Kirby and the Forgotten Land Thoughts

I 100%’d the game with my husband in Co-Op mode a few days ago and debated if I wanted to write a longer post with my thoughts or not. I feel like the game has gone one way or the other– people either loved it or found it boring/not what they want from a Kirby game. Kind of like with Sonic, Kirby was another game where I played and enjoyed the original games, but it was a 3D game that really won me over to the Franchise– in this case, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

When I played it, my only real complaint was that Kirby’s other friends weren’t also part of the adventure– I liked the copy abilities more really, but just kind of in a cameo sense like how King Dedede and Waddle Dee have stuck around. I also wished Adeleine and Ribbon stuck around more as well (I know they kind of did in Star Allies and Kirby Clash at least, but also as kind of a package deal and I just… let all of Kirby’s friends show up in a single game, okay??) as I genuinely liked both characters and Ribbon is probably my all-time favorite Kirby character. Despite my small nitpick with Crystal Shards though, I enjoyed more or less everything else about it. Many of my favorite copy abilities were in the game as well.

I found Forgotten Land to be the first game to make me feel the way I felt when I played Crystal Shards and genuinely had a lot of fun with it and the story. I also just… enjoy 3D adventuring more than 2D so I really liked exploring the world as well. I think if it was just the game itself, this would be a 10/10 perfect rating, but it’s a lot of the “extra” stuff where some of my frustrations come out.

Because I don’t always have a lot of free time lately paired with Spring hitting and allergies being a mess, I wanted to play on the Easier mode despite having experience with (and completing) other Kirby games. The Easier mode, however, is… kind of pointless. All it really gives you is bigger health bar which, while I’d be lying if I said I didn’t use it, didn’t really help with most of the issues I ran into. You also received less coins (though, it seemed to mainly just be a completion bonus at the end of each) which while not feeling like much, does add up when you’re struggling to get coins to upgrade abilities and get all the collectible gachapon figures.

The main things I struggled with were some of the missions that were exactly the same between the two difficulties– things like “Don’t take damage” or “Finish in *inserttimehere*” or “Don’t fall”. “Use a specific copy ability” also annoyed me, but as it is such a mainstay in a lot of Kirby games, I can’t be surprised by it… Some I am really bad with though and those are the challenges that had me closest to dying. I really wish the only hidden challenges were just to find hidden Waddle Dee in each stage, or they were truly optional and just gave coins like doing the Treasure Road levels in the time limit and completing the Harder versions of the Tilting minigame. The other problem we had was with the final Battle Arena which, sure, maybe we could have finished on the first try if we realized you were supposed to jump on the rocks that fell, and they weren’t just there to try and kill us like every other rock dropping fight in the game, but it just… wasn’t fun. I’m not the type of person who feels any joy or accomplishment from beating this “super hard challenge” and if it wasn’t required for numerous things for something I did care about, including hitting that 100%, I probably wouldn’t have bothered because I don’t really enjoy boss rushes. But this was required to get a figure, get the final cutscenes for the move theater to unlock the figure there, and a photo for Kirby’s house.

That said, while I wasn’t fond of some of the difficulty in the post-game world (especially certain bosses), I did enjoy going through those levels and was relieved we were told every time we had found everything in an area which I WISH was something that could be enabled in the main game as well as maybe it would’ve made at least some of the challenges a little less frustrating. I didn’t even necessarily hate all challenges– some were honestly pretty neat like “find the secret area” or “help the cute Ducklings get back to their mom” and those were really sweet, but with the former, usually a Waddle Dee was hidden there to find anyway, and the latter didn’t need to be an objective for me as I would still complete it every time regardless.

I feel like there’s such a huge misconception on what people play a game for and that only “hardcore” players care about collectibles and finding all the secret rooms and that’s not true. I would consider myself a more “relaxed” player in the sense that I prefer having a more relaxing time and not feeling like I have to constantly smash buttons, but I still love DOING everything. I love to experience all the content in a game, I love silly prizes and trinkets, and I do WANT to hit 100%, just on casual mode and not Ultra Hard difficulty and it’s such a stance that I feel is forgotten in games today where like… difficulty modes can exist or a whole game maybe can be hard, but having a game on just… all ages difficulty and then tying something to the back end only for people who like that super hard difficulty or playing a certain way is so incredibly frustrating. It’s why I hate the Battle Tower-esque stuff in Pokemon, it’s part of why Pokemon Legends: Arceus is still frustrating me (We’ll get to that in a future post), it’s why I get so frustrated with achievements in general (and thus, many of those hidden challenges) because they’re not truly optional if there’s some special item or trinket locked behind them or they literally require a percent*. It’s the same thing that bothers me about high score tables– let the people who care about those things see it, but don’t force everyone to have to do it for the one special thing. I don’t think Post-Game should be synonymous with “Hard Content”– Post game is just… content after the main part of the game, something that adds onto or expands the story or your place it in. It should not just be extra hard content. That isn’t to say there can’t be a place in a game for that, but why does it have to be tied to anything else? And using Kirby especially, the “post-game” story is almost always important to the game story itself so why does it suddenly need to be so much more difficult? ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE PLAYING ON THE EASIER DIFFICULTY. It just baffles me how often rewards are tied to these harder difficulty things because most people who actually want to do them are doing it for the challenge itself– not for extra story, not for that percentage, not for what you get from it, just the challenge, so it just punishes people who maybe can’t manage that challenge who still did everything else in the game before the difficulty got even higher for no real reason.

*As one quick example– Sizeable literally lists an achievement as “Optional”, but Achievement pages do not care. I am always going to be missing one because even ignoring that I could care less to speed run through it, I would never reset my progress in the first place to do so.

Ignoring my usual side-eyeing of video games locking things as the oddest casual player ever, I will say one of my favorite things was actually Kirby’s house. I wish we had an Interior Design Waddle Dee we could’ve bought stuff from, even if it was just appearances for the furniture already there. I also would have loved to actually be able to display more figures which I think was my biggest complaint– there are 256 figures in the game and you can only display 3.

As an aside, I love these Puppy Plushies and want them to be real.

There also ARE truly some hidden stuff that do not add to your percent like all three hidden HAL Rooms. I would say the first is a little scary to get to (though, the challenge itself isn’t hard if you can actually aim), the second is definitely the easiest, and the third is a huge pain and I’m genuinely surprised we made it.

