Transcript
Speaker: Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt.
Speaker: What? Amazing news. Incredible news. Oh, no. I said amazing and you said, oh, no. Wow. You don't. Yeah. But our standards for amazing might be different. What you find amazing news might be something that's a little. dare you. How dare The people that you are discussing it with. Okay. All right. Let's go. How dare you call me out like that? um Anyway, amazing news. So I was served a reel on Instagram about, um do you know what Cece's pizza is?
Speaker: You know, I've never been to a CC's pizza, but I know it. But you know, it's like it like extremely inexpensive, for those who don't know, extremely inexpensive pizza buffet. It's mostly for kids, I think, because like the pizza is not that good. That's I've heard. Yeah, but it is a buffet. So you just go and you eat a shit ton of pizza and maybe you're happy. I don't know. Okay. They they don't really survive in Chicago for obvious reasons, but i did we did have one out in the burbs for a little while. So I have been to one.
Speaker: It's fine. It's fine. Now, who do you think a good mascot would be? a good brand for character. A shitty pizza. Yes, for CeCe's Pizza. a shitty A cheap, shitty pizza that ah is known for its buffet, and it's yeah called CeCe's. Yes.
Speaker: A...
Speaker: Huh. I'm going to say a chipmunk. And so you show like a you show like a little cartoon of a chipmunk just stuffing just tons of pizza into its big old cheeks. And because it's a chipmunk, Cece. Yeah, because they can do that. Oh, chipmunk Cece. So like Carlos the chipmunk. Cece chipmunk. So it's like Carlos the chipmunk. And he's stuffing all this stuff into his cheeks. And then he skitters away.
Speaker: And then the Arlos and hip monk fall off and it just says CC. Right. Okay. I like it. okay It has potential and it makes way more sense than what I'm about to describe to you. Oh, okay. So CeCe's, they decided they needed a mascot, which, you know, fine. That can help. Maybe I need a mascot. Maybe we need a mascot. I don't know. We'll talk about it. Whoa. i Save your game mascot. Save your game mascot.
Speaker: What would it be? Like a floppy disk. Yeah, was going to say a cursor with eyes. Like clippy, but maybe not as obnoxious. So CeCe's mascot is new.
Speaker: And, okay. He is, in fact, an old-timey steampunk-looking guy with a big handlebar mustache and a hot top hat. He was found in a basket at somebodys at a pizza creator's door, and he only grew to four inches tall.
Speaker: The mascot is four inches tall, and to get around... So the the the door he was left at, listen, the door he was left at was a pizza maker's name, a pizza maker named Pazzino or Pazzini.
Speaker: um and And the little guy in the basket, his name was Cosmo Colucci, Cece. Cece. But he was adopted. Like I said, he was found at the door in a tiny basket. Papa Pizzino adopts him.
Speaker: And now Cece, Cosmo Colucci or whatever, now he's helping with... with pizza production, but he's so he's short. He's four inches tall, so he can't get around. So like he builds contraptions, like steampunk contraptions and flying machines to get around the pizza factory. And he is credited. Oh, yes, he is credited.
Speaker: With inventing the pizza buffet. Which I don't think is true. I think Pizza Hut did it long before. I was just going to say. I think Pizza Hut did it. But okay. And yeah. You can look them up. And the best thing about this. C.C. Pizzini.
Speaker: I'm looking at him. I'm looking at him. Here's a question I have. huh yeah ah Steampunk guys. They put the goggles on top of the top hat.
Speaker: Right? Yes they do. But like, like why that's not convenient. It's not. It's it's the look. Because if you need your goggles with you at all that, like if you're like, oh, I got to keep them right near my head because i I might need to put them on my eyes in a hurry. Right. It's kind of like the idea of having goggles on your head.
Speaker: But if you're trying to get those fucking goggles. Yeah. Off a top hat? They're not going to get over the lip of the hat. You're going to have to pull them all the way up over the top of the hat and then unfasten them. No, then take the hat off, then put it back on your face, and then put the hat back down. It's
Speaker: You know... Steampunk guys. You know. we got go We got to go talk to some steampunk guys because these guys got it all wrong. This a crazy thing to do. Have the goggles on your head and then put the top hat. oh Like, do top hat, goggles, face.
Speaker: Okay. ah You're very worked up about this. it's It's making me so mad looking at this thing and thinking, oh, what if you need the goggles? You're going to like... And then they're going to get stuck, so you're shaking the top hat upside down.
Speaker: ah CeCe Pizzini. CeCe Pizzini is very – Yes. That guy sucks. No, no, no, no. look He's actually awesome because i know that guy. I know the actor who plays CeCe Pizzini.
Speaker: can you Do you have his phone number? don't have his phone number. have his Instagram and I his phone number. So you can't like call him right now on this podcast and we can talk to him about how his fucking hat sucks. Sadly, no. And I don't think he made the hat.
Speaker: We got to talk to him about his, how his hat sucks. But like, I, i was like, I, again, let's go back a little bit. I was served this reel, right. About the reel was about how CC Pizzino is going to actually be replaced by AI. Yeah.
Speaker: And so I watched this real really sad. And there's like they're showing like these AI weird cartoons with CC because, know, they made him say this like this cartoon that like I was I'm i'm on the CC's pizza website right now. orri And I was going to say this fucking thing looks like AI. Are you sure you know this man? Yes, I know. I do know this man.
Speaker: ah And I'll show you the reel afterwards about how they're talking about AI. And then it said and then it said it' I'm not going to say his name in case he's uncomfortable. But then it said the actor's name. And I'm like, that's funny. i know an actor in California with that name. And so I jokingly, jokingly sent him a message. I'm like, hey, this is so funny. I'm watching this reel about a mascot called Cece Pazzini. Yeah. And I just want to make sure like that's not you.
Speaker: And he's like, no, that's me. that's i I'm Cece. I'm like, this is the best day of my life. wow I know a celebrity.
Speaker: Okay. So yeah as I was looking up this Cece's pizza thing. Yeah. Found this website. Yeah. The coconut mama.com.
Speaker: What's that? Here's what she says. Forget Cece's pizza. Here are nine better buffets. And you tell me if you agree. Okay. Okay. Let's do it. Okay. You think about Cece's pizza and then i'll think about it I'll say a buffet and you tell me if it's better or worse. Okay.
Speaker: Actually, let's start at the bottom. Okay. Who hot Mongolian grill.
Speaker: It's called who what I'm sorry. It's called what? Who hot Mongolian grill? I'm going to say Cece's is better. Okay. Pizza Ranch. in um It's in 15 states, Midwest and the Plains. Pizza Ranch. I'm going to say Cece's.
Speaker: Big Boy. It's just called Big Boy? Well, you know the guy – you know the Big Boy? the ro Like Bob's Big Boy? rob Yeah. youve saying that You've seen the mascot. Yeah, Big Boy.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. Is that better than Cece's? No. okay Pizza Hut. Yes. Pizza Hut is better. yeah Fog de Chau.
Speaker: Fogo de Chau. Fogo de Chau. Okay. Is that what it is? Is it fa are you is it Fogo de Chau? Yeah. Fogo de Chau, I didn't know, had a pizza buffet. They are a Brazilian steakhouse. Oh, it doesn't have – they're just saying it is – has a buffet.
Speaker: Well, then Fogo de Chau. Okay. All right. Absolutely. Texas de Brazil. Texas de Brazil is like my favorite place. I love it there. Oh, my God. Texas de Brazil. wo They have lobster bisque and it is unlimited. i had no idea this place still existed.
Speaker: Sizzler. No. Sizzler? Where? Come on. Wait. Where is there sizzler? in the on In Puerto Rico and the West Coast. Well, fuck. How are we going to get there?
Speaker: yeah we can't. Listen, save your game meet and greet at the Sizzler. At the Sizzler in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico. All right, Shoney's.
Speaker: Oh, my God. I haven't heard that name in so long. Shoney's. I mean, it's. Buffets at Shoney's. Yeah, it's. I mean, it's still going to be Texas Day Brazil, though. All day, every day.
Speaker: Here's the last one. Okay. Golden Corral. Oh, come on. Gross. Texas Day Brazil is the winner of all buffets, according to me.
Speaker: My grandmother likes Golden Corral, so I have to eat there like once every two years. You know, you can find joy in Golden Corral. You can find it there. Wait minute. Back it up. Why once every two years? I don't know. mean, seems to be roughly once every two years that she's like, we should all go to Golden Corral. I'm sure she goes to Golden Corral all the fucking time. But it's like once every two years, she's like, the family is going to Golden Corral. Okay, so obviously we can't do Save Your Game, meet and greet at the Sizzler as much as I want to, like real bad. we'll do the Lancaster County Golden Corral.
Speaker: Yep, that's where it is. ah You guys there. the next The next blue moon. On the next blue moon, we will do... i ah
Speaker: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to this very nostalgic episode of Save Your Game. I have multiple tabs open on my desktop with like Shoney's, The Sizzler, ah Texas Napres.
Speaker: You know what? You don't have open, I'm guessing, ah and I don't either, is the document that we need to have open for this episode. Joke's on you. That's one of the 40 tabs that's open on my desktop somewhere. i don't have it open.
Speaker: You're so, so unprepared. That was easy. This is my this is my unprepared co-host, Matt Aukamp. Okay, so the next blue moon is May 20th, 2027. May 20th, 2027 at the Golden Corral in Lancaster County.
Speaker: We'll be there. And I'll have my grandmother be there, too. Oh, your grandma. Grandma. is it Is her last name Allcamp? Yeah. Mumum. Mumum Allcamp. Oh, Grandma Allcamp. I just can't wait to meet She's not her Grandma. She's Mumum.
Speaker: ah To me, she's not. She's Mumum. Okay, Mumum. Am I allowed to call her that? I don't know. um Yeah, if you meet fair call her, her Mumum. Does she like tattoos? Probably not.
Speaker: Well, you know what? That's okay. I will win her over. I will win her over at the Golden Corral at our Savior Game, Beat and Greet. On the blue moon, May 20, 2027. What you been enjoying lately?
Speaker: um Not much, but i am about to sell my soul for a Switch 2. I'm about do it. I'm doing it Listen, I saw the Ocarina of Time trailer.
Speaker: i saw Ocarina of Time tra remake trailer. i got really fucking excited about it. Really? Yeah. People are kind of like, I think the there's a ah contingent of the internet that is like,
Speaker: it It doesn't look like they're updating the gameplay at all. They're just updating the graphics, so people are calling it just like... People are saying it looks like a um one of those fan remakes where they just oh they just do the game again in Unity.
Speaker: I like it. I like how it looks. I think I like how it looks, too. I'm excited. i think it's just like a fun excuse to replay... Yeah, I mean, they're making it more accessible, right? Like now we can actually play it on ah on a console, which will be nice. um I'm excited and ah I haven't played Pacopia and I want to do that. and like Yeah, yeah, Pacopia is I want i want to so i want a Switch That is what I want. here's Here's the thing, and I heard somebody else talk about this, so this is not an original thought. i
Speaker: I wish I could credit them, but I listened to a bunch of video game podcasts. I don't know who said this. So they have made a dedicated jump button, like a regular jump button. I do not like that, but yeah, please they did do that, yes. Right, rather than just running at the edge and allowing Zelda to jump.
Speaker: Yes. Now the question is, and I do think maybe it was Steven and Brendan on um Into the Aether. Okay. The question is, are they going to redesign dungeons and parts of the overworld so that having a like a free the freedom to jump whenever you want Yeah.
Speaker: yeah like integrates with the puzzles and integrates with the gameplay or is it just the exact same game but now you can jump whenever you want and doesn't that completely undermine the design of a bunch of different shit in the game
Speaker: I don't know. And I don't care. i'm going to play this game. No, me too. But I do think that is a good question. And I course it is do really hope ah they like, if you change something about how the game is played, you have to then alter the design to make it make sense. no i don I understand. You're just going to have it's, you know, what you're going to have is me trying to jump on the roof of all the buildings and Oh, yeah. Because it's just kind of like broken, right? Yeah. I can just get anywhere I want at any time because I'm walking towards a cliff and pressing jump 700 times. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I definitely, yeah. I mean, I definitely get the, that questioning. i But I'm still like so excited about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same.
Speaker: And I'm like trying to save up for ah Switch 2 and I'm um' pretty pretty excited. haven't had a new console in a while. I pre-ordered it. I pre-ordered I pre-ordered Zelda. Oh, the game?
Speaker: Yeah, because there was... and You know why? Why? Because right after it's said it was announced, there was like a... ah Some video game website was like... Hey, there's ah there's a discount of in the electronics department of Walmart right now. If you pre-order the game right now, you can use that discount and you'll get it 40% off or what?
Speaker: Nice. It's like $10 off or something. oh And I was like, it's good well, fuck yeah. like When do you ever get discounts on a Nintendo game? Never. Yeah, never. They don't do that shit.
Speaker: And so, like, the discount wasn't there to use on Zelda. It was just somebody had figured out, oh, the discount's there, and Zelda's open for pre-orders. Quick, quick, quick, before they realize.
Speaker: So I have it pre-ordered at Walmart. That's so great. Yeah. I'm jealous. I'm jealous. Because I got it for, like, a...
