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Norco & failed recommendations
157 Plays1 month ago
Ben & Jess discuss Norco, the spectacular adventure game about... a ton of Big Ideas that takes place in a swampy suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana. They also discuss Ben's negative reaction to the recommended Tales from the Borderlands.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:47
Speaker
It is the adventure game podcast. Quest Quest. Hello! Hello, everybody! Welcome to Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. I am Ben.
00:01:01
Speaker
and I am Jess, Ben's co-host. i I stream on Twitch, and occasionally I'm super backlogged. I feel terrible about this. that ah ah My stuff is mostly on YouTube under PS underscore Garrick, G-A-R-A-K, and Jess.
00:01:19
Speaker
I am decaf Jedi on both of those places. How doing today, Jess? I am doing fantastic today, Ben. I had such a productive day. Fantastic. Great.
00:01:30
Speaker
I got new new glasses ordered. I was like, your glasses look the same to me, Jess. They do, but they but when the new ones get here, it's going blow your mind. ah these things These things are wild. They're like Elton John in the 70s glasses. as well but I really wanted a change. So these are definitely you like jewel encrusted, the new ones. Finally. Finally. I've been saying that.
Personal Stories and Experiences
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, no. So, I mean, I did that. I got my car ah inspected for hail damage. That was really exciting. So, I mean, both those things in one day for me, that's called a productive day. Ben, how have you been?
00:02:07
Speaker
I've been. Oh, I've been OK. Like ah ah today there there's been ah storms here in ah in north northeastern northeastern Illinois. i don't know wherever the fuck Chicago is.
00:02:23
Speaker
uh up against uh the old lake michigan there yeah yeah yeah that chicago yeah that chicago but there's been a bunch of storms and there's hail uh speaking of hail and but uh and i had a whole transit uh uh adventure but i'm here now i'm wondering tonight here in chicago is an outdoor, uh, a outdoor concert for Beyonce.
00:02:56
Speaker
oh wow. Uh, and I wonder, like, I have, now I'm curious, did they cancel it? Beyonce Chicago. Let's see here. Did this get canceled?
00:03:08
Speaker
Um... It was delayed at least. It was delayed to nine, which is in 12 minutes from now as we record. ah but ah But that's the the best I have.
00:03:22
Speaker
um You know, ah more updates on something that happened in the past when you listen to this ah coming in as as ah we record. i have ah my best men hitting refresh on Google News.
00:03:37
Speaker
It would be really exciting if Beyonce came out and she performed a recent hit, Texas Hold'em, that has that great line in the first but verse. There's a tornado in my city.
00:03:48
Speaker
Hit the basement. That shit ain't pretty. um Is that true? that's Yeah, that's the first verse of Texas Hold'em. Oh, man. i She better open with that. Yeah, we had a tornado watch.
00:04:00
Speaker
I know. I know. I mean, it's never been better. Yeah, she better she better do that. I mean, i have not seen Beyonce live I she does not seem like the type of person that ah like the type of performer that does a lot of you know, chat.
00:04:18
Speaker
in between songs yeah honest yeah i have a feeling that she goes up there sings those songs like maybe i've never seen her yeah send us an email uh quest quest podcast at gmail.com we'd love to hear from the bay have if that's what they're still going to be i've uh let us know does she do a lot of talk during her concerts i just assume not ah yeah Are you a mountain goats guy, Jess?
00:04:43
Speaker
Are you like mountain goats? I can't handle the voice. got I saw him live few years ago and it was not for me. It's not for me. That's okay. He's not for everybody. I saw him live and I loved it.
00:04:56
Speaker
Wonderful concert. But I've been a fan. of uh mountain goats for for many years now i've tried and i've tried so yeah no it's fine it's fine i've tried i have i have other friends who have the exact same reaction like it's he's uh like uh the the mountain goats is either like you hear it and it just immediately like you know one of those bands where you hear it and you're like ah yes exactly perfect thank you this is what i've been looking for or you're like I hate this guy's voice I hate everything about him I hate like it's just like you just cannot handle him but he's but I brought up Mountain Goats to say that John Darnielle he's the essentially the Mountain Goats but now it's a band like anyway ah but ah like he'll talk for like 5-10 minutes between songs which is entertaining because he's you know he's an interesting guy
00:05:53
Speaker
I went to a Bob Dylan concert back in the nineties where he played the entire show facing away from the audience and never spoke a single time or turned around to look at us. I think it was Bob Dylan.
00:06:06
Speaker
My, my dad has a Bob Dylan, ah like a Bob Dylan concert story, which is that my dad, he's in his seventies and like, so jazz fest dad in, yeah, my jazz fest dad, we'll talk about this also later.
Games and Their Connections
00:06:23
Speaker
But like in,
00:06:25
Speaker
Like I'm going to say the late 60s, early seventy s When did Bob Dylan get into the motorcycle accident around that? Ooh, that would have been mid to late 60s, I think. Okay. So yes, around then, my dad was went to like a concert venue And they had ah tickets to ah Bob Dylan and to The Circle.
00:06:50
Speaker
ah Now, you don't remember The Circle. ah And by The Circle, that I think it's like C-Y-K-L-E. ah wow. Like, they they did a really... Their hit, you've probably... You might have heard it, you know, in a dentist's office, is ah they did...
00:07:08
Speaker
ah like a cover of simon and garfunkel's red rubber ball that's okay yeah okay yeah yeah yeah i know that cover yeah absolutely no that's not because bob dylan i forget exactly it's been a while since i've heard my dad tell the story i'll have to ask him um But I think it was because Bob Dylan was in like the motorcycle accident or whatever, like he had to delay and my dad didn't want to wait. So instead he was like, I got the tickets to the circle instead. And my dad's like, big mistake.
00:07:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Imagine seeing Bob Dylan then. and that would have been great. it would have been great. It's me, Bob Dylan. He's he's ah like this tall, skinny guy.
00:07:59
Speaker
he also like looks like he is ah the leader He's Arrakis. ah like he's from iraqus Oh, man. Yeah, yeah.
00:08:10
Speaker
Which, speaking of my dad, i'm going to bring this up. big like dad My dad's on my mind because we're going to be talking about Norco today. and that takes place outside of my dad's favorite city and also my favorite city, which is New Orleans. all the characters in that game have dads.
00:08:28
Speaker
I mean, technically, you don't really ever meet ah one. Like, I mean, sure. Yeah, yeah whatever.
Co-op Adventure Games
00:08:34
Speaker
Anyway, but I mean, most of the characters in most games do. Go ahead. ah Oh, man. I just left the tracks. What was I so... Oh.
00:08:44
Speaker
oh ah You think why you're thinking about your dad? Yeah, I know it was about my dad, but I don't remember. why You were telling us why he's been on your mind. Oh. um It will come back. It will return.
00:08:58
Speaker
i forgot. i was i got i got so ah wrapped up in in in setting up my jazz fest dad ah that I ah completely ah ah forgot ah what the the second dad anecdote was.
00:09:17
Speaker
but well And we'll come back. A dadicdote. My dadicdote. ah But you know what? Before we get to any, any more dadicdotes or data points, as as some call them, ah it's time to read a email wow it's the soothing sounds of correspondence listener to my previous podcast where we would or we would uh say wanderers constantly that's a babylon five thing anyway okay
00:10:03
Speaker
Ruben, if you listen to that podcast, thank you. Anyway, more not. Dear Wanderers, long-time listener, first-time mailer, just wanted to drop a message I've really been enjoying your podcast. Thank you.
00:10:16
Speaker
Really making me reminisce about the good old adventure games while walking the dogs. Well, I don't have the time at the moment to really sit down and play one of the classics. I'm really itching for a a Quest for Glory series playthrough, as are we.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yes. Your episodes are definitely bringing, ah are definitely making me remember the old times. Was a big adventure gamer back then even had a website that collected the Easter eggs in Sierra games.
00:10:45
Speaker
Jess and I were talking about this when I mentioned this, and Like, we must have gone to that website, right? Almost certainly. Because I went to every, like, Sierra fan website in, like, 1999. Yeah, that was the main reason I had the internet.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, there's more. Still, there's also been a question on my mind. Would you guys know of any adventure games that could be played cooperatively?