I also realized I never really spoke about Mouthful mode because honestly, despite the advertising of the gimmick, it wasn’t THAT in your face and a lot of them were pretty forgettable. Some I liked, some I found just okay, and I would say the only one I truly disliked/found annoying was the Fork Lift one which only felt like it had to be there because Kirby’s hover ability is just… incredibly nerfed in the game. He flies so slowly and can’t get particularly high either and it’s VERY strange to have a Kirby game where the hover ability does not just feel incredibly worthless, but often is the last thing you want to do because of how slow it is as well. The only other real bonus with mouthful mode is several of the sections had a “Retry” button if you missed something which was nice, but overall, I just didn’t feel any which way when it came to the power-ups. Water Balloon was probably my favorite as I had the easiest time using it, but I also had fun with Cone which I feel had the more interesting moments for when it needed to be used. The mode was often just used for one specific part of the game so I wouldn’t care if they didn’t return, especially if it means Kirby’s hover ability won’t be terrible.

Regardless, in the end, did I like the game? For the most part, yes. I would even recommend to most Kirby fans as honestly, most don’t share my issues anyway. My entire playthrough is even up on Youtube. That said, while I am glad I got 100%, the main feeling I had was a combination of relief and frustration– I had fun when I was experiencing the story, but some of the things we had to do to get to this point just… weren’t fun for me and the #1 feeling I had was just being glad we were done, versus actually being happy having played.

Our Cooking Attempt with Hello Fresh

Before I get started, I want to say that this is NOT sponsored in any way– this is something my family decided to try out for reasons I’ll explain further into this entry. While I have been through a special Culinary program, I would say my cooking skills are mixed for reasons that will also be explained later so don’t judge too harshly for stupid mistakes especially as I am a fairly literal person.

With that out of the way, let’s get into this. Earlier this month, my mother brought up us trying another one of these meal plans. We had tried Blue Apron in the past and it unfortunately didn’t really work out due to the requirements for the prep work. My mother had gotten a deal for Hello Fresh and we’ve seen it advertised enough on the web so we figured, fine, why not.

I’ve always said I have a love-hate relationship with cooking because while I do enjoy it, I find it very painful to do! I have wrist issues so stirring for long periods of time causes my entire arm to cramp up, I am terrible at cutting/slicing/peeling/anything where I would be holding something sharp, I have trouble standing for long periods of time due to two issues as a kid, and I overheat at the drop of a hat due to my tendency to easily dehydrate combined with my body tending to absorb heat. After cooking, I’m usually worn out for the rest of the day, if not longer, which kind of sucks and makes me not really want to do it– but it also means it’s not something I really can handle if I’m not at my best.

Despite that, my family tends to think I am a really good cook– and no, I just know how to follow a recipe and have a tendency to guess what goes good together when experimenting. While I have no real passion for the presentation of it, there’s something really nice about seeing people enjoy something you made. I also just genuinely love trying different dishes. For the most part, unless I’m allergic or it’s still moving, I’ll probably try it.

Because of this though, my mother wanted me to cook all the meals and as Spring has finally sprung, there was no way that was happening because I was busy dealing with my allergies at their highest peak shaking down with intent to kill and Mother Nature joining in by changing the temperature from hot to cold and back all week. As much as I have tried to get things still done, I have actually been pretty sick.

Regardless, because I usually cook the seafood in the family (especially during our Christmas dinner), my mother really wanted me to make the Bacon Scallop Mushroom Risotto which by all accounts and purposes, we should not have chosen because obviously it would take a lot of work and as mentioned, cooking is pretty painful for me, and YET… it just sounded so tasty and I love risotto and bacon so we picked it anyway. (Not the only crazy one we picked this week– my mother made the Beef Wellington which was even her pick because she wanted to try it. We are not a family who always thinks things through.)

Despite waking up feeling like death because Tree Pollen is at the highest yet today, we said we’d try and do it so my husband and I headed down to get to work. After figuring out that the little packets that just said “Chicken” were the “Stock Concentrate”, we started working getting that to a boil.

It was then onto getting the Bacon all set up. In general, I’m always a little nervous when cooking stuff like this due to risk of flying oil, so usually someone else takes care of it, but I feel like I did a good job for my first time actually cooking it myself.

With the bacon done and my husband finished with cutting the onions and shallots, it was time for the next part of the cooking stage and the prelude to the hardest part.

Despite knowing what to expect with cooking Risotto, that did not make it any less painful. I genuinely didn’t think I’d manage to mix all the stock in. My husband really did a better job stirring it than I did though. I had at least learned from my previous attempt at cooking rice.

With the Risotto more or less done, we ended up working on the mushrooms (which… I also forgot to take pictures of) and then got to start mixing things in.

It also meant it was time to work on the Scallops.

I have made Scallops before, and it pretty much instructed to make them the same way I usually do with just a few changes due to them being smaller so these weren’t too bad besides my usual cooking issues.

It was then just… mixing everything together and topping the Risotto with some more cheese, some of the bacon, the scallops, and parsley.

It took us maybe 2-3 hours to do, despite the estimate of an hour which, unfortunately, is par for the course for me. I almost always take at least twice as long, if not more. It did come out well, which was quite the relief, and I will say that despite my issues with all the cutting and peeling (In general, I always expect when these come with everything, that all items will be pre-sliced/cut as well which… is not true), every single thing we’ve gotten as we’ve tried them this month has been really good.

I would say this dish is one of my favorites (though I don’t know if I’d attempt making it again) along with the Zucchini and Sun-dried Tomato Panini. I also genuinely really liked the Beef Wellington and the One Pan Santa Fe Pork Tacos. The flavor has always been top notch, even if I wouldn’t personally refer to any of these particularly simple, but I suppose that’s due to my own issues when it comes to prep work.

We’ve decided to scale it back to bi-weekly instead as we can’t always keep up with all the recipes in a week. I don’t know if we’ll always keep up with it, but it’s definitely cheaper than ordering out (Grocery shopping, while we try, many stores have been out of stock and I don’t always have options to substitute). If you do think these recipes sound interesting, this is our personal referral link which could get you a discount— there are various little additions and we essentially are trying to do this for dinner multiple times a week while having Freshly as an option for Lunch (Essentially microwaveable meals, but everything is fresh).

But yes, if you enjoyed this, I may include more of our random cooking adventures besides just occasional baking posts… Though, I definitely enjoy baking more.

My Fluffy Life – Spring and the Easter Event

One thing I find really interesting with My Fluffy Life is the events thus far have started on, or very close, to the actual holiday versus other games where it’s usually earlier and ending on or shortly after the holiday itself. This also constantly ends up throwing me off as I’m so used to that approach, I tend to get a little anxious about when it is and on the day of, usually worry about missing out when it goes up, despite there not usually being anything time-sensitive– the only real exception being the donation box during Winter in the lead-up to the Christmas event.

