#CanvasPlays

[canvaswolfdoll]

i’ve decided to call my serious, try to play through it all show WornBoots from now on. we’ll see how much of it sticks

[curtismith]

WIP-Remember that box of amazing paints from @culturehustle? This is just the first layer of the experimental piece I'm working on (I have a few more layers to go to get the right HeadShot). The colors, texture, flow, and density are simply stunning. Photos don't capture these incredible products. #culturehustle #experimentalartist #everettartist #boldcolors #newpaints #artiststudio #womanartist #abstractart #acrylicsoncanvas #canvasplay #ilovepainting (at Everett, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPavmxArRts/?utm_medium=tumblr

[canvaswolfdoll]

WornBoots returns with persona 4!

[canvaswolfdoll]

slow process in streaming more often!

[canvaswolfdoll]

this wednesday!

on my twitch channel!

final episode! be there!

[canvaswolfdoll]

well, enough faffing about, let’s actually dedicate myself to the enxt series.

(join me here.)

[canvaswolfdoll]

well, here’s an announcement card again.

please join and follow me over on twitch! especially since i’ll be doing other things in the meantime.

hope to see you there!

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasPlays UPDATE

so… looks like i’ll be able to do something special in may. what general times works best for you, my fans?

(cc: @yd12k @smashfan64 )

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasPlays: Tales of Symphonia [Pt. 10]

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasPlays: Harvest Moon 64

I have often expressed my nostalgic love for the Harvest Moon series of old, and made mention of Harvest Moon 64 as my White Whale of the series and of video games in general.

So, imagine my surprise when, nearing the end of a rough week wherein I apparently made an accidental blood sacrifice via rotary cutter and a root canal and a half,[1] a port of Harvest Moon 64 arrived on the Wii U Virtual Console.

That same day, I went out, bought a $20 Nintendo Eshop card,[2] paid the ten dollar purchase price, and downloaded the game before I left for work.

Eager to come back to finally dip my toes into the game.

Now, I started with Friends of Mineral Town, which pretty much nailed the series perfectly, becoming the definitive version that modern installments are but pale imitations of. So I didn’t know how the older N64 edition would compare.

Still, I cannot ignore past experiences, so HM64 must be compared to its successors. I will endeavour to be fair, considering its era.

One thing I believe is a fair criticism, even for 1999, is how brown the textures are. The house you live in is composed almost entirely of the same brown wood panelling, furniture decipherable only by their edges, and the sheets for the bed.

It’s a dark, mud brown, too.

The rest of the world is composed mostly of the brown dirt texture. Some grass, sometimes. But dirt prevails.

The limited texture palette makes Flower Bud Village a little drab, at least compared to the vibrant Mineral Town, which made the wise choice of making dirt a tannish yellow color, brightening up the world. Luckily, the creators did learn, and such drabness never returns.

The mechanics, from what I have found, are also much more restrictive than I’m used to. In a bizarre reversal of my mockery of the modern Harvest Moon/ Story of Seasons games’ excessive hand-holding, HM64 gives very little instruction.

Even in the game manual.[3]

For one, there seems to be no way to cycle the items, a mainstay from at least FoMT, wherein holding down a shoulder button and tapping the corresponding button lets you cycle tools or items from the rucksack[4] to your hand. HM64 requires the player to open the pause menu, move the item to hand, then exit the pause menu. And the pause menu is a little sluggish to close.

Also, you can’t hop over single grid items. Or run, for that matter.

At least, I haven’t found controls to do such things.

And time moves fast in HM64. Unmanageably fast! At least time’s still frozen in buildings.

Actually, the biggest weakness of HM64 is the clock. I don’t really know what the real world time to game time conversion is, but it’s clearly faster than FoMT’s one real second to one game minute rate. As the clock is kept on the pause menu, the player can’t easily monitor the time, and so it’s very easy to lose a lot of time.

The worst example of this biting me was on the day of the spring horse race, when I watered three patches of crops (24 squares total), talked to my own horse, then made my way to the event square, talked to some attendees, then had the event end abruptly before I reached the mayor to actually participate in the day’s events. I got so little done, and yet the day was already gone, my opportunity missed.

I can understand not being able to fit everything in a single day; that’s par the course with Harvest Moon and Rune Factory time management. Only so much time to talk to townspeople and do whatever tasks are available; but having to decide between completing farm chores and attending the town festival is unreasonable.

Luckily, later installments have instituted a time freeze when you’re in an event screen.

Just the time it takes to water a couple plants and talk to a horse can take nearly the whole day, and I haven’t even gotten any animals to care for yet! Or even fully explored the mountain. I think there’s supposed to be a mine and cave there somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find them. Because by the time I can get to the mountain, it’s evening, then swiftly dark.

One thing I do appreciate is that tools just automatically improve and level up as you use them, so you don’t need to hire the blacksmith for upgrades and be unable to complete certain tasks as the smith works. I don’t mind the upgrade mechanics of the other games, but I also like the idea of equipment improving as you use it more.

The townspeople are charming, as is to be expected, and most of them avoid the usual pattern of only having two things to say on a given day. Sometimes they have three or more! Really livens things up. However, I haven’t the time to get invested any of them within the terms of the game, instead of through memories of Mineral Town and an old issue of Nintendo Power.[6] With luck, I’ll master the game well enough to become a minor socialite, maybe woo one of the girls.

Obviously, I’m only about halfway through the first spring, so maybe things will pick up as I keep going (because I intend to keep going…),[7] and it does invoke my nostalgia for older Harvest Moon, and it is interesting to see what improvements are still yet to be made. Despite my complaints about brown-ness, it does look really good for its era, and I’m excited to see how the pallet changes with the seasons. The cast of the old classics are nice to see again, shuffled into both different and familiar roles, and the events mentioned by the wiki look to be fun. Still, I doubt I’ll be able to complete the album, since time is not on my side for this game.

So… if you play only one Harvest Moon game, play Friends of Mineral Town which is also on the WiiU eShop. If you're a fan of earlier Harvest Moons, or even the entire series, and like analyzing how series grow, it’s worth its price.

Feel free to message me or whatever, and consider supporting me on Patreon. Who knows, if I actually start raising money, I might be able to afford to stream console games. Then I can do a series on Farming Simulators or something. I don’t know. Power’s in your hands.

Kataal kataal.

[1] I went into a root canal appointment that got downgraded as the dentist worked. [2] Also slowly saving up to buy a Fire Emblem Fates path. [3] Though, admittedly, I still haven’t put much time into the ‘How to Play’ option on the main menu. So… this might be self inflicted. [4] I still love the word ‘Rucksack’. Been wanting a HM-style Rucksack for most of my life. I have one now![5] [5] Still don’t have digimon gogglehead styled goggles, though. Dang. [6] I wonder if that’s at my parents place somewhere. [7] Until I get bored and pick up FoMT again.

[canvaswolfdoll]

it’s been a while, hasn’t it? but CanvasPlays is coming back with Tales of Symphonia on 3/22/2017!

hopefully nothing world-changing happens first.

join me here!

also, i have a patreon! donate to support my game streams, read my essays and reviews early, and fund future projects! i have neat ideas, just need the capital.

(link to the youtube channel, for past streams!)

[canvaswolfdoll]

wednesday, another stream

more shovel knight.

follow now!

[canvaswolfdoll]

come watch!

[canvaswolfdoll]

Doki Doki Literature Club’s been popular?