Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Game Informer Show.
Speaker 2: Everyone.
Speaker 1: This is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry.
Join us every Friday for discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews,
and exclusive reveals, alongside Game and Former staff and special
guests from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts
today Alex van Aiken, and today I'm joined by Marcus Stewart.
Speaker 3: Hello. Hello, I am back. I've been away. I can't
talk about where I was. I was on a fun
little work trip recently overseas, but you'll learn about that soon.
But you know, it feels good to be you know,
have you guys ever had this when you travel for
a while and then you're like, I need to almost
become an American again, And I do that by eating
like the most American food.
Speaker 1: I gu yes, I do. Actually, it's so funny that way.
Speaker 2: I come home to the States, I'm like, yeah, we
nailed this ac and ice in my drinks.
Speaker 1: Let's go. Yeah, that's that's I think. An atrocity overseas
is just like your drinks don't always have ice in them, Like,
what are we dealing here?
Speaker 2: No, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: It's still in sparkling, but not ice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. That other voice you heard is the voice
that's rounding out the show this week. Wesley LeBlanc. How
you doing Wes?
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, I'm doing great.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: The number one reason why is Pumpkin spice creamer is
back in stores. Ladies and gentlemen, get those.
Speaker 1: Ice made wow already early July.
Speaker 2: It is, it is very early, but I saw it
and I was like, I have to have it. I
gotta get it.
Speaker 3: Are Christmas decorations being sold already? Are we? Are we doing.
Speaker 2: This after Halloween? They will? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well before we get into the show, I
do just want to say if you are a fan
of Game Informer, please consider picking up a copy of
our print magazine. You can head over to Game Informer
dot com slash subscribe to pick up your year long subscription,
or if you're not in the US and you want
to pick up the magazine, you can find us at bookstands,
news stands around the world, or in places like Barnes
and Noble Books, a million chapters, Indigo, all tg Jones,
all sorts of places across the world. But yeah, we thought, hey,
there's a lot of games that have come out this year.
We've covered a lot of the big ones so far,
and we've covered some of the you know, the smaller
hits like Cairn. You know, I've talked about Mina a lot,
but there's plenty of other games that we play that
we might not you know, have talked about in like
either on here, or maybe we talked about it on
here early and didn't get a chance to go back
to it and talk about it and why we loved
it so much. So yeah, this episode's going to be
about the unmissible small games of twenty twenty six, which
we're going to get into in just a second. I
do want to say thank you. If you are a
magazine subscriber, a podcast listener, you watch our YouTube videos.
If you're here, we just want to say thank you,
and we we can't do it without you. If you're
if you're new around here, please click that like button
and subscribe. If you're listening on podcasts, share the show
with a friend. We'd really appreciate that. Okay, So Michael
wrote in on our discord when Marcus put out a
call for listener questions, Marcus said, what are your unmissable
indie games so far this year? I've got two months
with nothing to play, and I want to catch up
on some non Triple A titles from this year. Also,
I do genuinely want some pirate book recommendations from Wes
whenever he's next on, So I will I'll put that.
We'll come back to that that second part Wes about
the Pirate books during the listening I got I got
a segment that'll be at the end of the show.
But yeah, guys, let's get into I think you know
non Triple A. I think I think we just say
small games, you know, small teams, small games. What are
the unmissible ones? I want to go through first what
we've played, and then get into maybe some of the
ones we're looking forward to, which is more of the
spirit of the magazine article I mentioned. So Marcus, can
I toss it to you first and you run us
through some of your picks?
Speaker 3: Uh? Most recently, I will shout out the incident of
gal The incident at Galley House game I spoke about
a couple of weeks ago. I have since published my
full review. This is a narrative puzzle game by William
Rouse as well as Evil Trout, who the latter of
which was responsible for the Root Trees are Dead which
is one of my favorite games of twenty twenty five.
This is very much in the same vein of like
Root Trees or something like a Return to Overden Return
of the Overden, where you are investigating a decades long
cold case of a series of deaths at a house.
It's got a really inventive kind of like puzzle solving
system where you're sort of like creating scenes, trying to
figure out where people were at what time and in
what room of this house and sort of like basically
constructing the events leading up to the demises of these
like eleven or twelve people. But it's really really good.
It's a great sort of like time sync, because once
you get on a roll of like finding clues and
realizing how to search for new scenes that sort of
like piece together more and more of this really good mystery,
it really just like consumes. It just consumed you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, like much in the way that Root Trees
did last year. I think it's awesome and people should
go out and play it.
Speaker 1: Is Yeah, you're a big fan of these kind of games.
Speaker 3: Is it is it scary? Not scary? It is like eerie,
Like it's got like an eerie vibe to it, and
there's like I was actually talking to Charles about this,
who also finished this game and liked it, but he
was kind of expressing sort of like, oh, there's a
couple of moments that really kind of basically like raise
my hairs of just like whoa. Okay, but I wouldn't
say it's like explicit. It's scary in the way and
maybe to a lesser degree that immortality was okay, Okay,
that's fair. Yeah, like maybe a rung below that.
Speaker 2: Okay, I can play it. Then I used to get
nightmares from like the local news and my grandparents. So
like anything with crime or murders or anything, I just don't.
I just am like it needs to be like so
far fetched that like demons or ghosts or something that
I'm like, that's not gonna happen. But whenever it's just.
Speaker 1: Yeah, true, I can handle every day murder. It's the
supernatural that that scares me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, whenever you hear about a murder on the news,
you just sort of yawned, Alex.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, oh that's old hat.
Speaker 3: Another one.
Speaker 1: They gotta get on that, Okay. So incident at the
Galley House Wes do you have one that's jump at you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna go with a game that I recently
beat called as Send to Zero. Not quite indy, but
it's definitely got an indie feel because it's published by
kraft On, which is a very large South Korean game
developer corporation. So definitely not indy, but when you play it,
you'll understand why I'm including it here on this little
small games list. It is a game where you're trying
to you're going back in time to save the world
from ending, and you only have at first thirty seconds
to do it. And it's a roguelike, so you need
to get from the beginning stage to the very final
boss and defeating all the bosses in between and thirty seconds.
Of course, you have all kinds of power ups and
abilities to unlock that eventually extend how much time you have,
extend how much damage you can do. But it is
a really fascinating twist on the progression, the extreme progression
that I think games like Vampire Survivors have. It has
that kind of Survivors like feel to it, where just
numbers go up and the screen goes crazy and you're
just looking at chaos and it's cool. I remember beating
this and I'm like, how on earth am I ever
going to get through this run in thirty seconds? And
then it turns out it's not just thirty seconds, but
you're defeating enemies in the beginning like instantly, and those
enemies used to take me ten seconds at one point,
and it's just a really like.
Speaker 3: Is this all combat? There's no like I was thinking
like if it would be something like did you ever
play a minute the game called minute, where you have
like I did, yes, one minute to finish the game,
but it was a little more like puzzly adventury.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know this is this is exclusive combat, but
it is. It does have that something I really like
in combat is when the combat itself feels like a
puzzle where it's like, there's an optimal way to defeat
XYZ enemies so that you can get to the room faster.
So it does have that feel where you're kind of
analyzing a combat arena as a puzzle, but ultimately it's
just about like making numbers go up and just bashing
your way through rooms. Like the first stage took me
hours to get through, like finally reach the next stage
and then now When I play the game, I'm through
that first stage in like probably forty seconds. Like I'm
just I'm so powerful now that I can blitz right
through it, pick up the rewards, and head on to
the next stage. It's just a really fascinating mix of
survivors like gameplay, although you are like still moving around
in this three D space and roguelike progression, and it's
perfect for like a handhoult I've played exclusively on handheld.
Speaker 1: Oh cool, my first pick is going to be a
super battle golf. Are you guys familiar with this one?
Speaker 3: I've heard the name, I don't think I've really seen
too much of it.
Speaker 1: So it's a multiplayer golf game. Like you're walking around
in three D space, like think about like a very style,
think about like the the art style of like Peak,
like the color palette of like Peak from last year,
with like like a very stylized and cartoony shape. But
you're running around. Yeah, you're running around the golf course
sort of in in three D space, controlling your golfer,
and essentially in the modes that I play, you're like
rushing to see who can get to the hole and
not in the hole. In one but to like finish
the course fastest and then under par on par whatever.
So typical golf rules. If you get a hole in one,
you're getting a bunch of points, right. However, if you
you know, you're three over par, you're gonna be like
ranked last. But it's really fun because there's like all
sorts of power ups, almost like Mario Kart style spread
throughout this course that you're running through. You can you
can get access to golf carts and like run people over.
You can get guns and like snipe people from you know,
across the map. It's it's it's very chaotic, but it's
a ton of fun. It's the developer's Brimstone. It's published
by Orro Interactive. But this has been one that has
just been like when I want to kind of you know,
burn off some some some time of my evening and
I just want to want to play with some friends. Uh.
It's really fun. It's really really polished as well. And
importantly I think for this list, you can jump in
and play around and probably twenty minutes smacks that if
you want to do like you can kind of customize
how many holes you want to do. So I really
really like it again. It's super Battle Golf. It's probably
on my top ten list right now out of what
I've played this year, granted or time.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, that's cool.
Speaker 1: So it's like, yeah, it's a real time, very frantic. Yeah,
it reminds me of like, you know, Mario Golf, Like
they're the most recent one had like the Battle Golf
or I think was it Aces or Fever they had
like a Battle Golf kind of. I guess that those
are both tennis games. Sorry, but the kind of the
point stands like a lot of those games have like
those zany modes where like it's just chaos. That's kind
of what this game is as well. But I think
it kind of takes it to the next level in
a really fun way. But yeah, Marcus, what's your what's
your next one?