00:11:16
Speaker
The one that comes to mind to me, A Way Out by Hazel Light. Not familiar with that game. That's more of a Telltale-like game. Still, that was definitely one of my favorite gaming experiences in the past years. And I'm just curious whether you guys could recommend any other games i like ah like that to play together. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, Ruben.
00:11:41
Speaker
That's a great question. And honestly, I'm going to to throw this to to people to to email us because number one, I'm not familiar with the way out. Are you?
00:11:53
Speaker
No, I'm not. I'm going to have to look this up. Maybe that would be a fun ah came out 2018. Okay. okay Oh, wait, I recognize this key art.
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, this looks interesting. yeah it looks neat i don't it's it's a co-op prison escape uh adventure you know like the main co-op game like is it what's the the the two like uh isn't there this co-op brothers game but that's called brothers right yeah like it's like and it was a mobile game but more of like uh or is it it's like a tale of two brothers right
00:12:35
Speaker
I can't remember. Maybe it is so ah a brothers, a tale of two sons. There it is. That's a, I don't know how, like I have not played that, but I believe that that is, he, this is Wikipedia calls it an adventure game, but I don't know, you know, like what does Wikipedia know? You know?
00:12:55
Speaker
no what does wicked anyone can edit that. the yeah great their puzzles i'm reading the description yeah i mean it it sounds like it is a light environmental puzzle kind of adventure but no i i played a little bit of that on uh on mobile at some point when it first came out it was uh it was all the rage uh which one a way out or uh brothers a tell brothers i think it isn't that still single player and you just control Each brother with one different thumbstick.
00:13:26
Speaker
It says modes, single player, multiplayer. So maybe so. Um, but yeah, you know, the i mean, I, The co-op games that are adjacent to adventure games that I've played have been like the escape room. Yes. That's a good example. Games that like we streamed, like you mean Grayson streamed, uh, escape room simulator, I think was the one we played, which is co-op.
00:13:56
Speaker
And like, so that's not, that's not what you'd be looking for in like a, so you know, a narrative adventure. If you're looking to do quest for glory again, But like if you're just kind of looking for a hang ah with ah like a friend or a family member and solve some puzzles.
00:14:14
Speaker
I mean, that's a pretty solid one. Yeah. It's just very light and easy to get into and out of.
Disney Games and Nostalgia
00:14:22
Speaker
It's a good game night kind of game. has a steam workshop so there's a lot of yeah like uh additional fan made ones and i mean in honesty are they as good as the official ones generally not some of them are fun but yeah there's a couple other escape room uh type co-op games uh too uh that that have that Yeah.
00:14:44
Speaker
I mean, that was the promise of quest for glory five, right? That was never fulfilled was the idea that it would be a multiplayer game in some context. Do you remember, did you know that, Zork grand inquisitor had a co-op mode?
00:15:00
Speaker
Did you know that? No. It a, I remember, I'm, I sincerely wonder if anyone's ever used this and I, And I think it's just that somebody else who owned the game could like dial in and you would just like, you could text chat them while you let someone else play it. I think that was it. i'm fine But it had that, like, I think one gets the sense that like Activision said to the developers of Zork Grand Inquisitor, you need to add multiplayer because it's 1998 or 97.
00:15:34
Speaker
So, and that, that is the thing that must be in all games. And they were like, uh, you know, it's not quite the co-op experience that, uh, that Ruben sounds like they're looking for here, but you know, mentioning the telltale games and you some of those had like the audience features, which allowed some voting on choices and some things like that. But who knows if those servers still even exist, if those features still work. I know Batman had that, uh,
00:16:05
Speaker
from telltale but that's not exactly a co-op so much as a like a streaming thing yeah it's like a streaming feature that allows that too which pretty neat um i think that's a great idea for games like that that are narrative choice based games to you know if you can throw in a streamer mode that allows some voting that's pretty fun yeah you know so i mean honestly and i i know like you've had this experience jess because we've talked about it i think like you know the the the co-op mode for so many adventure games is playing an adventure like one person's the pilot and the other person helps out like yeah sitting there and you could do that like on you know on a discord uh but but yeah is if anyone knows of because now i'm intrigued
00:16:57
Speaker
Yes. If there is a co-op adventure game, because it's like there's co-op like puzzle solving. There's the escape room games. um And then stuff that's a little more action adventure. There's definitely plenty of that.
00:17:11
Speaker
But yeah, I would like you could classify that because that's those are puzzles. Yeah. And there is a narrative. They're more of a narrative than you'd find an escape simulator.
00:17:21
Speaker
I mean, honestly, maybe portal two is one of your better answers to that at some level. Um, I like that. Uh, and, uh, that also has a fan. I think there's fan co-op levels, right?
00:17:33
Speaker
I think so. I mean, surely there is. i forget Yeah. Um, but anyway thank you for the email thank you for for uh listening and yeah uh send us an email if you're listening to this and you're like oh there's a co-op adventure because this is this is interesting yes we'd love to more if you know of one yeah if you know of one shoot us an email at quest quest podcast at gmail.com or you know if you don't know of one just send an email saying hey guys i just don't know if there are any of these yeah that's fine too we'll read that email also uh but anyway
00:18:05
Speaker
Uh, Jess, I've got another question for you. Uh-huh. What have you been playing? Ooh, man, what have I been playing? Um, I dipped my toes into a game, that played several years ago have now revisited. Uh, I've been playing, Epic Mickey.
00:18:25
Speaker
Uh, You're really jonesing for a Disney. I want a Disney game. want Disney You really, like you, you just want a Disney game. I want a Disney game and I want it bad. I played like the first few levels of Epic Mickey Rebrushed, which was the remastered version of it from a couple of years ago.
00:18:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I remember that. And you know what? It's like almost every third party Wii game. It is immediately better once you take it off the Wii. It turns out. the Wii's controls and, uh, and technical limitations.
00:19:00
Speaker
I did. Um, I played it and finished it on the Wii back in the day. and it was a struggle because, you know, waggle, you waggle is.
00:19:11
Speaker
wa I remember it had like, that was because this is, it was Warren Spector. Uh, yes. Like Deus Ex, and the first system shock yeah designed it. I remember it was like, there's a big announcement about the next Warren Spector game.
00:19:27
Speaker
And then it was Epic Mickey. Epic Mickey. Yeah, I mean, which is just like a funny title to me. It really is. It's a terrible title. It's a terrible title. It will never cease to be hilarious title to me. It should just be like Mickey Mouse colon the paintbrush of destiny or something. don't know. You're running around and you like, it's a platformer where you can use paint to fill in things in the world or paint thinner to remove obstacles in your way.
00:19:56
Speaker
And you platform and you fight bad guys. and Now are you Mickey? Or it's like the bad guy is like... Oswald the osal of the lucky rabbit. Yeah.
00:20:08
Speaker
Because there was. Yeah.
00:20:13
Speaker
i just I just remember all the buzz about the game leading up to it because I just yeah remember like there was a lot more buzz about a third party Wii title licensed Mickey Mouse game than you'd expect from enthusiast media 2012.
00:20:33
Speaker
11 or whatever um because it was being developed by war inspector yes like it was just like holy shit this guy who's like this you know like he worked at my adult yeah yeah i mean yeah exactly i mean it is a uh I mean, it's a perfectly cromulent third-party Wii title, but it's also nothing special. I mean, where it it excels in style, and I will say the re-brushed edition looks absolutely gorgeous. It looks good. Apparently, they redid every asset from the ground up, so it's a complete...
00:21:08
Speaker
like top to bottom remake, the controls are much better. The camera isn't horrible like it used to be on the Wii. It was one of those, you know, platformers that occasionally require very precise jumps where the camera is never where you need it to be, which was like a good 15 years of video gaming was lost to that exact problem. So yeah this this remake really fixes a lot of those sorts of things. But yeah, I think it's that eternal idea that maybe this Disney game is going to be the good one.
00:21:38
Speaker
that I think Disney has written out for much of its history in the video gaming space. I mean, my favorite Disney game is still The Secret of Monkey Island. But after that, I feel like it goes way down.
