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Episode 83 - Cult Vacui
1 Playsin 7 hours
Lots of talk about drinks and convenience stores up top but I promise we talk about video games eventually! But if you're not here for talk about coffee, Wawa, and Food Truck driving/cooking game pitches, then why are you here at all??
Games Mentioned:
- Mina the Hollower
- The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time
- Tunic
- Hypnospace Outlaw
- Subversive Memories
- Cult Vacui
- Dreams in the Witch
- The Last Door
- Excavation of Hob's Barrow
SPOILER SECTION: 1:14:30 - 1:21:24
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/saveyourgamepodcast
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Transcript
Humorous Beverage Debates
00:00:00
Speaker
Matt, Matt. Yes, Matt. Roses. why Why is it that, so coffee, right? Coffee has water in it. Just like tea, right? Tea and coffee. it's basically we're well No, this is going somewhere. Okay. You know what it feels like it's going somewhere to me?
00:00:19
Speaker
It's always going somewhere. So it's basically what we're talking about here is like bean water and murky leaf water. Right? I would say that. Coffee and tea are bean and leaf water. Yes. Murky leaf water. Because I don't like tea. So I need to like insult it. Okay. Well, but coffee is definitely more murky tea You know what? I didn't ask, but maybe. So if that's true, why can I not hydrate with coffee?
00:00:51
Speaker
but ah How much of a answer do you want here? I just want some justification in my thoughts. Like I feel that I should be able to hydrate with coffee and not just water because there is water in coffee. Listen, I know it's a diuretic. Yes. I know I'm to pee this shit out.
00:01:14
Speaker
Yes. But not right away. Okay, do you know you're not getting hydrated by the piss in your body? Do you know that having a lot of piss in your body does not mean you're hydrated?
00:01:26
Speaker
Yes, it does. Totally does. Okay, so you, so, all right. There's two things your body does with water. Either it incorporates it into your cells, right?
00:01:39
Speaker
And then it eventually gets, you know, gets flushed out into into piss. Or sort of like it it doesn't and it goes straight to piss.
00:01:52
Speaker
Or it's sweat, right? Or you sweat it out, right? Well, yes. Okay. So that would be in that first category. If your body is using the water in its in your cells, it'll either turn to piss or blood or um or sweat.
Survival Myths: Drinking Urine
00:02:10
Speaker
But if your body doesn't use the water, it just turns straight to piss. So if you if you're drinking a diuretic and you're... Actually, this is one i'm not I'm not clear of. I don't know if that meet i don't know if a diuretic... Actually, i think it maybe probably works more like I'm about to say than what I was saying. I think a diuretical... It'll still use that water in your cells, but it'll so it'll it'll make your water your cells process all the water that's already in them faster.
00:02:41
Speaker
So you're losing water faster than you're gaining it. So if you're full of piss, your body's not going to be like... You know, I'm pretty thirsty.
00:02:52
Speaker
I'm just going to go down to the bladder and get some of the some of the stuff we already used and pull it back in. I'm just going to cycle it back through. Okay. I think – so, i don't know.
00:03:06
Speaker
Hopefully we don't have any biologists listening to the show. So what you're saying is I've been dehydrated for the last 20 years of my life. Now, you could – piss out your piss and then drink your piss and you're going to get a little bit of hydration from that.
00:03:21
Speaker
Right. Cause isn't that what survivalists do? Um, I don't know anything. I don't know. I don't know. But I know that piss is not completely,
00:03:32
Speaker
ah um, nutrientless piss is hydrating. You could be drinking your own piss. Um, What you're saying is i have a better chance at fixing my terrible dehydration problem with my own pee than I do with bean water.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yes, cause you're because the bean water is going to – you're going to lose more water than you gain. Where piss, you're not going to gain a lot of water, right? You're gonna you're not going to gain very much water.
00:04:03
Speaker
There's not a lot of usable water in your piss, but there's some.
00:04:10
Speaker
Before you know. You know you know that that's like why um a lot of animals eat their own other bathroom stuff. Okay, we need to stop. I didn't think it would go this far. Because there's still some, right? There's still some nutrients in there.
00:04:28
Speaker
ha And so you just keep pushing it. You just keep going through it over and over and over. Are you glad you started this conversation? Yeah, so you could... every Every time you use the bathroom in any anyway you could just ingest it again. ah And survive. See, human-centered horror movie, it's a nature documentary. Hold on, I don't know that you'll survive.
00:04:56
Speaker
I think it's-
00:05:15
Speaker
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to i Save Your Game. I'm your host, Matt Allcamp, and I have i have another host here. You got to give her a second. She's drinking her own piss, and there she is. It's pushing up roses. I'm just trying to hydrate. i feel i just You have to excuse me. i'm a little traumatized. I just learned today that coffee has not been hydrating me, and I've been dehydrated for all of my life. Now, I'll say this.
00:05:44
Speaker
I think... you could... i think it's it's more like...
Nostalgia and Grocery Store Chains
00:05:50
Speaker
This is the thing with alcohol and coffee. is like We say they're more dehydrating than they are hydrating. I don't think that's entirely true. i think it's like...
00:05:59
Speaker
I think it's like you are still being hydrated just so, so minimally. Yeah. I mean, it's better than nothing. I think that's how it works. Like if you were in a hot summer's day in Chicago, which it is, like a cold coffee would be better than like nothing.
00:06:17
Speaker
I believe so. I believe that in in truth, and this goes against like, um I think this goes against popular wisdom here but I think I think I've read before that like that's actually a little bit misunderstood and in truth if you were dying of thirst if you were if you were shriveling up in the desert and somebody walked by and dropped a beer you would be better off drinking that beer. Right. It wouldn't be like, but if I drink that beer, I'll be more dehydrated. No, you, that's liquid. Put it in your body. Put it in your body right fucking now. And same with coffee.
00:06:56
Speaker
But, I think you'll still die of dehydration if you're trying to get across that. if you have If you have 20 gallons of coffee of coffee yeah and you're trying to cross the desert with that, you're going to probably die of dehydration because you're getting so little hydration from it.
00:07:15
Speaker
Right. I'm glad we had this talk. Me too. What if a camel stored other stuff in their hump? Like coffee? Like coffee or beer or juicy juice.
00:07:29
Speaker
Juice? Oh my god, Juicy Juice? I don't remember Juicy Juice. I don't know if this is a good, I don't know that that's like a great comedy. We're such millennials. i don't know that that's a great comedy. Well, you know, here's the thing. Here's the thing about Juicy Juice, Roses. Juicy Juice is actually great. It is 100% juice.
00:07:46
Speaker
It is? Yeah. So when you go to the store and you're looking at juices and there's like, maybe you see a more mature juice, like ocean spray. Ocean spray. Cranberry. If you go look, well, cranberry is actually pretty good. for it But if you look at it, you're looking you're looking at ocean spray cranberry. And let me pull it up. Let me pull up. Let me pull up a little ocean spray cranberry. It's like filled with a like preservatives, right?
00:08:12
Speaker
I don't know what it's filled with. I i have no idea. But it is it is not. They're probably 100%
Birthday Wish: Money or Vegetables?
00:08:20
Speaker
juice. But it is not 100% juice.
00:08:23
Speaker
But I'm looking at an image that says ocean spray 100% juice. Really? I'm looking at an image here that says ocean spray 100% What? What?
00:08:37
Speaker
Oh, okay. There is 100% juice version of ocean spray. It looks like. Okay. But not all ocean spray is 100% juice. However, look up juicy juice.
00:08:47
Speaker
Right. I did. it does pay 100%. All juicy juice is 100% juice. And you know why know this. Why? Were you dehydrated? No. When we were on ah WIC, when, when,
00:09:00
Speaker
um when My son's mom was pregnant. We were on WIC. And one of the things we could buy with our WIC vouchers was Juicy Juice because it was 100% juice.
00:09:14
Speaker
Is it good? Like I've had Juicy Juice. It's been a while since I've had Juicy Juice, but is good? It's sweet. I usually, if I have Juicy Juice, which I buy, I buy juice occasionally. And generally I'll buy store brand 100% juice, like apple juice or whatever. But if I buy Juicy Juice...
00:09:32
Speaker
I'll water it down a little bit because I'm an adult. I'm a sophisticated man. But it's it's very sweet. Like, when was the last time you just had juice of any kind?
