Disney Dreamlight Valley – The Latest Intermediary

2 / 15 / 232 / 15 / 23

The next update releases tomorrow and with the teasers on the recent Nintendo Direct for April’s event as well (Especially with confirmation for Nala– she and Kiara are my favorite Lion King characters), it’s hard to not be excited for everything upcoming. That said, with updates at two-month intervals, I am concerned how long it could take to see more Disney characters added. There are tons I’m really wanting to see show up such as Rapunzel, Belle, Winnie the Pooh, Bianca and Bernard, Basil… And while I know at least two are definitely coming at some point, hopefully, who knows about the others.

I still haven’t done much in decorating, unlike I think everyone else who plays as often as I do, due to a combination of wanting to still get several items I have yet to (and preferably, everything but at this rate, who knows when that will happen) and worrying about accidentally covering up something where a story-related thing could spawn. I’ll hopefully build up to working on stuff eventually (and with it looking like we may get house customization in the upcoming update, I may at least finally move my house where I want to).

I know there will likely be more biomes in the future as well though, which then there’s the concern that a biome will show up that I like more and having to slowly move everything again if I finally set-up… Maybe I’ll have a better idea when the game is “released”, even if updates will continue. I just work better when I know everything that is available over in parts and with constant updates. It’s part of why I don’t really enjoy that kind of game schedule.

Regardless, my usual plan in the meantime has just been continuing to check Scrooge’s shop. I have everything else done so I’ve been desperately trying to get the items I’m missing. The one clothing item I’m still missing I assume just doesn’t actually exist at this point, but I’ve only managed to get about 667 furniture items so far and while it’s more than half, still missing certain items I’ve been really wanting kind of sucks. At least Holiday items stick around because I’ve sure been unlucky actually seeing any. I don’t even want to think of how much flooring and wallpaper I’m missing…

I did get a few new things I was really excited about though alongside my new favorite wallpaper. Still a few I really want (and a favorite flooring already), but I feel like this definitely brought the room styles together.

I also finally got this fountain I have been wanting for ages. I bought 16 additional ones too.

Meanwhile, reading over the patch notes, I definitely have a lot of feelings as the update looms ahead. My thoughts and theories:

Main story updates = Always exciting. I can’t wait.
We’ve seen hints on how we’ll meet Mirabel, but haven’t gotten much information yet on Olaf. I’m super curious if he’ll just show up or not. Considering the mentions of a Snowstorm, that could be the case entirely.
I’m SO EXCITED to finally have different house colors! Sorry to those who love the yellow house, but it’s not really for me. That said, I am very curious about the “Premium House Skins”– both in what they will entail and the pricing.
I didn’t expect to see the Premium Shop open up until Free to Play started so that’s probably the most surprising part for me and also what I’m most worried about. We don’t have any indication of the prices and when the increase of the daily Moonstones from 10 to 50 (which… I still wish they just went to your mailbox because I never remember to look for the chest each day), it feels like everything may be expensive? They also mention to check it often which makes me think many things could be limited (or maybe it’s just a daily/weekly rotation, who knows– either way, not fond of either as it increases FOMO). As a huge item collector, I feel like I may be pressured to want to get everything, but I also just don’t think that’s feasible. I’ll wait until I see the prices tomorrow to go more into this, but I’m at least concerned for the moment.
Honestly, I can’t be excited about new items in Scrooge’s Store when I’m still missing hundreds of items with constant repeats. But here’s hoping for more pink stuff.
VERY excited for bigger storage, but also not looking forward to having to remake so many chests. Once again, I wish we could still buy crafted items from Scrooge after making it once.
It’ll be nice to actually be able to put my ingredients in the Fridge. I just hope it’s a really big storage. At least the new sorting and transfer features should help.
VERY excited to finally be able to change the looks of doors, though, I’m not sure I actually have anything that fits the theme I’m going for yet. Sure hope one of the new items is a nice pink door. Or just a nice Princess-y door.
I’m genuinely excited for the Role Training Manuals because I’ve actually really wanted to switch villagers to roles that fit them more like having Goofy a fisher over miner.
“The g[REDACTED] ” Really hope this means we’ll finally be able to do something with the Golden Potato.

As for non-in-game stuff, but still related to to the game itself, I got a very fun surprise in the mail today as part of the Dreamlight Creator program!

You can watch me unbox it below as well or head directly over to Youtube!:

What makes a Game Genre?

2 / 13 / 23

This is something I’ve found myself thinking of a lot lately as certain types of game tropes become more prevalent than others. It first came up when my husband and I were discussing wanting a specific type of game that just… does not exist because certain aspects always end up becoming part of the concept even though by genre alone, they shouldn’t be required.

In a similar boat, I stumbled upon people’s comments that A LOT of games under “Casual Simulation” “Wholesome” tend to have very similar mechanics such as many of the games having farming and when I kind of sat on it, and while I’m still looking forward to many of the games, it’s kind of true. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s another situation of wondering why this suddenly became a thing. Animal Crossing is a big series and even recently went the route of adding both farming and crafting in their most recent installment which most people enjoyed (farming more so than crafting though) but was something that really dragged the game down for me and tainted a series that was one of my all-time favorites.

And since Animal Crossing: New Horizon, I’ve constantly wondered why they felt they needed to add farming and crafting. Why is it that Simulation games seem to constantly need those features? I enjoyed both Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, but for different things and the actual farming aspect of the latter was never the most enjoyable part for me. Unlike most people who play these games, I struggle with overly repetitive tasks. Sometimes the goal can outweigh it (For example, unless the mechanic is terrible, I can usually deal with fishing up to a certain point as long as I feel I have some control over it and the end goal motivates me).

For the most part, I actually enjoy catching Fish in Animal Crossing up until I accomplish the following goals:

I’ve caught one of each fish for the encyclopedia
I’ve completed that part of the museum
I have all the fish I’d want to just keep

And that’s it. Catching multiple of the same for exchanges? I may be able to stand it for a little while, but depending on rarity and the fishing mechanic, I can quickly find it grating. Catching to sell for gold? The monotony just gets to me. Which is exactly why farming tends to bore me because the entire point of it is constantly replanting items to sell for money. I can do one of each for maybe filling out some kind of encyclopedia, but anything more than that just isn’t very fun to me. So, as much as I love the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series, the joy for me came from caring for Animals and talking to characters– not the actual crop management system.

When I play a simulation game, I’m generally playing for customization fun, collecting, and relaxing, not grinding. Regardless of my personal feelings on it though, I think the biggest problem from all of this is that games constantly having these same features has honestly taken away from their uniqueness. So many games are just that same set-up with a different coat of paint and again, that isn’t always bad– there are tons of games where I’ve maybe really liked but just wished certain things were a bit different. The difference here is that somehow so many of the games in the same genre just… have a lot of the same features.