00:21:51
Speaker
and There's DuckTales. yeah i That's right. i mean, you have like DuckTales, you have Aladdin. can never remember which Aladdin game is the good one. is it i I just remember they were both like those 16-bit like impossible ones were
00:22:09
Speaker
Like really pretty. I remember that. yeah like They still look pretty good. Pixel art. Yeah. Yeah. And like great animation. But I mean, I know, i remember Lion King just kicking my ass up and down the street. Well, added to you.
Critiques on Gaming Humor
00:22:24
Speaker
You're right. This is me like at some level desperately wanting to play a Disney game. And everyone my life, like the minute I said I was thinking about trying to play Kingdom Hearts, like it was almost like an intervention. Like, I got lots of messages like, Jess, you don't have to do this.
00:22:40
Speaker
And Jess, I think this is a big mistake. i You don't want that smoke. a lot yeah I mean, just a lot of really better words. It'd be very funny if you got super into Kingdom Hearts, though.
00:22:53
Speaker
It would be. I don't think I have the patience or honestly the attention span to get into Kingdom Hearts. You would say we've been friends for, like, what, five years? Yeah, at least.
00:23:05
Speaker
Um...
00:23:07
Speaker
I feel like I know you all enough. I just feel that Kingdom Hearts would just be one that you would just bounce off of in the same way that like you and I were talking about, like, Claire Obscure is both like, yeah, it looks good, but...
00:23:20
Speaker
Is it something that either of us would enjoy? Probably not. yeah There's too many buttons. Too many systems. lot of systems. I'm like stacking buffs on top of all kinds of other buffs, on top of stats, on top of powers, on top of tiers. And listen, love the French.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah. I love the French. Yeah, you've been very outspoken about that. Yeah, like, yeah, I mean, you know, two episodes ago was our cocktail vision episode.
00:23:49
Speaker
That's right. Where we exclusively talked about their erotic games.
00:23:54
Speaker
But, yeah. Well, you know, other than cocktails line up of erotic games, what have you been playing, Ben? You know, I played two episodes of this game called Tales from the Borderlands in order to fulfill contract arranged here. The contract actually only stipulated one episode, so I went above and beyond.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yes, that's right. you You fulfilled the terms of our Faustian bargain. Yeah. um Yeah, I mean, the long-time listeners. I have no idea how long ago this episode was. um But listeners who remember our Tales from the Borderlands episode, that was me pitching to Ben yeah why you should play Tales from the Borderlands. And Ben agreed.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah. He's made good on that, having streamed the first two episodes. And Ben, you loved it so much that dot, dot, dot. I loved it so much that I decided not to continue streaming it because I didn't want to spoil all the fun for everyone that decided to purchase it and see me have such a great time playing it.
00:25:00
Speaker
Okay, interesting. Interesting. So you would say this is maybe the best game you've played? So, all right. It is a perfectly fine game.
00:25:14
Speaker
This is the only other telltale game of this style that I've played as the first Walking Dead game, which I also bounced off of. Yeah.
00:25:27
Speaker
And so it might be that the latter half, like, I might just enjoy watching other people stream them and maybe the latter half Telltale games aren't for me, even though I did, like, I've enjoyed Life is Strange when we played The Expanse together, which is, like, in legal terms, a Telltale game, but it was developed by Deck Nine, who did...
00:25:57
Speaker
you know, who one of the Life is Strange games. But yeah, there are couple things. One is that
00:26:10
Speaker
like the, the borderlands of it all. Like if you come in as a borderlands fan, you already have all this like kind of leeway that you're going to give it. that It's like, Oh my God. Like, so this guy showed up and this guy, handsome yeah John Jack.
00:26:28
Speaker
And like, Oh my it's and this guy showed up and like oh my god it's her so that's one thing, like it's and I don't have any of that fondness. And I know that there are people out there that are fans of Tales of the or from the Borderlands,
00:26:43
Speaker
Like, Dan, you should have lost your mind when Scooter showed up and you had almost no reaction. Yeah, it was just some guy to me. Yeah. That's me, uh, M. Bisoning.
00:26:54
Speaker
To me, it was only an Adventure Tuesday. That should be your new sign-off to Adventure Tuesday. That would be good. Yeah. For all of you, this was a great stream. For me, it was just an Adventure Tuesday. Oh, boy.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to do that. But anyway, other thing is that It's a game that came out in what, 2011, 2012?
00:27:24
Speaker
That's right.
Entertainment Preferences
00:27:27
Speaker
And it is extremely a game that came out right then. ah um Not because of references that would tie it to that moment, like to pop culture anything, but simply the humor.
00:27:42
Speaker
It does have a You're the Man Now dog joke. Oh, does it? It has You're the Man Now dog? It does have a You're the Man now Now dog joke. Oh, man. It does. It has a you're the man now dog joke.
00:27:55
Speaker
Wow.
00:27:58
Speaker
Wow. You think dogs ever say you're the dog now, man? Yes, they do every day. Each other? You think so? Yeah. You're the dog now, man.
00:28:11
Speaker
And here's the thing, by the time that Tales from the Borderlands came out, you're the man now, dog, who's already It was a little dusty. It was already a little dusty. Now, all known, that was a dialogue option. I didn't have to pick it, but had to pick it, if you understand. You had to pick it. had to pick it.
00:28:30
Speaker
But mostly it's just that comedic zeitgeist at the time, right? Yeah. like i mean yeah it's It's a game that is written in the tone that a lot of comedy geared at a broad audience
00:28:46
Speaker
of nerds appreciated
00:28:50
Speaker
like twenty whatever when that was, whatever year that was which by 2025 is now, like you know, has has become a cliche.
00:29:02
Speaker
Yes. Like, and we fed a computer scripts from 500 episodes of X-Play and asked it to write a script for a game, and this is why it spat out.
00:29:13
Speaker
And so if you like it is just it was a an experience that just wasn't for me.
00:29:26
Speaker
If I was a Borderlands fan, the Borderlandsman, if I was a Borderlandsman for fucking sure, I would have had a great time. But I think like the the combination also, you have to understand, Jess,
00:29:41
Speaker
I didn't like that type of humor then. Yeah. I signed off of Marvel movies. at the Avengers the first. Wow.
00:29:52
Speaker
I mean, yeah, it is whedon-y a little bit. I mean, yeah, I get it. I get it. So it is like, and so this is not passing judgment on on on people that loved it or love it or still love it or can love it still.
00:30:12
Speaker
It's just fine you have poor taste in games. He is not going to judge you for that. It is explicitly like a thing where like I i remember very clearly watching Avengers the first.
00:30:26
Speaker
As it was titled. And everybody, you know, people today who are like MCU heads will be like, oh yeah, that first Avengers, whatever. It's not not really that much. But if you recall the time, people got their pants watching be the first Avengers.
00:30:41
Speaker
yeah Everyone was screaming about it. It was like the moment where we decided, it's like, this Joss Whedon, his style of filmmaking should be what all companies and productions should emulate immediately after that. And yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
The amount I heard about the fucking post-credits scene, the fucking shwarma, for, before I saw it, everybody being like, oh my god, oh my god, there's this real, this scene, so fucking, so fucking, they get shwarma.
00:31:12
Speaker
And so I went and I saw it, arms crossed, because I'm like, everybody tells me there's going to be a funny shawarma scene. And I just sat there and I like just watched it I was like, oh okay, I get it. This is not for me. And that was it. That was my last MCU picture.
00:31:26
Speaker
You really haven't seen a single one since then? i I've only seen MCU pictures. Wow. I've seen Iron Man, I saw opening weekend and had a great time.
00:31:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah?
00:31:43
Speaker
Because I also went in thinking like, Iron Man, who who the fuck is that? I don't give a shit. And then it was like, oh, this is very fun. Oh, i I didn't expect this.
00:31:55
Speaker
And then I didn't watch the Hulk and Captain America, I think, were the two next and then Avengers, right? Thor was in there and then Avengers. And then, um, and then so like everybody was freaking out about the Avengers. so I watched that and I was like, if, if this is what everybody is crazy about Marvel movies about,
00:32:19
Speaker
it like, I, I am signed off. You heard here first, folks. Ben does not care for the entertainment directed at the common man. Ben has elitist tastes, and he's going to stick to them.
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. No fart jokes for Ben. You're going Well, first off, there's a lot of piss and shit jokes in the game we're going to talk about, fuck up Yeah, they're sophisticated ones. That's true. They're not voice acted.
