#okawara

[jonnyparable]

Ghibli Filter

Yo this filter tho

It's like anime background art 😭

[jonnyparable]

Settling into Komorebi

A peaceful day begins, after the last painful buggy play session. I don't know why this game annoys me so much, like I just sit in front of my computer, and my face is in my hands in shock at times. I need to just lower my standards I think. This time, I walked the dog, and he disappeared into the ground, so, guess it's just another Thursday here in Komorebi. But goddamn this game is pretty.

What a lovely sunrise. Anyway I've got giant pumpkins, and am thinking of entering the fair at Finchwick, although I don't know if this is as big as they get. I guess the fair is supposed to be in England, and Yuto lives in Japan, but you know, Yuto could just as easily walk there, it's not like he (or anybody) has a car or anything...

Ok ok I'll stop. So, I've been getting him acquainted with the locals, and for the Harvest Festival, he even had a few of them, as well as the Nishidake family over for dinner, not that they sat down to eat, but you know, it's the thought that counts. He also went over to theirs for the Festival of Light.

He's also pretty close to Shigeru, who teaches him fishing. And, when I wasn't looking, the game somehow gave him a new townie friend Sota Yoshida, who is very fine, and loves animals. So you know what, well done game. I invited him over for hotpot and he autonomously cleaned the animal shed. What a gem. I think he's straight though. Oh well.

Speaking of townies, please, as a parting gift, enjoy this one random magnificent dandy who just showed up today and stood in front of the sunrise. He's dressed and styled by the game so, again, well done game.

[jonnyparable]

Summer in Okawara

[jonnyparable]

Yuto's Spring

[jonnyparable]

Yuto's Winter

[jonnyparable]

Autumn on the Farm

So things have been going well for Yuto. He is actually very rich and I did not expect to earn that much from crops alone. In fact, he's so rich, I'm thinking he can just singlehandedly carry Komorebi's economy. Which I will now put into effect by getting him to give people money as a form of investing in their businesses. But of course, the Sims 4 being the 8th wonder of the gaming world that it is, has already hurt itself in its confusion. So far some issues have occurred, the coop is not producing any eggs, although I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong, or if its just another fabulous bug.

There's no dispute, however, that this next issue is a known bug which I've just learnt about. Basically almost all my crops reverted back into a dirt pile, like they had just been planted. I thought it's cos I did something but Googled and turns out NO, this is just another issue with the game. Below, you can see how the whole crop field just turned into a nipple museum.

I found a modder who took her own time to FIX ANOTHER ISSUE FOR FREE and it works. But you know what? I wish to live in a world where I didn't need to have to mod a game to make it function as intended. To me, a mod should be adding cool, novel or bizarre things to the game, not making it WORK. My Sims 2 game was modded to hell and back, and that's only because I was forcing the game to be something it wasn't. Namely a very niche, period specific farming game. On its own, very little about the Sims 2 bothered me enough or was broken enough that I had to mod it out. If anything, things I had to mod out were gameplay features that worked perfectly as intended, but were just annoying, not actively broken. Things like newspapers rotting, magic spells needing raegents, or Sims waking up to react to weather. I played that game for 20 or so years and would 100% still be doing so if my computer hadn't died. I would be here continuing the story of Cottage Hills, having had whole plotlines about Saqhaba, going back to Shang Tao, and searching for the other gifts of the Goddess all over the world. Instead I'm here, about 3 months into this game, and already ranting about how it's a broken product. Gardening shipped with the Sims 4 base game, and it's 100% just broken. Honestly, this game is so demoralising and its eating away at me. You can't help but look at it being cute and you think it's got some things going for it and then BAM it goes tits up bonkers as if it was coded by a bus seat. You can sometimes see the devs having fun with something, and I do want them to, but then you see all the lazy shortcuts, sloppy execution, reused animations and just the massive amount of things that have no purpose or gameplay, and it just erases any goodwill when you realise how much they're charging for the experience. The fact that basic things in the game just don't work, while they're out here selling useless shit clutter for basements and greenhouses, including a disassembled Sims 1 Livin' Large heart bed, is just such a big sweaty fuck you to the players...

Sigh sorry for the rant. I tried to stay positive but this game is doing too much y'all. At least its ~pretty~.

[jonnyparable]

Return to Komorebi

It's begun. It's late winter, and Spring has just sprung here in Komorebi. Yuto, and perhaps by extension, me, takes his first steps in restoring his grandfather's farm. I had decided to take this story to Komorebi instead of Henford where arguably, it would fit better, but even in Sims 2, I had always wanted to create a rural Japanese hood, seeing as how the OG farming sim, Harvest Moon, and most every one after, is Japanese. Also Henford resembles Cottage Hills so much and I really wanted something fresh, so here we are in Komorebi! Wakabamori to be exact, and on the Okawara farm!

I must admit I had been pushing this off, mainly because I was worried that yet another game/immersion breaking issue will just negate any desire for fulfilling play, or render everything more meaningless than usual in a Sims game, but so far so good.

Yuto hasn't been able to grow much yet but I've got him started with one cow, Ayu, and a bunch of chickens. I will say the animals are incredibly cute, although in reality I doubt chickens will really need or want that much attention from you at all. But I do like interacting with them, so I don't mind. I do actually have chickens in my building and they do come up to me, especially if I have food, although they don't always like being handled.

As usual, seasons is very well done, Komorebi through the year has been stunning.

Yuto hasn't been making much money, bills are draining his funds, but I think once the crops come in for Spring, that will help. Good luck Yuto!

[artprintresidence]

Lithography on large scale by Ariadna Abadal #tripthyc #lithography #printmaking #okawara #japanesepaper #artprintresidence @ariadnaabadal (at Art Print Residence) https://www.instagram.com/p/CY1NYiBIQPM/?utm_medium=tumblr