0.5, where such issues were supposed to have been improved. I could honestly go on and on—the makers, the lackadaisical ‘story’ (of course, narrative is not the main focus of such games), the extremely poorly-executed season pass, the poor execution of farm customization mechanics, and so on.

Pioneers of Olive Town is a fun game, but is compromised on so many fronts that it is merely fun, but not charming. I have very fond memories of playing this series back when it still went by the Harvest Moon moniker, and even back in the early days of the ‘Story of Seasons’ title—back then, these games were exceedingly charming and enjoyable games, and I always looked forward to every new iteration of it. Unfortunately, if it hasn’t already lost its way, it is well on the path to doing so. Unless future iterations of the series seriously reflect on player feedback and seriously reflect on what it was that made its predecessors so beloved and charming, I fear this series will never again be what it once was.

Gameplay score: B+ Storyline score: B- Characters score: B Aesthetics score: B+ Enjoyment score: A-

Overall Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town score: 78/100

#story of seasons #pioneers of olive town #harvest moon #nintendo #nintendo switch #xseed #gaming #games #review

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guerilla935 · 5 years ago

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Modern Role Playing Games For People That Want To Get Into RPG‘s

You may have heard of a little game that’s come out recently called Final Fantasy VII Remake. There has been a lot of talk about this game having inspired a lot of people to play a game that they skipped back in the day or inspired them to pick up another RPG because they were so engaged in it. Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t going to make it into this article because I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. But if you’ve always been curious about the RPG genre or maybe you have just finished Final Fantasy VII Remake and are hungry for more, I have a pretty good selection of RPG’s that could offer you the chance to get into a genre of games that maybe you hadn’t considered before. The games on the list are primarily “modern” and what I mean by that is the games will not be SNES era games but rather games that are probably more accessible and easier on the eyes. The games are (as always) limited to what I have had the chance to play. And the games that have been selected were chosen based on the following criteria: low complexity of combat, world building, leveling curve (lack of grinding), and visual appeal. Some of you may want to dive straight into the deep end and download some anime RPG on Steam or find a copy of Chrono Trigger or some certain PS1/NES era RPG and if you can do that then you are an absolute trooper but this post will focus on newer titles rather than the classics. Also if you want me to spotlight a game that you want to recommend put it in the notes because I love getting suggested games! And if you have any questions my messages are always open and I have all the free time to answer them. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way here are games that I recommend as good starting places if you want to get into RPG’s.

Kingdom Hearts

(PS2/PS3/PS4/XBOne)

Kingdom Hearts is a cross over series that blended the worlds of Final Fantasy with Disney. What makes this game attractive to new players is the Disney half and what hooks them in is the Final Fantasy half. The game is easy to pick up and keeps you consistently engaged in enough story and new locations to keep you wanting more after the credits role. The combat is easy, only requiring a few buttons and allows the player to advance effortlessly without having to worry about their gear or level. The platforming sections help form a cohesive world that is small enough to allow its player to mentally map the whole game easily. The game still tosses around complex themes and sullen moments so it is still very viable to play for adults even though it may take you a good while to start seeing the fruits of that. This is an easy pickup for anyone that is thinking that just maybe they want to try a role playing game that tells a large story in a manageable amount of time that doesn’t require a huge amount of your brain power to get through.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

(PC/PS4/PS3/XB360/XBOne/Switch/PSVR)

Skyrim is an open ended role playing game where you create a character and exist in a fantasy world full of dragons and wizards. It’s exactly what most people associate with when they think about fantasy and most of the time it is where people go when they want that sort of experience. If you are trying to play an RPG that tells bite sized stories but includes enough world building to have you reading Skyrim history books until 4 in the morning then perhaps Skyrim is a good game to try. The controls are similar to any other first person game so if you are not familiar with that then there is a learning curve attached to it, other than that there is a wide range of difficulties that allow just about anyone to be able to play through the game. The snowy vistas make this game a beautiful option and the way that the scope of the world reaches miles in front of you gives a really liberating sense of freedom. Skyrim has the potential to become a hardcore obsession but also allows a lighter and more casual experience for people who just want to see main stories.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

(PS4/PC)