Speaker: I'm just jealous that you got a Switch 2. And why? I'm the one who did this. I did it to myself, really. Yeah. well i Well, try having a birthday sometime in your life. I do have a birthday. Well, try having a better one where Switch 2 gets sent to you.
Speaker: What have you been enjoying? i Clearly, I've just enjoy been enjoying my thoughts and Instagram reels about like old, like not old, but like mascots that don't make sense. so What are you enjoying? I have to quick check a...
Speaker: um I have to quick check an embargo date. When does this come out? um In a couple days if somebody edits. Oh, okay. I have not been enjoying this thing then. Never mind. Forget what i forever for whatever I was about to say. Forget it. I'll talk about it next episode. Matt's not enjoying anything. I'm enjoying Fields of Mysteria still. Oh, are you? i haven't booted i have not booted it back up, I gotta say. The reason I want to bring it up now is because i beat the I finished the story.
Speaker: Oh, aria okay. It got very into the fantasy. Okay. Of it. Um, it was kind of, I don't know. I found it underwhelming.
Speaker: i didn't love really I didn't love the ending of the story. it It didn't have, you know how at the end of Stardew Valley, you sort of, it sort of brings a bunch of threads together and you get this esprit de corps and you get this like fist pumping moment of like, fuck yeah, take that Jojo.
Speaker: Yeah. Um,
Speaker: Yeah, Fields of Mystery is kind of just like, oh, okay. Okay. That's disappointing. You meet a new character at the end of the game that now joins the village. That's cool. Okay.
Speaker: um
Speaker: But I've already met a bunch and of new... i have I have a bunch of characters that you probably haven't met. Oh, that's interesting. I think I have. I don't know. i Yeah, I think I have like six new characters that you haven't met but a lot of them are you are relegated to you know this isn't much of a spoiler so i'm just going to say it there's the market the Saturday market expands oh cool I love a market but then there's a then there's another character kind of like remember when you unlocked a character in the story of the game yeah um it's similar to that you get another character in that kind of way at the end of the game Well, that makes me a little more excited knowing that there's new new characters that are going to be there.
Speaker: and i yeah And I am now – this is so much fun. I am now dating everybody who's dateable in the game. Cool. And you can kiss – unlike – you know, in Stardew Valley, you can only kiss your spouse.
Speaker: Yes. And you can freely kiss them whenever you want. Yes. Well, in Fields of Mystery, you can kiss a a person you're dating at any point. Oh, boy. so
Speaker: the thing The other cool thing about Fields of Mistry, for people who haven't played it, is that the characters each carry their own schedules. like They have a schedule that they live out every day. Yeah. And it's not like Stardew Valley where they just go someplace and stand.
Speaker: Yeah. They have things. They got shit to They have shit to do. They have things they do and things that make sense to do. Yeah. um
Speaker: i
Speaker: ah or Okay, so that leads to a a funny scenario where sometimes, like, a bunch of people will be walking past you all at once, and you'll be dating, like, six of them, and you can just kiss each one as they go past. Like, you Standing there just kissing everybody that walks past you. oh my gosh. And you can date brothers and sisters in this game, like Adeline and Island. So Adeline Island are there and they're like and they frequently stand together in places. They frequently are doing something together.
Speaker: And you can, like, go stand in between them and just back and forth kiss them. Oh, my God. Do they react? No one reacts. What? It's so funny because if they're walking in a line, which sometimes happens, especially if they're coming back from, like, the beach or they're leaving the Saturday market or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker: You can block their path by kissing somebody because it makes the person stop in their tracks. Yep. And then the person, somebody's, like, walking past and they have to stop. Because you're blocking their way. So it's like your girlfriend is stopping and waiting for you to kiss your other girlfriend. That's so funny. And then as soon as you let that first girlfriend go, just start kissing the other girlfriend. And now your boyfriend is standing there waiting for you to stop kissing your girlfriend. And they leave and then you're kissing them. It's so funny.
Speaker: That's amazing. Yeah. um are you Do you have like marriage unlocked? Yeah. I do have marriage unlocked. I don't, I probably marry Celine, but I don't know. Something is also starting to push me towards, um, uh, uh, fuck. What's her name? ju Juniper.
Speaker: You don't even know her name. Wow. Um, yeah, I don't know. i don't know. Man, I got to get back into this. kissing them all.
Speaker: I'm kissing them all. Name one. I've kissed them. uh march kissed him what the fuck stay away from my weird asshole dude uh the the this the character the two characters that joined the town that i that were that are spoilers oh no i've only kissed one of those two okay i've kissed the first one i kissed the one you know about okay i have not kissed the other the other part yeah got it got it got it that makes sense um i love i like juniper a lot i like her style
Speaker: Skimpy. Skimpy. Yep. Skimpy. I relate. i like I like the skimpy look. All right. So, Fields of Mysteria. It was fun. I'll still probably keep playing it to try and like... Yeah. Like I'm trying to finish the museum and I'll probably get married and stuff. and if any yeah But I imagine I'm not going to bring it up on the show much more after this. I might if I play... If I do something. Yeah. Yeah. And then we can talk about it. But like... Yeah. I think...
Speaker: I have passed by anything that is particularly remarkable. oh um So if something super remarkable happens, I'll bring it up on the show. But yeah I think this is I'll be playing it, but I don't know that I'll have much more to say about it. I think at this point, it's just like making spreadsheets and being like, okay, on fall when it rains, I have to go to this pond and catch a fish so I can fill the museum, like that sort of shit.
Speaker: Yeah. Like the the minutiae stuff that is not. yeah Yeah. And like who what who likes what gift? I have to get to 10 hearts with everything now. I always do that in Stardew. Always. Yeah. And in Stardew, it's like I have it all memorized. But in this game, there's just too much. and it's And frankly, I've said this before about Fields of Mystery. It's not it's all just not as memorable as the stuff in Stardew.
Speaker: So why don't you play some really, really old music? I think last episode we played an Edison cylinder. Like, ah you know, like play like somebody banging on like a rock. Play some old ass music. Okay.
Speaker: Because we can't get copyright struck again. What a great segue. Thank you for that, Matt. So we will only ever play public domain music from here on out.
Speaker: Hey everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. I am one of your hosts, Pushing Up Roses, with me as always. Pushing Up Roses. Hi, Matt. Hi. Matt Aukamp. Hi, Matt Aukamp. It's so good to have you here, Matt.
Speaker: Thank you. It's good to be here. i almost didn't come. I almost didn't show up. Really? I'm glad I did. Okay. Well, I just learned that. ah
Speaker: So I'm going to quickly explain to the people. I'm on strike. What? No, you're not. Get the fuck out of here. I'm going to quickly explain to the people what we are doing. We are continuing from our last ah episode. This is going to be called. Why do I keep forgetting what I myself named this?
Speaker: Hang on. I got It's right up at the top of this document. Okay. Right. Got it. Okay. So I have created. that's ah
Speaker: Thank That's very helpful. um I've created a title for a concept that Matt came up with called the Ultimate Recommendations Eleganza Extravaganza. And what we do is we came up with ah genres from adventure games. For an example, point and click, text parser, hidden object, interactive fiction. Those are all subgenres of the adventure game genre, the bigger umbrella that is adventure games.
Speaker: And we are going through genre genre by genre and giving you our individual recommendations from that genre that we think that you should play. And then among those recommendations, we choose three because we're not going to have you be playing like 10 games. That's crazy. so We have a little chat ah to see which games we would recommend to you, ah three games only. So out of the up to 10 that we recommend to you, we're going to choose three based on our opinions that we think that you should play. This does not mean that they are the best games in their genre. It just means that it's either like a good introductory or a good example or something we think the audience will enjoy.
Speaker: i think that's exactly right. Thank you. I am right a lot of the time. That's very endearing. Are you sure?
Speaker: So today, let's see, in our last episode, what did we do? We did, of course, we started with text parser, the goat, and then we went to point and click, the goat, and then we went to ah mystery, deduction, and we ended with immersive sim.
Speaker: So now we are going to start with, I think, a pretty fun genre. We're going to start with action adventure. Yes. Action adventure. So action adventure. So we keep trying to like do our best job to define these. Yeah. um And the way that because, again, adventure games, they fall under all these different categories. And a lot of them have only subtle distinctions. Some of them have been kind of more major distinctions. I think action adventure is one of them. Yeah.
Speaker: ah So anyway, third person. So, okay. So the way that we define action adventure is a third person narrative game in which the verbs are mechanical rather than um what what we said when we talked about point and clicks is the verbs are suggested. You don't have a...
Speaker: You don't actually have a use button. You click something and click use. Right. And it suggests what you're going to do. So um this is where the verbs are mechanical. You have a jump button. You have an attack button. You have a pickup button. um And they involve timing and or skill in addition to creative problem solving. yeah And well I think when I named the first game I've chosen, people will be like, oh, yeah.
Speaker: Okay. I get it. So combat and platforming exist alongside puzzles or story-based progression. so Yeah. Would you like to start or do you want me to start? I could start. Go ahead.
Speaker: You know, my first one, i think I'm going to say, and I i struggled over which one of these. i didn't want to put multiple of this series on. sure. I'm going to say Uncharted 4, A Thief's End. Oh, fun. i You know, I've not played those games myself, but I hear they are so much fun. Yeah. So they' are they're very fun.
Speaker: Okay, so Uncharted is a sort of like a, ah ah an Indiana Jones simulator yeah where you play a guy named Nathan Drake. Also like a, maybe like a, also very Tomb Raider inspired. Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker: Um... where do you play a guy named Nathan Drake, who's like a, he's like a, he's like a treasure hunter, a little less moral than ah Indiana Jones, but he's, he's just kind of hunting treasure. He's hunting fortune. um And he is often running into situations where he has to kill hundreds of men who are trying to get the same treasure as him.
Speaker: Yeah. um So there are, you know So he'll be walking through ruins or a... ah a i don't know, a temple or ah something. and but An old, broken-down pirate ship. And he might have to solve some puzzles to unlock clues. um and
Speaker: The rest of the game, he's doing... There's a lot of... um parkour style platforming in these games. yeah And these games are often built, or and there's a lot of also like ah cover-based shooting, um third person cover-based shooting. And it's ah those sequences, your mileage really may vary. But the parkour sequences are usually built around these like There's several of these per game where there's this big set pieces that really define the game. For example, I think Uncharted 3 is the one that opens on...
Speaker: you are You just survived a train wreck, and you are sort of parkour climbing up a wrecked train car...
Speaker: Or a series of wrecked train charts that's dangling. Like the entire train is dangling from a cliff. And so like this train is falling apart as you're jumping from rail to rail and car to car. um
Speaker: So. Uncharted 4, A Thief's End. is the final chapter in the Nathan Drake story. And I think it is the most, is the deepest story wise. Okay.
Speaker: Because it is the, it is the story of a guy who has moved on. He's gotten himself a career. He's gotten himself a wife. He's gotten himself a kid. um And he's ready to settle down. Yeah.
Speaker: But his brother shows up. And it's the kind of like, oh, one last score sort of situation. And once again, he finds himself wrapped into this globe-spanning conspiracy where it it just keeps getting deeper and deeper. And his lies to his wife get deeper and deeper. And his lies to himself get deeper and deeper. And it is it is the story of a guy desperately trying to exit, trying to quit something that he actually kind of loves. Yeah.
Speaker: um Because he knows how damaging it is to the people around him. And so there's there's kind of like ah a story about addiction and a story about toxic behaviors and how hard it is to leave them behind. um
Speaker: ah Along with some really cool set pieces where you're swimming around a ah pirate ship graveyard. I think that's this one. Yeah, I've seen, I've definitely seen ah a lot of footage of these games. and It does look really fun.
Speaker: Yes. It's, this is, so yeah, I think the Uncharted games are not only, only fun, but they have such, yeah, the Pirate Ship Graveyard is this, this one. and It's so cool. um yeah Yeah, I think, yeah,
Speaker: They're not only fun, like the characters are so compelling and so interesting and you just you just want more and more of them. They feel like real people, even though they're absolutely not. And um the stories are fascinating.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, Uncharted 4 A Thief's End, I think is a great action adventure game. It's really light on the puzzle solving and really high on the adventure on the action. But the adventure is off the charts. It is such an adventure. and um it is, you know, extremely narrative. very linear. so Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker: I think we're going to have some similar ah similar recommendations for this. Okay. All right. Sure. i feel i feel I do feel like action adventure definitely has an identity that it that a lot of these games can be similar, at least give a similar vibe. Yes.
Speaker: um I'm trying to think of what do I want to start with. This might be on your list already. Okay. So the first thing I wrote down actually was Breath of the Wild.
Speaker: Because, and yeah I wrote down Breath of the Wild over other Zelda games, which I do. I consider all the Zelda games, action adventure games, um like grand action adventure. I think Breath of the Wild is easier for most people to play.
