So. I’ve been playing Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock) almost exclusively since I got it. This is part four of my official review, and I am thisclose to being done with it. And by ‘being done with it’,I mean 100%ing it. All the things I was pissed about in prior posts, I’ve done. And it was not as tedious as I thought it would be, but it wasn’t fun, either. Or rather, it wasn’t as intensive as I thought it would be, but my god, it was definitely tedious.
OK. I’m going to spoil it and include the trailer for it below. I need to talk about it because it represents what’s both best and worst about this game. And, I do want to emphasize that this is a game with so much heart. I got a lot out of it, and I had some genuine emotional moments while playing it.
However, there was a lot of frustration playing it as well. I’ve mentioned a bunch of those issues in previous posts, and I want to focus on the one that I didn’t realize was a thing until several seasons after it became a thing. Again, I’m going to spoil it, so far warning.
Part of the game is taking care of animals. At some point, you can start breeding them. I knew this was in the game, but I never got the ability to do so even as I neared the end of the second year. I thought it should have been before that point so I reluctantly looked it up. I found out that after a quest from Marty that allowed you to get different kinds of animals in addition to the cows and sheep, you’re supposed to get a letter from Aryel, one of the fae who gets along really well with animals.
Except the letter is about a calf on your farm wanting to have a baby. You were supposed to go see Aryel in order to get a fertility potion from him. I got rid of my cows in order to get other animals, so the letter I got from Aryel instead was about how a calf on Marty’s farm was bored and wanted to be on my farm instead. I did not see the need to have cows on my farm, so I ignored the letter.
That’s why I was so miffed when I found out that was supposed to signal to me that I was supposed to get a cow on my farm in order to start making animal babies. Why not let me make animal babies with my sheep, pigs, or alpaca instead? I bought a cow and she had a purple-faced cow. Thus started my earnest attempt to get as many magical creatures on my farm as possible. I did all the animals until I realized that for the sake of the plat, I did not need to do the ducks and chicken.
Oh, by the way, breeding the ducks and chicken was a completely different mechanic. You put an egg into the incubator and depending on what kind of egg you put in, you get a regular or magical duck/chicken in return.
Once again though, I didn’t do it for a long time because I kept my coop full, and the incubator would tell me I could not have another chicken/duck in the coop. It never occurred to me to get rid of a chicken or a duck so I could try for a magical one because my brain just does not work that way. I don’t know why, but it is, as the kids say, what it is.
I would not have cared except you need the magical wool to make the magical cloth in order to sew the magical cloth. I did not start doing any of this until after the second end of the game (after all the updated content. Which means once the lighthouse was fixed). I will emphasize that I needed much less of the magical cloth than I thought I would–oh, but you also needed the magical animals for magic hair goop for the last few hairstyles.
By the way, I love Eury, thhe last-added character and her whole storyline. I’m very pleased that I figured out what her deal was before it was revealed in the game. She’s also my favorite spouse in the game so far. I’ve been married four times and have to marry four more times in order to get the plat. That’s all I need, and if it weren’t for one of the marriages, it would be fairly easy to clean up the achievements. I’ll get to that in a second.
I think the ability to marry more than one person was added in an update to the game. I am pretty sure that the ability to start dating an old romanceable whom you have previously turned down (by giving them a bouquet) was added in an update. Probably because people wanted to get the marriages all done in one playthrough, which is what I’m trying to do.
I won’t be able to do it, though, because if a certain two of the characters are both single at the end of year one, they hook up and you can’t breake them up. I was married to one of them until the very beginning of year two, and the second I broke up with them, they announced they were in a relationship with the other datable. The one who is harder to romance because her favorite foods don’t show up until later (and giving them their favorite foods increases their hearts more dramatically the first time you do it).
Oh, I also didn’t realize until much later that while you can fill their hearts by giving them their favorite foods, you have to trigger certain cutscenes around town to actually change the status of your relationship with that person. I was not able to do it for the longest time with one character (I was married at the time, but you’re supposed to be able to do it regardless), no matter how much fine wine and meat I gave to him. I could not get him to two full hearts, so I finally looked it up.
The characters have bios and they do say to be on the look out for events happening around town, but that’s so vague to the point of being not helpful at all. It’s late. I’m going to do one more post in which I will give my final verdict. Tomorrow.