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PayPalAfter a Kickstarter success in early 2021, Ova Magica that blends ideas from Pokemon and Stardew Valley will hit Early Access on July 23rd.
Here you have the usual suspects of features like taking over a farmstead in a quaint little town, plus crafting, fishing and life-sim elements where you make friends and build relationships. But then you also have — the Blobs. Cute and wobbly creatures you hatch from eggs, which you can train up and battle others with.
In the announcement the developer mentioned it's playable with mouse / keyboard or controller and is "Fully playable on the Steam Deck". In the Steam forum when asked about the Linux version for Early Access a developer replied "We are currently planning for it to include it.".
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Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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It is absolutely adorable!
However, the concept of animal fights, which the entire Pokémon franchise is based on, bothers me too much to enjoy playing those games.
However, the concept of animal fights, which the entire Pokémon franchise is based on, bothers me too much to enjoy playing those games.
1 Likes, Who?
There are shades of Animal Crossing here, too, which is a formula that no other developer has ever gotten close to yet. I'll be interested in seeing if this one does! I assume that it doesn't play out in real-time, though. 
Last edited by Pengling on 7 June 2024 at 5:41 pm UTC
Quoting: kokoko3kIt is absolutely adorable!I always find it interesting how different cultures view this much more harshly than the original intent; Pokemon was actually based on the Japanese childhood pastime of collecting fighting crickets in the woods combined with collecting capsule-toys from vending machines, with the full brand-name being short for "Pocket Monsters", alluding to both.
However, the concept of animal fights, which the entire Pokémon franchise is based on, bothers me too much to enjoy playing those games.
Last edited by Pengling on 7 June 2024 at 5:41 pm UTC
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Quoting: PenglingThere are shades of Animal Crossing here, too, which is a formula that no other developer has ever gotten close to yet. I'll be interested in seeing if this one does! I assume that it doesn't play out in real-time, though.
Quoting: kokoko3kIt is absolutely adorable!I always find it interesting how different cultures view this much more harshly than the original intent; Pokemon was actually based on the Japanese childhood pastime of collecting fighting crickets in the woods combined with collecting capsule-toys from vending machines, with the full brand-name being short for "Pocket Monsters", alluding to both.
However, the concept of animal fights, which the entire Pokémon franchise is based on, bothers me too much to enjoy playing those games.
I did not knew about fighting crickets:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_fighting
However I fail to understand how that is less "harsh".
Original intent aside, the final product promotes moral and ethical standards too far from my principles.
I love japanese culture in general, but the way they 'handle' animals, I cannot stand.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 9 June 2024 at 11:08 am UTC
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Quoting: kokoko3kHowever I fail to understand how that is less "harsh".The fact that it's just based on a pretty innocent childhood hobby, rather than the organised cricket-fighting mentioned in the Wikipedia article is the first thing that springs to mind. The fact it doesn't tend to result in injuries like cockfighting/bullfighting/dogfighting/etc. is another pretty big one, I thought.
Quoting: kokoko3kOriginal intent aside, the final product promotes moral and ethical standards too far from my principles.I'm genuinely curious to hear more about this, if you'd indulge me, here, please; I've got no love left for Nintendo, I just want to stretch my mind by hearing other views that I suspect I've not heard before.
Reason being, the main thing they claim the brand is focussed on is friendship, teamwork, and other positives (not even mentioning the stealth mathematics and statistics that come into it), and I've not seen anything really suggesting otherwise. It's a fantasy about collecting monsters and stopping bad-guys, after all.
Quoting: kokoko3kI love japanese culture in general, but the way they 'handle' animals, I cannot stand.I'm afraid I don't know enough about this to comment. But, totally fair!
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: PenglingQuoting: kokoko3kHowever I fail to understand how that is less "harsh".The fact that it's just based on a pretty innocent childhood hobby, rather than the organised cricket-fighting mentioned in the Wikipedia article is the first thing that springs to mind. The fact it doesn't tend to result in injuries like cockfighting/bullfighting/dogfighting/etc. is another pretty big one, I thought.
Quoting: kokoko3kOriginal intent aside, the final product promotes moral and ethical standards too far from my principles.I'm genuinely curious to hear more about this, if you'd indulge me, here, please; I've got no love left for Nintendo, I just want to stretch my mind by hearing other views that I suspect I've not heard before.