Ni No Kuni II is a fun game that applies big ideas into digestible pieces. The combat is very simple to learn and fun to exploit. The game adds a strategy mode where you command troops that isn’t awesome but also introduces a town building mechanic that is easy to understand and gives you a visual sense of progression. The story is awesome and keeps the world of Ni No Kuni grounded into its fantastical fantasy setting that borrows a lot from everyday life. The game borrows from the art of Studio Ghibli and is heavily inspired by movies like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. If any of that sounds like it is interesting to you then this is easily a fun opportunity to bring a unique RPG into your gaming library.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

(Switch)

I’m willing to admit two things. The first being that I truly believe that Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum were the best Pokemon games and that normally I would recommend that someone just play that game instead. However, the second is that Pokemon Sword and Shield are the definitive versions of Pokemon that rid the game of the dated mechanics of previous titles. Pokemon is the monster taming game, the game is a celebration of being able to constantly change who you are playing as and it feels endlessly personal. Pokemon is a great intro to turn based combat that does a great job teaching things like elemental weaknesses and speed stats. This is definitely the easiest, most customizable, and cute, way to enter the RPG genre.

Persona 5 Royal

(PS4)

Persona 5 Royal is the definitive version of Persona 5 which is the latest installment in the Shin Megami Tensei spinoff series called Persona. The game is about balancing daily high school life with traveling into another dimension to fight shadows. The game has a lot of things in it, a day to day manager, a dating sim, turn based RPG, fishing, darts, batting cage, etc. Persona 5 also drips with style, from the amazing art to the fantastic soundtrack. The combat takes some learning but if you set the difficulty all the way down it becomes an accessible experience at no cost to the gripping story. You are guaranteed to fall in love with this game if you end up playing it and it’s bound to create an obsession that has you playing Persona 4 as well as Persona 3. This is an intimidating game to start but with the difficulty set low you really can’t mess up the other portions of the game so there is always a good way to make sure you can experience one of the best games on the PS4.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes Of An Elusive Age

(Switch/PS4/3DS/PC)

Dragon Quest XI is the funniest game on this list. The writing also ironically follows plot lines from other media like Marvel Cinematic Universe or Dragon Ball. You’ll also notice that the game looks a lot like Dragon Ball so if you ever wanted a Dragon Ball fantasy RPG then you might be in luck. The story is driven home by its amazing cast and continues to supply the player with things to do way after the credits have rolled. The turn based combat is very traditional so maybe try this game if you don’t mind learning an older style of game play presented in a fun and easy to understand setting. Dragon Quest XI is guaranteed to hook you in with its likeable characters and grand story telling, if you are at all attracted by the promises of dumb humor, excellent writing, and incomparable character development you should plan on purchasing this game.

Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn

(PS4/PC)

An MMO is an RPG too. And as I’m writing this the current best place to live a virtual life is in Final Fantasy XIV. As someone who has tried almost every free to play MMO on the market I can say with absolute certainty that you get what you pay for and the subscription to FFXIV is worth every cent if you want to get into an MMO. The game is large and intimidating and complex, however, the game is also home to one of the friendliest communities I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with and they make the game as special as it is. This is why people that don’t even like video games are drawn to FFXIV because it is an amazing social experience that also happens to be an amazing MMO experience. The story is the best in terms of MMO story lines and the combat is vast boasting 18 completely unique combat classes. I can’t recommend this game enough and if you have ever considered an MMO then I can guarantee you that this is the one that you want to be playing.

Fantasy Life

(3DS)

Fantasy Life is a game about grinding professions. It looks like Animal Crossing and kind of plays like Animal Crossing would if you could also slay beasts and smith armor in that game. If you are familiar with Life Sim games then this is just the fantasy RPG version of that. The game gives you a job and makes it insanely fun to do that job with fun mini games and a rewarding economy system. This is the “relaxing” game on the list so if you like games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon and you may want to try more combat heavy games then this is a great Segway into that genre of game.

