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Episode 80 - Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse
0 Playsin 4 hours
Roses is BACK with a new favorite thing and its cuteness is highly debatable. A lost segment TRIUMPHANTLY RETURNS. And Matt catches us up on some games he's been playing since the last episode.
Then, we grab our curse stones, throw on our diving shirts with our Seiman and Douman symbols, and leap into the water to face our Tomokazuki. It's time for another PARANORMASIGHT game, this one all about mermaids! And we fall in absolute love with it.
Games Discussed:
- Dig! Dig! Dino!
- The Whiteout
- Enclosure
- MIO: Memories in Orbit
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Lone Fungus
- The Hundred-Line Defense Academy
- Steins:Gate
- PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
- PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid's Curse
- Esoteric Ebb
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/saveyourgamepodcast
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Transcript
Cloning and Celebrity Rumors
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, did you hear about all the cloning? all All the cloning? I was curious if you heard about it. Just like there's a rash of cloning going around? it's Yeah. I don't know if you heard. It's like a trend. um nobody i don't think so.
00:00:15
Speaker
I don't think. I was going to say any nobody's cloned me, but how would I know? How would you know? You don't know. who's Who got cloned? Jim Carrey got cloned. Oh.
00:00:27
Speaker
don't anyone cares. I do like the mask, though. Great movie. time we would have really cared if Jim Carrey got cloned. You like the mask that his clone wears that makes him look more like him?
00:00:43
Speaker
don't know what's going on on the internet. It's very clear that Jim probably had some plastic surgery. Just like most people. And then anytime anyone ever does that. Like most people has plastic. Sorry. Oh!
00:00:58
Speaker
i mean let me read Let me reconfigure that whole sentence. Okay, please do. So when celebs have plastic surgery, what happens most of the time ok is that people are like, oh, they're unrecognizable. And I'm like, I don't think they are. can't believe.
00:01:14
Speaker
you no You certainly think this is like a Jim Carrey clone, so they're not that unrecognizable. Right. Unrecognizable implies that you do not recognize them and would not be able to.
00:01:26
Speaker
Well, i I fucking hate that. Okay, we have to talk about unrecognizable, and then we can go back to the clone thing. I... had a habit of clicking on those stories in my like Google news feed. And then that became everything in my, cause yeah the first couple of times you see that in a headline, like Jonah Hill is unrecognizable in this new role or whatever, or like Anna Kendrick is unrecognizable in her. And you're like,
00:01:53
Speaker
Oh, interesting. I want to see them be unrecognizable. And you click on it and you're like, no, that's Anna Kendrick. No, they're certainly recognizable. That's even Jonah Hill with a wig on. Listen, i think I think there's a problem with the amount of plastics people are getting right now, but that does not make people unrecognizable. Like you still recognize them.
00:02:15
Speaker
Right. So people just started using that term more and more often. like a buzzword now. To the point where, yeah, it's like, okay, I just looked up the Jim Carrey.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah. The Jim Carrey. The Jim? Wow, the Jim Carrey. Okay. um All right. I'll say this. Uh-oh.
00:02:39
Speaker
u oh If I didn't know I was looking at Jim Carrey, that would be unrecognizable. he looks a little bit like a i like ah like a shiny Tommy Wiseau.
00:02:50
Speaker
push It looks like he had gotten that eye surgery that's very popular for people who have hooded eyes. They get like a little lift. Renee Zilweger had it done too. And I love her and I love Bridget Jones. Okay.
00:03:02
Speaker
And... i she was Obviously, she was not unrecognizable. I'm like, oh, that's Renee Zellweger. She just looks weird. that's that's how That's how I feel about Jim Carrey. I think that is him.
00:03:16
Speaker
He just looks a little weird. just looks like swollen. He looks like he had had plastic surgery. To me, that's what it looks like. I think we can go back to clones. hey hey So the theory is that he was cloned.
00:03:31
Speaker
ah so People are saying, they're just like, that's not Jim Carrey. He's a clone. But if you cloned him... Wouldn't the clone look a lot more like Jim Carrey? That's what I was thinking. I'm like, but but it can't be a clone if you think he's unrecognizable. What is cloning technology that bad?
00:03:50
Speaker
We can't even get the clone right? Well, I bet it is. But then the cloning technology, they're also assuming cloning technology where also you can hyper grow a human being from like yeah from like the zygote stage all the way up to how old's Jim Carrey? 78? No!
00:04:08
Speaker
ah stop
00:04:13
Speaker
Okay. And when you click on, like, if you go to his Wikipedia and you look at him from 2020, it's like, he doesn't look like the Jim Carrey from 1998. um nineteen ninety eight But he looks a lot like the Jim Carrey from 2020. Yeah, I agree. don't think that's a clone, guys. I'm sorry. There's so many.
00:04:35
Speaker
did you hear about Avril Lavigne? I didn't. I didn't. i I used to be a pretty big fan, so I didn't i didn't know Well, there was like a shift in her style, right? People, okay, I think people- Wait, you're telling me there was a music you is a musician who pivoted their style? Right. You're kidding. So, I mean, she was always a pop star. Yeah.
00:04:59
Speaker
From the very beginning. And I think people look back on that early, that pop punk, early emo thing- People who didn't really know what punk rock was.
00:05:14
Speaker
Look at that time. we don't really know what it is. And think about that. Think about like Blink-182 and Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte and stuff. yeah Think of those things as punk. And then when they look at, ah when they they kind of like look back and see that those were all pop bands. i love But it is pop punk. it done not It does fall into its own. For me, it falls into its own category. I think that's why they recreated the name Emo. i thought you were going say that's why they cloned Avril Lavigne. That's why they cloned Avril Lavigne. I mean, I don't think Avril Lavigne falls under pop punk. I think maybe you could say that about Blink-182. I think it's harder to say that about Good Charlotte. I think it's like really hard to say that about Avril Lavigne. And so when she became even more of a pop star,
00:06:09
Speaker
people were like uh people were like oh my god that was a different avril lavigne it's like no i think you just didn't understand avril lavigne think you just didn't understand she was like a hot pop girly i don't think she even changed one don't i don't think she even changed her lyrics are all of the same theme i think she just changed her her clothes a lot of people Oh, my god David Bowie changed his clothes all the time. And people are like, oh, what a genius this man is. So there's also like clothes there's also like a Beyonce. I don't think it was a clone, but was like a doppelganger thing. That was like like she it was that she it was either that she had a fake Beyonce when she got pregnant or that she never got pregnant.
00:06:53
Speaker
And the pregnant Beyonce was a fake. What in the absolute Inquirer magazine yeah is this bullshit? And then there's been couple cloned brindy Britney Spearses. That's ongoing.
00:07:06
Speaker
That is an ongoing ah situation. i guess i guess there's something I should tell you.
00:07:14
Speaker
um You're the new Britney Spears? ah Well, I could never. That's the dream, but never. No, I'm a clone.
00:07:27
Speaker
Have you been a clone the whole time I've known you or yeah that just why we haven't put out an episode
00:07:49
Speaker
Hey everybody and welcome back. Do we say welcome back on this show? I always say welcome back no matter what I'm doing. So if it's in a video, I say welcome back to my channel. Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome back. To to save your game ah podcast with me, your host, Matt Aukamp, and my good friend, the, i I guess, genetic double of Pushing Up Roses.
00:08:21
Speaker
i Pretty convincing, right? i think they did a really good job on me, clone. I mean... if i If I never knew the other you, then i wouldn't know.
00:08:34
Speaker
I mean, like, did it so like we went to Adventure X. Did you notice anything weird?
00:08:41
Speaker
Again, I only ever knew the clone of you, how would I notice something weird? But you know when things are weird, just like people are looking at Jim Carrey's weird. I guess I did notice when you cut your finger and 18 bugs fell out of your skin. And you quickly said, stop looking, stop looking, and ran into the bathroom. Don't look at And there was no bathroom door, so that did nothing. You could just watch the entire time. Yeah. Yeah, but I politely averted my eyes while you sewed back up your your skin and ah kept all your bugs in. Oh, i didn't keep all of them. Some of them got into your womb. So sorry. Jesus Christ. um But other than that, I would say I'm pretty normal.
00:09:28
Speaker
How are you doing, Pushing Up Roses? I'm good. I'm stoked because we manifested... Something amazing. a game that we wanted.
00:09:39
Speaker
We did that. just want everyone to know that we did that. It's, we have been, we were such fucking huge fans of this first game. Ooh, let's be coy, even though it's in the title. Let's be coy and pretend like we're not telling anybody until it happens. at that. We were so, such big fans of the first game.
00:10:01
Speaker
And I think we even maybe said in the the episode we covered it that they wouldn't they probably wouldn't make it. Like, we both wanted another one. Yeah. But it was unlikely they'd make another one because it's made by Square Enix and it's not their normal thing. And, like, people weren't talking about it the way they normally talk about Square Enix games. Maybe they were, though, and we just didn't – maybe we were just, like, out of the loop. Because, like, thinking about it more logically – This is something that Square would do. They're all about their franchises. So if they have a chance to make like a sequel, especially a sequel that's like unrelated, right? Yeah, that's true. Can we even call that a sequel? I don't even know what that is. They're not sequels then. They're just the next installment of the game. Because the Final Fantasy games, they're not sequels. Just another game in this series. In the series, yeah. Whereas I would say, maybe you agree, King's Quest had sequels?
00:10:58
Speaker
What do you think? Yeah, King's Quest had sequels because it was the same characters kind of like following, continuing their story. i think there was a period of time where probably you would pick up the next King's Quest game and at first go, ah oh i guess it's kind of like an anthology.
00:11:15
Speaker
And then you'd go, oh, wait, no! This is the same guy. This is the same kingdom. This is the same story. They're super linked.
Gaming Preferences and Experiences
00:11:23
Speaker
They're super linked. And the Final Fantasy games are not linked. They are insane. Every story is crazy. But before we jump into that. I think there are themes that link the Final Fantasy games. Just like there are. And know this is not Square Enix. But there are things that link the Dragon games.
00:11:41
Speaker
Oh, Dragon Quest. Sure. that is Square Enix. It might be. It might be Square Enix. They did do Dragon Quest. What am I thinking? Yeah, so um Kingdom Hearts has the same exact story.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yeah. It's just utterly bonkers. I would even argue that maybe even maybe even Zelda is like the Zelda games are like that as well. oh could you imagine how bad it would be if like, I i don't dislike Square Enix.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah. But if if Square Enix made the Zelda games, They'd be so much more dramatic, and I don't even know how we'd do that. They'd be so They'd Well, they did the like they did the Life is... they Wait.
00:12:24
Speaker
They didn't do the Life is Strange games, right? That was Dornod. yeah Oh, they published them. They published them. Yeah, they didn't develop them, though. They did the Bubble Bobble games. Or at least they own the Bubble Bobble games now.
00:12:38
Speaker
Okay. Huh. I'm just looking at Square Enix franchises. i actually love i actually love the Square games. I love Final Fantasy VIII. I think I've said that before. no one's called me out on it, which is amazing.
00:12:53
Speaker
thanks for ah Thanks for humoring me and my love for Final Fantasy VIII. The stories are absolutely bonkers insane. And honestly, these games are no really no different. um They might be like a little bit easier to understand, which is saying something because it's it's kind of a lot.
00:13:15
Speaker
But I was going to say, before we dive into that, I do have a new favorite thing. Oh! Would you like to know what it right, so now let's dive into the game we're talking about today. No, I want to hear about... I want hear about your favorite thing. It's my new favorite thing. I forgot what the other favorite thing was. Man, I just...
00:13:37
Speaker
Go through favorite things real fucking quickly. Well, maybe you're a new clone. Maybe you're clone number two. That's true. I got to find them all again. You know, I got to find the favorite things again. get cloned, you have to read yeah have you have to rebuild your personality from the favorite things up.
00:13:53
Speaker
So my new favorite thing is or are pangolins. Pangolins. Yeah.