00:32:46
Speaker
That's true. But, I mean, yeah, no, like, listen, growing up, my like my siblings were like, Ben, you're not Wow. Because I would just watch something be like, that's not very good.
00:32:59
Speaker
Because I didn't like, because I signed off on Adam Sandler movies early. Give me a break. did too. Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. Give me a break. And I'll stand happy, Gilmore and Billy Madison, very funny.
00:33:17
Speaker
And I have no hatred towards the man. But yeah, it was just one of those things where I was like, you know, I just I got guff as like I sign off. I like all I'll just be like, OK, not for me. And then I'm done.
00:33:33
Speaker
And so. I will say, whatever the opposite of someone's like joy being infectious is, like that was very much the vibe that I was receiving while watching you stream Tales from Borderlands.
00:33:48
Speaker
It made me like the game less because I was like, shit, Ben's right. Ben's right, this is true. No. No, no, don't let me ruin it for you. And I felt like the whole it was being put on me.
00:34:01
Speaker
felt like I was, no, I mean, you're just like, this is all just his fault. i will That's what I've been voiced. I probably did say that on the stream, but only to make you feel bad.
00:34:13
Speaker
And for no other reason. That was just to hurt your feelings.
00:34:23
Speaker
No, I mean, I will say, i think coming into it with the Borderlands background, I'd played all those games, and I think that it is easier to breeze past a lot of that when you're kind of already sucked into that universe.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah. But because I think Borderlands at some level is self-aware it's doing that, but it's still doing it. And we've talked about how before in games, being self-aware that you're doing something that maybe is a little, in this case, hacky at times or just, again, very dated. At the time it came out, it didn't feel dated. It felt yeah of the time. And now it still fills up the time, that specific time in history.
00:35:02
Speaker
Yeah. Listen, but I'm not going to yuck your gown. That's too late. You literally spent like three hours yucking my gum. I am a, what is it? No bummers?
00:35:15
Speaker
we're in the I mean, this podcast does operate under the universal no bummers code. Yeah, this is something that's important to keep in mind here. No bummers is our guiding force.
00:35:30
Speaker
But yeah, no, I, listen,
00:35:35
Speaker
Sorry. ah Like, you know, i listen, I've felt this, this might, this isn't really a adventure game podcast thing, but I, I mean, I have, I, and I was aware of it too, like playing it where I'm like, Oh boy, this is not connecting.
00:35:51
Speaker
Oh, ah for me. And I, I too have felt the horrible pain of making a recommendation and it, belly flopping uh yeah that's tough it's tough it's tough to watch and it's it's a it's a brutal thing to to like mine is uh i have a couple i' have a couple mine is and this was uh you know what this was a foolish thing some of you at home might might be like ben yeah you know what did you expect I remember i when I was in college I watched this movie and it really touched me and it really like said something to me and I watched it i was like holy shit this movie it wasn't the Avengers Forrest Gump yeah um and it was it was really ah like I was like holy shit this movie is so great oh my god was like just totally swallowed up by it and so ah during winter break I got all my friends together
00:36:50
Speaker
And I was like, guys, got to watch this movie. ah And the movie is ah Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, which is, i think, like two and a half hours long.
00:37:01
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like pretty, like, aggressively, like, intense. Yes. Like, there's there's a lot there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on.
00:37:12
Speaker
And I put it on for my friends, and I'm just like, I can't get It's so good. And my friends are just sitting there and they are just like,
00:37:26
Speaker
this is bad. Now you're like, you're watching this on, uh, DVD or DVD. Um, and we're like, and, and, and we're all locked in. Have you ever had, here's a question for Jess. Have you ever had the experience of, uh, recommending someone a movie or a TV show and you'd sit down to watch it with them. And then you realize like a, a bit in.
00:37:52
Speaker
that this isn't going to work and you you feel it in yourself and you're like let me tell you the movie am i gonna pull the cord or are we just gonna sit here let me tell you the movie i did this with which i think probably is almost contemporaneous with magnolia as my memory serves me magnolia's 99 i think so it'll be a little after that it's actually a little after that then but mine is ah the film, heart Huckabees, which I could see that I haven't seen I heart Huckabees. But yeah, like, oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
00:38:26
Speaker
and Yeah, I went to see I heart Huckabees and fell in love with it and decide this was like a brilliant, incredible just a movie with something to say that I couldn't recall any other movies ever trying to say before. Right.
00:38:41
Speaker
And like, just loved everything about it. Love Jason Schwartzman and Marky Mark. ah You know, it had ah it had Lily Tomlin in it. That was pretty Dustin Hoffman. Right. Yeah. has a Jude Law killer cast.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it was just fabulous. was what I loved everything about it. But it is a movie that I realized after I got together, Ben, I'm not joking, like six of my friends from grad school and made them come to the theater with me to see it. oh so it did And you, this was a second.
00:39:17
Speaker
and This was a second theater viewing for me. Great. ah so I've got it. And that's an even worse setting to realize. six seven minutes in that you've made a horrible mistake it's just like everyone's paid to be here everyone's got their popcorn and we're going to sit in this room for two hours and we get out of here everyone's going to hate me for making them sit through this and that was the experience it was terrible go to recommendation jail after that which is what yeah which is like because you know like
00:39:49
Speaker
you know you there's a lot on the line with a recommendation like that especially if you're getting people out to a theater yeah they're they're buying the ticket yeah uh and like and then after that you're in recommendation jail for at least six months you are not allowed to say and like you know and six months is a minimum Oh yeah.
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah. i mean And rightfully so, but I'm going to say youre right here on the podcast listeners, you should all go see, uh, heart Huckabees. You'll love it. here's I've learned nothing. Here's, here's the thing about I heart Huckabees is that now I haven't seen this film. So correct me if I'm wrong, but my thought when I think of I heart Huckabees is that similar tales from the borderlands,
00:40:35
Speaker
It is ah film that is intensely a like aughts indie comedy. Which there was like, and when I say that, I'm saying of like ah like a garden state or a Little Miss Sunshine or a, ah like those those very twee kind of. Yes, twee is a good one. It's a little more.
00:41:02
Speaker
Post Rushmore like Royal Tenenbaums. Like everybody saw what Wes Anderson did and was like, I could make a really like, like you know, like art directed like yeah family comedy.
Spotlight on Norco
00:41:17
Speaker
It's not as twee as a Wes Anderson film. Yeah, no, I've never managed that. Yeah, that is definitely of that ilk. um And yeah, I mean, it's it's it's a, I mean, again, I still enjoy it. I think it's really clever. ah Mark Wahlberg gives a particularly good performance, which is hard to imagine in a lot of ways, but what year did that hold on?
00:41:41
Speaker
I'm going I hurt. It's very much of a ah Bush era. ah Yeah. Okay. 2004. Yeah. See, I see this poster and it just immediately puts me in the place of, I'm going to the movie theater to see eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
00:41:59
Speaker
Okay, yeah, it definitely. is It is. Yeah, that is very much an Eternal Sunshine poster. You're right. And honestly, it's a little bit more like Eternal Sunshine than is like some of those other like Little Miss Sunshine ah style movies. So if we're from that era, I would say it has more in common with Eternal Sunshine. It's more of that melancholy vibe to it.
00:42:24
Speaker
Mark Wahlberg was two years away because two years later you have The Departed. that's a great mark walberg performance he's a lot of fun in that movie yeah like the premise is that dustin hoffman lily tomlin are essentially existential detectives and i don't know if this film was inspired in any way by like the Douglas Adams.
00:42:51
Speaker
ah Oh, the yeah. ah Why am I for forgetting this name? It's what? Dirk gently. gently Yeah. the Yeah. yeah Yeah, so it's got that vibe to it, like the idea that they solve mysteries by figuring out the hidden connections between human beings emotionally, etc., which I think is a fun premise.
00:43:15
Speaker
But again, how do you sell that to ah bunch of like 25 year old dudes who don't want to go see that movie. And yeah, I mean, it's, it's tough. It's tough to recommend something that people end up hating. I've recommended many more people see I heard Huckabees in the intervening years and have yet to find another person, um, other than my wife who enjoyed it. And that's why I married her in what year did this come out? 2004. Yeah. Uh, basically that's why i married her.
