Crystal Dreams - A Various Hobby Blog
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Custom 1
  • Custom 3
  • Custom 4
  • Twitter
  • BlogLovin
Menu
Skip to content

Fashion Dreamer – Fairy Tale Fair!

6 / 13 / 24

Like usual, I’ll be talking a bit about the announcement of the event going up along with stuff I’ve done since before the Fair goes up tonight.

For a Fairy Tale Fair, I had really hoped to be more excited, but after watching the video, I actually feel a bit let down. Generally, Fairy Tale themes are my jam, but it feels like they took a more mythological take for Type A with a more traditional fantasy attire for Type B and I feel like no matter what, you’ll have people upset and it would’ve been better to have two sets for each? A Dragonic/Mermaid-esque outfit for Set B as well and something more traditional as well for Set A.

I do like the hairstyle, but I’d rather a wavy high ponytail version of it than a low braid. The seashells and pearls in the hair are super pretty though. I’m not a fan of Mermaid-esque dresses (I like my dresses looser/poofy) so even if the decor and sash are pretty, I just do not see myself bothering to wear it as a replacement to anything we currently have. I do like the second color version they previewed at least and it’s probably similar to what I’ll make, but I still won’t really use it, nor do I think it’ll end up in my shop as things currently stand.

The Scale Socks look really pretty, but it’s a situation where I’d rather layer them over something else than use instead of and we can’t layer multiple socks.

Type B has a more traditional looking top and I really would’ve loved a Princess dress in that style, but oh well… It also comes with matching shorts and some really nice tights. Type A gets a new type of Ear Cuff to go with the Scale Socks and Dress.

The Curtsy is probably one of my two favorite things in this. I expect to use that pose a lot. It’s cute how it and the bow match up, but with how the game works, I don’t know how likely it is you will manage to sync it up with someone.

While I don’t care for the wallpaper or flooring, the Jellyfish are so pretty– unfortunately, I do not have room to hang anything. I also love the Seashell Display, but it is very like a 2×2 instead of a 1 space item and while I could maybe find a way to squeeze in a single space item, I absolutely do not have 4 blocks free and this goes back into the previous situation where I can’t be excited for new Decor because unless the Showroom Space is increased (and how much you can display), items will just continue to not be used since I’m not the type of person who updates based off season– I pick something I like and stick with it where the only changes are generally adding to it.

We also got a preview of new gachapon items, though, I don’t think any are my style. It seems like new items may be added to the Vending Machines as well for additional poses.

The final preview was showing some of the upcoming items. Considering the Fairs are supposed to repeat older ones from July onwards, I’m assuming these will be either Gachapon or new Design Rank Patterns. We technically have had a preview of the shoes, skirt, and matching top (which is not shown here) for a while due to some NPCs wearing an orange/rainbow set, but excited they’ll finally be coming out properly and I certainly want the pink set.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about my own playing. To be honest, I haven’t really played since my last post (it’s just been too busy), but I did pop on for a bit before the Fair tonight– Mostly to clean out any Lookits received, fill requests, and just some roaming around for grinding up levels for fun. Especially if I want any gachapon stuff in the future.


And thus, it is time for the new fair! The update was a bit later than usual, but I still was able to get it done tonight. If you’d rather watch the video than read, it’ll be available here as soon as it’s finished processing.

I did spend some time checking out some of the new things, but nothing really stood out to me. It didn’t take long to unlock the new furniture items though and I did my best to make room for the Shell Display. Had to do a lot of shuffling, but I really wish the showroom could be bigger. I also desperately would like an Undo and Undo all option because the number of times I’ve accidentally removed things and had to leave and come back as it would be easier than fixing it is too many to count.

As expected, the outfit isn’t really my taste, but I still made a set with it.

I actually really liked some of the new Photo Spots this time around, despite me not being much of a photo person.



As for the new poses, it’s not really any surprise the Cursty is my favorite. I will say the Balls feel a bit lazy though as while the Basketball poses make sense, the Soccer Ball doesn’t really fit as well to me.


Anyway, finishing this off with a few Lookits I received as usual.

Next month should be a bit calmer, though, knowing me I may try and redo the Fair anyway just for more Keys and Patterns. You can’t really earn the Keys any other way once you get all character unlocks and we’re still not even close to having enough keys to unlock everything.

Leave a comment
Share

It’s time for Gamer Christmas! (Updated for Nintendo)

6 / 4 / 2410 / 17 / 24

Even though E3 is no more, which honestly makes me pretty sad, I guess it still will continue to feel like E3 time to me and just the general month of games that makes up June and thus, my own moniker of calling it Gamer Christmas because the game news makes me feel as warm and fuzzy as I do around the Holidays in December.

Regardless, of what name you give this time of year, I just find it a fun time and I feel like there is at least something I’m excited for each year. Or multiple things at this point with the Wholesome Games Showcase (while I did have the opportunity to Co-Host again this year, it’s unlikely to happen due to the whole situation with my monitor and my replacement still MIA. If it miraculously comes sooner or I can somehow budget for one, maybe something can still work out, but it seems unlikely for the time being :( )

The first of the main June stuff starts today, June 4th, but I’m going to start off with some of the stuff that happened at the end of May first as they feel close enough to be adjacent, even if not in the crazy active two weeks.

As per usual, I will only focus on stuff that interests me (so I won’t be giving a full overview on everything shown) and I won’t mention a game in detail more than once. It doesn’t mean I’m not still excited for it– it’s just that I don’t want to repeat myself and it’s rare I’ll have anything more to say. If I DO feel like I can add something, then I’ll make an exception!


TPF’s Celebration of Games: Spring Showcase

For a lot of these, I already was pretty well-aware of, but it was nice to hear news about some of the ones I have been really excited about.

That said, some new stuff caught my eyes too. I honestly think Esports History looks interesting, but my minigame skills vary and I am the worst with management stuff. I’m technically not a fan of Esports either, but I just think the actual story and aesthetics look neat.

CraftCraft: Fantasy Merchant Simulator is another where I’m really worried about how well I’d actually do playing, but genuinely think the actual jewelry making and gathering stuff to make said jewelry looks super fun.

With Vivaland, I can’t say I’ve ever really wanted Multiplayer Sims personally, but the idea of having my own community of friends is pretty exciting. I just kind of hope there will be some home templates you can use as a base for those of us who have more fun with the Interior Design than Exterior.

Tavern Talk is one I played the demo of during LudoNarraCon and really enjoyed it. It feels like a mix of Coffee Talk and another game I’ve played that I sadly cannot think of the name of right now with how you can affect character’s journeys based off what you do. I’m actually really excited for the full game, but it’s also one where I feel like I’ll be so paranoid about screwing up.

Spill the Beans was another I hadn’t heard of prior, but am fairly interested in. I’ll admit I’m not really the type to try and blame someone else so I’ll probably try for one of the other endings right away, but we’ll have to see how it goes. I wonder why our character tries to steal the recipe in the first place anyway…

The Guardian of Nature also caught my eye and while I want to see more of it before fully deciding my opinion, I’m intrigued at the very least.

Focusing back on games I’m aware of, Sunset Hills received a release for August 2024 which is pretty exciting! I really loved when I played the demo over a year and a half ago and it’s exciting to know that it’s so close to release.

So, I’m one of the few people who has not played The Untitled Goose Game as while it is very cute, I have a tendency to panic, and you do need to sneak around a bit. Just Crow Things feels a bit more relaxed, and you don’t necessarily have to be as much of a menace as you help out various animal friends. I enjoyed the demo immensely, especially some of the cute random Easter Eggs and am excited for the full game’s release. I also can’t say enough how thankful I am there is a very easy mode for races and someone who tends to panic and mess up.

Urban Jungle is another game I played the Demo for and enjoyed quite a lot. It’s genuinely really relaxing, even if it can be hard to balance all the plants, and I am looking forward to its release.

Pausing briefly to bring up a game I’ve already been playing that got an update preview during this: Spirit City: Lofi Sessions! Three new Spirits were shown during this along with a few other things and they were all really cute. The update has since come out and I already got all three, but I’m looking forward to continued updates, new spirits, and still really hoping for dresses/skirts.

Finishing this off, we have Whimel Academy and Henry Halfhead.

I love the aesthetics of Whimel Academy so much, but as mentioned earlier, I am TERRIBLE at time management stuff and balancing stats. If a game doesn’t have a way to turn that off or just adjust them as you want to, I can’t get through them. The number of games I’ve really liked that I did not manage to finish because of systems like that is higher than I’d like to admit. Whimel Academy did come out with a demo for the latest Steam Nextfest (which starts very soon) so I’ll see if they have any accessibility help with that or if I can miraculously handle it somehow, but for the moment, as much as I love everything else about it, it may just not be something I can actually play.

Meanwhile, Henry Halfhead is so weird to me, but I find the puzzle aspect really fun (even if I have to ask who cuts apples with a pair of Scissors…) and I’m excited to try it. I really hope it may get a demo at some point.


Marvelous Game Showcase 2024

I think the one thing I really wish the showcase did is that I wish it showed some actual gameplay more often. A lot of what was shown were flashy graphics and pan-shots, but not much on what the actual game may be.