Speaker: And it it falls in line with kind of like the Uncharted series and those other kind of open world ah like Skyrim action adventure games. um So i I watched one of my friends. ah They had picked it up randomly because the game, I remember when it came out, the game was getting great reviews. If you remember, people were crazy about Breath of the Wild. I had a friend who our age who had never played a single Zelda game. Never. Okay. And they opened up Breath of the Wild and loved it
Speaker: Loved it. so Yeah, the mechanics are very action-adventure. There are puzzles, but it is alongside, like, dungeons. um The dungeons have puzzles in them. Yeah, the dungeons have puzzles. I was going to say, there's not, like, a lot of puzzles. But, yeah, each dungeon in this game is ah is sort of a puzzle. like this Oh, yeah. There's a The shrines, I guess. The shrines, too. there's There's shrines and there's, like, separate, like, dungeons. I think there's a lot of puzzles in Breath of the Wild.
Speaker: But this, I know... is a ridiculous thing to say. but can you give people an overview Of Breath of the Wild? Of of of Zelda and Breath of the Wild.
Speaker: ah So this he the the Zelda games are a series of games that started on the Nintendo. It's very old. And it commonly centers around the protagonist named Link, not in Zelda. ah Zelda is the princess who are you are often helping. Wait a minute. That can't be true. Get the fuck up. The game is frigging Zelda. It's a legend of Zelda. the boy hair that you play has to be Zelda. The little boy Zelda.
Speaker: m And everybody's fighting against Ganon or Ganondorf in some games. Um... but the the But the true fun parts of the Zelda games, especially the later ones, maybe starting with um a Link to the Past or maybe for a lot of people, Ocarina of Time, are helping these like insane unhinged characters. And with Breath of the Wild, it just goes crazy with these with these characters and these little towns. There is so much to do that feels like an adventure. You put together an entire island.
Speaker: You like build a town for people. um And I love it. love Breath of the Wild because everything looked, everything was a surprise. Every puzzle I came across was like, oh, really? This guy wants something?
Speaker: Oh, this guy wants 200 crickets? All right. No, I'll take time out of saving the world to fetch you 200 crickets. That's fine. Yeah. And yeah, i really loved it. I didn't think I would because i i up until then I was not a big open world person. i was not very good at Skyrim. I was not very good at like Dragon Age or Red Dead. Right. um But this game feels like a long in-depth adventure with all of these story beats and
Speaker: Oh, man, i just love i love I love the Zelda games. I think Breath of the Wild is a good one to play because it does feel like that adventure. It's more in line with, yeah I think, the Uncharted games and things of that nature, open world. And it's just fun. You can pick it up as not a Zelda fan and just play it and have the best time.
Speaker: Yeah. So that's my that's my choice for number one. I didn't put Breath of the Wild on my list because of the open world nature and the it's it's it's it's so story light. Like there is a story and it's not a bad story.
Speaker: But I don't know that the story is what really draws anybody to or keeps anybody coming back to Zelda. I don't know that. I think probably most people that played Breath of the Wild could only give you the most cursory explanation of what the story of that game was. You know, I think it's it's games like that. You know, people make that. Yeah.
Speaker: But wait, wait, wait. I have to push back. I have to push back on you because whether you remember the story or not is kind of whatever. There is a deep storyline in Zelda that if you want to follow and read along with, you can. We're not talking about like a King's Quest, like King's Quest 1, which has no story. you Right. You know, like not really anything. This does have deep lore to it that you can follow. And I think even maybe even more magical are the individual stories that the character that the story beats, right? Maybe not the overarching story, but like the guy that you meet at the inn that needs help getting a girl or something. Those are, I think, what makes it really special. Right. Right. And who's going to forget Tarrytown?
Speaker: I know. I loved building that town. Yeah. Oh, my God. I did such a good deed. No, there's a lot I remember about Breath of the Wild and. I think it's certainly, done i think the puzzles do exist alongside story beats. And I think it's actually a really good action adventure ah example.
Speaker: So we we disprove this constantly in our podcast, right? Because mostly we deal with games, with with story games, games that have stories, right? Almost all adventure games have stories. um If they don't, it's hard to call them adventure games.
Speaker: um Not impossible, but very hard to. Yeah. um But, you know, there's that that sort of meme discussion that people have,
Speaker: Where they say, you know, the best video game story would... You would so you would hate it.
Speaker: you would If it was a movie instead, you would think this is a shitty movie. And I think... Mostly, people oftentimes when they're talking about things like that, they're talking about AAA games. And I think one of the types of games they're talking about is the Zelda games just because...
Speaker: I like imagine watching and we're, and that's not what we're doing, right? We are playing them and we have to think of art in its own context, but imagine watching a movie. I mean, they're going to have a Zelda movie soon and i it's probably going to be horrible. Imagine watching the story of breath of the wild as a tv show or as a movie you'd be like yeah it's not very good i mean that's i think that's the case for like all video games that have tried to have been adapted with maybe some exception of like resident evil and that's and i feel like that's just because like it's meant to be a video game it's not meant to be translated into a movie agreed but i think the point is just like
Speaker: who pausing and thinking is this a good story or did I just like playing it as a game I think it is is a good story because it has memorable characters that we want to keep playing if look if it wasn't a good story they wouldn't keep redoing it every single time for Zelda would they well so here's the one I put and it is it is a vastly different story than any of the other Zelda games okay go ahead and that is Majora's Mask I knew you were going to say that because it it yeah Because it's an incredible game. I think it is most...
Speaker: the most I think story-wise and puzzle-wise, it is the most impressive of the Zelda games. Now, would I give it to somebody as their first Zelda game? I don't know. Maybe not. I wouldn't. Yeah, I wouldn't. if somebody Though, if somebody was a big puzzle game fan, if somebody was like a big adventure game fan, and they said, I've never played a Zelda game, I don't really like action games, I would say, then fucking play Majora's Mask.
Speaker: Because what's going on in Majora's Mask is... Again, impressive on a puzzle and a story level. Like, far, far more than on a gameplay level. So Majora's Mask, ah for people who don't know, is you... it's It's just after... um It's just after the video game Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. And you as Zelda, you're wandering through the woods and some weird little kid...
Speaker: Jumps in front of you and takes your ocarina and disappears. yourre big Your magical ocarina. And then you meet a mask salesman who tells you, like, oh, hey, ah you know, that kid who just took that ocarina from you is going to end the world. Yeah. In, I think, three days' time if you don't do something to help. Right. um And the game loops. So every three days, the moon crashes into the earth and the world ends.
Speaker: Yeah. And then you restart on day one. And so you have to... ah they're They're like individual puzzles you're going to have to solve by...
Speaker: understanding what happens throughout a day and what you need to accomplish in those three days. And then there's an overarching, you know, and that'll give you some sort of incremental progress towards solving the ultimate puzzle, which is stop stopping the skull kid from bringing the moon into the fucking earth.
Speaker: Um, and I say let it happen. but And it rules. It's just it's an it's an incredible game. One of the darker games, honestly. One of the darker games. yeah And one of, I think, the most thoughtful of the ah Zelda games. And one of the, you know, i'll I'll even say this. One of the most thoughtful and one of the most authored games.
Speaker: of the Zelda games. I like that. um you so it's It's sort of got the most guided and contained story, I think. Yeah. um Where you're really following a very specific narrative. um So, yeah, that's why I brought Majora's Mask. I think i think okay of the Zelda games, it is the most like an adventure game.
Speaker: Okay. And I love it. All right. What's your second one? My second one is... I'm in the wrong thingy. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I forgot I put this on here. um You're going to have to bear with me here, Matt. I Banjo-Kazooie. Yeah, that's right. yeah In what way is that not just a platform game?
Speaker: because it's Because it's got puzzles in it.
Speaker: It's not just platform. It is action-adventure.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: what what What makes it not? You said to bear with you, and I'm waiting for i'm waiting for your explanation Listen, Banjo-Kazooie is chock full of puzzles, okay? You got to... Yes, it's a collect-a-thon.
Speaker: Yes, it is, like, platforming. But we did say that it's got to be action with adventure, and that's what I think it is, because you are not just collecting things. You are solving puzzles. You are going underneath that beach thing and solving the puzzle, and, like...
Speaker: and like going it is okay it just is okay in oh man okay i mean i know you love banjo kazooie but i got a cute little story i it's actually i i can't see any way that banjo kazooie is more of an adventure game than because if we if we grant back banjo kazooie is an adventure game then so is
Speaker: Mario and Crash Bandicoot and... ah mario I think there's an argument for Mario 64. I think there's an argument to be had there.
Speaker: You know what? Let's just move the fuck on because you're not going to let me... No, tell everybody about... No, seriously, tell everybody about Banjo-Kazooie because like there's a lot of people maybe who haven't played it. I love Banjo-Kazooie. It is mostly a platforming game, but I played it when I was young, when I got my n sixty four And, you know, at that point, I was only playing adventure games. So it was enough of an adventure for me to enjoy it.
Speaker: Which, again, at the time, that's not really... I was either playing like strict, you know, side scrollers. So as an example, um one of my favorites was like World of Illusion on the Sega Genesis or the Aladdin game for the Sega sega Genesis.
Speaker: And that was purely side scrolling. But when Banjo came out and it had... A couple more puzzles in it. And I'm trying to figure out like how to open doors and like how to go to certain levels. And did I get that? Where did I put this? Like, yes, platforming.
Speaker: But really, it did feel like I was on an adventure with these characters. You're playing a bear. Yeah. Named Banjo. He's super cute. And your sidekick is Kazooie, who's a sweet little bird um of a questionable species. I don't really know what kind of bird Kazooie is. um But yeah, I do. I don't know. I feel like I like Banjo-Kazooie. I'm not really remembering... Being like, oh, what great platforming.
Speaker: Like, that's not why i remember Banjo. I remember it because it is memorable settings and memorable characters. and And it's that feel of adventure because you're trying, basically you're trying to save your little kid sister. Okay. Who was in fact kidnapped by Gruntilda, the witch.
Speaker: Gruntilda? Gruntilda. And she wants to look very pretty. And she has this device where you can stick a very pretty person in the device and then you will get those pretty features. Okay.
Speaker: And she'll be pretty for all her life. And she chose some bear, I guess. just Some kid bear. of yeah very pretty bear. Very pretty, very beautiful, fuckable bear, I guess.
Speaker: ah So, yeah, and I think that's why I'm pushing for it is because I'm not. Yeah, the platforming is fine. It's fine. Right. It's not why I play it. And there are platforming games where people play it because the platforming is the challenge. That's what it is. That's what you're really focused on.
Speaker: ah But I feel like I was focused on a lot. And yeah, maybe it is just a simple platforming game, but it's got those elements that hold hands with the best part of adventure games that I like. And that's why I liked it, you know, as a kid as well. It was close enough to the genre I already already really liked.
Speaker: And yeah, that that's that's why. Have you played Banjo-Kazooie, Matt? not Not much of it. It's so fun. oh my gosh. It's so fun. It's so cute and so memorable and everyone talks in gibberish. ah but Well, all right. So if... Well, now I'm sad.
Speaker: You're sad because you talked about a game you love?
Speaker: I don't want to talk about it anyway. Banjo-Kazooie. So... um so i will I'll introduce the platforming game I have on my list.
Speaker: um ah I put um ah Psychonauts on my list. Yeah, Psychonauts. It's a good one.
Speaker: um So Psychonauts is you are a a young boy who has run away from the circus. You're from a circus family. Why would anyone do that? i love circuses. You've left your circus family to join this series of like, what in this world are basically superheroes, the Psychonauts. They are an elite...
Speaker: team of of people with like psychic powers who will go into people's brains to ah solve don't know I guess go into like a super villain's brain and try and fix what's wrong with them so they stop being super villains and so you you basically you're like a young trainee in this psychonauts academy And you ah you know you end up kind of and unraveling a a sort of like... and don't know if you'd say it's a conspiracy, but you find a... There's a villain within the Academy. Yeah. um
Speaker: The way the gameplay works is you find, or like you will, each level will be you going into a specific person's mind and the level is designed around that person's specific anxieties or obsessions there's there's one level that's just like a game show there's one level that you're like a big kaiju monster stomping around a giant city like each level just feels so different and and each of them sort of again fits the metaphor of what is going on in this person's mind it's a it's a really clever uh
Speaker: It's a really clever, really incredible game. I think it falls so... it's It's so much more of a platform game than anything else, but it is a very linear and um deep, interesting story, just like chock full of memorable characters. So I don't know that this is one that's going to move on to our...
Speaker: show list, but I think it is it is definitely if somebody were to ask me, again, if somebody's asking me to recommend asking action adventures, Psychonauts is one of the first things I would say. I think that's, yeah, I actually think that's a really good example. um Hmm.
Speaker: I am confused on my next choice. You're confused. Because you're I know you're going to argue with me. So... I am going to put out there, and and granted, it's been a while since I've played these games, but I'm very confident in in the genre. And that is the Prince of Persia games. I think the Prince of Persia games made a really big impact on ah platforming adventure games, and maybe not the initial ones for DOS or anything like that. I'm talking more about the ones that are closer in nature to Uncharted. So Prince of Persia, Sands of Time, ah which is the one I really enjoyed the most. Prince of Persia, The Two Thrones. But I'm going to go ahead and and recommend Sands of Time. Okay. um
Speaker: It's both equally very interesting in story. And it's also interesting in mechanic in this game. I don't know if this is for every Prince of Persia game because I don't remember, but I know for sure in Sands of Time, there's a time loop element to it ah where you can rewind like a little bit of the game and then do something else. I use that a lot. ah Yes. Yes. ah But I do think just in general, ah the the Prince of Persia games are action adventure games. Do you agree?