I loved Animal Crossing for the fun idea of moving out on our own and just befriending this town and making friends and meeting the NPCs. It was always a more relaxing time between just… having this house you can upgrade and collecting items and helping the store grow. And then it just… kept becoming more convoluted. You don’t just have to worry about your house and Nook’s, so many stores have upgrades. Oh, you have a tent now, forget starting with a house. Oh, you need to rebuild the entire town. Oh, you need to constantly gather up items for crafting (which, as someone who literally puts in the effort to stop making certain things even spawn due to my repetition issue, that has a whole slew of issues for me), and it’s like… I just want a cute game where I can collect items and hang out with these silly animals and decorate my house.

I think some customization can be fun– I think our role in New Leaf was nice and made things interesting without feeling overwhelming, even if there were so many different things to upgrade and open up which I had mixed feelings on but could handle. New Horizons was just… too much and even now (I started writing this post early last year for reference), my feelings on the game have gotten just… more dower, not better. Even the part of me that really wanted to play more Happy Home Paradise hasn’t felt motivated to and it’s made me so worried for what could be the next installment in a series that was very important to me.

In the same sense, Harvest Moon 64 has stuck around as my favorite Harvest Moon game for many reasons, between the smaller town, commemorative photos for certain cutscenes, and how house updates worked. I still loved the customization of A New Beginning and I think, if I could just buy stuff and switch out certain styles to customize over placing new furniture everywhere, that’s all I’d really want from it. And well, playing as a girl I can customize. But sometimes a concept is simple enough without needing to constantly add more and more to it.

Moving to other genres of games and what my husband and I first spoke about: The Exploration Genre which often goes hand and hand with both Crafting and Survival elements. And I hate both of these. My husband doesn’t mind the crafting as much, but he’s also not a huge fan of survival-based gameplay, partially as they tend to be fairly unrealistic (you will not die from hunger after a few hours of in-game time despite how much those games seem to want you to), but it’s just kind of annoying to have to keep checking into when you just want to explore.

For me, I’d find crafting a lot more palatable if rather than constantly needing to gather up a resource, once you discover it, you just have infinite of it to use. I like the discovery in exploration, but resource management and gathering is just exhausting for me and quickly grows stale, especially if I have to worry about my character’s health on top of it.

Our dream game would be exploring and finding like… cool artifacts to then display in whatever fashion and having a fun collectibles book and yet, any game we can think of with that element ends up adding usually at least a few of the following:

Survival
Crafting
Fighting/Some kind enemies
Stealth
RPG elements

And in my case, I like things more controlled. Full open Sandboxes often feel overwhelming, so I like when things feel a little more linear, so I don’t get distracted every 5 seconds checking every nook and cranny before taking more than two steps at any given time.

All of it just makes me wonder why so many elements go hand in hand. RPG stands for Roleplaying Game, yet you’ll rarely see it mentioned unless fighting is involved in some way, despite roleplaying being all kinds of things.

Survival almost always has Crafting, but why isn’t that solely on cooking and rather than building things up, you need to find things as you go? Survival can be brutal, but apparently you have the carpentry skills of a God I guess.

Crafting could so easily be its own thing for people who enjoy exploring and resource management, but it doesn’t always have to be tied into a way to make people stress. In the same sense, not every Simulation game needs to have crafting either or this slow build up. Sometimes you truly just want to take it slow and that’s okay.

Obviously, a lot of people like these genres or even the additions to them. Other times, maybe less actually do and certain other circumstances cause a game to blow up despite that.

I just wish we could continue to see more unique parts of a genre over seeing similar types of games rehash the exact same things over and over. It’s okay to do things simple and it’s okay to make things optional, but I wish more people would like at something and ask “Does the game actually benefit from adding this? Or is it just because *insertgameinspirationshere* is doing it?” And honestly, if the only reason is to extend game time, then it’s just the same excuse given for walling things altogether. Especially in simulation and exploration games, sometimes the best things come from just letting people go and do what they want and make their own goals– not having to slowly build up from nothing that by the time you get to where you need to be, you may not even be having fun anymore.

My Fluffy Life – Valentine’s Day 2023!

2 / 12 / 23

The Valentine’s Day Event has returned for 2023 and it’s genuinely one of my favorites, if only because it’s a lot more relaxing and less grindy than I feel other events are. It’s really fun to make the Valentine’s and not too intensive to send out and you earn quite a bit of Love for each Valentine you receive. I’m also really happy our old cards were still there safe and sound.

If you’re new to the event, I’d recommend reading my prior post where I talk about it, but for those familiar, there’s 6 new stationery items (rounding up the previous 9 to 15) and 8 new clothing items– 4 Accessories (3 Head, 1 Hand) and 4 Dresses.

Dress #9 (the one on the left in the picture below) is probably my favorite and I’m hoping if the dyeing system returns, I can make it pink.

I also had fun making a cute scrapbook page set-up with a combination of all the new and old Valentine’s Day Stationery.

In general, I’ve been doing a bit more with my scrapbook and even made a little bit of an introduction page along with playing around with more options with pages.

I put together a new Winter page too showing off my favorite Snow Teddy.

That’s really it for now, but I’m keeping an eye out incase anything else is added :)

In which I yell about what I’m most excited about from the recent Nintendo Direct

2 / 10 / 23

I had initially considered writing up a post with my short thoughts similar to what I do for E3/Gamer Christmas due to Twitter’s continued demise, but it did end up coming back up so I just did my usual Twitter thread, but there were some BIG announcements during it that have made this recent Nintendo Direct one of my favorites ever. If you haven’t seen the Nintendo Direct yet, I highly recommend it. I feel like there was really something for everyone and so many surprises.

I’m going to mainly focus on the games I am most looking forward to playing (though, if anyone wants me to expand on anything I mentioned on Twitter, feel free), but I just have a lot of feelings about some of the announcements, so this is a way for me to try and get that energy out while I ~~impatiently~~ wait for these games to release, because unfortunately, none of them had release dates (besides this year in which I just hope they won’t all release at once).

First up, I want to start with Fashion Dreamer which essentially had my screaming. It looked incredibly similar to the Style Savvy/Style Boutique/Girls Mode series and I figured from the start, it was either finally Style Savvy 5 or maybe we were finally getting another Model Debut game localized (though, it didn’t seem like it). When it finished with the new name, I initially thought I was wrong or maybe it could at least be a spiritual successor, even if by an entirely new team, because the hype is still there and, honestly, more games like these are kind of falling to the wayside, generally being either romance or mobile-focused and not just… a fun dress-up game with a story.

Regardless, I was soon made aware that the game IS being developed by syn Sophia who is the original creator of the Style Savvy series. Which kind of makes me wonder why the name change– the only difference is it seems Marvelous (and therefore XSEED for the localization) will be taking care of the publishing this time, but considering the game is still exclusive to Nintendo, I don’t think it would’ve been a name conflict/copyright situation. Who knows, maybe they just wanted a new universal name as the Switch is Region Free.