00:14:04
Speaker
That's my new favorite thing. How did, okay. Here's a weird thing. This is absolutely bizarre. Pangolins. Okay. Because pangolins oddly just randomly popped into my head just like two days ago.
00:14:20
Speaker
That was me. And I've been thinking about them just like, here and there and i haven't been like obsessing about them but in fact i didn't even think to look up what pangolins were because i knew they were an animal but i forgot what they were about but the the word pangolin has been bouncing because all right i do these sporkle quizzes this is a thing i like to do here's one of my favorite things well i'm i'm i'm commandeering segment One of my favorite things is to go to Sporkle.com and play Sporkle quizzes. And lately I've been doing, they have these quizzes that are just a bunch of um the mini, the micro heroes or mini heroes of ah Marvel heroes, just like in a big crowd scene.
00:15:07
Speaker
And it's like Marvel Picture Find A characters. And it's every character that starts with A. And it's these little these little cartoony micro hero depictions of Marvel characters, and it's like, oh, can you name all these, yeah you know, somewhere between 80 and 120 of these character characters, right? And I was doing P, and pangolin popped in my head. And I was like, well, isn't there a Marvel character named Pangolin? And then the word pengolin just stuck in my head, like, pangolin, pangolin. That was me You know how sometimes...
00:15:42
Speaker
Every now and then, like a beautiful woman will like get into your brain and will and that's what you think about. That's actually not me. what i do Sometimes. Sometimes. Just sometimes it happens. Just sometimes. Not like every day, all day, every day, every yeah all the time. No, never.
00:15:59
Speaker
What I do, instead of weaseling into your brain, I put pangolins in there instead. Like, I put my favorite things of the minds of the men who are interested in me.
00:16:11
Speaker
So I purposely made you think of pangolins. Why? Hold on. Why are we suddenly throwing me in the category of men who are interested in you? Well, I mean, everyone is. Everybody. It's okay, Matt. You don't have to play coy with me. But that's not the point. The point is... We've been friends for too long for you to not be interested in it.
00:16:35
Speaker
Listen, I get it. I'm stunning and an an enigma of mystery and intrigue and joy. I'll tell i'll say this. That's not point. That's not the point. the point line in ho wayly In a way. a way. boy. I'm definitely interested in you in a way.
00:16:52
Speaker
In a way. Hey, I hear an insult. I know an insult when I hear like. Okay, no, no, no, no. The thing is, you're interested because i have brought pangolins to the table right so the thing that would happen is i would go i would go man i can't stop thinking of pangolins correct and then you would go oh i would talk to you i'd i talk to you just like randomly in the midst of uh life and i'd be thinking be like man do i love pangolins and pangolins
00:17:28
Speaker
Who is this mystery woman? Actually, it's a little more selfish than that. I just love pangolins so much that I need other people to talk to about pangolins. ok And now that it's on your mind, we can talk about it.
00:17:42
Speaker
Aren't they like the cutest thing you've ever seen in your whole fucking life? Look at it. Did you Google it? Look at it. Yeah. Are you looking? I wouldn't quite. call I mean, there's words I would use for this.
00:17:55
Speaker
cute i think uh off recording we discovered that you and i have different perceptions of what cute is because i call the lobster cute and you're like what the fuck yeah lobsters aren't cute neither pangolins no pangolins oh my gosh they i do think they're kind of cool have you did you ever hear of the phenomenon the lobster phenomenon no there's ah There's a phenomenon that seems to have happened that happened that's happened in the world only.
00:18:27
Speaker
This might have changed since I first heard reporting on this, but there was reporting on this back in like the 2010s.
Playdate Gaming Device and Games
00:18:35
Speaker
That seems to have only happened with women where they'll go into a grocery store. They will, and not in a romantic way, fall in love with a lobster.
00:18:47
Speaker
Again, not in a romantic way. But what what other kind is there? Like, I have a connection with this lobster. I care about this So didn't fall in with it, but they've developed a weird bond with the lobster. developed an instant. They love this. They love the lobster. They're not in love with the lobster. Man, that sounds so familiar. Like a child. That sounds so familiar as if dozens of women have said this to me. LAUGHTER
00:19:17
Speaker
ah that's unfortunate because i'm recalling the times i've told men that my bad um okay hear me out i needed to click on the link that i put in it and that just shows you how cute pangolins are i'm not i'm never gonna i'm never gonna give this up that this is how i feel hu what do you think pretty cute right Just like, like, no, but I can, okay, I can see it. I can see how the, okay. And this is labeled. So it's chonk level 100. They are very chonky. They're chonky. For people that don't know, they're almost, they're, what they're like is like a, um.
00:19:58
Speaker
The penguins are so cool. You don't even have the words. They have like an armadillo shell. Yep. They look a little bit like an armadillo. Um, but their body is kind of shaped like a shrew.
00:20:11
Speaker
And they're it's like scales. Like they have dragon scales. It's pretty fucking badass. Like really thick scales. So yeah they're very chonky. ah It says armored floof. I don't think those two words go together. um And then ah honestly too cute face. Okay. Disagree. Come on. T-Rex hands. Okay. I can see that. That it's got like it's got like folded up little hands that looks like it's always like praying. Or like ah or like do you ever see that image of a um raccoon washing
00:20:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Cotton candy. Oh, yeah. Some cruel man gave them cotton candy. Poor thing. I watched the cotton candy. It was like, what the fuck? Anyway, it had its little T-Rex hands. It's got a rat nose.
00:20:58
Speaker
ah Which is cute. Okay. I like rats. I love rats. But this is a rat nose like like a cartoon rat, like Shredder. Or not, sorry, Splinter. Like Splinter. I was going to say, whoa, what? Is stuff I don't know? Oh, man, if Shredder took off his helmet and he was a rat underneath.
00:21:18
Speaker
be funny wow why didn't i should have written i should have written for dm that is a twist if i ever heard i people would be like no he's not we saw his human feature no he was a rat like we saw his human hands coming out of the trash bin well thank you for sharing that your favorite thing with me about roses that's my favorite thing pangolins Ha ha ha ha
00:21:49
Speaker
Playdate with Matt. Hey guys, it's time for Playdate with Matt, a segment. No way! and say Within the podcast Save Your Game where I talk about my favorite games on the ah the Panic.
00:22:03
Speaker
It's like weird little gaming system called the Playdate. For people that haven't heard this segment because we haven't done it in like 30 episodes. Like five years. yeah um The Playdate is this tiny little square flat...
00:22:18
Speaker
device um that is as simple as can be it does it's not backlit it is one bit meaning just black and white it has basically game boy original game boy controls so it's got an a and a b and a d-pad and a crank On the side. It's not loose. Don't get excited. no it's fully connected and tight. um And you can... a lot of developers will use the crank for different types of gameplay.
00:22:54
Speaker
And the the big tragedy... one of One of our very gracious, very cool listeners, actually, after I talked about it on the show and talked about how I couldn't afford one, one of our gracious listeners bought me a fucking play date.
00:23:11
Speaker
Yeah. Which I'm still grateful for. I still can't believe that happened. So cool. And then i had it for, i don't know, less than a year, but ah a while.
00:23:22
Speaker
And it fell off my desk. just the I don't have an exceptionally tall desk. yeah It felt like the normal length of a desk to the floor landed on its corner and the digital like ink screen, I don't know if it's actually digital ink, but it kind of looks like it, um cracked and Three quarters of the screen became un and unreadable. So I played it tried to play it a little bit um by you can connect it to your computer and download sort of like emulator things that don't pirate anything. They just sort of like you can play. But it's not fun. It's not fun without the little device.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah. And then my very good friend, Pushing a Process for Christmas. Paid to have it ref refurbiive to fixed.
00:24:17
Speaker
You did. That was your Christmas gift. And she and I never told her that I got it back finally. You didn't. You never did. When did you get it back? I got it back about a month ago. i expected us to record this episode sooner.
00:24:34
Speaker
um but I was but im saving it for. But OK, so I got it back. And here's what I'll say. I bought. Season two. So season the the play date comes with season one, which is a series of free games that it doles out every, I think, week or two. It'll give you two games for you. And it it gives you time to like really like spend time with them. Like, remember when you were a kid and you got a new gaming system?
00:25:04
Speaker
And you would you couldn't afford games that much. yeah So you would get a new game every, I don't know, month or so. maybe Not even for me, like not even that. Yeah, maybe less. good What happened for me is like when I got the Sega Genesis, ah they gave me a few games at a time.
00:25:22
Speaker
And then for like my birthday, maybe I get like two. Like two Genesis games. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the way it was more for me. Like when I got my, when we got our Nintendo when I was a little kid, they bought like whatever, 10, 12 games and then no new games yeah for probably, you know, six months to a year. Yeah. And then when I would save up enough money to go to Funkoland or or at a holiday or or birthday or something, yeah, I would get new games.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah. So to sort of replicate that experience of like spending time with your games, they'll give you like two at a time. Season one has a bunch of cool stuff. I've talked about it on previous episodes. Season two, you have to actually buy separately.
00:26:10
Speaker
But holy shit, Roses. Season two of Playdate is incredible. Oh, good. Yay. And I want to talk about a couple things. I think I can dole this out over episodes, um especially because I haven't gotten them all yet.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah. But I'll talk about two right now. One, I got a game called Dig Dig Dino. Okay. Okay. And fuck, this game was addictive. It's just like, it's not an adventure game. It's a very arcadey. There is a storyline, but you're just digging up dinosaur bones. Yeah. um You're just like a bunch of animals. Oh my God, it's so cute. animals And you're digging up dinosaur bones and ah you sell the dinosaur bones to upgrade your tools.
00:27:00
Speaker
And you sell like the various artifacts and sometimes you find coins and stuff and you sell those to to to upgrade your tools and then you can dig deeper, dig quicker.
00:27:12
Speaker
you have a certain like you have an energy level when your energy runs out. Your day of digging is done. So you have to day of digging is done. say it with me. Day of day of digging is done.
00:27:24
Speaker
ah um so hi man, I started playing Dig Dig Dino. It was a work night and I stayed up until 3 a.m. And i I might have even been called out the next day. I was like, fuck, man. I need a mental health day because I stayed up all night playing dig, dig, dive. Oh, my God. Don't admit that here. Oops. And okay.
00:27:51
Speaker
But so Dig Dig Dino. Very fun. Here's the game I really want to talk about. There's a game that comes with season two. It's called Whiteout. And it's is it's the story about like a near future where it started snowing and just never stopped.
00:28:06
Speaker
o So like a um like an apocalyptic, a post-apocalyptic world where ah climate change has just caused just in and can continuous snow and the world has slowly kind of fallen apart. And so you play as a character called the Wanderer who just walks the world. You're surviving and trying to pick through the remains of human civilization.
00:28:33
Speaker
And the game is like... It's got really great graphics for a two-bit game. yeah And it is on a two-dimensional plane, you're just wandering back and forth. You're got we're walking left and right. That's all you're doing. And as you hit certain you know milestones in the game or um you know various markers on the on the in the in the world, ah it'll start narrating some like background to you or some like thoughts that the character's having.
00:29:05
Speaker
which I don't usually love, but on something this simple was a really effective way to tell a story. Nice. And then you come across, you know, ah very minor puzzles at first. Like it's,
00:29:20
Speaker
It's like, oh, there's a roadblock. like The snow is piled up too high on all these cars um and I have to walk past. How do I get past? I don't have a shovel. Oh, wait, there was a signpost back there that was bent over. Maybe i can use the signpost as a shovel. And you go back and grab the signpost and you come back and you shovel the snow. like It's that easy, right? yeah There are a couple puzzles that are slightly harder, but not by a lot.
00:29:46
Speaker
But the the story is really... effective the whole game is punctuated by like this eerie wind sound and the sound of you know snow crunching underfoot the snow is falling down the entire time you're playing so like you're walking along this terrain and you're um meeting characters and finding new locations and finding objects and The snow is falling the entire time. Every place you visit kind of contains a little story within it.
