Becoming Baba Jaga's Apprentice: REKA Early Playtest Impressions

     Have you ever wanted to run away to the forest, pledging your service to a mysterious old woman while you learn the craft of potion making and spell casting, all the while traversing the countryside in a chicken-legged hut? I mean, rhetorical question obviously, because who hasn't wanted to do that? Well, soon you'll be able to in REKA, a game inspired by the Slavic legends of Baba Jaga. I recently got access to a very early playtest, and I'm so excited for this game, so let's take a look at what's in it even at this early stage! As a note, REKA is set to release in 2024, will be available on both PC and consoles, and is developed by Emberstorm Entertainment, an indie game studio from Germany.

    First off, the devs confirmed that there's no official pronunciation of the title, as it's taken from a variety of Slavic languages, so you'll probably hear me and other content creators pronounce it every which way – Reeka, Reyka, Wrecka. None are wrong! And since there was a big discussion about it in the game's discord server and I was wondering about it myself, I thought I'd clear that up first. Okay, now let's talk about the gameplay itself!

 

   This playtest is small, focusing on the very start of the game and making sure everything functions as intended. It all takes place in one area, although you'll have access to a lot more when the full game releases. You'll also have full character customization upon release, although right now that doesn't exist. Still, despite the limited scope of this playtest, there's surprisingly a lot to do already, and it kept me busy for about 3 hours on my first run alone – and I didn't even do everything in that single run. If this is just a very small sample of the game to come, this game is going to be huge, full of quests and exploration to keep you entertained for a long time.

 

    I was so happy to see that we had complete freedom from the very moment you load into the game – I guess you're supposed to follow the path into the village to be given your first tutorial quest, but I immediately stepped off the path to explore the river nearby and the forest it led to. I explored for a good half hour before finally accidentally triggering the quest from a completely different angle. I loved this! I'm all for a good tutorial, and the game does provide that, but I want to do it at my own pace, and my ADHD brain always wants me to explore first. So I appreciate when we're not forced into the tutorial first thing. That already speaks volumes about the freedom we'll be given in this game. Additionally, for those who do tend to wander to the point of getting lost, don't worry about losing the guy with the starter quest. Thankfully, he's in a prominent location and is automatically triggered when you get close enough, so you don't have to go hunting for him when you do want to start questing.

 

    The tutorial itself guides you through the quests that get you set up with Baba Jaga – finding a talisman, foraging supplies, getting a chicken. All this is fairly simple, but gives you an excellent excuse to explore the landscape even more. The forest is full of random treasures, so you are well rewarded for going off the beaten path! And once you've done all that Baba Jaga asks of you, you're given the ultimate reward – lifelong service to her! Oh, you thought I was going to say chicken-legged hut? Yeah, I guess you get that too.

 

    Building your house uses a modular mechanic that's popular in many current games. I was a bit apprehensive about it, because I have a ton of trouble with this style of building in No Man's Sky, but happily, the process was much smoother in REKA. Actually, the only problem I ran into was that my plans were grander than the initial amount of wood that the tutorial provided. Obviously, the full game will provide a lot more wood to build the chicken-legged hut of your dreams. But even with my grandiose vision being squashed, I was impressed with how simple and easy building is already. I can't wait to start really building my dream hut in the full game!

 

    In addition to Baba Jaga's forest, we're able to visit a small village in the playtest. Some of the villagers have quests to fulfill, giving us a taste of the tasks we'll be doing as the forest witch's apprentice. While none of them were very hard, I accidentally made one way more difficult than intended because, earlier, I had picked up the baby goat and carried it on my explorations, and then couldn't find where I'd left it. Oops!

 

    As one last note on this early glimpse of REKA, the music is amazing and fits the setting so well. It's eerie but not creepy, cozy but also atmospheric. I love it so much, and would keep the game open just to listen to it. I need a soundtrack ASAP, please!

 

    All in all, this early glimpse of REKA has been great and speaks of amazing things to come. What are you most excited for that we've seen so far? I can't wait to continue playing and covering this game as it develops! 

    And as one last thing, if you're interested in traditional Slavic witchcraft inspired by Baba Jaga, I highly recommend Baba Yaga's Book of Witchcraft by Madame Pamita.