Speaker 3: My next one is Titanium Court, which is by ap Thompson, who, uh,
the last game they worked on was Consumed Me from
last year, which is a collaboration with Oh my Goodness
forgot there, the woman they were with on that game,
but doesn't say that ap Thompson is kind of a
Titanium Court is like a solo project by EP and
it's what I love about it is basically a combination
of like a match three kind of game combined with
a bit of like tower defense slash like city building
sort of where like you're you're like this almost like
into this weird kingdom that is like a medieval camdom,
but also everyone there is really weird. It's like a
really just bizarre game, and you're kind of tasked with
sort of protecting everyone. So the first stage of the game,
you're playing this match three style game where you're sliding
tiles and each tile is like a different sort of
resource of like forests and wood and castles, and depending
on what you match, it sort of feeds into like
an inventory that you're sort of accumulating, and then once
that portion's over, you get into like the sort of
like explorations last defense. And by exploration, I mean you
get a bunch of soldiers that you can send out
into a field, and then they can either some of
them can be sent to gather crops, and then others
can be sent to either attack enemy castles or defend them,
and sort of like the way they play out it
depends on how the board shapes up at the end
of the match three part, because the match three part
also kind of serves as the battlefield for the second part,
depending on how you arrange things of like, oh, I
was sliding things in such a way to where there's
an enemy castle right next to our home castle. So
now that means we have to defend it. So you
kind of have to have like you have to be
extra thoughtful of like, oh, I want to match these,
but do I want to match these if it means
this sort of like tile ends up really close over here,
do I want that? So you're always kind of wing
those decisions. But it reminds me a lot of I'm
a huge fan of eighty eight games. Is mobile games
like a ten million and you must build a boat?
Speaker 1: Ye adore those.
Speaker 3: Games, and so this kind of scratches some of that
itch because it's been so long since that we've gotten
a game from them. So that's kind of why I'm jelly,
like I haven't beaten it. It's become one. It's games
where I fire up and do like a couple of
rounds every now and then I'm just like in between
a bigger thing. But it's like I'm always.
Speaker 1: Is it easy to kind of keep up with what's
happening in the game, even though you're doing that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, at least for me, like, I think maybe the
the part that's a little more complicated is probably the
second sting where you're just kind of sending soldiers out
and doing the like non match three stuff. But even that,
at least from what I've played, isn't like crazy complicated.
But the two sort of like formats bleed into each
other in a really interesting way. And yeah, it's and
it's also just like I mentioned before, it's just weird,
Like there's some funny writing. The characters were all just
like just weird, bizarre, just just weirdo's basically, So it's
got a fun vibe to it on top of the
actual gameplay being pretty fun.
Speaker 2: I got a lot of like early I mean early
game of the year praise. Is kind of a silly
thing to say, but I remember when this came out
because it was like near the top of twenty twenty
six if I recall correctly, and people were really stoked
about it, like within you know games media circles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember the demo hit and people really latched
onto it. And then I think it was in like
one of the early Steam Next fests this year, it
kind of was in there and got a lot of attention.
What's your next pick?
Speaker 2: My next game is another roguelike. So if this question
was for somebody who does not like roguel likes, I'm sorry,
but it's.
Speaker 3: Called Rid.
Speaker 2: The Grid is a game Into the Grid by Flatline Studios.
They're also publishing it. I've been following this game for
a while. I think it was an esteem Next Best
in twenty three or twenty four. I'll say it's not
like the most special incredible game, but it is a
very very good cyberpunk roguelike deck builder. I don't think
it's necessarily doing anything like unique that makes it like
a put this over other deck builders you might have
in your rotation, but there are so many deck builders
out there that for me, something like it being a
really cool cyberpunk setting with a cool protagonist and like
fun cyberpunk music, that's like a good hook for me
to get into this deck builder versus the other countless
ones out there. And I think Into the Grid is
just like a really strong melding of what makes roguelike
deck building so fun and some type of a genre
that you can obsess over. It's it really is. It's
just simply put, it is just like a one more
run type of game. And if you like cyberpunk, I'm
a big fan of Neon and lights and I just
like the cyberpunk genre. Into the Grid is the best
deck builder that plays with that kind of setting. Also
really great on handheld as well. I'm realizing now I'm
just giving my handheld recommendations as well. But Steam deck
or like a rog ally it's perfect for that.
Speaker 3: Is it on switch?
Speaker 2: No, it's not on switch because it's in early access,
but I think they have plans to bring it to
consoles and stuff. Yeah, I guess I should preference and
say it is early access. I wouldn't really be able
to tell that it is. I mean, they're working on it,
they're adding more to it, but like it's a completely
playable game right now, and one that I.
Speaker 1: Cool. I guess my next one is probably I think
I feel like it's gotten some buzz with like min
Max and that kind of cruise of you. If you
listen to that podcast you might have heard of it.
It's called Motor Slice. Are you guys familiar with this one?
I think I've talked about it maybe maybe on the
podcast one time this year. It is Okay, you play
a a woman and she her she has the ORB
that also acts as like the diegetic camera in the game.
It's it's kind of weird. You play as her camera essentially,
but it's like this ORB who like follows her around
and they are You kind of start at the bottom
of this massive like megastructure and it's like you don't
really know what this facility is for, but it's almost
reminiscent of like like some echo or like just games
that have like these massive sort of structures that you
can see the whole of at once, but you don't
really know how you're going to get to the top.
And you have a chainsaw that you use to like
wall grind like run across walls. You have a wall run.
It's like a very parkore focused game, so you're jumping, running, sprinting,
taking leaps off of buildings, kind of doing wall to
wall while trying not to get sliced up by like
big the big kind of hazards in the game, and
the enemies are are sort of like construction adjacent, so
like there'll be big grinders and gears and the enemies
that show up are like little mini like you know,
the big cats, like those you know, construction truck things. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
talk just like evil talka trucks basically, yeah, and you're
chopping off did.
Speaker 3: Well, he said, thought he made conceptually like a big cat,
like a lion or a leopard.
Speaker 2: So when he sees one, he's like, that's really big cat.
Speaker 3: That's what you call those cats. They're called the big cats.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm pretty sure they're called big cats, like you know,
but yeah, let's say talka trucks.
Speaker 3: That's also the name of the kit cat. That's just
the single giant kit cat.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I love the idea of Marcus like walking along a
street in public and like, uh walking by a construction
site and uh pointing to like the big bulldozer, like
a big talka truck quick there. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: But I would say, like, so far for me, I'm
probably I actually don't know how far in the game.
I am several hours though, but the focus is much
more on like movement and exploration.
Speaker 3: Than it is good the platform feel good.
Speaker 1: I think, so yeah, there there are sometimes where I think,
like this game is like really high up on my list.
It's very like experimental in a lot of ways. It's like, oh,
this is like this feels like a game that like
I don't know, it's it's kind of the the vibe
is unlike anything I've played this year in terms of
like the setting and all that. There is a little
weirdness with like the orb camera that you are like
you're playing as the camera in the game, but during
cut scenes it will like go to a separate camera
and you can kind of see yourself in like talking
to her, and there's like an underlying like sexual tone
I think between the camera and he's like kind of
obsessed with the girl he's following around.
Speaker 3: I would say, does the camera talk, like is there
a person?
Speaker 1: In cut scenes? It's like tech you know, it's like
text dialogue, but there is like an option at one
point where like I forget what they're talking about, but
it's after like a pretty lengthy section and he just
like says like good girl, and I was like, WHOA, Okay,
what the hell.
Speaker 3: Can you say that? His tone like is it like
a seductive like good girl?
Speaker 1: It's it's not voiced, so it's just oh text.
Speaker 4: If I had the voice it to be good girl,
like kind of like a dork good girl. Yeah, it's
kind of like I haven't honestly, I haven't played the
game since that happened because I was like.
Speaker 3: What it kind of looks like because I'm looking at
the trailer. He kind of has like almost like a
weekly kind of yeah so maybe voice and it sounds
less creepy and more endearing.
Speaker 1: But also some of the camera angles and stuff like
it feels like they're definitely like, I don't know, a little.
Speaker 2: Near on it, near automaton on it.
Speaker 3: It actually reminds me a lot, especially her design, like
her between her design and a kind of desert environments,
it reminds me of Recoor.
Speaker 1: A little bit. Yeah, sure, yeah, she looks.
Speaker 3: Like the protagonist from Recor a little bit, Everyone's favorite,
a game that we always talk about, Yeah, which also
dealt with machines a lot. Yeah, and it also orbs
funny enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, The vibes are just occasionally like huh are they
intending to do that? Like is this is the intended
effect of like this dialogue? And like also some of
the camera shots, I'm like, huh, okay, I'm gonna like
I don't know it's it's an interesting game, though I
don't think it does anything like I don't think it
ever has become gross or anything so far that I've seen,
But it's definitely like like if anything, it's like, oh,
this is like a weird relationshipship between a camera and
a protagonist. Like maybe I don't know, maybe there's something
there that they're exploring.
Speaker 3: Listen, she's an adult. I assume she can what she wants.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but still like I don't know, I don't know
that she has. It seems like they've been together for
a long time, like they have a relationship, but he
is always the one kind of being the creep and.
Speaker 3: From her.