00:30:18
Speaker
Kind of like like the Fallout games. How you'll go in and just based on what was left behind, you can kind of piece together the last moments of this person's life.
00:30:29
Speaker
And that all builds into like a real narrative as you make your way into this town in the distance just to see if there's survivors. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:41
Speaker
It really kicks off where, okay, so right after you find a house where this family kind of like tragically fell apart um as the sort of apocalypse kicked in, um you find out through finding the youngest girl's is June, her diary. um Pretty much right after that, you run into a gang of like toughs called the Woodpeckers who are terrorizing this town. And then I don't want to spoil anything, yeah but things go in this fucking crazy, unexpected direction.
00:31:13
Speaker
That's cool. The actual gameplay is just walking left and right and then a little... When so you can interact with something, there'll be a little, you know, exclamation point. Yeah. So if you don't know what to do, you just walk left and right for a while until you run into enough exclamation points that you end up solving the problem. Yeah. um You know, unlike a point-and-click game where you have to really think about your scenario. Like, you can do it that way and you'll get through the game quicker. Yeah. But if...
00:31:43
Speaker
you can't solve it, you just go left and right. right like Do that enough times, it'll it'll solve itself. It looks so cool, honestly. Yeah.
00:31:55
Speaker
Even when you're backtracking, like the game knows that you're backtracking. Yeah. So that sometimes will trigger this narration, and it'll use that time to flesh out the character's backstories in a way that is...
00:32:11
Speaker
Really interesting, really satisfying. The only things I will say about it. Number one, it makes you stop running when um there's a run button, which is cool, but it makes you stop running while narration is happening.
00:32:25
Speaker
so that So it can sometimes be frustrating when narration pops up. And I don't, I didn't want it to be because I loved the narration, but it was frustrating that I got slowed down. So like, uh, there's something to sort of square that circle would have been better. Um,
00:32:40
Speaker
Number two, the ending. The whole game's very well written. How long is it? Um, hour and a half. Okay, cool. It's really impressive narrative, really interesting way to do an adventure game on the play date, which people have really, really struggled with. um But the ending is very abrupt and kind of unsatisfying.
00:33:05
Speaker
Oh, that sucks. Yeah. feel like that's one of the hardest things to do is conclude a story. Stephen King has yet to do it well. He's like the king of war. Gideon!
00:33:17
Speaker
Gideon! um Yeah, no, I agree that concluding a story is really hard. and I think this game, I'll say it concludes. It's just, yeah, it's not a very so in a so it's very satisfying way.
00:33:33
Speaker
Yeah. There also is some narrative branching, but it's one of those kind of like nominal narrative branching where it's like, okay, you technically get different endings, but do you really? Are they really all that different?
00:33:48
Speaker
um It seems like it's super worth playing, though. It reminds me, as soon as I saw the screenshot, reminds me of Enclosure, which is another kind of underrated adventure game that came out um in the early 2000s. It was hard to run.
00:34:03
Speaker
it became hard to run. But I think now it's on Steam as like Enclosure 3D, which is weird ah to me. it it's i don't know what's up with that. I'll have to look up look ah up like what the difference is. But okay you know same premise as you are in a closed circle situation because of the snow. Although in this one, it seems like you're not in closed circle because you are, in fact, i journeying and, like, questing. Yeah, it is a very, it is very, very linear, again, yeah even though it technically has a branching narrative. Yeah.
00:34:40
Speaker
It is exceptionally linear. Man, I gotta say, I love a snowstorm. for the purpose period no i love it i love a snowstorm for the sake of horror tropes and like horror story it's one of my favorite some of my favorite things uh i like speaking of stephen king i like storm of the century it's about a snowstorm like the enclosure snow favorite episodes of murder she wrote is in like a a ski lodge oh really wrote in yeah oh that's awesome i really like that shit
00:35:11
Speaker
um Yeah, I mean, this and this this game has it really well. And, you know, and it's you know about the horrors of man, of course, and about what we... It's about what we lose yeah when um we lose the structure of civilization. Yeah. um And, ah you know, as punctuated by you being a character who is wandering around kind of collecting things the pieces of civilization that tell the stories of humanity. But it's, it's really good. It's called white out. Um, it comes, uh, with season two of the play date, but all the season two games, unlike season one, all the season two games you can buy separately.
00:35:56
Speaker
Right. So if you don't want to buy, if you don't want spend 30 bucks on season two, I think you could spend whatever, probably 10 bucks, five bucks, something like that on the white out. Um, yeah, and it's probably worth it just to to buy them all, though, if you can.
00:36:12
Speaker
I think so because yeah it's $12. Yeah. yeah Because half, yeah, Whiteout is half the price. Yeah, you should just get all of them. Of all of season two. And season two, I'm going to be talking about more season two games on this fucking podcast because, man, there's some good ones, and including one with art done by Julia Minamata. Nice. Yay, Julia.
00:36:36
Speaker
um I haven't played that one yet, but it is... I'm waiting for it. Nice. Yay! I'm so glad you got it fixed!
00:36:51
Speaker
yay i'm so glad you got it fixed Me too. I am glad to have this segment back and I'm glad to talk about these games again because the play date is just, it is something really special. like it's It's just a sort of thing that I can't, sometimes I can't believe it exists. I can't believe that it's somebody made something that they couldn't have made much profit on this fucking thing, right? They clearly did it because they they love, right? The idea of ah these older older ways of playing games, these ways of playing games that were, and I mean, think I think even that's like the adding the crank is like, it's like the idea of like when you, the first time you got shoulder buttons and you were like, holy shit, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, true, true.
00:37:44
Speaker
So, or I'm sure of the first time somebody saw a D-pad after they'd been using the joystick for their whole lives. I mean, I i was even excited when I got my N64 and it was like this weird ass combination of a controller and and and a joystick, really. And a joystick. And a joystick in the middle of the controller. And I was like, what? yes Yeah. And I'm one of the only people who actually like that control likes that controller. All right.
00:38:08
Speaker
the ah all right
00:38:14
Speaker
i Actually, before we talk about what we're talking about today. Pangolins? Pangolins. As everyone saw, the name of this episode Pangolins. I just want to go through a couple games that I've been playing since we last talked. I don't have anything big to talk about.
00:38:31
Speaker
um I finished Mio Memories in Orbit. Oh, cool. Cool. um There are two endings. There's the regular i mean regular ah to kind of depressing ending. And then there's the true ending, which is somehow more depressing. Oh, God.
00:38:46
Speaker
um But it does end on a very hopeful note. um it's It was just a really good game. If you like Metroidvanias, you could do worse for yourself than playing Mio. I think Mio is... sure It's sort of... um It's got the depth of a silksong.
00:39:07
Speaker
but the fluidity of the Ori games. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think you did mention that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. um So I finished Mio Memories in Orbit. Really loved it. um i didn't finish Silksong.
00:39:24
Speaker
Oh, me either. Man, that map just gets so complicated. oh does it? Okay. Good to know. Especially if you're trying to 100%, like if you're trying to get all the secrets and stuff. Yeah. um Man, it's fucking hard. It's not it's not hard as in It might be.
00:39:41
Speaker
I wasn't going to say... like Mio has some of the hardest bosses and platforming challenges. Not... Some of the hardest bosses I've ever played in a Metroidvania game.
00:39:53
Speaker
far as platforming challenges, it's up there. It's not quite as bad as, like, um Lone Fungus. But it's worse than any, like, harder platforming challenges than any Hollow Knight game.
00:40:07
Speaker
um But Hollow Knight has just a map that that becomes...
00:40:15
Speaker
so big and the secrets are well hidden enough that it's like fuck i know there's a flea on the other side of this wall i have no idea what side of the big blank space to even approach to try and get into it yeah um And i played a lot more of the 100-line Last Defense Academy, which is the half-visual novel, half-strategy
00:40:50
Speaker
tactics game um by the ah by some of the developers of the Danganronpa games. Oh, that's an expensive game. didn't realize. It is? it is i have it listed here at $60. $60.
00:41:06
Speaker
Wow. I probably spent... That's a triple A price. Yes. I mean i'm i'm bought it on Steam, so I'm sure I bought it on sale, but I'm sure it was not cheap. um But who can pass up a new Danganronpa game? Not this guy. Which isn't exactly what this is, but fuck, man. It's um it's good. It's good. The characters are great, and the ah the loops are addictive. Yeah.
00:41:37
Speaker
Honestly, this is a good game to segue into what we're talking about just because of the you know vaguely similar aesthetic. Agreed. Agreed. So I'll say i also played a little bit of Steins Gate because of the game that we're about to talk about, um which we're still pretending is a secret. For some reason.
00:41:58
Speaker
Because this game... is so good at at least the sort of tropes of a visual novel. I think we talked the last time we, when we talked about the first one of these games, we talked about a video producer on YouTube named Bowl of Lentils. Mm-hmm.
00:42:20
Speaker
And how he did this long video about the origins of Japanese visual, ah the origins of visual novels and how they sort of spun out of the idea of Japanese adventure games. And a lot of things that we call visual novels here are actually Japanese adventure games um that have some of the tropes of visual novels. So we call them that.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um And the game that we're talking about today is a lot like that. And it's so good at it that I immediately was like, i want to play more visual novels. I do i do too, to be honest with you. It certainly a inspired me. Like, I think I texted you like, hey, these are easy to develop. Let's make a dating sim. Because those are I think those are visual novels. Do you agree? Yeah.
00:43:13
Speaker
Oh, man. Oh, you don't agree. if You paused. Again, if if you watch that bowl of lentils video, um there's a lot. He talks a lot.
00:43:28
Speaker
Sorry. Sorry. Go on
00:43:32
Speaker
on. If you watch the bowl of lentils video, he talks a lot about the way that Again, all the things we call visual novels that are other things. Sure. And so I think based on what ah we as Americans, as American gamers, ah call visual novels, I think you are absolutely right.
00:44:00
Speaker
Yeah. That... um The dating sim genre is a visual novel. is are They are visual novels. But...
00:44:12
Speaker
If we're going by like the strict definition, none of the shit that we call visual novels is visual novels. No, yeah, no, I totally understand. It just, it needs to be called something, right? yeah Like we have to define it in in some kind of way.
00:44:27
Speaker
But yeah, no, I what you mean. That video was released in 2019. It's called The Origins of Visual Novels. Maybe we'll link it once again in the show notes. Yeah, we'll link it. Like did when we covered
Exploration of Paranormasight
00:44:39
Speaker
this first game. But...
00:44:42
Speaker
What are talking about today? we're talking about a game that we manifested, or maybe more so myself, because let's face it, I'm the one who went to you and was like, I really want another one of these games. But I know you were thinking it the whole time. I know you were. You're right. You're right. I thought it so hard. were thinking it so hard. Maybe, oh, just like you put pangolins in my head. was thinking it so hard. put it in your head.
00:45:06
Speaker
And then I manifested it because I have that power. And you manifested it for me. Yeah. you're Because I'm a beautiful, stunning lady. oh well, yeah, that too. Yeah, I guess so.
00:45:20
Speaker
We're talking about Paranormousite, The Mermaid's Curse, the next, let's not call it a sequel, the next game in the Paranormousite franchise. And I'm so excited. i am so excited as well. So...
00:45:35
Speaker
what What song should I play to get us out of here to get us out of here so we can talk about Paranormacite? oh Mermy Swimmerino. Nailed it.
00:46:09
Speaker
everyone. Welcome back to Save Your Game. I am one of your ah stunning, enigmatic co-hosts, as I mentioned before. With me, as always, the... Stunning. No, no, no, no. Because, no, you're not getting that.
00:46:26
Speaker
You are the quest-worthy...
