Kikki
Aug 20, 2019
Information has come out about Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. This reboot is to be the first Bokujo Monogatari game for Nintendo Switch. (It is the official remake of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.) Please note that None of this has been revealed to us by Marvelous themselves. Rather, we gathered this info from Reddit, from u/arehi_wnl. The information comes from two separate interviews with Mr. Nakano.
More remakes in the future?
ChinaJoy is a Chinese gaming convention that you could think of as their equivalent of E3. Some Chinese journalists interviewed Mr. Nakano, of the development team. They spoke of the upcoming Bokujou Monogatari game, set for release in Japan on October 11th. Some big news was revealed in this interview, including the fact that Marvelous will consider remaking more Bokumono games if this remake is successful.
New game still in development!
It was also revealed that a NEW Bokujou Monogatari game is still in the works. Those of us who have been pining for a brand new farming adventure can rest easy! The brand new Story of Seasons game we’ve been hoping for is indeed already in development.
And if that weren’t enough…
We even got a sneak peek at the final bachelor! Up until now, we only had the silhouettes of two brand new characters to go by, but a screenshot of the male candidate has surfaced. His name, it seems, is Brandon. He will live in Gotz’s house and may be the his apprentice. (From the picture we think he might actually be a sculptor, but the reddit post suggests that he is an apprentice. Maybe he is both an apprentice carpenter AND a sculptor?)
Many more juicy tidbits!
Between the two interviews, we got quite a lot of information. Here are some highlights:
- The “Best Friends” system used in DS Cute for special characters is being brought back for SoS: FoMT, but in a bigger way. You will be able to choose to make a life-long best-friends bond with any character who is the same gender as your character.
- It is not a straight remake of Friends of Mineral Town. SoS: FoMT is bringing together a few aspects of Back to Nature, DS Cute, My Little Shop, and newer games like Trio of Towns.
- Some of Back to Nature’s events and festivals will be in SoS: FoMT
- You will be able to choose ‘seedling’ or ‘veteran’ mode, as you could in Story of Seasons and Trio of Towns.
- There will be no online connectivity.
- Mines will have pitfalls instead of staircases.
- There will be character customization.
- Making money will be easier.
- Animals from Harvest Moon: My Little Shop, with specialty products, like the chocolate chicken, chocolate cow and strawberry cow, will be in SoS: FoMT.
- Some of the additional houses will have lightened requirements to unlock.
- Rare crops will be just as rare as in the original.
- Your inventory will have a larger capacity.
- SoS: FoMT may have DLC (it’s under consideration)
- There will be no motion controls
As far as we know, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town will be exclusive to Nintendo Switch. If this game is of interest to you, check out our initial coverage!
- Aug 19, 2019
The presentation of Kerbal 2 at Gamescom 2019 Opening Night Live surprised us! We were watching this very realistic-looking video of a rocket ship travelling through the stars, with some very serious music playing…and then all of a sudden these adorable bug-eyed little green dudes started piling out!
Described as a ‘space flight simulation game’, Kerbal Space Program 2 seems like quite the deceptive game. At first glance it appears to be very serious, but no game with a Kerbal in it could be all THAT solemn. They reminded us a little of the minions in Despicable Me. But they’re not minions…they’re Kerbonauts. And you can watch their trailer here:
Build on the old
The game will feature “Improved Onboarding”. We think that rocket science is not something you accidentally learn, but apparently that is how Kerbals do it. Accidentally! The game will have animated tutorials, a better user interface, and revamped assembly and flight instructions to make Kerbal 2 fun for experienced players and beginners alike.
And add some new, too!
You will also be able to build and use “next-gen” engines, fuel, parts…everything you need to be the best Kerbonaut and explore not only the entire Kerbolar System, but even beyond it! And NEW to the series are colonies. They are a challenge to build, and will also require you to gather resources to build stations, housing and other structures. But your colonies will grow and become advanced enough to support vehicle construction, furthering space exploration even more.