Speaker 1: But also it's written in a way that it feels
like this is just kind of like their dynamic. I
don't know, it's it's I say that to just let
people know there is like some vibes of that. If
that's not like a roadblock for you, I would say, Uh,
the gameplay and such and like exploring and climbing, it's
really cool.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's like a transitionor situation where like it's like
the orb has like the soul of her life, dead
boyfriend or something.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I haven't maybe it hasn't you know, been
revealed to me yet, but we can move on to
the next game. Marcus, do you got another one for us?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean this is uh my, this probably falls
back into category of things we've we've covered, but I
would just quickly say, mean to the hollower, it's one
of my favorite games of the year so far. You know,
I won't spend too much time on it because you know,
we've talked about it a lot, but it's really good
if you like like game Boy era Zelda basically with
a bit of you know, it's I don't know why
I didn't make this comparison with the Hollowing, but since
I've been playing Splatoon Raiders, it dawned on me of like, oh,
you're just splatoon diving everywhere, like not even just like Hollowing.
It's literally just like, this is the first game I've
played that has just maybe unknowingly, just borrowed the Splatoon
traversal and kind of made it their own, which is
great because playing Splatoon Raiders right now, it's like a
reminder of like, this is one of the most fun
mechanics and video games. How can more people just haven't
taken this and then being like, oh wait, Yacht Club
kind of did with Mina because it is fun to
just swim around in the dirt, especially when you attach
some upgrades that you do it longer at like effects
to your Halloween and stuff. But like, I haven't finished
it yet because I've just been kind of like distracted
with other games. But I'm like over halfway through it
and I've got like a lot of trinkets and abilities.
Now it's I'm having a fun time. But I like
kind of like solving the giant puzzle box that is
that world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I don't want to, Oh, I guess I
do want to blow up Wesley's spot. Wes, you don't
you didn't like me, no, the.
Speaker 3: Hollower, Yeah, and by association you don't like me either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, No, I hate me to the Hollower.
I hate Marcus. That's it.
Speaker 3: No, I know, and I will not elaborate.
Speaker 2: Hate is a strong word. I don't hate me to
the Hollower. I think it's a well made game. I
just think that it is like the most annoying game
I've played in maybe my adult life.
Speaker 3: I like, that's crazy. I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've given I gave A four this year on
a game.
Speaker 1: Which got brought up in an interview I did, by
the way, with the CEO.
Speaker 2: I would love to hear.
Speaker 1: No, he was a good word about it. Actually he
was a good sport. It's not for everyone, but I
did specifically get brought up.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The thing is, it's like it's it's it's more it's
made more annoying for me because I can tell that,
Like I would really like the core idea of the game,
I just think some of the stuff on top of
it really annoys me. And I don't want to blow
up the game too much because I think it is
a game that a lot of people have liked, so
the person who is asking for recommendations might really enjoy it.
I'm definitely the minority. It's just I don't know if
the two D Sprite work really coalesced into like the
type of precision and like challenge that Mita brings to
the player. Like I was, I constantly felt like despite
how much I thought its systems were well designed and
how great it felt to do those things, I think
like the actual enemy design and the platform and it
wanted me to do just like never came together into
something I experienced and by the time I finished it,
I had just take hate finished it, like I rolled
the credits, like stupid, stupid game. I'm done with you instant,
delete off my switch to But it's Yacht Club, you know,
they make great games, and I do think that they
have a very honestly probably the most admirable I don't
even want to call it accessibility because like it is accessibility,
but it's also just complete tuning of the game to
however you want. I've never seen this many options to
completely shape the game into what you want it to be.
So like, if you're annoyed, or you dislike something, or
you really like something, there is an option and the
accessibility to like tweak to your liking. I think there's
like over one hundred and fifty options that you can tweak.
It's it's super elaborate. It's crazy.
Speaker 3: It almost feels like a debug menu.
Speaker 2: For yes, actually it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, like.
Speaker 2: You can change every single aspect of the game that
you can think of. It's you can you can mess
within the settings. It's really cool. Yeah, but yeah, I'm
just a hater.
Speaker 1: That's fair. Yeah, is it my go.
Speaker 2: My h wes because I yeah, I'm gonna technically cheat
because this game came out like right at the tail
end of twenty twenty five. But I really loved it,
and it just has a it has a switch to Yeah,
he Marcus hates it for sure, and I think it
has a switch to port coming out, and it just
got a really cool retro mode. But this is Total Chaos.
This is one of my favorite horror games I've played
in recent years, outside of uh Ari Requiem because that
game kicks ass. But Total Chaos was originally a Doom
two conversion mod that was then transformed into this single
player survival horror game. I won't spoil too much about
the story, but you go to like an abandoned mining
coastal town and you're kind of losing yourself while also
losing everything that like made life worth living. Oh my god,
this auto played the trailer and it scared the crap
out of me. If you saw the fear of my eyes.
And yeah, it's like a heavy emphasis on crafting. There's
lots of like things to pick up in the environment.
You're constantly creating new tools that you haven't used before.
The enemy design is really cool, and it just has
like that kind of it's hard to describe, but it's
like that, uh, I don't want to say unpolished, but
it has like this rough and tough like survival horror
field that it reminds me of like PS one, PS two,
And I think it's a it's just a really really
fun time and the story kind of like blew Me Away.
I actually did like a whole op ed on the
site that people should read if you like the game.
But yeah, it's one to check out, and I recommend
it because it's a horror game, and I feel like
we don't see small team or too much throughout the year.
I mean we do, but not this style of horror,
this first person survival horror. So check out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wanted to play this. It came out, like
I said, it came out like tail end twenty twenty five,
which is like, at least for me, a weird time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I just yeah, I think it was like
after we had to submit our lists at the end
of Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's been like hearing you talk about it
and also just being a horror fan in general, it's like, Man,
I need to make time and play that. I think
I have it on PlayStation. Yeah, I need to pick
a weekend because it's not like crazy long, right.
Speaker 2: No, it's like ten to twelve hours, and they have
added so much stuff. There's like new endings, there's additional
chapters to experience. They just put out a retro mode
which like, uh it makes the graphics look very like
PS one, like a lot more polligonal, which is really
at least really awesome.
Speaker 3: Free updates too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these are all free updates and it okay. Even
the retro mode included a new ending. Like every time
he updates the game, the developer he adds like new
chapters to twist and the ending or give you a
new ending to to find, because I think like the
people that play the game is pretty dedicated to it.
So but yeah, it's I really really enjoy the game.
I've got a review on Game and Reformer and uh
an op ed to go with it, so highly recommend nice.
Speaker 1: I think my next one is it's there's so many
I'm gonna say one thing. One game I've I've been
sort of toying with here and there, and also it's
nice because it also plays on Mac pretty well. It's
called Para Lives. This is it's an early access, but
it is sort of trying to be like a new
uh sort of like SIMS competitor, right.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: You at the start of the game, you kind of
roll into town on a train. You're designing your your
first character, and like you get to pick where they
move into uh, and it's, uh, you know, just kind
of a lot of like what you would expect from
the SIMS. So you're like building houses, you're kind of
giving giving your your I forget what they're called in
this game. They're not obviously not called SIMS. They're called
like we'll say people Perry's, Perry's. Is that the real thing?
Speaker 3: I don't know, I can look at up parafolks.
Speaker 1: Here we go, parafolks.
Speaker 2: What it is?
Speaker 1: You're kind of giving them personalities, what their social perks are,
you know, if they're talented at something, And it's kind
of like, you know, if you are somebody. I love
games that let me, you know, build a home, you know,
decorate a room, that kind of thing. And so I've
always been a fan of the SIMS for that reason.
And this has like it's it's in early access, but
like they're patching it pretty frequently, like even I saw
in social media I think yesterday they're like, hey, we
know the babies in our game look weird. We're given
them new faces.
Speaker 3: Like to be fair, a lot of video game not
even babies, but just children tend to look weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven that had the adults,
they just made them smaller for the children.
Speaker 1: Yes, I think so.
Speaker 2: God. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But there's also huge community around this game, so there's
like all sorts of great tutorials, Like there's things that
aren't officially supported by uh, you know, the the game,
but people have either found out ways to do it.
There's also I think it's got a big sort of
market on Steam Workshop, so like you can install like
furniture or you know, other sort of like decors that
kind of thing. And I know throughout that they've they've
got like a long list of like here's our roadmap,
like they're going to be bringing like pets and animals
and weather systems and you know all sorts of like
ways like cars and bikes and boats. Pool right now
right now that you can't you don't have a pool.
The community has there's tutorials out there on how to
fake it essentially, but like.
Speaker 3: All sorts of scoffy as the Sims.
Speaker 1: I tonally so far, maybe not not quite as much. No,
I think it's more based on Again, I have only
put a few hours into it. My guy hasn't been
quite so uh silly as the Sims. It is like
very lighthearted and like chill. But yeah, I haven't quite
gotten that, like, and I think maybe maybe they could
kind of further develop that. But I think it's it
feels a little more grounded to me than maybe the
SIMS is in like it's you know, animations and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 3: You know, like people aren't having crazy like overblown reactions
to the.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like their heads aren't on fire or that kind
of thing. I haven't seen that yet. I I could
be wrong, but it definitely feels more more I would say,
like grounded in reality.
Speaker 3: We got to torture your guy to get them. Yeah, yeah,
we can take the doors out like all the good
SIMS stuff. You know.
Speaker 1: My first guy I made was like a hermit music
dude who's just like he actually kind of looks like
Wes if we really let himself go, And he's like
really into music and he doesn't pick up on Social
key as well, and I'm excited to make more different people.