00:43:43
Speaker
Perfect. Because we loved our heart. I could be so much. And you know who presided over our wedding? Jude Law. Fabulous. He said by the ah powers vested in me by the law. And then he winked in the audience. Everybody everybody really chuckled politely.
00:44:01
Speaker
he was pretty drunk by that point. We have to get to the fucking point of this episode. But I do want to point out that that was like... it wasn't that like the year that Jude law was in like 70 movies?
00:44:11
Speaker
Yes. Like you would go to the fucking movie theater and it'd be like now playing like 10 movies that are all starring Jude law. It like he was, but you know what? I've never been bummed out to see Jude law.
00:44:24
Speaker
yeah You're a really good Jude law movie. You should say. Yeah. Captain Marvel. He is fantastic in that. know you haven't watched lot of Marvel movies right now. Not happening.
00:44:35
Speaker
I'm just saying, if you ever want to jump back into the MCU and you love Jude Law, you can't beat Captain Marvel. No, I've got ah too much else to... i got ah i got i Listen, I have a Wong Kar Wai box set I haven't finished.
00:44:54
Speaker
All
00:44:58
Speaker
right, let's talk about this game. Okay. Yeah, there was a game we we' mentioned we were going talk about before we ran out of time. ah So ah this week we're we're we're speaking about ah the adventure game Norco, which came out in 2022.
00:45:15
Speaker
ah Jess, you've been streaming it. I have i just been mainlining it for the past like week. Yeah, we've both been digging in on this one. Three sessions.
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah, you finished it. I'm ah just at the end of Act 2 out of 3, so I'm a good ways into it. and Yeah, you' you've got a kind of a chewy... You just started a pretty chewy segment at the end of Act 2, there's still a bit of runway. I would say you have...
00:45:47
Speaker
Probably about two hours left, maybe yeah two and a half. Um, you know, my reaction to this so far is this is hands down. One of the weirdest games I've ever played parentheses complimentary.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It bizarre. when When you were introducing Norco on your stream a couple days ago, you said, I have no idea how to synopsis this, which ah led me ah to like start kind of think about how would one synopsize this? And so I'd been cooking on it. And so this is what I wrote.
00:46:24
Speaker
I have a ah synopsis. If you're unfamiliar with Norco. and If you're unfamiliar with a synopsis, it's just going to be like a brief summary. Yeah. Norco is a game. If you can see the look, Ben just gave me this. It's good that this isn't a video podcast. Yeah.
00:46:41
Speaker
Norco is a game where you play Kay, a young woman who's been estranged from her family and returns to her hometown Norco in the suburbs of New Orleans shortly after her mother's death from cancer. Her brother, who she also had a strained relationship, has vanished.
00:46:56
Speaker
Over the course of the game, you play as Kay and in flashbacks as her brother Catherine as you explore a near future dark science fiction world where dar where large oil refineries belch smoke and fire over a dying bayou.
00:47:09
Speaker
The game primarily spends its time with the dispossessed and mentally ill, charting a story in ways large and small about generational harm, about faith and blind faith in new and incomprehensible technology, and and how the worst of the world affects the most vulnerable first.
00:47:27
Speaker
Ben, that's actually fantastic. Thank you. really pulled together some of the themes I wanted to talk about there. I love this. though this is This is really good. And I mean, that synopsis should clue listeners in who maybe you haven't played Norco ah to the fact that this is definitely a game with something to say. It's a game with a thing to say.
00:47:48
Speaker
And it's saying it in like some of the most unexpected ways imaginable with this sort of swamp punk setting. Swamp punk. That's a fun way to put it. I think theyve they've said it as like a Southern Gothic type, like dark sci-fi Southern Gothic. I think I've seen the the the person that wrote this say, but I like swamp punk. That's great.
00:48:12
Speaker
Oh, thank you. Before we get further, how spoiled, like, I think we're going to be like light spoiler territory. I think we're going to be more talking about themes.
00:48:24
Speaker
We might talk about a couple ah specifics. Also, I don't think this is a game you could really spoil. Uh, No, I mean, honestly, any spoiler you hear will be so incomprehensible that by the time you actually finish downloading this and begin playing, it will have just like drifted out of your mind already. There's nothing we can say about this game. It's spoiled. There's a whole bunch of like proper nouns and like characters and really like
00:48:56
Speaker
the like a very like elaborate plot that it has which i i read an interview where like the uh where the the guy wrote it uh he said that uh like the the back part i believe think i have the the quote here um is dr scrolling up in my notes.
00:49:23
Speaker
um But the game, this is him. But the game in many ways is very stream of consciousness and freely associative, which yes, yeah. I just said super duck right now. Yeah, that's not gonna make a lot of sense to you if you haven't played this game. And after you play this game, it still might not make a whole lot sense to you.
00:49:45
Speaker
So ah like like ah Brass Tacks, the the layout of it is is similar to like actually one of those ah console adventure games that we we spoke about. Like but like ah like a deja vu right?
00:50:01
Speaker
First person style. You're surveying a scene and interacting with objects and people in that scene. Your yeah your character is not visible on screen.
00:50:12
Speaker
you You have- move from location to location. Text runs down on the side, ah which You know, a lot of people have compared ah this ah ah Norco to Disco Elysium.
00:50:27
Speaker
And I think part of it just might be that they're both very wordy games that have like a word scroll like confined in the side. i And they they they have similar themes and they have like it's it's not entirely an unfair comparison. The voice, while I've played a Disco Elysium, the voice is not wholly dissimilar.
00:50:48
Speaker
you know If you enjoy Disco Elysium, you are going to enjoy Norco for sure. But I, they are, I would say like, I do think that if it didn't, like if all the text was like reading out on the bottom, like if it was like the bottom of like the scum interface or something and the text was there, i think less people would be making that comparison.
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, maybe so. Yeah. And it's it's not voiced either, which, you know, and I'm glad it isn't because honestly, it's an incredibly wordy game. And I think it almost works better as an unvoiced bit of writing.
00:51:24
Speaker
ah But... Yeah, it definitely, i mean, it has elements almost of like visual novel to it. It's more interactive with the yeah with the world the visual novel would be.
00:51:37
Speaker
But certainly as you work your way through certain dialogue scenes and things like that, it it has ah visual novel element to it. And part of that is probably also just the the richness of the writing, which is really where the game, I think, shines brightest.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yeah. You know, and and I, like I said this when you were streaming, i like I, ah of a bit of a thing that just drives me nuts, uh, playing a lot of adventure games and especially like kind of indie, uh, games because they won't have, perhaps they might not have, uh, like editors or people like, you know, as much like a robust support structure.
00:52:23
Speaker
um, is ah that they'll they'll be what I would say overwritten ah Like, for example, I love ah The Longest Journey.
00:52:36
Speaker
Yes. I also think The Longest Journey, like, someone needed, and if I mispronounce his name, I apologize, someone needed to like, go up to Ragnar Torquist and, like, the with a giant red Sharpie and just start, like, drawing huge X's through pages. On to him. He'll never learn otherwise. Like,
00:53:01
Speaker
uh well i mean you know if you play dream fall and dream fall chapters i could tell you you did not learn um i mean if those games exist which they do uh which means that they sold that means that the uh like they have an audience there are people like that that love that world and love those games and and love all the long paragraphs of dialogue. That's right. in And this game has that, this is the kind of game where you might look at it as like oh my drainage ditch.
00:53:32
Speaker
And you may get three paragraphs about this ditch, about how it came to be about how, you know, horrible corporations have, you know, ah polluted this ditch water, how this affects the people who live nearby this ditch water and probably what makes norco remarkable is it pulls it off. Get away with it.
00:53:56
Speaker
Is you thick description everywhere. And it is so engagingly written and it all creates and this is a thing we've talked about so many times on this podcast. It creates a sense of place and coherent world where this exists maybe as good or better than any other adventure game I've ever played.
00:54:15
Speaker
Yeah, it is that like, I really cannot undersell how, how good the writing is and how much it touched me, especially having played all of it.