00:46:30
Speaker
A quest worthy. Who is good at jumping. Mad on camp. Oh, meaning like ah fair maidens would go on a quest to win my hand. Definitely Rather than vice versa. Like rather than me having to go on a quest to win the hand of the fair maiden, the fair maiden goes on a quest to win my hand. That's that's the premise of Jill of the Jungle, right?
00:46:52
Speaker
Is it? I think i thought so. I thought it was meant to be flipped. like And by hand I mean. Ah.
00:47:03
Speaker
Anyway, here's Matt. ah
00:47:10
Speaker
Hi. While there was a break, I showed Matt more pictures of pangolins. And I'm happy to say that he did say i did yeah that one of those pictures was a little bit cute. I found one of them cute. And you go I did one of the pictures. the pangolin looked like had frigging pine cone seeds.
00:47:31
Speaker
As its as it's as it's ah little little scoots. Yeah. Imagine a living pine cone. Yeah. There you go. Super cute. Do we call them scoots? On a turtle, they're called scoots. Are they called a scoot on a- don't know. On ah on a a different animal that has has these, like, you know- don't think Chunky, thick scales. Yeah.
00:47:57
Speaker
We do now. Okay. Little scoots. scoots um Scoots. That's what people call me, little scoots. Little scoots. In high school, you were known little scoots. thought in high school, because at high school, I didn't like to walk on my feet. I liked sit on the ground and pull myself along. Yeah, and scoot. With my little hands.
00:48:17
Speaker
ah This was high school. This was this. Wow, that's really old for that. What do you mean? I dated a lot in high school. Yeah, chicks dig it. Yeah. They called me the little scoots and then they slept with me.
00:48:32
Speaker
Oh my God. sorry No. I'm so sorry. i'm for that I'm inappropriate today because I'm just so frigging dang excited about this game. What did we play?
00:48:45
Speaker
Matt, I already said this before. Don't you even listen to women? No, don't listen to women and i forget everything the second it's told me. It's Paranormacite, The Mermaid's Curse, the next installment of the Paranormacite franchise. Oh, yeah, it's so good. I'm going to be really impressed if I just repeated that verbatim to what I said before. ah It's really it's a really incredible game. Do you want to? OK, what the fuck is? Let's just set up from the from the top. What the fuck is Paranorma site to begin with?
00:49:18
Speaker
That is such a fucking good question, though. And I would have to like, seriously. So yeah like my instinct is would be to call it um an interactive fiction game or a visual novel. Yeah. Developed by Square Enix, formerly Squaresoft. They did the Final Fantasy games, which are JRPGs, which is nothing like this game, which is, again, it's more of visual novel. There minor...
00:49:42
Speaker
RPG mechanic in this game, but we'll get to it. that's It's so funny that it's even in there. And i do I do want to say that this is absolutely a Square game in the way that it's written. If Square Soft, or well, it's not Square Soft, Square Enix, if they do anything right, it's making extremely complicated games and stories with a ton of Japanese lore that you may or may not retain and you may just have to like disassociate while you're playing a little bit. You know? But yeah, it's it's yeah definitely a visual novel, but it is told...
00:50:22
Speaker
Non chronologically, which I think makes these games really special. You're following the story chart. ah with Characters you meet in the game, they have their own stories. They're kind of going a parallel to the other people at the same time. Sometimes that comes into the mechanic and sometimes it doesn't. It's really special. I think actually that's the best part of this game is the way that the story chart flows.
00:50:47
Speaker
um And you would think because of what we know about the Zelda games and how being non chronological is so fucking confusing. i actually like that it's told non chronologically here. It opens up, um you know, solutions and answers and conclusions to things. it's not it keeps you It keeps you stimulated, right? Because it is not in chronological order. It's nonlinear. So there's always something to think about. And if there's if there's a a storyline that you're not loving, like, you can't, like, there are, that you do have a choice about the path that you move through this game. And I don't, by that, I don't mean what path the story takes. There is some of that. But I mean, like, what, like,
00:51:33
Speaker
You can go to different chapters at different times, and the same things will happen the chapters. So, like, you can be like, I'm really enjoying Avi and Cersei. I'm going to follow them until there's no chapters of theirs left.
00:51:49
Speaker
And then I'm going to go back to Sato or whatever. Yeah. And you I would say you can do that for the majority of it, or but there are some chapters, let's say you can't continue. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and where it's like Avi and Cersei story will end on a kind of a cliffhanger.
00:52:08
Speaker
Right. Because you need to progress in, you know, Yumiko and Soto's story yeah before you can open up the next chapter. But...
00:52:19
Speaker
you can go on pretty long runs with especially Avi and Cersei, to be honest. Yeah, you can go, i think, even longer than the previous game, the first installment. I think you can go longer on people's stories. I think the chapters are a little easier to understand. i think some of the puzzles, with with exception maybe to the end, I think the puzzles and the questions they ask you throughout are are easier.
00:52:45
Speaker
um i think this flows very well and is a lot easier. Yeah. I mean, it's still a crazy story. But I do find that I was able to pay attention a little bit more with this story than the first story. Well, so what are some other features that make in your mind a Paranorma site game?
00:53:07
Speaker
Well, I mean, do we want to talk about the tropes that make it a paranormal side game? Because it does seem like now that we have two of them, what the writers want to focus on is japanese a Japanese lore, but also within the story, there's a big emphasis on curses and curse stones. And I was actually intrigued by that. I wasn't sure if they would bring that back.
00:53:31
Speaker
from the first game because they're not linked. These are separate stories. They're, if they're linked, then it's vague on what they're linked on. But there are, there are, there's some crossover, like they will reference the events of the first game, but it's, it's largely, it's a, yeah, completely separate story. Yeah. It's its own thing. So I was actually really, i don't know. i was kind of excited to see a point of familiarity brought back. it's like, Oh, the curse stones. I remember those. And, Even a different tone, too. This game yeah has a way different tone than the first game. It's goofier, I think. It's goofier. It's it's ah legitimately brighter. Yeah, true.
00:54:10
Speaker
Far less scary, I think. Far less. Oh, my God. I wasn't scared a single time in this game. I think you might still call this a horror game. There's still a lot of horror elements to it. But, i yeah, it's and it's not very scary. Yeah.
00:54:26
Speaker
I think it's harrowing. i think this is... thrilling, yeah. there's there's an There's absolutely super dark and bleak plot points in this game. Because the first game, it would...
00:54:42
Speaker
The way the first game worked, you you didn't know at first that there was going to be this story chart and these branching timelines, right? yeah in the In the first game, you are playing what appears to be a pretty straightforward horror ah visual novel.
00:54:59
Speaker
Yeah. And then suddenly... your main character dies yeah and you're like wait what the fuck yeah yeah um and the the only yeah like the two characters you're introduced to at the very beginning they're both dead and so you're like what the fuck and you kind of this this weird guy in an old man mask shows up and he's like the so miller The storyteller. The storyteller he's called. um He's like, oh, so you died.
00:55:31
Speaker
um like what and then he tells you, like oh, well, take let me take you to this ah let me take this story chart. And you can you can try a bunch of you can try to make different choices now that you have a little bit more information. yeah um And then you see you go back and you do.
00:55:50
Speaker
And yeah I mean, this game. You kind of know the story chart's coming. You know the story. Yeah, you do. I totally I i assumed that was going to happen. I assumed that different characters were going to pop up and that's how we follow it. And I'm glad I like the mechanic. I like that mechanic.
00:56:10
Speaker
This game. OK, so that first game, it starts off with like it's a horror graphic or a horror visual novel. And then all of a sudden.
00:56:21
Speaker
you're in just like a thriller, like a paranormal thriller. It's certainly like a mystery. There there are little notes of noir, or at least how, you know, maybe Japanese noir would work. I love that. That's one of my favorite genres of all time is yeah thriller, right?
00:56:37
Speaker
ah Yes, I think that's why I enjoyed it even more than it just being kind of a straightforward horror game. So yeah, the second game starts as as almost like a little slice of life, almost like...
00:56:51
Speaker
I don't know. like this You start in Isabe Japan. In this bright, sunny... You and your friend are going out.
00:57:02
Speaker
um you're You're an ama diver, which is the which is like a a traditionally female type of kind of like pearl diver or, so you know, diver for like crustaceans and other sorts of seafood that ah traditionally in Japan, these would be women who would hold their breath.
00:57:22
Speaker
And dive to the bottom of the sea and collect what they can and then like tied to a rope and then climb, like pull the pull on the rope and get pulled back up to the boat and then, you know, collect what they can and then sell it. um You are a young boy who is doing this um in the 1980s with your friend.
00:57:45
Speaker
And it's very bright and it's kind of sweet. yeah And whereas the first game starts kind of ominous and dark. Yeah, it it does. And you start in the first game with a a girl who is kind of a stranger to you.
00:58:03
Speaker
And is sort of menacing. In this this game, you start with a boy who is your best friend. Yeah, the tone is totally different The fucking opposite of menacing. This guy is yeah this guy's the definition of like solid best friend. Absolutely. is the solid best friend trope from toe to tip.
00:58:25
Speaker
And he fucking rules. He rules the whole game. I love him so much. Yeah, he's awesome. A zombie. Azami, yeah. Azami and Yuta. Or Yuta? Yes. It could be that Z. I'm not really sure how that's pronounced. but Oh, I'm not either. I think in Forza, it's Forza.
00:58:42
Speaker
So I want to say it's Yuta. But anybody feel free to correct me. We're going to get a lot of pronunciation wrong here. Absolutely, we are. I might have even got Isabe wrong. So, like, who knows? I it was Isabe. But, yeah, no, it's a little tough. Because these are names and words I've never heard before ever. So, it's tough.
00:58:59
Speaker
Some of them are actual Japanese words in actual Japanese places. And some of them are fictional. Yes. But, yeah, so it starts. And you start, basically, with, like, a diving game. Yeah.
00:59:13
Speaker
Do you want to tell him about the diving game? Oh, man, the diving game is so fun, you guys. um I could have just done that. like I know, right? I'd say we manifest it. ah yeah So, yeah, um you actually do get to dive in this game, which is interesting. It's a little interesting, almost mini game within a visual novel. You don't get a lot of those. But, you know, you're tied to a rope. You dive into the sea.
00:59:38
Speaker
swim around you look for you know crustaceans but specifically abalone's uh which is very it's just a more um expensive shell or sea creature to collect um and there's only two controls it's just clicking on the mouse and every time you come back to the surface with stuff you can level up yes you this is a mini game visual novel where you can level up your diving skills yeah Which is actually important. You do want to level up to a certain a certain extent. um And people will talk about it. they'll be like ah how did you They'll be like, how did you make it to level whatever you made it to? so quick. Yeah. Very.
01:00:23
Speaker
I love an aware game like that that knows. And I'm not talking about like a metagame where it's referencing me, the player. I mean, a game where it knows my what I've done. What i've done yeah I've done. Yeah, absolutely. And like this game will at one point, it it'll reference the amount of times you failed I don't want to give away too much, but reference how many times you failed at that game.
01:00:45
Speaker
yeah And you'll be like, oh, wait. like It's almost like a revelatory moment where you're yeah it's revealing something about the character. And ah they'll reference how many times you lost and that will be your cue as a player to make a big realization about your character. Anyway, very, very cool.
01:01:10
Speaker
This game, yeah that that's another staple. and i want Sorry, we can get back to the diving game in a second. But that's this another staple of ah these Paranorma site games is this meta layer where you, the player sitting at your computer, are a character in the game.
01:01:30
Speaker
And things that happen, mechanics that happen in the game that you feel are just sort of... um ah perfunctory to make the story move along, the game will turn them, the story turns them into narrative, ah like gives them narrative justification. to It's got this whole, these it's got all these meta layers that work really well.
01:01:55
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it really does. And like I said, it's not the annoying kind of meta where it's referencing life beyond the game. Like legit like the player, right? Like, oh he made me do this in this game and I'm going to reference a Sierra game randomly. Oh, yeah, right, exactly. This is more like the game is is aware. The game's aware and it's telling it's saying like in both games at some point I don't think this is too big of a spoiler. Both games at some point ask you who you are.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. and the answer to that question is within the story of the game.
