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Episode 46 – Cabernet and Adventure RPGS
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Roses and Matt roll up their characters and embark on an adventure, avoiding Killer Tomatoes and sadistic oral surgeons, leveling up their scratching skills with Itch Simulator VR 4000, and making their way to becoming full-fledged blood-drinking vampires!
This week, we discuss the new vampire game Cabernet, an adventure/RPG hybrid in which you live two months as a vampire in a small eastern European town in the 1800’s. We review the game and talk about the differences in our playthroughs. Then, we discuss the intersection between RPGs and Adventure Games, and what makes a game lean more heavily to either side.
Also, we rank some adventure games we’ve never heard of and wonder what the word “Cabernet” means.
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Games Mentioned:
- Cabernet
- Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
- Final Fantasies 1-8
- Flat Stanley RPG
- RPG Maker VX 8
- Stardew Valley
- Heaven’s Vault
- I Was A Teenage Exocolonist
- Disco Elysium
- The Thaumaturge
- Planescape: Torment
- Grim Fandango
- Itch Simulator VR 4000
- Skyrim
- Morrowind
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Through Abandoned: The Underground City
- Super Jazz Man
- Apprentice
- Enola
Recommended
Transcript
Depressing News and Health Issues
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, Matt. Hey. Hey, what's up? So I got some news. Okay. It's a little depressing. ah just what we need right now. I just want to make sure you're in a good headspace.
00:00:14
Speaker
um Well, I'm not, but... It's fine. You know what? It's fine. So I've been like having very strange stomach issues for like a kind of a long time. And I wasn't sure what was causing it. I thought it might be food related or, you know, i i had been sick for a little while there, but that was mostly with like strep and like throat issues.
00:00:34
Speaker
Okay. realized what the culprit is. I will give you two guesses as to what the food culprit is. ah you but And viewers at home and listeners at home, now's the time to lock in your answers.
00:00:48
Speaker
What food is upsetting Purr's stomach? Okay, Matt? Here's what I want you guys to do. Here's what I want people at home to do. Write it on a Post-it.
00:01:00
Speaker
Write it a Post-it right now. And then, and then roses will say it. And then I want you to tweet, you know, blue sky, blue sky us. Yeah. Blue sky us.
00:01:11
Speaker
Skeet. Ew. I hate that. Skeet us a image. hate that. Of what your guess was. Okay. What is your guess though, Matt? I already know the four people who are going to do that and no one else will. Okay.
00:01:23
Speaker
um We love you guys. um What could be causing. Okay. I'm going to guess this is an acid thing.
00:01:35
Speaker
So I'm going to guess.
00:01:39
Speaker
Oh, God. Okay. my I'm a split between sugar and nightshades. Okay. um Tomatoes. Yeah, you got it. Yeah!
00:01:50
Speaker
You got it! Yes! I can't believe that! It could have been anything! It could have been anything! Well, I have really bad... i've I have a hiatal hernia. Do you want to know what that means?
00:02:04
Speaker
ah Your stomach is fucked? It means when I breathe, a little bit of my esophagus, a little bit of my stomach slips in and out of my esophagus. Oh, God. Isn't that really appetizing? i um and So ah I have a hiatal hernia, and so I will have acid reflux problems my whole life, no matter whether I change my life or diet. It'll get better if I change my diet, and I'm just not because I'm...
00:02:27
Speaker
um really fucking cool. Because we can't live without cheese, okay? So anyway, know what tomatoes do to me. Yeah, I'm a little shocked.
00:02:39
Speaker
And i was i was having I was having very extreme acid and like stomach problems. And I'll spare you guys the detail, but you could guess stomach problems.
00:02:49
Speaker
You just guess. You'd probably be right. And like yeah, I just noticed that every time I eat something with tomatoes in it, it's bad news, man. yeah So basically, I'm being poisoned by tomatoes.
00:03:02
Speaker
Yeah. and The attack of the killer tomatoes, they call it. Yeah, like literally.
00:03:08
Speaker
going draw a picture of that. I'm going to draw a picture of me being poisoned by tomatoes. ah Well, all all right. Well, you know, here's what you said to me before we started this
Podcast Intro and Humorous Tomato Allergy Discussion
00:03:20
Speaker
podcast.
00:03:20
Speaker
Before you hit record, you said, I have the best fucking intro that anybody has ever heard. This is going knock their socks off. And you know what? You were right.