I’m still looking forward to the new Story of Seasons despite that. While the last one was very much not my cup of tea, considering it seems most people weren’t super fond of it, I’m hoping the next will be better. My personal favorites are ironically all under the old Harvest Moon moniker: Harvest Moon 64, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (and certain things from Animal Parade), and Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. I’d love to see a new game incorporate all of those somehow.

Either way, I hope we’ll hear more information soon. I also really wish those Cow plushie crane games could come to the USA…

State of Play

I really didn’t expect this to get announced at the same time as Marvelous’, but we managed to make do and watch both at the same time. Like Marvelous though, not much stood out for me.

The big things for me were the new Infinity Nikki trailer and the upcoming Astro Bot game.

Talking about the former, Infinity Nikki will open up for testing in Q3 of this year which is really exciting! I hope I get the chance to test… I signed up at least. I made sure to pre-register as well.

As for Astro Bot, I really loved Astro’s Playroom (which I still have to finish honestly) and everything about this trailer looked amazing? For first party Sony games, I think this is the first time I’ve been excited for one in a long time. It looks like it’s going to be so much fun.


And with that, now it’s time for the proper start with things on June 4th!

Best Indie Games Summer Showcase 2024

Honestly, it’s great to see more and more showcases giving a lot of love to Indie Games. My husband especially was pretty excited with several things.

Despite kind of struggling with it in real life, Mech Builder looks really fun, and I love how you display them in the game. I downloaded the Demo right away and am looking forward to checking it out later.

On Track looks really cute! I genuinely find looking out windows really relaxing so I’m looking forward to it already. Would love an upgraded pay for version with some customization though.

I first saw Mouse Busters not too long ago and my initial thought was that it looks cute, but I’m kind of afraid how scary/horror-based it could get and this trailer definitely leaned into more of those latter traits. I’m still really intrigued by the story, but I think I’m too much of a wuss to play myself.

I feel like there have been a lot of tile placement games, but Preserve still looks really pretty. There is a demo so I’m hoping to try the more relaxing mode mentioned in the trailers as I really suck at the resource-management-aim-for-certain-point/scores of most others.

I will admit I’m definitely kind of burnt out on Indie Farming Games for a lot of reasons, but the cute helpful pet has convinced me to at least try the demo for Everafter Falls.

While the trailer threw me off a bit, I’m still pretty excited for Neko Odyssey! It looks so cute and I can’t wait to play it. A demo is apparently coming out on the 10th so I’m very excited to check it out then!!

Like with Everafter Falls, Galactic Getaway also goes under the “tire of farming”, but also, I remembered the Kickstarter having Kickstarter exclusives which I just found really disappointing in those types of games. Everything else about it interests me, but I don’t like the practice of customization-heavy games having things locked to a Kickstarter.

I can’t believe this was nearly 3 hours long. I mean, I can believe there are that many amazing Indie Games, just still surprised by the length. Honestly, it was super nice just getting to watch trailer after trailer. No Sizzle Reels, just giving enough time to everything and enjoying them as is. I don’t know if anything else will beat this for what I’d consider the “Best Format” for a Showcase, but I really hope more showcases consider something like this.

Games I’m still excited for but mentioned earlier already: Just Crow Things

OTK Games Expo

I actually the demo for World’s Worst Handyman a while back and there’s A LOT I like about it between the story, the general aesthetic, and the kind of puzzle-aspect at times. Unfortunately, stealth isn’t my forte and the getting chased and being smacked around took away a lot of the fun for me. At least for me, it’s hard to have fun when I need to keep running for my life, especially when you need to re-get things if you get caught.

Solarpunk’s aesthetic looks really neat and maybe if I had a friend to play with, it could still work out, but I am absolutely terrible at Survival-based games.

I’m not much of a Dungeon Crawler person, but I am very intrigued by Cozy Dungeons. I really love interior decorating and if the punishment isn’t too bad if you struggle with the fighting aspects, I feel like it can be a lot of fun. Really hope it gets a demo.

I really like the aesthetic of Baltic Folk despite my struggle with management games. At the very least, I’d love to give it a shot if only for more decorating.

The only other game to catch my eye really was Haunted Paws. As you should all know, horror is absolutely not my jam, but I feel like Haunted Paws could be really fun to play with my husband for all the other aspects of the game. Hope it’ll get a demo as well.

Games I’m still excited for but mentioned earlier already: Just Crow Things


Guerrilla Collective 2024 Showcase

It was nice seeing more information about Cozy Dungeons, but it definitely is something I’d need to try and experiment with myself to see how well I actually manage to do. My combat skills vary.

The Secret of Crystal Mountain looks really interesting, but I can see myself just getting so utterly lost. Still kind of want to try it out though so I’ll keep an eye out in case it gets a demo.

I’ve actually had Little Problems on my list for a while now! It still looks really fun and I’m hoping maybe it’ll get a demo soon, but whether it does or not, I’m looking forward to it.

As someone who tends to struggle when given too much freedom with Creators, especially exterior-based one, I really appreciate the more simplified Exterior customization games we’ve been seeing lately. Monterona looks incredibly cute and I’m looking forward to checking out the demo later. I absolutely adore the aesthetic.

I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Pinball game that really caught my attention. I’m not entirely sure what to expect from Pinball Spire, but I am excited to check out the demo and see how it goes.

I actually ended up finally checking out the Ova Magica demo the other day and a had a lot of fun, though, I struggle a bit with the combat (and I feel like unless I can make my Blobs overpowered, I’m not sure how much I’ll bother with it outside of story-related reasons). It is very cute though.

Anyway, I’m off to check out some new demos now…

Games I’m still excited for but mentioned earlier already: Urban Jungle


Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2024

Elsie isn’t really my type of game, but seeing all those accessibility options means that I could get through it in a more relaxing way if I did want to try it which is really nice.

Fishbowl is another game where I got to play the demo during LudoNarraCon and really enjoyed it. I really love how relaxing the puzzles are and that they are making things to help with the puzzles. While I’m not worried about the packing one, I did have a little bit of a hard time with the Editing one so…

VIDEOVERSE is another where I played the demo a while back and I had liked it a lot. Really nice to hear more about some of its features that help make it a more relaxing adventure.

Summer Games Fest 2024

I haven’t even played any of the Horizon games, but LEGO Horizon Adventures looks really fun, honestly. Happy to hear it has co-op too.

Cuffbust is… certainly something. I’m not entirely sure what kind of game it is (are you working together or not??) but the little Mice-Alien things are very cute.

I did not expect a Power Rangers Beat ’em up game. I have a lot of fond memories from the original Power Rangers (Kimberly, the pink ranger, was my favorite unsurprisingly) so I’m genuinely really excited for it. It looks great.

I wish I could be more excited about Sonic X Shadow Generations, but Sonic Generations fell kind of flat to me in the first place. Levels I enjoyed originally were fun. Levels I did not enjoy originally were even worse. The boss wasn’t fun. I didn’t like the story. And I don’t think tacking on a Shadow campaign will fix the issue for me. I just want more Adventure-styled content and a new Chao Garden already :(

That said, if it does have a Chao Garden for some reason, I will buy and suffer just to support the Chao.

I was aware about there being a Honkai Star Rail trailer in the Summer Games Fest showcase due to it being mentioned during the Livestream this morning, but I definitely did not expect March 7th in a new outfit? I wonder if it’s a skin or a new path or what… Either way, it’s really cute and I hope to get her in her new outfit whichever it ends up being.

Anytime I see Party Animals, I just wish there was a non-PVP mode or just more minigames where I could just play with the cute silly characters without it being so… aggressive.

Day of the Devs

Didn’t expect Simpler Times to just be dropped today. It’s one of the games I’ve been looking forward to as well…

Petal Runner looks really cute. I hope the rhythm minigame is optional though because I know I will struggle with that.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit looks incredibly cute, but I am so burnt out on crafting and it being only on mobile doesn’t help. I may still try it at least so I pre-registered for now, but I do wish there could be more of these types of games without crafting.

While Waiting is an interesting concept but since something has to happen eventually (essentially, what you’re waiting for), it means every single thing is timed and some stuff is just… so tricky to do. “Meaningless” Challenges aren’t really meaningless when there is a list with a bunch of cute stickers. I still had fun trying it, but the puzzle completion part of me got super frustrated with the innate timer of each level and I almost would want a mode where it just ends when you want it to so I can work on the puzzles and secrets at my own pace.

Building Relationships looks very goofy and I want to play it. Apparently, it’ll have a demo, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for that…

NEW DLC FOR A LITTLE TO THE LEFT!!! So excited. Comes out June 25th :D

Devolver Direct

I don’t even know what to say about their shows.

IGN Live

Unlike the rest of the Showcases on this list, IGN is almost its own full event in itself with multiple long days of various content not limited to just games. Because of that though, and because it overlaps with many other showcases, I’ll just be talking about games that interested me from their Steam Sale page of all the games shown instead as there just isn’t a good way to balance it all.

I remember trying out the demo for The Courier a while back. In the general mail delivery, mysteries, and some minigames it was really neat, but I really struggled with the controls of various other things and finding my way around. Regardless, I still enjoyed it for the most part.