What I Want in Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time

    Fantasy Life is my favorite game of all time, and I've got high expectations for its announced sequel, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. I'm so excited for it, and obviously I've got a million ideas, big and little alike, of what I'd like to see. I started writing this list back in 2016 on my Fantasy Life tumblr – yes, I was that far in, I made its own tumblr – and it's only grown since then.

    While we have an idea of the basic premise of Fantasy Life i – we know the plot involves time travel of some sort, and we've seen many of the Lives that were in the previous game – there's still a lot that we don't know. The game was announced in February, it's currently September, and it's supposed to release before the end of the year... so let's get wishing and speculating! Let me know what's on your own list and if anything lines up with mine!

 

    (Psst, video more your style? Check it out here!)

Clothing and Furniture

    First on my list, back in 2016 and today, is no more gender locked clothing. In the original game, we had a limited but cute selection of clothing, but it was made even more limited by most pieces being specific to gender. This restriction was unnecessary and didn't even make sense in canon, as Olivia's entire plot revolves around defying gender expectations – and the game celebrates her for it. Additionally, Laura disguises herself as a boy, both as a plot point and later just because, and it just doesn't make sense that we as the player are restricted in ways that the characters are not. Now, in 2023, gender expression in games has become much more loose – although many games still could stand to improve this – and gender restricted clothing just won't go over well. Let guys wear flowers in their hair if they want to!

    On the note of clothing, I'd love to see more clothing options in general – and more furniture and other craftables to make our world ours. We saw a swing bench in the trailer, which is new from the first game, but still doesn't speak to how much new furniture we may be getting. Even better, in the trailer, we actually see the character sitting on the swing, confirming that we're getting usable furniture – one of my wishlist items from 2016! I remember a tumblr post that was like, “the 3ds era is finally giving us chairs we can sit on,” but Fantasy Life was an outlier in this. Finally, our time has come! I hope lots of the furniture is usable in cute ways.

Lives

    Another wishlist item that follows the trend in games but also fits in with the game's mechanic, I'm happy that we're getting a gardening Life! I thought this was a pretty good possibility – there's a mystery Life in the “gathering” category, and it would tie in perfectly with the cooking and alchemy Lives. So let's talk about this new reveal and what I want from it! I'm not asking for anything intense – in fact, quite the opposite, more Animal Crossing's “set it and forget it” style of gardening than daily care like Stardew Valley. But it'll be great to be able to grow exactly what we need for food and potion recipes, and having a little garden outside our house would be so cute!

    On that note, we know from the trailers that there are 14 Lives in this game, with all 12 Lives from the previous game returning and introducing 2 new Lives. I was hedging my bets on a gardening or farming Life, but have no idea what the other one would be. It's grouped in with the “creating” Lives, so presumably something of that nature. I think one of the scrapped Lives from the first game was a performer of some sort – I'm not sure how a dancer or singer might be useful in terms of combat, but it would be fun. Maybe they could make it function like a bard in D&D? I'd like to see that. Or the Life could possibly be robotics or mechanics? This would explain the terraforming robot we've seen in the trailers, although I wonder how that could expand to be an entire Life to encompass the whole game. But it would be great to have the ability to build all sorts of different robots to help with tasks, like farming and autocrafting down the line. Hmm, possibilities!

Worldbuilding

    Moving on, another thing I'd like to see – and others on tumblr agree with me – is a bigger, fuller world, but also a revisit to our favorite Reveria locations. We do know that the main story takes place on a new mysterious island, but I'd be sad if I didn't get to see Port Puerto in better graphics. Maybe as DLC? Starry-thread on tumblr said they'd also like to see the old towns have more life in them, and I agree. Castele was a great starter area, but the other locations got progressively emptier, presumably due to the hardware limitations of the 3ds. Now, we all know that the Switch isn't exactly a powerhouse, but it can at least handle a lot more than its handheld predecessor, so I'd love to see a fuller, more vibrant world that really feels lived in, with lots of fun NPCs to banter with.

Crafting

    Now, let's talk about crafting. I do think Fantasy Life got crafting half right, and it's one of the more enjoyable crafting mechanics I've encountered in a game. Unpopular opinion? Maybe, but since crafting is such a big part of the game – 5 Lives to date are crafter Lives, more than any other category – I appreciate that it's more than “just click a button” mechanics like in many other games. I mean, sure, that's easy... but boring! But Fantasy Life's crafting mechanics falter in one big way for me: they're random. If you make something twice, the sequence of events will be completely different the second time. I'd love for crafting to have set patterns, so I can feel like I'm really improving at making things instead of guessing, correctly or not,what the next step will be. In my opinion, cooking in Palia gets this right, with each recipe being specific about chopping, stirring, and more. As a bonus, friends can hop in to help out and get the final result as well! Including something like that would be a big boon to Fantasy Life's multiplayer system, but I'll also admit that among items on this list, that's one unlikely to happen. But it's a thought!

