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sandrock dared to ask "what if the weird little guys were actually interesting and funny?"
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Apr 9, 2024 00:25
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Sandrock is definitely way better but its not too fundamentally different if you didn't like the basic flow of Portia Sandrock won't fix that for you.
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Apr 9, 2024 00:43
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Yeah, I can tell Sandrock is better than Portia was, but Portia didn't really grab me and Sandrock hasn't either. If the last time you played Stardew was a couple of years ago, it's worth noting the game has been hugely updated since then. And playing with mods to clear up annoyances is praxis.
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Apr 9, 2024 00:44
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socialsecurity posted:Sandrock is definitely way better but its not too fundamentally different if you didn't like the basic flow of Portia Sandrock won't fix that for you. I heartily disagree here, because the NPCs are just that much better. Portia's NPCs just lack something. Sandrock's NPCs make the world feel more lived in, and the characters are fun and quirky in their own ways. There's little things like weekly concerts, storytelling, folks walking through town to look at stores, folks out scavenging for resources, or checking on the local flora, etc. And the gameplay loop is much more convenient, since all chests share inventory, and you can craft from chests directly. Combat is still a bit anemic, but guns are fun and the flow is miles better than it was in Portia.
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Apr 9, 2024 01:55
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I liked Portia's story and NPCs better than Sandrocks on average. They're both good, but I preferred Portia's. Sandrock feels like a smaller game with less room for player agency to me.
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Apr 9, 2024 03:31
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Smaller?? Also, I just didn't really feel like I knew many people in Portia. Even if I got my friendship to max, it seemed like I hardly talked to most of them, and I absolutely got all the brothers mixed up in one same-shape mass. And I swear some of their arcs just... didn't. The one guy kept talking about joining the Flying Pigs and how his test was coming up, and that went absolutely nowhere and never happened. Midnight Voyager fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 04:48
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Something Sandrock did that I found delightful and haven't seen in a videogame before, is script the NPCs to occasionally have lines of dialogue that are sort of under their breath in cutscenes and during the town hall meetings. The dialogue volume is lower and the subtitles appear above the character's head, so if you're not paying attention you might miss it, but occasionally the cast has some hilarious stuff to say in regards to how the town is run and whatnot. Unsuur is one of the funniest characters and he gets a lot of these lines as he is often in the background making autistic observations.
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Apr 9, 2024 06:36
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Sivart13 posted:I played Stardew pretty hard when it came out, but I dunno if I can go back to the vanilla experience now that I've played games where you can craft from chests and whatnot. Modding things that annoy you is the correct way to play the game, but crafting from chests in particular is something you can just do in the base game now. Buy a Workbench from Robin and stick chests on either side of it. When you craft from the workbench, it pulls the materials from the nearby chests. Nothing wrong with using mods anyway. And if you haven't played Stardew since it came out, boy howdy there will be a lot of new stuff for you to check out. The game received some massive updates since it launched!
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Apr 9, 2024 15:31
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Dirk the Average posted:One thing to be careful of - once you play Sandrock, it's really, really, really difficult to go back to playing Portia. The quality of life improvements alone are immense, and the characters are leaps and bounds better. I tried Rune Factory 4, but it was just way too anime for me and the 3DS style graphics didn’t do much for me either. I refunded before my 2 hours were up. There’s a good game underneath it if you can get beyond that though.
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Apr 9, 2024 16:02
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Sandrock is a lot like Portia, just improved in all ways. I wouldn’t call it smaller, but it doesn’t waste space like Portia did. If you didn’t like Portia, you’re not going to love Sandrock. I like them both a lot though. Second best in the genre behind Stardew.
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Apr 10, 2024 05:20
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i dislike portia and think it's bleh. i love sandrock
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Apr 10, 2024 05:27
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That’s cool. What did you think didn’t work about Portia that was corrected in Sandrock?
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Apr 10, 2024 05:30
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personality and charm
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Apr 10, 2024 05:31
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Midnight Voyager posted:Smaller?? Different reactions to the same inputs I think. The design team learned their lessons from Portia. They scaled back and have hardly any dangling plot threads like that. But the characters, with a few notable exceptions, have less going on and so feel less like people to me. In Portia I went out of my way to duel Arlo and the other civil corps members every day. Not because I got much out of it, but because it helped them level. It doesn’t feel worthwhile in Sandrock. In Portia, you got to build a bunch of farm improvements for Emily and her grandma. Zeke is cool, but he’s hidden off in his own zone way the heck far away so the ways you help him don’t feel as impactful. Portia felt like it had all sorts of weird nooks and crannies to go poke around in and improve. It was easy to just miss stuff. Sandrock is a much tighter, more streamlined experience. I like some narrative in my farming games, but I also want to be able to just go do my own thing sometimes.
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Apr 10, 2024 05:42
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My biggest issue with Portia was characters having very few lines and it wouldn't take long to reach a point where they would start repeating. Sandrock has a metric poo poo ton of writing for every character and all of them comment on all the story events, so it really feels like they're real characters and not just cardboard cutouts. Everything else is just gravy on top.