Regardless, today (or well, yesterday now at the time this will actually go up, but when the event came out and I started writing) is Easter and that evening brought the event alongside a few other updates such as Spring arriving and some new items available in the stores.

It seems there’s more to come as well– for one, there is this Gazebo that is currently under construction (though, it’s likely part of a later update), but another store is supposed to be available through the Laptop that will make use of the Butterflies you can catch. I’m not sure if this will be limited time or not, but I hope the amounts required won’t be too crazy…

You may also notice above my characters the biggest feature of the Easter Event– the Egg Hunt! Eggs randomly load in (though, as far as I can tell, they will stay until you leave the area) and can be clicked to be collected. You use eggs for the special Dye stand where you can use 100 to dye any clothing, furniture item, or even one of the “base” colors for a Stuffie which really opens up a lot more color options as right now each species just had the one color. I ended up making mine a slightly paler pink, though, it isn’t as noticeable unless she’s standing right near someone with the normal color.

As much as I love pastels and lighter shades, one downside to how this works is currently it has very little effect on darker colors– similarly, if you want a warm shade to just be a different warmer shade, it just… does not really affect it enough to notice. It only really is noticeable if you pick a cooler color in that case and vice versa. Essentially, unless it’s a light color in the first place, you won’t see much of a change. I’m hoping maybe this is just an oversight as one of my favorite outfits is actually this Brown Jumper, shown on the left. The middle is how I hoped to recolor it– essentially, to match the bow… And the right is what color I get when I am trying to dye it pink which ends up more grey.

With whites and paler colors though, it does work well and I’m hoping to use it on a lot of the furniture, which I’ll need about 700 Eggs for alone… If I also count clothes I’d like to color as well, it gets closer to 1,500– and that’s all stuff I feel like I’d definitely use and not just things I’d like to have. One thing I really like is that the item isn’t taken away– you just get an extra in the same color. That said, I am worried about if I’ll manage to hit 1,500 eggs before the event ends in 3 weeks. I ended up coloring the curtains first for Room stuff– I also have the new lights up which I really like.

As for minigames, there’s three essentially– a bouquet making game where you use flowers gotten from the other two games: The first is where you can grow flowers and harvest them and the second lets you control a Bee to collect dandelions and pollinate bushes. You also earn happiness in the Bee game and filling Bouquet orders by matching the order pictures will get you Teddy Coins. As cute as they are, I already know the majority of my time will just be collecting eggs. And possibly also butterflies whenever the laptop shop is up.

I will say the Spring graphics are really pretty. I also really like the new area too, though it’s starting to take a bit to get back! There’s already previews of future areas too considering the giant Mushrooms in the new area…


Regardless, everything is really cute, and I just hope I manage to earn enough eggs. Also, I love these giant plushies that have been showing up for the Events and I want them all for my Floof’s room.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – The final Stretches

In a way, this will probably be my last entry about “regular Island” stuff– everything in the future will focus almost entirely on Happy Home Paradise. Yesterday, I finally managed to hit 50 total Group Stretching sessions. It could’ve been done in 2 months, but as most people who follow me know: I really struggle with repetitive tasks, especially if they’re time-gated. On some days, maybe I could have done 50 in a row (and if you saw my Youtube video, you’ll see I was ready to do that before realizing it only counted once per day as the Nook Miles restrictions continue to frustrate me), but doing one each day for 50 days was just exhausting so I just… did them when I felt up to it or could remember. I don’t like changing the time so time traveling wasn’t an option for me to get it done faster.

It was… a very long journey just for these lines of dialogue that got blocked by a fishing tent and a bunch of reactions I’ll never actually use.

One thing you may also notice though is I didn’t make an “all reactions” video and that’s because I’m still missing some and, due to how the game decided to do reactions this time around, that is something that won’t change. There will be no more updates. Dr. Shrunk never came back (nor did the Shrunk Shuffle despite being in the game files) and so I am permanently missing 6 reactions– the Best Friend ones from Lazy and Smug villagers and all four from Cranky Villagers. I got my dream villagers very quickly and have no regrets on getting them. I’m just annoyed that one Villager exclusivity thing got turned into two this time around– at least you could get DIYs from other players, but there’s no reason the reactions should have been done this way.

It genuinely makes me really sad how much New Horizons has really pulled me down and just… killed a lot of what AC did for me. I know not everyone feels the same way (especially those who enjoy farming and/or crafting), but I don’t know if I’d pick up another Animal Crossing game if a lot of these features stuck around and that makes me really sad. The game is important to me for so many reasons and is one of my favorite series so to have New Horizons leave me feeling so defeated kills me. I know I’m not entirely alone, despite being in the vocal minority, as I have seen others bring up my issues as well. I think I would’ve minded Terraforming less if it had some similarities to how adjusting the scenery in Pocket Camp worked where you could pick the grass color and certain elements for the sky and have certain things in the backdrop. I did like being able to adjust certain things a bit, but honestly it made me sad seeing people completely flattening their islands. I’ve never been super big on using patterns for everything either– I really like using a lot of the main game’s stuff and New Horizons just feels more catered to those who do go all out on that kind of thing. Regardless, I think most people have agreed the game was missing a lot of Quality of Life features. And so many good Happy Home Designer features were excluded, even with Happy Home Paradise’s arrival.

There’s very few things I’d like to see come over from New Horizons– off the top of my head, Villagers not being able to leave without confirmation (though, I’d still prefer a lock-in feature– I was always worried to talk to them if they were thinking due to fearing I’d accidentally pick the wrong choice), new items and having more colors (I don’t think they were good enough to replace all the old items, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t like them), everything about the Museum, Harvey’s island and everything on it, all the decorating options from Happy Home Paradise (including decorating Villagers’ houses), and the new villagers (No villagers should be left behind. I still hope one day all old ones can return). For the most part, that may be it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I am missing a few things.

Regardless, with no more updates planned, it was time for the final town tour. I still hate that evening is later in this game so I can’t have the perfect scenic lighting while night stuff is also lit up. Not too much has changed since my original town tour so photo-wise, I’ll just be focusing on some of what is different… For some things, it was just a few adjustments, while others got bigger make-overs.




But you can watch the whole tour here:

My Dream Address: DA-2045-8323-2479

Obviously, it never really came to fruition like I would’ve liked it to, but I’d be lying if I said I was surprised. Ignoring having to work with smaller rooms (I really needed at least 8 minimum per side), it was really important to me to keep my island very similar to how it was initially. I never wanted to feel like I was actually tearing something down– just transplanting something in a different location.