I don’t remember when I first heard about On Your Tail, but excited to see it has a demo. It’s one of those ones that really interested me from the get-go, but I want to see how I actually end up doing with the gameplay.

While I’m a little nervous about how precise I may need to be with The Big Catch, the gameplay looks like a lot of fun and reminds me of some of my favorite 3D Platformers.

What do you mean you just dropped that out of nowhere?!

Anything here essentially entails things that when first announced or mentioned, they weren’t actually shown in a showcase.

I’m not sure how much will actually be here, but I needed to talk about this Tweet:

The future of Chao starts with Sonic x Shadow Generations and Sonic Rumble.

Sonic Chao Guardians is currently in development for Netflix game platform. And there are plans at Sega to create even more Chao content in the future.

I don’t know if that means there will be some kind of Chao Garden in Sonic x Shadow Generations or if it’s just because you can rescue the Chao and in Sonic Rumble: play as some, but it certainly caught my attention. If there is some kind of Chao Garden or thing, as I mentioned above, I may pick up Sonic x Shadow Generations, but if not, I really don’t want to replay some of those levels again.

The big confirmation here though is Sonic Chao Guardians which, as expanded in this tweet is “not just Chao Garden” but a “brand new title that focuses on Chao” which sounds like a Chao Garden plus a bunch of other expanded features that focus on Chao as characters.

And in all honesty, I don’t know how to feel. For the most part, I’m happy as I just really want the Chao Garden in some way, but I really did not want it to be a mobile exclusive title (let alone one tied to Netflix’s services… The Apple Arcade Services are rough enough (when will you be free from there, Hello Kitty Island Adventure?)). A mobile side thing similar to how the VMU worked with Dreamcast? Sure, okay. But not the entire thing. At this point, I will take what I can get, but it will always be a bit disappointing to me in that regard.

I am hoping maybe there could be a PC version too, but considering Netflix’s hand in it, it’s probably unlikely. It’s bad enough Sonic Rumble is Mobile only as that looks really fun, but I can’t do mobile controls like that (it’s the main reason I had to stop playing Sunshine Days :( ) and so I know in the long run, I won’t get anywhere.

Based on what they said, I really hope we may see some footage of Sonic Chao Guardians in a showcase (especially since they confirmed the name), but if not… I’ll just keep an eye out for it.


Future of Play Direct

I had played the demo for A Date With Death which was very cute and left me fairly curious about the story itself. Since the main game is free, I do have it, but I want to get the DLC before finally playing the full game. I may play before the Kickstarter DLC is out though, unless it takes me that long to actually get to it…

I really love the art style and general aesthetic of Croakwood, but I’m not particularly great at colony management stuff…

Cozy Marbles looks so cute!! I think my only hope is that it also has some pre-made maps too because I feel like I’ll be terrible at actually building my own.

I actually checked out the demo for REKA at one point but ran into a bug and was unable to proceed. Still really intrigued by the story though.

I find myself less and less interested in sizzle reels. Not in the content of course– just that they even exist and can’t get a proper moment to actually check them out. It feels like there could have been more time to do so. Of what was shown, I think Rooster looked the most interesting to me.

Wholesome Direct

As I mentioned above, I had the opportunity to co-stream the Wholesome Direct again, but due to a combination of monitor issues, health issues, and other tech problems, it just doesn’t seem to be working out this year which makes me really sad. While I’d maybe be able to stream without my Vtuber, I just tend to be too quiet for it to feel like a proper Co-Streaming… well, Stream without her.

Regardless, I’m sure we’ll still have plenty to talk about here.

I’m generally kind of burnt out on Match-3’s of any kind, but the fact that Mythmatch is not a free to play mobile title kind of makes me interested in trying it as it may actually feel somewhat relaxing and not become what makes me so frustrated with most other Match-3’s.

I can’t remember when I first found out about Caravan SandWitch, but I’m really excited to finally check out a demo for it.

Speaking of games I’ve been waiting for demos for: Tiny Bookshop has finally got a demo too! While I am still a bit nervous in the sense of my difficulties with management stuff, I’m still really excited to try it out. It looks super cute.

I had briefly played Ete’s demo and stopped because I knew it was a game I’d really enjoy, and the demo data wouldn’t carry over. Every new thing of it looks great honestly. I am really looking forward to its release. That said, I did not expect it to be releasing at the end of next month! Not long after my birthday then!

I’m glad we get to hear more about Rooster after the short sizzle reel feature in the last show. All the puzzles look really fun… well, maybe the Tower Defense won’t be as fun, but the rest of it looks really nice.

At this point, there’s probably been several Playdate games I think look really cute, but I just don’t have the funds to get one anytime soon unfortunately.

When you love Puzzles, Decorations, and Cheese, but not so much Picross…. I may have to play anyway though. It doesn’t seem like Squeakross has a demo, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for it.

Critter Cafe looks really cute. I love the aesthetic of it. Though, I’m a bit worried how well I’ll do managing everything with it, but it’s another I’ll have to keep an eye out.

I was honored enough to receive a Patch Magazine in the past and it’s genuinely really cool.

I first heard about ILA: A Frosty Glide recently and had actually been planning to play the demo so super excited to see it’s on Steam too.

I actually backed Sally on Kickstarter so nice to see it having a demo out too.

I had played the FREERIDE demo previously but ran into a bug and couldn’t continue. It definitely seemed interesting from what I did play of it though.

Firstly: THE CUTE FROG PLUSHIE… I’ve been excited for Kamaeru for a long time and loved playing the demo too. So happy it’s finally out! Hope to get it soon.

I tried Lost and Found Co.’s Demo previously and it was another I really enjoyed. Genuinely can’t wait for the game’s release. Also loved all the plushies the team behind the game had. I know they said a new demo is out, but since I don’t know if the data will carry over, I think I’ll just hold off for now.

LittleLands has such an adorable aesthetic, but being rather tired of farming, I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about it yet.

SO EXCITED ABOUT USAGI SHIMA GETTING AN UPDATE!! I just updated it.

Tiny Lands is really cute. Nice to see it get a sequel, but I still need to finish the first one…

Spilled! is another I’ve been excited for and even backed. Looking forward to its release :)

Tracks of Thought is another game I’ve been very excited for. I did not expect it to be dropped today.

And thus, sizzle reel time… Tukoni: Forest Keepers looks very cute.

Still very excited for Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Café.

Letter Bunny also looks cute.

Been looking forward to Goodlands too.

Hoping to try Monterona’s Demo very soon.

The August Before also looks very interesting.

OPUS: Prism Peak looks really interesting, but I definitely want to see more about it.

Also interested in Broken Lens.

The Star Named Eos is another I’ve been waiting for and I can’t believe it’ll be out this upcoming week.

Tiny Tires also looks very cute and is another I’ve been interested in.

Also need to try Building Relationships Demo as it seems to be out now…

If Umami Grove wasn’t VR only, I’d probably want to try it.

Map Map looks cute too despite my navigational issues.

Omochapon looks very cute as well. Curious what it’ll be available on. Edit: Apparently, it’ll be for Nintendo Switch!

Catto’s Post Office also looks adorable.

I’m not entirely sure what to think of Wax Heads just yet, but it looks interesting.

I’m really intrigued by Katsl, but I always get a little overwhelmed with fully freeform creating… Maybe it won’t be as overwhelming as I feel like it will be though.

Pretty Coo’ also looks neat so I’ll be checking out the demo for that.

Undusted: Letters from the Past I remember first seeing somewhat recently. It looks really fun though so excited to see it has a demo out as well.

Latin American Games Showcase

Having played the first game and really enjoyed it, I can’t help but also be looking forward to Read Only Memories: Neurodriver.

Hidden in my Paradise also looks really cute. Definitely added to my Demos to try list for the Event.

Women-Led Games

Obviously, I’ve already finished Duck Detective but I love it so much and I really hope it gets more games.

Woodo!! I’ve been following this game for so long and envious of those who have gotten to play a Demo. I really hope it gets an online demo soon because it just looks so cute.

You may have already noticed that I have a video out for StarStuff… Definitely another part coming soon when things are less hectic.

I love the aesthetics of Bubblegum Galaxy so much, but it’s very much a type of gameplay I’m just terrible at.

I’m also excited to check out the demo for Projected Dreams.

Games I’m still excited for but mentioned earlier already: The Star Named Eos, Urban Jungle

Future Games Show

I’ve seen Screenbound on most of the showcases at this point, but I think my general thing is I’d rather be just playing the not!gameboy or just playing the area you’re exploring– the mash-up of both at the same time doesn’t really appeal to me.

Still very excited for SCHiM. Getting to play the special demo version of it only really hyped me up more.

Dustborn looks really interesting, though I have no idea how well of a job I’d actually do…

RunOut looks cute, but I think I’d want to play it either solo or friendly games where we all try to get to the end together.


Ñ3

eWorlds looks really interesting. I’m just curious if it’s more Co-operative or Competitive (or if you can choose I guess) as I’d rather work together with my friends than compete with them.