Either way, I don’t care (I’m just curious)– I’m just happy to see it back in SOME form and it looks so good. One of the things I think Style Savvy suffered from with its three different 3DS games is each one sacrificed at least one really good feature, or some extended amount of customization, for a brand-new feature and while the new features may be nice, they were never enough to justify what we lost. With the Switch, I’m really hoping that the past games were looked into and a lot of those features I’ve long since missed will make a return alongside things I hope will be done better in the series overall, such as:

Make up your mind on the time. Either do real time like Animal Crossing or have it so the date is wherever you start, but each day moves forward after. Or even Harvest Moon-esque time. Just not the “days pass but the month is the same”– the problem with this is that you could finish the entire story in the same Season and just… not end up seeing a lot of new stuff for ages because of whenever it launched if you play too much.
More flexibility on what you want to do. Don’t limit how much can be done in a day and don’t force people to the next day either.
More cameos! I love seeing the characters from past games.
More commemorative photos! I always love seeing these, honestly, whether due to completing certain story stuff or just fun model things.
There’s so many good designs across the games, I hope as many will return as possible.
Just… don’t downgrade. If I could have 3 of something in a previous game, don’t make it so I only have one now.
Bring back expanded customization for your own room/house!
Bring back expanded customization for the outside of your store as well! …Assuming you still have one.
Long curly/wavy ponytails exist, please stop making the only option a tiny short one. At the very least, it does look like this one may be covered (I hope we can still set different bangs separately! They at least showed a few diffeerent options on one screen):
I also hope we’ll have a lot of options for hair at the start as the game usually is pretty lacking in this regard.
I really hope the VIP Booth returns
Fashion Shows be less obnoxious. I don’t expect the concerts to return, but I’d still like more catchy songs.

I’ve written reviews for all three of the 3DS titles, so if you haven’t played any of those or only one, feel free to check them out: Trendsetters (the second game), Fashion Forward (the third game), and Styling Star (the fourth game). If you do want to play these in anticipation for the new game, I’d recommend Trendsetters and ONE of the other two depending on which has more features you like. Not enough changes overall for me to really recommend playing both unless you really want to– they feel less like a sequel and more like Sister Games. While Trendsetters felt like a proper sequel, the other two felt more like experiments for what other features they could do.

One thing I was quite happy to see is that it looks like you can also play as a guy this time! I know of so many different types of people who play and it’s nice if they let people have a more masculine option if they prefer, maybe even going the Animal Crossing: New Horizons route in that regard (though, I hope we’ll still have some customization options to tweak things to fit us best). This should also hopefully mean there will be plenty of new masculine brands as well as I know many people wanted more when we could finally sell clothing to male characters as well.

The online feature also seems interesting. I hope we’ll be able to see people from all over the world for one, but I think being able to just “Like” someone’s outfit to get items in your closet is a nice way to build it up without necessarily making yourself broke.

In general, I’m not much of a fashion-minded person. I don’t know what’s in, I don’t know what a fashion faux pas is (which is probably the thing I failed most at in the game because it may tell me what labels describe things, but I still have no idea what a fashion do and a fashion don’t is), and I’ve always been a “wear what I like” type of person. Even in the game itself, I often would mix and match several brands: Marble Lily (The Lolita brand) alongside the Gothic Lolita brand and the brand for essentially Modest, Elegant, and Girly clothing.

What really made the game for me is getting to enjoy the dress-up function while not compromising my own style for the most part. So many fashion games constantly require you to spend your money on items you maybe don’t even like to just barely pass a challenge and Style Savvy is a series that is just so much more flexible. Any item you buy for your shop is given to your closet for free. Your outfit is always set (and remembered for times you do have to change it)– you just help other customers find outfits.

The look of the town reminds me a lot of how it looked in Fashion Forward and I love that it seems we can freely walk around for once over just… zapping places (though, as someone who still frequently gets lost, I’d appreciate some quick travel option too). I’m really hoping there may be other places we can travel to again as well, even if it’s more simplified. If we have this much freedom to move, I’ll be so sad if there aren’t any cutscenes.

It looks like they are really taking the amount of customization options to the next level as well along with giving you many more color options at a time. I hope it’s not as convoluted to unlock color palette stuff in the game as it has in some of the past ones. I also hope that not too much of the regular gameplay and many of the pre-existing items are sacrificed for the customization feature. Customizing can be fun, but it rarely manages to capture all the existing items in it.

If you haven’t checked out the trailer yet, here it is below for your convenience:

I hope we’ll have a release date for the game soon as I feel like it’s exactly what I want right now to just… play a game where I’m not stressed 24/7.

Next up, I want to bring up some Level 5 stuff…

First, Fantasy Life is finally getting a proper sequel!

I loved this game so much and while there were times the grinding could be pretty rough, it’s one of the few of these types of games where I truly maxed out everything I could. Being able to play with friends made it even better.

While I’m a little concerned about how much you need to set-up this town (I am in the group that much prefers things already being set up and done with and we just add on to it, not build it back up) and any kind of terraforming due to how Animal Crossing: New Horizons ended up falling rather flat for me in the long run, I still have such a soft spot for this game series and am just excited to see the story continue in a way that isn’t a mobile game.

And second… Professor Layton is back! One thing I noticed especially is there were so many Detective/Mystery games as part of the Direct which is really exciting! But I will admit of all of them, Professor Layton has my heart the most.

The game is really special to me and I bonded with a lot of people from it. I even went to Japan for the movie when it first premiered and was in the top 50 of the Layton World puzzle campaign for Layton’s Mystery Journey.

I love the story, I love the characters, I truly love the puzzles. I love that it’s an ACTUAL puzzle game and not a strategy/RNG-matching game that just gets slapped with that moniker despite it not actually fitting. The game even seems to be picking up after Unwound Future which I’m really excited for. I think the original trilogy was its strongest and to be honest, just giving us more adventures of Professor Layton and Luke was all we ever really needed. We didn’t need to go to extreme lengths of backstory. I do hope Flora will be remembered though, even if she isn’t traveling with them. She really got the short end of the stick between not even showing at the end of the movie and everything with Katrielle… Where even if Layton and Luke were gone, why was Flora just completely MIA?

In general, I think most people had mixed feelings about Layton’s Mystery Journey. There’s still a lot of questions with both Alfendi and Katrielle in the end (even if we got some answers for her in the anime) and the game itself ended on a cliffhanger that only really got answered in the anime… in a solution that I think may be the weirdest yet. The pacing was strange, but I suppose that was an issue with the game as well due to having multiple contained storylines before trying to have this big twist and surprise at the end.

For the most part, when it comes to story and puzzles, I don’t have too many expectations. I’m excited to see what happens (though, if there’s no slide puzzles, I’d be thrilled). My only concerns are really in the sense of any post-game. I haven’t really enjoyed the daily puzzles from the more recent games because it’s just… the same puzzle over and over slowly going up in difficulty, but I just got burnt out. It didn’t vary enough for me to stay interested. I don’t really care for the daily puzzles.

