Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 76 - The Seance of Blake Manor
1.1k Plays2 days ago
Merry Christmas everyone! And, as it's Christmas, we're here giving you the traditional holiday experience of a ghost-related detective mystery in a haunted mansion on Samhain! Ok... So... maybe we're a little late with this. BUT, as Roses and Matt are catching up on 2025 games, we both played the EXCELLENT Seance of Blake Manor and we want to talk to you about it!
Plus, a lil' bit of Christmas, too!
Games Mentioned:
- Strange Jigsaws
- Bye, Sweet Carole
- Foolish Mortals
- Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?
- Seance of Blake Manor
- The Excavation of Hob's Barrow
- The Colonel's Bequest
- The Dagger of Amon Ra
- The Roottrees Are Dead
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/saveyourgamepodcast
Recommended
Transcript
Christmas Tree Traditions
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you have a Christmas tree? Yeah. It's my black Christmas tree with spiders and poinsettias on it and stuff. I feel like I should have a fake Christmas tree for the years like this year where I'm like, i don't want to go get a Christmas tree.
00:00:16
Speaker
Why? Do you mean a fake one? Yeah. Yeah. i I usually get a real one. You do? Yeah. I don't know anybody who does that. Because you live in the city.
00:00:29
Speaker
But we have Christmas tree lots here in the city. i Believe it or not, in the city of Chicago, we have real trees. How do you not know anyone who gets a real Christmas tree? I don't know. i mean, it might be because because I live in the city and because we all have apartments.
00:00:45
Speaker
yeah maybe that's why i don't i mean it's just as much trouble to get a huge fake christmas tree into your i don't know i've never i've never had a real one i've never been around a real one oh what they really yeah they are so they are their own sort of like magical thing like they smell good they make your house smell good they like shed you get like pine needles everywhere and you step in the pine needles Yes, that's good Well, I mean, i think you might be overstating. It's not like you're walking around all winter with like wounds in your feet. Pine needles are pretty, they're not they're not very harmful. And I, I often get, but as at least as a kid, I would get a blue spruce, which has sort of sharper pine needles.
00:01:30
Speaker
And even then did you get that why would pine needles one with the sharp pine needles. Because they are a little like more hypoallergenic. And my mom was allergic to Christmas trees, but she always wanted a real one. So we would get a blue spruce, which it has a kind of ah like a bluish tint on one side of the each of of the needles. Like turquoise?
00:01:53
Speaker
um Turquoise. No. No, like a pale bluish tint on one side of the needle. called? what's it call A blue spruce.
00:02:06
Speaker
Okay. like and if you see if you see a picture on the internet that's probably going to have the contrast turned up and look, like, very blue. Very blue. I know, I see what you mean, though. In reality, if you look really close to the needle, it'll be, like, one side is kind of bluish.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah. The other side is ah definitely still green. That's pretty. i like it. Yeah. And what the other thing about having stiff, sharp needles is they hold the ornaments better. And I don't know. i mean, my fake tree does that just fine. Were you a colored lights and just like garbage or like ah ornaments that like you've collected your whole life and they there's no theme whatsoever?
00:02:48
Speaker
Were you that kind of Christmas tree person? That's what it was growing up. Yeah. So yeah yeah, we had all these old, old ornaments. My parents were a little bit older. They had me when they were 39. they had All of these insane ornaments, that yeah really old school ornaments. I don't have those anymore. i have my own that i that I've made. Now I have a black Christmas tree with like, I put little fake poinsettias on it and spiders.
00:03:13
Speaker
And Krampus is like the star. So now, okay, so now you have a themed Christmas tree. I have a themed Christmas. i i Yeah, I still just do, my Christmas tree is just a big fucking collage of weird shit that I've collected yeah across the year.
00:03:30
Speaker
i don't I don't have one this year. Right. Right. i do I do colored lights. And so, you know, it's not that I don't enjoy the look of a themed Christmas tree. When somebody has a Christmas tree, it's like white lights and an all silver and gold balls or whatever. Yeah. but But for like for me, for my Christmas, there's like a comfort in the warm...
00:04:00
Speaker
cheesy corniness absolutely there is of just if i still had my old ornaments from childhood which i don't i have no idea where they could have ended up both of my parents have passed so who knows where they're probably in a goodwill somewhere someone's like what is this and of course all of my homemade ornaments from school those were those were pretty good those were gone They're all gone. Yeah. No. I mean, they all fall. My homemade wreath ornaments. Yeah, they're all They pretty much fall apart by this point anyway. when you're By the time you're in your 30s or 40s, almost all of your ah homemade Christmas ornaments from when you were a kid are like yeah in pieces. Yep. And you're like, so you're putting up something with like, it's like five popsicle sticks. Yeah. And where there used to be things that made it Christmassy on them, you just see like spots of dried glue with nothing on top of them.
00:05:00
Speaker
And that's Christmas decor. That's what Christmas is. do you have a do you have a favorite like ornament from your childhood? Favorite ornament? I have a Spider-Man ornament where he it has like, so on top of his head,
00:05:17
Speaker
It's got like a little place that you can put a hook so you can hold his him up by by his head. But then there's he has he's in his mid swing and there are strings coming out of his hands that each have hooks on them.
00:05:34
Speaker
So you can position them. So it just it legitimately looks like he's swinging through your tree like you've caught a mid swing. Do you want to hear like my favorite ornament? I would love to.
00:05:46
Speaker
So do you remember those like electric ornaments that you can take out one of the one of the Christmas lights and that you can actually like plug it in? Do you remember have a couple of those, yeah. Yeah, my aunt had one that was like a penguin rock band in a little snow globe. And they were like all these penguins that moved up and down. they were playing like They were playing instruments, and that's my favorite. That's pretty good. Basically, every single one of those that I have is broken. Yep. And...
00:06:15
Speaker
Because like I keep trying them every year. Every single... Because I keep trying them every year. Every single year, i have to find where I tried it last year.
00:06:30
Speaker
ah so that I can be like... Because none of the light like the lights won't turn on. And I'm like, oh, that's because i that's because it's missing. That's because I took one light bulb out last year. And then got too lazy to put it back when I was cleaning up.
00:06:45
Speaker
that's That's unfortunate. ah so I love those ornaments, but yeah, they're they're definitely made to break over time. Yeah, yeah. um Yeah, it doesn't feel like we've gotten a closing line here.
00:07:02
Speaker
No, I'm just real happy about the holidays. Yeah, me too. Hey. We don't need to be funny. We can be sentimental sometimes. Hey, roses. Yes.
00:07:13
Speaker
Merry Christmas.
Introduction to 'Save Your Game' Podcast
00:07:14
Speaker
Oh, Merry Christmas, Matt. Oh,
00:07:44
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Save Your Game. I am your host, Matt Aukamp, and with me is the Naugy, the... You mean naughty. you mean naughty. The naughty and nice, pushing up roses. Hey everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. Hi Matt.
00:08:07
Speaker
Hey. Are you excited? For Christmas? No, for the game we're talking about today.
Unconventional Christmas Foods
00:08:13
Speaker
I'm really excited for the game talking about today. What Christmas game.
00:08:18
Speaker
not. It's the most Christmassy of all games. No, it's like legitimately a Halloween game. Like it takes place yeah on on Halloween. right But let me let me just say this, though. I think that this game, because of the cozy nature of it, is i kind of perfect to play on a cold on like yeah cold night. You know, cold winter night with a cup of Christmas chili.
00:08:41
Speaker
Christmas chili. It's got, okay, you do beans. It's got pine needles it. Yeah, exactly. You do beans and you do tomatoes and then you do holly berries, which are poisonous. You do pine needles, which you shouldn't eat. well You can eat pine needles.
00:09:00
Speaker
You can eat pine, but it'll just like, it'll stab you in the throat. yeah um But they're not poisonous. You could you could die Can you digest pine? Whatever, you don't die. i Don't do it. Don't try to find out. holly berries, which are poisonous, mistletoe, which is poisonous, we'll throw in pine needles, which will stab you in the throat, but maybe you can soften them a bit. um What else do we do? Cranberry sauce.
00:09:24
Speaker
Ew. in the chili uh sugar plums what is a sugar plum really so yeah no we don't have time for it no nope we don't have time for this this thing about a sugar plum is it just means a type of candy like it wasn't it it wasn't it's not plum flavored yes the term sugar plum just it it was just like a catch-all term for candies So when you say with visions of sugar plums dance, dancing in their head, they're not talking about something specific. They're saying it's like sweet treats.
00:09:55
Speaker
Yeah. But I do want a sugared plum. Because everybody knows the term sugar plum, since then, there are very there are a couple different specific candies called sugar plums. But, you know, initially the word was just like a generic word. Hey, before we talk- I think my partner can hear me podcasting because he texted me a recipe for traditional sugar plums. Yeah.
00:10:19
Speaker
So yeah, just go online, folks, to G-Free Foodie, and you can get you can make your own sugar plums. look kind of good, actually. Well, so it probably what so a traditional quote-unquote sugar plum probably just means that they used to make, like, sugared fruits. Yes, like dried fruits, right? Yeah, sugar like dried fruits, or, like, I think hardened, like, fruit. You'd make, basically, fruit preserves and then let them harden.
00:10:47
Speaker
m what i I have a hot take. Yeah. I like fruitcake. I think it is delicious. If you don't like it, you're wrong. Huh? Fruitcake is, do you do you like soda bread? That is a hot take.
00:11:01
Speaker
I love fruitcake. Oh my gosh. I just like, I just like food. Hey, before we talk about the game that we're talking about today that everyone saw on the name of this episode, can i tell you about another game I've been playing?
