On Farming Games

So I recently bought the game Fields of Mistria after having heard about it a little. It was a bit tedious because I only have a Mac right now so I had to download the trial of crossover (I usually use Whisky to play game on my Mac but it was not working this time) but it was all worth it. I only played for like 10 hours, but it’s what I was looking in a cozy game for a long time.

The first game of this genre I played was Harvest Moon on the Super Nintendo (yes I’m old). I was a child, my brother had installed several games on an emulator in our Windows 98 computer and I liked to try them all. This one particularly draw me, it was a really cute game and my parents were farmers so it was funny to be a bit like them. At that time, I did not speak a word of English so I had a little dictionary at the desk and I searched for every word. For a long time, the only English I knew was from this games and Final Fantasy. I don’t remember finishing it but I played quit a bit. I think I also played a bit of More Friends of Mineral Town later because you could play as a girl but it was not the same impact.

Then a lot later, a friend told me about rune factory 3 on 3DS and this time again, boom, I was hooked. This time, it was farming but with RPG elements in it and a lot of cute characters. It was a combination of everything I like : RPG, farming and dating game. I played this game a lot, then I also liked the fourth one. But the fifth… yikes didn’t enjoyed it at all, it was so 3D and laggy, not my style.

And then of course, Stardew Valley. It was like a renewal. A graphic style more like the first harvest moon but with a lot more of content and exploration. Funny characters, lots of planning to do and also a lot of update so I could relaunch the game from time to time. It was great. But this launched a wave of farming games that at first, I wanted to try because I love them so much. But I ended up disappointed. Some of them were ok, I think about Fae Farm of Sakuna but it was not the same. I thought that maybe I would not feel the same about new farming games because maybe, we had seen all. So when I heard about Fields of Mistria, I was instantly drawn to the cute graphics but I was also kind of afraid it would be another game trying to copy stardew valley. But it was not. Of course there are a lot of similarities, but I feel like the people who makes this game are really fans of the genre. It’s full of little things that you had to use mods on stardew valley to have. Here’s a lists of little things that made me so happy to have (and it’s only the early access !)

• you can view where are people on the map in real time, you don’t have to remember everyone’s schedule
• At the beginning of the day, when the date is shown, you can view if it’s someone birthday or if there are any events. You also have another sign that show you if there are events this day when you go to the town
• The weather for the next day is shown directly in the crystal ball so you don’t have to watch the TV to know this
• The colour palette et the characters arts are so f-ing cute, it seems to be taylored to my likes (it was one of the thing I didn’t really enjoyed in stardew valley) It also make me thinks of the games a link to the past which is my favorite Zelda game, so bonus point
• Fishing is not a bore !! It’s more like in animal crossing and I really like it
• Clothing presets ! So I can change with the seasons and also dress appropriately when I go to the mines
• The fact that the game recognise the gamepad used and change the ui. Every game should have this.

I think the only things I like less in this game is the music, sometimes it cut and there’s nothing for seconds then it launch again. I also would have liked (but it’s a me thing) to have the ability to teleport like in rune factory, I think it would be really useful. Or at least something to walk a little faster but maybe there is a horse later or something. I play with a ps4 controller so it’s less a thing, but on the keyboard, I found it weird to not have a touch to send all items in your bag to your chest, I tried several things but ended up to have to drag each items individually. With the controller it’s better because you juste have to press the button. But overall for now, it’s really nothing !

I can’t wait to see what the team will do with this game and I really hope it will be the new sensation in the indie game world because they deserve it. Good job !

Princess Peach Showtime

I just finished Princess Peach: Showtime, well only the main story. It was so so cute, the costumes are really pretty, it's nice to have different ways of playing depending on the outfits.

Now that I've finished the main story, a whole post-game have been unlocked where you have to go through all the levels again to find the ninja's disciples. I did the first two levels, and they weren't really well hidden, but I'll have to see about the next ones. If I'd known, I wouldn't have bothered finishing all the levels at 100%, since I have to do them all again anyway 🥲.

There are also achievements to unlock on the bosses, three for each, and that's likely to be more complicated. I did the first boss, and had to restart about ten times to manage to get all three sparks; not only do you have to manage not to get hit, but you also have to avoid hitting too much at random. I'm not looking forward to the lion boss at all; I liked him the least. Well, we'll see.

Apart from that, a few random thoughts:

• The game is very forgiving, but there's still a little challenge for those who want it. The more hardcore players won't necessarily like it, but the others will enjoy it.
• Peach in the swordswoman outfit is really the queen of lesbians, I find myself back in the days of Card Captor Sakura (the sleeping beauty's play chef's kiss) and the Rose of Versailles, and my taste hasn't changed in all these years.
• It's funny that the mermaid costume gives a musical mini-game, it reminded me of kingdom hearts 2 with the little mermaid's world. (Incidentally very disappointed not to have had a pastel pink and blue dress like Stella's ribbon which is absolutely perfect).
• The ninja's music sounds a lot like FFX-2, I thought. I looked up the composers and it looked like there were not the same, but it reminds me too much of it. By the way, "assassin's disco" as a song name is perfect. I just looked it up on YouTube and it seems to remind people of a lot of things, but not FFX-2, am I the only one?
• It's a real shame not to be able to skip the cutscenes (apart from the transformations); it's pretty frustrating, especially as you have to redo the levels to find everything.
• Loading screens and cinematics are slow, but not the scenes where you play ???? Now that's something I've never seen before, and it's very odd that it should be the other way around. But in the end, it's better that way. I'm playing in 1.0 now, so maybe it's been fixed. Anyway, it's better that way than the other, as there aren't many cinematics.

That's all I can think of. We'll see if I have the motivation to finish it 100%, I think I'll at least do the ninjas, the bosses we'll see depending on my mood. I hope we'll have more games with Peach! 👑

2023 Wrapped

En 2023, j’ai eu l’impression d’être un fantôme et de ne pas avoir existé, mais en y repensant, j’ai quand même fais quelques trucs :

• j’ai vu 81 films dont 16 au cinéma (plus un certain nombre de séries que je n’ai pas noté), lu 21 livres et fini 12 jeux.
• j’ai voyagé en Thaïlande et à Londres
• j’ai appris à me décolorer les cheveux et à me maquiller sans avoir peur du regard des autres (mieux vaut tard que jamais)
• j’ai sauté le pas pour faire mes premiers tatouages
• j’ai revu Perfume pour la deuxième fois et Rina Sawayama pour j’espère pas la dernière fois car son concert était un des meilleurs de toute ma vie