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Apr 10, 2024 05:50
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LLSix posted:Yeah, that was a disappointment. DID it help them level? Or did they just kinda level with you since they ended up in combat situations you were also in? I only ever fought the red-headed girl whose name I can't even remember (which fights her brother and butler instead) because she was hard to befriend. I really hated combat in that game, so I avoided it like the plague where I could. Midnight Voyager fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 05:53
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Also saying everyone has less going on and feels less like people is kinda wild to me. I can't even think of most of their names and I have definitely forgotten a bunch of them existed. Some of the moms just merge together in a void and most of the kids definitely do. Some people in Portia had absolutely nothing going on whatsoever. Some of them were super hard to befriend because they just weren't involved in poo poo and you barely talked to them. I felt like some of them, I'd meet them, learn their name and something about them, and that was absolutely it. I would love to have... I dunno, interacted with them at all more. The Emily farm improvements were alright I guess? But I didn't get anything out of that I didn't get out of things like putting a bridge over the oasis lategame, fixing the windmill, adding benches to the town, fixing the lift, etc. I guess I'm surprised how different the exact same things hit me. Midnight Voyager fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 06:03
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Silver Falcon posted:And if you haven't played Stardew since it came out, boy howdy there will be a lot of new stuff for you to check out. The game received some massive updates since it launched! I've tried to pick it up again to go to the island, but it feels like an archeological project. I'd love to top off my relationships with all my town friends but the last time I gained any hearts with them was before the Trump administration. that being said, if I decided to restart for a second and probably final run at it, should I pick the normal farm or one of these crazy ones?
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Apr 10, 2024 06:53
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Add me to the list of people who bounced off Portia despite multiple attempts but fell in love with Sandrock. It was my goty last year even. One thing I like about it is it does a particularly good job of portraying the little squabbles and odd friendships of small town life that some of the earlier Harvest Moons pulled off well but few more modern games do. People are always doing things and hanging out with friends or cattily gossiping. It's i think the only game like this where I didn't know who to romance not because of a lack of good choices but because there were so many. Or well good and "good". Some characters like Burgess or Catori I wanted to romance to see the disaster. Also pretty cool making the deadbeat mum who ran off to another town to get cigarettes a romance option.
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Apr 10, 2024 08:53
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Portia has Aadit, my boy so it's automatically better
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Apr 10, 2024 09:01
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I’m surprised people would even try Sandrock after not caring for Portia.
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Apr 10, 2024 09:01
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I didn't really care for Portia, the jank was overwhelming and it felt like work I put into the game didn't really pay off. I followed Sandrock closely from the early access and jumped in about 4 months or so before release. Liked the game so much that I joined the developers discord and signed up for the beta testing version. They put everyone who signed up into the game's credits which is super nice. Never thought I'd be in a games credits.
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Apr 10, 2024 09:49
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I gave it a shot after bouncing off Portia because the idea of a desert life sim sounded interesting. After I played the open beta, I was a lot more impressed with how much more character it had even though I didn't end up being all that keen on the desert setting. To me, Portia feels like the devs jumped on to a trend and started having their own ideas significantly later into dev. Sandrock in comparison feels like it had a strong idea at the start and much better creative direction.
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Apr 10, 2024 09:51
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The only downgrade Sandrock has is that it doesn't have Sam. Elsie is a mess and also a child.
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Apr 10, 2024 09:52
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Sivart13 posted:I got far enough on release that I was making star fruits in the greenhouse and making boucoup bucks, 63 hours apparently. Just didn't stick with it for the Year 3 rating. Pick the new Meadowlands farm. It’s a fantastic all around farm but the cool thing is you start with a coop and two chickens so you’ll start earning money a lot faster and get going quicker. Also you can eat mayonnaise now.
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Apr 10, 2024 12:25
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Sivart13 posted:I got far enough on release that I was making star fruits in the greenhouse and making boucoup bucks, 63 hours apparently. Just didn't stick with it for the Year 3 rating. I'd suggest the new Meadowlands farm! You start out with a coop and two chicken friends. The blue grass growing on the farm makes animals gain friendship faster when they eat it. If you're sick of cornering the market on Ancient Fruit wine, doing an animal-focsed run might liven things up for you! There are also fish ponds, introduced in the last patch, which I find very cool and fun. You fill them with fish you catch, and they give you prizes. The prize depends on the fish. Super Cucumbers periodically give you Iridium ore, for example. Oh and you can do remixed Community Center bundles on game start, which also helps to freshen things up.
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Apr 10, 2024 12:26
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Cartoon Man posted:Pick the new Meadowlands farm. It’s a fantastic all around farm but the cool thing is you start with a coop and two chickens so you’ll start earning money a lot faster and get going quicker. Also you can eat mayonnaise now. Straight out of the jar, as God intended.
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Apr 10, 2024 12:48
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if you are making a video game with romance options and there isn't a woman like catori among them then what is the point...
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Apr 10, 2024 14:54
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Snooze Cruise posted:if you are making a video game with romance options and there isn't a woman like catori among them then what is the point... Seriously. There need to be more marriage candidates who are adults that have children and are single for various reasons. It's a breath of fresh air that Catori was included.
