Happy Tuesday!
E3 2018 is officially over. There were a lot of ups and downs during the conferences. Some people were happy, some not so much, depending on the company. Still, there were some interesting games that were talked about and here are some I’m looking forward to the most.
Kingdom Hearts 3
I still have yet to play a Kingdom Hearts game. Though I used to watch my friend play it when we were younger and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at it. Kris and I just bought Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix, so we’re hoping to get through that before 3 comes out.
Tunic
A furry Link? Yes, please! This game looks not only aesthetically pleasing, but it looks like plays well. I can’t wait for this one to come out.
Ori & The Will of the Wisps
I haven’t played Ori & The Blind Forest. That was one on my list that I never got to. Now that the sequel is coming out, I think it’s time I play the first one to catch up.
Octopath Traveler
This game looks amazing. I’ve played the first demo and enjoyed it a lot. I’ve been looking forward to a release date for a while and now it’s finally close.
Overcooked 2
Overcooked is a game Kris and I played and beat together, but then we always played and beat it with our two cousins and also two of our friends. We were all so excited when the sequel was announced. Here’s to another late night to beat the game in one sitting!
Super Smash Brothers Ultimate
I don’t really know if I need to explain this one. We’ve all been waiting for it. I’m super excited to have the old characters back – Roy and Young Link were always my go-to, so I’m happy to get the chance to play as them again.
Super Mario Party
Did Nintendo finally listen to us? It seems so! The game looks like it’s back on a normal board (as normal as it can be for Mario Party), there’s no car and everyone seems to be moving one at a time. The minigames also look plentiful and hopefully there will be one after each turn. I can’t wait to try this one out.
Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee!
I feel like I’ve been talking about this one since they announced it, but… I’m super excited for this game. I can’t wait to check out Kanto in all his updated-tech-glory. Plus, to have my Pokemon follow me around? And I get to ride on some of them? And then there’s the Pokeball Plus?! I want it now.
Title: Harvest Moon: Light of Hope
Developer: Natsume
Publisher: Natsume
Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4
Category: Role-Playing, Simulation
Release Date: May 29, 2018 for Switch/Playstation 4 in NA; November 14, 2017 for PC
How we got the game: Bought it for the Switch
Harvest Moon has been one of my favorite franchises since I was introduced to Friends of Mineral Town for the GameBoy Advance way back when I was in… I dunno, the beginning of high school? It was a long time ago, let’s just say that. I feel as if the older titles in the franchise better capture what Harvest Moon is supposed to be about, and I think that Light of Hope recaptured that.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope operates in a similar way to the majority of the other games in the franchise. As one of the main objectives of the game, you spend much of your time cultivating a farm, growing crops and raising livestock. Fishing and mining are also two activities that you do in order to help improve both your farm and the island itself.
The controls for Light of Hope are, actually, fairly simple. With the Switch controls set up the way I had them, usually in the Switch’s handheld mode, you move your character with the left analog stick and the A button on the right Joy-Con was your main action button.
A cursor — usually a little leaf or a green square if you were by a farming spot — showed you where you could make an action. The green leaf was used basically to indicate who you could talk to, while a green square would indicate what tool you could use. There is no switching tools around in this game. Instead, the game is smart enough to know what tool you need based on what you were facing. If there’s a tree in front of you, you’ll automatically use the ax to cut it down. You’ll swing your hammer if you meet a stone. And if you were facing a spot where you can grow a crop? Just stand there and hit A as your character automatically tills the spot, plants your preferred crop, water the spot, and toss on some fertilizer.
Of course, sometimes this hiccuped a little (yes, I know I patted and brushed my cow already, can you please just automatically milk it now?), such as if you suddenly moved your character and they’re tilling the next spot of grass instead of watering the potatoes, but it works well enough for me.
While you’re improving your farm and completing the story, you’ll also be making friends and wooing potential spouses, as you do in most Harvest Moon games. Talking and giving gifts to people improve your friendships, potentially unlocking further activities or pieces of the story. Many of the NPCs are in charge of shops on the island and you can sell products that you grow on the farm directly to them rather than stuffing them in the shipping bin. Some stores will pay you more for certain goods — such as the restaurant for fish or the flower shop for, well, flowers — than you would receive when shipping them.
All in all, the game play and controls are pretty smooth on the Nintendo Switch.
Light of Hope’s graphics were rather charming. Full-bodied sprites moved fluidly across the Nintendo Switch screen, and the animated expressions while characters were speaking to each other definitely amused me!
