Ashen – The Souls-Like Game For 2021

Gaming During a Pandemic

It’s been a rough 10 months. The pandemic has been relatively unmitigated in the U.S. and we’ve had a rough go of it for nearly an entire year now. No brewery tap rooms, no hosting parties, no yard sports, no board games… the list goes on. Hopefully, we’re on an upward trajectory now, but the relentless parade of somber news has made games like Dark Souls, games that I love, a bit more difficult to get into for reasons outside of their gameplay.

Along comes Ashen.

Ashen, developed by A44, came out in 2018 as one of the first Epic Store exclusives on PC, awkwardly, after building a good amount of attention with its Steam page. After the one year of exclusivity, Ashen hit Switch in addition to everywhere else and has been on my watch list since. It turns out, late 2020 into 2021 was the perfect time to get into it.

Ashen is a souls like action RPG set in a world that has moved on. You are a nameless wanderer looking, “for a place to call home.” The game starts with your adventurer happening upon the bare beginnings of a settlement. The leader offers you a place to call your home base, at least temporarily, and has some information for you to look into. This is a huge separation from the typical Dark Souls formula. You barely know your main quest, let alone side objectives, when you start out in Lordran. Ashen gives you a map and marked objectives. Not only that, when you venture out of town, a companion will follow your lead. This could either be an AI quest-giver or a friend who joined up online. Ashen is a tough game, but its build around community and companionship, and always having a partner in the field with you.

Solid Dark Souls Combat Focused on Co-Op

The combat is standard souls-like faire, but it feels solid and well implemented, if it is less varied than a From Software game. Weapons are limited to axes and clubs, each type with single and double handed options. There are also shields and throwing spears in place of bows. Armor is all in sets, the variety comes from a selection of runes and talismans. You can make it through the game upgrading any of the weapons you find. Some are relatively better than others, but all of them are comparable and mostly vary based on their move set.

This game stands out from the crowd based on its art style. It’s a abstracted vision of a Nordic world where characters lack faces and feature cartoony dimensions, but it all works in beautiful concert together. The scenery is dense and wild, but lacks any textures. Characters are fully voiced, but their lips aren’t awkwardly still when they speak, because they lack lips, eyes and noses. It’s a wonderful simplification of a dark fantasy world, and likely helps it run so well on the Switch.

Building a Community Amidst Adversity

But, beyond all that, the reason it stands out in 2021 is  the community building. Not only does it encourage online co-op and provide you with a compatriot if you’re playing solo, but the community of Vagrant’s Rest grows as you advance the story. It’s a shaded meadow next to a stream when you first arrive. Soon, you’ll attract other travelers who start putting up framing for houses and shops. More people who need your help will make their way to town, and join you in the fight beyond it. Craftspeople open shop to upgrade your weapons and healing flask. This small bit of civilization attracts all the travelers around.

The unnamed characters who join your settlement are also incredibly appreciative.

Townsfolk show up randomly and help build and develop the town. They give a taste of the world beyond this valley and landscape. Most, like your character’s story, say they’ve been wandering as long as they remember and never thought they’d find a place to call home again. As the settlement develops, random travelers try to contribute by helping to erect shelters and frame the church and other structures. After either being beaten enough to need a rest or gathering and solid haul to bring back to town, it’s heartening to see tangible growth of a town as you adventure.

Ashen not only focuses the gameplay on co-op and teamwork, the entire arc of the game is about community building. Unlike other souls-like that focus on hopelessness and perseverance through adversity, Ashen gives the player something tangible to fight for beyond themselves. Strangely, it’s the Animal Crossing of souls-like games.

Selling Beer During a Pandemic

Brooklyn Brewery’s Special Effect Non-Alcoholic Hoppy Brew can go more places than my glassware

With Brooklyn Brewery – Special Effects Non-Alcoholic Hoppy Brew

Brooklyn Brewery bet big on non-alcoholic craft beer for 2020. Dry January was getting more traction than ever before and several completely non-alcoholic breweries have been propping up the entire non-alcoholic craft segment. On top of that, non-alchoholic craft beer is now the fastest growing segment of the market. Brooklyn Brewery’s new hoppy brew, it legally can’t be labelled beer, is their bet on the growing market as more drinkers consider their health and consuming less alcohol.

The near beer has been popping up all of the SF Bay area since the nationwide rollout in January, even replacing full strength offerings from the brewery in stores. While I’m sure they want to have a presence as a niche product in some bars as a canned NA option, their main push is in retail. Neilsen stated a 48% rise in retail beer sales the last week of March with the increased demand due to shelter in place orders and bar closures. Consumers are proving to be more cost conscious as the economy becomes more uncertain by the day, and are looking toward broadly available brands and higher strength options from their local craft breweries.

As more people work from home and don’t have to wake up quite as early for their usual commute, or are looking toward unemployment for their financial security, non-alcoholic craft beer is in an odd place right now. The option for the health-conscious go-getter is less appealing when the gym isn’t open and meetings no longer require pants. Lower cost options with medium to high ABV seem like the choice from independent breweries offering take out cans and growlers as enthusiasts seek a little bit of relief from the turmoil courtesy of the local brewing company.