Diablo III

(PC/Mac/PS3/PS4/XB360/XBOne/Switch)

Diablo III is probably the most famous ARPG which just means that you are looking down from an isometric point of view and are typically facing hordes of monsters to achieve hordes of loot. I would say that Path of Exile might be catching up fast to Diablo but if you want to ease into an ARPG then Diablo III is much more forgiving. The game is instantly rewarding and gives you a lot of customization with your skills and appearance. This game tells an epic story but has too much game in between story beats to make it worth playing for. Although I would recommend this game to a new player that only wants to play an RPG for its gear management and game play versatility without having to sit through endless cut scenes.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

(Switch)

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses you play as the combat teacher of one of three groups of kids. You decide what they learn and how well they get at it. The game is a strategy RPG so you are using your brain a bit more to assess situations than the other games on this list. However, Fire Emblem streamlines the system into something easy to understand that is accessible to most new players. While I don’t recommend this game to every new RPG player I’d say that if you really want a game that makes you think rather than hit buttons randomly than you might enjoy the deeper engagement that this game offers. Note that the Fire Emblem series is known for using a very evil emotional weapon called “party member perma-death” which you can absolutely turn off if you would like a less stressful experience. Or live for the thrill, I won’t tell you what to do.

Final Fantasy XV

(PS4/XBOne/PC)

Final Fantasy XV isn’t a normal Final Fantasy game. It is a road trip that you can’t truly appreciate unless you get distracted. Over the years RPG’s have been known for putting a large amount of side activities in their games, Final Fantasy XV takes its story and encases it in casual game play that involves long drive and lots of fishing and camping. This game is not for everyone but its more casual approach will appeal to a newer audience than a hardened veteran of the Final Fantasy series. People looking for their first RPG won’t be totally swayed by the story here but they will have seen that the journey can be fun if you let it.

So You Wanna Start An RPG

Take it from someone who has played the opening hours of a lot of games and then quit that sometimes you just can’t get yourself to like a game. You owe it to yourself to find in entertainment something that you like. I consider myself more of a casual RPG player, I’ve never beaten any of the classics and I can hardly finish a lot of the RPG’s that I own now. But I think that fickleness makes me a good source to recommend a good RPG for people that may not have the patience to play through a Final Fantasy IV or a Golden Sun. Also remember not to rule out experiences just because people say that they are “bad” because opinions are subjective to you personally. RPG’s have the power to tell moving and important stories, and as a player of them I hope I’ve given anyone reading this some incentive to experience a larger than life story.

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susiron · 8 years ago

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Man, I keep thinking lately about my undying love for the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series, but also about my continued frustration with the HM/Story of Seasons series

Namely, my main complaint with HM is that the games have a knack for introducing awesome, fun features– and then never reusing them again.

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature was my first ever video game, and since getting that game on PS1 many years ago I’ve played almost every HM title that’s come out (excluding the more recent games under the Harvest Moon name, now that the developers have split from Natsume). Out of all of the games in the HM series, I’m honestly depressed to say that none of the recent games have been among my favorites.

Of all the HM games, my favorites are: Back to Nature (and by extension, Friends of Mineral Town), HM DS, A Wonderful Life, Tree of Tranquility, Animal Parade, and Save the Homeland. I’m also a huge fan of the Rune Factory games, though I’m not sure how many people count them with the main series.

I’m entirely biased to liking Back to Nature out of pure nostalgia, but I honestly feel that BtN’s gameplay was among the best any HM game has produced. The large field in BtN set a standard for fields that few other HM games have met for me. I loved the freedom to make custom animal pens and large, expansive crop fields. It was also extremely satisfying to clear that massive field, despite being tedious. The amount of chickens and cows/sheep you could have in a single barn was amazing, even though pushing your cows and sheep outside became practically impossible once you accumulated a certain amount. The festivals for BtN were among my favorite; they were interactive, and really made you feel closer to the townspeople. Most of all, I loved the menu for BtN. It honestly baffles me that HM games following BtN have not had similarly expansive menus. It was extremely convenient, and very rewarding, to be able to hit a button and be able to see how many of each crop you’d shipped, how much stats you had with your tools, how old your cows were and how much they loved you, and how much you’ve earned.

