I have been playing Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock) pretty much exclusively since I wrote part three of my ‘quick’ look at the game. That was over two weeks ago, and I have been playing every day since. In the last post, I wrote about my frustrations with the game and what was hindering my enjoyment. I can’t say that I’ve changed much of my mind about those negative opinions, but there’s one thing I’ve discovered that has mitigated some of the pain.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but there’s a cheat that allows you to make a ton of money super quickly. The devs know it’s a thing/made it a thing because there’s the option to put an embargo on it. I don’t know much about the development of this game, but I feel like it was done with a lot of input from the community. Like it was launched as a mobile game in 2022 and was continually improved upon. I know that at least one character was added later, which makes for a really weird balance in the game.
I’m in the second winter, which means I’m nearing year three. The story itself ended at the end of year one, but there has been a ton of additional content. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the stuff you can do in the game. The busy-work I’ve mentioned in the past posts has only intensified. It’s amusing to me that I’m one of the newer witches in the coven, and yet, I have to do everything. I know that’s a gameplay mechanic, but it’s really lopsided in this game.
Let’s talk about the different parts of this game, starting with the story. It’s…fine. I was a step ahead the whole way. I saw almost everry twist and turn, and I chalk that up to me having read thousands of mystery novels. In those novels, I estimate I clock the suspect 95% of the time. It was pretty clear who the ‘bad guy’ was, though I realized it later than I should have. And I wished there had been a bigger impact on the story when this character was revealed. It’s a serviceable story, but nothing special. I do like the fae being involved, but–
Look. I mentioned how limited the dialogue was in the past post. I was getting repeat dialogue very early on, and now, I’m getting lines of dialogue that I got in the first winter. I’m also getting lines that make so sense in terms of the events that have taken place, and the writing is pedestrian at best.
That’s not entirely fair. I like most of the lines when I first get them–it’s just by round fifty or so, I wince. Hard. I like them less each time I hear them, and I hear them so much. What I really dislike is that in the coven, there are no new lines at all. I go to the circle every night, and I haven’t heard anything new in some time. We’ve gotten three new members in a fairly short amount of time, and their lines are more limited than the old-timers.
Huh. In looking up a trailer to include in this post, I stumbled across one that suggests I have not run into all the new shit yet. I’m both happy and upset about it. The new stuff is cool, but, my god. I do not need new shit. I thought I wuld be winding down the game, and there’s several additions that I don’t know what to do with. Or when they will drop.
I knew there was one more update that I hadn’t seen yet, but now I realize there are more than one. Also, that I did not prock one update because I didn’t have any cows. I did get a note from the fae involved in the update mentioning that a cow was bored and could it come to my farm? But I did not need cows, so I didn’t even consider it. Now, I have to wait two in-game days to get the cow, and I am very displeased. VERY displeased. They should have been much more clear about it as it does not make sense that I need a cow for this event to trigger.
And with this event, it opens up a whole new mechanic. I knew that was in the game, but I had no idea what would cause it to happen. This is very frustrating, honestly. Again, I play FromSoft games, and they love themselves some obtuse gameplay. But I do not want that in my cozy games; it makes for things to not be cozy at all. I try not to look things up when I play From games, and I know I’m going to miss things. I do not expect that from my cozy games, damn it.
Oh, the thing I was mentioning above was that you can buy tuna from Bruno and flour from Lina, make fish fingers, and make 65 coins on each one. If you sell thousands upon thousands of them, you can get to a million (and beyond) in no time. I currently have nearly 2.5 million, and I never have to worry about money. You can make it so you can’t do this in the game, but I am relieved that I don’t have to worry about making money. There is so much other shit to take care of (and much more than I imagined, obviously), so I am glad to have one thing off my plate.
I’m still mad about the update debacle. I’m glad I saw the new trailer that led me to looking up a few things that I had missed. One of them might be a glitch or might not be. I have to wait to do a few quests before seeing if the game is bugged or not.
I’m not happy about that, either. I have a bunch of things I should be able to do with the jeweler, and I noticed that early on. His store is upgraded to five stars (the highest), but I’m still allowed to sell things. It says I’ve unlocked new items AND it shows the sillhouettes of things I can sell that I don’t have (as other shops have done), but I have not unlocked anything new from him for ages.
The forums tell me that I have to do two quests for other people first, but I have not triggered either of them. I should not have to constantly Google things to get to the new content. And, yes, I know how ironic/hypocritical that sounds from someone who loves FromSoft games, but that’s deliberate and it’s only once for the DLC rather than ambiguous and sprinkled throughout the game.
That’s all for today. I’ll write more tomorrow. Hopefully, I will unlock new content by then.