What Did We Play Yesterday?

For years, I've had an annual or semi-annual tradition of binging on Stardew Valley during late summer/fall or late winter. Stardew Valley is great, but sometimes I have a craving for something... different. Plus, with the announcement of the upcoming Stardew Valley 1.6, I wanted to hold off on yet another Stardew run until it drops. Thus I embarked on that well-worn search for Stardew Valley But Different so many farming sim enthusiasts embark upon. I found several promising Stardew Valley clones, but I knew they wouldn't scratch that itch in the tangential, more mindless way I craved.

Then. I found THIS.

Farm Together is basically mobile clicker without ads and in-game purchases. It has cutesy graphics and a bare bones tutorial. There is no story, and the only in-game goals are randomly generated quests (farm X resources). It operates on real time. There is nothing to do but farm, decorate, and level up. It is a grinding game one plays for the sheer enjoyment of Doing The Thing.

I love it.

The developer's goal was to deliver a relaxing and fun casual game people could sink many hours into, and they delivered.

My first hour, I was like eh. This is fine, kinda aimless but whatever. Then I decided I wanted to nudge my orchard over a bit so it looked nicer and was easier to harvest. Then I decided I wanted to maximize my main field to better utilize the tractor upgrade I unlocked. THEN I decided to build a flower garden with a fancy hedge, and customize my farmer, and... Next thing you know, I was optimizing my crops and peeking ahead at locked plants to see what I could earn next. You can purchase additional land plots as you progress, so your farm has the capacity to be insanely huge.

One thing I particularly like is how they handle watering crops, that tedious hallmark of farming games. It's entirely optional. It (sometimes) increases the growing speed of vegetables, and in can increase the quality of flowers, but you can totally abstain and at a certain farm size it's not even worth bothering with anymore. I also like that it runs on real time rather than fixed in-game day. Overall, the pacing feels about right. The tractor update, which allows modifying a 3x3 grid, came along right when I needed it. New plants, animals, and items unlock at a brisk pace. Around the time I started to feel the squeeze from fuel limits I had plenty of medals to build a second gas pump. Etc.

One thing I particularly dislike is the entire housing setup. You build a house, which requires multiple cash infusions to even enter, and then you... decorate the house. Except a lot of the starting decorations are normcore (beige walls? in a GAME? wtf?) and they cost TICKETS, an entirely new currency you get from grinding away at the stove, easel, or piano to create. Again, this is done in multiple phases. It would make more sense to me if any of the furniture was remotely interesting. Farmhands, which can be hired to help with harvests, also require tickets. There's a wemod that lets you set tickets, but I'm gonna see if I get to the point where I feel like modding it.

The HowLongToBeat stats are promising. Median main story playthrough? 80h. Average completionist playthrough? 435h. Challenge accepted.

"Hey Ren have you played any weird retro games lately?" I sure have but I ain't telling you shit here's a post about Baldur's Gate instead.

My second playthrough bard finally passed my first playthrough rogue and finished the party sequence that marks the end of Act 1. I'm closing in on 50 hours and still really enjoying the game, but some of the issues are starting to show. The game is a little buggy with regards to romances, it seems, and my outfit display options keep togging or untoggling (though the most recent patch may fix this, the notes are like 20k so I didn't bother to check).

Collapse( stupid post with stupid spoilers ) My first PT, Shadowheart and Lae'zel had a contfrontation/makeup exchange very early in, which made their rivalry seem anticlimactic. This time, that scene didn't trigger until much later, after they'd had several heated exchanges, and the resolution felt a lot more natural.

Being a bard allows me a Jack of All Trades bonus, and between this and my stupidly high charisma/deception modifiers I get away with quite a lot in conversations. I kind of miss the rogue's sneak attack, which I used to great effect before, but I'm trying to get smarter about using the bard to control the battlefield.

I thought I was reasonably thorough my first playthrough, but this time around I stumbled across a few extra things, such as the alchemist's secret basement with the weird necronomicon book (creepy AND cool), making Ethel go Full Hag, and... oh yeah, the Entire Underdark lmao. While spelunking I ended up unexpectedly getting locked into Nere's timed rescue quest, which I did not like because my party was sorely unrested, but I was able to team up with a few of the dwarves and tag team him so it turned out okay. (Meaning, I lived and he died.)