Speaker: i have not played them. Can you describe, can you just again tell people what they, you know, what are they about? So the first Prince of Persia game, let me bring up a screenshot. It it was very um innovative for the time. Yes, it's an old rotoscoped,
Speaker: action are very action platforming game. Yes, they I think they were probably, I mean even look though, got to say, even looking at these older ones, like the 1989 Prince of Persia, I do think if you look at these screenshots, it is setting the tone for like an action adventure game. They do not look like that anymore.
Speaker: um I played a lot of that first one as kid. Did you really? Did you beat it? i never beat it. No, no. I think i'd think ah no one on earth has ever beaten it. they''s sort I think they are literally impossible to beat. i'm They're literally impossible. I'm exaggerating, but man, those games are fucking... You could beat your head against that for so long. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. um They do not look like that anymore. ah They more look like... Have you played like the Thief games at all? No.
Speaker: That's okay. um I think they're more in line with They're maybe more linear than the Skyrim games, but i'm I'm talking about a very specific point in time. Like, Sands of Time came out in 2003. So it definitely was an Xbox game. um And it's... I'm having a really hard time explaining these games. Because the I don't know if the stories are all that good. I might be...
Speaker: More thinking about like the story beats again, like the way I thought about Breath of the Wild. Sure. And like being part of this really cool world where there's like a vizier, ah you know, like did like the the bad, but like Jafar, he was a vizier. Yeah.
Speaker: And like trying to like thwart his plans and then finding the dagger to rewind. It's called the dagger of time. And that's used to rewind time. I don't know. It's been a while since I played it. So that's why I'm kind of like ah struggling to, to really like fully describe it. But I do know and believe that this is an, like an action adventure game. I feel like if you want to play an action adventure game, Prince of Persia is the right way to go. And that's because the series was created by Jordan Mechner.
Speaker: who created, damn it, the train game. The rotoscope train game. Oh, um the last... The Last Express. The Last Express. Yes. So the Prince of Persia games were done by the same person who did The Last Express. Oh, okay. Yes. Who clearly does like adventure puzzles and adventure games. So I think that makes a little bit of sense.
Speaker: And yeah, I think you're right. I think the original Prince of Persia, i don't know if anyone really, really beat that. Yeah. No, I think you'd have to be hard. I'm sure somebody has, but I think you would have to be an insane person to beat it. Like you would have to put so much time and effort into memorizing every little moment of it and then like replaying the same moments over and over and over again. And, they you know, not that I've never done that with a game, but what's going on in a, ah what's going on in a, ah
Speaker: in the in the original Prince of Persia is so, every moment of it is so samey. Yeah, that's true. That spending that amount of time, you'd have to just be...
Speaker: Hey, it's a sort of insanity that I respect, but you have to be completely insane. Yeah, and I would argue that those original ones for DOS, they are in the vein of action-adventure.
Speaker: um It's just they kind of evolved. The the franchise evolved. want to see something really insane is look up Zorro, DOS game 1995, and you'll see that somebody made a Zorro game using, like, it's almost like plagiarized from, ah from prince of persia it's just zorro yeah yeah yeah i see that game is also impossible um all right my next one uh my next accident and adventure game is
Speaker: ah the uh size five game layer of the clockwork god oh Oh, that's a good That's a good recommendation, Matt. So this game, half of it, it's ah it's a Ben and Dan game. And if you don't know Ben and Dan, they're two, they're these like comedic, they they they made these comedic point and click games in ah the 2000s where they're just two friends that usually go on a time hopping adventure. um
Speaker: And they're they're kind of like absurd absurd moon logic key point point and click games and they're always funny like that's the thing about them so the third game is a it is half point and click and half indie platformer so uh Ben wants to continue being a point and click character in a point and click video game. Right. While Dan has decided there's no future in point and click games and he should instead be in an indie platformer. So he is. So Dan is playing an indie platformer while Ben is playing a point and click game. Yeah. Yeah. And to these like absurd degrees, Ben will not use inventory items and he will not talk to other characters. That's so funny to me. i love that. Ben will not jump to the extent where at one point he comes across a little tiny ledge that is like maybe up to his ankle.
Speaker: And he refuses to walk up the ledge. Because that's too much like a platformer. So you as Dan have to go through this huge platforming level where...
Speaker: ah You're doing things like changing the direction of gravity and stuff. um Just to get Ben over this tiny little ledge.
Speaker: That's so cute. In the most literal way possible. ah ah So anyway, the the plot of the game is they end up finding... They are... ah ah they're In their world, all the apocalypses are happening all at the same time.
Speaker: yeah The the the ah meteors are crashing into the earth. The global warming's happening. Zombies are attacking. Every every apocalypse is happening at the same time. And they find this like computer who's in charge of it. And they have to get him to stop making all the apocalypses in the world happen at the same time. yeah A nuclear war, I think, is happening. um And the way they do that is by going through all these different levels, both platform and point and click. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And combinations of the two to teach him different emotions and make him more human so that maybe the more human that he becomes, the more emotions he learns, the more he realizes why it's not a good idea to do all the apocalypses at the same time.
Speaker: Super, super funny. um And again, in the most literal sense, it is both an action game and an adventure game. I love that. That's such a good, that is such a good recommendation. Thank you. And it's so funny. It is so funny. And so those guys are so good at what they do.
Speaker: I have one that I don't know if I'm going to put on this list. This is more for, i think this is more for maybe a little conversation, just a little bit. Otherwise I don't have any more. I'm set with the okay three I said, but I did, i was very tempted to put a final fantasy game on here.
Speaker: And the reason I was tempted to do that is because even though I think people do consider them like adventure RPGs or, or just RPG or, or just, you know, just RPGs. ebe Yeah. it's Like turn-based RPGs. Right. Um,
Speaker: It's really interesting to me that though in this game, you don't really set stats like you would say. So I guess there's going to be some overlap in a lot of games that we talk about, I think going forward. um I understand that Final Fantasy is an RPG, but it feels so much more like an adventure game to me because yes, there is combat in that RPG way, But so much of the time, in like especially in like um Final Fantasy VII or VIII, so much of the time, i'm just trying to unravel this insane, unhinged story by finding people and going to my next like setting like you do in so many adventure games. You open up a setting, right? Then you are then allowed to go to that setting. Yeah.
Speaker: Final Fantasy 7 and 8 are also a little bit... I haven't played it since like Final Fantasy 10, so I don't know how open world those games got. But 7 and 8 are pretty linear. like it's you can't just It's not open world, is is what I'm saying. you You have to go a little bit to the story.
Speaker: And like, even though it has those turn based things, I guess I kind of wonder, does turn based make something an RPG? Because for us, I know when we talk about roleplay games that are like inspired for, you know, by D&D, you are creating characters and you are not doing that here in Final Fantasy. You're being given these characters, these existing characters.
Speaker: and they don't have stats, you level them up, and you make them stronger. But is that also... Is that an RPG? So, like, do you see, you like, where I'm, like, struggling with it? It feels so so close to an adventure game, but it only has elements of it, I guess. I think if something is turned... but i I can't imagine...
Speaker: because I think in an action game, you're you're facing real world or you're not real or not real world you're facing real-time threats. Yeah. yeah
Speaker: But you do run into all these bosses. So it's like, I don't know. But then it's turn-based once you run into them. Right? Yeah. um And there's still...
Speaker: There's still the like secret numbers and the random chance and the predefined skills. i would still call those RPGs. I would call yeah all of them RPGs. I will say, though, yeah, and I pretty much agree, and i'm not going to I'm not even going to write this down on here, but I do think it's interesting that if you do like adventure games, you might like some of those Final Fantasy games because of the feeling that it gives you. It might not be mechanically the same. Like you might be like, what is this turn-based shit? what am i What am I doing here? You can kind of treat it as a puzzle. You can treat it in the way of like, oh, I'll use an ether here and get my mana up or something. um But they, like legitimately, I think Final Fantasy VII and VIII have taken a lot from just the adventure game atmosphere. Yeah. And it it really feels like that to me, even though I know it's a role-play game.
Speaker: It really feels like I am on an honour adventure with my friends in my group. I am finding new settings. I am talking to new people. I have, like, a goal in mind. So, yeah, I just i guess, like, if you like some adventure games, you might like some of those mid-final, like, mid not not mid-tier, but, like... um Within the, within the sequence. Right. So seven and eight. Oh yeah. Yeah. yeah those yeah the Right.
Speaker: Middle era. Yeah. The middle era. I think those feel ah very adventure. Um, so my last, I, I, I debated about these.
Speaker: I, for a moment I thought about putting that game brothers on here. Okay. Um, Because it's very platformy, but it's it's so clearly, you know, about puzzles and story. But the one that I'm going with is the game Tunic.
Speaker: Oh, okay. um Tunic, you're just ah here's ah a little fox. You look kind of like, you're dressed kind of like Link, and you're just kind of exploring a little a little world. And this world... um You're a cute little guy. Yeah. You're just kind of you're just kind of exploring a world. Like the the story here isn't too – there is a story that does unfold.
Speaker: um And it is – it does have a lot of lore and depth. But um especially for the first maybe half of it, you're not really following a story. You're just kind of exploring and opening up new levels, right? um But the thing that really makes this an action-adventure, like that adds the adventure to it to me is – Tunic has this incredible sort of mechanic, this incredible sort of, maybe even you you might even call it a gimmick where as you progress, you are finding of a, pages
Speaker: uh, um pages of a ah ah what What do you call it? a the the The game guide. So if if if you are old enough to have played video games in um in like the 80s and 90s, they all came with manuals, right? Like there wasn't enough space on their... ah on the disc for them to include tutorials or to include a lot of like early, like opening cut scenes. So they would put all the story and tutorials in a manual. Some of the, some of those games even had like a little mini walkthrough. Like here's a pay, like a Rocky horror picture show adventure game. That game is so fucking hard. They just gave me a bit of the walkthrough in the manual. Yeah.
Speaker: So in, in tunic, there is There are things you run into, like signs and stuff that are written in a language that you don't understand, but the more pages of the manual that you find, the more...
Speaker: um you can sort of you can start deciphering the language and start figuring out some things that you didn't know you knew how to do. So this this also might fall a little bit under the category of like a Metroid-brainia. There's things that you could do from the very beginning that you didn't know you could do until you find that page of the manual. And it's like, oh, so if I hold the jump button instead of jumping...
Speaker: my character does this. Right. And, or like, Oh, I have magic powers that I didn't realize. And I can use them by doing this. Like all this really fucking interesting stuff that is unraveled through finding these manual pages and, um, doing like your own logic deduction work by,
Speaker: um trying to put these out of context manual pages in context and then apply those contracts to different situations. It's very, very, very smart. um Yeah. I think that's, so that's Tunic.
Speaker: I'm wondering if we should add one more that I had thought about. Okay. I'll let it, and you can decide if we should add this to like my list or the show list. I think that It Takes Two is a good example of adventure platforming.
Speaker: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it it is not multiplayer, ah co-op. um So it's one of the only adventure games you could play with someone and like not backseat game because you're playing it together.
Speaker: um But it's got plenty of platforming and it has plenty of puzzles for you to solve. And there is a story. there There actually is a good story behind it. so I wonder if that i'm I'm going to put it under mine because I think it's kind of innovative. Yeah, sure.
Speaker: in the way that you can play an adventure game with somebody else. and And guys, adventure games notoriously, you just don't really play them with other people unless you like beg your boyfriend or partner or whoever to do it with you. Yeah.
Speaker: And I think that's fun. Like I like doing that. I've not met many men who want to do that with me. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm insufferable. I don't know. Matt was there. He saw me scale a wall or try to scale wall in Yeah, know there's no way you could scale a wall in Myst. And I kept doing it, and I saw your face, and I'm like, this is why. This is why men don't want to play games with me.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Obviously, a Zelda has to go on our show. I think so, too. And honestly, I'm gonna i'm obviously going to push for Breath of the Wild over Majora's Mask. I like Majora's Mask a lot more, but I will concede to Breath of the Wild. yeah I think...
Speaker: i Remember, it's for the audience, and it's not just for us. Well, but the audience listens to our podcast because they enjoy our taste in video games, right? i don't know if they do. They're going to hear me talk about Final Fantasy and be like, Sarah, come on. and um I'm going to push for Lair of the Clockwork God because – I will put that on there. Yep. It is so good at – Okay. So let's say Lair of the Clockwork God. Let's say Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Yep.
Speaker: And I would actually, i think I would actually really fight for either Uncharted or Psychonauts. And I'll let you, because they're both your- Those tough. Yeah. I know.
Speaker: You know, I think Psychonauts might be a little bit more of a platforming game. It's pretty platformy. Yeah. There's not a lot of puzzles in it. There's a lot of collection. So I think I would go with Uncharted. Let's do And I think Uncharted 4 is the best ah the best in terms of story. Nice. Yeah.
Speaker: There's a sequence in Uncharted 4. First of all, there's a Monkey Island reference in Uncharted 4. know there is. go to it you You find like an old pirate's ah like yeah round table, and one of the famous pirates is Guybrush Threeport. Isn't that cute?