But the building tools are like really intuitive. I've really
kind of enjoyed that part of it. But yeah, if
you're looking for like something, of course SIMS is still
going So if you want to you want to do that, sure,
keep playing the SIMS. But if you're looking for something
that's maybe newer and and coming from a different team,
a little bit of a different take, I think it's
it's worth worth checking out. That's Paara Lives.
Speaker 3: Did you try out here? As did you try inzoy
at all?
Speaker 1: I didn't. I have thought about downloading there's Enzoy. There's
also I've wanted to check out. One that came out
recently is Go Go Town. There's a few. Yeah, I've
been in the mood lately for like a good like
management games, like whether it's the SIMS or I've been playing.
One of my other recommendations I'll get into is like
a city builder. I've been like in that mood lately,
and yeah, Enzoy I've seen it and I'm like, ah,
I don't know if I if it's necessarily my speed,
But Marcus.
Speaker 2: Like enjoy is the hyper realistic one.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, it's like super nice looking KOREANTIV.
Speaker 1: It's Crafton and then yeah, craft published, Yeah, Crafton publishes it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's also.
Speaker 1: In early access. I think it's just like this, the
realism of it, like it didn't I don't know, for
some reason, it kind of like put me off from it.
I think, I uh, I wanted to be a little
more cartoony.
Speaker 3: Yeah, funny enough, that's what Go Go Town is. Where
Go Go Town is like the hard opposite of Enjoy,
where it's like incredibly stylized and super cartoony, like everyone
just looks like a playmobile place it looking thing and.
Speaker 1: A little It's like I wish it was a little
bit in the other direction, but it's definitely like I
just wanted something like easy going and like relaxing and chill.
Speaker 3: Para Life seems to be like that perfect in between
of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, so far. And of course it's it's different
than like than those other games. It's more different from
Go Go Town than it is Enzoy sure aesthetically, yeah exactly, Marcus,
do you have another one to talk about? Hmm, it's
okay if not.
Speaker 3: Real quick. The Mermaid Mask.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, Okay, I wanted to talk about that. I'm
glad you brought it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Charles has talked about it before he reviewed the game.
I'll just echo his sentiment. I'm almost done with it.
But I've been really enjoying this game. I I love
Tangle Tower. I actually reviewed Tangle Tower for screen Rant
in Another life, and it was like a pleasant surprise.
This is SFP game. So you might know as the
makers of snipper Clips and crow Country. This is kind
of part of their detective grimoire series that started way
back as a flash game on new Grounds. But yeah,
so this is the sequel to Tangle Tower. It's very
much in the vein of like point and click adventure,
with like a bit of like Phoenix Wright style, sort
of like puzzle solving and like interrogations of this colorful
cast on a submarine where you're trying to find out
who murdered the submarine's captain. So you're interviewing these eclectic personalities.
But I think the story so far is great. I
think the writing and the dialogue's phenomenal. I think the
voice acting is also phenomenal. The character portraits, like I
love the art style of this game, like all the
characters are just like really well animated and just so
expressive to where like, yes, because a lot of this
game is dialogue, like it is just talking to people
and listening to conversations, but it's such a joy to
do so between of how just how lovingly animated everyone
is and just their reactions to things, on top of
just how stellar the voice cast is for every single character.
And yeah, it's it's just fun, Like it's it's my
I have it on switch so it's like my end
of days like either sit down the couch or lay
in bed and just chip away at this thing. But yeah,
it's been of really kind of like within this week
because this game came out the same week as Incident
at Galley House. So it's like for someone that like meat,
that loves these games, this is just like, oh, I'm
eating real good right now. This is great.
Speaker 2: Like the genre is like maybe it's just being paid
more attention to now or blowing up. But like last
year had the Root Trees, the Seance of Blake manor
we have Mermaide Mask now Incident at Galleyhouse, Like I
just feel like this genre is exploding or something like
it's everywhere now.
Speaker 1: I really I was kind of I heard everyone talking
about how good it was, and I was like, Okay,
I want to try it, but like I was kind
of worried like this it wasn't gonna be my thing,
cause I think like the screenshots and like just seeing
it in like images doesn't really similar with other the
other games that we talked about incident at Galley House.
I imagine like when you look at like a you know,
the Steam page, I feel like I feel like you
really have to like try it yourself and see how
it all connects together. And like, especially like the animation
on this one, like you mentioned, Marcus is really great.
And I was kind of worried, like, oh am, I
gonna is this gonna be my thing? And then it
grabbed me so quickly. I think I was worried about
like everything kind of feeling sort of like, uh, maybe
like on rails or flat. But then I quickly realized
that I was incorrect. And like the ways in which
you like explore the ship and go from you know,
you can go from room to room to figure out
you know, uh, find clues in that kind of thing,
and I think that really kind of gave me because
I haven't played any of these games before the Tangle Tower.
I haven't played Detective Grimoire, but like, very quickly, the
characters are super charming, Like the main two characters I
guess it's Detective Grimoire and Sally. Yeah, they're like the
voice acting is really good, paired with the animation like
feels like it's like right out of a cartoon show.
And then there's also like a cool I really like
when you open up you find like new evidence and stuff.
How it's like a it's a three D eight asset
that's been hand painted, so it kind of good. It
fits with the art style of the game, like the
environments and all that are I believe mostly two D,
but then like you almost get the resident Evil style
like getting to like inspect items and stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it actually matters, like there are like hitting
clues on objects that yeah, you need to turn them
around and spot like really crucial details.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's really very quickly shot up my my like
what I want to be playing right now, And I'm
very early. I think I'm still in the first I
literally started it like a night ago, two nights ago,
so I'm very early. But yeah, Mermaid Masters. Somebody's really solid.
Speaker 3: Some of those characters are already like on my list
of like, oh best characters of the year, whether it's
like like like most liked or maybe even like dork
but like endearing in a way. Shout out Symmetry.
Speaker 1: She's precious as somebody who's like, you know, I'm not
as I'm not familiar with this series, The Detective Grimoire.
I didn't play Tangle Tower. It almost reminds me like
I feel like I'm I know, I know crow Country obviously,
that was a really well respected and people loved that
as a survival horror game. Yeah, all that I really respect.
They're like all their games are vastly different from each other.
It seems like Snipper Clips, crow Country, this, Murmers. They
remind me of a studio like Double Fine, And I
think that even even as I'm playing The Mermaid Mask
I'm like, oh, this reminds me of like some of
the Double Fine games. I love, you know, but but
without it, it doesn't it feels totally. It's like its
own thing though, you know it's cool.
Speaker 2: Marcus, did you do the crow Country feature on them?
That was kind of about the studio's history as well,
or was that somebody else?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I so I reviewed co Crow Country, But I
also did a big sort of like feature on SFB
as a studio interview of the two brothers, who are
pretty much the entire studio, Like they do outsource some stuff,
but they're the only two like actual employees. The SFB
game stands for Super Flash Brothers because that's where they
got their start. They were really big on new grounds
back in the stage and they put out a ton
of flash games and their first console game was actually
Snipper Clips for the sway in that story they have,
they have a very fun story that I included in
a feature where they talked about how that happened and
how Nintendo kept it a secret that it would be
a launch title for the Switch and they didn't find
out to like halfway through making it, and how like
exciting and terrifying that is just the pressure of like,
oh my god, we're on a Nintendo council and we're
gonna launch, Like that's crazy, but also man to be
great to note that earlier. Yeah, but I mean, like, yeah,
I think they're of like indie developers that maybe don't
always get their due. I think they would be on
that list of like they don't get talked about very
often in the way that other maybe small teams do,
but I think they like with Mermaid Mask now, I
think they should absolutely be in that conversation for the
reasons you've just mentioned, Alex of there. They have such
incredible range and like, but they seem to like just
hit it every time they put something out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I have since in this conversation, followed them on
Steam so that I'm you know, alerted to when they
put out new games. Because yeah, I mean they're I'm
really impressed by and I'm kind of mad at myself
that I've missed out on their other stuff. Haunt the
House seems really cool. I don't know if you've played
that by them.
Speaker 3: No, we talked about Haunt the House in that feature though.
Speaker 1: It sounded cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like there their flash catalog which is extensive, which
I think some of it. I think a lot of
that stuff is still playable, like on your website. I
think they have links to all their flash games. Yeah,
so you can just play them in a browser if
you want to, like really dive into their history, which
is cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is This is really cool and a great
pick for this list. I think I was likely going
to sleep on this game, and I just happened. I
got a code through work. People on staff were talking
about it. I was like, all right, let me let
me like boot it up for five minutes and see
what it's about. And I was like instantly hooked. I
was like, oh damn, I almost just missed a really
good game because I was being you know, obtuse essentially.
But yeah, is a great pick. I think we'll be
talking about that one at the end of the year
if i'd have to guess, because I know Eric's also
really into it.
Speaker 2: Ile like it, Wes.
Speaker 1: Thank he's playing Wes, you got one more?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually have three more, so I'll just rapid
fire thee real quick. Perfect Vampire Crawlers the Turbo wild
card from Vampire Survivors. It is a dungeon crawler from
a punko who made Vampire Survivors. So basically it is
all the numbers go up fun and screen explosions and
effects and blue bitty blobbody that you expect from the
guy that made Vampire Survivors, but it's in a like
a dungeon Crawler, which is a really cool like first
person throwback that there's not many games out there like it.