Multiplayer

    As far as multiplayer itself goes, I definitely want to see some additions – but I'll admit that I'm not sure what, because I only played with other people a couple times in the original! I guess just party bonuses in general, like extra EXP or sharing loot, forageables, etc. And if there ends up being DLC, please don't lock out those who don't have the DLC from playing with those who do! Okay, that's my big multiplayer wishlist item.

    I'd also like our friends to show up around the world like they did with Streetpassed players in the original. This was one of my favorite Streetpass incorporates in a game, and although the Switch sadly doesn't have Streetpass (a decision I'm still questioning six years later), I would love the new game to bring our friends to town in a similar way. I loved seeing them fill the streets of Castele and bring the town more to life, and chatting with them was a delight!

NPCs

    Okay, let's talk about NPCs. I loved all the characters in Fantasy Life, they had so much personality, but I was so disappointed when I could finally invite them to my party, and... they just became mindless killing machines. Let me talk to the NPCs when they're in my party! And please, for the love of Olivia, let them have more than two lines when you attempt to talk to them after their part in the story. Please.

    I would love to see a friendship system in Fantasy Life i. No need to figure out their loved and hated items, but just something simple like increased friendship every day you talk to them. This could be used to unlock adventuring with them in a party, and then taking them along could further boost your friendship with them.

    And while romance is popular in many life sims – and other genres – I'm not exactly clamoring for it to be included here. I think the game is great even without it! But if it is included, because it's trendy, I have two wishes for it. First, let it be superfluous to the gameplay, not anything that will require or pressure you to engage in romance, like an integral plot point or boon to your stats. Let's not alienate the aromantic players! And honestly, in a lot of games, I'm just not interested in the available NPCs... but I'd say otherwise to Olivia! And that's my other caveat to romance in Fantasy Life i: if there is romance, it needs to include the option for queer romance. Thankfully games have gotten a lot more on board with this since the original game's release in 2012, but since Fantasy Life also had gender-locked clothing... I thought I should be explicit.

    But, honestly, I'm more than fine with no romance in the game. I'm just saying, if it does exist, these two things need to be included.

Time

    Finally, my last wishlist item, at least for this post: I'd like to see significant improvements to the day and night cycle. In the first game, there was a cycle, but it had very little purpose other than a couple plot elements, like Laura's location, and the poor mailman. I want to see it have more purpose, like specific fish only caught at night and similar, common mechanics. But no bedtime! Let me roam all night with no penalty like in the first game, thanks.

    I'd also like weather, and potentially seasons, to be incorporated into Fantasy Life i. Despite having a day and night cycle in the first game, it feels like the same day over and over because the weather never changes. It's perpetually sunny, unless you're on the top of the one snowy mountain. Let's have variety! Besides, rainy days would undoubtedly help out with growing crops in the new farmer Life. It's a win-win in my opinion!

 

    Okay, that was the last wishlist item... for this blog post, at least. We'll see what else I come up with between now and release... Actually, I lied, I've got one more wish! Please give us a release date at the Tokyo Game Show! Your girl needs to plan out content, and budget so I'm sure that I can start playing on day one. Okay, that was the last thing on my wishlits! What's on yours? Hopefully we'll see some of this soon in teasers and the full game!

Sims 4 Legacy Challenge: Animal Crossing Style!

    I love Animal Crossing, and one of the things I always joke is that it's my goal in every game to play Animal Crossing. Whether that's decorating my dream house, befriending my neighbors, or trying to catch all the unique fish in a game, the ways I play my other favorite games all resemble Animal Crossing gameplay when it gets down to it. And, probably to nobody's surprise, the Sims is no exception. I've spent years making an Animal Crossing world in my Sims 4 game, and I'm finally ready to play it! So I made a legacy challenge to capture the heart of Animal Crossing, and thought I'd share it with others. Starting in September, I'll be uploading my own playthrough of this challenge on my YouTube channel, so check it out if you want to see it in action!