I remember trying out the demo for Welcome to Empyreum and it was pretty interesting in terms of the location, but is very much more aimed for multiple players than playing by yourself which made it a bit harder.

Roombattle looks very silly. I would say the main hold-off for me is I’m not much of a PvP Fan, but it looks very fun.

I’m curious about the general plot, but from a puzzle perspective, Sands of Hope looks fun.

Can I have a cozy wholesome version of Jack Holmes: Master of Puppets where I can ride the rides and explore the park and play minigames and not worry about things trying to kill me, please?

I really love the aesthetics of Magical Bakery. Just curious how all the management-related stuff will work.

Games I’m still excited for but mentioned earlier already: Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Café

Xbox Games Showcase

Perfect Dark was actually my first FPS and I have a lot of fond memories playing with family even if it cemented how awful my aim is and the story mode was rough. Regardless, I had gotten the highest possible rank for my character and while I don’t know if I’ll get it or not, it made me happy to see a return of the series.

I’ve only personally had “experience” with Fable 2 and 3 which was more my husband playing while I took care of all the choices and customization for my personal playthrough because the gameplay wasn’t my forte… Despite that, I still really enjoyed it, so I’m intrigued to hear more about the upcoming one.

I love the art style for Winter Burrow, but even outside my distaste for crafting, I feel like it’s a game that would make me cry.

PC Gaming Show

In general, it’ll be rare for a farming game to fully capture me, especially if it has a lot of crafting/survival elements, but the Critters in AMONG THE WILD are so cute and I love them either way.

Tempopo looks so cute. My puzzle skills on these types of games vary, but it’s so cute I might want to try it out anyway.

Crescent County looks really interesting. I’m not very good at drifting so I’m a bit worried how that could affect things in the long run, but everything else looks fun.

I don’t know if Everholm is really my kind of game, but I love the art style and the Teddy Bear at the very start is perfect and I want one.

Did not expect Go-Go Town to be coming to Early Access in a little over a week. It gives me such My Sims vibes and I’ve played so many of the Playtests at this point. Hopefully I do a better job in the released version of the games than I did balancing stuff in the Playtests…

Hotel Galactic is clearly very Studio Ghibli-inspired. I’m not sure how well I’d be at the actual gameplay, but I’m intrigued and wanting to try it out, nonetheless.

Streets of Fortuna looks really interesting as well, but I feel like I’d try to play it more peacefully than is intended.


Ubisoft Forward

Our only showcase for today! But with Steam Nextfest starting, that’s probably for the best.

I feel like the first things to interest me have been with the Sizzle Reel and just… I really can’t say enough how tired I am of Sizzle Reels.

The new Monopoly looks really pretty, but it seems like they didn’t bother setting up locations for the cards/how each looks which feels like a let-down as that is still one of my all-time favorite things about one of my favorite PC Monopoly-titles.

I always love the graphics of Trackmania.


Today is officially the last day for most announcements and the only thing likely to be added to this is whenever Nintendo’s June Showcase ends up happening. Regardless, we have a few things today to close stuff out!

Black Voices in Gaming

This had mostly been interviews with a few games that had already been shown previously before the next two shows.

Dames 4 Games

Projected Dreams looks really neat. Excited to try out the demo.

Games I’m still excited for but mentioned earlier already: Nom Nom: Craft Craft

Stream for a Cause Showcase

Omurice Next Time looks very cute. I really loved the music in the trailer they showed.


It’s pretty much just the wait for Nintendo now and playing more demos from Steam Nextfest. When it comes to who “won”, I would say Best Indie Games Summer Showcase and Ñ3 had the best Showcase Format while unsurprisingly, Wholesome Games’ Showcase had the most games I was interested in.

Biggest Surprise would probably go to the Power Rangers game. It may not be the one I’m most excited for overall, but in terms of games that caught me the most off-guard by announcement for something I’m looking forward to, I feel like that’s the one.

Anyway, here’s hoping Nintendo announces theirs soon and it won’t be at the end of the month again.


Nintendo finally announced the Nintendo Direct for the 18th so here we go!

Nintendo Direct

The only RPG-esque Mario games I’ve played are the Paper Mario titles, but I know so many people who are going to be so excited to see a new installment.

Adding new sports unfortunately doesn’t fix all the issues with Nintendo Switch Sports between the way clothing is gotten, everything being online PVP, and how small it is overall :/ You really shouldn’t have a sequel if it’s just going to be a downgrade in nearly every way.

I still have to get Disney Illusion Island and this new update looks amazing. I love detective-ing. I hope we get it soon.

HELLO KITTY ISLAND ADVENTURE!! FINALLY FREE FROM APPLE!! Having to wait until next year sucks, but I’m so happy to have SOME kind of confirmation for it. I’ve wanted it for so long.

I love Donkey Kong Country a lot, but I’m not one to replay games. (Also Dixie Kong is the best Kong to play as)

The New Denpa Men looks really cute. I’ll have to try it out, but disappointed about the local co-op thing. Hopefully it can still work with 2 people maybe? Or it could get online co-op eventually or something.

New Mario Party!! Jamboree looks really good. October 17th!! This year. Just give me cute collectibles.

A NEW ZELDA GAME WHERE YOU ACTUALLY PLAY AS ZELDA??? YEEES.

I first saw Tales of Shire not too long ago, but this looks so cute and fun. I wonder if it will be on other things too this holiday or just the Switch?

The second Ace Attorney Investigations game is FINALLY coming over!! I’m so behind in the Ace Attorney series though… And I don’t really want to replay the first one to get to the second though.

Did not expect essentially a PvE Danganronpa, but it’s sad if all of them are still dying even then though. X-x

Games I’m still interested in but mentioned earlier already: LEGO Horizon Adventures


Well, Nintendo certainly knocked it out of the park with great formatting too. Definitely a great way to finish off Gamer Christmas.

Leave a comment
Share

Let’s talk about Endless Ocean: Luminous

5 / 23 / 245 / 23 / 24

I’ve been asked multiple times on my thoughts with this game and in some ways, especially seeing responses to it, it feels like Endless Ocean’s version of the situation with Fashion Dreamer vs Style Savvy– the main difference is Fashion Dreamer is its own IP, just sharing the developer, while Endless Ocean: Luminous is the third game in the series.

Personally, there are some things I do like more such as the fact that I don’t have to worry about running out of oxygen or being attacked, but like how Fashion Dreamer focuses a lot on one specific focus, Endless Ocean is very much focused on the diving aspect, especially the group diving, at the cost of some customization, a more expanded story, and any kind of out of Ocean aspect.

Regardless, like with Fashion Dreamer, I still feel there is a place for this game, and I think it will absolutely have its fans, but I can also understand why it may feel like a bit of a let-down to fans of the previous two games.

As mentioned above, the game has very much homed in on the Diving aspect. The only customization is on your Diving Suit (which you can color each part differently and add multiple stickers to each part) with your actual look never being shown. You can never look up out of the ocean– it just blocks you from going further. There is no island to explore, no series of side quests, there is just the main story which feels more like a side story on its own to the actual diving part.

I love Salvaging and Riddles so the Mystery Board grabbed my attention, but while you learn the history of these people and other neat things, it’s never actually important to the story. It’s just clearing them out like a series of achievements to find where you need to go for the real treasure to save the World Coral. That’s it.

The story is so incredibly short (in terms of time, the grinding to actually unlock it all takes forever but feels completely disjointed from the story itself), the tutorial is oddly spread out (You learn about the camera much later and I didn’t even realize it actually was necessary to take pictures of fish so where I thought I was almost done, I now need to re-find everything), most “chapters” are done within maybe five minutes tops. It barely feels worth it to call a story. The Shared and Solo Dives do not feel properly integrated into the story at all. It just feels like something to grind to unlock the next chapter that will be over in probably 10% of the time you even put to unlock it.

You also have very little freedom in the story with each Story area locked into a very small space that you can’t explore beyond. Rather than big expansive areas of the Sea, every single Dive is in The Veiled Sea which is essentially all randomly generated. Each map is randomly put together from different Acres that can be facing North, East, South, or West. It gets to a point where you will start recognizing areas and know exactly what Fish and what Riddle discs and things you may find with only Salvage being truly random in placement (though, what kind you find varies by biome). And using that RNG factor, you can end up with multiple different Biomes in the same map– Abyss, Arctic, Fresh Water, Ocean Water, Coral, etc.

For the most part, I don’t mind how the Veiled Sea works. I think it’s a pretty neat thing. My issue is that it’s the only thing. I miss the big expanses as we swan through castles and old ruins and shell palaces. That isn’t to say there isn’t anything like that here, but due to the random nature and way it’s done, everything is much smaller and there’s only so many times you can be impressed by one of the 3-4 same pirate ships.

As it is, the game really does put a lot on Shared Dives, the group dive system with up to 30 people (I have yet to see a completely fully dive though personally… It seems unless you really do find nearly 30 people to enter an ID, I don’t think you can get close randomly– it feels like very few people can actually end up joining a Shared Dive completely random which feels odd). Many things are built around that system and sharing things with others and to be honest, if you can get a group of people you can play with and talk to, I genuinely think this is the most fun mode to do.