If they do anything like that again, I’d love to see a return of London Life which I genuinely found a ton of fun. Maybe a little less picky with certain things, but it was just a really enjoyable time and I’m still really happy with how my character and her room came out.

Either way, I can’t wait for the next part of Professor Layton’s story. Hopefully it won’t make me cry too much.

While Fashion Dreamer and Fantasy Life are both currently dated for 2023, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam currently doesn’t have any release date at all. I don’t mind waiting– I waited this long, but I just hope we hear more soon for all of them.

My Favorite Games of 2022 and Most Anticipated for 2023

1 / 11 / 231 / 11 / 23

I had been asked if I considered doing this and well, considering we’re already over a week into January, clearly not. I actually really struggle with picking favorites so this definitely isn’t really a “My most favorite games” list so much as a “I had a really good time playing this game” or in the case of anticipated, are ones I either heard about or played the Demo for in 2022 (and the game has a confirmed 2023 release date– if there is currently no ETA, they weren’t in the running at the time of writing this).

The game doesn’t necessarily have to have been released in 2022– I just would have had to play it for the first time IN 2022. Similarly, there are games where I played the Demo and released late 2022 that I am really excited for, but as I haven’t gotten to play them yet, it doesn’t feel fair to put them on this list just yet.

There’s no particular order, but I hope the list is enjoyable regardless.

My Favorite Games that I played in 2022

The Frog Detective Series – I ended up playing the first one back in January 2022 and followed up with the second one in May 2022. The games came out in 2018 and 2019 respectively, but the third and final Frog Detective game released October 2022 and well, at least by playing both of the first two games as late as I did, I didn’t have to wait too long for the final installment. I really loved these games. I love mysteries, the characters are always a lot of fun, there’s cute dance parties, and it’s just… genuinely really enjoyable? I’m really sad the series has come to an end, but I’m glad it got a proper send-off. Frog Detective may not be the #1 Best Detective, but he’s #1 in my heart.

Co-Open is a really cute game where you’re going grocery shopping by yourself for the first time. There’s so much more than you expect from the initial concept, and it can be a little overwhelming, but I genuinely enjoyed doing everything in the game quite a bit.

A Little to the Left – A cute organizational puzzle game. I’m still playing it daily for the Daily Tidy and let’s be honest, I’m pretty bad at playing most things daily so that already says a lot. Some of the puzzles can be a little unintuitive, but I still genuinely had a lot of fun with the game.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land – Probably my most debated one on if I should put this on this list or not which I think would surprise most people. There’s a lot I love about it and honestly, it may be one of my favorites since Kirby 64. The detriments came in a really sad Casual mode and the frustrating achievements for some of the Waddle Dee. I really enjoyed finding the hidden ones, but the extra achievements for levels took away so much when I played through it. Ignoring that though, it had so many really fun levels and a really intriguing story and I think my only other complaint would be that I couldn’t upgrade Kirby’s house to display more figures (or be able to customize beyond that). Being able to play the game alongside with my husband helped a lot too.

Button City – Button City technically released in 2021, but I only got to play it in 2022, so it’s going on here anyway! This is a really cute game of trying to save the Arcade with your new friends while also doing various tasks to help out characters. This is just… such a cute and comfy game and I’m really glad it ended happily. I’m honestly pretty awful with the game in a game though which I guess would be the only bad part for me, but I had so much fun otherwise I still powered through regardless.

Ooblets – I’ve been playing Ooblets since Early Access, but the game only actually released in Summer of 2022, so it still counts! Mostly because there was still so much not in until the very end. The game is just… very fun and goofy in all the best ways. The Ooblets are adorable. Rockstack came back. The story is also really interesting and went in a direction I really couldn’t predict. I only have a couple of things left I want to do in the game (find the final Gleamy I need and get a pinker skirt), but I genuinely love the game with all my heart and had a blast playing it. I think my only regret is not doing a gameblog alongside playing it.

Tales of Grumville: A Legendary Pie and A Nameless Statue – It’s hard to say too much without spoiling the plot, but this is a charming visual novel that was made for the Nanoreno 2022. It’s really sweet and has a lot of heart (and also made me cry). It will make you want pie. Or maybe that’s just me.

Here comes Niko! – Another game that technically released in 2021, but I only finally played in 2022. This was such a fun game, the art style is super charming, and there’s also a really heart wrenching story in the middle. I’m very excited for the update that is supposed to come soon with a new area to explore and I can’t wait to get back into the game once it releases.

Carto may be one of the oldest games on here, but I did only finally play it last year after deciding to try the Demo and really enjoying it. Due to my lack of directional sense, I was a bit concerned I would be absolutely terrible at it, but I ended up absolutely adoring the puzzle mechanics and story and I’m really glad I ended up picking it up and playing it.

Escape Simulator – Another game that technically released in 2021, but hey, both DLCs did release in 2022! And with Community Rooms, there’s almost always some new levels too. As you may have guessed from this list, or if you know me in general, I love puzzles. I don’t have much experience with Escape Rooms, as I’ve never personally done one, but I always really love puzzles and being able to do them alongside my husband makes it even better. As long as they keep making new DLC, we’ll definitely keep playing.

A ____ Full of Cats – DevCats has made a handful of neat games, but their recent hidden object game A Building Full of Cats and its follow-up, A Castle Full of Cats were definitely some of my favorites. A Building Full of Cats was already super cute and really relaxing and A Castle Full of Cats just… fully upped all of that adding in a full new story and some extra puzzles as well. While I have mixed feelings on the boss fight, it didn’t take away my overall enjoyment and I’m looking forward to their next game in the series, A Tower Full of Cats which would also be listed below, but I feel like I cover it here.

LumbearJack – A game where you play as a Bear who helps restore the forest. This was honestly so much more fun than I ever expected and was done in such a fun and cute way that it felt really relaxing. Would absolutely play more levels.

Beacon Pines – From the moment I saw, “Winnie Pooh meets Gravity Falls”, I was already sold. With reassurance that there was an ending where everything would be okay, I put my full support and anticipation into the game and backed it on Kickstarter. The game didn’t left me down. I’ve written about the game on my site already, so I’ll keep this short, but I love the game so much. Looking forward to the content update and hoping we do get some answers from some lingering questions one day…

Lil Gator Game – This was such a pure delight to play, honestly. It’s just relaxing and fun and while I struggled navigating at times, there were still ways to make it easy for me to finish and find what I missed. It was so fun helping out characters, exploring, and doing every quest a hero can do, with a very emotional ending. Really can’t say enough positive about this game.

