All posts tagged in monster catching
Apr 13, 2022
Build Friendships, Farm, Fight and Tame Monsters!
Rune Factory 5, by Marvelous (XSEED), released on the Nintendo Switch in America on March 22nd, 2022 and in Europe and Australia on March 25th, 2022.
Since hearing the news back in 2020, and waiting such a long time since the release of the previous game in the franchise Rune Factory 4 on the 3DS in 2013 (although now there’s a Special Edition for the Switch), it stands to reason that fans are nervous with exactly what has and what hasn’t changed with this beloved Story of Seasons (formerly Harvest Moon) spin-off series. Well, after playing countless hours of the JRPG/farming sim mash-up, I’m here to tell you what to expect before buying!
Rune Factory 5 VS. Rune Factory 4
Rune Factory 5 starts you off with the same amnesiac trope as usual as you’re brought to a small, quiet town called Rigbarth. Rather then issuing “Orders” as a prince or princess in Rune Factory 4, you’ll become a ranger for the organization, SEED, by protecting the town from monsters. In the same way, you’ll be able to spend these reward “points” toward town festivals, storage upgrades, and more! Moreover, you’ll be farming on the backs of a total of 5 Farm Dragons! See below for other such changes that might interest you!
- Fully 3D environments. However, no top-down camera views or grid lines for placing items.
- Same-sex marriages! Your choice between 6 bachelorettes and 6 bachelors regardless of your own gender.
- Items on the ground can be automatically added to your inventory. Or you can manually pick up several of the same item while running.
- Location markers are visible for all main quests and notable interactions, including scenes with marriage candidates.
- Several fast-travel locations within the town, as well as new outside areas. In dungeons, you can travel to any newly uncovered floor.
Available Now on the Switch
Although Rune Factory 5 suffers from some rather extreme lagging and loading issues and minor quality-of-life inconveniences, it’s still a welcome step in the right direction for future iterations of the series! Let’s us know what you think of the game so far! If you haven’t already, get Rune Factory 5 on the Nintendo Switch here!
- Dec 21, 2019
For those of you that have been following along on Re:Legend’s progress, a cooperative JRPG simulation game by Magnus Games, this will probably be the most important news and update of all! I’ve been playing the game since its release on Steam Early Access in late August and have been enjoying the quests, but it was taking me a bit of time to get accustomed to the controls and to play around with everything the game has to offer from farming, crafting, fishing, taming Magnus, and more!
In With the New, Out With the Old
With update 16.0 available now, it brings much needed bug fixes and a large overhaul of the multiplayer feature. It also brings brand new and exciting content with a side of very bad news for early players. So let’s get that bad news out of the way right now; everyone’s save files have been wiped and we’re all starting from scratch. This is what the developers had to say on that matter: “We understand the frustration of the save wipe, but with the full rework of many systems in the game, the old save files were hard to recover.”
The Everdust Desert
With that said, new players will probably have a much better experience with more polish and rework to the game, and interactive tutorials. In this new major content update, we’ll be getting new items, new recipes, new armor, new quests, new NPCs, and much more! The largest focus is on the new biome; The Everdust Desert. This whole new Desert biome will have more than 30 maps and quests to explore, and 30 new tamable Magnus too.
Season’s Greetings Magnus Tamers
As for festivals and events, we got a limited time pop-up island for Halloween, now we’ll be getting one for this holiday season as well. What we know so far is that we’ll be able to explore a frozen landscape with new Magnus, and old ones with a new festive look, as well as some seasonal decorations. We can see in the trailer above that the new festival may coincide with this new island event because, in Japan, lighting up floating lanterns and placing them in the water is celebrated during the fall and sometimes also during New Year’s to guide the spirits of their ancestors and ward off evil. Perhaps I’ll take part and say goodbye to my previous avatar.
I’d like to hear from you what you think about all of these changes for Re:Legend and if you’ll be playing during the holidays. The developers have mentioned that they have taken steps to safeguard save files for the future so it should be fine to fully dive into the game now! You can even get Re:Legend at 15% off here, as part of Steam’s Winter Sale.
- Oct 31, 2019
Re:Legend is a monster-taming adventure RPG that I’ve had the pleasure of playing and giving my first impressions on my first couple in-game days thanks to developer Magnus Game Studio and publisher 505 Game. You can even try it for yourselves on Steam Early Access with a 15% discount only today! With the newest update, you can explore a Halloween-themed island with the chance to capture more Shadow Magnus! Read on below for more details on this spooktacular event.
About Re: Legend Halloween Island Event
As we draw closer to the night of All Hallow’s Eve, a chill settles in our bones and also our beloved world of Ethia. From behind the mists, a mysterious Island has made itself known to the denizens of Ethia by spreading darkness and scares. Where did this island come from, why did it reveal itself? All is left in the dark for now, unless there are adventurers that are willing to explore and brave the terrors to come.
Players will be able to explore a brand new island in the high seas of Ethia, where something spooky is flitting about terrorizing unlucky trespassers. All of you can look forward to new items and a new area to explore, and for those that are interested in Shadow Magnus then get ready your taming items. The Halloween event island will have a higher chance of spawning the eerie Shadow Magnus, so take the opportunity to stock up. However, you might need to progress the game a bit, if you’re a beginner, before reaching the Island. Just keep going and you might even see some surprises in the isle!
For more Steam sales and Halloween events, check out my article here: Drop by Steam’s Halloween Sale Plus Events for Some Wholesome Games Gone Spooky.
- Oct 9, 2019
Not long after the most surprising announcement of an evolution for Farfetch’d, Sirfetch’d, as the upcoming Pokemon Sword exclusive on the Nintendo Switch, we get another first generation Pokemon with a new look! Now in the Galar region, you can look forward to finding Ponyta’s new Physic-type form which includes a long fluffy pastel-colored tail and mane, as well as a horn on the forehead! This unicorn-like beauty however will be a Pokemon Shield exclusive.
A change brought about by the life energy of the forests
Galarian Ponyta have been found in a certain forest of the Galar region since ancient times. It is said that they were exposed to the overflowing life energy of the forest over many generations, and this is why their appearance became unique in this region.
CATEGORY: Unique Horn Pokémon
TYPE: Psychic
HEIGHT: 2’7″
WEIGHT: 52.9 lbs.
ABILITY: Run Away / Pastel VeilBehold its glistening mane
Galarian Ponyta can absorb the life energy of the surrounding atmosphere and store it in its mane. It seems that Ponyta’s mane will become more colorful, and even emit a sparkling glow, if there is a lot of energy around.
Galarian Ponyta has the Ability Pastel Veil
Galarian Ponyta’s Ability, Pastel Veil, is a new Ability introduced in these titles. This Ability prevents the Pokémon and its allies from becoming poisoned! It can even cure the poisoned status condition of its allies when this Pokémon enters the battlefield!
To see the full list of Pokemon announced for Pokemon Sword and Shield, you can check out the official website here. The decision to pick either Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield (or both) will be a tough one, which version are you thinking of getting?