I almost always enjoy the music in Harvest Moon games, and Light of Hope was no exception. The seasonal music is always relaxing, especially in winter. Most of the tunes are updated versions of music from past Harvest Moon games, which just makes me enjoy them all the more.
The protagonist of the game washes ashore a mostly-deserted Beacon Island in the middle of a storm. After being rescued by a couple of the last remaining inhabitants of the island, the protagonist decides to stick around and help draw back citizens to the island by farming and rebuilding the shops.
Beacon Island is home to a majestic lighthouse whose eternal light has vanished, the catalyst as to why many people abandoned the island. The protagonist vows to figure out why the lighthouse went out and to restore it once again.
The story reminds me of a cross between Animal Parade and Sunshine Islands. Restoring the lighthouse’s light comes down to finding the the lighthouse tablets. The game itself pretty much carries you through the story, so there is no literal searching for the tablets. NPCs will guide you through the chapters, giving you hints (or just outright telling you) what items you need in order to proceed. The story can take as little as 10 hours as long as you are able to find and/or save the necessary items you’ll need in order to find the stone tablets.
After the tablets are replaced in the lighthouse and the light is restored, the story ends. The protagonist is now able to continue raising their farm, expanding their house in case they want to marry an eligible candidate, as well as unlock special livestock and crop seeds.
The story itself isn’t much, but the many interactions between the player and the NPCs were cute. The only thing I found odd about the story was at certain parts where NPCs would “wait” in an area for the player to return with specific items to help move the story along, even if it took the player a couple of seasons to find the items.
Most Harvest Moon games have plenty of replay value if one considers the different spouses one can woo and the multitude of ways one can arrange their farm. There are three save files per profile on the Switch, so if you’re the type to try to marry every potential spouse, go for it. Light of Hope also has multiple farms on the island as well, allowing you to experiment with different plants and crops.
It’s a charming, relaxing game that has plenty of potential for multiple play-throughs.
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope gets…
4 out of 5 lives.
E3 is one of the biggest gaming shows, with many developers eager to show-off what they’ve been working on in the video game industry. Personally, I wasn’t able to watch most of the presentations live due to work obligations, but the shows were thankfully streamed and archived so I could catch up. Watching the presentations while already having an idea as to how they went thanks to social media prepared me to brace myself for what the next big games can be. While some of the shows were a little lackluster, there were still a good amount of games that will make my wallet thinner in the coming year.
Since I work from home now, I was able to watch most of the presentations live. It was a treat to give my full attention to one of my favorite hobbies. I was pleased with most of the presentations. Some were a bit boring (I’m looking at you, EA) and some where pretty entertaining (I still don’t understand the dancing Panda for Ubisoft), but I was pleased with most of the games I saw. I wrote down a couple games from each company, Nintendo being the most and my favorite.
Nintendo was definitely a highlight for us, with that being the publisher we grew up with. I was definitely pleased with seeing a little bit of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, even if I am disappointed that it won’t be out until next year. Still, the troop formations seem interesting and will definitely add to a bit more strategy with the game play. Seeing Overcooked 2 come over to the Switch is exciting, too — Rachel and I had a great time playing the first together and with friends
I’m super excited for Overcooked 2. Our friends each have a Switch now so we’ll be able to play with them online since that’s a new feature as well! I’ll admit I was disappointed Animal Crossing wasn’t announced, but I was hopeful for another Mario Party and that wish came true. It seems as though Nintendo has finally listened to us and is going back to the old school way of doing things. No car, no moving at the same time, and the boards look “normal.”
Yes, Mario Party seems to be returning to its original friendship-wrecking roots! Of course, the biggest game that Nintendo showed off was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where every fighter that has ever been on the roster is returning. The reveals and character cards explaining some of the finer details and upgrades of the fighters was fun to watch, and I’m sure the arrivals to the roster will do well. Personally, I’m always gunning for Geno from Super Mario RPG to join the fight, but I’ve heard how many people wanted Ridley and the Inklings will be interesting, I’m sure.
Of course, Smash was the biggest thing about Nintendo’s presentation. I was happy with all the information they shared. I honestly wasn’t expecting them to announce all the characters. There are some characters I would love to see, for sure, but I am super happy they’re bringing old characters back. Young Link and Roy were always my go-to characters and I can’t wait to play as them again!