00:09:45
Speaker
um It's been a while. It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a really long time. Damn it. Sorry. ju ah Juice is so sweet. It is And I don't know how I used to just like pound that shit down all the time. I think apple juice, though, is like, because apples are a lot of water, apples are really hydrating, you guys. Don't be like me. Don't don't just drink coffee. Have an apple. um I think apples are a little less sweet.
00:10:13
Speaker
personally. So, it depends what... I think it depends what kind of... So, if I buy just regular-ass apple juice from Giant, and I buy Giant brand, Giant apple juice, it's kind of like... It's it's way too sweet.
00:10:26
Speaker
And kind of have to water it down. yeah But... But... There's – if I buy Giant Brand – what's called? Honeycrisp apple juice.
00:10:37
Speaker
m Perfect. Nice.
Convenience Store Showdown
00:10:40
Speaker
If I buy Giant Brand – what was the other kind? They have a bunch of different types of apple juice types. but I had a complete Sunday. Let's go to john on the i cancel this right podcast and we'll go to John. i restore I don't know if I'll make it to you tonight. but what what's your What's your grocery store in Chicago?
00:11:01
Speaker
Jewel. Jewel. Gotta go to the Jewels. Go to the Jewels. The Jewels. Yeah, it's called Jewel. and Okay.
00:11:12
Speaker
we I mean, we have a bunch of different grocery stores here, but one of them is Giant. and Yeah, I've heard of that. Then there's Acme, which rules less. Wegmans, which is everybody's Yeah, I've heard of Wegmans. But it's like... have like a lion? Is there something called lion? Food lion is to the south of Yeah, food lion. Yeah. I don't have a food lion where I live, but there's food lions in like Maryland, I think, is where they start. Maryland and Delaware and Virginia.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, North Carolina has a food lions. North Carolina's food lions. What about – you have Mariano's? What? Oh, man, I love Mariano's.
00:11:52
Speaker
And the Jewels. The thing is we have Wawa, which – man, so I just got back from a nationwide road trip. and Yeah, I'm mad at you, by the way.
00:12:06
Speaker
What's that? Why? Because i wore new glasses when you came to visit me and you didn't even say anything. You even noticed. You didn't say anything. Oh, hey, nice glasses.
00:12:16
Speaker
I'm not wearing them now. Damn it. I'm wearing my hexagons now. So I tried. i went to a Buc-ee's. Okay. It sucked.
00:12:29
Speaker
But people love Buc-ee's. It was horrible. It was horrible. It it was it was awful. But people love it. Everything there sucked. And if you eat meat, you might like it a little more. But fuck, dude. There was like 80 types of sandwiches and all of them had meat on them. now There was not one. there was not They were like, we've thought of every sandwich. And it's like a beef sandwich, a beef and bacon sandwich, a beef and bacon and chicken sandwich, a beef and bacon and chicken and ham sandwich, a beef and bacon and chicken and ham. and ah
00:13:00
Speaker
What's another meat? ah Fish? Fish sandwich. I don't think they had that. um And the one thing their um their fucking tiny little beaver imaginations can't dream up is a single type of sandwich without a meat in it.
00:13:16
Speaker
my god. Just do the cheese. That's surprising. Just put the cheese on. Yeah. and that's That's surprising to me because veggie sandwiches with like cheese or Mediterranean sandwiches are pretty popular. Yeah.
00:13:30
Speaker
yeah That's crazy. um And most – what I also found out is that I'm like – I am um spoiled with Wawa because at Wawa, you make your own fucking sandwich. Wawa's got everything. Wawa's great. We don't have one. You go up to that touchscreen. You put exactly what you want on your sandwich. You can make any kind of fucking sandwich you want. It's your choice. You get to make the sandwich.
00:13:56
Speaker
No one can tell you what – You can't be on your sandwich. You put it on
Muppets Noir Comic Discovery
00:14:00
Speaker
there. we sponsored by Wawa? What's happening? And what we have in here in Pennsylvania, we have the the the less good Wawa type, which is Sheetz, which is like a Wawa, but kind of like the shitty Wawa. It's like a Wawa, but it's shitty. And Sheetz, you also make your own sandwich. You go up to the little thing. You press little buttons. You make it. so you You tell them what you want on your sandwich. Yeah. Yeah. It sucks. It's worse.
00:14:29
Speaker
It's like the ingredients are never fresh and so and all this sucks. It's like the Subway of Wawa. It's the Subway of Wawa. The Subway of Wawa. So, but Bucky's, did all of them.
00:14:43
Speaker
Loves, well, Loves is more of like a travel stop and that's in like every state. But Loves, yeah stop loves I stopped at a I stopped at a... yeah ah What's that new one that's been popping up all over the place lately?
00:14:58
Speaker
I don't know. I've only seen Bucky's. Quick Trip. I didn't stop at a Quick Trip. I didn't stop at a Stewart's Shops. Oh, Rudders. Rudders has been invading Pennsylvania. And Rudders is horrible. Rudders is like heard of it if Sheetz was worse.
00:15:14
Speaker
And it's like Sheetz is already the bad one. I don't know, man. Sheet's menu looks pretty good. And then there's... i don't i don't know what the other one... Like, Stucky's? There's another one. Stucky's the one from... Stucky's is Sam and Max! Sam and Max. So what is... Stucky's is based on... yes um it's based on something, right? I think it might be based on Bucky's, but there's another thing.
00:15:37
Speaker
There's another one that's similar to it. That's like... so It's in Texas. Okay. Texas... um No, no, no. I think you're right because Salmon Max is Snuckies. Okay, so yes, there's Stuckies. There's a Stuckies. Stuckies was a little better than Bucky's, but not by – because they had breakfast sandwiches at Stuckies. I could just go, like, get an egg yeah egg egg and cheese on a biscuit, and that was good. Sounds good. um But Stuckies also sold, like, 90% of what it had there were things in the shape of Texas or things in the shape of guns.
00:16:16
Speaker
so so Or Texas in the shape of a gun. so so like So like, no thank you, Stuckies. Stuckies, please. Stuckies apparently has a pecan root beer, which kind of sounds kind of good to me. i don't know. I'll do that. Stuckies has pecan root beer?
00:16:35
Speaker
i did There's an image on the Google Images. I want to try pecan root beer. Holy shit. sounds good. But ah like here's the thing. So i I knew by the time I got back to Pennsylvania, I was like, all right, nothing nothing in this entire great nation of ours rivals Wawa.
00:16:57
Speaker
That's probably true. And then today i went into a Wawa. Okay. And oh my God, I was right. It's so good.
00:17:08
Speaker
I thought you were going to give me some hard news there for a second. Oh my God. oh my God. Because I had gotten smoothies on the road been like, block ah what are these? Yeah. Yeah. Smoothie at Wawa and you're like, oh, it tastes like the fruit that's supposed to be in it.
00:17:26
Speaker
Honestly, I can't I kind of like can't wait to go because I want to get out
Gaming Highlights: Mina the Hollower
00:17:30
Speaker
there for your birthday. Which I don't want to like dox your birthday, but it's like coming up. It's coming up soon. And Matt came to my birthday. going to go to this. Yeah. It's in June, y'all. If you want to wish a 30th. I'm sorry. Did you say 30th?
00:17:44
Speaker
or fortieth um in thirtieth i'm sorry did you say thirtieth Pretty sure you said 30th. Come in June. In June. Send me a gift.
00:17:54
Speaker
Send me a gift. Send a gift send me $1,000. Buy him a vegetable sandwich. Buy me a vegetable. Send me vegetables and $1,000. Send me $1,000. I'll spend it all. I promise. if i If you guys are like, this is only for vegetables, I will i will save that $1,000 throughout the year. are lying. will spend it slowly on vegetables. You are lying. because you not if find them No, no, no. You're going to buy donuts. Don't even fib. Then I'll buy donuts with my money. And that $1,000 will be my vegetable fund.
00:18:28
Speaker
The vegetable. Please contribute to Matt's birthday vegetable fund, which I will be making on GoFundMe. So stay tuned. We are... We're making jokes here, and what we should what I know from our fans is that when we jokingly ask them to give us things that are unreasonable, they just will do it. It's because they're sweet. please, please, don't give me $1,000 for vegetables. That's I'll get you vegetable for your birthday. they give it to I'll take it, but...