Speaker: there is a There's a thing you have to open in ah by solving a series of puzzles. um And i i did the famous adventure game thing where it was like, all right, 1-1-1-2, 1-1-1-3, 1-1-1-4, 2-1-1-1, 2-1-1-2, 2-1-2. And did and let me get...
Speaker: two one one one two one one two two did that and it let me get From what like it wasn't numbers. I forget what it was, but it let me get from basically if the if the answer was seven to three. Right.
Speaker: It let me get from one, one, one, one all the way to seven to like maybe one. Yeah. And then. Nathan Drake said, you know what? I probably shouldn't try to solve this until I find the right clue. That's so funny. And it let me go the whole way. It was clearly the developers thought of this. And then we're going to punish somebody who tries to anybody who tries to do this. That's so fun. I love that. That's so fun. And honestly, it's an adventure game thing to do. I could see adventure game developers do doing that. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker: All right. funny. So our next one, um it's interesting that you said Final Fantasy before we got to this category. I know, and I and i get that. But our next one is know as i understand a genre that I don't think is almost ever talked about. um And yeah maybe people don't even consider it a genre. But I think it is. So it's an adventure RPG. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And these are narrative games in which the player controls a character discovering and interacting with the world, right? So far, sounds like every adventure game. But discovering and interacting with the world through a mix of predefined skills and random chance.
Speaker: So basically, there has to be skills. There has to be dice rolls, even if they're invisible. Even if they're invisible. So, do you want to start?
Speaker: Yeah, I'll start. um My first recommendation recommendation is Disco Elysium. Quest for Glory 5. Oh. Well, you know what? it's ah Look, I'm not going to lie. It's on there somewhere. But it's not number one. Disco Elysium. Okay, yeah, that's obviously on my list, too. So Disco Elysium. um i got late I was late to the party on playing Disco Elysium because I didn't i think I didn't realize...
Speaker: Listen, when I hear the words at adventure RPG, I don't always think it's going to be a lot of adventure. I don't know why, because mostly they are. um But I don't know. I don't know what happened there. I think I saw. Oh, I know what happened. I remember having a call back. You know what put me off of Disco? Yes. I wonder if you yeah wonder if you know me that well. that i Imagine me. I'm looking up the game.
Speaker: I see the screenshots. What puts me off? Third person isometric. Absolutely. It's exactly correct. So because I saw it like that, i just didn't, I don't, that doesn't always equate to adventure in my mind, even though that's insane because Sanitarium is one of my favorite adventure games and that is isometric. I think it was just a way we used to identify not our game, not, ah not our genre. Oh boy. in Computer games. Yeah.
Speaker: Right. Yes. Yes. Because so many ah ah RPGs and, you know, non-adventure game, non-adventure PC games early on in the PC game, you know, ah early on in PC gaming were isometric. So I wonder if like top down isometric. So I wonder if that's why.
Speaker: I think so. And so because of that, I just didn't give it the chance that it deserved. I ended up playing the, what is it called? The director's cut or something. The one with added voice acting, which it can be a little obnoxious. Let's be let's real here. um But man, I enjoyed that game. What a good balance. So good. you want to give a quick overview? What is Disco Elysium? Yeah. So you are playing this kind of old rundown asshat, I think is Harry. Harry, yep. You wake up in this kind of rundown hotel and your life is kind of shit. um
Speaker: But you are um your detective, a cop slash detective, and you are investigating. What are you investigating? What is the thing that we're investigating? It is a murder. Yeah, it is a murder.
Speaker: There was a there is a person who was murdered and then hung from a tree. Right. Yes. Hung from a tree. And so you are investigating that. in kind and You're also, you kind of like, you have amnesia. You don't quite remember who you are. so so a lot of this game is figuring out your memories and remembering kind of who you are and even even what you look like.
Speaker: you know And you basically have amnesia from drinking and doing drugs too much. Oh, yeah. You're a mess. yeah This character is such a fucking mess in a bad way. It's not even really endearing. He's just kind of a mess. He he he becomes obviously more likable as you solve the mystery, as you talk to characters. you You get a not a sidekick. What the name be A partner. Let's just say it a partner yeah um named Lieutenant Kim. He's very funny. Kim Kitsuragi. He Yes. He rules. Yeah. These characters are so great. um It's open world in the way that you have a map that you're not exactly like maybe some rooms are restricted, but you can freely kind of walk around and discover things and look at things.
Speaker: And yes, everything is basically dictated by a dice roll. So my favorite my favorite example and one of my favorite parts of this game is karaoke. you can try to sing karaoke to your best partner, Kim.
Speaker: And if you fail the dice roll, you will sing the most hideous, awful song in the most awful voice you've ever heard in your entire life. If you pass the dice roll,
Speaker: you'll sing in a beautiful voice and, and, you know, Lieutenant Kim will be like, Oh, i yeah he was a little touched by that. um So it's got, it's, it's a very deep game. It's got very serious moments, very adult themes, but it's also funny because it has, I think anything that has a dice roll, anything that has a chance,
Speaker: can be very funny, you know? one of the things that make Disco so special, but there's a couple things. First of all is is that um you have, there's this system of your skills, right?
Speaker: talk to you yeah in your head. um And so does sometimes like clothing items and stuff, but but oh you're not, you're not just a mess. You're crazy. Yeah. Your skills talk to you and they will give you advice on what you should do with certain situations. And based on how good your skills are, their advice can be better or worse. yeah um And the other thing that disco does really well is, um,
Speaker: your failures are as interesting as your successes. Yes. You can die either from being too depressed or where you just give up the will to live, I guess, and just very relatable stop existing. um Or from, like, you do have health.
Speaker: Yeah, do you do have health. There's a few points kind of later in the game where the difficulty, there like a lot of games, there are some parts that are just harder than yeah and other parts. Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, Disco's really good. It really ah delves... It has a it has a hurt perspective and a point of view. It really delves into the politics of this region. And um unlike another game that we're going to talk about, it it really... it has a The developers have a point of view.
Speaker: there There is a very clear choice of like what is the good politics and what is the bad politics here. yeah But they really express why um in really significant, interesting ways. i Disco Elysium is an incredible game. And if you haven't played it, it it is like, it is top tier. It is pinnacle gaming. And like it coming from my perspective, I have not played many D&D inspired games. That's just not, that it's not been part of my past when I was role-playing. It was real-time role-play in in chat rooms. Like you could roll dice, but it was mostly story-based, right? So I don't play a lot of, a lot of like,
Speaker: dependent on like dice roll games RPGs I don't really play those um but I was so charmed by like the chance of the dice roll combined with yeah um walking around on this map and talking to characters like you expect to do in an adventure game I don't like adventure games that are too lonely and we will get I think we are going to get to that uh in not too long but yeah disco is special um and it's a really good example of the genre adventure RPG So I think the only thing we can talk about after we talk about Disco Elysium is, and I wonder if it's on your list too. It is. It's Esoteric Ab. Yeah. Esoteric is almost the exact same um mechanics as Disco Elysium, way right down to your skills talking to you in your head. Only you are a ah cleric who...
Speaker: exists in a fantasy D&D kind of world. Yeah. and This is extremely D&D to me. You are investigating a it was a tea shop that got blow yeah blown up. A bomb went off, yes. um And it got blown up days before this location, this city, has its first ever democratic election.
Speaker: And so people kind of either assuming the two are connected, or they are, or or they just don't want people to be afraid of going out in public and and showing up to vote. So they want you to solve this thing as quickly as possible. right And it is fantastical. It is... fantastical it is majestic. Oh my God. It is so fun. It absurd. It is funny. It is colorful. Uh, it is also packed full of unforgettable characters and unforgettable moments. Um,
Speaker: I also think it is easier to play than than disco. I think this is a more accessible game to play. I i think it's more readable, right? Because I think i think Disco Elysium is written 12th grade level while Esoteric Eb is written at like a 9th grade level, right? I think...
Speaker: Disco doesn't – and neither of them talk down to you at all. no, no. But Esoteric Ebb is is working on a on a less heady political yeah level. Yeah. We'll say that Esoteric Ebb got me into just loving kind of the the concept and world of D&D, just the absurdity and the kind of unlimited things you could do. But again, I have a favorite part in in most of my Please. um this is it i mean this isn't a favorite but this is something that stuck out to me immediately as i was playing and like so there's like you wake up in this area that is like overrun with apples there's just like a ah mountain of rotten apples and we can't and clearly there's something beyond the other side of these apples so i'm like eat the apples
Speaker: eat all of the apples and I did a dice roll and it gave me the most funny just funny description of like yeah you get like five apples in before you pass out yeah you pass out you take out like what was I thinking like I know this is a fantasy game but it's not gonna let me eat 500 apples I succeeded on the roll and I did eat the 500 apples Oh, no. That's so but funny. Yeah. I mean, the esoteric ebb just rolls. Okay. So what's your next? My next one is Quest for Glory 5. I got to put it on there. got to talk about it. i got This is special to me. I got to talk about it because...
Speaker: um I think that the Quest for Glory games in general are adventure RPGs. um It was kind of the only one in the Sierra ah teams that were doing a game that were doing games like this. These do have stats. You are building a loose character sheet, right? it's not It's not ever going to be as big as a tangible D&D character sheet. Yeah, you pick whether you want to be a thief or a magician magician or a warrior, I think. Yeah, fighter, yep.
Speaker: Fighter. Mm-hmm. and ah And then you yeah you choose your class and then you give them stats. It allots you stats for like things like i don't know parrying and climbing, which you can practice in the game and it is funny.
Speaker: ah The reason I'm putting Quest for Glory 5 on here is because I think it is just a little bit more intriguing in the adventure RPG way. I'm not going to say it's an easy game. It's not, but I'm thinking back to those original Quest for Glories, and I do think they're a little difficult. I do think Quest for Glory 1 through like at least 3 are more heavy on those adventure game logic type of puzzles, and they can be kind of difficult. Quest for Glory 5 is more of like Trial by Fire, which incidentally is a name of one of the Quest for Glory games. Yeah. yeah ah But it really is. you're kind of your It's got a lot of timed elements to it, which you can miss. um
Speaker: But it also has those RPG elements where if you're a magician, you are learning magic. If you are a fighter, you are only able to get certain weapons and and things like that. And you are um getting stronger. You're practicing like throwing. And yes, to practice throwing, you just pick up a rock and throw it a hundred times. Unbelievable. Yeah. I cannot believe they did that. like i want to be a good jumper. Jump a hundred times. Just stand in a room and jump. And yeah, you want to be a good climber. just climb the same tree over and over and over and over and over.
Speaker: But like, listen, there is something special about Quest for Glory 5. There is something special and memorable about the land of Silmaria, about the characters you you talk to, about your character, even.
Speaker: ah Even though you're kind of a blank slate, you're still, like I said, you're still jumping and... This particular Quest for Glory, i think I've drawn to it because it has more of the Greek influence to it. All of the Quest for like Glory games have different lore, different... um the What's the word?
Speaker: What's the word? you're you're You're good at this word. What word is what am I trying to say? It's not the lore. It's not culture either. It's like... um what So like, okay, so like Quest for Glory 1 takes – Mythology?
Speaker: Yeah, yes. i say I think mythology is a good word for it. It takes from different mythologies. Oh, okay. You're saying, okay, like folklore. so it's Folklore, yes. folk Yes, folklore. I was only saying lore and that was not sounding correct. Yes, it takes on different folklore. So in Quest for Glory 5, there is more of a Greek mythology influence. You can meet Pegasus, which I think is fucking awesome. There's Cerberus, the three-headed dog. ah You go into Hades, you save someone, there is a correct choice to it. We're not going to talk about it. And each Quest for Glory game has different folklore. So Quest for Glory 4, Shadows Darkness, that's vam vampire in nature. Cust for Glory 1 has more that is it's like based on Swedish culture, stuff like that.
Speaker: i just I listen. It's is it a good game? No, it's very broken. It's so broken. It's so broken. But it it it is the first game I played that really introduced me to what an adventure RPG is. Yeah.
Speaker: And again, I do think there is something really memorable and special about these settings. And I think for to be an adventure RPG, your settings better be memorable. ah ah agreed um yeah so i i don't disagree but i did put quest for glory one and that's smart um smart and i i think i think it is difficult and it it is a little it is there are some silly parts of it that don't really translate to the it's a little moon logic-y let's let's be real all of them are right in yeah in a way that like
Speaker: I think if you're going to enjoy any of them, you're going to enjoy all of them. um yeah Maybe nobody really enjoyed three all that much, but I i didn't. I honestly, I was doing a people might remember this. i was doing a quest for glory retrospective where I was doing all of them yeah on the channel.
Speaker: I got to three and nearly died. I like in in real life. I die, not the character. That game was so infuriating to me. it was so It's a very frustrating game. i itrating i managed to get through that game while still retaining my love of the whole franchise. Like I didn't dislike it so much that I was like,
Speaker: like if i If I played all the Quest for Glory games again, which I will someday, yeah and I'll probably like i like play them in order, I'm not going to skip 3. I don't hate 3 that much, but I don't blame people who do. Right, right, right, right. um And it's a shame because 3 is African, the African setting with African folklore, and which...