Microsoft didn’t seem to do too badly during their presentation. They showed tons of games, but many of them aren’t slated to come out until next year or were also showed off on other platforms. They obtained a few new studios into the Microsoft team, which was interesting to see. Truth be told, Rachel and I are a little lukewarm with Microsoft’s games, not having found those IPs that we’re really interested in.
Microsoft has a lot of mature games and we prefer Nintendo because we’re children. But, we do enjoy our Xbox One and were interested to see what Microsoft had to offer. They showed off more Cuphead. We still have yet to play that game, but I’m sure we’ll download it soon for the new content.
Cuphead is a game we want to try out and the new content sounds fun, so that’s on the list. Ori & Will of the Wisps looks both adorable and heartbreaking, so we’ll probably get that and bawl. Our first reaction to Tunic was “Look, it’s Fox Link!” and it looks utterly charming. Forza Horizon 4 looked really pretty and slick, and we may try that out for ourselves despite never having played a game from that franchise before.
Of course, we never played the first Ori game. It was on the list, but just something that we never ended up getting because other games came first. So, now we’ve got both on the list of games to get again. Sea of Solitude looks great as well. That was announced at EA’s press conference, but it will be available for Xbox One in 2019. The topic seems a bit heavy, but the graphics are gorgeous and we’re looking forward to that when it comes out.
Sea of Solitude looks fantastic, having the crisp graphics with such a heavy theme. That was the biggest of the few games at EA’s press conference that piqued our interest. Square’s Kingdom Hearts III was shown a few times during E3, showing off smooth graphics and some of Disney’s latest movie universes that Sora and company will travel to. We still haven’t played any of the Kingdom Hearts games, but we recently bought Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix for our woefully underused PlayStation 3 to try to get into both the Kingdom Hearts games and, perhaps, more games from Sony’s consoles.
Though, I’ll admit, I didn’t really care for anything Sony introduced. A lot of the games they showed were graphic and pretty gory for my tastes. I didn’t even finish watching the conference. Overall, I think this was a successful E3. There are a lot of great upcoming games and, for the most part, the presentations were pretty entertaining. I can’t wait to try out the new games and I’m already looking forward to next year’s.
Happy Friday!
Father’s Day is this weekend, so I thought I would use a post to celebrate some of the best video game dads. I hope everyone else is able to celebrate with their father or someone close to them this weekend!
Rusl from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Rusl is the father of Colin, the shy child who finds his courage throughout the game, from Twilight Princess. Rusl is the character from Link’s hometown, the swordsman, seemingly the guard of the village that most likely helped Link hone his own sword skills. Besides being a father figure to the hero of the game, Rusl is also a critical member of the resistance, saving Link during the attack on Hyrule Castle.
“Dad” from Dream Daddy
Dream Daddy is a visual novel where you play as a customizable dad and were able to romance several other (mostly) single dads. While your choices were crucial to the ending of the game, the player’s “Dad-sona” had an awesome relationship with his daughter Amanda. The interactions with her ranged from goofy and casual to affection and, well, fatherly. Their relationship is probably one of my favorite aspects about the game.
Bowser from the Super Mario series
Okay, we all remember that Switch Parental Control video, right? The adorable one when Bowser was the Most Responsible Parent of the Year because he was being sure his son Bowser Jr. was playing games that were appropriate for his age? Bowser is also a father figure to all of the Koopalings as well, allowing them to help him with his work and always very encouraging while doing so. Not only that, his motivation for kidnapping Peach in Super Mario Sunshine was literally just so Bowser Jr. could have a mom. Cool motive, still kidnapping, but the thought was sweet.
Happy Thursday!
What an eventful week it’s been with E3 2018!
In the past, I’ve always been at work and have never been able to watch the live stream of E3 before. This year was different and watched it all.
E3 is one of the best gaming events of the year and I’m sure I’m not the only one to think that.
Every year it comes along I always got disappointed because I was never able to watch any of it live. I was always at work. Well, now I work from home so I was able to watch it live.
It was great. I enjoyed having the conferences on while I worked and enjoyed live tweeting during some of it.
Now, I thought I’d be able to watch absolutely all of it, but it turned out I wasn’t able to. I still got a chance to watch all the conferences, but I was only able to watch some of them live.
Nintendo was not one of them, which was disappointing, but Kris and I watched it together later that same night.
There’s something different about watching something like that live. Watching the vods are fine and all, but it’s awesome to be up to date with the news as it’s happening.
I grabbed some popcorn, sat down with my notebook and pen, and watched most of E3 live without another care in the world.