The better your spacecrafts, the more you will be able to explore. You can discover unique celestial bodies, such as “Ovin”, a massive ringed planet with intense gravity. Or perhaps “Rask and Rusk”, a pair of planets “locked in a dance of death” will be more to your interest!
Kerbal 2 will have modding that builds on what was available with the first game. And for the first time, multiplayer is also an option! Not much is known yet about multiplayer in Kerbal 2, but the official site assures us that we will learn more soon. The game will come to PS4, Xbox One and PC in 2020!
If you like seeing cute things in space, then have a look at our Astro Bears Review.
- Aug 18, 2019
A long-awaited game
We’ve been keeping an eye on PINE for a long time now. We first reported on it when the game was approaching the beginning of its Kickstarter campaign in early 2017. The campaign was successful enough to secure a Switch version of the game. It has since then been featured in this spring’s “Nindies” Showcase, bringing it to the attention of a much broader audience. You can watch that trailer here.
No specific release date was given at the time. PINE has, however, been listed on the Nintendo e-shop as coming to the Switch in ‘August 2019’. But August is half over and no specific date has been revealed. So we’ve decided to provide a little update for fans who have been watching the e-shop hopefully.
Coming soon!
In a recent update on PINE’s Steam page, the developers have revealed that the game will, in fact, be releasing in October. Not only that: the specific date will be given out at the start of September! The developers, Twirlbound, will also be at Gamescom this year with a new demo for visitors to play. It will give them “a full inventory of fun stuff” and let those lucky convention-goers experience all of the game’s systems, exploration and combat. They’ll even be able to take on up to five quests!
Looking great
We spuds are homebound. We will not be able to hop a plane to Cologne, Germany to attend the conference. (We’re afraid they’d stick us in cargo anyway!) But we will definitely be eagerly following the news from home! PINE is looking great, with all the seasons and environments to enjoy.
If you’re looking for games you can play sooner, check out our article on family-friendly games. Among them is AER, another beautiful game of exploration that takes some cues from Legend of Zelda.
- Aug 17, 2019
Games that defy genre are increasing. Eastshade belongs to the wave of games that make you question their classification. Published earlier this year, Eastshade is amazingly beautiful. And if it must be placed in a genre, then it’s probably a walking simulator.
You play as a wandering artist. Explore the world extensively, and even stop to paint pictures of anything that catches your eye. You can paint for yourself, and you can even take commissions and paint what is requested of you. (Though the painting mechanic is more like taking pictures.) Eastshade feels like it’s much more than just a walking simulator.
Eastshade is full of NPCs who are full of their own interests. They can give you quests. They even have branching dialogue chains, so what they say is dependent on how you speak to them. What’s more is that the game remembers your previous actions. Characters you meet will respond to you based on the actions you have been taking all along. Quests will be available depending on what you have unlocked, so the potential for more than one play through the game is high.
Key Features
- A peaceful open-world exploration-adventure full of character.
- Compose paintings anywhere in the world and offer them to the locals to unlock secrets and gain items.
- Acquire crafting materials and schematics to surmount obstacles and solve quests.
- Make friends along the way through fully-voiced dynamic conversations and unlockable topics.
Your actions will impact the world around you in Eastshade. You gather materials and help people in need. You can even create solutions that will allow you to explore the world more fully. Some areas of the world are unexplored because of natural impasses, but you will be able to find ways to surmount them. (And boldly go where no one has gone before!)
Eastshade is currently available on Steam, and while no firm plans have been announced, the developers are still considering other platforms. We hope Eastshade will spread to as many platforms as possible so that it can reach the biggest audience! You can also visit the developer’s official site.
If you can’t play Eastshade on Steam, why not try a game like Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles or My Time at Portia? They’re all quite different from each other, but all allow you to explore a beautiful world at your own pace. Yonder and Portia are also available on Steam as well as almost all current-gen consoles.