Video Game Discussions: 'Bye, Sweet Carol' and 'Foolish Mortals'
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, ahll just FYI, I haven't played anything because I got so addicted to the game that we played. Like I played it over and over. i binged it. I got all the endings. But dude do tell me about another game that you had played.
00:11:28
Speaker
i did What you're exp express describing is something I did a couple weeks ago, so I totally get it. Yeah, I know. You played this long before I did. Yeah, but I've been trying to, I've been getting ready for game of the year, so I've been trying to play some of the games that, especially more recent games that missed. Oh my god, Matt, you're going to be so proud of me. i did play a game.
00:11:49
Speaker
No way. Strange Jigsaws. You played Strange Jigsaws? Yeah, I'm terrible at it. Absolutely. Fucking horrendous. I feel real dumb. But however, it may get a mention in my own little game of the year video. because you it's not It's not really a game of the year video. It's just five games I played this year I liked. but you So you like Strange Jigsaws then?
00:12:13
Speaker
Yes, I think it's super unique. I've never seen anything like it. I laughed right away when ah when Fleb, the the ah the chat guy, like the the the customer service guy starts. to it's yeah really It's just really unique, you guys. it's it's i I see what you mean by saying like it's got that there is no game vibe to it. I absolutely see what you mean.
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's unique. it's not it's It's not an adventure game. ah But it is an experimental game ah that has some some narrative aspects. It's just just unique. i think It's got like a meta-narrative. and Yeah. it's And I think like... um the word This is why we call our we often say we kind of slip up and say this is an adventure game podcast. But it's really like ah we talked early on. This is like a narrative game podcast. Let's focus on indie games. I think we should do whatever we want. Yeah. But I think a lot of times...
00:13:17
Speaker
experiment like adventure game fans narrative game fans they also have a so a soft spot for like the experimental too i think they do too those are things that really don't fall into other care like they they have trouble falling into other categories so they tend to just be like yeah it's kind of like an adventure game I mean, that's what I always said about like these kind of all these kind of games. It's like, you remember when people were like, oh, Gone Home, that's not and video game and it shouldn't be on Steam. It shouldn't be tagged. I'm like, but it doesn't matter. Yeah, because people who like adventure games, people who like maybe even hidden object casual are going to also like this game. yeah, it doesn't matter to me.
00:13:59
Speaker
Anyway, sorry, small little no small little tangent. Well, I'll do a small little tangent, too, then. I got to the I haven't I'm at the very end of um by Sweet Carol. Oh, really? you know, I was thinking about that the other day. How do you find it?
00:14:14
Speaker
um You know, it's this I think it's kind of like we said before, the gameplay isn't amazing, but it's not bad. Right. I think what that game has going for it it is is it is a feat in artistic beauty.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yes, and it continues to be that. and there are some beautiful narrative moments in it, too. when you I kind of saw the the reveal of who...
00:14:49
Speaker
The boy that that we were chasing the whole time? Yeah, yeah. I can't remember his name. It's like the name of some French city, isn't it? may Yeah, sound I mean, that sounds like it could be accurate. Not Paris, but some French city. Anyway, it he was... I saw the reveal of...
00:15:08
Speaker
who that person was coming for from the very beginning but there were some other twists and turns i did not see coming like i now i know who the final like the the the real villain of the game is and i know what happened to carol and it is i'll just say this game is sadder than you think I figured no i figured it might be just because ah it's got that that kind of gothic fairy tale. And fairy tales are often not very happy. Some of them are, but there's a lot of there's a lot of sad moments in fairy tale type.
00:15:46
Speaker
they're sorry There's a lot of kind of clumsy, there's still there's a lot more, that like we talked about, that there's there's some clumsy plays at sort of almost ah like a slightly outdated form of feminism that could more you know more adequately be described as women's liberation, right? Sure. ah there's There's some more clumsy plays at that, and some of them are actually, like some of them are touching, even if they are not They don't really hold up to much yeah ah scrutiny, but that they're still they still like lead to some touching moments. And i do think they do like kind of reverse some of the events that you've already seen in a way that you're like, oh, something different was happening than what I thought.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah. And that's cool. like there there is I think it is worth getting to the end of Bye, Sweet Carol. It's not going to be the best story you've ever played but it is going to it's going to it's it's satisfying yeah yeah it it' just even I think even just the aesthetic and play the the mechanic is pretty memorable like I said I was thinking about it randomly the other day so yeah yeah um so okay here's the game that I've been playing recently and I made a lot of progress on and I have some thoughts about and that's the game Foolish Mortals oh cool cool I'd love to hear your thoughts on that
00:17:08
Speaker
So it is it is very clear that it's a game that's made by people who love point and click adventure games and love the classic point and click adventure games. There's so much thought put put into every moment.
00:17:21
Speaker
and And technically, every piece of it is great, right? The animation is really good. the The illustration is beautiful. Yeah. the The sound design is unbelievably good. i don't like it's That's not something I normally pick up on, but playing this game, like, holy shit, this this is really good sound design. um There's an interesting soundtrack. The voiceover is great.
00:17:49
Speaker
is really great. The puzzles are fairly thoughtful. Cool. And the story is interesting. The story is interesting enough. Not, not too difficult. Here's what I'm going to say. It doesn't do anything.
00:18:03
Speaker
it really does. As you're playing, it feels like it does feel like the best version of a or a really good version and a very thoughtful version of what ah like a a person who loved the old point and clicks and wanted to make their own and put a lot of thought into every second and every moment sure but there's not a lot of innovation right um it is almost 100 percent oh this is kind of like this puzzle i seen somewhere else oh this is kind of like that um
00:18:40
Speaker
This kind of like that scene I saw. Okay, i just got past a point. And I'll say this because this was very frustrating. You can't skip cutscenes. Oh, man.
00:18:51
Speaker
Even though the cutscenes aren't like fully animated, they are within the engine, you can't skip dialogue in a cutscene. Okay. You know often times in point-and-click adventure games, or actually any game, if the cutscene is outside of the game engine and just a video You can't skip dialogue.
00:19:12
Speaker
But if it is in the game engine, generally they let you skip dialogue. In this, you can't skip either. Okay. so So there is a scene at the end of part two where – or at the end of part one going into part two where you solve a puzzle, you watch a cut scene.
00:19:33
Speaker
Then you get the title card for part two. And then there is a musical number that is very similar to the pirate musical number in Curse of Monkey Island. Sure. this is It is a a spectral jazz band, like fully composed and recorded. And like of there's a lead vocalist that is an incredible voice, really interesting. And they sort of sum up the plot of like the things you've seen so far. And then they ask you...
00:20:03
Speaker
to name the three main characters in the mystery. Like, okay, you know these people.
00:20:12
Speaker
Can you place each person, can you match each role with the archetype? Oh, interesting. Like, which one's the lover, which one's the pawn, which one's the devil, is yeah what it is.
00:20:26
Speaker
Okay. So she'll sing a verse. Okay. About the lover and then ask you who it is. And then you, the character, will have to say it's this person, this person, or this person. Uh-huh.
00:20:38
Speaker
And then she'll sing a justification for it. Then she'll sing another verse about the pawn and ask you who the pawn is. and you have to So you make your three guesses. And at the end, she'll say, ah with with a little rhyme and a little song, that you guessed wrong.
00:20:53
Speaker
and Maybe you'll guess right first try. But I didn't. So she'll be like, you guessed wrong. You got to start over. Oh, no. And again, you can't skip any of it.
00:21:04
Speaker
Oh, no. so you have to sit through the whole song and and and it took me. Look, here's I thought something more complex was going on. Yeah. Then like I thought it wasn't what I thought the story wasn't was more than meets the eye. Right. yeah So I kept guessing these other things.
00:21:22
Speaker
So it took me five times. Oh, no. And if you if you if you if you think about it, there's three roles and three people.
00:21:34
Speaker
The most you can guess is six times. i Like the most, the the configuration. it's not It's not nine? No, because you would do one, two, three, one, three, two, and then two, one, three, two, three, one, and then three, one, two, three, two, one.
00:21:56
Speaker
Does that make sense? Yeah. So, yeah. So five out of like it took me five out of six possible configurations to get it right. And it was really frustrating. Also, I'll say this. I was playing it and i had to go.
00:22:12
Speaker
So i I had to force quit in the middle of it. Oh, no then come back and then do those five tries that I'm telling you. So I like it was really frustrating to just have to sit there. like You can't save in the middle of it.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, that is frust that would frustrate me as well. I mean, i feel I feel that way about a lot of games. I remember like trying to get through that that Uncle Marcus game. What was it called? Yeah. um Oh, my God. Who blocked Marcus or whatever. Oh, who pressed mute on my Uncle Marcus? Yeah. could only ski yeah I do like that game, but I hadn't figured it out. And so i I was unable to skip a lot. Yeah. And it was getting very frustrating. But it sounds like this is only at one point in the game.
00:22:54
Speaker
Right, so what I'll say is to kind of put a bow on it, I think this is a, this is, it's almost like it's trying to be the perfect version of the point and clicks we played in the 90s. Yeah.
00:23:13
Speaker
However, unlike some of the other point and clicks we played, it's not like it's, it's not trying to be a game that learned the lessons of the point and clicks of the ninety s If that makes sense. So rather than doing something new, informed by what they loved about the point and clicks in the nineties, they're doing the ideal version of those games flaws and all.