    As a note, I started this build in 2018 so it's based on New Leaf, and yes I will cry if you make me update all the buildings for New Horizons. I probably wouldn't finish until the next Animal Crossing game if I tried to do that. But if you'd like to use my buildings to fill out your world, they're all CC free and on the gallery under EA ID “fuchsiarascal”. I've also got some Animal Crossing NPCs up there, and will be making more as I play more.

Video more your style? Check out the challenge (and lots of shots of my Animal Crossing world!) here!

SETUP 

1. In Create a Sim, make your Sim for generation 1. Specific guidelines are down below, but you'll be starting with a "normal" personality, any gender.

2. Evict all townies, and refill homes with villagers and NPCs.

3. Turn auto-age and stories OFF for non-played household. This makes it easier to keep our iconic NPCs around and unchanging as shopkeepers and neighbors as our own story progresses.

4. Create a single room (plus bathroom) Animal Crossing-inspired house to start, and place it on a 20x30 lot. I have a starter house also uploaded to the gallery for this if you want.

5. Set lifespan to normal.

6. Make a museum to house collections. As a lot of the goals are collections oriented, this will be very important! At the moment, I'm still working on my functional museum so it's not on the gallery yet (just the New Leaf inspired one), but any place to put items that isn't your home lot will do!

    Optional setup includes filling worlds with Animal Crossing buildings, like the ones on my gallery. I love to use Newcrest as my “base world” for all these buildings and set it up to really look like a New Leaf town as much as possible! Then, if you want to use a mod, I set up NPCs with the Live-in-Business mod, which is helpful for businesses to work in a way that the Sims 4 doesn't really support, like Brewster owning and working at the Roost. And although my gallery builds don't have custom content in them, I have a ton that I'll be using in my house and throughout my gameplay. If you want to fill your world with Animal Crossing inspired custom content too, I use a lot from Talia's Witchy Sims CC.

RULES

Okay, with setup all done, let's go over the rules of the challenge!

1. Start with a single young adult sim with “normal” traits, move them into the Animal Crossing starter lot, and then zero out your money.

2. Each generation has a specific personality with their own aspirations and collections to focus on. Each personality has one defining trait that they must have; choose one other from the list, and the third trait can be your choice or randomized. Also, personalities do not have to be tied to gender!

3. A sim can have multiple children, but only one can be the heir. You can choose who this will be, as long as they have the defining traits for the next generation. The others must move out upon becoming young adults.

4. The current generation progresses when the heir becomes a young adult; parents can either stay and contribute to the household with collections, aspirations, etc. or move out – that's up to you! If they move out, they can no longer contribute to the collections, and they must be played occasionally to age up or die, or do this manually. Because of this, you may want to keep them in the household – so it's a good thing that you'll be able to expand your house!

5. Each personality and generation has a few careers to choose from. Some fit multiple personalities, so you can choose, but only one can have that career. So, for example, if your Normal sim in generation 1 is a gardener, your Uchi sim in generation 6 has to be something else.

6. You can marry placed villagers, and you can bring your spouse's funds into the family, with a maximum of 20,000 simoleons. Remember, we kicked all the rich townies out, so nobody should have more than that.

7. House expansions are based on money, not generations. This does not include the lot value, but rather how much money your sim has in spending cash.

8. You can move lots twice: at the 3^rd expansion to a 30x40 lot, and at the final expansion to a 60x60 lot.

COLLECTIONS RULES:

• Each generation has specific collections to complete; see details later in this video or in the blog post. Obviously, only count the collections for DLC that you own. I tried to split them up evenly but also fit with what each personality would be interested in.

• Items collected in previous generations count as inheritance, but that generation's collections must be completed before they move out or die.

• To “donate” something to the museum, edit the museum in build buy mode to place the item, and then delete, do not sell, that item from your sim's inventory. A bit clunky, but unless you want your sim to own the museum as a retail store and pay bills on it, this is the best way.

The goal of this challenge is to experience different personalities and ambitions in the lens of the sims while also completing the many collections the game has to offer. Enjoy!

 GENERATIONS

    Now, onto the generations, what personality accompanies which and what you'll be focusing on with each one! 