I loved HM DS for many of the same reasons. I feel that this game (and Mineral Town) had a very pleasing aesthetic, and that it also accomplished a sort of “less is more” feel. The field was huge, the town was large and fun to explore, and the ability to place barns and coops and decide exactly how your farm looked was very rewarding. Many of the newer games also let you customize your farm, but I always feel that the customization in the newer games is too limited and harmed by the graphics. It’s extremely hard to line up fences and get your field plots to line up in a way that doesn’t waste an inordinate amount of space. Placing the paths and buildings in A New Beginning, only to have points where it was impossible for the path to seamlessly merge with the paths that lead to different areas, made me want to scream. In contrast, the blocky 2D nature of HM DS made placing things in a planned, organized manner very easy. I also enjoyed how this game expanded on the mining in BtN/Friends of Mineral Town, even though I was terrible at fighting the dark animals that spawned on lower levels. A Wonderful Life (as well as the additional versions, Another Wonderful Life and A Wonderful Life: Special Edition) is a game that I wish the HM series had focused more on with later titles. A Wonderful Life introduced SO many things that I wish the HM series had continued to explore. The inclusion of roosters and bulls, the separate pen for chickens, the pond for ducks, the small nursery for baby cows– even that adorable tool shed that branched off of the barn. Everything about this game made the farm feel more intricate, without taking away from the gameplay (I say this because HM games that include food spoilage, though realistic, make the gameplay very frustrating and anxiety-inducing). The ability to set up a small shop– without it needing to be your main source of acquiring income– was an excellent and fun way to make quick money. I also loved that you could acquire music discs and change the music to your favorite theme at any time (the bouncy fall theme was my favorite). The bachelors/bachelorettes were limited and… not among my favorites, but I always felt like the gameplay for this game made up for it. Even just the style of this game appealed so much more to me than the high-saturated newer games where all of the bachelors look uncomfortably young.

Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade were both extremely fun games for me. I enjoyed Tree of Tranquility slightly more than Animal Parade, but they were both very similar and enjoyable in their own right. My first favorite feature of these games was that the map was large and fun to explore. I never wanted to stock up on too much of an item, because I liked having a reason to ride out and get more seeds or fodder. The townspeople were also fun to interact with, and I absolutely loved the camera feature. Being able to ride a goat was a dream come true, and the fact that these games gave us both goats AND ostriches is enough to put them among my favorites. What more, these games gave us adorable pets to find and befriend and nothing was more rewarding than finally taking your newly befriended stray home. I think these are the last HM games I really enjoyed in terms of style. These games definitely had more of a cutesy style to them than previous versions (ignoring Magical Melody), but they were very aesthetically pleasing and the colours hadn’t yet reached an eye-searing level of saturation (like the grass in A New Beginning and Story of Seasons).

Save the Homeland had a lot of faults, but I really appreciated a lot of what the game had to offer. It was devastating to save the homeland, have your game reset, and have everyone in town forget about you (despite keeping your animals…), but up until that crashing end of the plot the game was very rewarding and fun. It was awesome to finally have HM cows with different spot variations, and being able to pick your horse’s colour by favoring which one you took care of at the ranch was adorable. I also really felt that this game made you feel more involved in the town than many other HM titles, and your ability to do things like help out on the ranch really helped cement that bond with your town.

Though, let’s be honest, every game will have its faults– BtN didn’t let you ride your horse into town– your barns could collapse in HM DS and kill your cows– A Wonderful Life literally ended with your character dying– Tree of Tranquility had a depressing glitch where your befriended pets would stop loving you, and Animal Parade would only let you have a certain amount of animal species in your barn (”yeah we have ostriches, but you already have cows, sheep, and goats so fuck you”)– and as mentioned before, Save the Homeland would literally destroy everything you’d built up with your town after saving the homeland.

Harvest Moon has been a part of my life for a very long time, and it has become important to me in more ways than I can express. It’s an interesting ride, and at times has definitely been frustrating when I grow attached to interesting and fun features– only to never see them used in newer games. I know that I’m biased– I don’t favor the more “cutesy” style, I liked the challenge of a massive and heavily weeded field, and I’ve always preferred a focus on making aspects of the game more realistic (while maintaining fun gameplay). I don’t really know what I intended by writing this, but I guess it could be boiled down to just wanting to explain what features I have loved seeing in HM games over the years, and what I wished I still saw in the current games. I love HM/Story of Seasons-- I always will, and I intend to keep playing every game that they produce– but it’s just very melancholic for me that my favorite farming game over the last 9 years or so hasn’t been an HM title, but rather Stardew Valley.

