Looks like the system is saying 27, though there’s probably a chunk of idle time mixed in there.
If it’s any consolation to others, it took me twice as long back when it first hit Steam! Good going Thraeg. A chunk of that was spent dabbling with the ‘Epic Access’ launch but I felt it needed more development time. It was a good call because some systems were fundamentally changed (like heart beets used to be random drops from enemies). I get the impression it’s changed a lot since the Steam launch too!
Day 2 is kicking my ass, but not as bad Day 1 first was. I really like that progression. It’s so refreshing after Dead Cells, where the first time through the game is great, but you activate one boss cell, and suddenly the game is completely unwinnable and kicks your ass so bad you never play it again.
I can usually make it to the end of summer on Day 2 now and die to the Sun God.
I really love this game, but I hate the pixel art so much. It makes my eyes bleed and generally just makes the whole experience of playing this game mildly unpleasant.
But I still can’t stop playing.
Glad you’re enjoying it so much! Shame the pixel art is having such an effect on you–my girlfriend and I absolutely love the visuals, as well as the music and sound design.
Oh, hey, this is fun:
I did some folly work at uni and I’d love to do that as a job now!
All work is folly.
Oh balls, yeah. FOLEY.
I fricken love this game, it has exactly the right mix of simple gameplay and interesting mechanics. The art style and the music is just magnificent.
My only complaint is that I was kinda done with it by the time I got to (I think) year 9. I feel like they could’ve cut a few years without damaging anything.
Year 3 completed. My only major complaint about this game is that the final boss battle is really tedious. I’m not struggling with it that much, but it takes a while to reduce his health.
I don’t know if you’re doing this already, but if you save a good combination of spells, you can plant and fertilize pretty much on auto during the fight, and use the rain spell to put out the fires, which does speed things up considerably.
Also, having a bunch of trees. If you plant four trees, same as with the regular crops, you get a super tree. Super trees are badass.
Also, fertilizing sunflowers. Especially if you save four seeds for a super. Very much pew-pew.
Why did this never occur to me? Do they have to be the same kind of tree? Not sure I’ve ever had four of the same kind.
I realized super late in the game too! But yeah they do have to be the same trees, which gets really confusing because two of those trees look an awful lot alike.
There’s an item that will grant you a new seedling every day, that makes it a lot easier to achieve.
Yes and yes!
I love the inversion of the last boss.
I keep going back and forth between Year 1 and Year 2.
Obviously in Year 2 there’s no meta-progress since I usually die in Spring, but sometimes die in Summer. But in Year 1 I can almost always finish the game, so I earn lots of meta-progress upgrades. But then because of the structure of the game, I feel like I should be playing on Year 2 even though there’s no advantage to play on Year 2 that I can discern (except to eventually get to Year 3, I suppose).
I’ve managed to find 5 ants now! I just found my fifth one today in a Year 2 run where I died to the Sun God at the end of Summer.
Of course, in order to actually get the upgrades from all these ants, I have to play on Year 1. But then I’m not getting any better as a player on Year 2 if I keep playing Year 1. Hmmm.
It says you get “more rewards,” which I have (perhaps erroneously) interpreted as “more cornucopias,” which are, I think, the only straightforward “metaprogression” in the game if you don’t count unlocking characters (which are not straightforward upgrades). You don’t have to complete a year to get cornucopias, either.
Well, I obviously get a LOT more cornucopias on Year 1 than I do on Year 2, since I finish Year 1 almost every time and on Year 2 I can’t ever reach Fall. So yeah, per season, you earn more rewards, but since I usually can’t beat bosses in Season 2, I get much better rewards in Year 1.
I also find playing Year 2 very annoying because every single enemy is more of a bullet sponge. It just feels bad when enemies stay alive so long.
I’m hoping all the upgrades will eventually make it so that enemies don’t stay alive so long when I successfully shoot them.
As far as I have seen (and I am no expert), the upgrades are quite modest.
I went back to experiment a little. First time with three mega trees!
I love that game. I had completely forgotten there’s a major reference to The Thing on the second winter map.
I like the fact that beating the last boss isn’t really necessary. All the rewards are doled out before that last fight, so even if you lose, you still get all the rewards for the run. No cornucopias to be had for the last fight.
Of course, that’s only my perspective from replaying Year 1 over and over. I suppose if I was getting that far in Year 2, then the reward for winning that fight would be to unlock Year 3.
I still don’t fully understand the cats that I’ve unlocked so far. Every dang reward in this game is so minor that it’s hard to picture how it could possibly help, but I suppose it must all add up over time.
I thought cats were only cosmetic, with maybe a very slight chance of aiding you in fights sometimes?