00:54:29
Speaker
um Is, is that because like the, the the game deals with uh, like, especially as like in a, in a place like the, the, the swamps of Louisiana, where you have like these enormous refineries, ah which, uh, the, the writer was like, yeah, no, I grew up there. That's what, like I said there there, was like, there was a dragon in your backyard.
00:55:04
Speaker
uh, like, you know, to live in a place where you, you have like increasingly worse, like flooding and hurricanes, which are ah consequence of global warming.
00:55:25
Speaker
And then also there is like a thing, like one of the major like creators of the thing that is doing it but yes oil refinery right there yeah uh like you know there's there's this like uh this this terrifying like this very haunted feeling that that just is across the the the the game.
00:56:00
Speaker
And when, like I said in the synopsis, like where it's like about how the vulnerable feel like the effects of like the worst first Is that like all of the characters or most of the characters that you interact with, like you generally are are dealing with people on the fringes of society. There are a couple people that aren't that you and like hang out with.
00:56:25
Speaker
But in general, i it is, you know, as Jess said, like ah like a man that lives in ditches. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be, intersects, you know, with questions of of class, of of race, of of gender. You know, all of these are are reflected. Again, when you look at those, they're sort dispossessed, those who've been left behind by this by this system. And yeah, seeing how the game explores that in this sort of near future apocalyptic world and then
00:56:59
Speaker
You know, you mentioned how this sort of sense of, you the oil refineries almost looms over everything that's going on the story. I mean, and a lot of the scenes, they are literally looming over the background of the scenes. You see but a good chunk of the game.
00:57:16
Speaker
always in the background. There's a smokestack. There is, you know, one of these refineries. They're just like sort of haunting the entire game. And then seeing again, yeah, how this world that's been sort of, know, it's almost like a post disaster, post apocalyptic setting where,
00:57:34
Speaker
you know, ah climate change and pollution and runaway capitalism and all these other sorts of things have just left a lot of these people out of out of society at one level or another.
00:57:48
Speaker
Well, like you have to think about, so like in the the flashbacks, which are just a couple months before the, like before Kay, who like the main protagonist, like where you're her mother, who is like, who has cancer.
00:58:04
Speaker
And she, like, if you look at her phone, you know, she has all this outstanding, like debt. Mm hmm.
00:58:15
Speaker
ah presumably I'm going to assume from chemotherapy and she's doing like the, without giving too much away, she's doing like your objective in her, uh, like in her part of the game is that you're fulfilling these, uh, app job things to make a little bit of money.
00:58:41
Speaker
Yeah, she's in the gig economy essentially to pay for her chemotherapy. And like, so yeah, it's that game. Yeah, but I mean, it again, it defies description. Like all of this is like, man, this sounds heavy and this sounds, you know, dark.
00:59:00
Speaker
And it is those things. It is. But there is also, i mean, an element of world building this fascinating, but that it's it's infused with humor as well. Oh, and the humor...
00:59:15
Speaker
is just when when it's doing a funny scene yes it's funny and it made me like laugh out loud there's a sequence at the start of uh the the second act uh where you just like where you have a conversation with this character who's a hard-boiled pi It's amazing.
00:59:34
Speaker
there is Very funny. Yeah. And I don't know if he got, you know, he hasn't really returned so far in a major way in my playthrough, but you get such a sense of who this hard boiled down his luck PI who's hanging out in the local dive bar and just sort of telling you about what he does.
00:59:53
Speaker
um You know, and by the time you're done, you're like, oh God, play an adventure game starring that guy. It's like, this is this is a fascinating and funny character set against this backdrop of, you know, again, a pretty dark story of a, you know, a daughter estranged from her recently deceased mother.
01:00:13
Speaker
Which I, so the first day I played this, I played on Mother's Day. And so it really, I'll tell you, yeah as much as I love this game, it, like mainlining it, it bummed me out.
01:00:28
Speaker
ah mean It's one those good bum outs though, right? Yeah, it's a good bum out. I highly, ah highly recommend it. i You know, we've had a discussion.
01:00:40
Speaker
Like, I loved every second I had with this game. They're like, um, the... To what you were saying, Jess, is that all of the characters are very distinctly written and all have really distinct voices. Absolutely. And when you're playing as Catherine, when you're playing as her mother, she has distinct voice. Even in dialogue choices.
01:01:08
Speaker
like even in like the dialogue choices It is, the the writing is is so strong that it, like, as far as I'm concerned, it shoots the moon, which is is like, I'll get so frustrated when I, like, see a game and it, you know, and I'll i'll stop, ah you know, I'll stop picking on the longest journey. ah ah Torment Tides of Numenera, another game where I'm just like, all right, get over.
01:01:37
Speaker
i' no no, no, shut up. Too long, too much, too much, too much. Yeah. yeah Like, i you know, like, and and this shot the moon. I would like, I would not cut any of it.
01:01:55
Speaker
Like I like when I play the game. the The game rewards you like the the game has it is is on a critical path, but there are like little, you know, cul-de-sacs that you go to like like when on your most recent stream, Jess, there's like a scene where you can go back to a character's house because he mentioned it's his birthday.
01:02:20
Speaker
And that serves absolutely no plot purpose. There's nothing. It's just a chance to take this character home to hang out with his family for a few minutes and have a nice moment. I guess it's an achievement if you care about achievements. Yeah.
01:02:33
Speaker
But mostly it's just there because, gosh, this is a NPC that you've grown to care about a little bit by this point in the game. And this is an opportunity to do something nice for it. Yeah.
01:02:44
Speaker
Like it is... Like it is ah a game that has all these really like fascinating ah characters.
01:02:56
Speaker
And you can tell that it has a very deep empathy for all of them, too. Yes, it has like it loves all of these people ah in in this world.
01:03:08
Speaker
And it's also the redneck guy who works at the local convenience store that you can even end up in a fist fight with if you choose those options. That's what I did. i don't know if that's what I did. It was. Yeah. The game has affection for that jerk. Yeah. It made me feel bad.
01:03:24
Speaker
I feel pretty bad about that. I mean, you will, you know, you will interact with the unhoused, with the mentally ill, with the elderly and sick. And the game really puts a human face again on on all of these sort of dispossessed souls. And it's it's really remarkable. i mean, it it is doing the sort of thing that I think a lot of games aspire to that just don't quite get there as dense as this thing is there's no way it should be working and at least for both of us it very clearly works yeah like I think and uh you know if if if you're the the type of person that likes a
01:04:09
Speaker
ah because you know there is there is mystery like you know the at the the center of this game is this mystery that we won't even get into because it's you know kind of incomprehensible as said yeah your mom was digging into something that the corporations didn't wire digging into and you're trying to piece that together i think that's yeah close to kind of like that yeah but but it goes in places you can't imagine yeah but like so many really like There's a lot of really wonderful, ah detect, like, you know, stories that are about a world or about a problem or about like, kind of like that have a very strong point of view that use,
01:04:51
Speaker
like a detective story or a mystery as kind of your way to kind of pull you through it because, ah you know, a good mystery ah like kind of takes you through like a variety of different tableaus and groups of people.
01:05:09
Speaker
and and stuff like that so it's like it has you asking questions in a yeah diegetic way exactly and so it's like to me playing it the the the mystery is really beside the point um and it's like if you're if you're someone that that plays it or if like you're somebody that like you know I quoted that ah you know that stream of consciousness thing. it you You want all of your answers neatly you know like ah provided for you. Spoiler for you, Jess, and other people. you know
01:05:44
Speaker
It's messy. It's a messy game. Yeah, it feels like it's going to be. That isn't like... you know there There are some you know internet folks out there that that is seen as a flaw. And... to and And also, it's like, you can find all the answers that you're looking for if you if you really want to. And they even put out, like, this little supplementary thing on Itch ah that gives, like, a little ah little bit of extra background, actually. I was reading through that ah this morning.
01:06:15
Speaker
Um... but can you describe what this game looks like to yeah yeah yeah this is, I mean, it's a gorgeous game. Uh, like really, uh, this, uh, pixel art of like, uh,
01:06:32
Speaker
yeah i don't know it's like a grimy pixel art kind of vibe yeah lots of browns and grays until you get into a scene that demands color and then it has some scenes that really pop gorgeously but it is definitely atmospheric uh kind of a low res uh pixel art sort of vibe um i played it uh using its uh crt filter which i i did not play with but I'm usually not a like fake CRT guy.