01:02:40
Speaker
if that If that makes sense. And if it doesn't, fucking play the game and then it'll make sense to you. As an aside, do you want to know the first time I realized a game was doing that? Like the very first time, the very first game that clot that did that to me?
01:02:55
Speaker
Yes, I do. you're not going to guess it. It's You Don't Know Jack. Oh. And Don't sometimes the sometimes the questions can be recycled, especially if you play it a lot, which I did because I really liked that game. I thought i was super innovative at the time. And... if you If you like buzz in on a question before the answers pop up, it'll clock you. It'll be like, wait a minute.
01:03:18
Speaker
Have you had this question before? and that was like my first experience of the game doing that and being aware that I had already made a choice. And suddenly you feel seen. yeah And you're like, ah I don't want to be perceived. You start looking at the, the the you know, the the Cheeto dust on your fingers and you're like, oh you can't see that, right?
01:03:41
Speaker
It was great. But yeah, it's kind of, yeah the game clocking you like that. I love. all right. So so the you were talking about the... um
01:03:51
Speaker
diving game. Yeah. So I don't know how many spoilers we're we're really going to do here, but i'll let I'll let you decide. But I'm going to say that something happens, something very important happens. I think diving for you i i think we can kind of spoil this because it's right at the beginning. It's before the credits. It is right there. And this is kind of ah another hallmark of what these games are kind of going for. It's got one of those long You know what I mean? Like you don't even know if they, this game hasn't started yet. You have no idea. And so, you know, doing my little diving, I find a pit, gotta go into the pit. Gotta go into the pit. Gotta go into the pit. And much to my unpleasantness, a character, ghostly character that looks just like our character, Yusa, with blank ass eyes is like holding out their hand to me.
01:04:43
Speaker
And I think, well, I think I know, we take the clo clone, quote, clone's hand, and he I assume he drags us down under in the pit and we die.
01:04:56
Speaker
We die in that in that situation. But this is a paranormal site game. So do you really die? Probably not, because we're just going to go right back to the story chart and figure out different things. Or ah maybe even more realistically, there is a twist. Yeah.
01:05:12
Speaker
And I don't know what you were thinking at that point in the game, but I thought that Yuzza was just dead the whole time. The whole time. I thought he was just simply dead.
01:05:23
Speaker
Well, this is interesting because I'll say generally when you die in this game, it takes you back to the story chart. Yes. And the ah storyteller is like, oh, well, you died. Maybe you can try a different tactic. or um Or it'll be like, oh, well, that was one of the endings. um Do you think you can get a better ending?
01:05:46
Speaker
right That doesn't happen this time. Right. This is not an ending per se. It just takes you.
01:05:54
Speaker
it just tells you you failed your dive. And then, which happens sometimes as you're playing the diving minigame, you can sometimes, if if you don't come up for air soon enough, yeah um you will fail.
01:06:08
Speaker
It'll say dive failed. And it'll just restart you at the beginning. Like, restart you on the boat. no um
01:06:17
Speaker
That's what it does here. Yeah. So I was like, okay, definitely something just happened. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I have to, and this is paranormal site, so that thing is going to be
01:06:34
Speaker
significant. Right. But i did it happen as part of the story or did it or is it like did it already happen or is it something that's going to happen later or like what what just how did this just ah end like what just happened here. I assumed immediately that it was part of the story and I assumed that our character was dead.
01:06:58
Speaker
um but like not but like not dead like living like undead right that's what i was thinking that entire time um up until a point where i understood more i think of right of the story and what was happening so this story so you do get to bring this up to azami yes um And he tells you about like a legend in Japanese folklore called the Tomokizuki.
01:07:32
Speaker
And the Tomokizuki is like a it's like a it's like a doppelganger legend. You know, every culture. Yeah, yeah. ah Because it's just such a primal fear, the idea of you meeting yourself in the world. yeah Yeah. So this is ah this is a doppelganger leg legend in the Ama diving tradition where they these are these underwater yokai. They appear to you holding ah holding um what what's the
01:08:06
Speaker
what's the name of the shellfish The abalone? Yeah. They appear to you holding the abalone, the most you know expensive of these shellfish, the most valued of these shellfish. And if you take it, they drag you underwater and kill you and replace you.
01:08:24
Speaker
It's almost, you know, and this is on point, it's almost kind of like a siren or risulka, which I think is interesting because this game ah is based on mermaid legend. Right. specific specific Like more specifically in in Japan and what that means. Right.
01:08:42
Speaker
uh how it relate how it relates to kind of the western world's view of mermaids it's so actually it's so interesting and i love mermaids yeah i love mermaids like okay i used to that's what i used to draw all the time little mermaid was that was my disney movie man i reference a little mermaid in this game a lot And that makes sense because in The Little Mermaid, even that is a that's a siren story, right? We've got the voice and and and a mermaid using her voice to enchant men, human men. i think that's really interesting. um Yeah. And certainly, ah yeah, even at the end, there's there's another reference, at least in the ending that I got there. You might have gotten different endings. but there was more references there. And I just love, I love mermaid lore. I thought, I think even because I liked it more than the, um, the seven mysteries of Hanzo, was able to pay attention more.
01:09:42
Speaker
and anytime, yeah. And anytime there was like a question, you know, from the storyteller or from someone else that was kind of checking to see if I was paying attention, I would get them right. I'm like, yeah, right. This guy, I know that. Um, because I liked it so much.
01:09:55
Speaker
Uh, So, yeah, we'll have to talk about those questions from the storyteller because they are they are interesting. They can be tough. But they do call them mermaids. They do.
01:10:06
Speaker
In this game, in Japanese legend, they're called Ningyo. Okay. And they and i yeah might be doing that just for you for the appeal of America and Western culture. yeah Yeah. I mean, they use real Japanese folklore.
01:10:28
Speaker
About mermaids and even like not only just real legends, but yeah they'll they'll refer to real drawings yeah of um of mermaids from, you know, like ah from like six to eight hundred years ago.
01:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. so i do I do like that they reference... I mean, my favorite reference was the Fiji mermaid reference, which a very famous hoax by P.T. Barnum. um It was... He claimed he found a mermaid. It was a monkey sewed to a fish. What can I say? um And that was known as the Fiji mermaid. And that is a reference in this game. So it it feels like, man, they really...
01:11:09
Speaker
The writers did their diligence when it when it came to like kind of exploring mermaids and their place in in literature and in media and how we view them. i thought it was great. I i loved it.
01:11:23
Speaker
I think so, too. You're doing this diving minigame, and then eventually you got to give up. And you go home, and everybody in the town is sort of mad at you for ah like you know Why are you diving? And not just because you're a boy, but because your family...
01:11:45
Speaker
Your mom and dad died in a disaster out at sea about five years prior. there was like ah There was like a big storm, and a lot of people died in this big storm. And the entire town blames your mom for it.
01:12:01
Speaker
They think that she was a curse bearer, which if you played the first game, you'll know what a care curse bearer is Basically, they they have a cursed stone and if certain conditions are met, they are able to fulfill horrible curses. So in this case, the cursed stone caused this storm, this horrible, horrible, horrible storm that sunk ships essentially and killed people.
01:12:26
Speaker
Or at least that's what the people in the town think. And Yutsa is the only survivor that we know of. He's the only survivor. As the storm was happening, your mom put you in a little buoy, a little floating thing, which is a risk ah because there is a storm going on, but Yutsa survived.
01:12:48
Speaker
And I think that kind of, and that draws his, that kind of explains his storyline and what he's looking for. This is a very like Japanese storytelling thing, especially in gaming. You get a lot of characters, right? Right now we're starting with Yuta.
01:13:04
Speaker
And their stories are linked somehow, and they all have goals that are kind of linked to the same thing. The goals might not be the same. Yuta's goal is different from other characters' goals, but they're all linked to this to this thing. So this disaster that happened is referenced many times.
01:13:24
Speaker
in this game people know about it huh interesting okay you haven't gotten to so another thing about these paranormal site games they have these story charts and the story charts lead to various endings um you have gotten a couple endings yes but you have not gotten all and one happy ish and you've not gotten the final ending right i don't think i've gotten the best ending Because something feels raw off. Yeah.
01:13:54
Speaker
yeah So you say best ending. And I think like in ah this is i just in other games, I would call I would I would talk about it as in, oh, these are all endings.
01:14:06
Speaker
And, you know, if you want to keep playing until you get the best ending, like that's that's the best thing. But in Paranormous site, I'd say it's almost not like.
01:14:17
Speaker
You're not finished the game until you get ah every ending. Right. um Yeah. True. The game wants you to get yeah the other endings aren't actually endings. They are intended to be
01:14:33
Speaker
stops on the journey, even though they call them endings. It's almost like Clue. It's like it could have happened this way it could have happened this way. Right. So.
01:14:45
Speaker
Here's. Okay. Okay.
01:14:49
Speaker
I think Yuza's goals are not all that different. Oh, yeah yeah. When I say different, I do mean that they are linked.
01:15:02
Speaker
But like ah language-wise, I think people have some different goals. For example, um the they're the foreigners that are in this game, the Americans, let's call them. yeah um They have kind of a different goal, but especially the main guy.
01:15:19
Speaker
his goal is just kind of silly, honestly, but it goes with his character, so I'm not too mad about it. Man, All right, one thing I think that is interesting about this game is early on, I'm going to 100% agree that all these characters, not even early on, ah almost all the way through the game, um most of these characters have very different...
01:15:46
Speaker
goals Right. Or at least seem to. seem i think the further you go, the more you realize, oh, wait, a lot of these characters actually have the exact same goal. Right. No, see what you mean there. Because in in the end, what they really want to do is stop another disaster from happening.
01:16:07
Speaker
ah Well, one person doesn't have that goal. You know what I mean, though? like there's Well, I i still think i think maybe we should talk about this again a little bit once you get to the final, final ending. Oh, geez. Okay.
01:16:22
Speaker
But well you might still feel the same way. ah But I think... i guess I guess in other words, then, a big goal and a big theme yeah throughout this game is that another disaster is going to strike. People are feeling that way.
01:16:36
Speaker
um thats everybody's trying everybody's trying in their own way to stop it. That's true, yeah. um So from the very get-go, Yuza's goal is to meet a mermaid. Mm-hmm. And I think, again, he says this really early on, so we're not going to spoil, you know, anything that's not... Like, this is all first chapter stuff.
01:17:02
Speaker
Yeah. His main goal is to meet a mermaid because one saved him. that's Yeah, that is what he believes, is that he was... this Like I said, it was kind of risky putting him on a buoy. Yes. So I think Yussa comes to the conclusion that... Or slightly remembers that, well, I was saved. Yeah.
01:17:20
Speaker
Because how would I have survived otherwise? Right. He has it he has a memory of being saved by a mermaid. yeah um And that's how he that's how he didn't drown.
01:17:33
Speaker
So then you end up meeting these other characters. you You meet his friends back on the island. They seem to have their own goals. um There's Sato and Tsukasa. Tsukasa, yeah. Yeah.
01:17:47
Speaker
um And then there's sort of these these, this sort of hard cut to these two. um And they they are very important.
01:17:58
Speaker
They're incredibly important. I'd say Sato is probably the most important character in the entire story. Yeah. when Man, when her story story started going, I'm like, this rules. This story is so good. so She.
01:18:14
Speaker
or so So, you know, but that's that that might be to explain that would be a little spoilery. So or why don't we cut to ah you cut to two paranormal detectives? Yeah, it's so fun. It's almost like um the X-Files.
01:18:32
Speaker
Right. Their own little, yeah, that's what they are. They're a paranormal investigative team and it's a man and a woman. And you're kind of just like, what the fuck? This is so, like, this is such this this hard cut from what I've been doing so far to now I'm suddenly two paranormal detectives who are...