Speaker: Yes, it is that broad. And I know that African folklore, know there's so many different types of folklore in Africa. But much like they do in a lot of older media, Africa is treated as if it's one single country. You have to call it a little bit. You can't just put a bajillion things in there. But yeah, look, they tried. But you could have done
Speaker: kenyan folklore sure absolutely just egyptian folklore like absolutely didn't have to say we'll do an entire continent yeah with with 50 000 years of history yeah absolutely um anyway so but mean so it is a shame that such a rich location yeah was done so kind of poorly but ah Anyway, but i I digress. Quest for Glory 1 is a lot of fun. It's the beginning of the adventure. And again, if you're going to like if you like if you if you're gonna like any of the Quest for Glories, you will probably like all of them except for three.
Speaker: yeah so i So I would still, i would if I were to talk to, if somebody if I were to suggest an adventure RPG, I would probably say start at the beginning and see if you like it. if you If you hate it, you'll probably hate all of them. A lot of people, just for reference, love Quest for Glory 4. It's a little goth baby. It is great. Yeah, it's got that autumn thing. Yeah, I love Quest for Glory 4. It's also broken, though. I think last year during Spooky Season, right?
Speaker: did Oh, really? Did we do that for... Yeah, that makes sense. I think so. That sounds this sounds correct. um um I did have another one. I am going to strike it. okay. I want to hear what it is anyway. It's it's Pokemon.
Speaker: It's the Pokemon games. Okay, yeah. But I don't... I am like, I'm not a casual Pokemon fan, but I'm not a big Pokemon fan either. So like, i was like, I can like, I can acknowledge that this is an RPG. It does have adventure elements based on which Pokemon you play. um i would say the first Pokemon, well, for the Game Boy is more of just an RPG. It maybe it has more limited oh yeah adventure game elements to it, but they have evolved, you know, over time. Um,
Speaker: So, i yeah, I did have that initially as, like, just in general, Pokemon games can be an adventure RPG. But I think I'm going to strike it because of how um vast it is.
Speaker: yeah i I, as a huge Pokemon fan, yeah I would have trouble calling them adventure games. but yeah um Yeah. All right. So... My next two, I think I can do my next two at the same time. Go for it. um Because they are Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2. Oh, perfect. Which are just both incredible experiences. Oh, man. Now, Citizen Sleeper I've talked about a lot on this show, so maybe I don't need to go all the way into it. Yeah. But Citizen Sleeper is basically a game where it is a universe where you can...
Speaker: um basically create a ah sort of android like thing to work for you ah while you sleep and then it gets deactivated you wake up you get all the wages from its yeah work so that you don't have to wear your body out doing work um or waste your time and you play a sleeper one of these androids who escapes.
Speaker: um And one of the mechanisms they have to prevent these sleepers from escaping is planned obsolescence. So you will slowly break down without a very specific ah type of what you could call medicine.
Speaker: um So it it turns into this... um Man, it's it's a lot of things. It is a RPG. It is a a visual novel. It is yeah a survival game. um And both games are sort of about how difficult it is to survive in a world without community.
Speaker: And how, you know, you're constantly making choices throughout these games. And the more you choose to invest in community and friendships and and kindness, um the sort of almost the easier the game gets. It is sort of like the cheat code to defeating capitalism. Because that's the other thing these games are about is the horrors of capitalism. The cheat code to defeating capitalism is other people.
Speaker: To go to space. is to go to space twice it's it's it's it's community right um and uh i think so again because of the visual novel elements i would call these adventure rpgs and because of the strong strong strong narrative um And the other thing the other thing that's is special about ah Citizen Sleepers and similar games is um is the mechanic, which is instead of rolling dice every time you come to a challenge or decision, you roll your dice at the beginning of the day. And then you have five or six dice
Speaker: that have already been rolled to put towards certain decisions you want to make. So like, if I want to, um I'm looking around my room, ah if I want to solve this Rubik's cube, right?
Speaker: It's going to use my analytical skill. And, ah it's going to be a high dice roll because Rubik's cubes are hard to solve, especially if you don't already know the algorithm, right? yeah So I might want to save. So if if it's if it's like, oh, somebody's going to kill me if I don't get this dice roll or if I or if i don't get this ah Rubik's cube solved or like if I don't solve this Rubik's cube, I'm going to lose money.
Speaker: And if I do solve it, I get money. then I might want to save one of my higher dice rolls from that day. Like maybe I rolled a five, two ones and two twos that day. I might want to save that five for solving the Rubik's cube because I know it's a high skill check.
Speaker: Yeah. And, the consequences for this very strange scenario I've just pitched are their high consequences. So yeah anyway, so that's Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2. Citizen Sleeper 2 is a completely new story, but with some similar characters and in the same world. um And the one thing that you add to it is this um mechanic of going on basically little quests or adventures, like jobs, where you have to pick so certain crew members and load up on certain, um what do you call it, like supplies, and you don't get more.
Speaker: You don't get more during your yeah thing. So if something goes wrong, things are just going to get precipitously worse. I don't know. Oh, that's tough. It is but the rewards for jobs are really high. So I don't know. It's a, it's a, I think they're really, really cool games. um So I don't think either of those are going to make it to the show list because not only have you not played them, they are a little bit more just in the straight up RPG realm. Yeah. But I can see why. i can see why you would put them there.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. So I think Disco Elysium and Esoteric Ab are shoe-ins. I do too. um And I guess that leaves us with Quest for Glory or Quest for Glory 5. Which one do we choose? So again, my argument for Quest for Glory 1 is if you like Quest for Glory 5, you're going to have liked to Quest for Glory 1. I would say 1 should go above. Yeah, I think 1 should go. I think...
Speaker: I think four is the best of those games, the best made of those games. I do too. And me and you both have a affection for five. Yeah, we do. but And if I could put down ah
Speaker: as the recommendation, the entire Quest for Glory series, as if it were one game, I would. Yeah. um So my shorthand for that is saying Quest for Glory one.
Speaker: i think that's fair. Yeah. I think that is fair. ah All right. So our next category is the Myst-like slash Metroid Brainiac. Why do I put those together? i Those are two different genres of game, you might say to me. But I'm going to define them, and you tell me. Are they really two different genres of game?
Speaker: Okay. Okay. Games in which progress is gated by understanding and the sequence is suggested or intuitive rather than predetermined.
Speaker: Anyone who already possesses the knowledge could break the suggested sequence of the game at any moment. So,
Speaker: Myst doesn't tell you what order you have to go in. True. But it sort of suggests it. Yeah. Right? You kind of want to go in this order, right?
Speaker: Um, but you should probably do, you know, you should probably visit this world before you visit that world because it'll give you a bit more context about this thing. Right. And you could solve mist pretty much right away if you already know this stuff. Right. Um, yeah.
Speaker: um But you don't. And so you do have to go through this entire sequence. So there's not a linear story, but there is a story to discover.
Speaker: a And it is gated by just if there's a world there, the world is a little esoteric, a little cryptic, and all you have to do is build an understanding as you go.
Speaker: And I think that is exactly what a Metroid-brainia is, right? Your progress is gated by understanding, not by not by skill. um And I think Myst qualifies for that. So I think Myst likes and Metroid-brainias, I think they're the same thing. yeah what I imagine this is one of the categories you will have the least to I almost have no say on this. I can't really. I don't play Metroid-brainias. I don't really play Metroid-vanias.
Speaker: um And the only Myst like I've ever played is Myst. However, i would absolutely put Myst on a list. I rhymed. I would put that on the list because i think that it is one of the most kind of innovative games at the time. Yes. And extremely intriguing for adventure gamers. So I would put Myst up there.
Speaker: I would like it, but whatever. Also put mist there. And I do. I do like it a lot. I did. you know, I know yeah i know you do like most people. so mist is a game.
Speaker: I'm assuming you want me to explain the plot because I'm assuming or you have no clue what's going on. yeah um Even though I beat Mist. You basically find yourself on a mysterious island and ah you have to start.
Speaker: Like, that's it. You're just on an island. That is yeah all that the beginning of Mist is. And yeah you have to start putting things together. And what you realize is that um this is an island. there's this There's a series of worlds, interconnected worlds, that this one...
Speaker: guy, this like family, learned how to write worlds into existence. um And so as you travel around...
Speaker: this missed island, you find other books and you can enter the books and get to a new island. Each island is filled with a bunch of machines. Each island follows its own logic. It's not it's not like somebody, it's not like ah it's not like an escape room or something where somebody put a bunch of puzzles in your way, right? it is an island that fully functions, but in a way that you don't understand. Right.
Speaker: And that is what creates... It's really intimidating. That is what creates the puzzle. imagine trying to make a Imagine trying to make an engine work if you have never seen an engine before. Yeah, smart yeah that's smart. So that that's how that's how these games work. And so in Myst...
Speaker: ah Yeah, then you run into these two guys who are each trapped in books, the brothers, and they each are telling you the other one is evil. Yes. you have to bring them pages, and once you give them enough pages, they'll be able to escape the book and help you defeat their evil brother.
Speaker: that's That's all I'm going to say about Myst. Yeah. fun game. Well, is it fun? It's an intriguing game. don't know. It's intriguing. For sure. And challenging game. And I think it's great. So the rest is just me? It's just you. Unless you say something that sparks something that I have played that I can put on there. But I'm very curious as to what you're going to I want chime in, though. Yeah, I will.
Speaker: I'll say number one is my favorite of these games. of all time it was just released last year it is it is it immediately became my you know in my top three favorite games of all time it's called blueprints you were a boy yeah you inherit your uh uncle's mansion and the mansion is famously um oh shit how many rooms is it
Speaker: uh 46 it is yeah there's a it is a 46 room mansion and you must find the 47th room right yes um I'm just going double check that I know 45 room mansion and you have to find the 46th room. um The way you do that is as you enter an every time you enter a door, the the foyer has three doors. When you enter a door, you get to choose from a pool of rooms. ah Three rooms will be selected randomly And you get to choose which room that is. And so one of the things you're doing um is you're filling out this grid, this like architectural grid to try and get to the antechamber that you assume leads to room 46.
Speaker: um That's at the end of this grid. So you're trying to figure out like, okay, which way did the doors open in this? where Where are the exits? Can I line them up so I can get all the way to the end of this thing? But as you go,
Speaker: You also have to collect certain rooms cost gems so you have to find rooms with gems in them certain doors are locked you have to find rooms with keys in them and um
Speaker: you discover all sorts of other puzzles that are just kind of living in the environment. um it's and It's just on every level. It it it exercises your brain. it ah pokes at your um ah your sense of collection and and completionism. It pokes at your sense of mystery and wonder. The story that you unravel throughout the game is really fascinating. There's like a reason why this is a mansion who... Oh, also, sorry. At the end of each quote-unquote day...
Speaker: So when you either, you also have a certain number of steps when you use, and you use a step every time you pass from one room to the other. When you run out of steps for the day, you pass out. um Or you can choose to end the day at any given point. Just like in real life. Just pass out.
Speaker: When you start a new day, the entire mansion is reset. And there's a reason it is like that. There's so much that goes into this game. And it is one of those games where you fill up a notebook.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. densely with like eight pages worth of notes and maybe as many as 20 pages of notes yeah um but it is not as hard as that sounds there are puzzles in it that are very hard yeah um but as as it's not if you it is mostly about paying attention if you're paying enough attention you're um that is the key to solving almost every puzzle. So you shouldn't be intimidated by blueprints. I feel like you're talking directly to me. Like, Sarah, please stop. Play this game. You shouldn't be intimidated by blue bru blueprints, but you should know that you're in for something um really unlike anything else that you've ever done before. It is it is incredible game. So that's blueprints.
Speaker: My next one is also way up there for me, and it is a game called Outer Wilds. Oh, yeah. I remember you liked that game. Yeah. Outer space archaeology game, kind of, where... um You are this race of, you are a part of this race of spacefaring little guys who live on a tiny little planet and it's surrounded by other tiny little planets. And when you come of age, you make your own spaceship and you fly around and explore all the other little planets. But what is different about think about your little journey is that much like Majora's Mask,
Speaker: Every, like I think, some 30-some minutes into you starting to explore this tiny little unit this tiny little solar system. this Not solar system, but this tiny little star system, the sun explodes.
Speaker: And then you wake back up, and you're stuck in a time loop. um the way that The thing about this game... is again progression is just it depends on you how what it the game again sort of suggests there's a as you develop as you learn new things you kind of get this idea of like oh the idea the the the potential solution to how to get past this weird fish fish creature that keeps eating my spaceship is
Speaker: is probably on this planet because I read a note that says that somebody solved it and that that person lived on this planet. So maybe I should go check out that planet, but all these planets, they're so so's sort of like abandoned. And so you're sort of uncovering this, what might be an ancient or maybe recently abandoned. You're uncovering this civilization um as you're going and,
Speaker: eventually hoping that by doing so it leads you to some sort of solution to get the fucking sun to stop exploding um so really really really cool game and the soundtrack is unbelievably good it is my go-to video game soundtrack love a good video game soundtrack okay wish you had some of these because I'm just going and going. I don't play. I'm so sorry. I meant to actually talk to you about it off recording because I'm like, I don't really – I can't speak this. I don't really play them. It's an important genre, so we have to cover it, but, you know.