00:18:59
Speaker
But so now now I'm kind of looking forward to going to Wawa and you've hyped it up kind of a lot. And now it's kind of like, oh, I have expectations about Wawa here. In truth, it's just going to feel like like a like a a ah a deli and a nice. They have coffee, right? And a nice. Yes, they have coffee and it's good coffee. Bean water. But you've seen me.
00:19:22
Speaker
ah You've seen me recently and you know how excited I get over nothing. Their coffee is good for gas like gas station or or or or, you know.
00:19:33
Speaker
Convenience store. Convenience store coffee. Yeah. Like it's better than your average of those. But it's yeah not as good as like coffee shop coffee. I'm still going to be excited. Their deli is better than literally any – convenience store ever but it's not as good as a deli I'm still excited for it man what if I like go to your birthday I'm like hey I'm gonna ditch you for Wawa I'm trying well I'd be like well then come back in five minutes you don't stay at Wawa no I live here now actually I really like it here why are you spending time at a Wawa no quality time you go in you get your stuff and you leave it's not what I do like to like look at my surroundings
00:20:15
Speaker
That's what you can do when you get here. See how long you can stay in a while. Wait, are you leaving? are Are you leaving me at the Wawa? Yeah. Is that the challenge? going in, get my stuff, and leave. Oh, man. And I'm going – and then go enjoy it. And then you text me when you're like, when you're like I'm ready to leave the Wawa. i've I've stayed here as long as I possibly can. Listen, you know what would happen? Just just based on knowing myself for a really long time. You end up getting a job.
00:20:46
Speaker
yeah
00:20:49
Speaker
Oh, not just a job, my friend. I end up like being the owner. I own this Wawa now. or Or I do like a meet and greet, a Pushing of Roses meet and greet. And when you come back to Wawa, there's like 200 people there. they're like, do not do this this. We are a convenience store. the whole Our whole business model is you get in and get out. We're all dressed up as Jessica Fletcher. It'll be the greatest thing ever.
00:21:15
Speaker
Anyway, I'm excited. This is a podcast about video games, obviously. Obviously. Very clearly, and we've we've we've proven this. But I like talking.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, so that's what we'll continue to do, and we'll talk about video games. Right.
00:21:33
Speaker
Well, thank you for inviting me back to talk about King's Quest V. That's really nice of you. I can't wait. all right. Have you been playing King's Quest V lately? i've always been I've always been playing King's Quest. I'm playing it You're always bit of King's Quest V in your mind.
00:21:46
Speaker
i would say That's not even a lie. but That's why that's hilarious to me. But since we've talked about this, since we don't always play games every week, we thought we'd open this thing. and we've just talked about convenience stores for 10 minutes. but Like way too long?
00:22:04
Speaker
We thought we'd open it we open these episodes with more just kind of like, what are you enjoying in case you've been yeah watching a show or a movie or reading a book?
00:22:15
Speaker
A book. But video games get priority. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So have you been enjoying lately? Um, well, you and i went to a comic book store not long ago, Ellie Cat Comics in Chicago, and I found the greatest thing ever, which is Muppets noir comic book.
00:22:36
Speaker
And I got like super stoked for it. So I bought the first three editions and it's like the best. It is so cute. I really like it. But I've been told that I I don't know if you remember this or not. There's like four issues only.
00:22:51
Speaker
yeah it's just Yeah, it's a limited series. How can that be? It's called a mini-series. I don't understand. Why? You know some stories – you know what? Sometimes you go buy a book, right? And one sometimes a book is 200 pages, and it tells the whole story, right?
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah. And then sometimes a book is only 80 pages, but it still tells a story a full story. Yeah, but your point – Okay, so they this is a story that's told in four issues instead of more than that.
00:23:26
Speaker
That's stupid. Well, right you heard it here first, folks. Pushing up roses and declare all short stories are stupid. Stupid. Absolutely stupid. Short stories, miniseries, one shots. They're all stupid.
00:23:43
Speaker
Fucking stupid. Movies because they're not TV shows. Yeah, stupid. Mm-hmm. um No, honestly, I don't agree with that. I love – I don't care if if things are short. But this is like one of the more cuter things that I have come across.
00:24:01
Speaker
ah I don't read like a lot. i'm I'm not anti-comic. I do like comics, but more passively than you, I think. um Like I have my things that I'm big fans of, right, in terms of like um like graphic novels. and kind I don't know. I like The Crow a lot. Is that a graphic novel or a comic? I don't really know and I don't really care. It's comic.
00:24:21
Speaker
Okay, fine. They hold hands, I guess. Well, a graphic novel, okay. ah A comic book is a is a is a... I mean, they're all comic books.
00:24:33
Speaker
It's not just that they hold hands. They're all comic books. But the word graphic novel means you have a story told in comic book form that is one...
00:24:49
Speaker
like one paperbacks right like it is a self-contained it is not serialized you have one book that is told but the crow was single issues and right you know it gets collected into paperbacks but that's a collection of issues do you know who roger langridge roger langridge no He's the cartoonist behind the Muppets comic
Meta-Narrative Game Exploration
00:25:20
Speaker
and people really like him and he's like a veteran of comics.
00:25:26
Speaker
Okay. why don't you know this comic book boy come on oh yeah i know i know every single person who's ever drawn a comic book yeah it's not like i mean i'm sure this guy does good work but this guy's not like a famous a well-known comic book whatever anyway i've been enjoying that i'm enjoying muppets uh muppets noir the comic uh which i highly recommend it is super cute and it's pretty and i love the muppets and rizzo the rats in it and wow what that's my favorite muppet
00:26:04
Speaker
uh what else have i been i'm trying now now i'm trying to think of anything else i've been doing you know muppet uh there's been show comic books since i know but this one i think like this one's noir though okay this one's special There is a series called ah The Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson.
00:26:26
Speaker
Also by Roger Langridge. Oh, okay. There's a series called The Four Seasons, and each book represents another season. That's also by Robert Langridge. Oh, wow. It looks like all these are by Robert Langridge. I think I might have this one, ah Meet the Muppets, number one.
00:26:47
Speaker
i think have that. That sounds so cute. haven't read it, but... Yeah, he's done a bunch of miniseries. And he did ah ah a Pigs in Space one-shot. Oh, Pigs in Space!
00:26:57
Speaker
ah So exciting. Yeah, I love all things Muppets. So I've been enjoying that. okay i I can't remember what I've been watching. I don't know why. i think I've just been watching... This is so stupid. I've been watching the Great Food Truck Race episodes from the Food Network. Yeah.
00:27:18
Speaker
But like I wanted to see so I watched a very recent season like a modern season right I'm like okay that's pretty yeah this is modern this is what it is I decided to go back and watch like a really early season to see how much it changed and it's wild reality T I mean. quote reality TV, it's more competition show TV.
00:27:37
Speaker
It is strange the things that we used to put on television. Like, I don't understand. Like, there's all these mini games that people had to do. yeah ah Like, like Double Dare style mini games in a food truck competition was so strange. Everyone is yelling at each other. There's so much drama. i'm like, oh, no wonder we changed like this whole thing. and ah But like I love here's the thing about me. i love food competition shows. Okay.
00:28:07
Speaker
I'll watch all I've watched every Gordon Ramsay competition show ever, ever. I love them. um And so I am it I am like mildly enjoying enjoying food truck race. a Food truck race. And it is like how fast you can make the food. it is not.
00:28:26
Speaker
You have to race food trucks. No, it's not food truck Oh, that is a good show. That would be a great show. Okay. would be a great Nintendo 64 game. It is a car racing show, but you also have to prepare food. and oh my God. All right. No, this is a game. You're right. This is a game. Okay. So you have to you are in a race with a bunch of other food trucks. so in the So there's half of the game.
00:28:51
Speaker
And maybe it's an asynchronous multiplayer, right? Like maybe this is like a new friend slop game or whatever. Okay. So half the game, you you you're driving the truck and you're racing other food trucks from a start point to an end point.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah. But there are there are, in the back is like a um overcooked style cooking game.
00:29:15
Speaker
And you have to be preparing food for customers along the way. Wow. And if you don't have their food ready by the time you reach that customer, then you got to stop your car.