01:18:51
Speaker
researching the this uh corpse this mummified a mermaid corpse that washed up on the shores of uh the in the my in the my prefecture ah the other side of isa yeah and not in not in the city that uses in they're in a or they're in a different area it's like the mainland isa bay where um ah which is a real place and yutsa and uh like all these all the you know all the characters we just mentioned they all live on kamishima yeah which is a fictionalized version of a city or of ah a real island called kamishima this is like almost identical yeah and it means what like turtle
01:19:44
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I should also want to say there's some other stuff you learn at the beginning there that is really cool. I want to, like, sprinkle in some of the ah Japanese folklore yeah that this game is referencing as we go. So...
01:20:00
Speaker
Another thing that we learn here is that all Ama divers clothes that they wear diving, they wear these symbols called the Saimon and Dolman.
01:20:11
Speaker
One is like a pentagram in a circle. The other one kind of looks like a Like a crosshatch, maybe? Yeah, like a tic-tac-toe board, but bigger. um With with four lines four lines on one, ah four vertical lines, five horizontal lines. So these are real.
01:20:33
Speaker
And these are really worn by Ama divers to protect them against evil and bring them good luck. And one of the things that's meant to protect them against is the Tamakazooie or Tamakazuki.
01:20:44
Speaker
i think Tamakazuki. Tamakazooie is my favorite N64 platform game. That's the new Banjo-Kazooie game. So ah the Saimon and Doman are real symbols based on two legendary like priests, like wizard priests from Japanese history called Abe no I'm going to get all these pronunciations wrong. You don't have to correct me. I understand. um
01:21:22
Speaker
And Ashia Doman. And these are... Abe no Saimi was a onmiogji which is like a like um a member of like ah ah a kind of like a priest class like a like a wizard but an official one like oh oh but it's because there's so many official wizards out there like yeah there were like merlin was an official wizard what made him official he worked for the freaking king well whatever So fake so this is what it's, i mean I mean, that's kind of the way these legends are. is like these are spiritual advisors who could cast spells, who are who work for the government or are like close advisors of royalty. Yeah.
01:22:13
Speaker
And so Abe no Saimi, he was part of the Department of Divinities, which was founded in the 8th century. wasn't dissolved until 1871. Oh, wow. i did not know that. Yeah, and they would handle religious affairs and upkeeping shrines and stuff like that. But it was also like they were and responsible for keeping curses away and like doing i like spiritual advising. And I think the paranormal affairs department in this game is kind of based on this Department of Divinities. So Saime, he lived from 921 1005 AD. And he...
01:22:55
Speaker
and he had this rival named Doman, Ashia Doman, who, like, they had multiple magic duels. Yeah.
01:23:08
Speaker
Wait, I didn't know they were against each other. Yeah, they were. Yeah. So like Doman is often but what was used to be often portrayed as like the evil one and Saimae is like the good one. And so people wear the Saimae, Saimae and Doman as like protection from evil. And again, for good luck. So you think that that the the two paranormal investigators is that's kind of their role?
01:23:34
Speaker
Oh, i don't know. i think. There is some parallels. For example, there is a scene, and I'm not going to give away what this ties to, but you'll know immediately. and There is a scene. There is a story in which Saimon, their final duel, he summoned a bunch of Shikigami to defeat Doman, which has a very strong parallel true in this story.
01:24:03
Speaker
That does. Yeah, true. But anyway, so that's what Simon and Dolman, those symbols are really are real and they're worn by Ama divers and that's what they're based off of. nice Since we're talking about the characters now, we can maybe talk about a few others. So yeah, there's this story ah storyline with the two detectives, and they're they're from the paranormal division. And you're kind of led to believe that the woman, there's something a little off about her, but that's everyone in this game.
01:24:31
Speaker
Like every character that you are playing, there is something wrong. weird about them but yeah there's just something a little strange about the female the guy is flat out a psychic that is what they call him he has like special ability he can do spells from like get the get-go yeah he's yeah i like i actually really soto i really like his character yeah yeah yeah i thought his character was badass i really liked him and it becomes clear that these characters also become aware of the curses, the disaster, and the feeling that another one might occur.
01:25:08
Speaker
Yes. um And then we have ah Avi, Avi Barnum, and ah how do you, a Circa? Circe? Circe. I would say Circe, lu her name is Circe Lunarlight. Yeah. Yeah.
01:25:23
Speaker
People pronounce this differently, but there is, she's, like, that name is based off a, i like ah like, a demigod, like, that's half sea nymph um from Greek mythology called Circe. Cool. Or Circe. Uh...
01:25:40
Speaker
She's the daughter of Perse and Helios. She's the one who poisoned the maiden Scylla to turn into a sea monster, the sea monster from the Odyssey. She was exiled to an island, and ah she had an affair with Odysseus, and she turned men into pigs. I mean, who didn't?
01:26:01
Speaker
Who didn't have an affair with Odysseus? Let's be honest. And who didn't turn men into pigs. A lot. What I thought was really striking about Avi and Cersei is um now they're they're Americans.
01:26:13
Speaker
They have come to Japan. Cersei is Cersei is English. Yes. Sorry. You're right. Avi is American. Sorry. Avi is American. That's right. um And I guess Cersei is like a distant relative of Avi's. um And he kind of wanted to use her spirit sense for his own goal. This fucking guy this character, so dramatic, always doing a duck face. Actually, everybody's pulling like mugging.
01:26:39
Speaker
Everyone's like pulling weird faces yeah in this game. He is a fantasy author, kind of obsessed with this romantic idea of mermaids and Japanese lore. And really seemingly his goal initially is to just find a mermaid.
01:26:57
Speaker
um I don't think so. There's something really important that we need to say before we go further. And that is there is the belief or was the belief that mermaids can give you immortality.
01:27:10
Speaker
And there's a few ways that the game says that they can do it. One of the early beliefs was ingesting, um you know, the flesh of a mermaid and that would grant you immortality. But then other other myths say that it needs to be combined with something and that's not going to do it alone. And that is a big, big thing.
01:27:28
Speaker
Plot point for this game is that and is the search for immortality. um Are there immortals on the island now? And why are these does that why is this disaster going to happen again? And how are they all linked?
01:27:43
Speaker
And that is a also that is also a real Japanese legend, the idea that the flesh of Ningyo, again, I'm going to pronounce it wrong, nothing we can do about it. that day Absolutely nothing. um That they can turn you into a, they can they can grant you immortality or at least very long life. And a lot of the stuff, a lot of the the legends that they talk about in this game, like Yao Bakuni, the 800 year Buddhist priestess. um
01:28:17
Speaker
was a young girl who ingested mermaid flesh, lived 800 years, and then wandered around. This was a 15th century legend um that she just wandered around ah Japan. She had to become a nun um because like that's you can't just be... You don't age, by the way. That's a little suspicious to most people. so she yeah So she became... a nun and kind of, you know, ostracized herself. um And they're called 800 immortals.
01:28:48
Speaker
Which I'm sure has like an actual name yeah Japanese. But in this game, they're just called 800 year immortals. yeah And everybody's like, I didn't know there was a word for it. And it's like, well, that's a bunch of words and it's just a description. So I'm sure, I'm sure there's like a word in Japanese, but, um but yeah, but that's a real, I mean, real, that's a real folklore. That's real legend.
01:29:13
Speaker
um And it also does tie into, um some clans from the like Issei, Issei Bay area, the Tairou, um, in the, you know, one of the great pieces of Japanese literature, the book of height, the high K again, pronouncing some of these wrong, um, which is a big part like that history. And those legends are a big part of this game and the, not just the background of this game, but the literal story of this game. Um,
01:29:46
Speaker
And I also like that the writers, they use these legends and these stories the And made some really, and wrote some really good themes about like curses and the legend of those curses and resentment from clans and from mermaids. And they actually like took those, ah what are, believe what you know, what are documented in Japan and, and made some really good stories. with Made some really good fiction out it. Yeah. No, it all tied together i mean really, really well.
01:30:17
Speaker
Even that story of three mermaids being caught in a net in the Issei Bay and presented to... think that's one the important ones. And presented to Tairon no Tadamori, who is one of the most important historical figures in this story, um and that he rejected them, h and that a fisherman then ate them and said, ah tasted good, but and nothing else happened. is Yeah. like that They tell that story in the game.
01:30:48
Speaker
But yeah, one of the the game really revolves around these, ah the Tyro clan and the three mermaids that live in Issa Bay um and the idea that mermaid flesh grants one immortality.
01:31:10
Speaker
Yeah. I also think one of, I think one of the best themes of this game, um and maybe it has a little bit to do with the lore. It certainly brings it to light is that all the, all the mermaids are referencing here are women.
01:31:25
Speaker
They're a female and all the divers, Amma divers are usually also women. And there are just very, very strong themes of the resentment of scorned women and hurt, hurt women who have been mistreated and tortured. And and it it it kind of goes like, yes, that happens in the legends, right? We're talking about mermaids who were mistreated or eaten, like just completely...
01:31:54
Speaker
mishandled ah no respect for mermaids and I feel like that's trying to cross over into the modern day stories too there's a character named Kikiku who feels dismissed by her father even um sato or Sato has her own you know ah stories of being mistreated and and all of these things just causing major resentment and That's kind of how these curses came about, right? As one of the one of the mermaids, one of the three mermaids was so mistreated that she held on to resentment and it caused a curse. Yes. And also the difference between righteous and non-righteous resentment. And there's like the resentment that some of the that one of the mermaids holds onto from being tortured. But then there's another resentment that, uh, uh,
01:32:44
Speaker
that is based entirely in pride, um that haunts Sato for her whole life. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and really comes to bear at the end of the game. Yeah. Or really close to the end of the game. um and is just sort of another, it's, it's ah a way that men's obsessions.
01:33:11
Speaker
Mm-hmm. um And there is you there is a way to look at this game in a non-gendered way. They talk about how there's mermaids that aren't women. Yeah, and Amadivers too. And I think there are people of both genders in this game who have obsessions that end up hurting people of both yeah genders. But yeah I think there is a... These are just one of the stronger themes, I think. There is a... Yeah. I think there if if it's meaningful to you, there are non-gendered ways to look at this. But I think the gendered... um I think the gendered themes are very strong. I do too. I think they're strong. I think they're very meaningful. and Yes.
01:33:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think that maybe that's why i liked this storyline better. Maybe it just resonated. So you like this better than Seven Mystery? Oh, because you said, because yeah you were able to pay attention to the lore lot better.
01:34:02
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, that makes sense. The more you love a story, the more you're going to pay attention to it. So yeah, I mean, I love both games. they're They're both really good. But yeah, something resonated with me in this one.
Gender Themes in Games
01:34:15
Speaker
Also, just another cute little tidbit, Arnev Barnum, you already mentioned how P.T. Barnum was the sort of...
01:34:23
Speaker
ah originator of the mermaid hoax. Yep. Yep. In at least in America. Yeah. There'd been mermaid hoaxes all across the world forever, but this was a big one. This was a huge one. He, yeah, yeah he thought he really had something there. And, um, and then Arnav is Sanskrit for ocean or sea or cosmic ocean. The, uh, the, uh, the vastness of human potential, um, which all,
01:34:55
Speaker
ah have a bearing in this game. Also, um he looks like, um he looks like Indiana Jones, but with a beard.
01:35:06
Speaker
i does. And he put he fulfills sort of like, he's like if there's a silly, like a silly Indiana Jones. Yeah. Is kind of like his role this game. He's like super dramatic. Like he's like, he's there for the thrill, for the adventure. i don't think he's even interested in immortality. I think he is a romantic and just wants to like know if mermaids are real because that's better than any story he could ever. It's...
01:35:35
Speaker
It's so weird. It's so funny. Also, as a side note, because his name was, you know, Avi Barnum, like P.T. Barnum, and they were referencing the the Fiji mermaid. I thought Circe's name was kind of like Cirque, as in circus. I thought it was linked. Maybe that, I mean, to me, that's too much of ah of a coincidence to not be linked, right? Huh. i think that's interesting. I i wonder. So...