Speaker: ah I totally understand. Mist on there. You put Mist on there. I think Blueprints is a good, I think Blueprints is a really good, ah I still feel too stupid to play it, I think it's a really good recommendation. I'll try to blaze through my other two, because I think Mist, Blueprints, and Outer Wilds is the list. Yeah, probably. so the next one is Call of the Sea. It is definitely a Mist like, it is a Lovecraftian story where you're a woman um,
Speaker: um ah you are kind of tracking down your missing husband who went, he went on this like um expedition,
Speaker: sort of this, I guess, archaeology expedition and never came back. And you're chasing him and you slowly find out that maybe you have a tie to this weird civilization that it was being uncovered on this island of ah what?
Speaker: Underwater dwelling creatures? In a Lovecraft game? no way! i love fish creatures. We're basically Lovecraftian super fans now. Yeah, do. That leans more towards the mislike than the Metroid Brainiac. But again, they're still kind of the same genre. um And then the last one is the room games are very good. um They don't have much of a story. they They start to get a story the further in you go. yeah So like room the Room 3, the Room VR, those both have really strong stories. um And the room, the one that was started out as a mobile game,
Speaker: I can't remember what it's called right now. But the room games are basically, they're little, they're they're similar to a an escape room game, but I would still call them misplikes because you are kind of like, I don't know, this one's tough.
Speaker: It is the yeah. Are the room games escape rooms or mistlikes? See, this is what I bump into. I'm like, I don't know which genre this is. But you're basically solving puzzle boxes that are in front of you. Yeah. And then... I mean, that sounds escape roomy, but... Right. So as the games get more complex, the room three, you are... You have basically an entire...
Speaker: um like house that you are exploring i don't know yeah these might be more escape room games i'm just gonna say the rooms the room are great games they're worth playing yeah i don't know if this is i don't know if this counts okay that's yeah that's fine um so
Speaker: It's Miss Blueprints and Outer Wilds. Correct. those are Yeah, those are just incredible games. All right. yeah If you guys aren't tired of my voice yet, I'm going to tell you about Puzzle Adventures. Oh, boy. but so these are narrativess these are narratives. So contrast these with point and clicks. Because these are narrative games in which progress is gated by self-contained puzzles.
Speaker: Where in point clicks, they're... um you know, often a lot of these other adventure games there, you know, the gating is puzzles that are, that it spring from the environment and the characters that you meet, um, where puzzle adventures, um,
Speaker: You find self-contained puzzles that are solved independently of one another. These may be mini games or multi-step puzzles, but generally do not cascade the way point and click puzzles do. So point and click puzzles, you know, it'll be like, oh, if i if I manage to get the umbrella out of the hole in the wall, then I can use that to go underneath the poison waterfall to get the diamond to put in the slot to make the machine work.
Speaker: Yeah. puzzle adventures generally don't cascade like that. It's generally like, um,
Speaker: very, you know, a puzzle will open a thing and maybe there'll be a key in it that opens a door that gets you to more puzzles, but it's just, but it has nothing to do. The puzzles have nothing to do with one another. Um, the seventh guest is a,
Speaker: popular example of this, but it's also bad, so it's not going on my list.
Speaker: But it was innovative for the time. so what's a puzzle adventure you enjoy? So i you can you can push back on this. sure We might have different how we view ah this particular genre of puzzle adventure, but... One of the things about it is like fucking so many point-and-click games have...
Speaker: self-contained puzzles in them. Yeah. Yeah. I know. So it's just kind of like, which which is it more? which Yeah. Like i I would argue, for example, that um these are not on my list, but I would argue that like Tangled Tower and Mermaid Mask are puzzle adventure. Yeah. Yeah. not, you're not wrong. yeah Yeah. But hear me out though. ah The first one I put that i really enjoyed back in the day was Little Nightmares.
Speaker: See, I would have put that more in action adventure. I understand. It does have some action, but I think it's like very limited. i feel like what I was doing in that game were like these little puzzles. You're almost solving a room at a time, huh? wonder if that's an escape room. can we Can we say that that's an escape room adventure game? I wonder.
Speaker: i think. um Man, that's tough. I mean, again, it's so tough to define some of these. So yeah, what is like ah what is like a platform a puzzle platformer?
Speaker: Maybe we just have to add puzzle platformer to the list. I think it can stay in this genre, though, because I think i think i don't think a puzzle adventure game necessarily is void of any platforming.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, it depends how granular we want to get with these definitions. But let's let's say that. Let's say puzzle adventures include puzzle platformers. Okay, I think that's fair because I think I can – I put two because that's all I could think of that I really, really enjoyed, especially recently. But when you talk, you might spark something. But I put Little Nightmares and I put Limbo, um which I enjoyed. So two puzzle platformers, right? Yeah, two but yeah because that's I think that's just how I read – this particular genre. So yeah, I put little nightmares in limbo.
Speaker: What are you, what did you put? Um, so my first one, I only, i only have three. One, i also put blueprints, but we're not going to put it in two categories, but I think it's, it,
Speaker: You know, a lot of times you are solving puzzles that are in a specific room or you are in one run because there is like a roguelite element to that game too. In one run, you might be trying to solve a puzzle that is not...
Speaker: anyway We can strike that. I just wanted... Like, that was initially on my list. Yeah. um So, for the first one I'll say is Lorelai and the... The problem is... Okay, sorry. Before I tell you, i already just half said it, but um I don't like a lot of these games. Yeah, I feel like...
Speaker: From what you are describing? i but I don't know if I like. So are you thinking of like The Witness? I know that's more of a myth. So The Witness is on. We'll talk about them all individually. But yeah, The Witness and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes are the two that are on my list. Okay. And you know what? If we're including puzzle platformers, I'm going to include Creeks on here. Okay.
Speaker: um I think we should i think we should ah include that because I really do think just because it's a puzzle adventure doesn't mean you have to do zero platforming. Yeah, I mean, i do think these are – I do think – but the value of genre – right, is if you like this, then you will also, you also might like this. yeah um And I don't think it necessarily follows that somebody who likes the seventh guest is going to like Little Nightmares, right? Sure. I don't think that somebody who likes creaks is necessarily going to like The Witness. Well, that's maybe a little closer.
Speaker: i think these are all close enough. I really do. but But for the sake of this our list, I think we are going to combine puzzle adventures and puzzle platformers. And yeah. So, um,
Speaker: one thing we are missing also here is just the straight up puzzle game. So like, um, so if you feel like including those two, like we could discuss that. Um, so for example, um,
Speaker: uh, The Phleb Games. Mm-hmm. So, like, 20 Small Mazes or... um Yeah. ah what was What was the... Oh, God.
Speaker: Those are not adventure games to me, by the way. What was the one... Strange Jigsaws. Yeah, Strange Jigsaws. Strange Jigsaws, yeah. Yeah. um So puzzle games are not adventure games. No, not to me at least. yeah then then then the Yeah, let's leave them off. All right. okay So then let's talk about the ones that we have.
Speaker: um Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a very bizarre game um where you play a woman who's sort of investigating this mansion it's very noirish it's very black and white um yeah you seem to have been expected there's sort of this creepy guy who's almost leading you through this mansion and trying to help you discover what seems to be a crime he might have committed but it involves also like the it's it's this extra dimensional thing and you are solving a lot of individual puzzles it's a lot of like
Speaker: finding codes for doors you know what i mean yeah um but through really creative and interesting ways uh and it's very creepy and it's very cool it's called lorelei and the laser eyes it's great um should i just go down my list and you'll go down your list I mean, I've already, I mean, I definitely, sure. Yeah, let's that. Yeah, and then you can explain what they are. I'll explain a little more. The Witness is a game by Jonathan Blow. It is, you are, there's not much of a plot here, but you are on an island and you are solving what are basically mazes. um
Speaker: You keep finding these panels. And on the panels, you have to just get draw a line from one end to the other, but then you keep encountering these rules. Like, you have to pass... There's these black dots in the in the margins, in the gutters of this maze, or sorry, the path of this maze, and you have to make sure you your line...
Speaker: um goes over each black dot, but your line can never go over itself. So that might end up proving to be a challenge. But then you might find one where there are certain in the gutters between the line ah the paths, there are, and the paths are always just straight up grids. It's not like a maze in that,
Speaker: it's hard to get from one end to the other. What makes it a maze is trying to follow these rules. So you might find one where it's like, there are black dots and white dots in between the spaces and the grid, um, or in the spaces in the grid in between the, the, the, the paths. And you have to draw a line that separates all black dots from all white dots. Right. And then what happens if you have both rules in the same puzzle? Um, um,
Speaker: And it just gets more and more and more complex. And the idea of the witness is basically like this... this And you find these like audio logs here that speak to this point. But it's like the power of... The human brain is a powerful thing. And no matter how smart or dumb you think you are, if you keep working at this fucking game, you're gonna get it.
Speaker: Yeah. and the game is very affirming about that. Even while... it makes you affirm it yourself because so much of the game is quiet and empty. um It's a lonely game. That's ah i I thought like the witness might come up and that's kind of what I was referring to when I was like, ah, lonely missed like games. There's no characters. There's no one to talk to. I did play some of the witness. I was very bad at it.
Speaker: You would have gotten better had you just kept at it. I think Lorelai and The Witness are very good examples of this genre. um I am just not good at either of them. Good versions of a bad game, which is called The Seventh Guest. um And then Creeks is you're like a little guy who falls into a space in your house that you didn't know existed, and it's populated with all these weird bird creatures. at thought you were going to say a creek. You're scared of them, but you slowly make friends with them. And... um
Speaker: yeah ah That's cute. The important thing about Creeks is that it is an Amanita game who did Samorost and Machinarium. And so it's all hand drawn.
Speaker: and the like this sort of almost Edward Gorey pen and ink style. Beautiful game. yeah Really incredible puzzles. It's just a puzzle platformer. It's really great.
Speaker: ah Do you want me to go over ah Little Nightmares and Limbo? Yes. They're very similar. um But Little Nightmares is kind of like this artistic experience. ah You wake up as this little girl who is kind of stuck in ah in a room and you are being chased by...
Speaker: kind of like ah monsters and characters inspired by Japanese folklore. um Except it's dark. It's horror. So it's it's not like Zelda Japanese. It's like horror. What was the game we were talking about? um and ah cosmology of Cosmology of Kyoto. It's like horror. right Yeah. So... um It is definitely a hybrid in that, yes, there are some platforming elements. There are times where you will simply need to run because you are being chased by something. This is what is is it is a side scroller, but it is looks 3D. It is in 3D. It looks 3D, but you are essentially side scrolling and you are essentially trying to figure out ways to get to the next screen. So those are those kind of self-contained puzzles that we talked about. So let's say you are now, you run away from someone and you are stuck like under some stairs. You now need to solve, you know, some multi-step puzzles to get out of that room and get to the next room.
Speaker: And that can be things like moving things around or pulling a lever or things of that nature um or or even just finding other routes, you know, other like holes in wall. i really I thought Little Nightmares was an interesting game because of the pacing.
Speaker: um It definitely goes from zero to 100. Where it's like, you think you're just you think you're just like trying to get out of this room, right? But once you do get out of the room, you are met with something horrific and and scary. And since suddenly the the music stings pop up and you're just running from globby monsters. Like it's... ah It's also very visually appealing because it does have that 3D against side scrolling look to it.
Speaker: I really like how it looks. It it sort of reminds me of good ah Goodbye Sweet Carol. Yes. um Yeah, it reminds me of that, except I think Little Nightmares is even more contained. I think Goodbye Sweet Carol had a little bit more um openness to it in terms of the setting. Little Nightmares, it it kind of runs, it bumps up right against escape rooms to me. But because it does have like those other hybrid elements. Limbo is kind of the same way. It is a side scrolling kind of contained adventure thing. It is black and white completely, but not in the way of Obra Dinn where it like totally upsets me. um It is a black and white and gray scale. Let's say you're playing just a little boy, a little... um
Speaker: Like a little silhouette of a little boy. And you are just trying to get through your setting, which is very dark and gray and like foggy and there's monsters in the fog. And honestly, it's very, it's very minimalistic.
Speaker: But it has some really like challenging puzzles to it, I find. um They don't start that way, obviously. I think in a lot of puzzle games, they ramp a little bit. ah But I think there's something special about this game because it is so simple. It is simple looking, but it's extremely effective looking. Even if you just look at the title card for it, that's appealing.
Speaker: To me, you know, even though it's just grayscale. And yeah, the puzzles do get challenging and they are puzzles in a way that you are stopped. You are contained a little bit. You cannot move forward until you do some kind of puzzle. And yes, there I would say Little Nightmares maybe has more platforming. Maybe.
Speaker: this has some platforming and it, although I remember falling more than jumping. ja skill The skill and checks in limbo are a little difficult. Yeah. Yeah. They're a little different. So like, yeah Oh, it's so pretty. Oh, so I'm going to say, I'm going to say Lorelai in the laser eyes is like, what if, what if seventh guest was good?