Maybe like Ytrian Odyssey I think is maybe holding the
market on that, but it's really cool. I re viewed
it for game before I gave it an eight. It's
a good time. I also want to shout out rat
coin Coin Pusher Road.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really liked that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the vein of Bilatro, I would say where
it's kind of this game that feels I don't want
to say mindless, but like very quickly becomes I've used
numbers go up a lot. I guess I just really
like these numbers go up a lot games. But it's
a coin put It's like the coin pusher from the
arcade games that you don't ever touch because they're kind
of rip offs. It's a video no whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: Don't speak ill on coin pushers. All right, there's one
I would us. I spent like sixty dollars on one
of these on my birthday. My friends just kept bringing
me coins to keep playing.
Speaker 3: And how much did you recoup from that?
Speaker 1: None? But well, actually I recouped like I recouped like
twenty dollars and reinvested it. But I knew what I
was doing. Uh but bonus hole, that's what they call it,
near us bonus hole. I love it, just like gets
all of the all the the engines are firing up
in the old noggin when when you're.
Speaker 2: Push because like maybe it's because I'm in Jacksonville and
it's just a very Jacksonville coded thing, but I swear
to God, like every single coin pusher machine, the reward
is like a monster energy, Like that's what they have.
They have like multiple monster energies to like knock down
and get which.
Speaker 1: All the ones I play, it's like nothing but like
ten dollars, bills, quarters dollars like your you're getting I'm
actively getting money back as I play, But then I'm
taking that money and putting back putting it back in
because I'm like, yeah, but I know, I knew what
I was doing. You know it is, yeah, you're throwing
your money away.
Speaker 3: But well, if you're a coin pushing makes right coin,
yeah yeah, that's what makes right coin great. You get
the thrill without your money sink.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And I'm like.
Speaker 3: Just got to consoles.
Speaker 2: Is it just xbos? I think both okay, see yeah,
actually an email about it coming to Xbox. But if
you don't like the real game because it takes your money,
rack Cooined is about getting lots and lots of money,
and there's it's a video game, so there's fun twist
on the types of coins you use to shoot through
and like different gadgets you can deploy, and like it's
just a very kooky's any game. I think it's a
little more mindless than Bilotro probably, but it's still a
really good time. It's a short burst game. It's perfect
again for playing on a handheld or sitting on the couch.
That's where I play it. It's a really good time.
Highly recommend. And then the last game I want to
shout out is not really an unknown, but I think
it's being slept on, probably because it's still an early
access and it also kind of launched like inter early
access very late last year, which was Moonlighter two the
Endless Vault. Moonlighter is a cool game, but for me,
Moonlighter two, which has completely shifted its art style to
be from this like two D sprite thing to like
this three D almost kind of looks like it's made
of Clay style that works for me a lot more,
and I it's the same type of game. Go out
and adventure, fight, kill monsters, acquire objects that you can
then go and sell in your shop for the other
half of the game, where you're kind of like managing
a shop and trying to get sales and bartered with customers,
and it's just a really fun, solid loop and it's
a really good time. It's still an early access I
don't really know what their one point oh plans are
because there's a lot to it already, but I I've
been enjoying it even as an early access game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was looking at their most recent because this
is a game I've been really interested in. I really
like the first one. I've been kind of waiting for
the one point oh. But early Access update number six
June thirtieth, current dev status and essentially they are as
a bit closer alunch. It seems like they're nearing nearing
launch soon. Yeah, they've let's see following Day which introduced me. Yeah,
the team is still hardwork preparing even more. Yeah, so
the next step is one point oh release in their roadmap.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they already confirmed it's coming to switch to
at launch. That's okay, that's the only console that it's
been confirmed for.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Access talk reminds me I have one more
to shout out. Honestly, it's probably one of my favorite
games I've played this year, which Fire Oh. It's been
really access forever, but it's coming to one point Oh
this year. That is a incredible first person I guess
you could say souls like because it uses the mechanics
of like losing your resources when you dine, all that
kind of stuff. But it's just like this really awesome, dark,
gothic first person shooter that's hard as nails and has
a really good progression loop, and I cannot wait for
the one point oh launch like. It's already one of
my favorite games of the year. We're still in earlys
which for which fire?
Speaker 1: Which Fire? Nice?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that's one that uh GI editor in chief
Matt Miller has also been very very high on because
he's played the early I have the game on Early
Access and I still haven't fired it up. There's a
part of me that's just kind of like, I'll just
wait for the one because it's supposed to be like
in the near future. But yeah, you're me, like, I
should fire it up at least get a run in
just to get a feel for it before it comes out.
Actually busy, but yeah, like the game has looked cool.
Speaker 2: It's from the Astronauts as well, by the way, self
published coo cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Yeah team right, Yeah,
oh wow.
Speaker 2: I think it's their their first game since that too,
which is yea very different twelve years. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well let's uh, I guess real quick. My Rapid Fire
ones slave this Fire too. I mean, that is just
a game that I continue to go back to Cairn.
I've talked about it on the show a bunch. It's
in my top five this year. Rock climbing or yeah, yeah,
like kind of mountain climbing, really great performances like from
the actors, and just like a unique gameplay system that
I haven't seen in other games in the way that
it's all implemented here. And then Town to City I've
been playing more and it's a city city builder that
came out a few months ago. Uh, and yeah, you're
kind of building Mediterranean towns from the ground up.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like a Bauxhil.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bouxeil, so like three D pixel art
is if you don't know what a bauxhill is. But yeah,
both of those I'm very much enjoying. But I think
with that we can kind of get into the next topic.
I guess. I guess we haven't gone over What's to Come.
We've spent like an hour on the games we really liked.
Maybe we save that What's to Come piece, I mean,
or we could talk about what's kind of a few
of the ones that are in the issue real quick. Yes,
we wrote, yeah, slap out of It is one. Yeah,
that's why I don't know if I wrote this entry,
but I definitely played it. Actually you wrote that one.
I played it at Summer Game Fest. It was probably
my game or the show at Summer Game Fest. Really
enjoyed that.
Speaker 3: I'll guess that.
Speaker 2: Actually you go ahead, do you want to go Marcus?
And we follow up?
Speaker 3: Sure? I mean, that's in there. There's a game called
I never know how to pronounce it, but Melissa's here
about the giant cop that you have to escape from.
That's like watching This Town. I've had my eye on
that game for like years now, just because I think
it's such a fascinating premise, so I'm hopeful, hopefully we'll
get more news on that soon. Usual June is another
one I've been waiting for for a long while. That's
by Finji, who is a developer and publisher. Maybe most
recently might think of them from Tunic Tunic, but yeah,
Usual June's got like kind of like ghost and like
a bit of a like kind of coming of age
sort of story to it that it just it's got
a cool vibe and look to it. And then the
last one I'll shout out real quick is Abyss x zero,
which is the next game by the developer studio Pixel Punk,
who did Unsided, which is the game I reviewed years
ago for GI that I gave a nine too, And
I think that game's awesome and maybe a little bit
of an unsung like game of the twenty twenties. It's
a really good kind of like isometric Zelda esque two
D action game with like a really cool sort of
like time limit aspect. Nice. But I've been waiting to
see what that team would do next, and a besic
zero dave anounced for a while, and I've just kind
of been semi impatiently waiting for a release date for
that thing, but yeah, it looks cool, well cool.
Speaker 2: I'll shout out the Floorist, which comes from publisher developer
Unclear Games. This is a throwback Resident Evil style game.
It has most importantly fixed camera and pre rendered backgrounds,
which I still love in twenty twenty six and I
can't wait for it. It's about like horrific flowers and
stuff like that. It looks awesome. Valor Mortis, which is
from developer One More Level. They are the ghost Runner team,
but they're making a first person souls like a set
during the Napoleonic Wars.
Speaker 3: I played it at a summer games fest and thought
it was very fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Valor Mortars rules. And then the last one I'll
shout out is Where to Go. Burn nine is coming
this year. It's being published by Fellow Traveler, which they
have a very excellent taste as a taste maker. They
do Citizen Sleeper and stuff. The developer is fourteen hours production.
Burn nine is metal Gear Solid, but instead of being Snake,
you are the person in the chair. You're like the coms.
You're autoco side yes exactly, and your mission goes wrong.
There's one survivor left and you've got to help them
survive while also like dealing with the politics of what's
happening back at the base. And it just looks like
a really fun twist on metal Gear Solid in a
industry that has lots of metal Gear Solid likes. Very cool, that's.
Speaker 1: Cool, awesome. Uh, Well, we're gonna take a quick break
and come back before we Before we get out of here,
we'll dive into Scarlet Deer in, a game that Marcus
has been playing, and then a puzzle game Helix Descent
and Ascent. I've been playing some books, yes, and then
we'll get into listener questions. We'll be right back right
after this, and welcome back to the Game Informer show, Marcus.
I would love to hear about Scarlet Deer in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been waiting on this game for a good while,
ever since I played a Steam Nextfest demo like two
years ago. It is a sort of like two D
adventure game with quite a bit of platforming and even
a little bit of action, that is set in a
medieval small town where you play as this widowed mother
named Elise. The probably biggest selling point of the game
is its art direction, where it's got an embroidery look
to it and like, and I mean that like quite literally,
like the characters were actually animated using actual embroidery. Like
I forgot how they did it. It's been years since
I've watched videos, but pretty much like every frame of
animation is like an like an embroidered figure that they
then just sort of like put splice together to make
animation in the video.
Speaker 2: It's like it's like how you would draw for animation.
You would draw each frame they have like embroidered it.
It's it's kind of nuts a lot of work.
Speaker 3: So like all the characters are done in that style
and they're all against these kind of these hand painted backgrounds.