01:07:02
Speaker
Like I usually hate fake CRT. I want it sharp, crisp pixels. But this game felt so nice and their CRT mode looked so good. I decided to to try that mode. i've I've been pretty satisfied with it. I think that it does a better job with fake CRT than than a lot games. But I definitely like a low res pixel art kind of vibe.
01:07:25
Speaker
I think that's one of those things, fake CRT. I think you just kind of have to dial it into what you're trying to do with the game. You know? Like, what what is it trying to... Like, You know, might not necessarily work for your m emulation thing. There's a couple emulate, like, I think the, the ah like, the ah Gold Master Collection, like Atari 50 and the Jeff Minter games and stuff like that, I think their CRT modes are pretty decent.
01:07:55
Speaker
um but like yeah if you throw that on to like uh you know if you're playing an instance of like some sort of emulator and it has like crt mode like yeah if it's not bespoke like if right if a team didn't like sit down and think like you know i'm sure the people over at digital eclipse uh when they they made like the gold master uh like re-releases or um, geography of robots, uh, when they, they put together this, uh, like if it, if it's not, uh, like bespoke for that, it's just like a little like thing where it's like, Oh yeah, look, I could turn on a, like unreal five or unity or whatever. Now it supports a CRT mode. Okay. I'll scan lines.
01:08:39
Speaker
Yeah. I agree. I think this the bespoke element is what makes this one work. I mean, this is tailored to make this game. look good in a different way so and it does that and I mean it does lots of you we've kind of talked about it in terms of how it functions as an adventure game and maybe some visual novel elements but it does some neat other stuff like it has you gather a party as you go through this like the party is great I can as a group of companions that can join you along the way.
01:09:11
Speaker
you can talk to them. You can discuss where you're at in the game, fill in more details about the world. Oftentimes they are part of helping you achieve whatever your current goal is. I need to break into yeah this office and these people have come along with me to help me do that. And they're all incredibly well fleshed out characters. You will ah in the the same way that if you're playing like say no Bioware game. you know, start to feel attached to these, to these people. i mean, that works well. It has, it has many games. It has like little, so it's like the, most of the game is very visual, novel-y and the game
01:09:53
Speaker
intensely clues you ah like for stuff like it will put like a clue in a different color in the text to like really it's yeah not it is more interested in you uh like completing it than trying to stump you like it's just like uh like you'll be reading like a long like series of paragraphs and then there will be a number in green in the middle of the text you're like okay that's the secret past code um yeah uh it wants you to keep moving yeah it it uh it has like you know and this actually this is probably the part that i'm i'm like i was i was kind of the the the least in into which was like it has like these little combat things they're fine like they're not hard at all that's the important part and they're very quick yeah um uh like and and even uh
01:10:47
Speaker
notably even in those they make it like kind of easy for you to kind of like cheese them like they're not they're but yeah like those it has like these little combat things those are whatever um uh and then it has memory game of simon in order to pet a cat yeah that that was cute a cat named crouton ben crouton is the name for a cat crouton is a great do better i mean yeah yeah for an orange cat crouton fantastic fantastic name everyone if you love orange cats uh crouton i love my orange cat he's a sweetheart but he's teddy crouton's fantastic um then uh then the other stuff is is every now and again it will it'll throw a puzzle at you and ah those those puzzle sequences are also not like in general
01:11:39
Speaker
they're they're they're not too difficult uh like that one with the drones looked a lot more difficult than it was it did yeah you're ever seeing that when i was playing and being like i'm i don't have the whatever the fuck this is i don't have that and then it's like oh this isn't hard at all um no it seldom has stumped me as i've played through which i like i mean i feel like this is the sort of game that if you had to stop and spend 30 minutes cracking open a puzzle The loss of that momentum, I think, could easily make the game start to feel a little exhausting. It's like all that giant wall of text goes through great because it's well written and you're enjoying the experience and you're immersed in the world.
01:12:20
Speaker
Once you get stuck in that, I can't figure out this puzzle and don't know what to do next and have no idea where to go. that breaks the immersion and all of a sudden those sorts of things that were very charming a few minutes ago could could lose you and this game does a good job of making sure it keeps the momentum going so it doesn't pull you out of this immersive world it's created i i i think it's also it's like there's um uh like there's there's real
01:12:51
Speaker
i Like if, you know, to what you were saying, Jess, like if, if you kind of get bumped and like leave a puzzle in a game, there's just so much stuff.
01:13:03
Speaker
Like there's so much like plot in this game yeah that like, if you put it down because you got annoyed by a puzzle and come back like a week later, like, all right, I'm here to try it again.
01:13:14
Speaker
You might be like, wait, who the fuck is that? Wait, where the fuck am i going? ah yeah no Like, what's this? yeah this thing could collapse under its own weight if it wasn't a nice breezy game in terms of puzzles it's very impressive in in in that it it does a lot of things that if any other game did them i would be like this is bullshit yeah and it gets away with it i mean again that's what makes it such an impressive game it's a smile Yeah.
01:13:46
Speaker
And it does. i mean, we've we've talked about this being a dense story. I mean, one nice feature that it has is, ah you have might have a mind map mode, you which is, you know, we see it in games like, you know, uh, the Sherlock Holmes games from frog where use this. I was wondering, I was trying to think because there are other games that have done this and i was trying to figure out. Alan Wake 2 does it ah quite a bit um where, you know, you like get, you hear a name and it appears in your mind map and you start to make connections and things like that.
01:14:15
Speaker
Here it's less about how do I connect this person to that thing or that situation? And really it's sort of, it functions more of like a just recap of what you've learned about people, places and things as you've been playing.
01:14:29
Speaker
Again, and some of this is interactive, like some of it's done through your memory. So it's like when I think about my mom, I remember and it'll maybe give you a couple of options. And as you choose those things through your mind map, you sort of nail down your version of who some of these characters were, how some of these situations unfolded, which is a neat factor. yeah I think it it works really well, almost like a little codex for the game, more so than its own mini puzzle.
01:14:52
Speaker
ah But that helps. It really a few times has helped me straighten out a few things where I wasn't quite sure what was going on. Yeah. And like, yeah. And, and also like we were talking about the art, ah the music is really, really good.
01:15:08
Speaker
it's just a, it's a, it's a really, it's just such a handsome total package, especially for the first game from a developer. Yeah, it was ambitious for the first game for a developer. But no, I mean, it really, it does, it hits on all cylinders, kind of like all these pieces are just coming together to make a game that really defies description or comparison in a lot of ways. yeah I mean, again, Disco Elysium might be the most obvious choice there, but again, it's not even a ah perfect correspondence as far as that goes.
01:15:43
Speaker
Yeah. And, uh, like to, you know, and you do get to spend a little bit of time in, in new Orleans itself as well.
01:15:54
Speaker
Uh, which it's, it's funny because it's like in, in, uh, Like your, your interactions with ah like, you know, kind of like middle-class people or tourists.
01:16:10
Speaker
There's a part later where you run into people like Airbnb and they're like just deeply obnoxious. Like all of the, all of the people that like you run into that are like tourists in the French Quarter, like,
01:16:23
Speaker
ah who like I think you see like two or three i are like just deeply obnoxious of course we're ah you know you you brought up jazz fest dad which that's my dad my dad is jazz fest dad Um, I hope that's also obnoxious in ah when he visits, he visits the French Quarter.
01:16:48
Speaker
i mean, this is not obnoxious when I visit the French Quarter when I take my trips ah down. Yeah, Ben, you and I are both, you know, tourists who love New Orleans. We've both spent time there. We've been multiple trips. And there are three times.
01:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think me too. I stay there yeah every time. Yeah. And we love the city, both of us. But, you know, do think that this is, you I think of a game like Gabriel Knight that's also set in New Orleans. And it feels like sort of a tourist version of what New Orleans is. Did they even visit it?
01:17:22
Speaker
Did Jane go to New Orleans? i thought thing was I don't think she had, but I could be wrong. i yeah Please, please, please. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry. I apologize, Jane.
