Ahhh, I've never picked up a Story of Seasons/ Harvest Moon game before but it can be my style probs. I enjoy Stardew Valley/ Coral Island from time to time
If you like Elden Ring you might like Hollow Knight? It’s a 2d platformer metroidvania with souls like difficulty. The story is picked up through mostly lore and npc dialogue.
Haha no that’s fine! I totally understand. I have a LOT of love for the game. Easily one of my top 5 favorites. If you ever want to just get an idea, there’s a Speedrunner that I’d recommend watching, Fireb0rn who also does some cool things with pc mods.
grand bazaar has been like scratching the urge to build shit (farming) with a story (on the lighter side of the scale) and an unfortunately fun central gameplay loop
Lies of P is a Souls-like, but very very very very well crafted. as someone Not Into the genre I couldn't help but be impressed with the care that went into its design. Story is a grimdark Pretty Explicitly Queer retelling of Pinocchio. Recently patched in an easy mode.
Also I'm not too proud to go offline and cheat for an easy mode. I've beaten Dark Souls 1 and 3 and Bloodborne legitimately so i don't feel like i have anything to prove lmao
specifically, the central gameplay loop of Grand Bazaar that Got Me was that it replaces the shipping bin with a weekly stall at the bazaar. so it kind of changes how you sell things/prepare to sell things and it is unfortunately really fun for me.
Clair Obscur is hard to explain what it's about without spoilers, but it's a narrative RPG very much in the tradition of FFVII-XII/old school Megaten, but it is Very French. So like a love letter to those stories but filtered through a kinda different style/philosophy. Very fun gameplay music slaps You Will Cry. maybe within the first hour. I did!
MC inherits a book of contracted youkai souls that he takes responsibility for protecting while breaking the contracts as he meets them. Meanwhile he tries not to get eaten while usually getting bullied into solving their problems. The plot line just kind of settles in slowly.
I MEAN I CAN SAY IT'S ABOUT GRIEF. AND IT STARS BEING ABOUT GRIEF RIGHT FROM THE GET-GO BUT THE GRIEF STARTS COMIN AND IT DONT STOP COMIN AND IT DONT STOP COMIN AND IT DONT STOP COMIN
MC also has a sad backstory, there's references to child abuse and neglect, has cycled through foster parents like he's going through everybody in the phone book, and trying to hide that he has anything abnormal going on from the current fosters.
also IDK if you do Actual Play stuff at all but I just mainlined the recently finished book 1 of The Wizard The Witch And The Wild One and like. damn that fuckin rules. also Best In Class of actual play podcasts I have ever heard due to:
- tiny table with an insane amount of trust - custom made a class for Erika Ishii - very cool and crunchy Theory of Magic - kind of maybe the best I'm Going To Do Miyazaki And Le Guin At The Same Time that many attempt and few pull off
HOMESTUCK PILOT
: I do like Actual Play stuff! Haven't been able to watch D20 cuz poor but I've listened to NADDPOD and TAZ and a few really obscure ones that were great like a Pokemon ttrpg podcast called Critical Ditto
Yeah I only got to listen to the couple chats that were free but Brennan talks a lot about her concept of Revolutionary Imagination which is a pretty obvious influence in all of D20 but he really laser focuses on it here.
and one of the characters deal is that she comes from the Imperial Wizard Citadel and she’s working to balance “ok so sometimes empires do bad imperialism which is for sure Bad” with “this is my home and I will defend it. The guy who makes my sandwiches is not the one who should pay for war crimes the fuck.”
- custom made a class for Erika Ishii
- very cool and crunchy Theory of Magic
- kind of maybe the best I'm Going To Do Miyazaki And Le Guin At The Same Time that many attempt and few pull off