- Aug 16, 2019
A Hat in Time is a game that has maintained overwhelmingly positive feedback on Steam since its launch in late 2017. A few months after its Mac and PC release, it was also brought to PS4 and Xbox One, but there were no plans to bring it to the Nintendo Switch at the time. That has now changed! Very recently the news surfaced that it was not only confirmed to be coming to the Switch, but has a physical release date of October 18, 2019.
Get ready for a big journey
A Hat in Time is a very cute 3D adventure platformer featuring a little girl in a big top hat, known simply as “Hat Kid”. Hat Kid’s goal is easy to sympathize with: she wants to get home. But as she is on her way there, the Mafia of a nearby planet attack her ship when she won’t pay their ‘toll’. All of her ship’s fuel (magical hourglasses called ‘Time Pieces’) is scattered to the world below. She must gather them all up before she can resume her journey. Looks like she’ll need to look pretty hard!
It won’t be easy…
Some rather morally bankrupt characters surround Hat Kid. In addition to the Mafia, there is ‘Mustache Girl’. Mustache Girl wants to use Hat Kid’s Time Pieces to travel in time so that she can become a superhero. In refusing (because disrupting time is very dangerous), Hat Kid gains a rival in collecting her Time Pieces back up. Mustache Girl now wants to find them and keep them for herself!
And so your trials begin! In addition to collecting Time Pieces, each level also contains yarn balls, and Hat Kid can use them to make herself some new hats. Each hat imbues Hat Kid with a different power! Each different ability will be useful in traversing the world across which Hat Kid’s Time Pieces are scattered. Relics must also be collected, as each one is part of a puzzle.
But it will be FUN!
This cute adventure looks like a great fit for Nintendo Switch. We’re all eagerly keeping an eye on the Nintendo eShop to see when it will appear. The ‘Seal the Deal’ DLC that was available on PC will be included free with a physical copy of the Switch version. (You will have to download it separately from the main game.) We hope that the DLC content will also make it to PS4 and Xbox One in the future.
The Switch version of A Hat in Time will also include a new co-op mode! Check out this trailer for a very cute overview of the game:
If you’re looking for more information on A Hat in Time, you can check out the Steam page. Or go to the official site. If you like 3D platforming games, then look into Tamarin, as well! If you want a cute platforming game you can play right now, try The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince.
- Aug 15, 2019
Hundred Days is an upcoming simulation game with a page already on Steam. To us it seems like a cross between a farming game and a business-tycoon or money-management game, like Chocolatier. You arrange your field and grow crops of different types of grapes to harvest them in different seasons.
But in addition to that, you also choose the recipe for your wines. It’s not all about the type of grape. The grape’s growing conditions affect its quality and attributes. Even the type of yeast you use to ferment the grapes will have an impact on the wine’s final quality. If you want to make the big bucks in Hundred Days, you’re going to have to grow the best grapes and make the best wine.
You’re even going to have to manage the soil’s PH levels. PH levels are a measure of how acidic or alkaline your soil is, and would have an effect on your grapes’ final flavour. When you harvest will also affect their attributes. With such a level of realism, we think this indie developer, Broken Arms Games, must have a real passion for vineyards and winemaking! We look forward to becoming digital oenophiles, too, once Hundred Days releases.
Key Features
- Simulative and realistic approach suitable for both beginners and more experienced players
- The ability to cultivate different types of vine
- Analyze the soil and choose the grape variety that best suits those characteristics
- Organize work in the vineyard such as pruning or chipping
- Protect your vines through specific treatments depending on the type of disease
- Check the state of ripeness of the grapes and decide when to harvest
- Follow the winemaking processes and enhance the characteristics of your wine
- Select the yeasts and bacteria used during fermentation
- Decide how and which of your wines age with aging
- Customize your bottles by choosing their shape, color and other aesthetic characteristics
- Create your sales network and adapt the characteristics of your product to the type of customer
- Manage marketing and social activities to increase the reputation of your company
Broken Arms Games uses the tagline “A game of choice, nostalgia, and winemaking.” We’re intrigued by where ‘nostalgia’ comes into play! We also like that every choice you make in the game has an influence on its outcome. We’re looking forward to discovering and growing every type of grape and figuring out every last type of wine we can squeeze out of them!