I only hope next year I’m able to watch the entire thing live. I’ll admit, I’m sad it’s over.
Title: Pokemon Quest
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Category: Strategy, Adventure
Release Date: May 29, 2018
How we got the game: We downloaded it for free on our Nintendo Switch
Pokemon Quest was the first Pokemon game that was revealed during the recent Pokemon Press Conference from Nintendo. Considering it is a free-to-start game and Pokemon, we downloaded it after watching the conference.
I immediately fell in love with the block graphics and the vivid look of the game. Obviously, I was excited the game was free as well.
Pokemon Quest tends to run on its own. The main aspect of the game is to have your team go out and battle wild Pokemon while exploring the island. Your team of blocky Pokemon run around an area and engage in battle with wild Pokemon automatically. You can tap to have your Pokemon do certain attacks, or you can let your team Auto-Battle.
While you can play this game docked on the Switch, I personally find it easier to have in handheld mode and use the touchscreen. If you’re exploring and battling manually, there’s also a dodge button to make your Pokemon scatter in different directions. Unlike most Pokemon games, you can only have 3 Pokemon in your party at one time.
When you’re not in a level, you’re at your little base camp with the Pokemon you’ve befriended. In your camp, you can decorate the area and cook up food made from random drops — like berries and apricorns — from the levels. Doing so will attract even more Pokemon to your camp, Pokemon you can then use in levels or to train up Pokemon already in your roster.
In training, you can use Pokemon you’ve befriended to level up other Pokemon or to help teach them a new move. The downside to this is, whoever is “helping” to train someone else, will leave. They’ll get booted out of the camp and go back into the wild. This goes for learning new moves as well. I don’t care too much for that mechanic because I’d rather keep the Pokemon with me and it’s especially hard in the beginning when you don’t have that many Pokemon, so you don’t want to let any of them go. As for learning new moves, you don’t get to choose which moves they’re learning. It’s just a surprise – if it works.
Another way to increase your Pokemon’s power (aside from your Pokemon running over another during training) is to collect Power Stones and Sturdy Stones during the levels, generally after you beat the boss of the area. Using those stones would increase your own Pokemon’s Attack or HP respectively. The combined Attack and HP of your team of Pokemon was your team’s strength. Each level would show you the combined strength of the wild Pokemon in the level, and you could compare the two to see if your team was strong enough to engage in battle in the area.
While the stones are great, I found myself constantly getting stuck because my team was about 1,000 points behind what they should be at for the next area. It takes a lot of exploring and fainting to try to get them to level up and find more stones to make them stronger. I have a variety of Pokemon that I swap out and try different teams with, but they’re never quite strong enough. So it’s a lot of waiting.
The graphics resemble Minecraft with its blocky like characters. It’s cute and a bit comical at times, especially with Pokemon like Voltorb being a cube rather than a sphere! The Pokemon characters bounce around in the camp area and have no problem destroying parts of the background in the campaign mode.
The graphics are really well done and while I never would have imagined Pokemon looking like this, it certainly works. It’s doesn’t look out of character for the Pokemon games at all. The backgrounds and level are simply designed, but they’re pleasing to the eyes and the colors are fun and bright.
The music is decent as well, with the tunes being cheery background noise when you have the game running on a level as your Pokemon demolish their enemies. The camp music is fun too, and the sounds effects were well done, especially with the attacks.
The music is upbeat and catchy and I enjoy having the game on (even if it’s not doing anything) while I work. The sound effects can be goofy at times, especially when you’re training and one Pokemon gives the boot to the other Pokemon, but it works for a cute game like this.
You arrive at Tumblecube Island ready to explore the unknown (not the Pokemon) and discover hidden treasure within it. Throughout you find and befriend Pokemon through your cooking and they’ll do the exploration part for you, defeating wild and enemy Pokemon in their path.
That’s pretty much it. The deeper you venture into the island, the tougher the wild Pokemon become, but your own team grows to meet them in strength. Finding loot and treasure is the end goal of the game.
Pokemon Quest is a game that keeps running and is pleasant to have on in the background while you work. It’s not bad to keep going, unlocking Pokemon and fill up your Pokedex. In a way, it seems to be a more action-orientated Pokemon Ranch, if you will.
That’s a good way to describe it. It’s certainly not a bad game, but I don’t like how you have to wait to pay again after a certain amount of time and I do wish you were able to do more with your Pokemon. Still, it’s a fun, refreshing game to play.
Pokemon Quest gets…
3 out of 5 lives.