00:23:39
Speaker
Okay. I like that. I like that idea, to be honest. That that's, I don't know that that was their intent, but that's how the game feels to me. It feels like the ideal version of both the plus sides and negative sides of the the point and clicks of the nineties and that makes it a good game.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't fantastic. I can't, I haven't sat down with it, but I think I'll probably just knowing what I know about it. I'll probably enjoy it more than you. Yeah. I mean, and moment to moment again, you're like, this is, this is great art. This is a great story. This is great voice acting. This sounds good. This looks good. This, but there's just something about it that doesn't like, it's not inspiring. It doesn't feel like,
00:24:26
Speaker
Uh, it, it, it doesn't, we play so many games that were also inspired by these games. Oh yeah, you know. and took those lessons and built something brand new.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't, I don't get a lot of that feeling playing this. So, um, I actually talk a little bit about that very idea in my in the next video that's going to go up about games. So you should tune into that. like I kind of challenge what you're saying while while also kind of agreeing with what you're saying.
00:25:00
Speaker
um Everyone go check out um Pushing Up Roses' is the YouTube channel then yeah and check out our new video. Yeah. And I'll talk more about like you know the idea of innovation and and stuff like that.
Podcast Plans and Future Episodes
00:25:15
Speaker
So I think we will... I'm not positive, but think we'll end up talking a little bit more about Foolish Mortals in our Game of the Year episode. We will definitely be talking more about Strange Jigsaws in our Game of the Year episode. Yeah.
00:25:30
Speaker
Which i'm I'm really excited for. I think it's going to be in I don't know if it's going to be two weeks or three weeks, but sometime early January. yeah So everybody look for Obviously after the new year, since it's, you know... Yeah, I mean, so many people release their Game of the Year episodes in December.
00:25:49
Speaker
And I always think that's weird. Like, what if something real good comes out tomorrow? I guess they just feel like, oh, there's nothing that's going to change it at this point. So, no, yeah. Right.
00:26:01
Speaker
I like to wait, though, just in case. Just in case something comes out on December 31st. And it gives us some time to play the games that we did not have time to play. Yeah, exactly. um And we'll have a really cool guest on that knows even more about games than me and you.
00:26:16
Speaker
so Yeah. Well, okay. Well. You don't think so? I know a lot. So do i And this person, I think, knows more. All right. Fair. Fair.
00:26:27
Speaker
Fair. I don't think I know a lot, though. I think you do too. so what are we talking about this week? We are talking about an amazing
Exploring 'The Seance of Blake Manor'
00:26:39
Speaker
game. I'm already like, oh, it's so good. we We're talking about an amazing mystery game. Detective detective mechanic called The Seance of Blake Manor.
00:26:50
Speaker
ah Well, then do you want to play Spooky Ghost-a-Reno? I'm sure I've done that one before. And then we'll come back. again We'll come back we'll talk about the seance of Blake, man.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:34
Speaker
hey
00:27:42
Speaker
everyone welcome back to save your game i am one of your hosts pushing up roses with me as always the uh the holiday ready ornament inspired matt aucamp hey matt but you lied to the people what did i say what why lie I'm not ready for the holidays and you know it.
00:28:01
Speaker
Oh, right. But we're ready like in theory. Okay. Yeah. yeah up Conceptually. Yeah. I'm not going to stop the holidays from coming. Mentally, I'm there. Just physically, you don't, you know, you don't have the tree up. That's fine. But mentally, you're don't even know that I'm there. I don't know that I'm there mentally.
00:28:20
Speaker
Never mind. What I meant to say was the Scrooge-like persona of Matt Ockham. is my first Scrooge year of ah ever in my entire life. ah No, I don't think it's Scrooge. I'm, you know, I'm not, I don't feel anti-Christmas. What'd you get me?
00:28:39
Speaker
i just don't feel the Christmas spirit. What'd you get me for Christmas? I can't tell you. What'd you get me? I got you something. I can't tell you what I got you. It's Christmas.
00:28:50
Speaker
I don't think you did your shopping yet. i didn't You know I didn't do my shopping. I'll send you a list of stuff I might want. It'll be like a list of like 100 art supplies.
00:29:05
Speaker
ah But yeah, I'm i'm excited. um Christmas or no Christmas. Because we played this game. Oh my gosh, this game is so fucking good.
00:29:15
Speaker
I'm not sure I would have played it. if it were not for your glowing reviews of it, especially atd Adventure X. So, but I want to say this, this is a game, this is a roses game as well as a map game.
00:29:31
Speaker
ah This is way up my alley and I am so glad I played it. It is so, so, so, so so good. So thank you, Matt, for, you didn't force me or anything. I just, you know, you didn't say, you have to. If could force you, if I was able to force you to play games, do you know how many games you would have played it'd be a problem yeah if i if i had the ability to force you to play games it's like no it'd be bad so uh this game i played and i really liked um and then i flew to london and i just kept thinking about it and then you know they were at
00:30:14
Speaker
you know I talked to one of the developers briefly. yeah I think he was a little inebriated, so we didn't have that big of a conversation. but I wish I had said something. I talked to one of the developers briefly, and you know they were they were they were all there. and so it kept like It just kept popping up in my brain more and more. and i think it would have had i even like it It was actually the week leading up to it when I was just in London also. and It just kept thinking about it, and then you started playing it And every time you would mention it, I would just like the vibes of the game would just flood back into my head. And I will happen sometimes when we start to you play a game, I'll play it second and then I'll come back to you because I'll have loved it. Right. And then that kind of reinvigorates like your thoughts about it. And you just you start to realize like how good the game is just based on what someone else is saying. you know Right.
00:31:08
Speaker
I think that happened here. But I think there's something even. more basic happening because i think it the vibes just get stuck in your head so hard yeah it's a vibe that just remembering the game makes you like it more because you're kind of like I wish I was back there yeah yeah oh man it's Yeah, it's a vibe for sure. It's also the perfect, perfect closed circle um kind of whodunit mystery. It's extremely closed circle because, A, it's you know it takes place in the late late eighteen hundred but like early nineteen hundreds maybe
00:31:48
Speaker
ah ah early What I'm trying to say is there's limited technology, right? So, and also, yeah, you're kind of, <unk>s it's that classic story of a detective is invited to this manor, this mansion or castle. a closed circle. You don't leave the premises very much a, and then there were none type of a ah situation, Agatha Christie. And and but you get and in this I have to say, this setting is huge.
00:32:18
Speaker
And I did, i don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know. I have a very good memory, but I can never quite remember where I'm going. But thank fuck there's a map of the whole matter that I had i really i had to keep referring to. Same. So just to just to piggyback off of what you're saying and and sort of express the vibe. Yeah, you are a detective. You invited to this manor. It's in Ireland. Which is awesome. This is a very Irish game. And you show up on a you show up late at night.
00:32:49
Speaker
And as you approach the manor, there's a woman washing her clothes, washing some garment in the fountain. Right. and as she looks at you.
00:33:01
Speaker
And then disappears. And you're like, oh, fuck. Okay. so It starts out with a startle. I got to say, I don't want to call it like exactly a jump scare, but it is startling.
00:33:11
Speaker
I'll say that. So you head into this manor and when you get in, like, again, it's late at night. So everybody's asleep. So you, you have this, the front of this manor to yourself for how long in game hour, I think.
00:33:31
Speaker
Yes, an in-game hour. Yep, that's correct. And every action you perform pushes the clock forward a little bit. Just one minute. typically Typically, most actions take one minute. One minute, yeah. Unless it's like a more cinematic event, you know? Yes. Yeah, and yes, sometimes they'll take five minutes and sometimes like a really big cinematic o event will take 20 or so. Yeah, yeah. so um So this early part of the game is like is like the game in Microcosm. You are...
00:34:04
Speaker
tasked with figuring out as much as you can about the mystery that brought you here. A woman was invited to this this old Irish Manor turned hotel that they are hosting a seance in to bring tourism to the hotel.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah. um And the hotel's full of guests, all there for the seance. And one of the guests, Evelyn Dean, disappeared. And somebody who you don't know who, invited you to the manor to investigate her disappearance.
00:34:39
Speaker
Right. So before, so, you know, before you get to bed, you, before like they ready your room in an hour, m You've got to look around these front rooms as much as you can to find out as much as you can about the disappearance of Evelyn Dean.
00:34:58
Speaker
Right. um This was not for like for me. I understand that this could be taken as kind of the tutorial. Yes. ah It's getting you you used to the mechanic. But I have to say.
00:35:09
Speaker
if I were to say anything, even slightly negative of this game, it's that I thought it was difficult to learn. i didn't fully like, I think I fully didn't understand the mechanic until way later on. Like I understood taking up time. i understood like putting deductions together right away. i feel like for me though, i didn't quite understand how evidence worked and what,
00:35:38
Speaker
really what the clock really entailed. um But once I did get it, I like i loved it. Well, for the audience, can you explain how those things work now? I think so. I think I'm trying to understand what I didn't get so I can explain it in a way that I did finally get it. I think i think the biggest part I didn't understand was there are these evidence maps that happen when you clock evidence. And they they start to happen right away.
00:36:04
Speaker
And it's a lot on the UI. Like you you're given kind of a lot to keep track of almost immediately, right? So you have evidence, you have mysteries to solve, you have ah a that you can kind of monitor.
00:36:23
Speaker
And then you have these like little mystery maps and there's more than one map. And I had a very hard time finding where they were. for the Dude, for the longest time, I was only looking at the culprit map and not the bigger picture map. And that was that held me back so for a while.
