Roots of Pacha is a farming sim set in the stone age. I mean, how much more do I need to write about it?

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

One big piece where I think Stardew Valley has always fallen short is the characters. Maybe because World’s Dawn came out around the same time and one of its strengths was the characters. In any case, Roots of Pacha does not share these same shortcomings. I love these characters. They are warm and loving, but each distinct with their own foibles. My darling Jag is a great example. Sturdy but unyieldingly kind. Terrified of the dark, keeper of the light, supportive of all his clan. (Somebody online said they wondered if Jag waits for the last ones going to festivals because he won’t leave anyone behind after what happened to him T0T).

I’m a sucker for pixel art so that’s an easy point.

The farming is fantastic. The Idea system is well thought out and is such a fun way to unlock new methods and facilities. I loved when a villager would pop up and tell me about their big idea for keeping animals or watering my crops. It’s a romantic concept and a novel one in a genre that could easily decay into stagnation. Leveling up the crops is also a great addition which helped me keep interest after endgame and plays in great with the theme of the whole game.

Festivals are diverse and have an interactive aspect that I love. Too often these games just have a gathering with no participation in the actual ‘event’. It’s a pitfall that the Marvelous Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games have fallen into in the past pretty heavily. Go to a festival, say hello, leave. Not a problem in this game. It’s a small thing really but it really resonates with me.

Look, farming games are my jam. I have opinions. And this game is rad.

Honestly, I don’t have a lot a lot of criticism. There are a few parts of the game, like the other villages, that could be expanded upon, but the devs have a lot of exciting stuff planned for the future. I may even start a new file! Maybe. I would probably be really boring and partner with Jag again, he is so precious. More endgame content could be added as well, but again, the devs have plans. So far, they’ve done a solid job of updating and listening to player feedback so I do have great hopes for the future of the game.

Bottom line – it’s great, go play it.

:The Longing: is a semi-idle exploration game set in an underground kingdom with a sleeping king. You control The Shade, the keeper of this underground kingdom for 400 days while the king sleeps away.

SPOILERS AHEAD – READ AT OWN RISK

Collecting moss is a fun activity I can recommend. -The Shade

Playing :The Longing: is a fun activity I can recommend. At least, I loved it.

I’m not saying :The Longing: is a perfect game, but for what it is I found it highly enjoyable. My favorite aspect? The Shade, hands down. And I am super bummed the MakeShip of the Shade ended before I began playing. I love his dry sense of humor, his relatable depressive symptoms, and his general naivete. I wish I could be more like the Shade, honestly. Not that I’d like to be in his shoes, stuck in an empty kingdom for over a year, alone…. Plus, he’s so handy! I don’t think I could make a nice moss carpet or a moss bed like he did. He deserves friends, as in, more friends than just a spider.

I’m not going to say that I cried when the spider died, but I was actually sad.

Things I didn’t love. The movement speed could be a little frustrating. I know that is kind of the point, and that it’s idle in the respect that you could walk a little, do something else small, keep walking, do something small, rinse, repeat. And of course the Shade has no reason to hurry, he has plenty of time, so my final word is I can suck it up.

I wish there had been a little more to explore. After about 200 days I didn’t have much to do besides sit and read while I waited for the Shade’s birthday.

(Yes, I needed 100% achievements, no, I didn’t manage that without help).

That being said, I think the “”best ending”” is not something you would stumble upon very easily. I’m sure there is at least one person who was in the random place at the right time. And then did the right thing. I’m sure there was one. But the average player isn’t going to figure it out. Which frustrates me, probably because I’m the average-est player out there.

I left the kingdom in the end. I liked that ending, I liked the Shade got a family, even kind of a strange one. It seemed better than the ending my brother got which sounded dumb, actually. He went for the wake the King up after 400 days ending, which apparently just means you die. Which is dumb.

The creator of :The Longing: also made Lucky Tower, which is a silly game where they kill the cute animal that I played in college with friends. The vibe is definitely similar between the two games, though the execution is different. And executions happen in both, haha.

Overall, definitely recommend. Enjoy collecting some moss.

Witches in outer space plus artsy deck building? Sign me up for The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.

if you want a concise recommendation without spoilers, here it is: go play the game, support the developers, it’s delightful.

SPOILERS AHEAD

First off, I love anything where 95% of the major characters are badass women (think Monstress by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda (if you haven’t read, it’s so good)). Second, I love getting to flex my creative muscles in games (looking at you Passpartout). Thirdly, games that help me explore my own personality and morals speak to the high schooler semi-obsessed with Meyers-Briggs and personality tests in me (not as obsessed as one of my friends, but that’s another story).

I played through twice, once as an “all the choices I would really make” and once to get a utopian ending. In my first playthrough, I ended up as an old lady on dome city Earth, playing tabletop games with the local biddies. Fortuna wasn’t pleased with that ending so it looped around to another playthrough. To be honest, I chose all the unique options for the coven leadership except Fortuna being the only to eat Aedana. I was on team “spread Aedana to the cosmos” all the way. I hate it when games make me choose something against my own judgement to get the “perfect” ending.

Case in point, in Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, the “good” outcome of a scenario with Rock’s son is to slap the son, it makes him happy. WHAT. EXCUSE ME. How dare you make me choose between my son’s happiness and his wellbeing.

Anyway.

My second playthrough ended with the ‘mortal’ utopia where you get to sit on a couch chillaxing with a dog. Seems legit. Probably my favorite deviations from my first playthrough are the Grethe romance, which was super cute, and my interactions with Wunn and Junreisha. Love that Junreisha is just like “yes, girl, take over the whole universe, you have my vote” and double love reading the cards for Wunn and getting “you are super impressed by me even though I couldn’t understand a word you said.” The second one in particular tickled me pink considering how unpleasant I found Wunn’s ultimatum in my first playthrough.

Also, not going to lie, I started the fake ending in my first playthrough and force quit because I thought the game was really going to give me a “it was all a dream” ending.

Second playthrough I went through it and gave away waay too much information. And I have words to say to the sensorial witch for that.

My biggest complaint is there wasn’t an Abramar romance option. For someone with so many eyes, he was pretty hunky. Some of the utopia endings leave that a little open-ended, I suppose, but there it is: open-ended. Second small gripe – what the heck happened to Grethe for the utopia endings?

Did not realize these developers (deconstruteam) are behind Red Strings Club until the place/background (I forget the in-universe title) unlocked. RSC has been on my radar for years but I never got around to playing it. Literally downloading it right now (the banner image is a little scary, haha) which is a high honor since my laptop has a teeny tiny amount of memory and I burned through ten GBs already this week downloading Glaze and Nightshade.

Have an idea for my next playthrough? Send me an email at solar.gardens@protonmail.com!