#harvest moon #story of seasons #susi howls #personal stories #long post #lotsa words #textwall

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componentplanet · 5 years ago

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Best Games for Laptops and Low-End PCs in 2020

When I first became interested in computers, the idea of gaming on a low-end laptop or desktop was a contradiction in terms. Your options were: Intel, if you could afford them, AMD if you needed a cheaper but good-enough option, and Cyrix if you hated yourself. In the modern era, we aren’t nearly so constrained. Modern games target every type of device and form factor, making it comparatively easy to find titles to play.

We’ve rounded up some of the better ones below.

In this list of our favorites, we’ve tried to blend a mixture of modern titles and a handful of older classics. If you’ve been gaming for a number of years, we strongly suggest Googling “best games of X,” to remind yourself what hidden gems you might have missed the first time around. A game that required a midrange PC to play in 2011 likely runs just fine on an integrated GPU in 2019, especially if you’ve got an Ice Lake-based notebook or Ryzen Mobile 4000-based laptop. Integrated graphics don’t have to mean unplayable games.

The PC gaming news cycle often doesn’t serve the interests of the larger PC gaming community when it comes to game discovery. This is particularly and sadly true for low-end gamers. Lost in the endless churn of new titles is the fact that there are literally thousands of amazing PC titles released long before you bought your system. Don’t be afraid to go digging for gems you might have missed in previous generations.

One way to express a love of PC gaming is certainly by investing lots of money in gaming hardware, but it’s certainly not the only one. What matters isn’t the amount of money you can plow into the hobby, or how new the games are, but whether you enjoy them.

This time around, I’ve added a “Runs on” listing to give the minimum specs for the game. I cannot guarantee how good the experience at the minimum spec is, but this way you can eyeball games and get a sense of whether your hardware can run them.

All games should be assumed to require Windows 7 or above unless specifically stated otherwise.

Poly Bridge

Your Inner Civil Engineer Requires: Pentium 4 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, GeForce 7200 GS, 150MB of storage.

Poly Bridge is a great puzzle game, somewhat in the tradition of now-ancient titles like The Incredible Machine. In this case, you must design bridges that can carry a certain number of vehicles while also coming in under budget. These two simple goals can be difficult to achieve in later levels (there are more than 60), since the game adds various hazards and the need to deploy construction techniques I’m fairly certain the Army Corps of Engineers does not approve of.

The game recently got a sequel (which I haven’t played yet). Reviews of it seem a bit less enthused than for Poly Bridge, with one noting it felt more like an expansion pack to the original. It is, however, excellently rated on Steam.

Disco Elysium:

Stagger Drunkenly at an Adequate Frame Rate: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 20GB HDD space, 512MB graphics card.

In Disco Elysium, you’re an alcohol-and-drug-abusing amnesiac detective who has been hired to solve a murder mystery. This sort of thing happens so often in games, you’d think there’d be some kind of agency in charge of ensuring would-be detectives still knew their own names.

As you work to solve a murder you’ll remember things about yourself as well and have access to a system of traits with which to flesh out your character. There are 24 skills in the game, and they all have an impact on how the game evolves. Pick the wrong (or right) ones, and you may end up arguing with yourself over the correct course of action. It won Game of the Year from several publications, and it’ll run on 14-year-old hardware.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Search for Scrap On: Core i5-760, Phenom II X4 965, GTX 580 / AMD Radeon 7870 HD, 6GB RAM, 8GB HDD.

This XCOM-meets-Fallout title is based on the tabletop Mutant Year Zero game. If you’ve played the modern XCOM games, you’ll be familiar with most of the gameplay elements, though Mutant Year Zero gives you direct control of your squad outside of combat and fuses XCOM’s gameplay with some light RPG elements.

The worst thing we can say about Mutant Year Zero is that you’ll have to do some Googling to figure out which buttons are tied to which keyboard functions. The game’s plot and post-apocalyptic setting recall the best parts of Fallout, and while the game isn’t as deep as one of those sprawling titles, it still feels like a spiritual sequel. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden feels a bit like a “AA” game, for lack of a better phrase. Reasonably well-polished with solid aspirations, but you won’t mistake it for a 400-hour dungeon crawler.