Even as a relatively solo player, it’s just so much easier to navigate, get through, and rank up when playing with others. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any point playing solo, but generally, you’re going to be having a much slower experience. Plus, you do need to play with others to get additional Tags (there are 210 currently in the game).

Because so much emphasis is put on Shared Dives though, it kind of blows my mind on certain decisions made in regard to it that just make it not as enjoyable as it could be such as:

  • Nintendo Online is needed. If you’re going to put such an emphasis on Shared Dives and being able to dive with people, putting said mode behind an additional paywall is ridiculous. Events are also online only. There is a reason Fashion Dreamer does not require Nintendo Online.
  • Shared Dives have a time limit of roughly one hour. For a game that encourages you to relax and look at all the fish, the time limit requires you to rush because you CAN be cut off in the middle of doing things. Having played other games that have RNG maps, there is no good reason to kick people out after an hour? Here are some better options to encourage people to leave a map after a while:
    • Have it so UMLs can no longer spawn after an hour or maybe a slightly longer time.
    • New players can no longer spawn in after an hour or certain amount of time.
    • Some combination of the above

    But the fact that I can’t always check out all the Salvage or see all the fish or quickly get back to riddles in time sucks. It sucks to just be cut off by a stupid timer. I hate that I can’t listen to the fish information during a Dive because I have to be constantly running around. I can’t explore as much as I want because that timer is always looming. Seriously, why can’t you let me finish and choose to leave? Maybe I just want to swim around and hang out with my friends and take goofy pictures. Or maybe we’re having a fun Tag Sharing party as we put various tags on a huge school of fish.

    I truly feel there is no good excuse to have such a forced timer and it adds a very frustrating part to something that is supposed to be relaxing.

  • While this isn’t exclusive to Shared Dives, the time limit mentioned above makes this so much more frustrating than when in Solo Dives so I wanted to highlight it here: You WILL be cut off by Sera every single time a glitchy fish is found, a UML is spawning, a UML is leaving, and also when the timer ends. About to take a picture? Too bad. Literally just saving a picture? Also, too bad. About to finish salving something? Nope. Just scanned a fish you needed? Oh well. It drives me absolutely insane that it can’t wait until you close out your current action. And is just another frustration of the stupid one hour timer.
  • You can only place up to 10 Tags out at a time. On one hand, I would guess this is to prevent people covering the map with tags, especially due to the tag raffle system (which has its own flaws), but Salvage tags do go away when you find them and having options for people to filter tags (IE: Don’t show tags from a specific person or only show Salvage tags, no fish tags, etc.) would be a better option? At least with me, not only do I genuinely really want to help people, but I do like to tag a lot of things to help me keep track of where I’m going as well. Things like tagging rare-colored fish, small/large sizes, different salvage types, the UML (which at least the orange circle sticks around now after someone scans it, but it can still be hard to find where it is in said circle sometimes), Disk Riddles, and even entrances/exits to places… There are so many things you can help with and limiting to 10 gets filled up fast.
    • A similar issue is trying to figure out what tags to use. The raffle system encourages you to use lots of different tags to have more on the map for more chances to win, but at the expense of making it clear what may even be marked. I usually like to use specific kinds for what I’m marking: A Castle for a UML (though, sometimes I may use something more specific like a Swordfish, Coral, or Bird), Sparkles for Salvaging, Pearl for Rare Salvaging, Rainbow fish for a Rare Color, etc. But obviously, people have different ways they mark things, and the game seems to want you to just constantly switch things up. And once again, when there is a constant timer, you really would rather know what you’re diving too because every moment is precious.

Despite my complaints, I generally still do have fun, but as I get closer to finishing up certain tasks, these frustrations get all the more annoying. I’m really hoping they may adjust things in the future because it just feels like a huge oversight.

Like I said earlier, I don’t think the game is bad, but it took out a lot of old features to throw them all into an RNG basket and that isn’t going to appeal to everyone who enjoyed these games.

I’m really hoping maybe they’ll expand on it, and we’ll see some of those old features make a return in some way, but as it is now, it still feels like it’s missing something.

Leave a comment
Share

Fashion Dreamer – Fair #6: Retro Pop Fair!

5 / 16 / 24

This has been one of the closest announcements left with just barely 24 hours’ notice. Despite hoping to work on getting more gachapon tickets, I really haven’t had time to work on that so I’m going in having not really played much at all since last time. The only thing I really ended up doing was making an outfit for one of Japan’s exclusive contests for fun.

Regardless, the patch notes have me pretty excited for a few things:

  • Item Box is expanding from 6,000 Items to 9,000 Items – As someone who has already hit the limit again, getting such a big increase is great. I’m excited to finally be able to go through the Lookits I’ve been sent again as well. (Apparently the amount of Muses you can follow are also being increased from 200 to 500. I don’t think I was even close to the maximum, but it’s nice to see considering the amount of Fair tasks that require you to follow other players)
  • You will earn more Gacha Tickets and Gold Coins when making Lookits (An increase from 1-10 to 5-50). That will definitely help with the grind, though, I will admit I rarely use my Gold Coins…
  • Gachapon rates are being adjusted again to make it easier to get higher rarity items.
  • Every time you access Vending Machines now, the items will change rather than it being time-based. I have mixed feelings on this one, but I suppose it’s for the best overall since if you regret not getting more of something, you can easily just keep rotating through again. I just hope the rotation won’t be too bad/possibly be in a set way so I’m not checking for an hour to get one item to show up and it’s MIA for some reason.
  • The biggest thing, however, is that from July onward they will be bringing back older fairs (With June being the last new fair for a while). Honestly, I’m thrilled for people who missed out and those who didn’t, well, more chances to make more colors of items you really liked then. Despite fairs being rerun, they will still include new items monthly as well. They also tease having plans for their 1st Anniversary in November. Whatever that one teaser from months ago now was is still coming soon, but no ETA on when we’ll finally see it. Maybe the Anniversary? I guess we’ll have to see.

Moving onto the Fair itself, it looks like a combination of like some 60’s/70’s Aesthetic with hip hop? While it’s not my style, I like that they are adding more variety. I think my favorite things were two of the tops at the very end– a cute strawberry one that I really hope isn’t only available for B avatars and a Red Vintage top with the phone item. I think that may not actually be new. I can’t keep track of things anymore.

But while this Fair may have not quite grabbed me either, I am pretty excited by items shown as a preview for June’s fair, the final new fair we’ll be getting for a while:

It looks like a really nice Medieval Fantasy theme, and I can’t wait to see what else could be part of it.

Anyway, it starts this evening so the next part of this post will be written after I finish the event…


Well, the update is here (May 15th), but the Fair ended up not starting quite yet. It seems 1.5 requires an extended maintenance and so the update was still two hours off. Regardless, I spent some time trying to grind up some Gachapon tickets in solo mode for now as some of the adjustments were all set to go.

While the ticket situation is definitely better and I can tell rates are better, I still can’t get that pink jacket I want :| Let alone anything from some of the other places. At the very least, I’ll definitely be able to make more attempts as you certainly earn a lot more per rotation.

In the end, besides the maintenance already being longer than usual, the extension ended up being 5-6 hours later than the original time listed. I wasn’t able to stay up that much longer (after already being sick and trying to stay up for hours), so I only finally started the Retro Pop Fair late this morning (May 16th).

For the most part though, it actually went super smoothly. A lot of quicker tasks this time which was nice with only requires to make more outfits for Muses for the extra pattern options. I still kind of wish they were all just one requirement per task though.

As mentioned, there really wasn’t much that stood out to me, but I did make my own versions of the Coat and two versions of the skirt. I’m not sure if I prefer the lighter or darker skirt.

I didn’t expect the 90s Shoujo Anime Eyes though. I think I still like my usual eyes more, but they’re very cute.

I also had fun seeing all the Muses around. The second I made the outfit for and the last is a Character Muse, but I really liked her outfit. And well, I feel like most people know who Miku is at this point.

But the big thing is I FINALLY had some Gachapon luck and got some of the items I’ve been wanting (plus some other nice things).


I did add the Glasses onto one of my mannequins in my Showroom though as neither of them are wearing Face items:

Going back to the Fair rewards, none of the Showroom stuff really stood out to me, but honestly, unless something amazing comes out I just don’t see myself adjusting my Showroom unless we get a bigger one.

I do like some of the new Vertical Photo Egg backdrops though, even if I like… never actually take photos there.



The poses were also pretty cute:




Finally, now that I can get my Lookit Mail again, some of the favorite Outfits I received. Thank you!:



Leave a comment
Share

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Dreamlight Parks Fest! (And some stuff before)

5 / 15 / 24

So, the Button-related event has officially begun and I’m pretty excited for it due to a combination of cute Popcorn Buckets but also the completionist of me was tired of new things I needed in the crafting menu.

Regardless, while waiting, I still got a few other things done such as finally finding the new Fragments. Learning that whatever is available in someone’s Valley is available to anyone who visits said Valley helped a lot as it meant I could work together with people.


Plus, with the Truck, I finally remembered to take a picture with the cute Doggy in the Fire House. I don’t know if I’ll keep it there (more and more I just wish there a Toontown Biome/area), but oh well.

