in the interest of doing a bit more long-form writing about games, i wanted to start with a game i literally started today.
i don't have a lot to say yet because so far i'm in chapter 2 which was covered by the demo. i feel like i've been hyping this game up a lot because of how much fun i had with that demo, so don't let me sway you unless you know exactly what you're going in for:
it has farming, but! the game isn't harvest moon / story of seasons / rune factory
it has a big ol capital p Plot, but it's not a final fantasy / whatever you want there
what it IS, is something i've honestly wanted for ages. it's a jrpg that gives you farming tools and paces things around a loose stamina system & time management while dungeon crawling.
the farming probably won't be everything a stardew diehard wants, but here's my dilemma: I get burnt out on farming games SO EASY. while i appreciate the monotony of daily farmstead life, i need something to thread me along: a story, say, maybe a jrpg one with weird crystals falling from the sky filled with girls from the future(?) and an ominous race of mechanical-like weirdos, the first of which just ends up teaming up with you, and
i won't delve into spoilers. i don't know a whole lot yet. all i know is that from the reviews people seem to not know what they're getting into
but i'll sum it up with one anecdote: like, what if square enix looked at Lightning FF13's transforming gun/sword design and was like "okay but, and hear me out, WHAT IF, it was also every class's weapon, and also a hoe, and a watering can, and a hammer, and a fishing rod..."
you've got this hilarious multitool of a weapon that can do EVERYTHING, a veritable swiss army knife of jrpg protagonist weapons, and somehow the novelty of that is enough to onboard me. the rest is frosting!
to be continued...