00:29:27
Speaker
You got to stop your car and finish making the food before you keep going. So if you're playing single player, you set your car to like – you're like You're like driving, and then you're like, okay, we're on a straightaway for a little bit.
00:29:40
Speaker
I can set this to cruise control, run in the back and chop onions before I hit that turn up there. I almost missed the turn. And you yeah. or We are geniuses. Why doesn't anyone hire us to make games? it is asynchronous where you have where like you can trade like one person's driving the food truck the other person is oh yeah yeah the food in the back and then if the person in the back runs behind like is getting behind then you might have to be like okay i'll stop the car and i'll come back and help you cook the finish this burger or whatever
00:30:17
Speaker
Hey, you want to watch next food truck race with me so we can get inspired to write our new game? All we have now is ah learn anything about making video games.
00:30:31
Speaker
Love it. so that that' it's Also, okay this is the first time that I've mentioned this on the pod, but I picked up a part-time job at a pottery painting studio, and I'm really enjoying it.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yay. Yay. I'm actually really good at it, you guys. i am good with people. ah Against all odds. again i Contrary to popular belief, I'm very good with people.
00:30:58
Speaker
Wow. That's awesome. Yeah. And yeah I'm learning how to, you know, do the kilns and I glaze and i help people with their pots, which is all I really want in life.
00:31:14
Speaker
just to help people with their pots do you need help with your pots i can do that no i don't i don't well i don't have any pots i need help with and ah i don't think i need any more pots oh i see i see so i don't but well hey if you want to help me with my pots I can't even pretend. i don't have any pots. I'm sorry.
00:31:42
Speaker
I can't even pretend to be interested in what Sarah is interested in It's not about interest. It's that I don't have any pots to help you with. Well, I will make you pots. And then I will help you with them.
00:31:55
Speaker
This is lot of work. If anybody wants any aftermarket secondhand. Hey! What?
Subversive Memories: A Survival Horror Experience
00:32:01
Speaker
You can't hear this. You can't hear this. My hand is over the microphone. If anybody who wants any secondhand pots, just get at me.
00:32:09
Speaker
I'm about to apparently have a lot of pots that I don't need. can't believe this. What have you been enjoying, Matt? um So I've been on my road trip, so I haven't like sat down with much media, but I did play a little bit of a couple different games. um So i'm just goingnna so i'll just go I'll just go over a couple of the things I've been playing. um And I think the we just looked it up, and I think the... um What do you call it?
00:32:44
Speaker
I think the embargo ends on both of our two on two of these before this episode is out. So I can talk about, uh, I can talk about all three. Yeah.
00:32:54
Speaker
Um, first I've been playing Mina, the hollower. Holy shit. Nice. Um, this is the new game by yacht club games who did, a shovel night and it's got a similar sort of aesthetic. It's got that kind of like, um,
00:33:12
Speaker
ah Nintendo, like NES kind of looking in graph pixel art graphic style, really colorful, um very cute.
00:33:24
Speaker
It is really cute. Really, really cute. And you play ah Mina. Mina. who is a hollower she is like she's like a little mouse you get out you you you're on your way back to this kingdom and i guess you invented their form of generator their form of electricity and they need you to come back and fix them something's gone wrong so you were on your way back when your ship gets attacked by a big monster And i grab a weapon and you start and you have to fight your way to the town amidst it being taken over. um
00:34:01
Speaker
And I'm not much further than that. Then the sort of world opens up and you have like a a big map you can explore. um it' It's not, it's kind of Zelda-like in that it's top down.
00:34:17
Speaker
It's, um... It kind of allows you to go wherever you want. There's some items. There's some things that are gated by trinkets or items that you find. And, you know, there's areas you can't access unless you have that proper item. There there is
00:34:42
Speaker
There aren't unique levels like there are like there is in Shovel Knight, but I believe that. But sort of like traveling through different paths is very linear, almost act-like levels. Yeah. Which is interesting. And i believe there are dungeons.
00:35:00
Speaker
um Oh, cool and so far, it's just, it's difficult. There's a lot of secrets hidden everywhere. um the the sort of the way Mina works is you have a weapon that you can use like a sword or ah you have like an axe on a chain or something and then you have a sidearm which changes so you can get like axes that you can throw or you can get like um at one point you get an umbrella that allows you to hover in the air when you jump or you can throw it in front of you and deflects projectiles some of these screenshots ah make me think about Chrono Trigger
00:35:43
Speaker
Which I guess you already kind of confirmed because you said, yeah, looks a little bit like Super Nintendo era. I think it's more, I feel like it's more Nintendo. Oh, Nintendo, Nintendo? It feels like it's missing, yeah, feels like it's missing, it's like, you know, 8-bit rather than 16-bit or whatever. Yeah, probably. um I don't know, i I don't know how many bit it is, but that's that's how it strikes me.
00:36:07
Speaker
And... and ah the in The one cool thing about it is even though it's top down, there's a lot of verticality to it. There are... You can jump.
00:36:21
Speaker
And so you'll have to jump over pits and you'll jump over enemy attacks. There's enemies that hover. um A lot of your weapons will have an arc to them. So you... Even though, again, even though it's top down, you're kind of aiming upwards in a way. You're thinking about it on like vertical levels. yeah And...
Cult Vacui: Escape Room Mechanics
00:36:40
Speaker
If you hold your jump button, because this is what being a hollower means, if you hold your jump button, you dive under the ground. and you can And you can kind of move and dig under the ground for a short period of time. Which is really cool. Like, it's a really cool mechanic for fighting people, right? Because somebody yeah thrusts a sword at you. Do you want to try and just jump to the side? or do you have enough time to jump underground, pass underneath the person, pop up on the other side, and hit them with your weapon? Right.
00:37:17
Speaker
So, again, really cool, really fluid. Also, difficult as hell. Like, I'm having a lot of trouble with it. I expected – if it was by Shovel Knight Company, I expected it to be a little difficult.
00:37:30
Speaker
but Yeah. Yeah. um And there's, like, a level-up mechanic. There's, you know – There's a lot of townsfolk to talk to. Yeah. you get You collect bones as you go, and you can either bone up, which just means like a applyy applying bones to your stats to level them up, or you can use them as like money. The bones are their money, actually.
00:37:53
Speaker
And... That's Mina the Hollower. I'm not going to say too much more about it because I'm not very far into it. And yeah i am sure every podcast this week, I'm sure every single video game podcast this week is talking about Mina the Hollower. there's gonna be I bet there's going to be like Let's Plays and streams and stuff coming out too.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah. So if you listen other video game podcasts than ours, first of all, how dare you? Yeah, what are you doing? Second of all, you're hearing about Mina the Hollower this week. I guarantee it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:24
Speaker
Another game that just came out that i was I was fortunate enough to play, and I can't say too much about it because I'm writing a review on this one, um but ah that I was fortunate enough to get a preview copy of is this game called The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time.
00:38:47
Speaker
Amazing. Best name. The premise is exactly what it sounds like. There are two people who... are remaking... They were a big fan of this RPG and they wanted to make a game, so they decided they would remake the greatest RPG of all time. And this really is seemingly based on like Chrono Trigger. Yeah, yeah, it does look like Chrono Trigger.
00:39:12
Speaker
And this is a fictional RPG. This is an RPG that never existed. yeah and they are... They realized that the license was in limbo, so they just decided to make an RPG. And somehow, posted on Steam was the ending of this game.
00:39:34
Speaker
And not only are you do you you just like load in... And it's it's kind of funny. When you load the game, you get 21 of 23 achievements unlocked because you've already played the rest of the game.
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah. ah you Like you start the game, you you click load or continue or whatever, and you're at the the final boss fight, but there's no way you can beat this boss fight because it's gated by all this knowledge that you don't have. And much like the deduction games that are so popular right now or Tunic or even like Blueprints, all the knowledge you need is sort of in the game.
00:40:17
Speaker
Yeah. So you lose this boss fight and you'll start back over at the beginning of this like final castle. And as you do you start finding pages like in Tunic, you find pages to the guidebook.
00:40:35
Speaker
And these, you can look at those to give you hints. Now, again, I don't want to get much more into it than that. Um, because I will be writing a review on this, but this game gets very fucking meta.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, very much so. Very fast. Yeah. Do you want to tell them about the one part part of it that I played with you? Yeah. So, ah yeah, when Matt was visiting, ah because, you know, games are going to come up in conversation. Look, you put matt and I in a space, and there's going to be game talk that's going to happen. And you're like, yeah, come look at this game. i'm like, all right. And you booted that up, and...