I finally made myself some proper matching Minnie Ears for my usual dress, though, I don’t know if I’ll be wearing them anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the Premium Shop updated as usual, and I had to get Belle’s house. There was also a new ride, so I picked that up too.

Once again, I really wish I had better places to put things. Belle’s is okay where it is, but I still need to figure out how I really want to set that area up.

The only other thing I did was I was still really just… not satisfied at all with the placement of Daisy’s house. And it hit me that due to the way it’s shaped, it’d be best in a corner, so I moved it next to Scrooge’s while moving the stuff I had there to where I originally had the boutique.

I am a lot happier with this placement, though, I may reorganize the Gazebo area a bit still.

With that said, we’re now officially up to today and start of Dreamlight Parks Fest 2024! The event itself seems to be a successor to the Dreamlight Park Community Challenge we had back in April of last year. Besides the in-game stuff, there are once again Community Challenges: 500 Photos with the Partner statue shared on Social Media, 350K Recycles Placed, 400K Stands Placed, 450K Cupcakes Cooked, and 600K Attractions Ridden.

We also have a new code to go with the event: PARKSFEST24
Essentially, to help with getting that number of items placed. It does count every single one you place so if you place 10 trash cans, that’s 10 towards the 350K counter.

Anyway, talking to Scrooge essentially kicks off the event.



We had to place some decorations and then bake some Stitch Cupcakes. As for the other cupcakes, those were associated with WALL-E, Moana, Ursula, and Mickey who we had to make Spaceship Earth, Princess Aurora Raspberry, Mermaid, and Minnie Cupcakes respectively. I just really want a cupcake now :(


But honestly, I don’t feel that enthusiastic about the event. While the rewards you get through it are nice and ignoring that I’m just not a fan of the Daily Quest system (I’d much rather have one multi-step Quest than having to check in each day for new things… I’ll probably go until they start repeating), the Valley isn’t decorated at all.

It leaves it all on you which, as I previously mentioned, isn’t great because I haven’t felt like I had a proper place to turn an area into a proper theme park. There are never any decorations in the Plaza. The Castle stays the same. There’s no special look for the shops or people’s houses. All we have is tons of items littering our Valley (the irony when we’re filling it with trash cans for a community goal) and while we do have the Vaccuum’s to help with that, it’s also a Quality-of-Life mechanic only for those with the Expansion which sucks for those with just the standard game.

I don’t know, it’s hard to be excited for an event beyond getting the items when it just doesn’t feel particularly festive. I wish there was some kind of standard Event area where things could spawn and be set up, so it actually felt like there was something worth celebrating and a space that felt properly themed to whatever event is going on.

And then it’s like… What will stay? What won’t? The Egg Bushes disappear after Easter (unfortunately), will the Flowers stick around?

This also just feels like all the more reason to have a proper event area.

Going back to the Event iself, thanks to a bunch of friends who knew how much the faded items in Collections were bothering me and lent me their buttons for this, it was time to make some Popcorn Buckets.


I ended up making a kind of Park Snack Area on Park 6 and I think I want to go through that theme for other stuff too. I feel like the backroom will be a movie theater, but not sure on the other two yet. The Buckets are definitely bigger than I expected… And for some reason, the Popcorn Bucket achievement only counted when placing them outside.

I ended up setting my favorites in the homely museum area along with the Maps in the actual Museum area.

As for the Premium Shop this week, I had to get Megara’s dress as she is one of my favorites. Hope we’ll see her in-game soon. I also ended up getting the Wonderland Pack solely for the Fountain, but it was kind of disappointing to say the least…

I also took a picture with the Partner Statue for the Community Challenge.

Finally, as per usual, my latest Dreamsnap entries…

Leave a comment
Share

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Thrills & Frills Update (And Expansion Act II)

5 / 4 / 24

It’s officially May 1st and thus, the update is here! As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to start off in the Valley as I figured that’ll be quicker in the long run than the Expansion stuff.

In the end though, that worked out because Merlin was busy taking care of things before you could actually start his quest for the new Expansion Act.

After getting my new-found villager mail (with my first two letters being from Ariel and Belle), I noticed Mickey had a quest icon. With the Quest being called “You Have Mail”, I thought it’d be in regard to Villagers now sending mail as they have done quests before to tie in new features, but it was actually the start of Daisy’s Questline.

Essentially, Daisy was off doing her News Reporter best to find out more about what was happening. She’s ready to come home now, but obviously, she needs her house back in order to do so.

Before heading off to place her house in the Plaza, I wanted to briefly look through some of the new Premium Shop and Star Path items. I can’t say enough how excited I was to FINALLY see a Pink version of one of the really pretty ballgown dresses.

While I do love it and it’s absolutely accurate to what it’s supposed to be, it is a bit plain, and I don’t think I’ll fully use it as a dress replacement. I still really hope they’ll add it as a pattern we can make our own designs on.

And, of course, with unlocking the Premium Star Path and a certain bundle in the Premium Shop, I couldn’t resist getting the latest Critters.

Unfortunately, I’m very much at capacity when it comes to Critter Spots in the Valley so I ended up putting Heihei and his house near Moana’s house.

Anyway, with that done, it was time to get Daisy all moved back in.


It was then time to start with the friendship leveling. My favorite thing from Daisy’s friendship gifts is this cute Headband. I’m not sure I’ll use it over my usual crown though.

Anyway, with Daisy all set-up, it was time to get to work on the Boutique which we had to grow back to its normal size.

I quickly set some things up before focusing back on Daisy’s friendship quests.

I also did my first challenge. While I was a bit confused with it initially which is why my result is so lackluster, I feel like I’ve slowly gotten a better idea of it all since.

The first thing with Daisy’s quests was helping her and Donald have a nice date. It was actually pretty cute and he gives us a version of the wardrobe he made for Daisy. I adjusted some things in one of the Cozy rooms to make room for it.

I feel like we don’t see Daisy and Donald have as many romantic moments compared to Minnie and Mickey so this was nice.

I also added a few more things to the room after getting one of the new Premium Shop packs.

Second was helping convince Scrooge to put hers and Minnie’s collaboration brand, Dots & Daisies, in his shop. While I generally like Minnie’s and Daisy’s fashion sense, I did not care for this top at all.

One frustrating thing though is that the update broke my usual dress design. I did my best to adjust it, but it still hasn’t really recovered 100%.

Next was Daisy wanting to host a party which got glitter bombed by Vanellope and Stitch. Playing detective was fun, but it wasn’t much of a mystery.



With all of Daisy’s stuff done, it was time to head over to Eternity Isle to get to work on Act II of A Rift in Time.

Talking to Merlin explained how he had been looking into the Spark of Imagination, but the area has sunken underwater, and we needed to try and use our newfound time powers to restore it after finding various Flickers around the Valley and in Realms.


It was then time to head inside where there were some interesting rooms…


And thus, we had to ask the three Villagers introduced in the expansion: Rapunzel for the music room, Gaston for the pedestal room, and EVE for the Computer room. I would guess this is part of why those characters were chosen, but I still have mixed feelings on it all.

Alas, it wouldn’t actually be that easy as just asking them. Rapunzel isn’t feeling well so you need to make the soup and tea that Mother Gothel used to make her. Gaston wants a fancier version of his Coconut LeFou to stand with him. As for EVE, she needs a way to properly connect to the computer to understand it.

Once that’s done, there’s a slight puzzle-esque element to each (Mostly just the music one– the rest are more task-oriented and I had found all the things for the computer puzzle before even getting to the point I needed to) and then the door leading to below opens.

Down there, we finally meet Oswald.

With his help, we need to get up to the Altar to reach the Spark of Imagination.


But just as we’re getting it, “Merlin” shows up behind us.

Despite realizing he is acting very strangely, instead of holding onto the Spark that we literally just got to and practically had in our hands, we let Jafar take it and make a mess of things, opening a black and white shard in the sky that not only affected Eternity Isle, but also unlocked three Toon Critters: Toon Monkey, Toon Capybara, and Toon Cobra. They show up all day, every day, but their favorite foods seem to be different– that said, using the liked foods will still unlock them for you after ~4 days.


I suppose this is the Rift in Time as mentioned in the Expansion name.

Regardless, before checking out all the damage, I wanted to focus on Oswald’s quests for a bit. First up, we had to literally destroy the communication barrier, letting him exit his usual Silent Movie demeanor.

And then it was off to set up his house. Unlike how houses are usually set up, we actually had to craft a pencil in order to ‘draw’ Oswald’s house and then get some 3D Glasses to fully bring it to life (and we get the keep the giant pencil and 3D Glasses which is neat). While I initially thought of placing his Theater-house in the Valley, I actually kind of like it in the shopping area I have in Eternity Isle. It’s replaced the Pizza Planet, but I was never really satisfied with it there anyway.

Oswald’s most extensive quest was needing to track down all these Alarm Clocks, each named after a classic dance.

As I played through this part, I REALLY hoped that we would get one at the end… And we did, but as an item– not a Critter :(

Anyway, I continued through Oswald’s quests…

…And it ended with an interesting Trolley Problem. But at least it all worked out I guess despite some weird dialogue? (Like Rapunzel not knowing what a Trolley was despite being there to welcome the Trolley beforehand??)