00:36:40
Speaker
So for people who haven't played the game, let's let's sort of explain that a little bit, right? So you... have So as you're you're walking around this manor and you find evidence, you are also talking to people. And yeah there's another smaller mechanic where every time you talk to a person, you can sort of observe them like like Sherlock Holmes-ish.
00:37:00
Speaker
You can like look at various aspects of their appearance yeah and assemble a ah like a sort of a profile of them. Right, yeah. and In fact, that's one of the kind of goals you have is to profile the people that you're talking to. So every time you get a new concept from talking to somebody or a new piece of evidence – or a new Or, you know, and and there's some crossover there, right? Sometimes a person will give you a piece of evidence. Sometimes a piece of evidence will give you a new concept. They get added to these maps and like these mental maps. And they are basically like lists of inventory of ideas and objects. um
00:37:53
Speaker
And it will automatically draw connections between them for you. Mm-hmm. And it'll draw connections in certain ways. Like these might be connected.
00:38:03
Speaker
Right. ah These, we need more evidence to figure out if they're connected. Or these two things are definitely connected. Right. Or lastly, these two things are not. It turns out these two things are not connected.
00:38:18
Speaker
And there's different lines for each one of those things. yeah and as if you collect enough evidence about a specific mystery,
00:38:30
Speaker
a Case of the Golden Idol style, you'll get a sentence at the bottom that you fill in with things from the map, with concepts from the map. So you can say, you know, Jeff ate the sandwich.
00:38:46
Speaker
Because he was hungry, right? And like yeah Jeff sandwich and hungry would all be things you would fill in. Yeah. um So this intro, it has you solve a very little piece of the mystery about the missing about Evelyn Dean missing.
00:39:03
Speaker
Yes. So that you can sort of get used to this. And then you go to sleep, you have a crazy dream and you wake up and meet all the I think it's 26 characters. Yeah, something like that. it's It's more than, it's hard. There's a lot of characters. There's a lot of things to solve. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.
00:39:24
Speaker
ah Yes, it's 26. So you meet all these 26 characters all at once, and it's really overwhelming. But there's a secondary tutorial where one character will so like sideline, like waylay you.
00:39:40
Speaker
And tell you, hey, I know you're a detective and I'm going to tell everybody if you don't help me with this mystery. Right. And that is how you sort of learn that each of these 26 characters, not only is this the mystery of Evelyn Dean missing, the that the prevailing thing, you learn that each person has a mystery that relates to why they're here.
00:40:06
Speaker
Some people are here at the seance because they lost somebody and they want to talk to them again. yeah Some people are here at the seance because they murdered somebody you want to make sure that they can get away with it. Some people are here at the seance because ah they know that this manor has connections to the occult yeah and they want to use this as an opportunity to find those find and exploit those occult forces. You know, what you can kind of you can kind of I think a really good comparison would be the movie Clue, which is already based on, you know, Agatha Christie whodunns. So in the movie Clue, the characters are invited by by someone anonymous.
00:40:51
Speaker
This wasn't anonymous, but they're all invited to this mansion. And they all have their own reasons for being there. They're not the same reasons. You know, Miss Scarlet is there because...
00:41:03
Speaker
um She's be, I don't want to like spoil. let's just say they Let's just say they all have different reasons for showing up. Yes. All of their secrets are different. they ah They each hold a secret. So there's only like six like six characters in that one. And now we have like 26 characters that all have a secret.
00:41:23
Speaker
And we need to be figuring those. they are They're all there each little little mystery. And you you know you find evidence around, you talk to people, you interrogate people, and you try to figure out each person's secret or mystery.
00:41:38
Speaker
And I think this is spoilable because you find this out in this second tutorial. What you realize is that every time you solve somebody's mystery, it tends to get them to agree to not go. Like they tend to then abandon the idea of going to the seance. Right. And there's a weird machine in the lobby of the manor that will then tick down from green to red.
00:42:00
Speaker
Right. And... So you get this sense from the very beginning. Oh, and it'll say like you saved this person from the seance. Right.
00:42:10
Speaker
And so you get the sense like, okay, every time I solve one of these people's mysteries, it will depower this machine just a little bit. It will make, make the person live. Like apparently everyone's going to the seance is going to die. Apparently, according to this pop-up that I just got, you know, and yeah,
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah, and that that becomes the goal, right? Is yeah not only finding out the over this overarching mystery of where is Evelyn Dean, but also trying to convince people by figuring out their secrets to not go to the seance. And they it of course at all it all ties together. These are not, like, yes, people's secrets can be individualized, but everything's kind of holding hands.
00:42:57
Speaker
And because you know somebody in the manor has to be the person responsible for Evelyn Dean missing, you know if you solve everybody's mysteries, one of them is going to give you a clue as to where Evelyn Dean is.
00:43:10
Speaker
And... In addition, like as you start doing this, you start to uncover like these other sort of overarching mysteries like what's up with the Blake family? Something's weird about the Blake family. And why are there ghosts everywhere? And that is something this game does fucking incredibly.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. The haunted kind of, it it really is like haunted. It's not just like a misunderstanding or like practical effects by some villain in a closet. Like, no, it is. I actually really like that about the game is yeah the the hauntings and also the the very rich and kind of intense lore, ah mostly, you know, European, ah irish Irish folklore that's included.
00:43:55
Speaker
So, yeah, you realize that. Yeah, exactly. You realize that. but And when I say they do the hauntings really well, you're absolutely right. But I was also specifically referring to the fact that sometimes you're just walking around the manor.
00:44:08
Speaker
And you turn a corner and there's a fucking ghost there. Yeah. yeah And if you keep looking at it, it'll fade away. But more likely, yeah you're going to jerk the mouse or the controller because you're going to get jump you're going to jump.
00:44:21
Speaker
yeah And if you look away from it and look back, it's gone. It put me on high alert. That's for sure. um So good. Yeah. Which makes me want to talk about the graphics for a second and then we can get back to, well, no, let's do the reverse of that. So this mystery ends up having ties not only to the Blakes, like Rosa said, it has ties to Irish mythology.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yes. And Irish history, like Irish political history. Uh-huh. um And, like, there's a lot in this about the Tuatha de Danann and, you know, like the Celtic origins.
00:45:06
Speaker
And, like, the Fae. Yes. It's so cool. I mean, to me, I think I had texted you. i don't know if you ever answered if you wanted to wait for this pod, but I asked if you felt that it was overwhelming. Okay. Yeah.
00:45:18
Speaker
This is a very Rose's thing, though. I do tend to get a little overwhelmed ah overwhelmed when it comes to folk horror. And there has been a rise of popularity in folk horror games. We had ah Hobbs Barrow. i would say a lot of The Last Door was folk horror. We had Dreams in the Witch House.
00:45:37
Speaker
I think sometimes I get a little inundated with information. It's very similar to how I felt about Gabriel Knight 1 and 2 with Jane Jensen always writing in historical stuff. Always. Always. There's even another mechanic in this game on top of the existing mechanics we kind of went through.
00:45:58
Speaker
There's also a library. Oh, this library so good. Library is a great idea. I did find it a little overwhelming at first, but the library was pretty cool. It was a good way to learn about things without having it be even more dialogue from the characters.
00:46:15
Speaker
ah You can kind of, feels like you're just reading up on something, you know? Most of the things in the library don't cost time. Correct, yes. But most of them don't. So you can just, if you're interested in something that this game brought up, if you're like, ooh, Tawata de Nanan, what is that? Yeah. You can just go read about the Tawata de Nanan in the library for 10 minutes. It does tell you. Of your real lifetime and zero time. And it doesn't cost you anything in the game. Oh, it would have been really hard for me if they had timed it. Just because, like, I think they give you more than enough time to do stuff in this game. Yes. It still feels kind of anxiety-inducing. You have three days, and each day is, like, I don't know, 16 hours or something. And most actions take minute. So it's like you have plenty of time to get through the things you need to get through. Even though they employ...
00:47:14
Speaker
employ tension in this game. So there are times you really feel like you don't. Like you start to feel like, oh, I'm not going to solve these things. Right. um But i I promise if that sort of thing stresses you out in games, I promise you, you have enough time. um Yeah, you Guys, I even, I fucked around for the first two days. Like I was still doing stuff. I had told you about some of the mysteries I had. But like I said, it took me a while to fully embrace the mechanic and really fully understand how profiling worked. And so I literally, i just fucked around for the first two days. You have three days to do this. And I still, I still got an amazing ending. I still did it.
00:47:58
Speaker
Yeah. You don't have to do it. You don't have to game the system. You don't have to do like, you don't have to do like it crossed my mind that a thing you could do is save the game. Cause there are safe slots, right? You could save the game.
00:48:14
Speaker
You could click on a thing that you thought was important, see the dialogue or whatever, and if it's not important, reload your game. You could do that. But fucking don't because that would – like you you don't need to.
00:48:30
Speaker
Yeah. and the fucking around is is like always valuable in some way. Even if it doesn't... Even if the fucking around doesn't help, like, go towards solving a mystery, it helps you understand the world. And this world is so cool!
00:48:46
Speaker
Yes. um Okay, so ah your question. Did I feel overwhelmed by the mythology? Yeah. And I want I...
00:48:57
Speaker
i Obviously, mythology is a big interest of mine. Yeah, it is it is for me, too, for sure. And folklore is a huge interest of mine. Yeah. So... What I think about mythology, a belief that I have about mythology is, sure, it's overwhelming. You're not going to learn it all.