00:41:15
Speaker
you she kind of showed me the mechanics and kind of some of the meta stuff but i didn't realize how meta it went until you're like let's call this phone number that's odd down to phone yeah yeah there's like a phone number on like a little item in the game im like okay so we call it and i'm like oh my god i this can't be i hope this is not someone's real number like that would be We were so so afraid somebody would pick up. I was just like, I felt like I froze for a second, just waiting for this phone to ring. um
00:41:47
Speaker
But it was tied to the game. And they had like a little meta. And you could even leave a voice message, which I think you did. I think it's safe to say this.
00:41:58
Speaker
They said...
00:42:01
Speaker
We won't be too specific, but they said something like, please stop playing this game right now. I do not know how you got your hands on it, but please, this is, that we've worked hard on this and yeah somebody's ruining it all. Please. Because so something the premise of this game is like, one of the one of the mysteries here is, how am I playing this game?
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah. Why am I only playing the end of it? um Did... the developers actually published this game. isn And again, I don't want to say much more than that, but it's interesting. I feel like it could easily, and i I don't necessarily think this is where it's going, but I i think it could easily be a horror game.
00:42:47
Speaker
You know what i'm saying? Right, right. There's like some kind of other meta mystery to this and it's like it's like something scary. But yeah it's it's yeah, I think it's actually really charming. You guys know that we talk about meta things in video games. We don't always like it because it can seem just a little cheap or shoehorned. But when it's like got that mystery to it...
00:43:10
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, there's something different about it. I liked the i liked what you showed me. Yeah, i don't I don't like when a game just sort of winks at you yeah as its meta narrative. Don't be winking at me. Don't hit on me, game.
00:43:23
Speaker
But this game, yeah, no, it it it breaks containment, right? like it Yeah. it It's like, it's not,
00:43:34
Speaker
it is, it's it's sort of telling you that it, The fact that you're playing it is part of the story. Yes. Yeah. um It's Steam page is part of the story. The website that the Steam page links to is part of the story. So in that in that sense, it's like it's a bit of an ARG.
00:43:55
Speaker
Yeah. um Which I don't always like ARG elements in my ah adventure games. Right. because number one, I have a hard time with them, and number two, I don't like alt-tabbing. Well, I wanted to stay in the fucking game.
00:44:13
Speaker
But something about this is working. It's not... It's wearing its influences really on its sleeve. like there's a There's a character in the game that's wearing a tunic shirt. Yes, yes, there is. You're like, okay, all right. that Not to put too fine a point on it, huh, buddy? Have you have you played Hypnospace Outlaw?
00:44:35
Speaker
I have not. it It kind of gave me some vibes of that, Hypnospace Outlaw. I feel like there's there was some meta some meta stuff, or a lot of meta stuff, if i if i remember correctly.
00:44:47
Speaker
That's what I understand about Hypnospace Outlaw, but isn't Hypnospace Outlaw, all that stuff is still in the game, right? Like there is a- Yes, I think so. Like you don't have to tab out of the application. I don't, I don't, honestly, don't remember. Okay. Because it's been, I played it when it came out. So that was quite a long time ago now.
00:45:08
Speaker
um It's just like a similar vibe, I think, that I got. But you're right. This is going to, um yeah, it asks you to do things outside of the game. Like get on your phone and call this a random number.
00:45:22
Speaker
oh it does. Okay. Okay. No, i'm saying that but I'm saying that's what this game does. i don't think that's what Hypnospace does. Yeah. So, you know, i'm I like it. i don't i don't know
00:45:38
Speaker
i don't know that I love, love, love it. But I like it so far, and I'm i'm interested to – I'm stuck. I should also say I'm hopelessly Oh, okay.
00:45:50
Speaker
But, you know, we'll we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Yeah. The last game that I want to talk about here before we talk about our big game for this episode is a game called Subversive Memories. Mm-hmm.
00:46:06
Speaker
um I think I saw it. ah This was a recommendation by Casey Explosion. Oh, it's a survival horror. And it is a survival horror game built around just like the concept of memory. And you play a girl who's sort of like...
00:46:26
Speaker
you are going to this sort of secret kind of black site facility. um It's very PS1 style graphics. Yeah. yeah ah It's like, which is obviously the big trend right now in horror games. A lot of people like that. Maybe it's even like,
00:46:47
Speaker
that trend is even maybe a little bit past already. Right. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. so um But ah so maybe maybe this is catching like the tail end of that trend, but you, you don't get a gun. You don't get any, you don't get any weapons. You get a flashlight and you find battery around and throughout this facility are these shadows of of people scary
00:47:20
Speaker
you see so they're invisible people and you see their shadows and the way that you defeat them is by flashing your flashlight at them and each flash uses a bit of battery um And they can attack you and you can die and whatever. But yeah the bulk of this game is you're wandering around this facility in the dark with a flashlight um and finding documents.
00:47:52
Speaker
And basically you're just running into a series of locked doors, right? So like... um The doors are either unlocked with keys you find or with, um like, knowledge. Like, um ah you're guessing at, not guessing, you're you're trying to figure out...
00:48:13
Speaker
number combinations or letter combinations or whatever, like combination locks, yeah um to get deeper into this facility and to find more documents. And each document ah reveals a little bit more about the story. The story seems fairly simple, but it is an interesting idea about...
00:48:32
Speaker
um it's kind of the thesis of the game i'd say is sort of like the political is personal and the personal is political and it seems to be telling a story about the way that um governments subvert one another um you know, the way that, say, the U.S. will overthrow a government in South America um as, like, a a secret operation, um but that these things can sometimes have a personal cost for people. um
00:49:17
Speaker
And it tells that also through, like, There's a monster. Right? Like, there's supernatural stuff here, too. Is it scary? haven't been scared, but it is... There's, like, there's spookiness to it, and there's some thrilling moments. i I think if you're really sensitive to jump scares, there's some sort of light jump scares in the game, but...
00:49:47
Speaker
i don't I think it's going to be difficult to be scared by this game. I think more you're just going to be a little spooked. Fair. um Yeah. ah It's called Subversive Memories.
00:50:00
Speaker
It's... i'm liking and I'm liking it a lot. Nice. um I am also stuck in that game. Oh. What's going on, Matt? There's a lot of backtracking, and some of the hints are not super direct. And I think it was, I think it maybe was written in Spanish and then translated to English, so that might be part it. Oh, okay. Yeah.
00:50:24
Speaker
But...
00:50:27
Speaker
ah Yeah, so there's three different games, very, very different games for you to check out. If you like the meta deduction style game, check out the remake at the end the remake of the end of the greatest RPG of all time. If you like ah survival horror mystery stuff, check out Subversive Memories. And if you like platforming Zelda Shovel Knight,
00:50:54
Speaker
action adventure stuff check out Mina the Hollower cute mice if you like cute mice which we all do if you like cute mice just adopt a cute mouse save it from its fate of being eaten by a snake or whatever thanks Matt but what else uh all right I've talked about games a lot I want to hear you talk about games by telling our listeners oh what we're talking about even though it's totally in the title already Yeah, I don't remember. I can't remember. Oh, dang it. I can't remember. Well, my dear Matt, today we're going to be talking about Cult of Vacuai, which I thought was going to be scary, way more scary. And then I think I texted him like, this is not scary.
00:51:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's spooky. But we'll get into it. We'll get into it. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Cult of Vacuai. So why don't you... place Oh, wait, we have to change.
00:51:51
Speaker
We got a copyright strike.
00:51:55
Speaker
i What are we going to do? What are we going to I don't know. weird there I'm to play a real random song right here.
00:52:06
Speaker
okay
00:52:29
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Save Your Game. i am one of your hosts, Pushing Up Roses. With me, as always, the greatest ah runner of our times, the GOAT, Matt Aukamp. Hi, Matt. I just got back from running across the country. he ran. i don't know if you knew. I ran all the way to LA, and it ran to the ah I ran to ran to...