You can pretty much just compare my map from Day 1 to now. It felt kind of silly to just… tear everything down and so I did my best to avoid that. Honestly, there’s probably even more I would’ve kept the same if it wasn’t for the whole… waterfall tiers and other pickiness of how close certain things could be to other things (Like trees by water).

Hopefully I’ll have another burst of creativity soon for Happy Home Paradise. Still wish they could give us actual themes for the Special Villagers though. I don’t like coming up with things without any prompts.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Final Plans and more Happy Home Paradise

I think at this point, my general discouragement with New Horizons is pretty par for the course and even the few good things couldn’t counterbalance where the game fell flat. Obviously, this isn’t the case for everyone– for a lot of people, this game became a big deal either due to its timely release (though, personally, I still would’ve rather seen it come out with many of the things we got over time at the start) or due to being the type of person who often changes up their island and really uses those extra creativity assets like with design patterns and optical illusions.

For me, I just wanted New Leaf with certain things fixed (like the moving mechanic, one of the things I do think New Horizons did properly) and the best of all the games up to that point, including Happy Home Designer. I wanted the “deluxe” version of Animal Crossing and New Horizons felt like a downgrade for me in many of those things to insert features I never wanted. It’s weird to play and not feel the usual accomplishment I do normally from the game. It’s crazy to think my island is essentially 2 years old now today.

Regardless, I still had things I wanted to get done before my final town tour now that there are no more updates. The biggest is me slowly going through the Group Stretching. I had hoped to do 50 in one go, but it wasn’t possible. I’m at 35? right now so I still have to try and do it for 15 more days. I hope to at least finish before April 10th which will be my next island tour. I wish the game could be set separately from the system as I’d probably keep it as that date for various reasons.

One thing I hope to keep doing though is Happy Home Paradise homes. I’d like to complete my unfinished Happy Home Designer goal of making every character a Vacation Home so fingers crossed.

Before we get to some houses I did today though, I want to talk about things up to this point. As mentioned, I have been working on the group stretching… a lot. I had already cataloged the items from someone, but I suppose it’s still nice to earn them.



I also made sure to pop on for Valentine’s Day and was happy to see Brewster’s Hot Chocolate tradition continue. I wish it was an option all year, or at least tea, as I don’t drink coffee.

While I still haven’t visited too many islands through Dreams, I did make an exception to visit Omnipod Bay (Dream Address: DA-9645-5879-6910). I just find it really neat when an island is made to help spread awareness and I couldn’t help but check it out.




The only other thing I’ve done is just… work on the group stretching, but as mentioned, I finally felt like working on some Happy Home Paradise stuff again. I had felt pretty uncreative lately, but it was nice to have some spark again. Part of me almost wants to play more as well, but ignoring that I still have stuff to do in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, I’m still not at 100% right now.

Marshal – Retro Cafe Cabin

This one actually came out better than I expected. I’m pretty proud of it.

Simon – Cool Car Lot

Space issues made this not work out as well as I had wanted it to. I’m also kind of annoyed that the Parking lot flooring didn’t actually line up with any of the cars…

Samson – A Treasure-Packed Gym

I feel like what the “theme” was and what was actually available to use were kind of two different things– it seems he wanted to work out while adventuring based off the items included, but it didn’t fully match his description. I really had no clue what to do outside based on what was given, but I had a lot of fun inside. I actually would’ve liked to make it more of a maze, but… space limits.

Coach – Track-Meet Training Grounds

This will look odd offhand, but on the beach, he said how he wanted to push a big ball around and I immediately thought of things like the Fall Guys minigame and so it’s a obstacle course they need to push a ball through the fastest.

After this, I got a surprise– I had finished 50 houses.

Regardless, I still felt like doing a bit more.

Keaton – My Beachside Cafe

I was pretty excited initially, but I think it ended up similar to another design of mine…

Elise – Spectacle Collector’s Home

There’s always some odder requests… If it wasn’t for how glasses get displayed, a walk-in closet-esque thing instead could have been neat.

After finishing Elise’s house, I received another surprise: A new Designer rank which I didn’t realize there were more of… Apparently, there are still two more, though, I wouldn’t mind not getting the last one. The name is pretty silly.

But that wasn’t all, apparently there was something else for me to make. A Gallery for the Cafe that would exist on the second floor.

I also got more options for the work uniform including finally getting my regular white tights.

Cafe Gallery

One thing that really frustrated me with this is that there was no actual theme or recommended items (everything was just usual cafe stuff)– in the end, I did my best to make some weird… artsy garden thing, but I really prefer having some kind of direction, otherwise I generally just feel overwhelmed and uninspired (thus why terraforming ended up doing more harm than good for me). Regardless, i did actually end up being kind of happy with this, though, I forgot to put up any actual paintings…

You may also notice Cookie is the waitress instead of Merengue. This is because today is Merengue’s birthday so she wasn’t there today.

There’s apparently an upstairs you can unlock for the Restaurant too, but you need to do more roommates, so I’ll probably never unlock it, unfortunately. As mentioned above, I like to work fully with a direction– I want a theme and I want to be told what to do. I can make something out of the items given to me, but if you start me with nothing, I’m essentially paralyzed. It’s also why I hate that we’re always asked one floor or two. I’d rather the Villager just pick and let me know, otherwise 90% of the time, the second floor will just be a generic bedroom or something. But for that reason, I’ll never pick to roommate villagers myself. I honestly am not that fond of it (I don’t like that one theme gets kind of kicked to the curb) and unless it forces a certain pair together (which I’d prefer), I just worry about not managing to match things up okay.

Roswell – My Mystery Workshop

I was actually kind of excited for this one, but I don’t feel like I pulled off the interior as much as I wanted to.

Queenie – Contrast Courtyard

There’s honestly more I would have liked to do with this, but the inability to put flooring outside (My patterns are full and honestly, I prefer to not use patterns at all with house designs) combined with only being able to have one Accent Wall kind of compromised the design a bit.

And that was all the houses this time. It was a nearly 5 hour stream ^^; So thank you to everyone who watched. It should be up on Youtube soon.

My Fluffy Life: An Overview, some small notes, and a few tips

My Fluffy Life released several months ago now, but I often see a lot of the same questions popping up. So, I figured I’d give a little summary of information while also hopefully giving some helpful answers too. My Fluffy Life is very cute and overall, very simplistic, but there’s a lot beneath the surface and it’s so easy to miss out on things due to that.

The game can be played across multiple services, using an account system so you can log in through Steam, a Mobile device, and eventually even in Browser. That said, if you have it on a Mobile Device or Steam, you will need to buy it again.