This time I actually pursued the Nightsong, or tried to, and had some pretty awesome encounters as a result. Researching whether or not I can attempt the Creche I may have minorly spoiled myself and have the impression the Nightsong will actually be more important to the plot than it initially seems, so I'm glad I'd already independently decided to investigate it before that happened.

One thing I found a little confusing is the game gives you a Are You Ready to Go Ahead? dialogue when you attempt to pursue Lae'zel's Creche questline, which recommends you tie up any outstanding questlines and subtly implies this is a point of no return. Evidently, this is NOT a point of no return, and you can still access your fast travel portals. I think they did this to subtly discourage players from venturing onto the next region too early.

While I'm still firmly Team Lae'zel I have flirted a lot with the other companions. Gale and Astarion appear amenable (last time, Astarion blew me off spectacularly, which I loved). I was locked out of Karlach again, and since I completed her quests properly this time I'm assuming it has to do with my active relationship with Lae'zel. Shadowheart seemed to be leaning that way prior to the party (she gets a little soft in the dialogues if you have high approval), but I didn't get the option of having a drink later this time. It seems the game allows you to have up to two "courtship" scenarios going and locks out the others, presumably to make sure there only needs to be one "you have to choose between us" scene. The poly romance modder appears to be having some difficulty with the flags so I think holding off on flirting until you're reasonably sure who you want to romance is a good idea if you're concerned about getting locked out of any given relationship.

The flirting in this game is a pretty good blend of fun and cringe. Flirting with Halsin when he arrives is pretty funny, because he's like, welp, it's a bit early for this but if you wanna get nasty, sure, fine, whatever. If you flirt prematurely with Gale, he sort of looks around and then points to himself like, "You're talking to me?" but then immediately plays the, "I'm so flattered" card, which had the unintended effect of making me want to sink into the earth even though he clearly means it. Well done Larian. Astarion's mocking disdain is brutal and I love it, but Karlach's friendly brush off (aw, don't be like that, we have a good thing going, followed by a hearty punch on the shoulder) flayed my soul alive both times, it was the most savage of unintentional burns. Shadowheart keeps it close to the chest, in keeping with the theme. And I have no idea what Lae'zel's rejection looks like because the second she started bossing me around I was here for it and promptly lay on the ground so she could step on me, as is right and proper.

I replayed Super Mario Land a while back and said:

One of the weaker Mario games, with slightly wonky controls and tiny sprites, and it turns into an unfortunate shooter at the end for no apparent reason, but it's a short game, forgiving in lives and checkpoints, and it's worth a visit just for the general weirdness (the UFOs and Egyptian tombs were my personal favorites) and the music.

I decided to check out Super Mario Land 2 DX, the colorized hack, but soon I put it aside. I played this game a lot on cartridge and while it has it's fans, it feels more like Super Mario World lite. Nintendo was still figuring out how to have a Mario game on a handheld screen and I dislike the floaty physics and the level proportions, and don't find the graphics charming enough to keep me engaged. I remembered being fairly neutral on Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 at the time.

Wario Land 4 was on my list, so I gave it a try. WOW. What a cool puzzle platformer! For those unfamiliar, Wario is basically the bizzaro verison of Mario. He's mean, he's rude, he's a bully, he steals stuff. His moveset includes smashing things and knocking things over. A recurring mechanic is throwing an old man around. He is VERY fun to play. By 2001 Nintendo has of course nailed how to platform on a small screen.

Wario has decided to steal things from ancient tombs, and along the way you get as much money as possible to spend on gambling games. The way this works is he steals the stuff, gets to the end of the tomb, activiates some kind of weird switch and then has to hot-foot back to the beginning to get out again. As you progress, you're keeping an eye on how the hell you're going to get out of this place. The enemies are creative and fun, and some afflict Wario with status effects (making him blow up like a balloon or become thin and squiggly) that are necessary to get past certain challenges.

The game is fun, the mechanics are clever, and it doesn't outstay its welcome. Currently my favorite handheld Mario-adjacent game.