I haven't really kept up with the story of seasons games, I have fond memories of back to nature but never got on much with a wonderful life. I never really 'got' some of the finer mechanics as a teen such as friendship with villagers increasing gradually if you talk to them every day, it's only after draining Stardew Valley of every inch of gameplay that I've grasped some of these slightly hidden mechanics.

What a game to return to the series with though! I originally thought they'd looked at Stardew and borrowed mechanics and ideas from it as a sort of response to the love letter it is to the series that inspired it, but from what I've looked at online it seems like some of these mechanics were blossoming in the franchise already so I'm off base there and clearly need to play more SoS games that I missed between now and the gamecube era.

it's a fantastic entry, there's a lot to do and the mechanics have that easy going feel that earlier entries had, I know now what they were going for with games like wonderful life (and I do plan to go back to that game sometime) a slower entry is nice, but I've always had a soft spot for just spraying crops everywhere and harvest vast quantities of vegetables to sell absolutely cramming everything you can into a day.

I will say though that the late game does drag a bit, like with a lot of these games I've lately realised how the villagers dialogue quickly gets exhausted and when you talk to them often to raise their friendship it does get a bit frustrating when characters give you semi tutorial tips or compliment how good you are at something, I'm not really sure what the solution is there though, I was dissatisfied with Animal Crossing New Horizons a bit and felt the same way about the villagers there too, thinking fondly that older games had more dialogue but did they really? I'd have to go back and check to be sure I'm not just fooling myself.

The late game idea that you should be aiming to make new seeds for crops and fruit trees to get better quality fruit to complete quests and that better quality milk and the like should be got by breeding successive generations of animals is a bit exhausting I do think its a good idea to try and add a progressive mechanic but the way its done probably needs to be better thought out, the Stardew Valley approach of fertilising the fields to get better quality crops also isn't ideal but then again you're never required to do that to complete anything at least to my recollection, but who knows what a good solution is, I think maybe Pioneers idea is good it's just how long it takes is probably the killer, being able to upgrade the seeds you can buy would probably be more satisfying.

Overall it's a cracking game, in my head I unfairly supply the caveat 'its not as good as Stardew Valley' but that's definitely the bias talking, the game just hits different and I can't quite explain why it feels like it's topped the games its a love letter to so really I shouldn't be, instead I can say that I put far too many hours into this game and enjoyed every bit of it and I recommend it to anyone who loves the genre, it's been worth every bit of my time and I'm glad I finally got back to the franchise after so long.

Man I just cannot get enough of this series, the humour is fun and it has that perfect blend of silly and cool.

The gameplay spin here was super fun, changing it from an action adventure to a roguelite is interesting and makes good use of whats been previously built on with the last game.

I cant recommend this game and series enough and I cannot wait for more from this team.

It's tough in this day and age to make the 2.5D platformer and actually cut through the vast library of other perfectly good ones to shine through but I truly believe this nails it.

I really enjoyed Bramble, it's setting feels fresh, don't think there's many games that really lean into Scandinavian folklore and I really dig that, I also really like how each tale is introduced and tied together into a coherent story.

Definitely recommend playing.

I returned to this after discovering its fully available on my series S, you've got to hand it to microsoft the way they preserve your previous platform games for future play is pretty slammin.

It's just like I remember to be honest, its a well made WW1 setting but in a toybox diorama with solid TD mechanics and its gosh darned hard.

I picked up right where I left off and flailed badly at the level for a little while before realising why I never finished it in the first place, I'm simply not that good at it, and while it's quality made its just not for me.

Maybe I'll come back again and try once more, but for now I'm bidding it farewell.

The mistplay incentivised spree continues, always saw this advertised by youtube...I think?

It's all right actually, mobile game caveats aside, another game I could imagine myself playing without incentive if I hadn't gotten my fill years ago of mobile gacha games.

Saying that I'm playing tacticus right now and got out a crippling cookie run kingdom binge a few years ago.

I clearly have a problem.

It's fine, its like any other merge mobile game, trying to get money outta you with nice simple but pleasing gameplay, it has a strong 'if you wait you'll get progress' backbone which is I feel the thing that makes a mobile game 'money hungry but not evil' and in a modern games industry where making money is mostly the goal I can respect a game that has a balanced approach to trying to tempt money out of you.

Obviously it has the same issues any game hoping for whales does but again not trying to take a stand against an embedded unethical practice here.