Placid Plastic Duck Simulator – I love Rubber Ducks. Did you know there is Rubber Duck Race? Very interesting to watch. Regardless, while the game is literally just watching Ducks float around in the pool, it’s honestly a lot of fun and slowly, each Duck has its own personality from a Duck that often likes to fly away to another that often sets some on fire. To the right, you can see two of my favorite Ducks, but the game is just so much fun and clearly has some of its own secrets hidden below the surface… (or maybe the Dev is just messing with us, who knows)

My Most Anticipated games for 2023

Mail Time – You play as a cute mushroom person and deliver mail!! And help people!! And it’s pretty much everything I really love in a game in a small enough zone where I don’t feel overwhelmed and like I’m going to get lost forever. YOU EVEN COLLECT BADGES!!! BADGES!!!! You even get a cute Bee friend! And look how cute my little mushroom girl is!! I enjoyed the Demo so much and even the lovely additional holiday stuff. I even found the special badge and all the candy canes. I am so ready to 100% this game as soon as it is released. I actually backed this game on Kickstarter as I had been enamored with it pretty quickly.

Puzzles for Clef is a really neat Puzzle Platformer with beautiful art. I found myself pulled into the story so quickly and I can’t wait to learn what happens in the game. It’s hard to say too much right now, but I’m really looking forward to playing the game further once it releases later this year.

Storyteller – A puzzle game where you place characters and different settings to match the different titles. It’s honestly just really fun to play around with the various panels and figure out what stories you can end up telling. Really excited to see all the options when the game releases later this year.

Our Life: Now & Forever – Considering how much I adored the first Our Life game, it shouldn’t be any surprise the second one is on here. This series may be one of my favorite “otome-esque” visual novel games between the well-written characters, romance being optional, and the number of choices to really customize your MC and have the game actually reflect that. Despite the fact that I’ve tried many visual novels, few rarely stick with me, either because I don’t care for the characters, the romance feels too forced, and/or I can’t relate to the MC at all. Generally, if I end up still liking a game, it’s because there’s a large mystery aspect/romance isn’t part of it at all, or a certain character or dynamic super interests me (or maybe the characters are likeable enough for me to deal with the MC or more awkward parts). I really can’t say enough how nice it is to be able to play and feel both comfortable and represented playing it without having to worry about most of the things that usually take me out of other games like this.

Shumi Come Home – You play as a very cute Mushroom!! You can talk to all kinds of neat residents! And you collect things and learn about mushrooms as you try to find your way home. I’m a bit worried about getting lost myself (the map in the demo already turned me around quite often), but I’m still really looking forward to it.

Sunset Hills – Despite some finickiness with the controls, the art style and characters pulled me in so quickly. I’m already intrigued quite a bit with the various mysteries and events, but the world itself is already so lovely and I’m excited to see the full story unfold.

SEASON: A letter to the future – Even though I’m very concerned this game will make me cry, I can’t help but be intrigued by the element of exploring and collecting memories and souvenirs as we go. The game actually comes out at the end of the month and while I’m not sure I’ll get to it immediately (though, fingers crossed), I’m looking forward to finding everything we can.

A Weekend in Puzzleburg – This genuinely just felt like such a fun relaxing game and I always appreciate little touches that help make your playthrough really feel personal to you. I can’t wait to interact with more characters, and I hope I can do as much as possible in that weekend.

Mineko’s Night Market – I’ve been following this game for years at this point and I can’t believe it’s finally so close to release. I had so much fun just in my short time with the demo and I can’t wait to continue the journey once the game releases. Also, you can pet Cats!!

There’s actually a lot more I expected to have in this section, but either:

They have no current release date yet or any year estimate
They actually DID release late 2022 and I haven’t gotten to them yet

So, I guess we’ll have to wait until another one of these for some of those ^^; If you liked this though, would you want to see some kind of thing where I talk briefly (a short little blurb, essentially) about every game I played or tried in the year? It could be one post I continually update or something. Let me know!

The confusion of Cats vs Pickles and the Versus World

12 / 27 / 222 / 12 / 23

If you asked me the main reason that I’ve been debating stopping at Gold Wave for collecting the “Versus World” (Which essentially includes all Cepia’s versus lines– Cats vs. Pickles, Dogs vs Squirls, Kittens vs Gherkins, the upcoming Bears vs Donuts, and recently teased Cows vs Aliens), it’d be hard to summarize it into just one as it’s a set of issues that combine into the one big frustration I’ll be talking about today: It’s too much to keep track of.

Compared to Blue Wave which initially had 48 Open Box or 2-packs of Beans alongside some Jumbos and Huggers to Gold Wave with 96 alone in just the Gold Wave Bean Mystery Bags. This doesn’t include any possible Open Box, the 36 Blue Stripe Bag ones, or other sizes, but essentially this number increasing to such an extent is across nearly every size. The only exception seems to be Huggers right now.

We already know another Wave is coming and that it’ll be even bigger and honestly, that’s kind of frustrating. On one hand, I get it– you need to figure stuff out ahead of time, but when things are only just getting started and are broken up in so many ways and releases feel almost random (which obviously, stores have some control over that but), the last thing I want to think of is a whole new Wave when there’s Beans on some of the very first checklists and early showcases and commercials that are still MIA.

This isn’t even all of them… These are just some of my favorites.

Some, obviously, are likely for Holidays and while they have been delayed quite a bit (There’s a handful that are clearly for Valentine’s Day, Easter, or Halloween), hopefully we may finally see them soon… But some don’t seem tied to anything.

What really gets me though, ignoring the near universal change to blind bags despite it only happening initially due to Five Below’s request, is that there’s not really a good way to even know what you’re getting. You look at the Gold Wave checklist. You know there are no Chasers. You just picked up one randomly. Decided you liked it and would like more after looking over the full sheet. 1/96 is a lot, but you like enough to try.

Except it’s not 1/96. It’s 1/12. Or even that could be wrong, depending on how the shops have stocked them. Each batch consists of 12 different ones. If your store only got Set A, even if they have four boxes and you buy 24, you’ll at most get only 12 different designs because all 96 aren’t out yet. Half aren’t going to be out until sometime next year.

This is an example of a sheet that has been put together illustrating each “set”. Set E, while not supposed to be out until next year, still has had designs already gotten due to issues with Amazon, prizes from contest winners, or given to Influencers. Some have also found them in the UK. At the moment, based off information from the UK and what people have gotten here, it likely includes Cat-mouflage, Yin-yang, Saylor, Cole, Carrot Head, Juke, El Macho, Dawn, Madeline, Lily, Fish n Chips, and Dr. Gherkin.

And maybe it’s just me, but I hate this. Not only does it just become exhausting having to constantly keep up with information, I also can’t help but think of it from a standpoint of people who DON’T do that. Who aren’t going on Facebook, which is where most information is shared, or other social media and/or are just checking stores from time to time or even spending all this money trying to get some that may not be out yet or even in the batch on shelves because, well, they’re on the sheet… and it has no indication, nor do the bags, on what part of the sheet they could be from. Your best option becomes buying a set off Amazon which comes with its own challenges, whether you do not like to use Amazon, just don’t want a full set, and/or the fact that it’s not always guaranteed that you WILL get the full set with your order. You could get a couple of duplicates and possibly miss out on the one you wanted most.