World of Warcraft Classic

Visit Beautiful Molten Core if You Own: Is your PC literally old enough to vote? No? You’re fine. Officially, Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom X3 8750, 8800 GT or Radeon HD 4850, or Intel HD Graphics 4000. Unofficially, you can run probably run Classic on less. I’ve tested it on a 2015 Razer Blade Stealth with Intel 520 HD graphics and the frame rate was high enough to make me think there’s some headroom in those already-low-end graphics options. Interestingly, WoW Classic isn’t listed as requiring a DX11 GPU.

Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains. Left is Retail, right is Classic.

Revisit a simpler time, when an MMO that largely takes place outside and requires you to congregate with large groups of people didn’t feel fantastical (at least not for those reasons). WoW Classic is everything you loved (or hated) about original World of Warcraft. I’m a biased fan, to be clear, but just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

It’s World of Warcraft: Classic, which is to say, #NoChanges (except for a few of the changes, but really, there aren’t that many). There’s a lot to love in the original version of Blizzard’s MMO classic, especially if you like games of this era in the first place. It may use the modern WoW engine, but Blizzard re-used original WoW’s textures and assets. The result is a game that runs just fine on a low-end PC, including Carrizo-powered AMD ultrabooks and Intel integrated graphics.

Alternately, you could pick up Runescape Classic, which literally runs on mobile phones now. Your move, Blizzard.

Untitled Goose Game

Chase People Like an A****** With: Core 2 Duo 8500, Nvidia GeForce 510, 4GB of RAM, 820MB storage. The 510 is a bottom-end card from 2011, which means midrange or high-end cards from 2011. As long as your GPU can handle DX11, you’re fine.

Untitled Goose Game challenges you to find the Canadian goose inside yourself. Yup. This is a game about being an unrepentant asshole. Since the joys of honking and flapping don’t require a high-end PC, Untitled Goose Game is another game that’ll run on just about any toaster you can drag out of storage.

Honk. Flap. Steal objects, trick humans, annoy pets, wash, rinse, and repeat if necessary. It’s a brilliant game for people turned off by “typical” titles looking for a silly, funny, low-key experience.

Arkham City

Soars Through Gotham On: Any dual-core CPU at 2.4GHz or more, Nvidia 8800 GT or AMD Radeon 3850, 2GB of RAM. Supports Windows XP.

I’m sticking with Arkham City in this update, rather than moving on to one of the newer titles. Arkham Asylum is, to be sure, still an excellent game, and it runs on an even lower-spec system than Arkham City. But between the two of them, Arkham City is the better overall Batman game. Batman’s overall bag of tricks gets polished and AC offers you playing time as characters like Catwoman, with her own distinct moveset and animation style.

Arkham City feels as though it genuinely captures what it would be like to “be” Batman, with a clever twist on why you face a never-ending army of thugs. If you want to find out if you’re going to like the Arkham game series, I’d say this is the best one to try. If you need something even gentler on system specs, try the original Arkham Asylum.

Into the Breach

Calculate Strategic Micro-combat Using: Any 1.7GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 300MB storage, and an Intel HD 3000 IGP.

Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game that takes place on small maps of 8×8 grids. From the makers of FTL, Into the Breach challenges you to beat back waves of attackers in turn-based combat. There are no XCOM-style probability fields to deal with here — you get full transparency into what actions will be taken by both your own characters and the enemies you engage with.

Into the Breach launched in 2018, but it’s still winning recognition for its unique approach to turn-based combat today. Definitely worth checking out, if you’re looking for some turn-based combat options.

West of Loathing

Spittoon-and Snake-Themed Exploration Needs: An Nvidia GeForce 7200 GS, Core 2 Duo 7400, 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. Runs on Windows XP SP2+.

West of Loathing is a “graphical” adventure game that could run on a Lite-Brite. Don’t let the black-and-white stick-based graphics fool you — under the hood is a classic adventure game with RPG elements, killer clowns, demon cows, snake oil salesman, and a heap of spittoons to dig through in search of loot. The dialog is laugh-out-loud funny and the game’s irreverent humor recalls the best adventure game writing of earlier eras.

West of Loathing came out at the end of 2017, but it’s still a top pick if you need a game that runs on anything and offers some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Stardew Valley

Want to Farm Crops and Help People? You’ll Need: Any CPU at 2GHz or more, any GPU with at least 256MB of RAM and SM 3.0 support, 2GB of RAM and 500MB of storage.