But it's got a despite how like whimsical and nice
it is, it's actually a pretty dark game and kind
of the way that a lot of like medieval fairy
tales are Like if you about your old favorite fairy
tales and maybe yeah, the raw versions, you're just like
it's got a bit of that. I I don't want
to say too much about like the twist or whatever.
It's not even it's hard to even called it twist
because it's like immediately or it's very early in the game.
But basically early in the game, your two children go missing,
and so you're trying to find them, and along the
way you sort of stumple upon this very dark secret
that no one else in the town seems pretty to
that involves other children that have disappeared. There's a lot
of depict like there's some like some gruesome imagery for
a game where a bunch of embroidery characters, and there's
actually quite a bit of an action and like act
of like it's not just running around, uh to scene
the scene and talking to people, but there's actually like
full on dungeons where you're doing some platforming, like you're
jumping around. There's like not chase sequences, well I guess
there's chase sequences where you're chasing someone and you're trying
to like platform alongside them, like like it's more involved than.
Speaker 1: You because the camera always kind of stay on like
a two D like the same sort of goal. I guess.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah. There's also a lot of like a mechanic
around keeping a torch let when you're in these dungeons
where you're trying to move through space as quickly and
light torches along the way because if you run out
of light, one you can't see. But then also there's
these kind of like these like weird supernatural entities that
will kill you if you're in the dark too long.
So yeah, yeah, there's some dark some dark themes in
this game that I kind of appreciate. I'm enjoying the game,
I do have some issues with it my One of
my biggest is that it can be pretty hard to
keep track of where to go when you're not in
the dungeon, uh, because when you're not doing the platforming stuff,
it's a lot of like, hey, you need to go
over here to talk to somebody, uh, And kind of
keeping track of the layout of the town for me
at least, has been a bit tricky. There's no map
in this game, so it's more about remembering like, okay,
which road takes me to the next like scene of
like like just like which part. It reminds me lot
of This game in general reminds me a lot of pentiment,
just in terms of that. Yeah, when it comes to
just like how you move around from like area to
area in that game gives me like some pentiment vibes
and all top of just like the time period in
the setting like it like you're talking to these medieval
people and and whatnot. It's just yeah, I just I
keep thinking of Penniment when I played this game, even
though the subject matter is a bit a lot different.
I don't even know if this game is set, and
I don't think they ever say where it's actually said,
Like it gives me the sense of like Holy Roman
Empire era like Eastern Europe or like Germany or whatever,
but I'm not totally sure if it's ever been explicitly communicated. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
actually yeah, this is a South Florida fifteenth century. But
but yeah, I think the music's really good. There's some
really good just like medieval like strings and flutes that
I appreciate. There's also a little bit of a in
terms of my issues. There's some like and I like
like bugs. I guess we'll say like this has only
happened to me once. But I was looking at like
Steam Support, I saw similar instances of some people of
just occasionally getting like soft locked, where like you can
kind of like trap yourself in areas and not have
a way to get out. Like there's one point where
I fell down like a path that I need to
go down and I needed to break through a door,
like there's breakable doors that you can smash through with
your torch, but for whatever reason, I wasn't able to
pull out my torch, so I was stuck there and
had to restart the game. But thankfully, the checkpoints are
generally pretty good, but like little things like that happen
every now and then. The combat itself, which is very light,
is just swinging your torch at the occasional enemy. It's
not great, almost like intentionally so, but at the same time,
it's kind of like, well, if you're gonna have combat,
at least should be feel good. Otherwise just maybe don't
have it. Yeah, and yeah, it's a lot of like
like the attacks have no impact, and it's just kind
of like, I guess I'm gonna get close enough to
this thing and then maybe if I read the frames right,
I'll hit it.
Speaker 1: But it looks like you're coming to this for like
the presentation, like a unique, very novel presentation of like
you know, embroidery, music, and then the story. It seems
like those are like the three maybe being like the
general mystery of like what happened to the kids? That
kind of thing. It seems like that's like the strengths
of the game, would you say, that's right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like the exploration I mentioned before can be a pain,
especially because some of the squests can evolve like running
a lot of running back and forth between locations of like, hey,
you need to go here to bring me this. Okay,
I found a thing, and now I got to go
back to where I was, But now I've got to
turn around because of the layouts, like how do I
get back to where I was? And I the map?
So that stuff can be pretty annoying. But I don't
want to say, like I can't tell. I don't want
to say if the story is like great or not,
because I haven't seen how it ends. Like fair, I've
hit a crescendo to where like I think I can
finish it in the next sitting, Like this doesn't strike
me as a particularly long game, but I need to
see how sort of like how the revelations built to
like the big ending of like what's actually going on here?
But that has been enticing it, just like what is
going on? What's really going on in this town? Where
her kids are they okay? And why is this even
happening in the first place. But yeah, that's the hook
is like it's you know, it looks all nice and
pleasant in the front, but it's actually pretty dark. So
if you're into sort of like that subversion of expectations,
maybe give this a look sounds.
Speaker 2: There's like a bug and they have to fix something.
They have to like go back to their.
Speaker 1: Like, Okay, it's gonna be I gotta you're gonna hate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, did you put your sewing machine away? Oh crap, Okay,
we'll break that out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would love to see their workspace, Like what that
does look like?
Speaker 3: Do you think they keep all their thread and a
little cookie pin that every grandma has, like the little
bit different types of European cookies or whatever, all those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 3: We all know the ones. We all know. The pretzel
one is like the best one.
Speaker 1: I know what you're talking about. Well cool, Well, real quick,
before we get to listener questions, I do want to
highlight another game that I think actually Marcus you in particular,
will really be interested by. It's called helicks descent then
space the letter in like shortening and ascent, so descent
and assent, and it is a hand drawn black and
white puzzle game where it's it's very everything about this
game is like presentation wise is like sort of well
number one, very stylish like, but otherworldly is like the
the common uh sort of thing that comes to my
mind and alien and just like there's a general sort
of like it's not a scary game at all, but
it's like creepy in a way because it is so foreign.
Speaker 2: It looks really cool, yeah, and.
Speaker 1: You are essentially collecting, completing a series of puzzles to
unlock new powers and stuff, and you're kind of teleporting
all around, and there's it seems like you are playing
two different characters, or maybe two different versions of the
same character, and you'll kind of balance between a the
white version of a character who's like on mostly like
a black background, and you're like doing certain puzzles with them,
and then you'll see cut scenes of like the white
version of you doing other things, and then you'll complete
a puzzle and now you're playing as the other version
of yourself or I don't know if if it's actually
two versions of you or if it's two different characters, but
there's like one of the one of the I've unlocked,
like two of the main powers so far which are
tied to the face buttons, and eventually you will unlock
so many that like I think you have to hold
the triggers down almost like you're playing an MMO on
a controller, where like, okay, I need to hold the
right trigger down and then that opens up a new
thing of face face button actions. But that's how many
like little powers you have in the game. The first
one you get is all about like you can summon
blocks to like hold down uh you know, uh, plates
on the ground that you need to like keep doors open.
That kind of thing. Typical like pretty standard uh stuff.
The second one you get is like a mind drone
thing that like you go remote control on this little
flying dude and you're kind of like going through pipes
and stuff to like activate switches that are far away.
But there's only the drone only has like a certain
amount of life before it will blow up. So you
have to like be strategic and solve puzzles based on
which is how drones always work. Yeah, oh of course,
of course, or they follow they drop an the Icelandic
ocean sometimes as well. But but and so you kind
of do that and then you realize later I'm like,
oh wait, if I put down a piece of you know,
a column, and then I fly the drone into it,
if they're like these same colors, then the drone then
transforms into like it essentially becomes the pillar, and now
I can move the pillar around across surfaces that I
otherwise couldn't, like across water, and it's like the drone
is lifting it up and moving it's like and it
just continues to I've only put in probably forty five
minutes last night, but even just like those first forty
five minutes, I was just like, oh man, I have
like this is a game I gotta I gotta play
more of and yeah, it's really fascinating. I think it's
it's uh, maybe the puzzles aren't super difficult, but like
it's enough to where like, you know, if you're a
puzzle game fan, there might you know, I feel like
I'm kind of breezing through some of them, but then
there's been a few at the end of like at
the end of each sort of like vignette that's kind
of like what it feels like. It feels like you're
playing through vignettes tied to these powers, like the ones
that really kind of test your knowledge of the power.
Like the last puzzle, it feels really really fun to solve,
and then you get teleported to a new one and
now it's like, Okay, now I'm gonna get a new power.
Let's see how I do this. Yeah, it's really kind
of like I don't know what's happening in the game,
like the story wise, it's very obtuse, but it's really
cool and I think you guys should play this again.
It's called Helix Descent and Ascent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks awesome on my wish list.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Cool. Yeah, and it only has like thirty two
reviews on Steam, Like it's more people need to need
to play this thing. But I think we should get
into listener questions. You know, we've kept We've kept Michael
waiting long enough. Michael, of course wrote in on our discord, Uh,
if you don't have access to our discord, you can
email us podcast at gaming from dot com with your question.
That's the easiest way, and we check that and we
will include those. But the second question of that Michael
asked at the start of the show was I do
genuinely want pirate book recommendations from Wesley whenever he's on next.
Speaker 3: For those that are wondering, this is uh kind of
a follow up to our previous Assassin's Creed black Flag
episode we did a couple of weeks ago. Or Wes,
you gave us some pirate trivia because you are so
well versed in all things pirates.