Purple Wave had its own messes (such as a general lack of order), even if you could keep track of batch codes for some idea. Gold Wave more or less shares the same things, despite how it’s divided up, so unless you manage to see through the bags, you’re pulling blind from generally either 1/12 or 1/24 and expecting a bigger variety than that. Either way, that’s not really the main issue here. The main problem is that the bags show a Checklist of Gold Wave having 96 Beans to pull from and besides about half not being out yet, it’s not even that likely you’ll even get the 1/48 shot– most places had Set A and B (for up to 24) and eventually got a third set. While some stores may have just one of each (So if a store just stocked, there’s a good chance it’s a full set), there’s also a chance the store just got 6 boxes of the exact same 12.

I don’t know any other blindbag product that has a checklist where some products from the Wave just… aren’t available yet. Like… that would be its own Wave. There should be Gold Wave Part 1, Part 2, etc. Something to properly break things up. 24 Beans every few months, if they need to keep the blindbags, or even 48 Beans once or twice a year, if some (or all) were open box would be so much easier to just… keep track of, especially as more and more continue to be added. You could say it’s because of the number of designs, but there are absolutely Blind Bags/Boxes with a lot of designs that… do not list things on their sheet that aren’t out. Pop-it Pets, one thing I’ve collected favorites for, had all of the 100+ designs on their website available right away. I was able to get all the ones I really liked within a few weeks.

Another issue is the “Limited Blue Stripe” bags– despite what most places selling them tell you, they’re not limited stock-wise. The “Limited” is just in terms of what STORES will carry them– they won’t be in most big box stores (Like Target or Walmart) in the USA. That’s it. It’s Limited STORE availability, but they are part of Gold Wave and will retire the same time the rest of Gold Wave does. There aren’t less of them, just not as many stores will carry them.

These same Beans, however, also hit the same problem as the rest of the Gold Wave– despite showing 36 different designs, they are once again broken up into sets of 12. Most stores seem to only get one set at a time furthering the issue of possibly buying duplicates because, well, you’d expect all the options on the checklist to be possible. While all 36 are released at least, it was staggered to some extent and Set C for the Blue Stripe Wave is still the most sought after right now due to not finding as many stores with it (or maybe they got mixed in with the other blue stripe bags, who knows).

There’s also slowly been some two-packs added as well for the Blue Stripe wave. The Chonks have also had a similar issue with their releases alongside 18 not on the checklist that are open box as singles or 6-packs online.

Despite my frustrations here, I don’t feel that any of this is done maliciously— I think it’s just a huge oversight. Unfortunately, as the waves keep getting bigger and more and more focus on blindbags (versus, it’s bigger now, maybe… give us back some more open box options? Please? The UK sells singles and Snowball has done well, I’d like to think it’s possible.), I just don’t see how it can get better. I don’t see how it can get less crazy to keep track of things. All it does is give Scalpers more. The amount of “limited” and “rare” in listings when it’s not true is crazy and price gouging gets worse and worse. Even while Snowball was still for sale, there were ones selling for $20-$40+. And yes, while there may be 12-packs (or 6-packs for Chonks) available from some places, ignoring that there’s a lot of Collectors who don’t want to collect them all nor deal with selling any after, there isn’t always any guarantee you’ll get one of each design. You could get duplicates regardless.

That’s where my issue is. Things keep getting bigger when I think it really needs a pause and some organization. It’s also just… kind of bad to have things on the checklist if people can’t actually pull them? If there’s absolutely no way from that specific batch certain designs can be pulled, then they should not be on the checklist yet or there should at least be some indication on the checklist itself for when they will be or that they can’t currently. The site doesn’t give any indication to this as well. Variations are also a thing, which are usually designs that vary by batch… Sometimes it’s Sample versions that went out to PR/Influencers, other times it’s a mistaken design that got out early (IE: Teddy’s Darker color, as the lighter color will eventually become more common or Kiwi’s lack of little hairs on the back), maybe even just two different factories working on the same design and having different embroidery options/instructions, or even just spelling mistakes on the tag. You’ll occasionally notice some designs don’t match the checklist either.

As it is, too much is hidden away in a private Facebook group and while communication may be okay, it’d be much better if… there was just a global Q&A topic solely for asking questions versus individuals asking and getting different answers and causing even more information to get locked away. Despite their website, it’s not that informative and in some cases, like Dogs vs Squirls, is especially behind with updating the checklists on the website. I miss when Websites had more news on when to expect things or what stores may have started carrying them and everything wasn’t some constant short social media post with maybe some witty comment attached.

The Checklist issue is a problem across the Versus World, with Dogs vs Squirls definitely on the most confusing end of it. At least with Dogs vs Squirls, when the soft launch hit, the checklist initially only had the first 24… Which was mostly accurate, except just 12 were actually in Blindbags and the other 12 were Open Box. Everything was right with the Chonks though.

The confusion came when DvS updated their checklist, adding 25-48 and 50-61 to the initial 24. You’ll notice I skipped 49. We’ll get to that.

Some Stores may still just have the Soft Launch batch, but all the bags look the same so once again, it’s back to trying to look through the bags and see what you can see or just hoping maybe it’s from a newer set. Set C released in the UK first alongside #49 and 62-96 which I guess are Open Box? I haven’t seen them actually stocked in any stores besides as 12-packs and 2-packs on Amazon.

Set C has finally been in more stores in the USA and Set D is supposedly slowly rolling out as well (I’ve been keeping an eye out for a few of them, but haven’t seen them yet :( ). There’s also some mystery Chonks over in Canada with a checklist for #97-144… which becomes even more confusing because those who I’ve seen get them have only gotten 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, and 151. Yes, the sheet goes up to 144. #151 isn’t on it. Are you confused? Because I sure am! What happened to 145-150? How many may even be after 151?? (Going by the usual pattern, probably at least 5 as batches of 12 but) When will these even be available in other places? Are more than six even available right now? I don’t know! And the official website sure doesn’t help.

Despite my constant confusion with Dogs vs Squirls, I will at least give it credit for being in order for the general blindbag assortments so far. 1-12 = Set A. 13-24 = Set B. 25-36 = Set C. 37-48 = Set D. That should mean 50-61 should be Set E, the only real confusion being 49 not being part of the blind bag ones but joining the ones from 62-96. Despite that, they still, thankfully, stay in the same relative order: Assortment 1 has 49 plus 62-72, Assortment 2 has 73-84, and Assortment 3 has 85-96.

Kittens vs Gherkins has been a little more straight forward as it slowly finds its way into more stores, despite having the same checklist issue (showing more than what’s available at the moment). The Singles were intiially only Set A, but recently seem to have Set B and C. That said, you’ll likely have better luck with Double Packs if you want more than one. The double packs are generally always the same pair– some people have gotten differences (or even two of the same design), but it’s very rare. While Sets A and B were a bit more mixed, Set C was much more straight forward and thankfully, Set D seems to be following suit.