Stardew Valley was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series of video games but adds its own spin on the concept. Explore Pelican Town, make friends, fall in love, and restore your grandfather’s farm to health in a gentle, open-ended title that will tease your curiosity as opposed to yanking you hither and yon with frantic quest demands.

Stardew Valley received a major endgame update last fall in Patch 1.4, with new monsters, fish ponds, a new mystery to solve, various bug-fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and similar updates. Multiplayer support is also now available.

Cuphead

Visit the Era of Classic Animation (and Try Not to Die) if You’ve Got: An Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 2GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT / AMD Radeon HD 3870, 20GB HDD space. Only needs DirectX 9.0c support, but still requires Windows 7.

Cuphead’s visual aesthetic is truly unique — it’s the only game we’ve ever seen that mimics the “rubber hose” animation style of the early 1930s in a frenetic 2D game. You’ll need sharp reflexes to beat the game, but not much in the way of PC horsepower.

Cuphead is a great game for someone looking for a game you might fairly call “Nintendo hard,” particularly if they enjoy its animation.

Minecraft

Fend off Creepers and Illigers With: A Core i3 3210 or A8-7600, 4GB of RAM, 180-1GB HDD space, Intel HD 4000 or AMD’s Radeon R5 family, and a 1024×768 display.

The open-world sandbox of Minecraft has been used to create everything from 1:1 scale models of the starship Enterprise to functional (if simple) CPUs. In between, there’s an easily accessible game with a rich crafting system, dangerous mobs, and huge worlds to explore. If your ideas of gameplay run more towards “give me a big space and lots of tools,” and less towards coherent narrative and story-driven play, you may find Minecraft much to your liking.

That doesn’t actually tell you nearly enough about Minecraft, a game that’s inspired millions of people to spend billions of hours stacking blocks on top of each other. Minecraft is a phenomenal crafting and building game.

Orcs Must Die, Orcs Must Die 2

Revisit the Simple Joy of Spring-Loaded Traps and Acid Bombs: Any dual-core CPU at 2GHz or above, a GeForce 6800 or ATI Radeon x1950 with 256GB of RAM, 2GB of RAM, and at least 256MB of VRAM. Supports Windows XP.

I recommend both, but OMD2 is definitely the better game.

Orcs Must Die and Orcs Must Die 2 are some of our favorite titles for mindless slaughtery goodness and have a permanent space on my hard drive. This hybrid tower-defense/action game tasks you with burning, blasting, freezing, smashing, dissolving, shooting, and generally wreaking mayhem against wave after wave of orcs, trolls, ogres, and other various bad guys. It’s easy to learn and sometimes surprisingly difficult to master.

OMD excels at offering a variety of fun ways to slaughter monsters in quick succession. Spring-loaded traps that hurl creatures through the air? Check. Acid sprayers and arrow traps? Check. Trinkets to transform you into a massive ogre, hurl fireballs, or turn orcs into chickens? Check.

Darkest Dungeon

Explore Your Ancestor’s Darkest Secrets: 2GB of RAM, a GPU capable of supporting OpenGL 3.2 (released in 2009), 2GB of storage. 1080p, 16:9 displays recommended.

Darkest Dungeon is a 2D, side-scrolling dungeon crawler with a side helping of Lovecraftian horror (hold the racism) and a mental health management simulator. As your heroes wind their way through the stygian abyss, they’ll face the dripping claws and rasping moans of the eons-damned creatures that dwell beyond the stars. Safeguard them carefully, or you’ll find the abyss staring back at you when you least expect it…

Darkest Dungeon can be legitimately annoying, but if you love mods like “Longest War” for XCOM, this series is a treasure. DD doesn’t pull punches, and if you think you’ve figured the game out, that probably means there’s a DLC or difficulty level waiting to kneecap you around the corner.

So that’s our list. Feel free to chime in with your own. What older games or titles still have a cherished spot on your hard drive, and what games do you find yourself returning to, long after they’ve supposedly been surpassed by more recent releases?

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/269774-best-games-you-can-play-on-laptops-and-low-end-pcs from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/07/best-games-for-laptops-and-low-end-pcs.html

#Best Games for Laptops and Low-End PCs in 2020

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