If I had to describe the game simply, think old Virtual World meets Scrapbooking. While there are other players around you, you can’t actually interact with them nor are they necessarily there in real time. The main way you can communicate to other players is through the Bulletin Board and through Letters. Regardless, I’m getting a little ahead of myself so let’s start from the beginning.


My Fluffy Life starts with letting you make a cute little plush character. You’ve just moved into Cotton-Floof. You get a house, you meet some new shopkeepers, and each day you can roam around and click things to build up Happiness. The various things you can click in the scenery can give you 1, 2, or 3 points depending on how happy it may make your MFL character. Generally, the less often you may see something, the more points it gives, but I have had some things give me different points. You can also earn extra points by interacting with a plant in your window once you’ve bought one before going out and if it’s raining, you will get extra points if you rent an umbrella from Nina. That said, you use up energy every time you click something– if you run out of energy, you can either eat food or go to sleep until the next day. Happiness can also be earned by playing minigames (both actual minigames and ones where you fill orders). Every 20 Happiness can turn into 1 Teddy Coin, the main currency in the game.

Happiness can be turned into Teddy Coins by clicking the Computer and hitting the arrow below your Happiness and Teddy Coin amounts. It’ll automatically turn all possible Happiness into Teddy Coins. That said, with Happiness recently becoming a currency on its own, I hope eventually it may be a manual option. There is currently one limited store that exclusively uses Happiness for the items and it seems this may happen again in the future so I’d personally recommend spending the Happiness you want before turning it into Teddy Coins as it doesn’t seem that Teddy Coin items will be going away at this time. Even new items that were added to the usual stores for the Holidays stuck around.

There have been limited currencies for Halloween (Tickets) and Valentine’s Day (Love) as well. This will likely continue for future events, but I kind of hope there will still be a Teddy Coin option (or even the option to exchange Teddy Coins for an event currency).

The Stores and NPCs

You initially only start with 3 Stores. The first is Muffin’s store, Baked with Love, sells baked goods. Eating them will let you recover energy if you would like to keep clicking around for Happiness over playing a minigame. That said, the game works on its own time– you can play through as many days as you would like each day. The main reason for keeping the day the same is if you have a lot of good bonuses (IE: It’s raining and there’s 3 happiness per click spots) or maybe want to make sure you buy some things that need to be delivered tomorrow before, well, going to tomorrow. Everything else can be done even if you have no energy. Energy will also go down over time, though, slower than if you’re clicking for Happiness.

Second is Pupu’s store, Pupu Stationery, where you can buy stationery for using in your letters and Scrap Book. Even if you are not much of a writer or scrapbooker, you’ll likely want to consider some of Pupu’s items for some of the NPC Quests (which I’ll talk about later).

The last store, which will have two spots before it for the other shops you can unlock, is Flora’s shop: Delicate Breeze. This is the furniture store. Besides furniture, you can also buy Tea to recover energy as well. Essentially, this store is also where you can decorate your Fluffy’s home. After buying an item, it’ll generally be equipped automatically so if you want to switch to something else, you need to click it again so there will be a pink border around it.

At the moment, your house can contain: 1 Fireplace, 1 Bed, 1 set of Lights, 1 Desk and Chair set, 1 Table and Chair set, 1 Window, 1 Back Wallpaper, 1 side wall color, 1 Door, 1 rug, 1 set of Curtains, and 1 Plant. You can mix and match among any of those selections, but only one pick one of each “type”. The Plants are not sold by Flora. And don’t worry, you do have some starter furniture initially.

As for the stores you can unlock… On the 12th day, you will unlock Fay’s shop, Fairy Gardening. She sells the Plants that you can have in your house. As mentioned above, you can only have one plant on Display at a time. Interacting with the Plant before going out each day (So if you sleep, you do need to interact with it again) will give you bonus happiness when clicking.

On the 23rd day, you’ll unlock Bibu’s shop, Warm Hug. He sells Clothing plus Cookies you can eat for energy.

There are also two other NPCs– Tuffy and Nina who are siblings. Tuffy will deliver your mail. If you buy anything from the stores on the computer or use a code you got from a friend or NPC, he’ll deliver the items the next day. He’ll also deliver the stationery that is marked on the calendar.

Nina shows up whenever it’s raining, and you can rent an umbrella from her. You do need to rent the umbrella every time it rains (after all, you are just renting it! Don’t worry, it automatically returns itself), but it does give you bonus points if you have one. The Rain itself does not– it’s just the rented umbrella.

Besides the NPC stores, there’s also stores you can access through the Computer in your Fluffy’s house. Stuffie Self essentially allows you to buy things to change your Stuffie’s physical appearance. Maybe you’d rather be a cat or bunny or puppy instead or want a different expression– simply buy a Sewing Kit and whichever option you want and then use them from your inventory after they’re delivered.

Rollcake Store is another clothing store and your primary option before Bibu opens up Warm Hug about 3 weeks later in-game. Of course, you can still get items from the NPCs during this time.

The final store right now is the Happy Baby Store, a limited time clothing store, where all the items cost Happiness instead of Teddy Coins. It hasn’t been said when this store will leave, nor do I know how often another store will show up, but at the time of writing this (the last day of February), it’s still here!

Finally, I want to note that not every food item gives the same energy so don’t just buy any food item you want. Bibu’s cookies cost 50 Teddy Coins, but actually only give 10 Energy. Meanwhile, Flora’s Tea costs 20 Teddy Coins and lets you recover 20 Energy. All of Muffin’s food also have the 1:1 rate that Flora’s Tea has so I’d purchase from her or Flora depending on how much energy you’d like to recover.

Quests and Codes

As I mentioned earlier… There are NPC Quests, but not the way you’d usually expect to get them. To get these, you need to add each of the NPCs to your friend’s list– Muffin, Pupu, Flora, Fay, Bibu, Tuffy, and Nina… and then send them a letter. Tell them Hi, introduce yourself, you don’t have to be super overly personal– just friendly. That said, do not spam them— they will not be happy with that. A response can take a couple of days. The process is not fully automatic yet, but when you do get a response, they may ask you some questions or for your help with something or for… inspiration like, “I want to see some pink things” or “I would like to see things with wings” or “I want to see some flowers”– while some stuff you can just write an answer to, most of the requests require you to either add in a picture you took and/or use some of the stationery you bought from Pupu. Keep in mind that each photo you take costs 10 Teddy Coins.

There are only so quests right now, but as you complete them and become closer friends, they will also give you codes for special items. These codes can be redeemed through the Teddy Bank on the computer. You cannot get these items any other way. My usual outfit is actually made up of gifts from the NPCs. They’ve honestly given me some of my favorite items in the game.