Set D has only started showing up in some stores, but I’m REALLY hoping it’ll be up on Amazon too… and maybe also Set E of Gold Wave because some keep releasing somehow, and I don’t know if I can wait until Spring for ~~Shoujo Anime Protagonist Cat~~ Saylor. I also just feel kind of disappointed they did end up going with exclusives for their Kickstarter, despite generally trying to be more inclusive for everyone, as Exclusives are not required for Kickstarters at all and they would’ve likely blown passed their goal regardless.

Bears vs Donuts are supposed to be releasing early next year (which is less than a week away now and some have already been found in Stores) and while it seems like they are having a smaller launch of 24 like DvS did, there’s still the chance of these same issues and patterns continuing to happen, especially when Cows vs Aliens is coming as well.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d much prefer smaller waves that have exactly what’s in them better represented, even if there’s the same amount of time in-between, than whatever craziness we have now where it feels like I need to double-check spreadsheets to keep track. The fact that even more Cats were briefly added to the Gold Wave Bean and Chonk checklists before being removed just added more questions. They had been shown as part of Gold Wave in previews before– were they pushed back? Will they be open box maybe? Were they just test designs? Who knows. I just want things to make sense without giving myself a headache trying to keep track of it all and if what I want is even out in the first place.

My Fluffy Life – Christmas 2022!

12 / 24 / 2212 / 24 / 22

My Fluffy Life has updated for Christmas 2022 (and a Happy Christmas Eve, 6th night of Hanukkah, Early Kwanzaa and/or belated Winter Solstice for those who celebrate) and in addition to four new sweaters you can get once per in-game day (There’s also plenty more if you didn’t get all the ones from last year!), the Stuffie Making Workshop is back (no new options, but still great if you missed it last year or had more you wanted to make!), Bibu has some new clothing, Flora has new furniture, and a new limited time shop is back on the Laptop along with the usual Laptop Shop updating as well.

The new items are so cute, though, the new locket has to be my favorite.

I also really loved some of the new furniture but will miss my cute flower pillow and Elephant friend. Why can I not have all the plushies with the cute furniture…

The Gachapon also adds some brand new ornaments. I hope I managed to get them all– they’re very cute… but also more Teddy Bears to taunt me that I cannot hug and display on my Stuffie shelf.

There’s also one new minigame where you can make a very cute Snow Teddy:

That said, while there isn’t much new with the event outside of a few new items (For those who weren’t here last year, you can also get a present from the tree as well once per in-game day, if there are any, along with putting up letters and ornaments– I talk about it all in this post) and being able to make an adorable Snow Teddy, the big updates this time are actually new features!

For one, better Scrap Book organizing. You may have noticed it in the screenshot above, but we can now bookmark pages with a paperclip. We can also choose what diary pages can be read by anyone (if any) or even just friends or specific friends. You can also keep it private which is the default setting.

There’s also an option to let guests or friends write on a page so you can set designated Guestbook pages which I think is really fun! Guestbooks aren’t really common on websites anymore, but they have a special place in my heart.

The bookmark option is especially helpful, as I’ve had to click through a lot now to get to newer pages. That said, there does seem to be a slight bug with them right now where after I placed them and closed my scrapbook, the next time I opened it, I have been unable to change who can view a page or if a page can be written on like a guestbook as clicking the options causes the game to immediately crash. I hope this will be fixed soon though!

Of course, you may be wondering how you can even view others’ scrap books or write in them as a Guestbook anyway… You can now visit each other’s houses! I’m really excited about this especially. Unfortunately, NPC houses don’t seem to be open right now, but I hope they will be soon. Especially if it makes it a bit easier to access those NPC questlines.

I’ve set up one guestbook page for now which you can get to immediately through the second paperclip bookmark in my Scrapbook! I wanted to set the next two as guestbook pages as well, but due to the bug, I can’t right now unfortunately. My newest page (the one you see above for Christmas) also can’t be viewed publicly for the same reason ^^; But as soon as this is fixed, I’ll be setting those up.

And as always, you can check out my video over on Youtube too!

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Finishing Stitch’s level 10 Quest & the Holiday Event

12 / 18 / 2212 / 25 / 22

If you didn’t see the addition to my last post, I’d recommend checking that out for the first part of Stitch’s quest. During his Level 10 Friendship quest, which already took a day to unlock, it required an additional day to wait after finishing some of the quest… So, before anything else, I went to talk to Stitch now that it was the next day. It was time to set things up for the concert… Unfortunately, the “concert” was pretty disappointing.

After a very brief strum of melody, it quickly went to a photo opt situation and then the concert set-up went away… I suppose it was actually on lend this time so I can’t be too disappointed on that front. What really bummed me out though was the lack of seeing an actual song play. Considering we had to wait a day for the quest, the fact that it was just a quick 5 minute run-through and not really any cutscene made the wait not particularly exciting :( Stitch giving us his fixed-up Rocket was very cute though. I left it by his house.

With that done, on the way to where Stitch was, I noticed some red wrapping paper out in the plaza which made it very clear that my thoughts were correct, and a holiday event had begun! Unfortunately, the spawn rate doesn’t seem as nice as the Halloween Buckets were. It also feels more random. The wrapping paper is used to make gifts at the Crafting Station.

Each gift requires 1 of the wrapping paper plus an item based off the gift name. Shiny Gift requires a Shiny Ruby and Shiny Emerald, Delicious Gift requires Hot Cocoa and Minnie’s Gingerbread Cookies, Handcrafted Gift requires a Holiday Feast Chair, and Naughty Gift requires 1 Coal. I didn’t really feel right giving out the Naughty Gift as I feel like even the Villains are making an effort to be better, but I did make one to keep regardless.

While I am sure on the 25th, characters may ask for specific gifts as their favorites like Halloween had every favorite gift be the Event Candy you could get, you can give 10 different characters a gift to finish up the Ho! Ho! Ho! task to get a Pile of Gifts.

On my way to give one last gift to a character who was currently awake, I noticed some red and green bubbles in one of the ponds in Peaceful Meadows. I’m really glad the Festive Fish have their own unique indicator.

So, I made sure to get all 5 Festive Fish as well. (You can find Festive Bass in Peaceful Meadows, Festive Squid in Glade of Truth, Festive Fugu at Dazzle Beach, Festive Angler Fish in the Forgotten Lands, and Festive Salmon in Sunlit Plateau). Unsurprisingly, Fugu took the longest as it does require it to be raining for it to show up in the first place. As far as I can tell, it seems you can only catch one a day so I’d recommend getting them with a Fishing Buddy for a chance at more per day.

Catching each Fish once completes the Even Fish are Festive! Task which will get you a Santa Hat.