00:52:49
Speaker
the Grand Canyon and it ran up and down both sides of the Grand Canyon. And they were like, so they were like, stop that. And I was like, you can't stop me once I've started that. I mean, that explains why you were like out of breath when you got to Chicago. And that that explains why you like housed that deep dish pizza. Yeah. The energy. It was a lot. It was a lot. So yeah,
00:53:16
Speaker
so We're talking about Cult Vacui. yeah that is a game that I did not know what the mechanic was.
00:53:26
Speaker
I actually thought it was a traditional point and click, but it's not. It actually has it a much different mechanic than I was even expecting. It's very similar to a traditional point. It's very similar to a first-person point and click. Yes. But, yeah, this game's a little bit more like a...
00:53:47
Speaker
This game's a little bit more like a series of very high concept escape rooms. Yeah. Yeah. And even then, I feel like saying escape room isn't quite like, yes, but also it's got kind of that like dreams in the witch house thing or like seance of like manner thing where you're spending time like on actions. Like you're not just escaping a situation. You're spending like time on it. that I'm not going to lie.
00:54:13
Speaker
The time restraint freaked me out because it always does. Right. well did it It did in seance and that was fine. I think one of the things that makes the time... Okay, well... Yeah, we'll give some we'll give some overall thoughts and then we'll try we'll get more... Yeah. We'll get a little more detailed. um But one of the things that makes the ah time a little easier, a little less upset, and like a little less stressful is that these...
00:54:51
Speaker
Each sequence is real. you can you can you Once you know what you're doing, you can plow through them. That's true. that' They're very short.
00:55:01
Speaker
um Yeah. It might take you an hour-ish per sequence. Yeah. at at At most when you're trying to figure out just like – What am i what do I do here? When you're trying to solve the puzzles. But once you know what you're doing, like you you fail if you fail, you're going run back through it in 10 to 15 minutes and get right back where you last were stuck. so
00:55:35
Speaker
what Yeah, so what's the premise of this game? I know it it changes halfway through, but... Yeah, I mean i think it kind of changes a little bit after the first half. So in the first... and i Sorry, not half, but the first yeah part third Yeah, Yeah. Okay, yeah, I'll say it this way. The game is... has a The story is like a traditional three-act structure within with a prologue.
00:55:59
Speaker
exactly. where acts one and two are one section of the game act three is a section of the game and the prologue is a section of the game so it's like so there's three sections they do not match the three acts of the of the story but they are yeah But they're they're connected. So in the prologue, we're kind of, we're introduced to this character, ah Henry Gladstone, who has clearly been, and this is, that I don't think this is a spoiler. I think this is the premise of the game. He has been possessed ah by something, by a demon, and is doing terrible things.
00:56:37
Speaker
um And in that prologue, your goal is to free yourself from this, from this possession, from this demon. and And that's when you kind of go about it. It'll give you like a little thing. It's like, you've got 20 minutes, which is not that long for like an exorcism. I just want to put that out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're good. I don't know. it's funny tv I'm just like, what?
00:56:59
Speaker
I failed. I failed. I failed. My first try, I failed. I don't know. Did you, did you make it first try? I failed. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I failed. um Which is good because I think this game would be extremely short if you didn't have some fail states. Also, I think we just, we like to fail sometimes just to see what happens. It's ah it's part of game mechanic. You know, I want to see what happens. When I fail, does put me right back? Do I have a second chance?
00:57:28
Speaker
Did I softlock my – I hope not. I hope nobody's softlocking in this day and age. yeah um But yeah, so that that's the first, quote, escape room is you've got like these 20 minutes to to free yourself. And while you're doing that, you're also – Getting little nuggets of the overall story. Like you you you find something that says a woman went missing or or you start to read stuff about rituals and like a cult and things of that nature. Now, you you have to tell me because I found this transition really jarring.
00:58:03
Speaker
Oh, me too. It took okay a minute. What happens after that prologue? Because like we said, you you are in the prologue as Henry Gladstone. You are possessed. You are trying to free yourself. The second part of the game, you are not Henry anymore. You are free, allegedly.
00:58:19
Speaker
So, i yeah. So, well, you can you can choose. So, okay. If you fail the prologue, it'll ask you, do you want to restart? Yes. and try to free yourself from this demon. Like the demon takes you over and it says like, like if you you're all you're setting up for this ritual.
00:58:35
Speaker
Again, very tight time-wise. If you do, I think you can make maybe one mistake. I can't do anything in 20 minutes, let alone free myself of a demon.
00:58:50
Speaker
You can make maybe one mistake and right then If you make more than one mistake, you're going to fail. Right. so
00:59:02
Speaker
if if you fail, you can continue. You can be like, all right, I will choose. I will just say, lets like, let's continue with the story from here. Yeah. Or you can try again and free Henry.
00:59:13
Speaker
Henry? Henry, yeah. Yeah. And then you can
00:59:19
Speaker
then move on from there. Then you cut to I think it's a year later. v And you are a different character. it Yeah, and it took me a second to be like, oh, I'm a different character. I'm not yes Henry anymore. Yeah. You're a different character, and you are ah the caretaker at this mansion on, i guess, in ah some island. Yeah, yeah. It's like very Wicker Man. It's kind of secluded island. Yeah, folk horror-y stuff. There's like a ruined castle in the background. was getting some Hobbs Barrow vibes, man, because I think this also England, right? Right? It's very, yeah, it's very Northern England. Yeah. um Yeah.
01:00:01
Speaker
So you, you're the caretaker and somebody, you get, like, there's like a bang at the door. and You don't open the door.
01:00:12
Speaker
And then they keep banging. And then you set your steam deck down. And you go get a cup of coffee. And you come back. And so they're still banging. and you're like, alright, I guess I gotta answer the door. So then you click on the door. um And it is a guy who's dying.
01:00:26
Speaker
And he's like, there's a cult coming. And they're going to kill everybody on the island. And they're going to re they're going to raise the...
01:00:40
Speaker
Well, he said, remember, he said they've he said that they already killed everybody on the island. right. Unknowing that there were some survivors, actually. But yeah, yeah. A cult has come. thereve They've already that come to the island and they're going to strike again to kill any remaining survivors. going to raise the ancient...
01:00:57
Speaker
Mesopotamian I think they say Assyrian which is I guess technically true also Babylonian the god Marduk which is very weird it feels very much like because again you just played a character who was being taken over by a demon and you're like okay yeah this isn't Christian mythology this is right Babylonian Assyrian Mesopotamian mythology um And Marduk is just such a random pull. it's Pretty random. it sounds like It sounds a little bit like Mordak from King's Quest V. Always comes back to King's Quest V. No, it is very random, but i I'm going to say this. Why write about Marduk? But I think that about most folk horror games, though. It's like, why this one? Why that one? Like, why are we fucking with this one? I don't really know. A lot of times it has to do with the theme of that story, right? Like, it's like they're they're trying to resurrect some god that has something to do with the, like, the god is a metaphor for some...
01:02:06
Speaker
flaw in mankind that the game is talking about. In this, it really just feels like they pulled a god out of the hat, because I don't know... Showcase a lesser, ah underrated, undervalued god. Like,
01:02:22
Speaker
Marduk was around for a very, very long time, so, like, there's... He... He symbolizes a lot of different things, yeah but...
01:02:36
Speaker
None of them speak to the themes of this game. is i don't i don't I don't know. I don't get it. you're No, you're right. You're right. mike like some interpretation of um There might be some interpretation of Marduk that people...
01:02:51
Speaker
i know he's a very angry god i believe it wasn't it marduk who like he He killed a bunch of people because they were being too loud when he was trying to sleep?
01:03:03
Speaker
or That was just me. Sorry about that. Or is that the war that they started with? I think maybe the gods previous to Marduk started a war with Marduk because he and his god friends were being too loud. I hate when that happens. God. like That's like the first story. That's so funny. That's the first...
01:03:25
Speaker
God story ever told on the planet. It's like, somebody was like, you're being too loud. Let's have a war of God. yeah It's about some old crotchety boomer who's like, it's too loud! Turn down your music! Yeah, yeah. It's funny.
01:03:40
Speaker
Anyway, um it's been a long time since I've read Babylonian mythology, so I might be getting that slightly wrong. So don't don't don't feel like you need to correct us. just Like, don't come for us, okay? Just go read it out of your own interest and enjoy it yourself. Yeah. um Leave us alone. But... Yeah, so they're trying to resurrect Marduk. Um...