I try to still write every so often in case there’s anything new. Sometimes they’ll even give you some sneak peaks on what’s to come as well.

Besides getting codes from NPCs though, you can also get them from other players or make some yourself. Essentially, if you click the little heart in the bottom right corner of your inventory (the little bag under the camera), you can pick an amount to “donate” which will give you a code that someone can then redeem to get access to those items. You can also gift Teddy Coins by clicking the heart under the amount in the Teddy Bank.

Here are some codes I’ve put together as an example– some are stationery, but some are Teddy Coins! If you use one, please be sure to comment and say which you used.

FUKZN6
6WVXXE
UGJT7K
9AZXBJ
PX6W2L
All 5 have now been taken!!

You can often find people sharing stuff on the Bulletin Board :) If you take one from there, don’t forget to send a message saying Thank you.

Events, Seasons, and Stuffies

At this point in time, My Fluffy Life has had three events: Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day– the latter of which is happening right now, but is supposed to end tomorrow.

Halloween was the very first event. It brought Fall along with it and also unlocked the way to Gentle Hills which you could get to by clicking the path to the left of the sign. The event was more or less entirely held there, but you could get candy from all the NPCs once per in-game day the first time you clicked them each day. There was also a present in Gentle Hills that you could click to get a Dress and a Candle.

The main part of the event required you to play minigames to earn Tickets. There were 3 games: Angel Bunny which was essentially like Flappy Bird, the Pumpkin Patch which required you to pick all the Pumpkins that weren’t bruised, and Baby Teddy where you had to watch Baby Teddy and click them everytime they showed up so they wouldn’t jump-scare you gently.

Tickets were generated based off which game and how long you managed to last. There were 7 Outfits, 5 Accessories, and 4 Stuffies.

There was also a Gachapon Machine you could use for 1 Teddy Coin which would either give you one of 9 exclusive Stationery or Candy which you could eat for energy.

The Candy unfortunately didn’t stick around, but the stationery did… Though, of course, as one gets used each time you use them, you can eventually run out.

When Halloween left, the Fall season stuck around keeping the Pumpkin Picking game, but also bringing in an Apple Picking game and letting you harvest Honey and make Jars of Honey and Jams to fill orders for more Teddy Coins. There was also a fundraising thing set up for raising funds to get sweaters for the Christmas Event.

The Christmas Event brought in Winter and several new things. It also took place in Gentle Hills. The main part of the Christmas Event that is no longer around is the big Tree where you could write wishes and put gifts for others to grab (you could grab one an in-game day).

Like Halloween, there was also a gachapon with 9 stationery items.

There was also a giftbox with a Santa Hat you were given when clicking it. Everything else introduced in the event stuck around after Christmas left. Due to the fundraiser being successful, you were able to get one Sweater a Day (in-game) for free clicking the box. There were 9 total to get– which one you got each day was random.

A Stuffie Workshop was set up for you to fill orders for requested Stuffies. For every 50 orders you filled, you could then pick one you made to take back with you. I made… a lot.

There was also a Cookie Making workshop to earn teddy coins. You got a free apron the first time you helped out.

As mentioned, the free sweaters and both workshops are all still around, but I’m guessing they will leave when Winter ends. One new minigame was also added after Christmas ended– a sledding minigame to help earn more happiness.

Finally, Valentine’s Day added a booth in Gentle Hills where you could make Valentine’s for friends and buy special stationery (there are 9 different ones). Depending on which type of chocolate you attach to the gift will determine how much Love the person receives to spend on items. The Chocolate Lollipops gave 100 Love, the Chocolate Strawberries gave 500 Love, and the box of Chocolates gave 1,000 Love.

You could then spend the Love on up to 12 exclusive items. You need 8,000 Love to buy one of everything. You could send friends as many Valentine’s as you like though so if you wanted to send the same person like… 20 Valentine’s, the only thing that can stop you is if you run out of Teddy Coins.

And that sums up the events so far!

So, Stuffies. As mentioned, you could get 4 from the Halloween Event. Besides those, there’s obviously the Stuffie Workshop ones which have a lot of combinations– you have 3 types to choose from, 5 colors for each (their default + 4 patterns), 4 bows to choose from, and 3 outfits. Even the face is optional.

Finally, there’s Shy Bunny Plushies— these are gotten by actually making your own custom one from the store and ordering it. You will then receive a code you can put in on the website to get your Stuffie in the game along with 2 infinite stationery items of your Stuffie. There are currently 11 different species you can pick from and regardless of what kind you get (IE: A full plushie, a pin, a keychain, etc.), it’ll be a full regular Stuffie in-game. Besides the species, you can pick one of three arm positions and various accessory options. I hope to get one of each one day.

Closing Thoughts and other tidbits

I feel like I covered a lot of the general gist of everything and summed stuff up, so just some kind of final things. For one, you do get a cute profile page. You can also change your Fluffy’s name here at any time.

The Scrap Book seems to have infinite pages. I usually use it to make notes on what items seem to give 3 points and also for saving cute stationery and photos.

If you really want to rush through the day, but don’t feel like clicking everything to get your energy down, you can just leave the game up in the background while you do other things. Energy will still go down over time. I personally like to have my energy empty before I stop playing just in case something gets added where it’d be better if I slept until the next day (or like, new items added to one of the stores where I’d have to wait until the next in-game day for them to be delivered).

Finally, remember to be kind! A lot of people are just looking for something cute and calming.

My problem with Digital Kickstarter Exclusives for Games

Before I begin, I want to reiterate what I said in the title– this has nothing to do with most physical merchandise. While it can be a bit frustrating, obviously sometimes you can only afford so much– that’s the entire point of having the thing on Kickstarter in the first place. I will admit I do have mixed feelings on exclusive physical stuff tied specifically to how many other things you buy (IE: You can only get this item if you bought at least 3 or 5 or 10 other things), but that’s genuinely not the focus of this post. This also isn’t about obvious limited stuff like “design a character!”– this is specifically about the generally presumed inconsequential– things relating to customization or getting things a little bit earlier. Things that, to be blunt, could just be paid DLC.

And that’s kind of my issue. I’ve seen too many games go up on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or other similar sites where there will be some kind of “Digital Deluxe” tier that includes things like a special outfit or skin and a special pet and a special hat. Some of these tiers aren’t too much higher than the game itself– maybe $10 more. Others pack in so much stuff, you may be looking at $100-$200 to get everything.