Speaker: Sure. yeah,
Speaker: The Witness, I know you don't love, so i'm having a trouble thinking of putting it on to I think it should go on there for the genre. No, I don't. I don't love The Witness, but I don't love that genre either. The genre anyway. Like i said, it's lonely. It's not for me.
Speaker: And of the three puzzle platformers on here, Creeks, Limbo, and Little Nightmares. i think Little Nightmares fits more than anything. I think Limbo. Because, okay. So I think Creeks is my favorite of those. Okay.
Speaker: But Limbo kind of brought me back into video. Was one of the games that brought me back into video games. Along with Braid. um Okay. Okay. And I think Limbo is just such a classic at this point where Little Nightmares is, i don't know. I think Little Nightmares is okay. Okay. I don't think it's incredible. I think Limbo is incredible. Okay. I would definitely keep in mind that like, these are my aesthetic type of game. So of course I'm putting Little Nightmares on there because of a personal like preference, right Because we all have that. Yeah. But I would be willing to concede to Limbo for sure.
Speaker: All right. Lorelai. And The Laser Eyes, The Witness, and Limbo are through puzzle adventures, which is a confusing and perhaps controversial genre for inclusion. Go ahead. Try to yell at me about it. See if I care. Yeah. Well, we don't give a shit.
Speaker: All right. Lastly, and so hopefully you'll get more. Lastly, for this episode, and we'll have five more next episode, and hopefully you will have more episodes games to add to that because I don't know how much you're going to have to add to this one either.
Speaker: Probably zero. Like at least I had one for missed likes. I do not play this next genre even a little bit. So this type of game holds hands with puzzle adventures. It does, yeah. Very strongly. Honestly, think Little Nightmares could be an escape room game based on what I'm remembering about. You are in room. haven't said escape room yet. Oh, sorry. Fucked it I fucked up everything. So it is the escape room game.
Speaker: So, okay. Escape rooms are games in which puzzles are sectioned often to limited areas that contain all relevant clues and components. The archetypal version is being trapped in a room and needing to solve a series of cascading puzzles by observing the room carefully, ultimately leading to a key to open the door and escape the room. um So this was a, i would say,
Speaker: Puzzle adventures inspired a real-world phenomenon called the escape room, which is people trying to make puzzle adventures in real life. Right. And...
Speaker: then that ah ah turned back in on itself. Art impitates life, life impitates art, right? It turned back on itself and then people started making escape room games. Right. um Which were a subtly different genre, I think, than the puzzle adventures that inspired them to begin with. So,
Speaker: since you don't have any, I might just say mine all in a row. Go for it. And maybe when you say them, I might be like, oh, okay, maybe I do have one. So one is the room VR.
Speaker: Okay. And I'll go back and talk about these more. ah The next is the Cube Escape Collection that's on Steam, which is maybe a little bit of a cheat, but fuck Nah.
Speaker: Next is, is this game trying to kill me? And finally... There's no Rusty Lake collection, so I had to pick one. Oh, okay. So Rusty Lake Roots is my favorite Rusty Lake game. Okay.
Speaker: So The Room VR is a game in which... It is one of the room games, but you are...
Speaker: um you don't have puzzle boxes in front of you. You are in a room and that room is full of clues that are going to help you. um ah you don't know what you're doing at first. First, you're just like a police officer trying to,
Speaker: ah close up for the night and some weird shit starts happening around you. Um,
Speaker: And then you end up like each each puzzle room that you go into and they're all very unique. These escape rooms, they ah they lead you to like a ah portal to the next one. um And I guess at that point, you're just trying to fucking get home. but um And it's it's the best VR game I've ever played.
Speaker: Nice. I'm going to throw another VR game on here actually real quick um because it is straight up an escape room and it is um um I Expect You to Die. Matt, please. You'd be a little nicer to me.
Speaker: ah Also, the game that I'm trying to recommend is... No, it's called I Expect You to Die and it is basically a James Bond simulator where you are put in a...
Speaker: basically an escape, like you'll put, be put in the cockpit of, uh, of a, uh, a car that's wired to explode. And you have to just like very quickly explore all the things around you trying to, and you'll die over and over and over again. yeah Um, explore all the things around you to try and try and solve each individual puzzle, like cascading puzzle to disarm the bomb, right? Something like that.
Speaker: Um, so there And there's just a series of, you just go on very individual missions. Yeah. so it's like So it's like a collection of escape rooms that are all James Bond themed. And there is a story that goes through it, but it's not a strong story. It is just it's just escape rooms. It's called I Expect You to Die. It's another great VR game. Okay.
Speaker: Cube Escape is hard to explain. They are just... They're just escape rooms that slowly over time, ah as you play more and more of them, a story, a very surrealistic story starts to unfold. um
Speaker: the I mean, it's called Cube Escape because you are in a cube and you're trying to escape. Yes. Yes. Like that is how they started. Sounds like an escape room game. It sounds like yeah that's what that is.
Speaker: And they started as mobile games. And there's a lot of, um you you keep finding very similar objects in each game. So there's like thematic ties. And then there's like a horror element that, um,
Speaker: unfolds itself throughout these these different cube escape games and again a very surrealistic horror that is is a little hard to explain what is actually going on in these games but it's um you know it involves uh ghosts and time and like time travel and generational trauma and they're really they're really good um And is this game trying to kill me is a game. Sorry, Matt. No, it's okay.
Speaker: Um, is this game trying to kill me is a game that was released, uh, in 2024. And you are, it is, it is two layers to it. Number one, you are in a room. It's kind of like inscription. I fucking should have thrown an inscription on here. Um, uh,
Speaker: You are in a room. or I think you maybe start by playing a game. You start by playing this retro-looking pixel art game um with some weird puzzles in it And you realize you can't solve all of them. So you press a button that makes that lets you stand up from the computer you're playing them at. And you notice some elements in the...
Speaker: room that you are playing this game in are kind of similar to elements in the fucking game. And so you are trying to...
Speaker: you were You were kind of like going back and forth between this video game in the game and the video game that you are playing in this 3D environment.
Speaker: solving puzzles that are reliant on your actions in each individual room. And at the same time, there's your, both the room and the game are both trying to kill you. So you die a lot. So it's kind of like a horror escape room puzzle adventure. yeah
Speaker: So did any of those make you think of an escape room game you've played? No. Okay. This is just not this is not my genre, even like a teeny little bit. Which of any of those intrigued you? The one that intrigued you to the most is a shoe-in. That goes on the list immediately.
Speaker: Which one is a shoe-in? Whichever one. That's what I'm saying. Oh, okay. Which of these that I described intrigues you the most? Would you play that? I think probably the Rusty Lake games.
Speaker: So because i know the Cube Escape one, the whole collection, because Rusty Lake, sorry, I didn't explain this. Rusty Lake ok roots is a, Rusty Lake spun out of the Cube Escape games. Oh, it did? Oh, okay. Then I guess the Cube Escape collection. So there's some fictional elements to Rusty Lake.
Speaker: Or to the Cube Escape games that are later are that are explored in Rusty Lake. But then Rusty lake also starts to explore the more story-focused parts of Cube Escape. Got it. Well, then I would say Cube Escape, the collection i that's all the collection. I think that should be there, right? I think that should be there, too. Okay.
Speaker: um I'm going to put, is this game trying to kill me on there? Because it is just so... It's just such an interesting version of this idea. and Yeah. um I don't think the the puzzles are as great as some of the puzzles in these other games that are on here, but it fucking rules. Nice. um I think, again, Inscription, you should play.
Speaker: It is an escape room and a card game at the same time, but I think it is it's just a little too far. Yeah. Far from the genre. Far from the genre for me to put it on there. um But then the third game...
Speaker: Did any of these other ones intrigue you? Probably I Expect You to Die. right. That's going on there. it is I mean, that is just straight up escape rooms. So I think that that fits the genre better than any of these other ones because they are – it is just – those could be escape rooms that you go visit in a strip mall or whatever. Gotcha.
Speaker: hey got All right. So before we close out, do you want to just go through –
Speaker: our recommendations for each genre. Sure. yeah The ones, the show ones. Sure. so So we started with action adventure and our show recommendations are the legend of Zelda breath of the wild layer of the clockwork, God and uncharted, uncharted four, a thief's end. And then we went into adventure RPG and we recommend disco Elysium, esoteric Ebb and quest for glory one. god Such fucking good games. I know. ah And then we continued with Mistlikes and Metroid Brainias. And we both agreed on Mist. And then Matt finished it with Blueprints and Outer Wilds. And for our puzzle adventure, we've got Lorelai and the Laser Eyes, The Witness, and Limbo.
Speaker: And for this last one, our escape room genre, we have Cube Escape Collection. Is this game trying to kill me? And I expect you to die.
Speaker: fuck man imagine being matt you know remember you know that um that twilight zone where the guy all he wanted to do is read and then he's like he breaks his glasses and he breaks the glasses and yeah there's time now yeah yeah there's time yeah imagine being that guy only your glasses don't break and instead of books it's all these games that we're recommending But can't you like, hear me out, guy who broke his glasses. Can't you just like hold your glasses at a little bit of a distance? yes Yeah. That's all I'm saying. <unk>ces Squint your eyes real well well. Yeah, we all squint. Look, we all had to wear glasses at some point in elementary school. Maybe or not all of us, but some of us were here. And look, we all didn't want to wear it. And what we do, we squinted. Yeah, that guy could have figured it out. That guy was being a real fucking baby. Also, like, i don't know, like kind of edge or take a piece of the glasses, use it as a monocle. Look, I don't know. I'm an adventure gamer. I'm trying to figure this out. It's almost.
Speaker: if It's almost like, and I'm not saying this is true, but it's almost like that story was a metaphor for some larger point. Stupid.
Speaker: Man, I don't get it. That's okay. don't believe that. i but I believe you get it. um I do get it, yes. I am smart. You love to call yourself stupid on this show, but nobody buys it. I'm highly intelligent. Nobody buys it, Rose. Just because I happen to be the smart one on the show doesn't mean that you're not so smart.
Speaker: Oh my God. I'm... I'm in charge of Zencaster right now. I'm just going to end it. You just kick me out. You do the rest of the podcast this episode by yourself. what am i What can I do about it? You changed the password so I can't get into Zencaster. I edit this this episode and your complete voiceover is out. It's just me. It'll make you no sense.
Speaker: You just record fart noises and you're like, so Matt, what do you think? And then you're just like. That's you. Okay. Who's smart now? but Oh, boy. um We're both the smart one on the show. Yeah, we're both the smart ones. So, ah man...
Speaker: These are long episodes, but I think they're fun. i hope you guys enjoy them as much as we enjoy them. The ah Discord was going off about how this is just us ah lengthening their Steam wish lists. Oopsie. And yeah, it's pretty much that. But ah what the fuck else do you listen to a video game podcast about?
Speaker: Yeah. Why are you even listening? Podcast for anyway. They just like us, I think. it's Do they like us? Do they really like us? They they like us. um So.
Speaker: I did all that talking. You you you take us out, my friend. Hey, everyone. I've been given the power of the microphone right now. And I just want to say thank you guys so much for listening. almost said watching. I really hope you're not watching us because that would be very strange.
Speaker: I hope that you guys enjoyed listening. I'm That's. weird i always record in the nude no you don't no i don't i almost recorded shirtless because my house is anexplic inexplicably hot it's not hot outside but it's hot in my house so we almost recorded this whole thing shirtless or like a fire so then i was like i'm gonna get uncomfortable i like i'm gonna be uncomfortable but okay go ahead Honestly, I do not wear pants when I record. i wear underwear and an oversized shirt. I am comfy right now, you guys. I'm always recording in pajamas and a t-shirt. pajama We got to be comfy. You got to be comfy when you're doing a three-hour long podcast. ah Which Mutant Menace listeners know, I do at least once a week.
Speaker: And that's why we are so grateful that you're listening to this entire podcast down to the very end. And if you want to keep up with us, we have an Instagram, Save Your Game Podcast.
Speaker: Wait, save you yeah save your game podcast on Instagram. did think about it for like one second. Or you can email us at mattandroses at gmail.com. Check out our show notes. Maybe there's links there. I don't i don't know. Maybe there's not.
Speaker: There is. Yeah, check out our show notes. There going to be a few links there. And go to the Discord. Discuss amongst yourselves what you think are the best these genres. And hey,
Speaker: It's fucking debate about this puzzle adventure genre. are we in Are we making it up? Does it not exist? Or is it broader than we thought it was? or should we have separated puzzle adventure and...
Speaker: and ah and ah puzzle platformer you guys tell us no i don't want anyone's uh notes i think we're authorities on this and i'm not changing anything and you better listen we're not no no no sorry don't get me wrong we are not changing anything but but ah feel free to discuss it with each other in the discord come to me No, I would love to hear some of your all's yeah ah favorites of each of these genres. like Yeah, let us know. You know, I'm always looking for new games to discover. so
Speaker: Yeah. Well, I guess there's only one more thing to say. and is it that Matt's throat hurts? Whose fault is that, Matt? Look, we couldn't not discuss these genres. Whose fault is that? just it's It's the podcast because podcast. podcast Podcast. It's important to do a podcast because podcast is art.
Speaker: And art is suffer as you are well aware of. if he died addict