I then decided to head to the Castle as I was curious if the Photo Backdrop was still there (I later realized you could make a regular furniture version now at the crafting station)– it wasn’t, but there was a nice tree set up.

I ended up adding the gifts and wrapping paper to the tree I have set up in the “Study” room. I do wish the wrapping paper could be put on a table though.

I think my only negative with the Event, besides the low spawns, is I do wish there were some things geared more towards those who celebrate other Winter holidays. Like… they could have more than just a tree in the Castle and a few more blue/white Winter items as well. I get Christmas is an easy thing to do because of how many celebrate it and the fact that, while there are people who celebrate for religious reasons, many of the people who celebrate are not religious which isn’t the case for most other holidays… But I just hope even those who don’t celebrate Christmas can have some fun with the event and hopefully can have a little more representation in the future.

Anyway, if any additions happen with the Holiday event, I’ll be sure to edit this post.

Edit: There’s presents under the tree in the Castle today! Be sure to go grab your gifts :)

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Unlocking Stitch

12 / 16 / 2212 / 17 / 22

As mentioned in my last DDLV post, I had a feeling this quest was hinting at Stitch after finding the first pile of socks on the Beach and was very much right. Last Sunday, 5 days after I found the first pile of socks, I stumbled upon another in the Meadows, this time belonging to Goofy.

After helping clear out Goofy’s house, a new clue was found: Some blue fur! So, I brought it over to Donald to scan into the device and despite his protests, there absolutely is a Blue Raccoon.

Considering the matching 33% up (making it now 66%), I figured it’d be another five days until the next part and well, as you can tell from the date of this post, I was right!

Today (Friday, the 16th), I found another sock. This time, in the Forest of Valor. You can also find my playthrough of everything I mention here over on Youtube!

Unlike the last two times where we were told pretty quickly whose sock it was, this time had to ask around. I decided to go in order and started with Kristoff. Despite him making it pretty clear it belonged to Merlin, I headed to Mickey next which gave some interesting dialogue… He mentioned how the socks were made by someone.

Initially, I thought he meant us as I don’t think Mickey fully remembers we’re the Ruler yet… Especially when he says “she” next, but I recalled the game didn’t ask us for pronouns, so he was likely talking about someone else and a few female Disney characters quickly jumped to mind.

Making my way to Merlin next, the sock was indeed his and he dropped more information on us.

What I find interesting is his use of conjured which makes me think it has to be a magical character… A Magical character who would make socks… Fairy Godmother was the first to come to mind, but I suppose some others may fit the bill too.

After clearing out the mess in Merlin’s house, we had our final piece of evidence which also got the Beacon to 100%.

Placing it caused Stitch to crash his ship right on the beach… But at least he was okay. I do hope Lilo won’t be too far behind though… I always feel a little sad when they’re not together.

Stitch is another character who essentially managed to escape the Forgetting and mostly seems to remember his memories. To make up for his ship crashing, we made him a very nice new house.

It was then onto Friendship leveling! After giving favorite items, I kept giving him flowers until level 10. If you’re wondering why I didn’t do the questlines in-between like I usually do though, it’s because Stitch’s had a hidden requirement right off the bat. Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long to find it after seeing this sign of Donald all messed up:

There are two other signs you need to find like it for the quest after activating it– one by the entrance to the Glade of Trust from Peaceful Meadows and one by the Stairs down to the Beach.

After finishing this, it was another hidden requirement needed… This time, I found a Coffee Cup near WALL-E’s garden (do not let the screenshot fool you– this is near where mine is, but the quest very much makes it clear it’s by wherever the Garden you let WALL-E take care of is) alongside a bunch of wheat and soil.

If you don’t see it, try relogging! Or going in a house and back out. Considering the last quest was in Peaceful Meadows as well, if you’re doing them back-to-back like I did, it may not show up immediately.

Stitch explained he messed up the Garden because he wanted Coffee to stay awake and was trying to find some. And while I am not a coffee drinker (Tea is better), I do 100000% agree with this sentiment:

Thanks to WALL-E’s help, we were able to save the Coffee Bean plant. And it grew into a very cute bush (the bushes that grow in the Glade after are around the same size as the Blueberry and Raspberry bushes).

We even managed to get 3 Coffee Beans which is just enough for each of the recipes! Stitch said to talk to Remy about how to make the Coffee, so it was over to talk to him. I did run into a little bug here, but a reset worked out and I was able to continue no problem.

One nice thing is you can ask Remy about how to make the other Coffee Drinks as well and he essentially confirmed what I figured all along:

Coffee Bean = Coffee
Coffee Bean + Milk = Latte
Coffee Bean + Milk + Cocoa Bean = Mocha

It’s nice having various collections complete again!

The next quest didn’t have any hidden objectives, so it was a bit more relaxing. We just had to fix his TV, but I also had to change my outfit to be more of an “Adventurer”. A Princess can absolutely adventure in her Princess Dress, Stitch!!

There was then only one quest left… But it didn’t unlock. I have Stitch at level 10 and there’s no other objectives mentioned under the Quest. If it’s the case like Minnie’s and WALL-E’s, I wouldn’t think it’d be in the Quest List at all and if it had a hidden objective or any additional objectives, it’d say that… So, it’s very odd, but regardless, I think it must be bugged in some way and I just hope it’s fixed soon.

It’s possible it could require an extra day, maybe? I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait and see. For now, I did everything I could! Until the Holiday event starts (Still thinking sometime this upcoming week) and this gets fixed, there’s not much else to do right now… But I’ll update this as soon as I can do Stitch’s level 10 Quest.

As for the Holiday Event, that will get its own post!

Edit for December 17th: Stitch’s Level 10 Quest did unlock today! Essentially, we’re getting a band together and I regret not talking to Merlin as well before talking to Kristoff just for the dialogue/lore. It should’ve dawned on me that would end the objective, especially as Stitch heavily hints that Prince Eric and Kristoff will be the band members (a very royal band crew), but I just ran into them immediately after Remy and didn’t think about it.

I did have to remake the Photo Backdrop for the quest, but thankfully I still had the materials. I also always really like when we do a quest in the Castle. I feel like the Castle doesn’t get enough love. Make sure you use the full camera mode and not the selfie close-up mode for the picture as Stitch has to be at the Backdrop for it to count and he’ll move if you’re in the initial Selfie mode.

Unfortunately, it’s another day wait before the next part unlocks which I’m kind of bummed about. Especially as it’ll overlap with what’s likely the start of the Holiday event… so I guess stay tuned to a new entry with both tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings on the gating with some of the quests and specific hours as the game is generally really flexible with time-stuff that it stands out. I get that part of it is it won’t feel as much for people when the game is fully out and they are doing everything together, but I think letting people play at the pace they’d prefer, especially as someone who has days where maybe I can play 12+ hours and other days I can only do like 5 minutes, is just much better accessibility-wise and really doesn’t take away from anyone.

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