You may be thinking, why would it even cost that much? Generally, it’s because tons of other things are packed in– think of how a lot of Mobile Games will have some kind of special item pack– the item is maybe worth $5-$10, but the pack itself is $30-$50 because of premium currency and other random boosts and things. While these generally are more substantial, including things like a soundtrack, artbook, Beta access, and/or possibly even a whole other copy of the game. And the thing is, outside of maybe Beta access: Most of those will not be exclusive to the Kickstarter. Maybe physical versions of the soundtrack/artbook, but again, this has nothing to do with physical stuff– it’s simply those digital vanity items. That said, I have absolutely seen some where they gave options for you to add on the items yet priced some of them at $20-$50.

I think what blows my mind especially with how common this has become at this point is a lot of the time it’s for more down to Earth, play how you’d like, simulator or casual games where they advertise fun customization and cute pets and then lock some of them behind a limited time paywall. Even worse, sometimes there may be a cheaper tier with everything… that is then limited in number.

And I don’t know, when I play fun casual simulation-based games, wearing my favorite items and collecting lots of cute things (especially pets) and being able to place all the furniture are some of my absolute favorite parts of playing a game.

I don’t mind if they want to give Backers a discount– like “Oh, you can get these now as part of your pledge if you pledge for the game” and then just… let people buy them later (and I say this as someone who has pledged for these things previously, but I know friends who have skipped a game because something they really liked was exclusive to a Kickstarter). I feel like if someone wants to back, they are going to regardless of those limited items… And if they want those, I think they’d still be happy with them discounted?

The last Kickstarter I pledged with Kickstarter exclusive digital items, I actually couldn’t afford to pledge for both the game and special items so I ended up just getting the special items. I figured I could try and get the game eventually, but since these won’t come back and it would take away some of my enjoyment of the game otherwise, I should buy the exclusives instead. And that was when I decided I wouldn’t pledge to Kickstarters with exclusives anymore. It actually really stinks too because there’s games I had been following and looking forward to so much and then see some huge price to get some items that you can only get there.

Do I necessarily want all the items? No. Well, unless it’s pets or pink and princess-y, but generally, I actually do not necessarily want most of the items. I just… do not like the principle of it. I think it’s unneeded. I think it’s completely possible to make it a DLC thing. I think it leaves people out for no reason when there’s plenty of other ways for people who pledged to show they have done so (like… having your name in the credits). But most of all, I just find it baffling that this is such a thing in largely single player games. Like do you really care if someone who only found out about the game after it released paid for a DLC pack to get something that came in the tier you pledged for? To be honest, whether a single player game or not, with customization (or vanity things in general– whether just a silly emote, a hat, a pet, or a chair), I always feel more options are better so it’s just a shame that now it’s almost routine to see a set of items get stuck behind a limited one-month Kickstarter wall.

It just makes me sad to think someone maybe finds out about the game late or just couldn’t afford to pledge right then and there and misses out on something that really shouldn’t need to be exclusive.

The Foraging Frustration

Something I get asked every so often is why I play so many games that feature foraging and/or farming/gardening if they’re both features that I find really tiring. Crafting can also come up sometimes with this, but not as often and is usually more expected with the general issue of limited inventory spaces while needing to constantly hoard up things, but even Crafting cripes kind of boil back down to those same two subjects: Foraging and Farming.

Before I get into it, I want to state that these are absolutely my personal struggle with them, and I know is not an issue most people have (or there’d probably be less simulation games that include them). It’s also very likely that others who also don’t care much for these systems may not have the exact same reasons as to why and that’s fine! This is just me talking about it.

So, to answer the initial question: The reason I keep playing them is because of pretty much everything else. I love collecting things, I love decorating my house, I love talking to the characters in-game and making friends, I love customizing my character, I love designing in general. I also love doing quests and helping out the characters. There’s so much I really enjoy that I try to deal with the grind despite how much it drives me nuts.

As for what I dislike, mainly I really struggle with doing the same tasks over and over. Even with my love of quests, doing repeatable quests (especially if I have to do the same one daily) is exhausting for me. After a while, it almost feels like a constant state of deja-vu and even doing it just once suddenly feels like doing it 10+ times. I’m not always up to doing dailies in general, but when it adds on that feeling, it becomes even worse. It’s also part of why I wish things didn’t have as many limits because sometimes, I do have that moment where I can just… stomp on through 50+ of the same quest and hit that goal I need to (Using New Leaf as an example, I listed to K.K. songs 100 times in a row for that badge versus New Horizons that decided that no, it only counts once a week so have fun doing this every week for 2 years).

Foraging especially, while relatively simplistic, I find almost mind-numbing. I know some people find it relaxing, but I just… at best, I’m just bored, at worst, I’m losing my mind. Especially if I can’t keep track of where I’m even going. My mind is always going and when it comes to things that are just… collecting up stuff for no reason and just because, my mind is just going to wander in the worst places because it has nothing else to focus on.

With farming, it’s essentially foraging with extra steps and a time gate on top of it and so it’s just… multiple stages of boring for me. And I’m sure a lot of people reading this will just not be able to wrap their head around it and to be honest, I feel the same way about people who love these features! I think if they have more of a purpose, like… getting one of each to complete a Research Book or a Museum or something can be fun, but when just collecting to level up or to hoard materials for some kind of crafting/upgrade system, it just feels so incredibly exhausting. Like I’m just walking in circles endlessly. Especially if there’s inventory/storage limits.

Obviously, there’s no real option to such a thing, a lot of the times it’s more a core mechanic than I make it (as every Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game, I suddenly exclusively have a Dairy farm), but it’s definitely a system I struggle with in every single game and especially when I’m not feeling well, it feels even harder to do.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus – Thoughts so far

While I haven’t gotten to play it as much as I’d like (being sick sucks) and thus, there’s a good chance some of what I end up saying here may change, I’ve been really enjoying the game. For reference, I’m just about to hit the Kleaver fight and have played for roughly 7-8 hours so far.

While I was worried for a similar issue like what I had with Pokemon: Let’s Go, I haven’t run into as much of the same problem. Maybe because I can quickly find resources to make more Pokeballs AND also immediately make those Pokeballs. Maybe I’ll feel a little more stressed about when I need better balls (which honestly, I probably already do), but for now, it’s not bothering me to be trying to catch so many.

I think what also helps is that I have a constant counter for how many I need, there’s no “catch streak” requirement just to get certain Pokemon to even spawn which you would then need to needlessly repeat, most Pokemon can be found in decent batches so you can try and get a bunch to knock it out at once, and there’s multiple different ways to try and get that Pokedex report done.