Reason being, the main thing they claim the brand is focussed on is friendship, teamwork, and other positives (not even mentioning the stealth mathematics and statistics that come into it), and I've not seen anything really suggesting otherwise. It's a fantasy about collecting monsters and stopping bad-guys, after all.
Quoting: kokoko3kI love japanese culture in general, but the way they 'handle' animals, I cannot stand.I'm afraid I don't know enough about this to comment. But, totally fair!
The situation seems so tragically clear to me, that I doubt I have understood where your concerns arise from.
Do you really think they could ever advertise the confinement of sentient life forms and make them fight each other as the primary selling point?
I confess I have never even sniffed at a Pokémon game, and my knowledge about it is limited to fleeting glances of disdain towards the TV series; however, I believe it is fair to assume that the video games reflect such practices.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pokemon+battles+videos&t=ffab&ia=web
The fact that all this can be effectively (!) masked by the (not assumed!) friendship between the master and the animal, and that this can so effectively quell public conscience, only makes the situation worse in my opinion.
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/AGGDTF/pet-store-with-puppies-for-sale-shinjuku-tokyo-japan-AGGDTF.jpg
If it were humans, one could talk about Stockholm Syndrome :)
Last edited by kokoko3k on 10 June 2024 at 11:05 am UTC
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Quoting: kokoko3kThe situation seems so tragically clear to me, that I doubt I have understood where your concerns arise from.I must admit, you caught me by surprise here - I expected criticism of the games' price-rises, still-extant twin-versioning, the more recent additions of DLC into a series mainly aimed at a youngster-audience, and the poor software optimisation for which they still charge full price! I admire your principles.
Do you really think they could ever advertise the confinement of sentient life forms and make them fight each other as the primary selling point?
I confess I have never even sniffed at a Pokémon game, and my knowledge about it is limited to fleeting glances of disdain towards the TV series; however, I believe it is fair to assume that the video games reflect such practices.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pokemon+battles+videos&t=ffab&ia=web
The fact that all this can be effectively (!) masked by the (not assumed!) friendship between the master and the animal, and that this can so effectively quell public conscience, only makes the situation worse in my opinion.
Luckily, much as Bomberman doesn't teach siblings to use explosives to resolve their differences, and Dungeons & Dragons doesn't teach folks to take up a sword and go plundering other people's stored property (though it did partly inspire Doom, interestingly!), the vast majority of people know (and teach their kids) that Pokemon is just a fantastical work of fiction, and that this is not how you behave in real-life. Indeed, this includes the people who make the product - they're not promoting this as reality*. All that they're really promoting is merchandise and DLC sales - and sometimes paleontology and recycling.
*I think I'd be a bit worried about a reality where there's sentient rubbish-bags and cave-paintings, and lampshades that absorb and burn human souls for sustenance, in all honesty!
Quoting: kokoko3khttps://c8.alamy.com/comp/AGGDTF/pet-store-with-puppies-for-sale-shinjuku-tokyo-japan-AGGDTF.jpgWow, there's a blast from the past - I haven't seen a pet-shop like that in a looooooooooooong time!
Quoting: kokoko3kIf it were humans, one could talk about Stockholm Syndrome :)Again, luckily, it isn't real.
Last edited by Pengling on 10 June 2024 at 9:06 pm UTC
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Philadelphus Jun 11
One can be aware that games are entirely "not real" and still be put off by what goes on in said game and refuse to participate. D&D is a good example: I can be (and am) fully aware it's all make-believe, and would still refuse to roleplay torturing an NPC for information because that personally puts me right off. I do enjoy Pokémon (though I was always more in love with the idea from the first games of being essentially a fantasy biologist finding new species), but it's not hard to see why people might not.
