Farming

Disney Dreamlight Valley Review

I’ve spent the past month playing Disney Dreamlight valley on the Nintendo switch.

Disney Dreamlight valley is a cute farming and life simulation game featuring memorable Disney characters past and present.

You grow crops, cook and discover new recipes, decorate your home and village, and customize a unique avatar.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is similar to the sims or animal crossing or harvest moon or atelier or similar simulation games.

Is this game for you?

Here’s my advice as a player since launch: read more

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Coral Island Kickstarter For Inclusive Farming Simulation Game

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coralisland/coral-island-reimagining-the-farm-sim-game

One good kickstarter deserves another I guess. This is the second kickstarter I’m blogging about today, and is in some ways quite similar to the previous Ova Magica. Both kickstarters are still active at time of this posting.

This next kickstarter is titled Coral Island, and it aims to make inclusivity a big focus of its game. Bringing in characters of different races and ethnic backgrounds.

The gameplay itself looks fun. You date the townsfolk while tending the farm. You even have children and watch them grow into teens. And the other people of the village also grow older as well. read more

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Ova Magica – Adorable Farming Monster Taming Game With Inspiration From Azure Dreams

I stumbled across a pretty cute farming game on kickstarter and just had to back it. Especially after I read where their inspiration was coming from with some of my favorites listed like Azure Dreams and Jade Cocoon – and of course the usual suspects, harvest moon, pokemoon, and etc.

Almost no one nowadays remembers Azure Dreams – It’s one of my favorite games of all times. The playstation version – I heard there was a gameboy version but they removed almost all basic game mechanics like dating sim aspects and so on – never played that one – and gladly not. read more

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Only Yesterday Anime Review

Only Yesterday Anime Review

Title: Only Yesterday

Genre: Slice of Life, Romance

Release Date: 1991

Studio: Studio Ghibli

Overall: 23/35 66% D “Average Anime For Girls”

Story: 5/10 A young woman goes to spend a summer on her aunt’s farm. While helping out on the farm and around the house she is reminded of her childhood. She also meets a young man working on the farm and must reconcile her feelings of her childhood in order to become a woman.

The story is told through numerous flash backs that take place 17 years prior to the current events. The flashbacks are of other people, friends, family members, former romances, etc that she has encountered thus far in her life and how they’ve shaped her outlook on life and her experiences.

It is very slow moving. If I were just grading about the last 30 minutes of this film I’d give it a 10 lol. One of my favorite endings I think of any Ghibli film. It was very heart warming, as most Ghibli films are.

The fact that it’s told through flashback and that it features different people not related to the current events kinda disconnects the story a bit for me.

I also feel like the pacing and timing of several of the flashbacks was a burden to the film overall. I kept anticipating and thinking perhaps the two characters had met before and/or that there was some significance to the flashbacks – beyond just showing the lead character’s progression etc.

Or if the flash backs had been more spread out over the period of time – instead of focused all on one year of her life – It would have been more interesting in my opinion to see her grow and evolve through the flash backs instead – Although there are some significant events which clearly did contribute to her backstory and character development.

Overall – the story is just kinda meh to me. A little too slow and dull – though not as bad as Up On Poppy Hill or I can Hear the Ocean Waves.

I did think that it was interesting to see a very detailed account of what growing up in the 70s in Japan was like, and I enjoyed seeing the cultural aspects and history of farming and agriculture told in the movie, as well as seeing more of what elementary and middle school is like for young Japanese students. Their student council meeting was really interesting to me.

I didn’t love the story, but I did find myself caught up by the end and found the ending immensely satisfying which felt like pay off for sticking with a rather lackluster overall story.

Characters: 8/10 – The characters were very likable in this film. Unlike “I can hear the Ocean Waves” (in which the main female is a downright bitch lol) and they had significant progression unlike “Up on Poppy Hill” which never seemed to go anywhere at all. The old 90s style character designs were pretty ugly though which did prevent me from connecting as well as I would have with more “kawaii” (cute) designs. Still I felt their emotions and their pains, hopes, dreams, etc.