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Apr 10, 2024 14:59
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Everyone who played Rune Factory 5 wanted to marry the fox mom, sadly the devs still don't understand that.
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Apr 10, 2024 14:59
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Honestly its a hate crime to lesbians that every game doesn't have one woman that is coded older than me and is a unmitigated disaster >:(
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Apr 10, 2024 15:11
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Snooze Cruise posted:Honestly its a hate crime to lesbians that every game doesn't have one woman that is coded older than me and is a unmitigated disaster > Not quite a farming game but if you like lesbian girlfailures please play Little Goody Two Shoes.
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Apr 10, 2024 15:39
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FrickenMoron posted:Not quite a farming game but if you like lesbian girlfailures please play Little Goody Two Shoes. Oh! Its been on my radar! I played the demo a bit and really enjoyed what was there. The art was amazing. I probably will get around to it later this year, after I finish up the 2024 jrpgs I want to play.
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Apr 10, 2024 15:41
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Midnight Voyager posted:DID it help them level? Or did they just kinda level with you since they ended up in combat situations you were also in? It did. The impact was really obvious for low level characters. A lot of the NPCs start around level 8 and it was pretty easy to boost them up to 15 or so in time for the martial arts tournament. It’s one of the reasons guides couldn’t just tell you who would win each matchup - NPC levels changed each game based on what the player was doing enough that there was no way to reliably tell who would win duels.
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Apr 10, 2024 15:48
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Snooze Cruise posted:Honestly its a hate crime to lesbians that every game doesn't have one woman that is coded older than me and is a unmitigated disaster > Not a game but you should try the web serial Katalepsis. Choc full of disaster lesbians and it’s a web serial so it’s posted online for free. Does Wylde Flowers support lesbian marriages? The MC is always female, I think.
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Apr 10, 2024 15:53
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Zesty posted:I’m surprised people would even try Sandrock after not caring for Portia. Technically I played Sandrock and wanted more so much that I then got Portia on sale. It wasn't easy, missing a ton of stuff Sandrock improved on, but I enjoyed it enough to fully finish it anyway. And I knew everyone said Sandrock improved on it all around, so I was prepared for an awkward time. I definitely like Sandrock better, though. LLSix posted:It did. The impact was really obvious for low level characters. A lot of the NPCs start around level 8 and it was pretty easy to boost them up to 15 or so in time for the martial arts tournament. It’s one of the reasons guides couldn’t just tell you who would win each matchup - NPC levels changed each game based on what the player was doing enough that there was no way to reliably tell who would win duels. I guess that's neat, but I still would rather do anything than fight in that game. Something about it felt very bad to me. Never quite felt like I had a handle on it.
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Apr 10, 2024 15:56
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LLSix posted:Not a game but you should try the web serial Katalepsis. Choc full of disaster lesbians and it’s a web serial so it’s posted online for free. Yes. (Except all the romances are kinda lame tbh.)
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Apr 10, 2024 15:57
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I enjoyed Wylde Flowers quite a bit but yeah the romance roster is pretty lackluster. So far it's got: - 2 manchildren - Scientologist - Tea is my entire personality - A woman who has almost the exact same name, job, nationality and favorite food as my mom. Why would the devs want me to date my mom????? - Werewolf who spies on you - town butcher (smells of guts probably) i went with town butcher (smells of guts probably) because they're actually pretty cute but yeah those are some slim pickings. even worse, some of the non-romanceable characters would have been great options, and the friendship events you get with them feel a lot more fleshed out than what you get with some of the bachelor/ettes. The snooty harpy woman, the widowed cafe owner or even your grumpy neighbor would have been better options than loving Dianetics Sunday School Teacher. I do think the latest update added a new character, but I don't know if she's romanceable.
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Apr 12, 2024 06:15
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SexyBlindfold posted:I enjoyed Wylde Flowers quite a bit but yeah the romance roster is pretty lackluster. It's been a bit since I played, but does that list include the doctor who constantly tells you about her patients the moment you get your friendship level high enough with her? I, and some other players were disappointed that Tara couldn't romance the florist, because that felt like a natural choice. As for me, I chose someone and reached the point of proposing, then broke their heart by choosing myself rather than them. I wound up not marrying anyone because none of the choices were appealing enough.
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Apr 12, 2024 11:10
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SexyBlindfold posted:- A woman who has almost the exact same name, job, nationality and favorite food as my mom. Why would the devs want me to date my mom????? I dated your mom for you! (You're welcome.) Then she got even MORE boring after I married her, so I divorced her so that she and the they/them butcher could date. And they did, instantly, the very next day. Yeesh. You can date the hairdresser, yeah. It's a little weird how, when she arrives to town, EVERYONE instantly starts talking about how amazing she is, for days and days. It starts to get, like, are you guys okay? Is she t-posing menacingly behind me right now? Blink twice if she's making you say this. (She's a bit of a t-poser.) Also her Jamaican (?) accent sounds like such a caricature to my ear, it has to be the VA's actual accent because no way they would have gone forward with someone pretending to sound like that. Megazver fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Apr 12, 2024 |
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Apr 12, 2024 11:14
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