00:49:15
Speaker
But it's kind of not meant to be learned. it's you're not You're not meant to learn all of folklore, like an entire culture's folklore, right? You're meant to learn, to pick up stories here and there and enjoy them in the context in which they're delivered. So I didn't walk away from this game I already knew a little bit about Irish mythology and folklore, and this game taught me a little more. Yeah, I already knew about some of it, but I didn't know the depths of it. You know, it was intense. I didn't walk out of this game knowing everything that the game wanted to teach me about it either.
00:49:53
Speaker
Right. um There's, you know, some of it went in one ear and out with the other. yeah Some of it i but my eyes glazed over and I didn't even really read it. Right. I think that that happens a lot in and games that are so at some point you have to realize you're not going to understand it all and just kind of have to suspend your disbelief a little bit and and think, well, the character is researching it and they get it. i don't necessarily have to understand every single intricacy about like the fey world and the, the gods and like, it's tough. Cause it's a lot. It's tough. Exactly. And yes, exactly. And I think ah that goes doubly when the things that you're learning are folklore.
00:50:42
Speaker
Like both yeah both, I think that's true of video games. I think that's true of folklore. You absorb what is relevant to you and meaningful to you in the moment. Yeah. You don't have to absorb all of it. You can always go back.
00:50:55
Speaker
um And with folklore specifically – You're meant to encounter it your entire life from many different sources, right? Yep. And every time you encounter it, you'll pick up a little bit more and it'll remind you of the last thing you learned and you'll start to make connections. over Again, over an entire lifetime.
00:51:15
Speaker
Absolutely. You should never sit down and try to learn an entire ah pantheon of folklore in one in one go because that that's just not how it was...
00:51:30
Speaker
ever intended by anyone who came up with any of the stories that have been passed down all these generations. So that's that's my answer to that. It might be headier than you were looking for. but um Yeah.
00:51:43
Speaker
Because I think you were just, like, if you were just looking for the answer of, like, ah yeah, no, I skipped a bunch of dialogue. like but that's fine. That's part of the game. That's that's part of it.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yeah, I do think that this is... That that is a pretty it's a pretty deep question um yeah because of the themes of this game. I think what what I'm most kind of excited to tell people about this game, even though I think, yeah the folklore is intense. I think it adds so much personality to this game.
00:52:16
Speaker
I want to talk about really how good and maybe the most successful detective game I've ever played. Okay, yes. This is a success to me. And you guys know i play a lot of i play a lot of mystery games. my Some of my favorites are not even that good. They're the Laura Bowe games. To me, this is like if the Colonel's Bequest or Dagger of Amon Ra...
00:52:40
Speaker
what wasn't insane. Like, if you know what I mean? Because those games, there is a video by one short eye about how Dagravon Munra is pretty much impossible to beat on your first run. You can't do it. It's really, really confusing. There's a lot. um But this game, Sansa Blake Manor, you can beat in your first try if you if you wanted, ah because there are not as many ways to massively fuck up your run. This is a very good deduction game that I think is maybe i think is maybe the most successful detective game that I've played thus far.
00:53:16
Speaker
So we should knock out a couple things. i like I think that is what we should... That and some of these people's stories is what we should spend the rest of this episode on. yeah But first, I want to knock out some of the the simple, just like basic stuff of the game.
00:53:31
Speaker
First is the artwork. It's really good. Yes, let's touch on that, yeah. It is like vector artwork with outlines, similar to the way Blueprints is. so you're walking around a 3D world that... um but Right, vector graphics is what you would call this?
00:53:48
Speaker
ah I'm not sure I would call it Vector. To me, it's just more of a it's more of kind of like 2D, almost comic, almost comic illustrated, because it has that blackout, black shading. It's very dynamic, very heavily contrasted. i would say it's like a 2D cartoon comic illustrated with you're in a 3D manner. the i guess the the manner itself can be considered Vector art, but when you're actually talking the characters, it's, yeah.
00:54:17
Speaker
Well, right. Yeah, right. So that's that's what I was going to get to then. So like the manner itself is like vector art or cel-shaded art um with outlines around it. So it kind of looks like you're walking through a comic book. It's very it very, if you look at a picture of this,
00:54:35
Speaker
like a screenshot of the game, it could look like a 2D game. And also it doesn't do it justice. i felt the same way about Hobbs Barrow. Remember when I just looked up screen caps and i'm like, that's, that's very strange. This in motion is, it looks utterly fantastic. It's got kind of those, it it has a ah very comic style. And sometimes in some of the ways that the story is told, it even has like the little, like the, like the little, what are they called? Comic book panels. not Yes, the panels, but also when there's like an onomatopoeia, when there's like a word. like Oh, right. So even in three d space, there will be a sound effect that is in like ah like a visual. like It'll say like clang. really cute.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yeah. um So yeah, so the world itself is that those kind of graphics. Again, very like blueprints. But ah the characters will be 2D pictures. Yeah.
00:55:31
Speaker
of the drawings of the characters in the 3D space. Right. um Similar Danganronpa or Paradise Killer.
00:55:43
Speaker
is Am I right that Persona is also that way? i haven't played Persona. Yes, correct. In fact, it does it has a little bit of a Persona vibe just because you are doing... It's not as restrained as Persona, but there's kind of like a timed action thing kind of going on. You got to really think about where you want to put your time, but you have way more time in Blake Manor. Like it's... it's It's both forgiving and also keeps you a little anxious. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Which it does, like, again, like we said, does really well of making you feel the tension, even though you will you pretty much always have enough time to get done what you need to do. So, like, you have so you have more than enough time so that even if you make some mistakes and fuck around, you still... Anyway. Absolutely. So, the...
00:56:36
Speaker
illustration style of these characters is kind of like Mike Mignola, like Hellboy. It's great. So beautiful. Very stark um blacks and ah like the shading is all just like, yeah, these these really heavy blacks and then um it's not that it's not like cluttered at all.
00:57:00
Speaker
Very, very like if you look at somebody's face, right? It'll be in the In the shading, it'll be these heavy blacks, and then it'll be big blank space yeah with features on it. It's not you know um not overly ah illustrated. right um Simplistic but moody, yeah I would say.
00:57:24
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, very moody. This whole game is, again, a vibe, a mood, you know? And then, like you said earlier, the mansion is designed... ah It's huge. It's designed in this really interesting way. And its ah different sections of it are gated so that um it doesn't feel...
00:57:48
Speaker
So that you you access certain parts at certain times, but you don't... yes Besides maybe the basement, it doesn't feel like you're barred off from a thing. And you're like, God, when are they going to let me in there? Well, let me tell you something.
00:58:00
Speaker
I didn't find a key to the other part of the manor until late day two. It's a miracle I even beat it. And the reason that is, is... ah There's a lot to there's a lot to um see in this game. There's many rooms, there's many areas, and there are some unoccupied rooms, rooms that don't have a guest in them.
00:58:23
Speaker
And there are a few of these unassigned rooms, and i confused one for the other. And you have to you have to look in both rooms. You have to. Otherwise, you will miss something. And I thought I did. i thought ah genuinely i thought I did. And that I think knowing what I did wrong is when I really embraced the mechanic. It's like, okay, let's look let's keep let's look again.
00:58:46
Speaker
you know Let's see if I missed something. I'm to say this. There are several hints that the key that key is in that room. I know, and i did and I did digest them, but for some reason, I'm like, oh, it's not. Maybe it moved. Maybe somebody took it yeah like i don't know I don't know what happened there. So, i mean, another thing about this manor is that it is, and I think maybe this is a slight flaw, is its it's that it's so big, it's also like a lot of it is very spacious, and so you are going to spend a lot of time running around. That's true. I didn't think it was as bad as some other games that I backtracked in um because I think it is a little clever in there's so many interactable things close by. There were a few times where I was just running.
00:59:37
Speaker
That's it. I was just running back and forth to one thing to the other. But I think because there are so many mysteries, there are so many places to find evidence. It it does a pretty decent job like keeping that in line. You know what I mean?
00:59:51
Speaker
Right. um
00:59:57
Speaker
Okay, so I think that sets aside all the technical stuff that I wanted to cover. I think it is time to dive into the mystery.
01:00:09
Speaker
Okay. you lead You lead the way on this one. Okay, cool. so we are playing a character named Declan Ward. You are a detective. And you are invited to this manor to look into the disappearance of one of the guests. Her name is Miss Dean, Evelyn Dean.
01:00:28
Speaker
And it's ah it's not known who wrote us. It is an anonymous letter just from a concerned party. and We go into this manor. And like I said, you are greeted by this kind of startle scare to kind of set the tone of what you're you're in for.
01:00:44
Speaker
And this vibe, man, i just got to say, when I actually entered the hotel part of the manor, because you're a guest, you know, you're a guest there, you're going to have your own room. The vibe immediately was whodunit, Agatha Christie, really cozy, really spooky. There are these little turnip jack-o'-lanterns everywhere, but you you come across one right away in the doorway. And I think that also kind of gives you a hint as to what's in store, because already there's kind of like a lore going on. Somebody is already um interested in that. And we learned that there is going to be seance
01:01:23
Speaker
in three days. And ah yes, and there are, again, I think we said 26, I don't know how many guests there are, but there are 26 characters in this game. Many of them are guests staying in other rooms. So your job currently, as you get there, is to figure out what happened to Miss Dean. Why did she go missing? Where did she go missing? And as you uncover those things, you also start to realize that Everyone is a little bit weird. ah The manor is very strange. it's it's it It seems to be haunted. I mean, it is. It is haunted. um
01:02:01
Speaker
It seems to be in an area that's rich with ah other entities like they and things of that nature, not just ghosts, but like other Irish entities.