Artwork: 3/5 The colors used and character designs created are very drab. The main character is only 27 but she looks much older. The backgrounds are really pretty however, especially the countryside and lush landscapes. Studio Ghibli films strive for a realistic touch – and even their newer films have that hallmark Ghibli styling in the way the faces eyes hair etc are drawn. I found this film in terms of both story and design to strive even further for realism. Laugh lines, wrinkles, and round cheeks are prominent on all of the characters. Not my cup of tea but not deducting points just because of personal preference. Being from the early 90s the animation is not as clean or crisp as more current animation.

Music: 2/5 – Music majorly missed the mark for me in this film. While I appreciate being exposed to new or interesting things, and I equally appreciate Ghibli daring to do something “different” The music just really didn’t apppeal to me, nor did I feel it suited most of the scenes. The score consists of “Hungarian Folk Music” and a few Japanese “covers” of popular 70s-80s pop music and ballads. For a film that is so distinctively Japanese, it seems like an odd musical choice.

Voice Acting: 5/5 On the other hand, the voice acting was quite brilliant. I especially liked Toshio. But Taeko’s voice actress was also very convincing. Their performances conveyed a lot of heart and emotion which was key to telling the story.

Overall: 23/35 66% D “Average Anime For Girls”

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    Tiny Farm | Farmville | Hay Day | Harvest Moon | Farming Simulator | Free | Mobile Game | IOS | Android | Iphone | Ipad

    Tiny Farm Review | IOS | Android | Virtual Pet | Harvest Moon | Farmville

    Title: Tiny Farm

    Genre: Farming Simulator with City Building elements

    Publisher: Com2Us

    Grab it on IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-farm-season2/id448859328?mt=8

    Grab it on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.com2us.tinyfarm.normal2.freefull.google.global.android.common&hl=en

    Geeky Factor: 

    Sweetie Factor: 

    Concept: 6/10 Tiny Farm is a game similar in nature to that of Harvest Moon or Farmville. The objective is to take care of live stock, plant and harvest crops, go fishing, and breed the animals in your farm, all while making a profit to buy new farming equipment, better seeds, better livestock, etc. It’s one of those games that’s fun in small doses, and addictive at first, but if you intend to play it heavily, you may become bored by the repetitive nature of these games. They try to lessen that effect somewhat by regularly having special events with limited edition livestock or other prizes that you don’t want to miss out on, which keeps you logging in to keep up with the latest in-game events and items. I also find it a bit more interesting than just a farming simulator as you can also run your own zoo, or go to the beach, or participate in other activities as well.

    //

    Gameplay: 7/10 The gameplay is pretty simple and straight forward, the controls are easy, you can click on an animal to bring up a submenu where you can give it “love” which helps it level up, and once it reaches certain levels of love it can breed with certain other animals who also have max love. You can also sell your animals to make room for new animals (which you’ll have to do a lot in the early levels as your space is very limited). You get to play the lucky bag gacha once every 24 hours for free and inside you will find things like animals, eggs, decorations, buildings, etc. You also get to go on a safari once a day for free. The safari is a mini game in which you must turn over cards to collect animal foot prints. Once you reach a certain number of footprints you’re able to bring home a new animal. You can find different animals in different areas on the map. You can place buildings and decorations around your farm, zoo, or beach to increase the profits from these areas. Also back on the farm, you can hire a search party to capture different animals; the choices change each day with different animals being able to be found. Legendary animals also appear and can be captured after having given animals on your farm enough love. To capture the legendary creatures you’ll need to spend even more love; which becomes problematic as you never have enough love when the animals first appear – they do this because they want you to spend money. If you can find a way to level up, that will replenish your love and allow you to capture the animal before it disappears. Visiting friends gives you a few bonuses, but is pretty useless, there’s really no social interaction or multiplayer appeal to this game. The repetitive nature of the game also drops it down a few points in our score, it’s just not very fun after awhile. I like to check in on my farm 3 or 4 times a day for about 15-25 minutes at a time; anything more than that would be incredibly boring.

    Story: 0/10 There is literally no story. The game is going to take a hit in our score books here, since we always rate games based on story and gameplay.