01:36:03
Speaker
Yeah. Sometimes people pronounce her, uh, Sirsa. I just decided to look it up because it's, that's going to be an easy, since it's Greek and Roman, it's going to be easier for me to figure out that pronunciation than any of these Japanese pronunciations. But even the way it's spelled and the way it looks, you know what i mean?
01:36:22
Speaker
So a lot of people pronounce it Sirsi the Greek way. There are two ways to pronounce it. Cersei or Kirke. Kirke. Kirke. they did use they used the K sound a lot.
01:36:34
Speaker
Kirke. Cersei or Kirke.
01:36:39
Speaker
still so Okay, even that I can't quite figure out. I still think there could be a link. Because like they could have named her literally anything. um So he's like this... Yeah, so he's like a fantasy author who's just after adventure. She is like a... She's like um ah ah a baby sorceress. They call her an exorcist, which I thought was interesting. That is interesting. she But she casts spells and she is a member of... She's like a rogue member of the Paranormal Affairs Division.
01:37:11
Speaker
um She like... In fact, as you you find out about her when you're playing um the the two police. and yeah yeah they get told they They get told, hey, ah if you see her, can you send her back to the Paranormal Affairs Division? Because she's like in the wind. um That's so funny.
01:37:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and she's only 15, by the way. Another another very well-known kind of Japanese trope is that kids are adults, man. Like, they're doing all the adult things. If you've played the Final Fantasy games, they act and are treated like adults in very adult situations. Yes. um And I think Cersei is probably the most adult out of all the adults, and this out of everyone in this game.
01:38:07
Speaker
Also, I want to bring up, there was a character, i don't know if you felt this way, that I thought would have a much bigger role and then disappeared for the majority of the game and then kind of came back. Do you know who I'm, can you guess who I'm referring to?
01:38:24
Speaker
um There's a couple characters you could be referring to. One, okay i'll say i'll say I'll just say a couple of them just by one was a cop.
01:38:36
Speaker
It's not that one. One was a a veteran Amadiver. Not that one either, but very heartbreaking. One you never even meet in the story, who is a sorcerer.
01:38:52
Speaker
No, not that one either. One is a old man who you you only meet once, but he he looms large in the story. actually thought his presence was pretty good and pretty well-timed. I'm i'm actually referring to Shotaro. Okay, yeah, so that's the last one was going to say. One is a young boy Oh, boy. Okay,
01:39:19
Speaker
yeah.
01:39:22
Speaker
See, this is, ah let me say, this is the not the problem. I don't want to call it a problem. But one of the things in in talking and dissecting a game like this is there is so much story. So many things are going on with the characters. So much lore is being dropped on you.
01:39:39
Speaker
I think it's safe to say that you should not beat yourself up if you if you're playing this game and you don't understand every single part. there I think we've talked about this in games before where there's just so much dumping of explicit and so much lore that it just sounds like they're making up stuff to sound like smart. what but What was the game that we said that about? We specifically...
01:40:03
Speaker
A game we talked about kind of triggered this conversation. That was that was giving a bunch of lore that yeah had nothing to do with the game. like Because I think all this lore. That we got weary on. That we were just like, Jesus, i don't I don't understand this, but I have to pretend understand this. don't remember.
01:40:20
Speaker
think even though in this game and in the first game, it's not that you have to pretend to understand. It's just that there is so much going on. Let yourself get overwhelmed. Yeah. Let yourself feel overwhelmed. It's okay. Like there are going to be, there were times where like, I don't remember this. I don't know what they're talking about. But what I do understand is the basic story. I do understand the character's motivations. So kind of being forgiving on myself for not remembering every single urban legend, every single character.
01:40:51
Speaker
there's a lot of characters. And Avi... Arnav, aka ah Avi, he makes fun of this at one point, is a lot of the historical figures have the have very similar names. Yes! Oh my gosh! And he, yeah, he he he talks about this. And I mean, it's just the way, you know, it's just the way Japanese names work. um Yeah. The same as we, you know...
01:41:23
Speaker
My dad, his last name was All Camp and his dad's last name was All Camp. So, um, Tairon no Tadamori is the father of Tairon no Kiyomori. Right. Right.
01:41:37
Speaker
and It's a lot. It's a lot of like this figure did this. This person triggered this curse. This curse is separate from this other curse and was triggered by the resentment from one of these three mermaids who all have weird names. You know, like it's so be a lot. Which is interesting. So that when they invent characters like the mermaids all have very, so very different names from each other. They do Yeah. But when they can.
01:41:59
Speaker
Like the fates, right? Like the three fates. That's kind of what it reminded me of. Yeah. Yeah. Diving deep here. I'll have to think about whether their stories and their themes, because each of each each mermaid has a very, very different Story and guiding a theme that guides their story. And, you know ah you know, as we already said, one of them is resentment. um yeah Let's say another one. Let's think about if we think about Little Mermaid, another one is curiosity. Sure. um Absolutely. Or a longing, and you know a long longing for a different life. Yeah, that's a big one in this game. Goodness. Yeah.
01:42:45
Speaker
So then, ah but when, so when they can come up with their own characters, they seem, they try, they clearly try to make the names memorable. But when they can't, like when they're talking about the Heike,
01:42:59
Speaker
ah it's, it's rough. Tairou no no Tairou no Shigomori. Like they can't change those names because that's historical shit. um But.
01:43:15
Speaker
So one of the things that helps – Again, allow yourself to be overwhelmed. Don't don't beat yourself up about it. And, ah you know, you can still understand a lot about the game if you just, if if there's some of this that's not sticking in your head. But they do, like a lot of Japanese visual novels, they do give you files that you can peruse. There are, let's see, 53 different files that will tell you about characters, curses, history.
01:43:50
Speaker
locations um and some of it so I mean a lot of it does tie into the story but sometimes there's some stuff in there that's just like fucking interesting to read that's true yeah I was gonna i was gonna say that as well it is You can definitely clock this game as one of you're going to learn stuff too, whether you want
Japanese Folklore in Games
01:44:12
Speaker
to or not. Yeah. And I will say the files, it's a lot, man. It's on top of being a very narrative heavy game. There's so many files. I'm just like, oh God. I've had them open the entire time we've had this conversation so I can reference them. ah
01:44:31
Speaker
But I... i ah How did you, when a file would come up, when you were talking to character and it was like, oh, your files have been updated. Yeah. Yeah.
01:44:44
Speaker
Did you stop to read them or did you just going with it? Me too. did stop to read them because did find this very interesting. I found the lore very interesting. I fucking loved Yeah. So I read it right away.
01:44:56
Speaker
Yeah, me too. And I read i read every word everything. Yeah, so did I. I fucking loved everything this game had to teach me. And it... it One of the... There are two areas of folklore that I am...
01:45:18
Speaker
woefully under-informed on one of them is asian folklore and the other one's african folklore this has reinvigorated my desire to learn about japanese folklore because i have some books on it and i've learned and i know a little bit about it but man there was this was all so fascinating and then researching how much of this was real folklore yeah it was like holy shit um have like a passing knowledge uh of asian folklore um because a lot a lot of it is like in the arts and stuff so like right pottery and things that of that nature you learn a lot about the the folklore And it's going to sound, it might sound trite and I don't really fucking care, but I like a lot of like Japanese media, ah like, you know, Studio Ghibli. And I really do learn a lot about the lore. Like I knew what this Shigigami was before even playing this game.
01:46:22
Speaker
And I'm so happy it's in this game because, man. Because you got to look at it and go, I know that. I know that one. Not only do I know that, but it is one of the puzzle solutions. And I i kid you not, it is one of the coolest solutions that anyone's ever thought of. Okay. Yeah. natural true game I'm like, that's brilliant. I love that. that's That's amazing. And I love it. And it's beautiful. We talked very vaguely about a lot of the story and specifically about some of it. I don't think we want to get more in depth than that. If you've played the game, some of this hopefully will have been meaningful. If you haven't, hopefully it'll be intriguing or at least a little interesting.
01:46:59
Speaker
Let's talk about the gameplay a little bit before we close out. um Yeah. So most of this game was visual novelty.
01:47:09
Speaker
I think even more so than the first game. If I'm if i'm recalling correctly, which I do think I am, i' have a pretty pretty good memory, I did find myself getting stuck more in the original Paranormous site. To me, this one is way more visual novel-y, way more flowing, yeah, extremely narrative-heavy. Go on, though.
01:47:29
Speaker
Well, this is what I was going say. think the puzzles... i think the puzzles I think in the first game, the puzzles happen a lot quicker. ah One of the, one of the um or at least a lot earlier, and then they sort of fade away. One of the early puzzles in the first game we talked about and is so funny is there's a curse that affects you when you hear it and your solution is to turn down the fucking volume in your actual game. Oh, remember! Yes, I remember! So, so good. Now... They were trickier. They were trickier puzzles the first one.
01:48:11
Speaker
So in the first, I hate to keep doing that to you, but there is like an hour of this game you haven't finished and so much happens in that hour. that that that That's why I keep having to go like, well, because so much happens. So ah in the first game, the ah the puzzles are front loaded. They happen a lot towards the beginning and then there's less puzzles the further you go. um In the this game,
01:48:39
Speaker
the parcel The puzzles are more backloaded. They happen more towards the end. And the puzzle you were just talking about. yo yeah. like The coolest puzzle ever. Yeah.
01:48:52
Speaker
Is very cool yeah and very tough. you You don't see it coming. And all of a sudden, somebody's just like, all right, the decisions. And I think it's this is on purpose. Because you're supposed to feel the pressure that the character feels. Yeah.
01:49:07
Speaker
All of a sudden, they turn to you and they're like, all right, man, it's on you. You tell us exactly what to do. And if you tell us too few things, ah where everyone's going to die. And if you tell us too many things, that's going to waste time and yeah everyone's going to die. um And so you have to they' they're like, think about everything you know about every one of the characters. Yeah.
01:49:29
Speaker
And you tell everybody what to do for the next time. couple like there's like yeah end game is tough man and i think i was even texting i'm texting you i'm like man i was so proud of myself for getting you know these information questions right like who was the name of the the mermaid who holds the most resentment i'm like i know that i know that answer because i've been paying attention and then you get to those end game puzzles and it is very tense and i'm like i don't know i have no idea yeah Yeah, it's literally just like, think about everything you know about the characters. Oh, no. Now, here is a list of the characters, and each of them have three verbs. Yeah. And you have to pick the right characters and the right verbs. um And if you pick too many, yeah again, everybody dies. And if you pick too few, everybody dies. you pick wrong verbs, everybody dies. it's bad, yeah. Everybody dies. So it's...
01:50:28
Speaker
Okay, that is the second hardest puzzle in the game. What's interesting is that' that is a hard puzzle, but once I saw what it did, I'm like, that is brilliant and it makes sense. ah But what do you think the first hardest one is? Did you have to go to the... did you have to go to the um Somebody offers you hints.
01:50:49
Speaker
Did you have to go to the hints? No. To solve that one? Yeah, me neither, yeah i which I was really proud of. But again, I don't i have the best ending, you know? I died a couple times. Well, no, I'm just saying in that in the in the plan. you got the If you got the plan puzzle right, you got the plan puzzle right. You don't have to revisit it. Right.
01:51:06
Speaker
But I died a few times before I got the plan puzzle right. Okay. um Okay. The hardest puzzle is the puzzle that you are basically the one that you're on right now.
01:51:19
Speaker
Okay. So there's ah there's ah there's a there's one puzzle after that that is not very hard. Okay. And it's just about trying to get... It's actually about getting Obby's last two endings. Okay. Yeah. But the puzzle to get the best ending is a couple steps long.
01:51:41
Speaker
Okay. And it involves thinking... Okay, it involves solving who you are. Right, I figured it might because the storyteller said that. yeah It involves figuring out who you, the player, are, yeah which is never said in the game.