With Oswald’s quest done, I also had worked on the end of Act II’s quest, but it ends pretty abruptly and just strongly hints getting Oswald leveled up. It made me think maybe there would be something extra when I maxed him out, but I suppose I’ll just have to wait until Act III.

Regardless, with Eternity Isle’s new story part done and Oswald’s friendship at level 10, it was time to focus on some of the other new stuff like being able to ride rides! Some didn’t work despite the prompt and the Space Bumper Cars don’t properly let you turn the camera, but it’s still a neat feature.


I then worked on the new Dreamsnaps, made the new cupcakes, and finished the respective new Village Dreamlight Task.

Finally, I did make a little more room to another of Heihei’s house in the Meadow with all the new Critters… But that’s really all I can fit there now, unfortunately.

That pretty much sums up everything the last few days. I’ve been doing Daisy’s challenges though to try and unlock more things. I had fun using this board to have a little like… “pin board” of my favorite Decals as I don’t get to use a lot of them.

I’m also thinking of maybe doing some kind of Tool of Magic contest since people can share their designs, but I’m not really sure if people would be interested or what would be a good prize (Stacks of Pumpkin Puffs? Stacks of an item of your choice? Hmm…). I think it could be fun though if people would want to enter.

Anyway, I’ll be continuing to check in each day for new store stuff and the challenges from Daisy, plus Dreamsnaps stuff too. I’m also impatiently waiting until we can finish those other Village Achievements…

Leave a comment
Share

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Talking about the Dev Update Video and Planning

4 / 25 / 244 / 29 / 24

Initially, I had planned to include this with next week’s post, but by popular vote, I’m just posting it now instead. Most of this was written on Wednesday immediately after the Dev Update video went out.

So, while I don’t have too much more to say since my last DDLV entry, I thought in addition to the few things I have to share, I could talk about my thoughts on the update details!

For one, we finally have Daisy coming to the Valley! It’ll be nice to bring her in, though, I have no clue where I’ll fit her house or store. Speaking of the store, I’m not really the type to share my designs, but I guess it could still be fun to fill the building to some extent. If we can put it on Eternity Isle, I’ll probably try to fit the store in the Shopping area, but I can’t really decide where until I see how big it is in-game.

In addition to being able to share our designs, apparently there will be weekly challenges. I kind of hope they’re just like a personal thing where you make it and if you do, you get these new motifs/patterns and stuff over a voting thing like Dreamsnaps because I feel like the results can vary too much (and there is a higher chance of someone just being inappropriate). Unfortunately, we didn’t really get any information on how these challenges will work.

Moving onto the Expansion update, I’m surprised the Hourglass is getting another upgrade. I’m a bit nervous about that if only because finding the different Prisms was super annoying and it feels likely there will be more to find if there is another upgrade tier.

I’m really curious if the Critter colors will be considered their own thing or if it’s just like a color skin and doesn’t change anything. It’s also not really clear if getting these monochrome Critters will be new ones you can find or just a fun effect. Or maybe both. I feel like it’s supposed to be just a fun filter thing, but I just don’t feel 100% sure. I guess I’ll know soon enough though.

In general, I know so many people who are excited for Oswald. It’s honestly nice to see him get another feature in a Disney game. I do feel like of all the Expansion-exclusive characters thus far, he’s the only one who I feel truly fits in some way, but I still don’t really like characters being tied to expansions.

I think I would’ve preferred Expansions being just Biomes with new quests and storylines that will probably include existing characters, but not be the entire reason you get them and that’s what I thought they would be in the first place. Or, if they HAVE to have new characters, it should be ones that aren’t really integral to the main cast or teasers we’ve been given for a long time in which case I still think the only one that fits the bill is Gaston.

Going back to deciding on house positions… I do think I’m pretty much sold on Daisy’s Tool of Magic Boutique being in the ‘Shop’ area in Eternity Isle unless it can’t go there. If it can go in both areas, or just the original valley, I probably want to try and fit it in the plaza. And I think that’s kind of where the problem lies as pretty much everything I want to put in the Plaza and I absolutely do not have room for that.

I can maybe fit one thing as is. Anything else requires moving stuff around. I suppose I could move the Fairy Godmother– while I don’t think I’d be putting her back in the Forgotten Lands, I could put her in Glade of Trust which is where most of the Nature-esque buildings have gone at this point.

I don’t have the slightest clue where I would move the Teacup ride though. Maybe to Isle of Eternity somewhere? Still no clue where though and then the only ride I’d still have in the plaza is the Ferris Wheel, but the Teacup Ride never really looked like it had a proper home there anyway. There’s also the Zen area which I suppose I could remove (or at least rebuild it), but I do really like it and while I will make another version of it in Eternity Isle, I don’t think I want to bulldoze my existing one in the Plaza.

I think, at the moment, I’m pretty Gung-ho on trying to fit Oswald’s House/Theater, Daisy’s House, and Daisy’s Boutique in the open spaces in the Plaza and moving the Fairy Godmother and Teacup ride. I feel like that’s the best option. I’ve moved the Teacup ride in advance, but as for everything else, I’ll wait until the update.

Speaking of rides though, I am really excited for actually being able to ride them. The number of games that give you these big interactive things and don’t let you actually participate in them blows my mind so it’s nice to see a game ACTUALLY rectify that. It also makes me WANT to use the rides more as now it feels more of a use than just ‘item taking up a lot of room’. It really makes me wish we had some kind of ‘Toon Town’ biome which I also think would fit Oswald’s stuff nicely too as I WOULD like to make somewhere feel like a Disney Park, but I don’t really want to bulldoze a whole area to do so and none of the biomes really speak to me for that in the first place.

Anyway, the update is just a week away now, which I figured at this point. As for everything in the meantime… Honestly, it’s been pretty quiet. Mostly, it’s just been more Dreamsnap stuff:

I also managed to hit level 10 so I unlocked the trophy! Besides putting one outside near my house, I also put one in the Museum-y area.


Memory-wise, I finally got the last Cooking memory I needed so now it’s just suffering through Digging where I don’t even know where to start. With mining, I could get into a rotation to get all the mining blocks in a good formation. With cooking, Remy’s kitchen would help with that. With flowers, well, I got those out of the way before you could no longer water any flowers to get them, and just made a group of them… Fishing was also just kind of going around in a specific path.

But digging I just feel I’m at a loss on where to even start to get through it. Any gardening plots I set up I make permanent, so I rarely dig new holes. It just makes it super inconvenient and as far as I can tell, digging in the same place does not do anything either so I need to just… dig up a whole area for no reason :/

I am hoping to do more decorating on Eternity Isle, but I think I want to wait until Summer when the final act is out in case of any big changes before setting down more stuff in the Desert and Jungle areas.

The only other thing I really did was a lot of re-crafting due to items disappearing from the Collection list so it would be all set and ready for the update. Unfortunately, it seems it’s a bug and they just… wipe every time I close the game which sucks. I hope this will be fixed in the upcoming patch.

As an aside, I also took this time to finally update my overview page which has been massively behind so that’s all ready for the update too now.


Edited April 29th, 2024: So, the patch notes just went up so let’s talk about more of the details!

Looking for another way to flex those creative muscles? Drop in to the Boutique each day to help Daisy redecorate a corner of the shop or take on her inspiration prompts to earn exclusive items, including new Touch of Magic clothing and furniture bases.

This does make it sound like it will be personal creative challenges which is nice, but I do kind of wish you could do one after the other instead of daily as I just prefer to do things in bursts.

I’m not sure what to think just yet of the new Star Path, though, the last one ended up surprising me quite a bit, so we’ll see. I think my main concern is just the same issue I have with all the Disney rides: I have no clue where to put them and so I feel like a lot of the items I get will just be stuck in the furniture menu for a while. We have already seen the new Critter though and at the very least, I am excited for that. I also am curious to see Minnie’s and Daisy’s new outfits. I hope we’ll get the trailer tomorrow/before the update on Wednesday (and if so, I’ll likely update this again).

The Villager mail sounds really cute. I hope the messages will stick around permanently as I know some mail has had timers.

The Premium Shop updates all sound great:

o All weekly shop rotations are now comprised of 8 bundles / items.

o Preview clothing on your Avatar before buying.

o Get a better look at any special animations an item may have, thanks to a revolving preview display.

o Toggle between day and night – where applicable – to get a better idea of how an item will look in the Valley before buying.

Though, I still don’t understand why we can’t just have a shop with ALL the items that slowly adds new ones overtime over the current rotating system, especially when the game will not be free to play anytime soon, if ever, now.

Reading over the Expansion stuff and still not really excited to have to go grinding for pieces of things again… The repurposing sounds helpful at least so I’m hoping that will also be able to be used for newer parts. I wonder if the new Scramblecoin figures will be crafted or require a higher rank of Scramblecoin.

Regardless, this one specific part does make it sound like there will be a new variant of each of the three critters to find:

– Make friends with new variants of the animal companions wandering Eternity Isle, albeit with a monochromatic flair.