01:02:12
Speaker
um And yeah, everyone is really acting kind of strange. ah the The owner of the manor is acting real weird. You got figure out what the heck is going on with him. ah And he's the one who's like, we got to have this seance.
01:02:26
Speaker
um So the manor, the the guy who owns the manor, he invited a very well-known manor. I don't know if if she was referred to as a priestess, but she's the medium. She's a medium. yeah Yeah. Yeah. They invite a medium and she is there to perform this seance and everybody has their own reasons for going to this seance. Yeah. And you could probably at least infer that if you're going to a seance, you're probably wanting to make a connection, right? That's probably a big motivation for most people. You go to a seance to, in hope,
01:03:00
Speaker
to ah speak with the deceased, your family members, your friends, you know, something like that. So you also have to find out even what the host wants to do. Like, why why is this seance even taking place? And where is this missing woman? Like, what what is going on? Yeah.
01:03:18
Speaker
And man, that was some of my favorite parts of the game beyond, you know, figuring out everyone's secrets of why they're at the seance. Some of my favorite parts were really figuring out what happened to Miss Dean.
01:03:31
Speaker
And it's going to be nebulous, I think, until the until end game, to be honest. But it was so amazing. It was just so fun to uncover that particular mystery. Like, oh, her footprints are over here. Where did, that where does this lead? And then you talk to a character and like, did you see this? Were you at the, were you at this bridge game during the time the bridge game? Yeah. The bridge game is so great. Yeah. Like the last time anyone sees her, well, she gets into an argument with some man right after a bridge game. that many of the people are at so you ask everybody about the bridge game and everybody like sort of tells you little details and you start to learn okay who's a liar yeah yes and they might not be lying for the reasons that for a reason that they had something to do with Evelyn Dean's disappearance correct yeah that's correct so you just like start to learn okay who here is a liar and
01:04:27
Speaker
What is and also just like what's everybody's connections to each other? Yeah. And how do they all feel about each other is something that you learn a lot about through the bridge game that again that you're not at. You're just asking people about.
01:04:41
Speaker
and it's, of course, you know, if you kind of think back to just as an example, the Colonel's Bequest. Everybody is at this for a specific reason and they all have opinions of each other in Colonel's Bequest. You can ask somebody about someone else and they'll be like, I hate that person. It's very similar here. Everybody has certain connections or they'll have none or they'll say yeah they have none. But it's, it is really, it's that kind of quintessential murder mystery where there's, everyone has some kind of tie and some people are friends. Some people are friends. Not friends at all. And some people, you don't know their connection until you catch them, right? Like there's people that you you find a note about a meeting.
01:05:22
Speaker
And so you sneak your way into that meeting. And then it's like, oh these two people, what the hell? Again, very Dagger of Amon Ra. You know, you find a letter of there's a meeting at three o'clock and you have to be there at three o'clock or you're going to miss this meeting. Right. But like Colonel's Bequest, you have to go through the wall to find Yeah, you have to go through the wall. But also, ah you know, there's a lot of eavesdropping.
01:05:53
Speaker
There's a lot of seeing two people talk and being like, gar laura bow yeah what are they doing here? It's great. And getting up close to them and eavesdropping and learning just little bits about them. And then basically this game, you're solving the mystery almost like interrogating people, walking around, finding clues around the manor, going to the library, researching things. But majority of this game takes place in breaking into people's rooms. Yes, and I love it because that's what makes it... I mean, aside from the supernatural element that's going on, you don't see that a lot in Whodunits. That's kind of it's ah that's what makes it kind of its own identity is it's not really grounded in reality. But aside from that...
01:06:37
Speaker
I felt like, oh, I am a detective here. I am finding keys to get into people's rooms. I am looking at their stuff. I am writing it down as evidence. I'm connecting it to something else.
01:06:48
Speaker
I'm eavesdropping. and this This really made me feel like the detective mechanic was just spot on. Yes. Like, this is how I want to play a detective game.
01:07:00
Speaker
e Yes. And I want to say, this game is also... it It does lead you. Yes. So in your mind. Apparently didn't help because clearly I was farting around. But yes, it is guided. So in your mind map.
01:07:19
Speaker
You have one mind map for the overall mystery and it'll say like the bridge game or ah Evelyn Dean's disappearance or, or the argument or whatever. And when you click on that, it'll show you everything you've learned about that, everything that ties to it. And again, the stuff that you thought might tie to it, but ended up being a dead end. And I'll show that with like a little broken line. And, and,
01:07:45
Speaker
When you get all the evidence you need, again, you can fill out a case of the Golden Idol style sentence at the bottom. But before you get all the evidence you need, it'll tell you towards the top exactly what you need to do. Not exactly. Not exactly. Because if it did exactly, I wouldn't have gotten so stuck on something. And I'm not going to say what it was. But yes, it'll tell you vague hint of what you need to do. Yeah, it gives you objectives.
01:08:08
Speaker
And then it'll do the same thing for each character profile. there's a character pro There's a mind map that has all the characters, and you click on each of them, and there's your sort of like profile of the character, all the evidence you've gathered about them. And if you ever need a reminder, you can just click on those pieces of that that each concept, and there'll be a description of what you learned. your little your le Yeah, your little detective description. I will i'll tell you those. Yeah.
01:08:32
Speaker
yeah Go ahead. Oh, maybe we're going to say the same thing. Those descriptions are a little vague. You really do have to employ your memory. um Oh, yeah. If I had stepped away from this game and tried to rely just on those descriptions, I wouldn't know fucking anything. Those descriptions are not, it could be a little more detailed.
01:08:51
Speaker
but Yeah. Well, I think that's that's that kind of falls in line with what you we do want to be a little challenged in a detective game. You do want to feel like the game is not just giving you anything. And I want to say, even though it's guided and it's guided in a very well, it's guided in a very realistic way, right? As a detective, you would be writing down your your things to do, you would be you would be keeping track of that in real life. I think the biggest thing is that there's so many things to keep track of. Right. that That's the challenge there. It's like, okay, I've got 26 characters. They do all have descriptions. they I am getting evidence, but which one do I actually want to do first? is there can Can I do this one now? Can I do this one now? Where should I start? Yeah. some of them barred, like are some of them you can't do it until, and again, your little, the little clue thing, your little directional thing, your to-do list will tell you often if yeah you can't do it yet. Yeah. But it is up to you to decide kind of where you want to go first, who you, because I don't, i'm I'm certain we didn't solve these mysteries in the same order as each other. I'm certain that I did a lot on the second day that you probably already did.
01:10:03
Speaker
um Yeah, I solved some mysteries on the first day. i think I probably solved most of them on the second day. But I think by the end of the first day, I was at a... I was at as far as I could get at that point with many of them.
01:10:22
Speaker
Yeah. um So, yeah i I'm trying to think. So who did, who, obviously there's some, there's, there are two people you have to solve first.
01:10:34
Speaker
um You don't have a, you don't really have a choice. um Yes. And I, and I think that's a little bit more of the tutorial and because it shows you exactly like how, how to go about solving the characters mysteries. Yeah.
01:10:53
Speaker
um Right. And then you can kind of do it on your own. Right. So you're guided right away. Somebody approaches you right away. Once you kind of figure out those initial mysteries that are kind of presented to you, you can go. Obviously, there's not really order the mysteries. the the biggest thing is you have to get everyone to not go to the seance. Yeah. On that third day at nine o'clock. Who is the first person you solved?
01:11:18
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. The very first. ah yeah You mean outside of the two tutorial people? Yes. Goodness. ah Interestingly, I spent a lot of time on a different optional mystery that was given to me. Oh, yeah, I did that one, too. I think that was also my first mystery solved. Yeah, I don't remember who the first person was, though. Who was i focused on? I was certainly focused on, gosh, I don't remember her name now.
01:11:49
Speaker
I know the last few ones that I did that came up mine like way later. Mine was Olivia Darcy. Oh, that's mine. That's who I'm trying to think of. Yeah. I solved hers pretty immediately. And who, hold on. Interestingly, who was your last one?
01:12:04
Speaker
The vera Varley. too. Varley was the last one. Yep. And I could have had him way... I did a boo-boo. ah So in this game, there are a lot of like safes and like combos for those safes.
01:12:20
Speaker
And they they're fine. They're not illogical. They make sense. What I did was I found a safe code. early on and I didn't click on it. So it wasn't actually file. I just remembered it. I literally, I remembered it in my head.
01:12:35
Speaker
That's what I was doing. I even went back and looked at the safe code over and over and then went back to the safe and the, the objective, it wasn't helping me because I didn't realize I simply didn't click on a piece of evidence to put it the information, to put it in the game's information. So I could have had Varley early on, but I didn't. He was the very last one.
01:12:57
Speaker
Varley was the last one for me. Here's an interesting thing. What was the... let's let Now I want to kind of keep going. Who's the second person you solved? Because then then I went real hard on Lloyd Dupree. Yeah.
01:13:13
Speaker
Dupree was later for me. and Yes, because Dupree you can't solve until the second, maybe even third day. And you need you need access to the mansion. I remember I was so late. Access to the mansion. I was so late in finding the key. I needed access to his room.
01:13:29
Speaker
You need to see everyone's room. Yeah. Okay. Okay. hey But yeah, so, but I, I didn't do him until I think day three. um Do you remember who your second person was? Let me look up the characters. I know. i definitely remember who the very, very early on characters were. It was definitely Darcy. it was also, um,
01:13:53
Speaker
What's the name?
01:13:57
Speaker
What? Because I think you can do these in. O'Meara?