It’s a rough time for every industry, support your local independent brewery if you are financially able to. It will be interesting to see the trends that emerge as more breweries adapt to stay afloat, NA beer might have lost some of its steam, but it’s only a delay. Fingers crossed for all the small breweries out there, but there is a little comfort in the oft repeated words of Bart Watson, the Brewers Association’s chief economist, “beer isn’t recession proof, but it’s recession resistant.”

Brooklyn Brewery – Special Effects Hoppy Brew Tasting Notes

Appearance

Slightly amber, more of a golden copper color like a Vienna lager. Medium-light thickness, just-off eggshell white head that deteriorates pretty quick.

Aroma

Earthy, herbal tea and grass with a slight resinous, oily, pine character. Hop pellets. Dried grapefruit rind in black tea.

Mouthfeel

Coats your mouth satisfyingly but dissipates quickly. Light body that leaves a bit of iced black tea flavor on your palate. 

Flavor

Less hop pellet character than other hoppy NA beers that I’ve tried, but it’s still right there. More of an earthy tea character. A slight bitterness that gives it a crisp and refreshing bite. Not much bread or caramel flavor, but its just a touch that’s almost implied by the color.

Overall

This is better than some American pale ales I’ve had. It would be a great crowd pleaser for a group that isn’t into any one specific style of beer. It sounds bad, but it almost tastes like what generic “craft beer” would taste like to a lot of people who aren’t deep into it. If I was looking for a non-alcoholic option, this one is very close to as appealing as the Athletic Brewing Co. Run Wild NA IPA.

Stories [Compel Me]: Game of Thrones Spoilers

The Game of Thrones show is Scheduled to Spoil the Books…

It’s been officially announced by the writers of the Game of Thrones HBO series that they will be finishing the series (most likely) before the book series is finished and they will be using the same ending as the one for the books. The writers teased a little while ago that they knew the ending that George R. R. Martin has in mind for the series but I had heard rumors, and was incredibly hopeful that, the writers were working with Martin in order to have a spin off ending that he had also come up with for the books so that eventually the show would split from the plot of the books and end with a completely different story arch.

I was very hopeful of this because we’ve all been pretty sure for awhile that the show would wrap up before the books were even close to their conclusion but I always realized it was a stretch. With how delicate and detailed the plot of the Song of Ice and Fire book series is, it would be difficult to come up with a second ending that wraps up all of the plot points, makes sense, and is fulfilling to the now tremendous fan base. I didn’t know how they were going to do it, but I really wanted them too like a preteen dreaming of the presents at their next birthday. But really, how could they end the mind blowingly successful HBO series with Martin’s second string ending for the books?

This makes me think, as much as I’ve loved watching the Game of Thrones series and how they’ve really brought the story and characters to real life very well, would I be happier if they didn’t exist? I loved reading the books, they’re some of the reason that I got back into reading so much, and they were a tremendous experience. But, I realize that the books introduced the world to an awesome story in a somewhat intimidating way that turned some of the potential audience off. The HBO series was much more accessible and really contributed to sending the Song of Ice and Fire story to the next level.

I might try to avoid seeing the ending of the story through the show, but I don’t think that reasonable given how quickly news of the show spreads. I’ve enjoyed seeing audience reactions to events that I had read about years before, but it could be interesting to experience the end of the series with the res of the viewing audience, though I do miss feeling like part of the exclusive group of fans that have read all of the stories.

What do you think about the news of the show lapping the books? Let me know in the comments below!

Video Courtesy IGN

What was just a Patagonia Commercial…

Yvon Chouinard’s Patagonia Commercial for the Dirtbag Diaries

Today, I put on an episode of the Dirtbag Diaries, a great podcast you should probably check out, and it, like all of the episodes, started with a commercial for Patagonia. In the commercial, Yvon Chouinard talks about his early life and the inception of his company. In the interview based commercial, he says that as a teenager, he was young and confused about what he wanted out of his life, a place all teenagers end up at one point or another. Then, at the age of 16, he took a road trip to Wyoming and, for the first time in his life, saw mountains in the Wind River Range, and everything started coming together.

Yvon Chouinard’s Youth and Experience

I looked into him a bit and found on his Wikipedia page that he was born in 1938, so when he was 16 it was 1954. It’s a cliche to say that they were simpler times, but they were in some regards. Imagine that you’re a young person confused about life in general and then you hear some stories and take a long drive and discover something as emotional and tremendous as a mountain. That would be an incredibly powerful experience for anyone, if they had never before laid eyes on any form of a mountain. Then I thought, has the internet taken away our chance at an experience like this one?

 

The entire web is filled to the brim with beautiful photos taken on other peoples adventures that they want to share. But imagine not being able to see just about any sight in the world with a few clicks? What if you actually had to plan and adventure to see the beauty of the world for yourself?

 

Obviously, seeing a mountain online is not exactly like seeing one in person, but think about if before you had seen a sight like that for yourself, you had only heard stories and only had only your imagination to illustrate. What would that be like….

 

Photo Credit: http://www.treehugger.com/treehugger-radio/the-th-interview-yvon-chouinard-founder-of-patagonia-part-two.html