GENERATION 1: NORMAL

You are sweet and well-rounded, but mostly focused on establishing a solid foundation for your family – friends, career, education, bonding.

career options: gardening, writing, or culinary arts
goals: best friends with 8 villagers (excluding family); read 20 books
aspiration: family
collections: frogs, fossils, decorative eggs, village fair ribbons
required trait: cheerful
optional traits: creative, art lover, bookworm, foodie, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover), neat

 GENERATION 2: CRANKY

Your parent(s) instilled a strong sense of learning, but growing up with little made you want more. you value success over relationships.

career options: physician, business, scientist, politician
goals: no more than 2 best friends (excluding family); reach top of chosen career
aspiration: knowledge
collections: microscope prints, space prints, aliens, batuu records, moonwood relics
required trait: loner
optional traits: gloomy, unflirty, genius, socially awkward, paranoid

 GENERATION 3: SNOOTY

You learned from your parent(s) to be selective with relationships, but you are more social than them. you enjoy the finer things in life and society.

career options: home decorator, critic, style influencer
goals: join 3 clubs; travel on 5 luxury vacations
aspiration: fortune
collections: metals, crystals, elements, snow globes
required trait: snob
optional traits: high maintenance, romantic, art lover, ambitious, materialistic, proper, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover)

GENERATION 4: PEPPY

Growing up surrounded by your parent(s)’ club friends, you want to be popular! Your parents involved you in lots of activities– and you want to do it all!

career options: pop star, actor, child star, spell caster
goals: achieve “global superstar”; own a hot tub
aspiration: popularity
collections: postcards, feathers, seashells, magical artifacts
required trait: outgoing
optional traits: cheerful, romantic, music lover, dance machine, squeamish, insider

  

GENERATION 5: SMUG

Your famous parents leave you with a sense of superiority – it’s up to you whether you earn it, or just ride on your parents’ coattails. You like to flirt, but finding someone to settle down with will be a challenge.

career options: detective, secret agent
goals: 10 romantic relationships, no marriage (but can hire a nanny)
aspiration: love
collections: fish, sugar skulls, city posters, message in a bottle
required trait: self-absorbed
optional traits: romantic, self-assured, art lover, ambitious, eratic, snob, insider, jealous, non-committal

GENERATION 6: UCHI

After watching your parent play with hearts your whole life, you’re very protective and caring. You have close friends that you’d die for, but you keep your circle small. You tend towards physical activities to get your negativity out.

career options: gardening, crafter, astronaut
goals: start a “club” of close friends; make lot eco-friendly
aspiration: location
collections: gardening, space rocks, magic beans, geodes, village fair ribbons
required trait: loves outdoors
optional traits: neat, family oriented, creative, cheerful, active, maker, freegan, hot headed

GENERATION 7: JOCK

Your parent(s) showed you the mental importance of endorphins, and you took that and ran (literally). You work everything out through physical activity, and you love it!

career options: athletic career, lifeguard, adventurer
goals: 5 “adventure” trips (jungle, ski resort, etc.); university – party school!
aspiration: athletic
collections: holiday cracker plushies, artifacts, buried treasure, lightsaber parts
required trait: active
optional traits: adventurous, loves outdoors, bro, party animal

 

GENERATION 8: LAZY

Your parent(s) forced you to do sports as a kid, and you hated it. You’d rather sit around playing video games and reading comics! You’ve inherited a lot of wealth and a big house; why work hard when you could enjoy it?

career options: tech guru, barista, culinary arts
goals: have a butler/maid; taste all city/festival foods
aspiration: foodie
collections: mysims, insects, experimental food photos, voidcritters, simmies
required trait: lazy
optional traits: goofball, foodie, geek, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover), childish, clumsy, glutton, slob

 HOUSING UPGRADES:

    As the final part of the challenge, let's talk about house expansions. As I mentioned, these are monetarily based. These are also the numbers I'm not quite sure about, as I don't really know what's realistic in the Sims currency, so this may be heavily edited in the future. But for now, this is the rundown for expansions and moves. And remember, these are obtained when you have this amount in household funds, not counting lot value.

        50K – Add a separate bedroom

        100k – Add two additional rooms

        250k – Add a bathroom and one addition, such as a porch, greenhouse, shed, etc. At this expansion, you can move to the 30x40 lot.

        500k – Add an attic room.

        750k – Add two more rooms in the attic

        1 million – Add a basement and an additional bathroom

        1.2 million – Add two rooms in the basement

        1.5 million – One addition (porch, greenhouse, etc.) and you can move to the largest size lot in the game