01:14:01
Speaker
Oh! Capital O'Meara. I solved him pretty early on. Wow. Okay. All right. Nevermind. Yeah. He was one of my last ones. I was thinking, wouldn't it be wild if this game gave the um impression that you could do it in any order, but was subtly guiding us that you had to do it in a specific order. And it was just like so well designed that it could. But no, now we know that that's not the case. Because my second one was um ah Quarantine Quinn.
01:14:31
Speaker
No, I didn't. I didn't figure. Here's another thing that I did, which I should have embraced. I said to get quarantine Quinn, you have to go in and so and see something in a bathroom. And I am so scared of video game bathrooms because of Colonel's Bequest as a kid. I just like I knew I just like there's definitely a demon in here or ghost. And I i really I didn't get her till much, much later.
01:14:58
Speaker
um All right. how Okay. What was, who was your favorite? Not just your favorite. Oh, why don't we do both? Who is your favorite character? Not mystery, just character. Oh, not mystery, just character in general. Gosh. You can't say Declan Ward.
01:15:12
Speaker
He's the guy we Yeah, I'm the favorite. No.
01:15:17
Speaker
Gosh, I think they all have such interesting personalities, but I think my favorite character. I don't know if Michael Skerritt does. Well, sure. ah Look, they can't all be winners, okay?
01:15:31
Speaker
I think probably my favorite, I'm trying to find her name in the list here, but she is going to be the Dre, the redheaded character. I really like her.
01:15:43
Speaker
Fyad Callahan. Callahan, yes, that's it. i I really enjoyed talking to her. i liked her. she had like She was there with somebody, and I liked that character, too. I also really liked the um the stable guy. His name was Darag Hunter. so Oh, yeah. He was great. and i yeah I was going to say I liked Circa Murphy, but I think Darag Hunter is definitely...
01:16:13
Speaker
yeah yeah S tier character yeah he was great he's so good I really did enjoy talking the majority though he's the stable master and groundsman he's ah just this like old Scottish guy who just like looks fucking tough as nails and you find out he's also like ah he also has a history of um
01:16:36
Speaker
practicing magic there's a thing early on where you see a list and this list i referred to so many times you see a list of people who are definitely or maybe or are definitely not magical right yeah that's part of that's part of actually figuring out who the culprit is and that is who's magical but not but you see this list at the in that in that um In that quest at the beginning that you can't that you have to do first. Yes. yeah And so the entire time you have this thing, you have this note that's like these like four people are definitely magical. These two people might be magical. And these two people are not magical. And you wouldn't think that would be such a big deal. Yeah. But man, I looked at that so many times. Yeah. okay Yeah.
01:17:29
Speaker
I also, I mean, he's probably not my favorite character, but I i really did kind of enjoy talking to Varley, who is the, um, because he didn't give you, he never gives you anything. He's just like, he's just grumpy all the time. And like, i'm so mad at you how good heat there's something about him. I thought I found very mysterious and like this voice actor a lot. but I'm yeah. I'm just trying to figure out who did I key? Who did I love running into? Definitely, ah again, Hunter. i even i even really liked um the one who was with ah Victoria Lau.
01:18:04
Speaker
her Ivy McLeod. I liked that story, too, but I liked her character. Yeah, there's definitely characters we liked more than other characters. I liked Ivy McLeod. I didn't like Victoria Lau very much, actually. I i was i agree. um Lloyd Dupre was also a a real favorite of mine. Okay, hold on.
01:18:25
Speaker
So that's characters. yeah Yeah. Who had your favorite mystery? This is going to sound like so stupid. Oh, no. Okay. So trite. Because really, if I really think about it, it's Evelyn Dean. Evelyn Dean. Okay.
01:18:44
Speaker
He has my favorite mystery. Or if I were to, I guess if I had to go off, you know, veer from that, I would say Lorde Dupreeh.
01:18:53
Speaker
ah Sorry, Lord. I said Lord. Lord Dupree. He sounds like he's saying Lord. It took me so long to find to fake to just like read his name that was right in front of me the whole time. He had a very... of the stories are very sad.
01:19:06
Speaker
ah Lloyd Dupree, his story made me cry. Matt. story that story was the that was the, I think, most touching story in the game. Though his his buddy... um The first one we solved.
01:19:22
Speaker
What was her name again? The first one? The first one that both hit me and you solved. Mrs. Erickson. No, no, no, no. that Oh, Darcy. first choice that we solved. Olivia Darcy. Olivia Darcy. ah Her story is pretty fucking good, though.
01:19:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Her story is very...
01:19:45
Speaker
um That was a juicy one, honestly. Yeah, juicy is the word for it. Like, Lloyd's is sad. yeah Olivia's, and I should be calling them by their last name because mostly in the game you use their last name. so Yeah, their last name. Dupree, his story is and touching. It's and it has steps to it.
01:20:04
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Darcy's story like, okay. like it's just very scandalous. It's the and yeah. there's some people in this game who are kind of, there's the thing you start to learn is that everybody is sort of following their worst impulses and have been for the like several months leading up to the seance. Yeah. Yeah.
01:20:31
Speaker
And so all of them have done, most of them have done like the worst thing they've ever done in their lives or, which for some people isn't that bad, but like most of these people have done the worst things they've done in their lives or following their absolute worst impulses or have fallen into obsession or um infatuation or like like the most negative version of any um emotion right like instead of being in love they're infatuated instead of being interested they're obsessed instead of being jealous they're ah vengeful even vengeful exactly so everybody has been following and you don't really know as you're going through this is this just these are a bunch of shitty people yeah or is something is some is some force working on these people Yeah, I certainly because of the magical aspect and because of the haunted manner and because of just just even simple tropes that exist in this kind of genre, you can probably infer really quickly that the manner itself is affecting people in in ways, even you, even by the character that you're playing.
Game Endings and Puzzle Mechanics
01:21:52
Speaker
But the thing that's that is sort of wild to discover is, again, like that this question of, wait, was it affecting everyone before they got here? Yes.
01:22:04
Speaker
Yeah, have to wonder. I also, before we even, I also really like Saoirse's story. Me too. Me too. I really liked her like her story. I liked her as a person. i liked her story. Figuring out that story was cool. Yeah.
01:22:19
Speaker
so cool You stumbled across a bit of evidence about that story early on. yeah And you texted me about it because you thought it was about something else. I did. And I was like, having I think I just texted back like, hmm. Interestingly, since I am so...
01:22:38
Speaker
kind of familiar with just the genre this is my life right i i do a whole show about murder mystery stuff um i was able to 50 figure out what was happening early on yes but i didn't know that it would go so unhinged which is so agatha christie like it just goes off the rails it's fantastic So we're to talk about the ending, but we're not going to talk about... i think we should talk about it without spoilers. so We need to not spoil this. We have to talk about are reactions to the ending rather than ending itself. So yeah there is... So again, a lot of these threads come together. Not everybody's personal mysteries, but a lot of the themes in their mysteries and the threads, like again...
01:23:31
Speaker
The occult history, the Blake fortune, and they ah like literally Irish history factors into this. um Like real, actual, real-life Irish history and Irish mythology.
01:23:48
Speaker
yeah All of that factors in to what is actually happening here at the end. you...
01:23:56
Speaker
you
01:24:00
Speaker
You get access to this other part of the manor that you've never been in and slowly a mystery that you you couldn't just you just couldn't have guessed. Yeah, you can't. I i guessed a very important part of this mystery But yes, you cannot get to the solution by yourself on this. It goes way out there. And I kind of like that because it's it's a great story and a great gameplay in that it gives you mysteries. You can solve tangible mysteries that you have solved. You have gotten the conclusion to while also doing this storyline with a twist that keeps that twist secret until the end.
01:24:39
Speaker
And the twist, while it is utterly insane. Yeah. It, you, you, you like it it it it doesn't feel unearned you get to that twist and you're like oh my you're not like what you're like oh my god oh my god oh my your hands over your mouth and you're just like what is happening you're just progressing the story like like holding your breath like oh my god oh my god this can't be what i'm seeing at one point point i'm like what the fuck is happening what have i what have i done ah but so
01:25:16
Speaker
um yeah i mean there's there's a lot of in this game aside from the mysteries there's some point and click is puzzles right like there's some uh
01:25:28
Speaker
codes you have to find, some items you have to use with other things. It doesn't feel yeah and like a... Yeah, it's mostly clocked as, like, evidence, right? Like, in Colonel's Bequest, it's not really... Like, there yeah, there are some, but it's mostly, like, evidence-based gameplay and deduction and interrogation.
01:25:48
Speaker
But this final part, when you get to this other part of the mansion that you've never been in, and again, this isn't a spoiler, you'll know pretty early on... Like, oh, they won't let me in that part part of the mansion.
01:26:01
Speaker
Probably that's the end of the game. And you're right. um But it is it then becomes like a series of kind of like escape room puzzles for yeah the next subject the next 10, 20 minutes, depending on how quickly you solve puzzles. And how did you feel about that?
01:26:19
Speaker
I loved it. Yeah. it It felt like it improved the pacing. It felt like it improved the stakes. It it set up the twist, the you know, those last kind of that let's just call it like the end game moments, right? Where you can't go back now, right?
01:26:34
Speaker
And you get access to totally different part of the manor. I loved it. I thought I did not see it coming. m I did not know where this was going to go. you find secret rooms and and secret evidence, and it's it's great.
01:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, and this this is and it is the most absurd version of... um escape room puzzles where like no one would have this in their house. Not even the most insane person could do Like true there's a thing where it's like, I'm gonna make up these details cause I don't want to spoil any of the puzzles, but it'd be like, oh I saw a triangle scrawled on the banister.