I will say most of my complaints come from being the only person who plays Pokemon and hates the battle system. I really do not like the whole “hey, some Pokemon will just aggro you and start chasing you down”. I could maybe stand the Alphas in the sense of them being mini bosses (though I still wouldn’t like it), but otherwise it gets very… tiring. Sure, I could just turn around and fight it, but ignoring the chance of another Pokemon sneaking up behind me to also try and kill me (while you likely will not die, the game repeatedly brings up that you could), I just… don’t want to. When there’s so many other neat ways to get “Pokedex data”, the battle mechanic is especially boring to me.

But what makes it even worse for me is battles feel slower in this game. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I find moves feel weaker, that super effective doesn’t always feel that way, the whole “sometimes a Pokemon can move twice in a row” gets really annoying especially if ganged up on by multiple Pokemon, and I just… find them extra stressful? Every single move feels weightier and while some people enjoy that, I liked being able to get those battles out quickly with one proper attack.

Trainer Battles are generally simpler, with most trainers having small Teams, if more than one Pokemon. At the very least, it means I can explore without worrying about my eyes getting locked with a trainer ready to try to destroy me versus just running for my life from whichever Pokemon saw me instead.

I will say that leveling also feels slower and I’m not entirely sure why or know if that’s truly accurate– it’s possible it’s not that I’m leveling slower so much as it feels like I’m just not able to do as much, or in a sense: I still feel really weak despite their levels which partially goes back to what I said about Battles feeling slower.

Unsurprisingly, I’m still not fond of crafting, though, I feel like this game has annoyed me less with it than most others. My only complaint is still having a bag limit. The increments are by one slot, consistently get more expensive, and I do believe there is STILL a limit. Yes, you have storage, and yes, you can fast travel to it, but if you’re me, that doesn’t mean you’ll find your way back to where you were that you suddenly needed more room anytime soon. It’d be nice if it was possible to do a temporary warp spot. Maybe it’ll feel a little less frustrating when I unlock the ability to have helpful traversal Pokemon though.

I also find it interesting that we finally have various different sized Pokemon in a game besides Pokemon GO and Pumpkaboo’s existence, but with the focus on Alpha Pokemon (which are huge) and how they may even have special moves, I feel like smaller sizes don’t get as much opportunity to shine.

Regardless, the game actually has a lot of neat quality of life features from the quick warping from the get-go, easily being able to swap Pokemon, having Pokemon just… be able to grab berries/materials for you by just tossing them at it, a decent aiming system (though, I still manage to miss a bit too often), the ability to choose if you want a Pokemon to evolve manually, being able to just… have your Pokemon learn and replace moves whenever you want without any TMs, and even an item that lets you evolve Pokemon that require trading if you don’t have anyone to tradeback with. A lot of these things I do hope to see make their way into a future game series.

I will say where the game is kind of lacking for me though is customization– I think they wanted to try and tie in stuff appropriate to the time period and culture which is fine, but I wish things still weren’t gendered. Besides hairstyles, certain clothing looks different as well, and I much prefer how the “fancy” pants look on the boys than the girls. I also wish there were more color options– we already see them be a bit more unique with some of the Fancy outfits or patterns so I kind of wish there were in general.
I also continue to wish that they would consider letting us pick hair and eye color separate from skin color. It’s kind of immersion breaking for me when I know I’ll be changing my hair color and eye color as soon as possible to see a different one in these initial cutscenes. The character on the ID also doesn’t change which makes me sad. I’m hoping our character’s changed appearance will stick, but part of me figures it’ll reset somehow anyway.

Finally, I find it very odd that you can’t remove the headscarf on the only ponytail style that girls have? I like it enough that I’ll stick with it if I need to, but it feels odd to force especially when no other hairstyle has it.

Anyway, despite my reservations and struggles, I’m actually really excited to see what’s next in the game. Also, the Midnight Music has to be easily one of my all-time favorite tracks in a Pokemon game at this point. It really feels magical in a way I can’t fully put into words.

Cats vs Pickles – Kittens vs Gherkins?

With Toy Fair 2022’s cancellation here in New York, Cats vs Pickles did a special Zoom meeting in their official Facebook Group to show some of the things that would’ve been shown during Toy Fair and also were currently being shown in the London Toy Fair.

Firstly, there was the Gold Wave. I had seen some press articles talking about it so that was one of the things I expected. What I did not expect was the sheer amount. Gold Wave will apparently incorporate 156 Beans and 60 Chonks (Purple Wave, for Reference, has 72 Beans and 24 Chonks so this is more than twice as much). The Magenta Wave, which is already in the works, will also be just as many and I just find that… insane. And also hope I don’t want toooo many because space and budget, but they are so very cute.

From the small percentage shown off, Claude Monet was my favorite of the Bean-size. I also found Fromage very cute.

There were also some great Chonk designs shown too and I hope they may end up in Bean form as well, but I don’t know if I’d have the patience to wait with how much I love these designs…

It’ll be hard waiting until August for these releases. From some small previews, it feels like a lot of the ones teased at this point either through commercials or back in Toy Fair 2020 will be part of this Wave so it’ll be nice to get some of the ones I’ve been waiting on for over a year now.

We also got to see more of the Dogs vs Squirls in person which was great. I had already known there were four dogs I really wanted since I first saw information about them. After seeing the updated Squirrel faces on a Wholesale site, one of them won me over as well.

And seeing Brenda and Cheezer during the Zoom won them over for me too.

I’m still not fully won over by the different fabric usage as much, but maybe I’ll feel better after actually having them in-hand. I love dogs though so it’s definitely not enough to hold me back from wanting some. They should be coming out in late Spring apparently so at least it won’t be too much more of a wait :)

The biggest surprise though which I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted were the “Kittens vs Gherkins”– essentially baby versions of the Cats and Pickles, and maybe even some new ones, of the ones we know and love. The first shown was of a Baby Majicat and Majicat was actually one of my very first CvP:

There were honestly tons I adored– Baby Merkitty, Baby Joey, Baby Stripes, Baby Pawberry, and Baby Sour Menace are just some of my favorites besides Baby Majicat.

But every single one they showed I at least liked. There will apparently be 48 different ones with 2 Babies plus a cute krinkle blanklet per blindbag. They are also supposed to be stocking in August in Walmart Stores, but I’m really hoping they may have some big batch bundles online because I honestly would love to get a… 24 blindbag bundle and do a fun unboxing stream. I think it’d be a lot of fun and I’d love to see all the different ones and cute blanket patterns too. I also just… do not actually have any Walmarts near me, unfortunately.

Regardless, it was exciting to see how much is planned for this year and there’s so much I’m looking forward to. I just… hope I can buy them online too.

Wholesale Promotional Photos from License 2 Play.