    Characters: 8/10 I kinda “fudged” this category a bit (otherwise the score will be too low); and for this review, I am considering the animals themselves as the characters in this game, since there are no characters and no story. But there are some SERIOUSLY CUTE animals…. A llama in a banana costume, a nine tails in a barista costume, and many more. They’re over the top, creative, cute, zany, and limited edition too which makes me want to play to collect em all (like pokemon). The animals are really the heart and soul of the game. I think they could add a feature similar to pokemini, lineplay, or cocoplay though where you have a human avatar representing yourself and get to dress her/him and collect outfits from the gacha. I also think they could open up inter-species breeding. (maybe it unlocks at a higher level, I only began playing last week), to offer a wider range of pets. Right now it’s pretty specific, pets that look the same like a bearded pig and boar can’t breed with each other even or a Black cow and a Dairy Cow, when it seems like breeding them should be possible. So I deducted a point there.

    //

    Customization: 7/10 You can customize where you place your buildings and which animals you have on exhibit in your zoo. However, there’s little to do to customize the animals themselves. You can purchase “special effects” like rose petals or other things to place around your animals, but the effects available for purchase are limited (can count on one hand). And as mentioned above they’re missing out on further customization by neglecting to have human avatars, outfit gachas, or even outfits or accessories for the animals. Most of all though, I think the game could be more customizeable by allowing us to set different features within our shops; think of the old retro Rollercoaster Tycoon game for Sega Genesis, you could choose how salty your food was, how much ice was in your fountain drinks, etc. Finding the right balance between profit and happy customers. I think a feature like that brought to Tiny Farm could really make it shine and differentiate itself from its competition. But the buildings are upgradeable which unlocks more profits and bonuses which is a nice touch. I just would like to see them take customization a step or two further.

    Kawaiiness (Cuteness): 10/10 – This is the cutest little farming game I’ve ever seen, the pets are so adorable. The fact that there are so many different animals, and especially lots of in game events with limited time animals makes it even more adorable. I would play this any day compared to farmville or hay day.

    Music: 8/10 Cute and catchy music that is repetitive but does not get annoying

    Graphics: 10/10 The graphics are “pixel” style and have a cute retro feel. The buildings are brightly colored and there’s a lot of different styles of pets and buildings to choose from.

    Performance: 10/10 I have not experienced a game crash or any lag while playing on my old Ipad 2 (before Air designations). I have only been playing for a week though so that may change as my farm grows and more buildings/animals are packed onto my screen (taking more resources to display).

    Overall: 72/90 80% B- “Very Good Game for Girls”

    Tiny Farm Review | IOS | Android | Virtual Pet | Harvest Moon | Farmville Read More »

    Tiny Farm Season 3 Mystery Forest Pre-Registration Event

    Tiny Farm: Season 3 Pre-Register Now for Exclusive Pet of Your Choice!

    Season 3 is almost here! and if you Pre-Register now, you can get an exclusive limited edition pet, with 4 to choose from including: Owl, Okapi, Dodo, or Sandfox available only to those who pre-register for season 3. (I picked the sandfox, but I also really love the Okapi; and the Owl is cute too!!)

    Check out the official video for Tiny Farm: Season 3 Mystery Forest

    https://youtu.be/dBTQt5m5uho

    (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

    If you’re not yet playing Tiny Farm, you’re missing out on a very cute IOS game that offers a lot of features in one tiny package, including farming, safari, zookeeping, fishing, traveling, shop keeping, breeding, and much, much, more. I promise you, it’s not just another farmville clone. There are lots of events for rare limited animals too! It’s sooo cute; you’ve gotta see this game. If you love kawaii games, you’ll be hooked immediately. You can grab the game for free at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-farm-season2/id448859328?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.com2us.tinyfarm.normal2.freefull.google.global.android.common&hl=en 

    Register online to claim your cute new pet: http://event.com2us.com/ci/2015/08/tf_pre/event/us

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    Check out our review of Tiny Farm Season 2 over here: https://geekysweetie.com/tiny-farm-review-ios-android-virtual-pet-harvest-moon-farmville/

    Tiny Farm: Season 3 Pre-Register Now for Exclusive Pet of Your Choice! Read More »