01:17:35
Speaker
This is clearly written by a local. That's what I love about Yeah, was going to make that distinction. It's like, you know, in Gabriel Nutt, yeah, it's like you're going hit French Quarter. You're going to go to voodoo shop. You're going go to Jackson Square. You're going to go to some landmarks and get that experience. But here, you know, it is a very real local resident version of New Orleans, which I love Gabriel Nutt. I'm certainly not bad-mouthing this version New Orleans. Goodness gracious. sure we'll have a Gabriel Nutt episode before long. Yeah, we haven't talked a lot about
01:18:07
Speaker
Gabriel Knight. yeah I know we really haven't, which is remarkable, honestly. It is, yeah. I'm realizing that now as we bring it up, this podcast has a lot of Gabriel not talk. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, yeah, no, this one, I mean, you can tell it's written by someone who lived and grew up here. Yeah. It definitely is a different perspective. It feels way more real and in some really charming ways for a very unreal game in a lot ways. It's very interesting to, to play a game that spends most of its time in the suburbs of a major city.
01:18:40
Speaker
Yes. Um, Because those also have, like, you know, as evidenced in the game, they ah also have, like, their their own, like, culture and way. And it might be, like, kind of colored by, like, the the major city that it's, like, a satellite of.
01:19:02
Speaker
Like, it's, like, the... the you probably most of the people ah that live there, they might work in that big city, though many of them ah work at the the refinery, I believe in Norco, which I believe Norco stands for New Orleans refinery, like, you know, like center.
01:19:27
Speaker
But yeah, like, I think it's an acronym, like the the town name itself. um I'm going to look that up. But...
01:19:38
Speaker
Yeah, like, um ah is is there any, because there's also just stuff that I, like, because I have a bunch of, like, thoughts and and things I want to say about it but honestly, I'm going to save them for off the the the podcast and talk to Jess about them, just so, you know, to to keep this a little more ah open.
01:20:00
Speaker
That's right, it is a patrons-only plot. New Orleans Refining Company. There you go. um yeah i mean this is a great time actually to uh announce our sponsor for this episode shell petroleum folks if you enjoy petroleum uh if your cars and society run on it you could do a lot worse than shell petroleum yeah ah You didn't know we had a big oil sponsor this week. All of our deals with Big Pharma yeah dropped out. I had a bunch of ED pills lined up that was going to pitch all through the ah do the episode, but that didn't work out. So now the best I could do was an oil company. I'm hoping to get a defense contractor for our next episode. And these companies pay so well. I don't get it.
01:20:45
Speaker
You know, and there's there's one other thing I'll say about the narrative of Norco, which is... i You know, any, like, you know, the ah any any sort of ah like, piece of art or, you know, literature whatever, tv you know, that has,
01:21:11
Speaker
um like, as as part of it, like a group of upset young men that were like, uh, like cultishly turned on by ah semi, uh, like religious guy they saw in videos.
01:21:32
Speaker
Like, you know, when they made Norco, like that was, it's like, this is a concern. Like those, you know, like cute people or, you know, whatever, like all of that, like, this is a concern. And,
01:21:44
Speaker
Fortunately, we've taken care of that. That's absolutely not a concern anymore in the year of 2025. Videos aren't radicalizing anyone anymore. whirlwind we've reaped.
01:21:57
Speaker
But that's major plot point in this game. And i've like going through it, I'm just like, Ugh. ah I think I should put a note in my notes app on my phone that's just like whirlwinds I've weeped and just just keep an ongoing list of those. I think that's a useful thing too to keep track of. But no, mean, yeah, yeah we didn't even mention, yeah, there's a there's a cult of angry young men. There is ah and rogue AI abomination. There's there's all kinds of... yeah
01:22:31
Speaker
interesting threads things that people were concerned about in 2022 and we fixed them we all solved uh yeah we solved all that before when when does this episode air uh yeah um hopefully hopefully we solved all of those by tuesday yeah um if this goes well so that i've got some ideas but you know the weekend's coming up and And the thing is, like, again, I said this in the synopsis, like, a lot all of this is also, like, generational harm. And, like, these are these are become themes that, like, run in the game where, like, you hear things about, like, what grandparents did and what, like, former companies and in that area did. And that, like, becomes...
01:23:15
Speaker
like, ah like that you, you learn about things that were done in the bayou a century ago at a certain point. Like, it's just like, You, you, the, the, the game isn't necessarily saying it's like, oh, this is a bad thing now. It's like, this is a bad thing. That's the series of a variety of bad thing, like bad choices.
01:23:40
Speaker
that Like if you've made over like a century, there's like this scene where you look at your house. Yes, I was thinking the same one. About. It gives you you ah ah four options, and it's like ah the first flood, and you have a reminiscence of the first flood.
01:23:58
Speaker
It's like the second flood, you have a reminiscence of the second flood. The third flood, you have a reminiscence of the third flood. And then there's the fourth flood, which hasn't happened yet, and it's just like, this is the flood that's going to take away the house.
01:24:12
Speaker
And all of them are talking about how this affected you personally, how this affected communities, how this affected the yeah the city and it and its people. And yeah, just this notion of New Orleans, a city that already has seen its share of disaster and yeah extrapolating that into a future where these disasters are even, you know,
01:24:35
Speaker
larger in scale and and even more transformative. I mean, just what a, what a fascinating direction to take this as a piece of ah very, you know,
01:24:46
Speaker
and in a way grounded science fiction, but in other ways, just so far out there that, uh, you know, it, uh, it just goes in places you couldn't imagine.
01:24:58
Speaker
So, I mean, here's the thing, Ben, I don't know if, uh, if this has come through, this is a pretty good game. Yeah. It, uh, it touched me. Um, I was, was touched by this game. Uh, I, I enjoyed it. Uh, there, there are parts of it that I that will stick with me in the same way.
01:25:14
Speaker
that a game like kentucky root zero a game like pentiment like two of the other like uh this is i this is a well-written game when there's good writing this is great writing this is fantastic writing and and this is one of those games it something very special um And yeah, we both love it. And I hope we didn't just, I heard Huckabees, all of you.
01:25:44
Speaker
hope you don't pick this thing up. i mean, because now that i think about this, this is DASI episode. Yeah, I've had a few people comment on YouTube or in my ah my Twitch chat. It's like, I tried this one and I kind of bounced off of it. Yeah. So I think this is one that julia I could see not getting into it.
01:26:00
Speaker
It's yeah. wince And it's heavy and it's a bummer. And also like, as I was saying earlier, it's also a game that like, you have to be in for like kind of a, like something that isn't going to explain everything to you or might be written by someone that is, you know, writing it in kind of like a dream logic way.
01:26:24
Speaker
yeah like for me that's my sweet spot uh love that i don't need to sit down and think like this means this and this means this and i understand what like i don't need any of that i didn't like i really don't um And, uh, uh, but like, you know, I've seen complaints on online where it's like, I they yeah i never explained why what about this. And it's like, who gives a shit?
01:26:51
Speaker
It doesn't need to. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not about that. It is about the people. It's about the feelings. It's about the setting. The, you know, plot to me yeah is secondary. These upset young men are in a plot and a, in a, an abandoned mall one of like, I mean, you know, ah like, you know, you, you really can't underline the themes that you're trying to make clear any, any more than you're doing.
Episode Conclusion
01:27:24
Speaker
yeah It's a, it's a group of Zach McCracken worshiping cultists who've holed up in a mall.
01:27:31
Speaker
Um, it's good stuff. Yeah. All right. Well, folks, this has been Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Send us an email yeah ah quest quest podcast at at gmail.com. Let us know. Are there any co-op adventure games ah that ah that we didn't ah think of?
01:27:50
Speaker
um are Are there games that you think of when you think of like exceptionally written ah adventure games. I would say Hypnospace Outlaw is another one that I think is really, really good.
01:28:04
Speaker
Yeah, Space Quest 2. Yeah, Space Quest 2. But... Those are the three biggies. Norco, ah space quest two but yeah is there is there is there another one out there there that you think uh you know maybe uh uh are you a trinity head do you do you ride or dive or brian moriarty uh but uh give us a uh five-star review helps people find uh this this podcast and Join us next week when it's my turn to recommend a game to Jess. I'm going to recommend one of my absolute favorite adventure games, Pac-Man 2, The New Adventure.
01:28:47
Speaker
No!