01:04:01
Speaker
And you're... So the first... If the first escape room, basically, is you have to set up a ritual and perform it correctly, this is you have to prepare for this mansion to get attacked by a cult.
01:04:16
Speaker
Yeah. And you have to have enough... um Enough traps, enough weapons, enough blockades. Gotta find the survivors, because they can help you. Yeah, enough allies that...
01:04:31
Speaker
As they attack, you'll be able to you'll be able to survive. Yeah. um Which I think is a really interesting idea. Like, that's a really interesting setup for a series of puzzles.
01:04:47
Speaker
Right? Yeah. A very clear goal. a very... Unique goal. Like, i don't I don't know that I've ever, that's ever been the goal of a puzzle I've played before. Yeah, yeah.
01:04:59
Speaker
And a really interesting, like, mechanic where later you get stormed by these guys and each thing that you prepared will take out a number of them. And if you don't take out enough of them, like, it'll say, like, this many, oh, you locked the gate.
01:05:17
Speaker
You were able to, because you locked the gate and you have a gun, you were able to shoot this many. Right. Before they broke open the gate, there are this many left. Yeah.
01:05:28
Speaker
Yeah. Which was honestly not what I was expecting in terms of gameplay. I remember watching the trailer and just thinking it was going to be a horror point and click. It actually scared me because it's that first person thing. Some of the graphics and screenshots are pretty like harrowing. They're pretty frightening. Yeah. Or at least disturbing. Yeah.
01:05:51
Speaker
So I was actually... don't know. I was kind of pleasantly surprised there was more to it than that. Because I think we're kind of in this era of experimental horror games like taking over.
01:06:03
Speaker
I was actually kind of like, oh there's a mother there is another mechanic to this. And it's actually... It's actually not as scary as the trailer as I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be mildly frightening.
01:06:17
Speaker
ah And I thought it was thrilling. like i Sure. And I think even having the time limit helped ah because i am I feel like I'm rushing around trying to get ready for the people that are coming for me. like It really it really did its job.
01:06:33
Speaker
Yeah. um I thought it was going to be a slow burn horror, ah more like maybe The Last Door, where there are very scary parts and they catch you off guard. I think because it was more thrilling, I was less scared because now I'm like, I'm on it, right? Like, I need to, I have 20 minutes to do and a fucking exorcism. I can't be can't be dawdling here. So, i yeah, I wonder if that just got my adrenaline up a little bit and I was just a little more alert and not afraid. um All right. So here's the question.
01:07:03
Speaker
Did you survive the attack in your first try? No. Me neither. i I had everything. Oh, yeah? Did you have all the allies? had. No, i was I was on my way to get my last ally. Oh, okay. Okay.
01:07:18
Speaker
And I ran out time and I got ambushed and killed. Yes, that can happen. See, i didn't I had watched a couple, just a couple brief Let's Plays to see if somebody else did like different things. I didn't realize you could just let a certain, like, you don't have to find these survivors. I thought that was, like, part of it.
01:07:36
Speaker
Right. Like, you've got to free these survivors. You won't, man, all right, I don't want to. We'll get into spoilers in a second, but so let's talk about how we feel about it, and then we'll get into spoilers, and we can talk about what happens if you don't fulfill all the stuff, and we'll talk about the story. There's a few different endings of various successes, I suppose. Yes. Yeah. So-
01:08:06
Speaker
So before we get into that little spoiler section, let's say how do you overall thoughts, how did you how did you feel? i think that this is not quite my type of game. Sure. I think that because it was a little bit more logic puzzle heavy. guess when I say logic puzzle, I'm more talking about like this is an escape room. Yeah. um You do have to use logic. This is not multiple, though there is inventory. That's not how I would describe this game. Mm-hmm. And it's first person. You don't love that. But it's not a very lonely first person, I'll say. It is not. it is not ah It's not very lonely. There are a lot of things I liked about it. I liked ah the art style.
01:08:44
Speaker
ah I liked the disturbing scenes that were coming up. i I really like the character card portraits. Artist pixel art very, very good pixel art. It is good. it's Some of it's really simplified, but it's it's giving that, again, that folk horror, bleak vibe that you get.
01:09:02
Speaker
um i liked the point-and-click aspects of it. um And I wanted there... i think I wanted there to be more of that, and I wanted to know more about the story. But but that's really not the point of this game. This point is puzzle-forward. It's not really story-forward. So we're not going to get to know the cult members. We're not going to get to know why exactly they're doing the things that they they are doing. We don't know much about Henry Gladstone and the weird things that he did throughout his life or some of the other characters mentioned. Like, to me, this this actually kind of reads as almost like a little horror vignette.
01:09:41
Speaker
ah Because it is very short. And there's, like, nothing wrong with that. But I think I just want... For me personally, i like more story-forward point-and-click adventure games.
01:09:54
Speaker
I'm going to say, yeah yeah, I think, like, this is...
01:10:00
Speaker
one of the things about horror shorts and horror, like horror short stories is generally there's a less is more aspect to them. And I'm not sure that this achieves that. Right. I don't know if less is more here. I feel like this game could have been twice as long with twice as much story and it would have been better for it. Like, I think I wanted more puzzles. I wanted more sequences and I wanted to know more about this Island and the people on it. And yeah I wanted to know more about the Gladstone family. um Yeah, i feel it feels a little – it felt a little underbaked, a little undergun. Yeah. yeah
01:10:38
Speaker
I enjoyed the things that I did in it. Yeah, me too. And I could even – like I said, I can even enjoy it as a little vignette. I can i can enjoy that. um it's almost like It's almost like a story from like an anthro ah anthropology type of – am I saying that right? Anthropology. Anthology. Anthology. Anthology. What am I even saying right now? Yes. From like an like a horror anthology or something. It's just a little – like a short little vignette and the tropes are there. you know i wish I felt that way more. I wish I felt that way more. i feel like
01:11:13
Speaker
I feel like it wasn't tight. and Like it was short but not tight in my in my mind. yeah And that keeps it from feeling like a little horror short story to me. To me, again, it just feels like – Yeah, it feels like it's missing something. No, I agree with you. Because like I said, I wanted to know more about this the story. But I also respect that maybe it's not about the story. Maybe it is about this mechanic. Yeah. But then I wanted more from the mechanic. So I don't know. I did like it. I didn't dislike it I'll tell you this. There's a lot of things I like about it.
01:11:48
Speaker
It does something real fun. It does. Yeah. makes you It makes you get a wheelbarrow. It's like you can't carry that much stuff. You're carrying too much stuff. You need a wheelbarrow. And it broke because there was a moment where I was like, ooh, here's ah how much do my pants weigh? But then they were like, you get a wheelbarrow. And it's like, all right. All right. You saw me coming. you yeah these these guys These guys saw us coming. ah And yeah, there's just something really cool about the the bleak nature of it the the graphic style and the the earth tone colors that you that you see in folk horror, especially in these games. Very earthy, you know brown brown and green, earthy tones.
01:12:30
Speaker
And yeah, I really liked these little, almost like Hobbs Barrow-esque close-up shots. I don't know if this was like rotoscoped at all. It seems like maybe some of it was rotoscoped. But I, yeah, I really enjoyed how this game looked and kind of the the more disturbing little screenshots and close-ups you got of the characters.
01:12:53
Speaker
did it Did it remind you a little bit of Dreams in the Witch House? it didn't It reminded me a lot more of um they reminded me like ah sort of a cross between The Last and um hobbs barrow Yeah, the vibes definitely. Some of the gameplay reminded me a little bit of Dreams in the Witch House because I'm like spending time.
01:13:18
Speaker
Okay. Like doing these things that are supposed to help me. But yeah, it's very in tone. It's very Hobbs Barrow. That first prologue is very much last door. And that's the first person escape room pixel art thing reminded me of that game from um from 2024. The Abandoned Planet. it oh yeah um Oh, yeah. wonder if there's ever to have a sequel to that game.
01:13:41
Speaker
I wonder if like- ended on a It ended on a cliffhanger. I wonder if there- Okay, anyway. But I wonder would be a sequel to a cliff called Vacuai. I think it's kind of set up that way. would play it. Yeah, I think there definitely could be multiple games and in like a series like this. I wonder if I hyped it up because you know how I feel about first person horror. They scare me immediately. i see screenshots and now I'm already afraid. And I wonder if I wanted it to be scarier than it was. Yeah. because I was like ready for it. I'm just like, oh man, I'm ready to be disturbed. And then i was like, oh, I'm not that scared actually.