01:27:14
Speaker
Oh, I saw a square um on my own shoe. And I saw a circle in a book. yeah And it was a different color than all the other inks. So then later, ah the combination is triangle, square, circle. Yeah. And you're like, what the fuck? that How is that? Like, I get how I as a player got there. Yeah.
01:27:36
Speaker
But how did Declan Ward as a detective get there? Because those are just three random things in the world. like like it absolutely unhinged. like that that So i think, like,
01:27:48
Speaker
They are fun puzzles, and there is a good ah pacing, like you're saying. Yeah. And it it and feels fun to switch it up. But like for a game that is otherwise so logical and so reasonably designed, yeah these final couple puzzles are...
01:28:07
Speaker
No, I agree. i agree. i Absolutely poor, like just kind of dog shit design, but still somehow fun to do. It's very grounded until that moment of, I think, I don't know when it picks up. Yeah. The puzzles maybe take like a little dip.
01:28:22
Speaker
What if somebody had, if so if somebody had moved that projector a little bit, you wouldn't be able to get into the next room. What? Yeah. Like, it's just, it's just... understand. Yeah, I get it. I get you.
01:28:37
Speaker
So anyway, but regardless, and then... i just want to say those were not my favorite puzzles. i I enjoyed them, but I also just thought they were stupid as hell, which I think both things can coexist and often do in adventure games. Absolutely.
01:28:52
Speaker
This is an example of that, but it's just like... it it They did stick out because they were so different than everything else in the game. Yeah. and And then you sort of move to the end game where things get very... where you you You go to the seance, obviously.
01:29:10
Speaker
Yeah. And from there, things get get pretty wild. Yep. It's real weird, real quickly. And it's kind of cool. At the end, every character has a little epilogue, whether they...
01:29:25
Speaker
and Any character that survives, I'll say, um has a little epilogue. Yeah. it's If you've played Dagger, it's going to make you so happy because I think one of the coolest parts... I'm serious. like At the end of Dagger, if you you know if everyone survives, if you talk to people, you will you will get their story at the end. And that made me so happy that Seance did it too. I want to know. i want to know what happened to these characters so everybody gets their own little ending and it's great. Yeah. And if you solved everybody's mystery, you get a little epilogue.
01:30:00
Speaker
Yes. I like that, too. I like that, too. So, man, it feels like we've covered this whole game. What are your other thoughts about it?
01:30:12
Speaker
And granted,
01:30:16
Speaker
suffice it to say, everybody, we will be talking about this game in a couple weeks too. Absolutely. There's no chance we won't. No, I really, really loved this game. It was the exact vibe that I wanted and needed. like i I think I said it pretty succinctly in that it's the best detective game, the most successful detective game.
01:30:39
Speaker
that I've ever played. that This is what I would want in a mystery game. And I love those those old classics. I love mystery games. like I really like Laura Bowe, even though they're very, very, very flawed mechanically. i like Contradiction, which had more of a deduction-based thing going on. I love Golden Idol. I like the Duck Detective games. I think even they have a good mechanic. yeah This, I think, is the most kind of, I don't want to say, it's not realistic because it's still you know fantasy, but it is the most realistic version of a video game detective that I've played.
01:31:14
Speaker
I think it is interesting that this game came out the same year as The Root Trees Are Dead. m um Because I think they both do like a very realistic, very grounded mystery.
01:31:28
Speaker
Yes. ah Granted, Very realistic in the way you solve it, right? You know what mean. Yeah, the mechanic makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not, like, obviously what happened in Saiyans of Blake Manor. It a kid could not... It involves, like, ghosts and gods and shit. So, but... They both have these...
01:31:52
Speaker
this way where you you feel like you are doing the actual research and uncovering the facts yourself, even though the game is handing them to you ah in a way. um You get to the end of each game and you feel like that was your accomplishment.
01:32:08
Speaker
Yeah. um And i I think, yeah, I just think it's interesting that both those games came out the same year. Clearly, this is something that is in a lot of people's heads. And I think since, um you know,
01:32:21
Speaker
Return of the Old Burden and Case of the Golden Idol. This is in a lot of game designers' heads. This idea of like, what if we tried what if we stepped away from then the like the narrative leading somebody through a mystery yeah and and trust the player to actually solve a mystery?
Game Design Reflections and Recommendations
01:32:41
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah Blake Manor is an example of doing that without sacrificing any narrative. Yeah. it feels Her story kind of feels that way too. Her story feels like you are doing it. You are looking for the evidence. You are tying it together.
01:33:00
Speaker
Yeah. It makes it feel like you are the detective. The difference, I think, with her story is... Her story, the majority of it, is just you in your real life thinking about the stuff you've seen. Where in Blake Manor, and also in Root Chaser Dead, you're sort of proving it as you go. sure.
01:33:19
Speaker
yeah And so it is leading you through a narrative. Yeah. It's just that same feeling of you but yes have done it. You are actively doing the work here. Oh, I app so i absolutely agree. Yeah. And...
01:33:32
Speaker
i I'm just... I'm very impressed that it seems like there is this trend of games game designers. It seems like this is this era of game design. i don't know if you agree or not. um Where...
01:33:52
Speaker
Instead of, again, instead of making the stuff that they've seen before, most like people are really taking the time to sit and think about like what did this mechanic in this other game I played and enjoyed, what did it mean?
01:34:08
Speaker
And in what ways can I apply it to a completely different um context? Yeah. And...
01:34:20
Speaker
You know, you don't have a game like Blueprints or a game like Blake Manor without somebody playing a bunch of different games that were also very innovative and then thinking about them and saying, how could I use that idea?
01:34:39
Speaker
But in a way that's so different that it's barely even recognizable anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. Okay. Any other thoughts about Seance of Blake Manor before we say goodbye to the the people, the Christmas people?
01:34:54
Speaker
Please give it a chance. Please give it a chance. like Please. I think i some of me passed it up initially because the graphics were weird, not in motion. And you had you had a minor comparison to Blueprints. And I'm like, well, I'm going to be terrible at this game. But it is guided, like we said. it's worth It's worth giving a shot. And you can take your time with it. You don't have to binge it like I did. I just binged all 20 hours of it in one go. So please play it. Please give it a shot. I think my fans, at least if you're coming from the Murder Mystery fan base, I think you would love it.
01:35:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean... This is a game I think I would recommend to anybody, um which is not the case for all the games that we bring to the show. Oh, yeah, of course not. We have a niche interest in a type of game that not not everybody loves. Yeah. This is an example of a game that is in our wheelhouse that I think I could give to anybody and say, you will like this game. Have fun. Yeah, yeah.
01:36:03
Speaker
Well... Everybody, thank you so much for listening. Yes, thank you. Thank you for listening on this, I don't know, Christmas Eve. going up Is it Christmas Eve? Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, Christmas Eve. Yeah. Everybody, i hope if you're listening ah on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day or even just right after, I hope you're you have a good holiday or you're having one or you just had one. um Enjoy the holiday season and, you know,
01:36:33
Speaker
be kind to each other, guess is all I have to say. It's been a really rough year for I think just about everybody. um The stress of the political world, right? And the stress of like a fracturing society yeah is is putting- Economy sucks.
01:36:52
Speaker
Well, that's what saying. Yeah, it's putting stress on- internet sucks. It all sucks. It's making this low-key level of stress in all of our lives. And so then as the economy starts breaking down and things, we just don't have the
01:37:09
Speaker
the bandwidth to deal with it all. i don't have the patience we would maybe normally have. And so Probably ah most of the people, yeah probably a lot of you listening and probably most of the people in your life are going through some kind of hard time right now. um So i just want say be kind to each other.
01:37:33
Speaker
Be generous where you can. Let's try to make next year a little better. Like the the political situation is not going to change. It's tough. But we can, you know...
01:37:46
Speaker
There are some things in life we can control and we hope to make the best of those things. Yeah. And now's the time to express it that, you know, we really appreciate you guys listening. We hope this does. ah We hope this does for you.
01:38:03
Speaker
what similar pieces of culture do for us, right? Like when we listen to video game podcasts and watch YouTube videos, it makes us feel good. We hope this makes you feel good. And if it does, we hope you'll pass that along and try to make somebody else feel good. Yeah.
01:38:19
Speaker
And yeah. Thanks so much for listening. Yeah, thank you.
Closing Remarks and Holiday Wishes
01:38:24
Speaker
And if you want to check us out on ah anywhere, Save Your Game podcast on Instagram, you can email us, Matt and Roses at Gmail. And we have a Discord. It's hopping.
01:38:37
Speaker
ah we We both of us are in there every now and then. So we'll have links in the show notes. and Yeah. and and And Matt, Merry Christmas to you. And thank you for what? Two years of this podcast. My God. Something like that. Can believe that? Yeah. Two years of this podcast about. So, yeah. Thank you. It's been it's been a blast. And I'm excited for another year of it. Yeah. um I can't like this year was so crazy with video games. I cannot.
01:39:08
Speaker
I can't even I can't even imagine what next year is going to bring, you know. um here's the last thing I want to say to everybody. And it's an important one.
01:39:21
Speaker
And I think when we should all take very, very seriously. huh
01:39:28
Speaker
Roses <unk> podcasts is art. I, you know, it's a hot take, but I fully agree with you. And you know what? Today, today art isn't suffer today.
01:39:42
Speaker
Mary. Art is merry. Merry art, everybody. Merry podcast, everybody. Merry podcast, everybody.