Speaker 2: Yes, a big fan of pirates, have been for a
lot of my life. Pirates are awesome and I've read
a bunch of books about them today.
Speaker 3: Uh have you rea done an ancestry to find out?
Speaker 2: No, I don't know if I want to find out.
As cool as like pirates are in media, like the
actual history not so great, so I hope I don't.
Speaker 1: I also just recommend doing Ancestry dot Com has brought
nothing but havoc to my family. That's all I will be.
That's all I'll be saying. But you know, some things
aren't worth knowing all the time, so obinous, there's a
lot of a lot of changes in my life, thinks
the ancestry dot Com. I'll say that and leave it there.
Speaker 3: Sponsors ancestry.
Speaker 2: No, I also think those companies like take your genetics
and give them to insurance companies or something.
Speaker 1: I don't probably give them, who's that billionaire with the
blood boy who's his own son. They're probably giving.
Speaker 2: It is trying to stay young forever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they're just making a worse in real life.
Speaker 2: But pirate books and I got to today a non
fiction into fiction. For the nonfiction, I want to go
with Steven Talt, It's called The Empire of Blue watertain
Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the epic Battle for the Americas,
and the catastrophe that ended the Outlaws, Bloody Rain. This
is a long ass title that's like this, that's like
the little sub Okay, Yeah, the actual title is Empire
Blue Water. It's a really it's one of those nonfiction
books that reads like fiction because the author is well
versed and is able to like kind of bring you
back to this period of history. But it's a really
great resource for finding out what pirate life was like,
which is the non romanticized version from Pirates of the
Caribbean or Assassin's Creed and stuff like that. Like, if
you want to find out what why pirates had it
to your lifespan once they started piracy, like this, the
book is really good for kind of bringing you through
a story of an actual pirate of Captain Morgan, who
is that is the captain that's on the rum bottles today.
And then the fiction book I want to recommend is
Pirate Latitudes, which is by Michael Crichton, uh, the guy
that wrote Drastic Work. It's a quick read. It's a fun,
little action pirate adventure rop. The thing I really like
about it is that it uses fictional characters, but like
pools on a lot of real pirate history. One particularly,
I was kind of impressed that it was in the
book because it's a weird bit of pirate history. But
Anne Bonnie is known to have been in fights when
she was when she would go to fight typically other men,
because that's.
Speaker 1: What no, no, no no, although she is from Florida,
my state.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I'm sorry to the world that.
Speaker 3: You said Bonnie. Four.
Speaker 2: Yes, in history, there have been I don't want to
say like myths or anything, but there's like been reason
to believe that a tactic she used when fighting pirates,
which is majority men, is she would like undo her
shirt so that her breast route and then that would
distract the men. Fine, I don't know why I said
breast like a that was weird, but she would do
that to distract the men and then kill them while
they were busy looking at her boobs. And this book
has a fun bit about that that kind of draws
on that. And as a pirate fan of pirate history,
I was like, I see you, Michael Crichton. You've you've
read some encyclopedias, but it's just a really, it's just
a fun It's like a uncharted esque pirate adventure book.
And it's Michael Crichton, so you know, it's a it's
a good read and then bonus. Not a book, but
if you have not watched Black Sales, it is a
Star's pirate show. It's on Netflix now, which is great
because I don't even like Stars is a subscription that
that people get. I guess I don't know, but yeah,
check it out on Netflix. It is very rated, m
very It's like, it's hard to say. I used to
say Game of Thrones but pirates, but now that Game
of Thrones kind of didn't end so well, that doesn't
really work as much. But it's like all the intrigue
and the politics and the mystery and the action and
the gore and the sex and the violence and all
the blah blah blah of Game.
Speaker 3: It's very much like the prestige television of Pirates, Yes,
if you want, like, yeah, like the prestige television budget
and like grittiness of Game of Thrones. That's basically black sales.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it takes it takes the characters of Treasure Island,
like Captain Flint and John Silver and stuff, and uses
them to create like a new mythology for these characters.
And it's just it's really good. The actors are incredible.
It's just four seasons. The theme song and all the
music is done by Baron McCreery, who you might know
as the guy that made the Walking Dead theme. He
does the God of War music. He's a really great
composer and it has one of the most it's one
of my all time favorite like opening theme songs for
a drama.
Speaker 1: It seems like you're really not it's not active on
Netflix right now, weirdly, but it has like a button
on that This has remind me, so I wonder if
it like.
Speaker 3: That's I've never heard of that. So it's like not
on Netflix, but it has at.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's back maybe maybe.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like real licensing, Yeah yeah, cool? Uh next
question comes from then Tom was like, when's the last
time you felt totally uninformed on a game? Have you
gone in blind any games lately? I think I talked
about that with Mermaid Mask earlier on the show. That's
probably my answer the second part of the question. But
games I feel totally unaware of, are uninformed on, probably.
Speaker 2: Gone into uninformed on or ones that.
Speaker 3: Were just just went in blind basically, Okay.
Speaker 1: Probably yeah, probably Mermaid Mask for me. Yeah, I know
that's that's a born answer because we just talked about it,
but uh, that's the honest, the honest truth for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's tricky for us because like even I can't
think of something that I've played and even forgetting something
that just had no heads up on, because even the
closest thing to that is like if I get a
press release for something that I had no prior knowledge
of and then I wind up it comes with a
code and I'm like, oh, just reading this press release,
that sounds interesting. I'll put this code in and try
it real quick. But even then that's still like a
little bit of a heads up. Say, at least I
read a press release to know what it is. So
it's like in terms of just firing up something and
like not reading a description or anything. That's that's that's
really for me, at least because of this job. It's
really hard because I feel like if I personally have
not kept up with it, I at least get some
heads up, either from you guys or from like just peers.
But I mean, it's funny enough you said MraY Mask.
I remember Tangle Tower, the predecession to Murray Mask that
was just given to me to review when I was
a screen rant with like no warning. Yeah, it's like
I've never heard of this, what even is this? And
then just played it and then was completely like bowled
over because that game is great. But that was like
twenty nineteen, So I was like, there's probably a more
recent example if I thought about it, But in general,
it's still the closest thing is sort of like like
maybe Alex, I try to don't let it Star because
of you, and I had not heard of that game
at all, So you talked about it on the show
a couple of weeks ago, and so I went into
that and I like that game. That's fun. So maybe
that's like a recent answer that fits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. If I have any this year,
but last year I actually have two, both games I
really enjoyed and reviewed for Game Reformer. One is Metal Eden,
which is from the Ruiner team, which is really all
I knew going in. I just kind of I got
a key and I was like, first person shooter. Sure,
I'll try it out. And it is a really really good.
But yeah, it's ghost Runner but with guns, which is
parkour arena based combat, fast paced, you're slowing down. Time
you take a couple of hits, you're dead. Fantastic game.
And then another one I talked about maybe last year
on here, Eric Schulm, The Stolen Dream. Yeah, really had
no idea what this was like at all. I just
I saw it and looked cool, picked it up, and
it's like a very It's a beautiful, rich stealth gain
person stealth game. Yeah, like a classic stealth gain There's
not really combat. It's just I don't want to say
immersive sim, but it has like an immersive sim feel
where to stealth your way forward, you need to use
what's around you, and the game doesn't really hold your hand.
It's like you need to know that if there's a
light above you to distract the guard or to turn
off the lights. You need to find something that hits
the light bulb to get rid of it. And it's
really cool. But yeah, like Marcus said, it's really hard
to come across games in the sense that like it
is our job to know, and we do try to
keep an eye on at least as much as we can,
even in the smallest sense, because we write previews for
the magazine, or we make our lists, or we do
discussions like this. But I do enjoy whenever a game
I have nothing no awareness about ends up becoming something
I really really love.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt Storm asks, how do you not give in
a despair? Seriously, though, with the current state of the industry,
how do you engage in self care to not get
buried or burned out by it? Yeah? I take breaks
from it. I feel like I play. I feel like
there are gaming fans out there that probably play more
games than I do. And granted I typically am not
on reviews for US, I do other things for US,
and so it's I I feel like I'm in a
unique position on the team where like Marcus and West,
you guys are always reviewing games like constantly, you have
something that you're on review for and I don't typically
and so I feel like I I will just kind
of like you know, I'll clock in, do my job,
you know, work on what I need to work on.
But in my personal life, like I am, I honestly
have like one game that I play like the last
month outside of like some of the stuff we talked
about on the podcast, And it's kind of the question
there's another question on here that I want to I'll
save that game for that. But like I pick a
thing that's like not really related to work, and I
play that thing. And you know, usually for me, it's
like a multiplayer game or something, but like or even
like an old game that like, you know, I'm not
gonna be talking about this really, but I'm just like
playing it to for the love of the game, you
know what I mean. But yeah, I think Marcus said
it sucinctly like gut side touch grass. I think Marcus
has talked about many times on the show. Uh, you know,
you can only control what you can control and focus
on that and.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and and bet be grateful for like what
you do have. I think that always starts for me
is gratitude is a big thing for me. Yeah, I
don't think if I can add much more than that gratitude.
Go outside, like seriously, like disc out for each other,
look out for each other, do what you can within
your circle to make other people's lives a little bit better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I take lexapros.
Speaker 3: Play a coin Alex, say, go pull a play a
coin usher game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's that's really a wild hole or whatever.
It was a bonus hole.
Speaker 2: It's a big hole and wild hole, which is a
lot worse than uh.