Watch the video here, or go directly to the official site for even more info. We hope Hundred Days will be releasing soon, because we’re ready to dive into those lovely vineyards!
If you like money-management or tycoon-style games, check out Planet Zoo, due for release in early November. Or if it’s the farming aspect of Hundred Days that appeals to you, then have a look at our list of farming games on console.
- Aug 14, 2019
It’s medieval. It’s pretty. It has good music. It’s…gridless? Foundation is a city-building simulation game on PC. We’ve probably all played them, and they tend to be different variations of the same thing. But Foundation is a little different, right from the start. It operates on a grid-free system. And the monuments you place are not pre-designed…you make them yourself. So your town can look different from anyone else’s.
Innovative…
To allow them to create the game they wanted, Polymorph Games started by making their own game engine, which they call Hurricane. They also hired composers to give their game the beautiful soundtrack you can hear in the video below. It’s clear that Foundation is a labour of love, and that Polymorph Games is serious about seeing their vision come to life just as they envisioned it.
So, what does the game being grid-less mean for you, the player? It means that the way you shape your city, and the way it grows, will be organic, not snapped-to-grid. Foundation appears to be a much more natural, personal experience, compared to the standard city-building sims. We love that you can even get up close to the people of your town, and they all look like real little individuals whom you can watch going about their daily lives.
You can also take part in quests and events, which are often part of larger scenarios. Depending on how you manage your game, different scenarios, with different quests associated, can be triggered, giving your town a different story each time you play. (Unless you always play the same way!)
…Yet familiar
But Foundation isn’t so different that lovers of the city-building genre won’t have enough to love. The familiar exists here, too, with resource-managing and ensuring that your population grows while keeping the villagers happy and healthy.
Foundation has been in Early Access on Steam since February 2019, and is still receiving regular updates and improvements. At this point the game appears to have less than about half of the content they mean for it to have upon completion. We do not yet know when the full release will be, or if Foundation will become available on any other platforms after launch. The estimate for now is to have the game in early access for about a year, so if you aren’t the type to want to help shape a developing game or squish bugs, keep your eye on Foundation in early 2020! Foundation is currently available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The game is also available on GOG.
If you like unusual takes on the city-building genre, then check out our coverage of Before We Leave, a city-building game that takes place across the universe.
- Aug 13, 2019
Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a fairy-tale puzzle platformer that is like playing through the pages of an old, yellowing storybook. Developed by Nippon Ichi Software in Japan, it was localized by NIS America and released in February 2019. After playing the first two (of six) chapters, I’m here to give you my impression of playing this charming game on Nintendo Switch.
The Story
Liar Princess and the Blind Prince looks like a fairy-tale storybook, and reads like one, too. The basic premise is that a monstrous wolf sings in the forest every night, and a young prince of a nearby castle hears her, and listens, because he loves her voice. He applauds enthusiastically for her song every time, and the wolf is very grateful, though she knows she cannot go down and meet him, because she is a monster.
One night the little prince decides he must see the owner of this mysterious voice, and he braves the dangerous, monster-ridden forest to meet her. But when he finally crests the rise the wolf always settles on for her singing, the wolf reaches out to cover his eyes, because if he sees her, he’ll know! He’ll see that she’s a monster, and her happy little audience will disappear, and she doesn’t want him to go. She loves that he listens to her every night. But she IS a wolf, and her claws are long and sharp, and in trying to cover his eyes, she blinds him.
With the little prince now blind and alone, rejected by his family as useless, our story truly begins. The wolf is so remorseful that she seeks out the witch of the forest to gain a human form for herself. With that, she will be able to take the prince by the hand and lead him through a forest fraught with danger, to bring him to the witch so that she can restore his vision.