01:51:59
Speaker
yeah It also involves figuring out... It also involves thinking about... Oh my God, how do I even say this vaguely? It involves thinking about the structure
01:52:13
Speaker
of the
01:52:19
Speaker
Of the game from like, man, yeah how does the story interact with the user interface of the game?
01:52:30
Speaker
The same, similar to the volume puzzle, yeah but weirder. Okay. Okay. Interesting. I think I can get to it. you do you think I can get to it?
01:52:42
Speaker
I needed to use the hint in the game. And then, because there there is an in-game hint, the the the storyteller is like, hey, do you need me to point in the right direction? Okay. don't mind if that happens. And he said something, and I was like, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about! And...
01:53:06
Speaker
and And then i i just slowly crawled my way to a solution. It was almost like solving a puzzle in blueprints. It was just like, okay, I'm going to try something. No, that was absolutely asinine. Okay, I'll try something else but just based on my my observations. And then you're like, okay, I think I know what it's asking of me.
01:53:30
Speaker
But I don't even – I don't know where to go to do what it's asking of me. Yeah. um And this sounds bad.
01:53:45
Speaker
But when you get it, it's so fucking clever. and so and it and it And just like the first game, it breaks open your experience of being a player in a way that is just kind of mind-blowing. You're kind of like, holy shit. Like, I had a role...
01:54:07
Speaker
My role in this story, my role in this world was bigger than I ever thought it was. That's cool. Um...
01:54:19
Speaker
Yeah, you're going to love it. You're going to. I know you're going to play this puzzle and you're going to fucking love it. And you're going to be like, oh, my God, that was insane. That was a crazy puzzle.
01:54:31
Speaker
um And hopefully you'll be like, and that ending ruled. Yeah, I'm like pretty OK with the ending I got. But these games are made to be played almost to completion, I think.
01:54:45
Speaker
There is yes agreed and there's there's one story that I think you know very little of.
01:54:56
Speaker
I'm going to tell you off recording just in case what what my theory is is a spoiler because I don't. Yeah. So I'll tell you off recording. some Well let's hot we're going cut you guys will hear a hard cut for a second. We're just going to talk off recording just for a second. Okay.
01:55:12
Speaker
Am I on the right path.
01:55:16
Speaker
I think I am. In a sense. In a sense. um I mean, this is this is a weird game, so I'm not expecting to be completely on you point here. You were in the ballpark.
01:55:30
Speaker
Thank you. I'm usually pretty perceptive with storytelling. and There is a whole story... This is the thing that happens to these paranormal site games. This is another thing that ties these together is that there are stories happening behind the stories that you're seeing that you don't know of. And suddenly somebody will... that they'll They'll turn... um like that What was like what's that game? Fez. It'll just turn... It'll turn 90 degrees and suddenly you'll be like, oh my god! There was this whole structure here that I didn't even see. Yeah, yeah. So...
01:56:05
Speaker
There is something like that that you are missing. There's an entire story that was happening all along that you don't know yet. And once you know that story, if you're like me, you'll cry.
01:56:21
Speaker
um and ah it, yeah's there's there's a there's an emotional depth here that,
01:56:34
Speaker
That you are – you are definitely – your theories are brushing up against. but Yeah. you haven't But you haven't – but you don't yet know the shape. Right. I don't know that – and I know I don't because I have gotten scenes where I'm like, hmm, where is that going? And so I know that I am missing a a storyline here. Yes. So hopefully I'll get to that. I mean that's my goal, right, is to get to what i haven't discovered yet.
01:57:01
Speaker
Here's a question. Mm-hmm. Have you tried loading ah your game? Yeah. Or have you just clicked continue? No, i I've loaded maybe one time. Okay.
01:57:13
Speaker
Do I need to load my game? You don't need to. Okay. But I would suggest you load your game. Yeah, but and actually, when I stopped playing earlier, i did save with intention to reload it because I was at a weird point. So I did choose a save slot and I did, yeah.
01:57:32
Speaker
I often, in in this game, in you know, in Paranormousite, my suggestion to people would be never... Don't save... and Like, I save out of paranoia.
01:57:45
Speaker
I do too, yeah. But... You don't need to. the The times that you fail in this game are built into the game. And ah if you say, so if I save and then I keep playing a couple chapters and then i'm like, oh, I wonder what happened with that thing. Yeah. And I go back.
01:58:04
Speaker
I just erased though all those chapters I played. Right. So it's better to just go to the story chart and replay the chapter. And usually it'll have ah like ah like ah like a marker.
01:58:16
Speaker
Right. From like at the exact spot that you want because they know you're going to be curious about that thing. So um like you said, they're very conscious of you playing the game and what you will do and want to do.
01:58:29
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. i Good to know. But I would suggest at least once, especially as you get towards the end of the game, hit load and just look.
01:58:42
Speaker
Is anything weird? Okay. Can do Is there anything weird there? And it's not necessary. You don't need to see this to beat the game. h But it's worth doing. um Just like an interesting detail.
01:58:58
Speaker
Right. And it'll sort of start pointing you towards um the final, like the the true ending. Oh, cool. ah yeah Like you determined, I already have like a ah goal here that I'm kind of bumping up against. So maybe I'll do that tonight. Maybe I'll do it after this podcast. And what you saw, the thing that you talked to me about off recording,
01:59:22
Speaker
um It was, you noticed a, you noticed in one of the endings that there was an emotional reaction that a character had that hinted towards something else. I noticed something, I noticed something similar, m but at a different, at a completely different spot.
01:59:40
Speaker
I noticed it like a few times. So I noticed, yeah, I noticed ah in a scene early on and then I noticed in a very weird scene where two characters met up, but it didn't like, I thought I fucked something up. It didn't really go anywhere. So I've been having like these, uh, like these foreshadowed moments. And then i know what you're talking about. yeah Yes. And then when the character had such an emotional reaction, I knew that I was missing something there.
02:00:06
Speaker
um In the scene right before the big, granted, this game has multiple big climactic scenes. Yes. Because it has multiple endings. And the first ending that you come across is harrowing. um Yeah.
02:00:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is like a it's very much like ah everybody died. You fucked up and everybody died sort of scenario. Yeah. it's now There's some very sad moments throughout these story charts. Yeah.
02:00:35
Speaker
Yeah, and some of heavy i mean some of the deaths in this game don't get undone. Yeah, that's true. People will die. Really sad. um Even people that you don't like even, and they die yeah And it's like, oh oh man, that person shouldn't have died. i feel bad that they died. um Oh, which means, oh man, I've got to ask you a whole nother thing. oh Oh my God, we can't keep talking about this game.
02:01:02
Speaker
We can. We can. All right. Off recording. Okay. So again, there's just so much to talk about with this game. We've got to call it at some point. We've got to cut ourselves off. um Paranormous site.
02:01:17
Speaker
The mermaid's curse. Yeah. It's fucking great, and I hope that they keep making Paranormousite games forever. I want to see... and they hint... There's a hint. Once you get the true ending, if you go back and you look at the one file that you've been unable to look at the whole game, um it does give you a hint as to what the next game might... At least some characters that might be involved in the next game. That's lovely. I'm so excited! I'm stoked.
02:01:46
Speaker
ah Also... Just like the first game, you can collect a bunch of stickers. The Mockingbirds. And they have a chart. They have a relationship chart. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They're all birds that are, like, part of a nineteen fifty s West Side Story-style drama. Everyone's, like, a greaser. It's so great. It's so quirky. And if you collect all of them, ah you get a ah you get one little, like, scene
02:02:19
Speaker
With the Mockingbirds. Oh, cute. Like, you get it you get a little Mockingbird cartoon. That's adorable. I love that. So, man, great game.
02:02:29
Speaker
I could talk about it forever. Thank you, folks, for listening to Save Your Game and listening to us
Podcast Future and Listener Engagement
02:02:38
Speaker
talk about this. And if you've played the game, feel free to reach out. We'd love to. I mean, there's so much more to talk about.
02:02:44
Speaker
We didn't even, like, get to the surface here. Like, I'm just, like, brimming Yeah. Is there anything big that you wanted to talk about before we go? Okay. Yeah. No, nothing big. No. um Well, guys, our schedule has been a little quirky, as you've noticed. I don't know when it's going to get back on track, but there are a bunch of games that came out this year already that we are stoked to play. Absolutely. And I think as we start getting through those games, we'll start...
02:03:13
Speaker
We'll release episodes on them. And, you know, who knows? Maybe here and there we will release some other shit. um Just sillier shit. Or, like we said, we made this promise and then we didn't do an episode for a month. But this is the year where we're going to dive into the fucking games that we've been ranking and never played. We've already done one. and We already did Astralogaster.
02:03:38
Speaker
Correct. But... It's also the year of the mermaid, apparently. it is the year of the mermaid. I love our new mermaid overlords. Yeah. Mermaid, there's a new demo for, um... Uh...
02:03:52
Speaker
Detective Grimoire. Yeah, yeah. is it Is that also called The Mermaid's Curse? No, The Mermaid Mask. The Mermaid Mask. The Mermaid's Curse and The Mermaid Mask. What if both of them end up on our 2025 best of list? I mean, this game absolutely is already. There's so little chance it doesn't, right? Yeah, very little chance. Oh, but Esoteric Ebb comes out fucking tomorrow.
02:04:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. um And then, of course, there's Perfect High Station yeah Station. know. We got to play that. There's the ah though the the what's it called? I'm just going to go look. Me too. And I like I'm clearly scrolling over it over and over again and just not see. It's like not kidding my eyeballs.
02:04:33
Speaker
Are you talking about what the fuck? Why is the page not loading? It's making this is making us look stupid. We look like adventures Postmodern Adventures. That's the dev. Postmodern Adventures is the dev and the game that he released already this year that we haven't played yet is... Dark Rites of Arkham?
02:04:53
Speaker
Yes! That's the one! Dark Rites of Arkham. Yay! Did it! Yeah, that's true. That's so true. Oh my god. You know, said this to you earlier, one of the only games I've ever was Nightmare Frames.
02:05:07
Speaker
Yeah. I fucking love that game. I felt like for a while that's all i was texting you was stuff about nightmare frames. That's true. TR-49 came out. Clue, Murdered by Death. we Yeah, there's...
02:05:21
Speaker
man already what this is going to be the rest of our lives and we're never going to catch up. Oh no. We're never going to play all the good games that come out ever again. bad for me because I have big plans on making pangolins out of clay. but Well, we have a lot of games that we are really excited for that we are going to, ah but as we finish them, we'll release episodes and again, we'll maybe release some episodes in the meantime. I'm probably going to cut that out because that's I already just said all that. um But,
02:05:54
Speaker
That said, ah we will be back soon. we're not We're not abandoning you, we promise. of course not. Never. We would never do that. and Never. We're going to make this game for this podcast forever until we die.
02:06:07
Speaker
an 800-year immortal.
02:06:10
Speaker
how i wish i was this is what i do with my time uh and also if you want i mean i'm at least very very active in the discord i know matt and and pat from mutant menace i know they pop in too so we're always talking about games we're always discussing them it's always hopping so you know if you're interested in that join our discord um and we'll be happy to chit chat more there And if you want to talk to us more directly, you can email us at mattandroses at gmail.com. And, ah you know, every now and then, a couple times a year, we do – we'll read your – and address your emails ah on air.
02:06:50
Speaker
Sounded like almost a threat. You can check us out. Also, check us out on Instagram at... mute Fucking Christ! Oh my god, he did you did it again! you got Mutant Menace on the mind. at SaveYourGamePodcast.
02:07:05
Speaker
And... Yeah, come back and join us ah you know sometime in the next week or two or three. Or four. but Not five. Definitely not five. that Hopefully not four. Maybe not three. Soon.
02:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, not three either. Come join us soon because as you guys know, podcasts is art. And art summer.