Speaker 1: Duke Fason asks, what was the last game you were
genuinely pumped for and not because you had to do
a review on it, because you wanted to play it
on your own time. That was the game I was mentioning,
Like the game I have that I'm like kind of
always playing. I've put ninety seven hours into Deadlock, and
that game is not even like publicly available yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that game is technically barely real when you think
about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Yeah, I
have ninety seven hours in that game, and like at
night time when I don't when everything else feels like overwhelming,
I'm like, oh, I don't want to play it. I
don't want to start a new game. I don't want to,
you know, I don't really want to keep playing something
I'm playing right now because I just I don't you
want to think about it. But dead Luck and uh,
yeah I play. I played like the the fun like
mode that's not even the real it's not even the
real mode. Yeah, and it's great. What about Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3: I mean for me, I'm I'm genuinely excited about games
all the time. Like it's not I feel like the
question almost phrases it. It's like I said, I don't
know that the tone of the question almost makes it. It
sound like it's a rare occurrence. But it's like I'm
always excited about something, like in a genuine sense and
not even if anything. Sometimes it's more exciting when I
don't have to review it because then it doesn't become work.
I can just play it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But like I was excited for, like super excited for
Resident Evil, some huge Residuel fans that I was a
big one, uh Pragmata just because I liked what I
played of it before and just because of the concept.
Like right now, I'm super excited for Castlevania. I mean
GT six, But that goes with I was saying, Uh,
Residents of Tail Legacy is one I'm personally really excited
about as a fan of that series and having gotten
to play it myself. Only Musha as Wes is holding
up our issue, Like I've gotten to play that twice
at two different pre release events and enjoyed at both times.
Like there's for me, there's always multiple multiple games that
I have my eye on that I'm like, man, can't
wait to play that, which is great, you know, I
mean that's what keeps you a fan of the of
the medium, right is too? Yeah, even when even for
us where we can probably more so than any other fan,
fall to cynicism because we're critics. Ultimately, like, I think
it's always healthy to kind of like allow yourself to
get excited for things, like to not be overly cynical
about everything, like totally you've always want to be willing
to be wowed by something.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, My answer is the last game I
was like the most excited I've been this year was
Double seven First Light. I have a I loved Double
O seven games growing up, Like those were my multiplayer
experiences on PS two, like playing Agent under Firelight Brother
multiplayer all day and all night long.
Speaker 1: Obviously, I think we've talked about it before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's no multiplayer in First Light. But I
just love being in a James Bond game world, like
It's just it feels like home to me. And I
really think Io Interactive unsurprisingly knock it out of the park.
And I genuinely enjoyed that game so much, Like I
was very hyped and it lived up to the hype.
And it's still what I'm thinking about a lot today,
and they seem to be tackling like a Hitman style
approach to supporting it over the months. They just hadn't
dropped this week, I think of content.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last question of the show, howdy Gi. This is
from an Attack an attack Corgi, a longtime, longtime community member.
What are your video game beige flags? Like red flags?
But instead of alarming you about a bad game, they
just shout this game is hella boring and a generic
an I G N six attack Cory, You why wouldn't
it be a Game in Former six? Come on? What
are we doing here?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Come on? What are we? What are we saying? What
do we You can't even mention?
Speaker 3: This is some respect for our six for for our
minute appeal score.
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, that's a good question. This game is heliboring.
Speaker 3: And then that's tricky because those are the games. I
feel like those are games that are hardest to remember
because like the bad games can be memorable because they're
just so awful or probably bad, but the games that
are just like this is perfectly cromulent, this is just fine,
but I will forget about this an hour after finishing it.
Those are those are tough to recall sometimes.
Speaker 1: And this is even like not they aren't even saying
like specific games, like what are like the features within
those games, or like what quality is about like the
Beijes flags of those games.
Speaker 3: It's because I don't know if it's tied to a
specific feature. I think it's just any existing feature but
just not done remarkably well, but also not done remarkably
bad either. It's just like this is this is that thing.
Like it's like when you say this is one of
the games of all time, it's like, yeah, they did
this feature, and they nailed it at on a fundamental level,
but they've done They've neither ruined it or done anything
interesting with it beyond making it functional.
Speaker 1: That's a tough one.
Speaker 2: I've got to I've got a weird, weird one to include.
I don't like when you're in a game and a
character is talking to you, whether that be like in
your ears and a calm or like with you, and
you're you're allowed to move in this space.
Speaker 3: But you walk away from them, but they only let you.
Speaker 2: Walk, like I can't talk about a certain game I'm
thinking of yet, but in my head, I'm like, you're
talking to me. I'm moving around listening to my ear,
but you're making me walk. I have to just sit
here and walk while I'm doing it instead of running
around and jumping because I have I want to be
sitting there jamming buttons. I'm gonna be jump in doing
whatever stuff you're talking to me. And when you just
slow me down and you're like, you can move, but
you got to move real slow while I talk to you,
I'm like, beige flag, beige flag.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Another one when you can auto walk? Does that help?
Like it so you don't have to actually do it,
like you just hit the auto walk button then, just
like an.
Speaker 2: Assassin's Free, like an auto follow. I do. I do
like that feature. Yeah, but I will say, you put
that feature in the game. You just created a perfect
let me check Instagram moment during your game, which is
not always what I think developers are going for. It's
very easy for me to grab my phone whenever you
show me a like auto follow button on screen, but
that might be more of a beige flag for myself.
Maybe I need to to work on myself and my attention.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're the problem.
Speaker 1: Withst I think. I think characters that are like like,
there's this is stemming from my and I hesitant to
mention it because I don't remember the name of the
creator and I wish I could credit them. There was
a woman on my TikTok feed who was she's a streamer,
and she was complaining about I think it's an exit
at the upcoming Exodus game, like some of the dialogue,
and like the characters that are always like really, oh
my god, like are like like millennial cringe kind of
characters that are like, well, I guess we'll have to
do this, like uh part ah, like cat humor, like
the quirky scientists who's like really geeky and nerdy, and
like there's a lot of those tropes, not just that
one in games and in in media movies whatever. I
think when I see those like archetypes like oh, well
we gotta have the tough guy, we got to have
the geeky scientists, we gotta have It's just like when
I see those those kind of tropes played out, they
don't really I know, like they're meant to like kind
of warm you to the characters, like oh, these are
the familiar archetypes that you're used to. It just doesn't
do much for me usually like okay, well I would
rather you have done something a little more interesting.
Speaker 3: On a specific note, like I remember this was a
big thing in the PS three generation, like post Uncharted,
where it felt like there was a couple of years
of like like Nathan Drake likes, oh, we need like
a Nathan Drake, like a Quippi cool guy, Like he's
not a complete badass, Like he's an everyman who quips
a lot. And I felt like there was like a
run of games that just did like Nathan Drake but worse, or.
Speaker 2: Like what was the sci fi shooter that is Nolan
North and it's just him being Drake.
Speaker 3: I mean there was Dark Void where he has the
jet because that is and he's pretty much doing Nathan
Drake in the game, and it's not a good game. Yeah,
But I for me, maybe this is a this is
more or less not even more or less. This is
almost entirely directed like Japanese games, but like sometimes dialogue
in Japanese game specifically is written in a bit of
a way that makes me cringe, Like I think Kingdom
Hearts is maybe the worst offender I can think of of,
just that classic style of characters having to needlessly say
a character's name even though they know them. Of just
like every conversation start with Riku and it's like you've
seen him like two minutes ago, and like they'll say like, hey, hello,
it's me, or hey, how are you doing, and instead
of just saying I'm good, they're like Riku and it's like, yes,
I'm it is me, I'm standing right in front of you.
Like the Kingdom Hearts three particularly drove me nuts with that,
Like I think it's maybe the worst offender of that,
But there are other like JRPGs or just like Japanese
developed games, and even maybe just other like areas of Asia,
that that's just like a recurring thing. And sometimes if
the game's good enough, I can kind of like forgive
it and like turn my brain off to it. But
if the game cannot get past that, then it's just
a bit like I don't even know what you would
call the style of dialogue, but I assume you guys
know what I'm talking about. You've probably encountered.
Speaker 2: It's like a I wonder if it's like a loss
from translation thing like in yeah, like it makes more sense, yeah, localization.
Speaker 3: Maybe I feel like I've played games like with subtitles
and it was still like translated that way. I think
that's just the approach. Yeah, like in an age where
video game writing has gotten so good and sophisticated, like
going back to when Charted of like some like Naughty
Dog dialogue being excellent, or like a rock Star game
like Red Nitsu or something like that, or like people, Yeah,
like it stands out even more. But if I fire
a game and that's happening, that's already like a I'm
already like I'm already like writing off the dialogue and like, well,
this is a lost cause. Hope the rest of the
game can can pick up the slack.
Speaker 2: I have one more, one more niche beige flag very niche,
my most niche.
Speaker 1: Be quick because my food's been sitting outside in the
heat for like ten minutes now.
Speaker 3: One day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey when it games audio options are just bars.
Like if you don't let me choose headphones or speakers
or TV, I'm upset. I don't like that.
Speaker 3: I don't like it's just a volume meter. I want
are you yes?
Speaker 2: And I want the game to adapt to that. If
you don't beag flag, I like that.
Speaker 3: That's interesting.
Speaker 1: Well, that's gonna be it for the show this week, everybody.
Thank you for tuning in. Of course, if you haven't,
pick up a copy of Game and Form a magazine
find us on newsstands, or pick up a subscribe to
the magazine, get a get a an actual subscription Gameformer
dot com slash subscribe. That'll be it for this week.
Thank you for listening. We'll see you next week, and
I hope you have a good one. Bye.