The Art
The style of Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a beautiful variety of adorable. With dark sepia-tones over everything, it gives the feel of the deeply yellowed pages of an old book. The dramatic black outlines, thick and inky, add atmosphere, giving a feeling of darkness and danger to an otherwise pretty world. There’s a simplicity to the style, like a children’s book, even though the scenes, when brought together, are intricate. The animation is smooth but also simple. There’s no high-speed action to try to keep track of in Liar Princess, and that feels in keeping with the story and setting.
The Puzzling Platforms
The gameplay relies on you having two forms…both wolf and princess. If you jump too high, you’ll both plop to the ground when you land, being only small children without the athletic ability to handle such a thing smoothly. A short fall won’t hurt you, but you’ll take a moment to gather yourselves and get back up, so don’t fall when there is an enemy nearby!
In wolf form, you’re actually very tough and strong and can jump much higher, as well as fight the enemies that stand in your way. The prince himself is another crucial game-play element, because you can’t hold the prince’s hand to guide him with a paw full of claws, so you will need to constantly be swapping between princess and wolf forms to best tackle what lay before you.
The prince won’t move without you. He can’t see. He doesn’t know what’s around him, except danger. It’s no wonder that every time you take his hand, his look of worry disappears to be replaced with a sweet, reassured smile. If you let go of his hand, he’ll stay exactly where you left him (so please don’t leave him anywhere with monsters…they’ll gobble him right up!) He can’t see you, so you can transform back to a wolf at any time and do what you need to, to clear his path, and then the two of you can proceed onward again.
Protect this adorable pair! High investment
The game really makes you regret your mistakes. If you don’t jump far enough to catch the next platform solidly, the prince you’re pulling along behind you will fall helplessly to his death. The princess will drop to her knees in shocked realization at what she’s done, and she covers her eyes and weeps as the End Game screen pops up and starts the reloading process, to force you to start the level over again. You have to protect that precious little dumpling at all costs. Everything you’re doing is for him, after all!
In some games you might press Y once to take his hand, then press it again to release it, but in Liar Princess you must hold Y continually to keep hold of the prince’s hand. It’s a good choice of mechanic, in my opinion, as it really lets you feel how much attention you need to pay to your teeny buddy, to guide and keep him safe. It also means you sometimes have to act fast, such as if you’re walking toward a bouncy mushroom in an area with respawning monsters. You’ll have to release the prince’s hand, transform into the wolf to quickly dispatch the monsters, transform back to a princess so you can grab the prince’s hand again, and jump onto that mushroom to propel you to the ledge before the next monster can get to you.
So, is it worth playing?
Here’s a confession. I am terrible at platformers. I have no sense of timing, and, like my entire family (so there’s no hope I can escape it!) my reflexes are slow. So even though I’ve heard from others that the game’s platforming is simple or easy, for me, Liar Princess and the Blind Prince has actually been quite difficult. In fact, I’m stuck right now with my wee prince up on a ledge, and I can’t figure out how to get him back down, or how to go forward, and I’m only at the end of Chapter 2!
Normally this would frustrate me until I gave up, since if a game is more frustrating than fun, I want no part of it. Instead, after dying twenty times in a row, I’m going to look it up online, to figure out what I’m doing wrong, so I can go back and continue the story. I need to see these two brave little munchkins to the end! Even if one of the munchkins is actually an enormous wolf with claws like swords.
The game makes these two impossible to resist. It isn’t just the basic story. As you go along, you’ll get little interludes between the two. As an early example: the wolf can’t deal with fire, and the prince doesn’t like the wolf’s beloved raw meat, but does love flowers. So the prince will carry lanterns for the wolf, and the wolf will go out of her way to get flowers to give to the prince.
They are, quite simply, the cutest and most endearing pair of adventurers I’ve ever seen in a puzzle-platformer game. I cannot leave them alone. I will struggle mightily against my many defects as a gamer, and complete this game no matter what it takes!
Where to buy
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is available digitally on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4, as well as in physical form at most game retailers. If you’re interested in this game, why not also check out The Way Remastered, another emotionally-charged platformer? Or try Another Sight, a story about a girl losing her sight when the tunnel she was exploring with her kitty companion collapses.