Going to have to grab the Cabbage, Eggs, and Banana Splits back out of the chest.

Just two days left until we can get started. I think I’m going to work on Daisy’s stuff first and then make my way back over to the Expansion after.

Leave a comment
Share

A possible update for Newsletter Subscribers!

4 / 20 / 24

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has subscribed! I appreciate it :)

While the Newsletters are sent to update for any new posts I write (which, the next post will likely be for the DDLV update that will probably be hitting soon unless my monitor replacement arrives sooner and I can do some Stream stuff I had planned first), updates to pages are not notified through Newsletters.

I’ve been thinking of possibly sending out a manual newsletter for when big page updates happen. Some examples of what these types of emails could be are:

  • New game guides
  • Substantial Game Blog Overview updates
  • New Codes for My Fluffy Life and/or Disney Dreamlight Valley
  • Guide updates in general (Such as adding new meals or Critters to DDLV stuff)

Among other things.

If you think this would be interesting/you would appreciate getting email updates for these types of things, let me know!

Would you like to receive a newsletter when certain page updates happen?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Leave a comment
Share

Disney Dreamlight Valley – An interlude before the Spring Updates appear

4 / 13 / 24

If you are subscribed to my Youtube you’ve likely already seen the various videos to have an idea of what to expect from this post, but if not, the short version is I’ve been working on more decorating to say the least.

Firstly, I started re-adjusting things over in the Forest of Valor along with decorating some of the buildings I set up last time.


Unfortunately, doing each of the Rooms in each place didn’t entirely work out how I hoped. The interiors would maybe not be the right size (in the sense of needing to be bigger in some areas), some items I had hoped to use ended up being exterior only items, and sometimes I just didn’t really have what I had hoped. I did my best regardless though.



I also couldn’t help but feel inspired with the new items and immediately needed to put a Small Fountain in my Character’s bedroom.

Of course, things got complicated when not only was the Star Path somehow filled with multiple things I really adored, the Premium Shop also ended up grabbing my attention. For one, we had these cute birds and adorable backpack.

But the big thing, which you may have even seen briefly is above, THE PINK HEART CASTLE!! I had to make a few adjustments, but it was worth it.


Of course, when you start overhauling an area, you can’t help but want to do more of the area and that is why I finally started decorating a bit on the Isle of Eternity– mostly just Ancient’s Landing for the moment though.

Before we get more into that though, I wanted to talk about the last thing that ended up being in the Premium Shop– Anna’s original outfit from the first Frozen movie.

I always have mixed feelings on these types of things. It’s one thing if an outfit is from a short moment in a movie or made for a silly event and may not even be tied to anything really, but this is Anna’s main outfit for the majority of the film and, at least to me, her best outfit. This is such an intricate part that having it be available through the Premium Shop feels kind of obnoxious.

Going back to decorating, I worked really hard on shuffling things around over in the Meadow:

And then it was time for lots of adjustments all over Ancient’s Landing.






I’m not really 100% happy with everything just yet. I think there’s a lot more I can do with the ‘shop’ area and ‘neighborhood’ and am just kind of lacking any ideas/inspiration on how to best approach it just yet. The Critter Area and my Home Area I’m mostly pretty happy with at least.

And of course, I had to place the new fountain as well. The new house is also quite pretty, though, I haven’t decided just what to do with it yet…

Besides the decorating, the only other thing I’ve really been working on is with Memories. Unfortunately, I’ve been rather demotivated again despite being so close to being done. It’s just not a fun grind and the RNG is rough, especially when you keep getting colors of everything except the one you need.

Finally, here is another Dream Snaps Photo Overview of my entries since my last post:


Leave a comment
Share

Fashion Dreamer – Fair #5: Future Fair! (Plus a bit before)

4 / 11 / 24

So, I am writing the first part of this post the evening before the Future Fair starts. Shortly after a new free collaboration item that will be distributed, they announced that the new Fair will be out tomorrow (Late morning of the 11th in Japan, the evening of the 10th here in the USA).

In all honesty, most of the items do not seem to be my cup of tea at all, but I suppose I never really cared for that Cyberpunk-Futuristic style. Some of the extra new patterns look kind of nice at least. Some will just be new ones you can unlock from Influencer level (so I should just have them automatically), but others are new items being added to the gachapon which I have mixed feelings on.

I really wish you could buy extra gachapon tickets or even items outright as I have so many e-Points and barely any gachapon tickets due to how many I used up before things were adjusted. I wish they could’ve given us some as a consolation due to how bad the rates were originally. There are still 2 items I super want (One from the HOPE Cocoon and one from the FUN Cocoon) with an item from the LOVE Cocoon I’d like to have as well. Not to mention I’d still like to get the Heart Sunglasses from the FUN Cocoon too… And now I’m going to have to combat with even more items being added x-x

They also teased some items coming in a future update, but they don’t really seem to have any kind of cohesive theme.

Anyway, I haven’t really been doing much since– I’ve just been occasionally going around trying to continue to level up NPCs to a possible maximum level as I desperately try to grind up Gachapon tickets and it is very much not going well. If there is anything I’m hoping for with this Fair, it’s a lot of Gachapon ticket rewards and better luck than I’ve previously had…

Finally, here are a few of the lovely Lookits I’ve received:

Until there is another Item Box increase, I’ve decided to not check my Lookit Mail anymore (unless required for a Fair task)– I just can’t deal with the constant stress and frustration of cleaning out things. I’m just too indecisive for that.

With that said, the next part of the post will be written after we finish up the new fair…


The Fair is out! The game has updated! AND IT IS TIME. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but the Fair felt faster than last time. I kind of hope they make all tasks just require 1 in the future instead of 2 or 3, especially as my Item Box is struggling. Regardless, if you would prefer to watch over read, my playthrough is up over on Youtube.

As mentioned, I didn’t really care for most of the stuff from the Future Fair, but I did design one of the Jackets and I did like several of the new Patterns added through the Shop Influencer unlocks.

Thankfully, none of the items that stood out to me from the Trailer are Gachapon items. They added just one new item per machine and none are really my cup of tea, but even with the Gachapon Tickets I received from the Event, I still couldn’t get any of the items I’ve been trying to…

Besides the Clothing Patterns and new Showroom stuff (The wallpaper and flooring are okay and I do show them in my video as are the furniture (which unfortunately I have no room to really show off), but still nothing I really care for), there are also two new Poses which are… also not really my thing:

Plus, new Photo Egg Backdrops. I would say the Pinkish Purple Arcade and the Blue Zodiac are my favorite ones.


I put the Jacket as my Hot Item for now, but honestly, I’m not sure if something would be a better choice. Let me know? Also a thank you to everyone who sent me a Lookit Mail– I’m sorry I can’t look at them right now (as mentioned above, I need an Item Box upgrade again first or it’ll just be a mess…), but I really do appreciate it!

Leave a comment
Share

Posts navigation

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 5 … 69 70 Next Page

Search

Navigation

  • Contact Me
    • F.A.Q.
  • Game Diaries
    • Disney Dreamlight Valley
    • Fashion Dreamer
    • MODEL Debut3 #nicola
    • Peridot
    • Animal Crossing: New Horizons
    • Pokemon Violet
    • Animal Crossing: New Leaf
    • Disney Magical World
  • Reviews
    • Off-the-Cuff Reviews
  • Guides
    • DDLV Tips & Tricks
      • DDLV Recipe Guide
      • DDLV Potato Guide
    • Tales of Djungarian Hamster Overview Guide
  • Recent Videos
    • About Me
      • Other Places to Find Me
      • Art
  • Tomodachi Life QR Codes
  • DMW2 QR Codes & AR Cards
  • Upcoming Games & Backlog
  • Amiibo
  • Wishlists
    • Cats vs Pickles & other Versus World DISO List
    • PSO2 Wishlist
    • Pokemon GO: Needed Pokemon
    • Pikmin Bloom Needed Decor List
  • Beemoov-related Stuff
    • NG Illustration Viewer
    • Illustration Viewer
    • Guides
    • Oracle Translator

Youtube

I upload videos on Youtube– often of the gameplay you may see here! You can check out my channel or watch here on Crystal Dreams!

It’ll show the most recent upload along with the last 15 uploads as well so it’s a good place to check back! :)

Twitch

From time to time, I steam over on Twitch.

You can also watch right here on Crystal Dreams!

Subscribe for updates!

If are interested in signing up for our newsletter, you should see a little slide-in box to your right! If it’s not showing up or you accidentally closed it, you can sign up for our newsletter on this page as well!

Support

Ko-Fi!

A Thank you to all Supporters!

Categories Menu

Archives

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Custom 1
  • Custom 3
  • Custom 4
  • Twitter
  • BlogLovin
Crystal Dreams © Jennifer 1996-2024
Initial Layout by Angie Makes
Header Artwork by Stephanie Drew, Chibi Artwork by macaarons
Logo by Spire Eaton
Privacy Policy | Site Protected by reCATPTCHA
Angie Makes Feminine WordPress Themes

Keep Up to Date

Subscribe to know whenever a new post has been made here on the website!

Consent *
This field is required.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Thank you for signing up! Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.