From one perspective the mainline Pokémon games* are a happy, fun coming-of-age story about making new monster friends and teamwork and overcoming obstacles for self-improvement and stuff like that; from another, they're about sending minors out into the world sans adult supervision where they are encouraged to forcibly abduct wild creatures from their homes and force them to battle while sustaining horrific injuries – electrocution, freezing, poisoning, burning, simple blunt trauma – until they pass out into blissful unconsciousness, only to be jolted back to their sense viadrugs"Revives" or the free (and presumably government-subsidized) PokéCenters scattered liberally around the region, over and over again until they develop Stockholm Syndrome. All this not for some noble goal of self-defense or protecting innocents, but simply to advance – entirely voluntarily per the lore of the game** – in a man-made competition circuit solely for the gratification of the player character's ego by becoming the Pokémon champion, and "very best" in the region***. Of course Nintendo are going to lean more into the idealistic side than the other in the marketing. And that's not to say I think Nintendo have some nefarious pro-cockfighting agenda IRL or anything (I'm pretty sure they don't), just there are themes in Pokémon which can be unattractive if viewed from a certain angle.
*To separate them from some of the others like the Pokémon Ranger games that are more about teaming up temporarily with wild Pokémon to combat threats to the environment.
**Though enforced by its mechanics; you can't decide to opt out and become a Pokémon researcher instead.
***It doesn't give you money, so there's not even the justification of doing it for personal financial security.
From one perspective the mainline Pokémon games* are a happy, fun coming-of-age story about making new monster friends and teamwork and overcoming obstacles for self-improvement and stuff like that; from another, they're about sending minors out into the world sans adult supervision where they are encouraged to forcibly abduct wild creatures from their homes and force them to battle while sustaining horrific injuries – electrocution, freezing, poisoning, burning, simple blunt trauma – until they pass out into blissful unconsciousness, only to be jolted back to their sense via
And that's not to say I think Nintendo have some nefarious pro-cockfighting agenda IRL or anything (I'm pretty sure they don't), just there are themes in Pokémon which can be unattractive if viewed from a certain angle.*To separate them from some of the others like the Pokémon Ranger games that are more about teaming up temporarily with wild Pokémon to combat threats to the environment.
**Though enforced by its mechanics; you can't decide to opt out and become a Pokémon researcher instead.
***It doesn't give you money, so there's not even the justification of doing it for personal financial security.
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Quoting: PhiladelphusOne can be aware that games are entirely "not real" and still be put off by what goes on in said game and refuse to participate.Totally agreed. Just want to be sure that's clear.
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I agree with everything you, Philadelphus, wrote, and I want to thank you because English is not my native language and expressing myself on complex topics is challenging.
I also have a personal point regarding the comparison with other non-ethical games.
In Bomberman, you place bombs, they place bombs; we are all the bad guys, and we know it. In about 80% of other games, you play as the good guy who kills bad guys to protect your or other innocent lives, and I'm okay with that too. Then there are games where you take on the role of the bad guy; Tyranny is a great example. I wouldn’t play it, but I’m still okay with it because your role is clear-cut.
What really gets on my nerves with Pokémon and similar games is the fact that the negative aspects are hidden under a guise of positivity.
I also have a personal point regarding the comparison with other non-ethical games.
In Bomberman, you place bombs, they place bombs; we are all the bad guys, and we know it. In about 80% of other games, you play as the good guy who kills bad guys to protect your or other innocent lives, and I'm okay with that too. Then there are games where you take on the role of the bad guy; Tyranny is a great example. I wouldn’t play it, but I’m still okay with it because your role is clear-cut.
What really gets on my nerves with Pokémon and similar games is the fact that the negative aspects are hidden under a guise of positivity.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: kokoko3kI agree with everything you, Philadelphus, wrote, and I want to thank you because English is not my native language and expressing myself on complex topics is challenging.Thankyou for your time and acknowledgement of my post. This has been a very interesting discussion.
Quoting: kokoko3kI also have a personal point regarding the comparison with other non-ethical games.I'm guessing that you know Bomberman in a similar capacity to how you stated you know Pokemon, or perhaps less? Bomberman is the good guy, and at one point was a police-officer.
In Bomberman, you place bombs, they place bombs; we are all the bad guys, and we know it. In about 80% of other games, you play as the good guy who kills bad guys to protect your or other innocent lives, and I'm okay with that too.
The games are literally like Saturday-morning cartoons and shows like Power Rangers - it really is impossible to call it non-ethical.Quoting: kokoko3kWhat really gets on my nerves with Pokémon and similar games is the fact that the negative aspects are hidden under a guise of positivity.But they really are not promoting that stuff.
Anyway, thankyou again - this has been very enlightening!
Last edited by Pengling on 11 June 2024 at 12:56 pm UTC
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