RS2 News (Jan 2017)

Time for the first summary of the shenanigans going on over in Restaurant Story 2 in 2017. And it looks like I'm turning over a new leaf in this new year with some positive comments about the sequel game! Don't get too excited though - there's an ample dollop of grumbling as well!

Two cruises have dominated since my last news post, with the first being the Wizard Wonderland cruise event.

Notification for Wizard Wonderland cruise event

This was essentially Storm8's take on the Harry Potter series, and for some players it may have seemed an odd choice of theme just over two weeks before Christmas. However I tend to think of the Harry Potter films as being quite a Christmassy thing to watch, perhaps influenced by the fact that all eight were aired here in the UK over the Christmas period on terrestrial TV.

In truth I'd watch a Harry Potter film at any time of year. I am a self-confessed 'Potterhead' and had high hopes from the moment that I saw the notification for this event. My expectations were high, and yet the gamemakers still managed to impress me. The prizes from the cruise were of real quality, including the Christmas Tree which was topped by a small snowy owl and the Magic Fireplace which contains the green flames produced by Floo Powder.

 RS2 News

 03/12/16 December 2016
 05/11/16 November 2016
 08/10/16 October 2016
 03/09/16 September 2016
 06/08/16 August 2016

And yet the floating Mystic Candles drew my attention more. In terms of the item itself these candles are nothing spectacular, but I just love how they bob around in the air. It brings me back to Harry's first entrance into the Great Hall at Hogwarts (man I wish I was a wizard!)

We haven't even got to the characters which can be unlocked yet! Tom Wheatley and Hominy Grazer are worth a smile for their names alone. Unfortunately there isn't an opportunity to complete the trio by purchasing a Harry doppelgänger, but that doesn't mean he wasn't present. Henry Porter was the special guest gained from completing the cruise with his visits to the diner yielding Flutter Balls, an ingredient used to cook the gem producing Buttered Root Beer on the Jubilee Oven.

Unlocking of Buttered Root Beer

We've seen Game of Thrones, Star Wars and the Hunger Games covered before in the game, but surely this parody of Harry Potter has to come the closest to invoking a copyright infringement! The content ties into the wizarding world really closely and the names of the characters don't exactly work hard to deviate significantly from the actual names. Not that I'm complaining - the closer we get to the real thing the better, and Storm8 have produced a winner here.

It's only after reviewing the decor for this post that I realise just how good it is. It's been a while since I've really been tickled by fresh additions, and it has actually motivated me to redecorate for the first time in ages. That's right, I never did do a revamp for Christmas, much to my eternal embarrassment. My motivation to shake my restaurant up had really evaporated over the last few months, but this cruise has rekindled it. Hopefully a rudimentary take on Hogwarts will be on display soon!

From one cruise to another, the Happy Holidays cruise event launched three days before Christmas.

Introduction to Happy Holidays cruise event

The timing of release was certainly questionable - what's the point of introducing a 10-day event just three days before Christmas? In the end this question was irrelevant for any players who were around 12 months ago, with the prizes for this cruise all being re-releases of stuff from Christmas 2015.

Seeing content reused is so disheartening. Of course we see decor re-released in the original title often, but it always happens in addition to fresh content - never instead of. It's fair to say my determination to get through this cruise was curtailed by this, but at least there was another gem making dish to be attained from completing the event in its entirety, with ElFonzo the holiday elf stopping by with Dark Molasses in order to prepare it.

Unlocking of ElFonzo

The Holiday Elf Cupcake is another entry on the Jubilee Oven, taking us to 10 gem producers on this appliance, and 18 in total. The time for adding a third prize cooker (or at least the option to buy another Jubilee Oven for gems) arrived some time ago, and yet the game's developers don't seem to be in any rush to do so.

For regular readers that's a familiar criticism, but in contrast my reaction to a new set of Lani's goals this past Thursday will be anything but familiar. Lani as ever offers the opportunity to procure five Silver Stamps and one Gold Stamp by completing her time-limited quests.

The aspect of this which changes my perspective on this occasion is that although this is the tenth round of goals from Lani, it is her first appearance since November. What a difference it makes when we haven't had her filling our screens for a while! The breather has given her goals a new lease of life for me, and thus for once I was actually raring to get started.

Two silver stamp goal from tenth set of Lani's goals

As well as being more of a novelty this time around, the quests are less intimidating. The largest number of batches of any particular recipe called for is 16 Potato Soups, which sounds much nicer than 60 Veggie Juices or 25 French Dips, as we've seen in the past. There's a more relaxed feel to the goals than previously, and for that I'm thankful.

So perhaps Lani weeks should come once every couple of months. They were undoubtedly getting tiring and stale before, so cutting back was a wise move. Who'd have thought it - I'm actually pleased to see Lani!

Before I call it a night there's one more thing I'd like to discuss. It was on Christmas Day in 2014 that I first loaded up Restaurant Story 2, and on my first anniversary I took a screenshot of my Restaurant Overview window - it can be seen at the bottom of my RS2 News post for January 2016. Twelve months later it only made sense that I repeated the trick:

Restaurant Overview of The Onion Bush

So after two years of play I'e served up 283 different recipes and 38,274 individual orders, earning 718 mastery stars along the way. Comparing between the two sets of statistics, it's fascinating to find that my total orders cooked for each year is around the same level - about 19,000. Considering that I don't tend to be all that regimental when it comes to having my appliances whirring all day every day, I was surprised to find my productivity has been maintained in year two. Indeed my number of mastery stars and recipes learned has grown proportionally too which tends to indicate that in reality I'm just as attached to the game as I was this time last year!

Back to the present and it's been a much better month than most of late. The Harry Potter cruise event has to be one of favourites to date, and as I said Lani's return after a lengthy absence by her standards was welcomed. The other cruise event did drag my satisfaction level down with its repeated prizes, but I can't deny that I am in a happier place with the game than I was a month ago. Now I just need to set aside some time to get The Onion Bush redecorated!