01:14:18
Speaker
I wonder if I, I fucked that up. um All right. So why don't we,
01:14:32
Speaker
why don't we play whatever song we play now, Why we play it again? Just for a sec. Just for a second. And ah guys, come if you don't want any spoilers, come back after.
01:14:43
Speaker
Come back when you hear the song again.
01:14:58
Speaker
right. So. You can, if you don't get all the people, I tried a bunch of different combinations of this. Oh, cool. Act two. And i could not find a way to survive if you didn't get all of the survivors.
01:15:18
Speaker
I think there is a way to survive if you don't, I could be wrong, if you don't get the nuns. Okay, all right. That makes sense. because Because I had gotten an ending where ah But unfortunately, like, if you don't get all the survivors, you don't get all the help you need.
01:15:39
Speaker
And thus people will die. And I think in that playthrough, you actually, like, end up a father figure. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, my god Yeah, yeah. I have to play that again because, all right, because I didn't. I played a version where I didn't have any. I did all the traps, but I didn't have any survivors and I died. And then i just had the father.
Emotional Gaming Moments
01:16:03
Speaker
ah Okay. boy and i died yeah and then um and in that one i let the nun die and i didn't and then i um yeah okay so if i i didn't so i didn't try the configuration where i had the swordman but not the nun Yeah.
01:16:26
Speaker
And like, man, if it feels real shitty not saving the nun, by the way, because she is in a very precarious situation. i don't really want to spoil it because some of that is the shock value of of finding that character. But man, ah feel shitty for not, for if you let the if you let the nun die. Yeah, I was on my way to save the nun the first time I died. Okay, all right. So then that, well, why don't we move to the last act then? So,
01:16:55
Speaker
The last act, a couple different things can happen, right? Like, you... Now you're trying to stop them. What you find out is the reason Henry Gladstone got taken over by a demon is because they tried to summon Marduk and they did a bad job. Yeah. And it was, like, his father, his own father. Yes. Yeah.
01:17:15
Speaker
And they did a bad job and accidentally let a demon into his body instead of Marduk. Oopsie! um... Now they're trying to do it correctly...
01:17:26
Speaker
And
01:17:29
Speaker
i i tried a couple configurations of this, but I didn't try all of them. What I want to know is what happens if you fail at purging the demon in the first act and then succeed in stopping – in the prologue – and then succeed in stopping the –
01:17:54
Speaker
um ritual right in the third act. that I would like to know that too, does actually. the demon then come and kill you? i don't know. Because the demon's still in Henry.
01:18:05
Speaker
Right. um Yeah, I'm not sure. um But the endings I did see, I saw the one where I let the god take the boy. That was yeah really that was really wild. He like starts floating in the air. Really cool. I saw the where I succeeded entirely. Yeah, I see. Yeah, you can see. I like, obviously, that's the best case scenario. And I saw the one where I saved...
01:18:32
Speaker
um Oh, and you know in the one that I let the boy die, I left Henry tied up. I didn't free him. Oh, oh okay. And they just show you, while they're showing you all the ending clips, you just he's just there. you They just show you still in chains. my god. whole thing would just remind you, like, you didn't do this. poor man, though.
01:18:56
Speaker
What endings did you see? I got the, I didn't go through like you did. I figured you would do a little bit more, but I did get the success ending. Yeah. And I got this, and I got, I was, I would like to make a correction. Okay. If you, there is an ending you can get where ah the kid, what's the kid's name?
01:19:16
Speaker
The kid that you are saving. don't remember. Okay. Well, there's a kid in this game and he, he is meant to be like the next possessed, basically the next shell. And so we got to save him. And we become allies with his father and we try to reunite them. And in one of those playthroughs, like his father dies and and you don't have anyone else, but you have. But if you have Henry with you, Henry will adopt the son.
01:19:42
Speaker
That is cool. yeah He's like, I will raise him as my own. I'm like, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of want to. I want to give that a try. Yeah. want try a couple more endings.
01:19:55
Speaker
I think that's why this is giving me such dreams in the witch house vibes because we did the same thing. We were like, well, we got to see what happens when we do this. We got to get this ending. You know what I mean?
01:20:06
Speaker
Yeah. the Man, I like they're taking some big swings in this game and I like that. And that that makes me respect it a little. i You know what? Yeah.
01:20:18
Speaker
I'll say, even though there's things about this game I wish were more fleshed out, like you were saying, I really respect this game. Yeah, i do too. I think it's doing some really, really interesting things. And ah yeah, I think it i think ah this is like a team to keep our eyes on, I think. Dionys?
01:20:40
Speaker
Dionys is the publisher, and they've done a bunch of other, they they seem to be like a big point and click. they are now yeah they are like retro style point and clicks um but ew they did watch over christmas they did yeah i wasn't gonna say it but they did um but this developer liberty games oh liberty Liberty games, but without an, without an I. Okay.
01:21:15
Speaker
Or an E. Okay. No vowels. Liberty. Hopefully they released something else. i want to see more. I want see, i want to, just want to see them explore this idea of, again, like what if you use the escape room to tell a story? um
01:21:34
Speaker
i want to see more of that. And yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I do want to see it more fleshed out. And maybe that's because just those are je that's generally the nature of cult stories is like that's way it's usually way more fleshed out. And we learn about this cult. And, yeah you know, I kept thinking of like nightmare frames, which had also had like a cult in it. And i don't know. I wanted more. I just want more. i just want more. That's all I'm asking for. It's just all we want is more. All I want is like a whole lot
Transition to 'Dark Rites of Arkham'
01:22:02
Speaker
more. So if you could just do that. Speaking of nightmare frames, I started playing Dark Rites of Arkham today. you Play that music.
01:22:12
Speaker
All
01:22:19
Speaker
right. Well, I think that's it for us. Yeah, we quit. Now we'll be back probably. so you No? Okay. Sorry. my but I misread. I think we might be back next week. I hope so. I hope we'll be back. I think we're both pretty recharged. Like we've had a lot going on.
01:22:38
Speaker
But we we we are, yeah, we're stoked to play games. And this is thing. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the amount of games we have to play. And then I play i play a game.
01:22:49
Speaker
And I'm like, I fucking love these things. I all but say or know. know. So, as soon as I stopped playing this, I started playing Dark Rites of Arkham. And I want to talk to you about it. Yeah. You know what? I should play it, too. <unk>ll I'll sit down with it and I'll play it because I love that company.
01:23:04
Speaker
We're not committing for that to be our next episode. But. god It might be. But might be. All
Podcast Farewell and Community Engagement
01:23:12
Speaker
right, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. Thanks for listening to Save Your Game. um Thanks for listening talk it listening to me talk about coffee for way too long.
01:23:23
Speaker
Thanks for humoring. This kind of a rambly one, huh? Yeah, it was. That's fine. That's me at my best when I'm just rambling. Well, everybody. Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. You can always email us. Matt and roses at gmail.com. You can find us at save your game podcast okay at on Instagram or, uh, don't know, wherever else you find podcasts and like subscribe. if It's favorite us smash that like button fam like button be our fam beer fam it's getting very parasocial um i don't know is there anything else we want to talk to i can't think of anything i don't know how do we normally end these besides our final words oh you know like uh you know drink plenty of water get a lot of foliage in your diet roughage vegetables visit visit a wawa if you visit a wawa and
01:24:19
Speaker
um Join our Discord. Yeah, it's always happened. We've never stopped the Discord. we are i am I'm in there yeah as frequently as I can be to talk to you guys.
01:24:30
Speaker
ah And that just leaves one last thing to say, i believe. Can I guess? I have a guess. Okay, yeah, you get three guesses.
01:24:42
Speaker
Okay, is it... it... is it podcasts is dumb is it that nope nope nope that's not what i believe and that's not what i think okay is it podcast is important huh well some are i guess but that's not really what i was gonna say i gotta nail it i gotta nail it on the one more try got one more try or the cult will get you and eat you oh my god i have like 15 minutes is it is it podcast is art
01:25:14
Speaker
And art is suffer. Nailed it.