00:03:32
Speaker
Cue music. Cue music.
00:03:53
Speaker
everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. I am one of your hosts, Pushing Up Roses. Roses for short. I'm allergic to tomatoes, apparently. Well, allergic, is that the right word? I don't know, I'm sensitive.
00:04:04
Speaker
Very sensitive to tomatoes. And with me is my co-host, who I think is also sensitive to tomatoes, Matt Aukamp. Yeah, I wasn't sensitive to tomatoes ah at first, but they bullied me really bad in high school. um Yeah.
00:04:19
Speaker
Does this mean I can't eat pizza? I'm a little confused. I just eat the pizza anyway. Okay, so here's the thing. i find that I find that my stomach gets a little fucked up with any ah raw vegetables.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah. If I eat salad, it just feels like a jumble of stuff in my stomach. um It like stays a salad in your stomach. Exactly, yeah. and so what
00:04:45
Speaker
Look, everything, this body is a wasteland. Everything in here withers in the- It's not a wonderland, it's a wasteland. It's a wasteland. So I, ah what I do, with the thing I noticed is like sandwiches and pizza, like big heavy things help even that out.
00:05:03
Speaker
Like granted, i i guarantee they make my acid reflux worse in the long run. But in the short run, and my stomach doesn't get all glurgly. when I eat a pizza. So oftentimes, if I will also, like, I'll be like, okay, I'm gonna have salad tonight, so I should get a piece of pizza too.
00:05:27
Speaker
Great. Alright. um So, yeah, that makes me incapable of ever being healthy, guess. Like, I think I do eat pretty healthy.
00:05:38
Speaker
Sometimes I'll just do a big, chonky piece of bread. That also can help. Yeah. But pizza doesn't, yeah, pizza doesn't hurt as it doesn't really fuck me up that much because there's all the cheese and bread that I guess negates the acid in the or it doesn't it makes it worse but it just makes it take longer to hurt it kind of fucks me up but what am I supposed to do i live in Chicago i love pizza what do I do Chicago and just load fucking tomatoes on that pizza You guys, Chicagoans put so much tomato sauce on their pizza. Oh, that's true.
00:06:13
Speaker
That is true. That is true. we We love a good tomato sauce. My favorite is like a sweeter sauce on a pizza, which is very South Side Chicago. But now what am I supposed to do? ah can't go on.
00:06:26
Speaker
Some types of Chicago pizza, right, are like the tomato sauce is like chunky, right? Chunky, yes, chunky. That's like the worst. It's not just like smooth sauce. It's like...
00:06:38
Speaker
ah Just like a pile of diced tomatoes lightly blended.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, sometimes. I like that too. I like chonky sauce. like sweet sauce. I like it all. I like every pizza ever made. And now it's over for me. I'll tell you this. When I when i gave up meat, I i became i hated chili when I ate meat.
00:06:59
Speaker
Because I thought chili was this thing that was just... tomatoes and beans and meat yeah and the end and that kind of chili which people love just kind of tastes like metal it does not taste good yeah um but vegetarian chili is amazing I had veggie chili today. It was so good. It's so good, right? So good. It was tomatoes, so I'm in pain.
00:07:32
Speaker
You put a fucking dollop of ah ah sour cream on there. God. Oh, God damn. little bit of cheese. maybe i had croutons with mine today. It was really good. Oh, get some get some like French bread and like oh my god scoop up the chili with the French bread and eat it that way.
00:07:48
Speaker
ah Mine came with cornbread, actually, and it was fucking good. No! Oh, I can't. i I gotta go. Are you like corporate? No, I gotta go find this. I gotta go find food. We're starving. I'm starving.
00:08:03
Speaker
would really We both, we were chatting and then we both said, hold on to go eat. And came back and started recording. and But now I'm starving again. I eat rice because I'm afraid to eat anything that is going to upset my stomach.
00:08:19
Speaker
So I just eat the most bland food possible. So the thing, the brat diet, wait, a hold on. The brat diet, yeah. So I, um, so I love vegetarian chili, but the two, like, most, uh, flavorful, well, the most flavorful ingredient of vegetarian chili is onions, which fuck me up.
00:08:39
Speaker
And then that's one of the one of the biggest ingredients of vegetarian chili
Cabernet Game Overview and Mechanics
00:08:43
Speaker
is tomatoes, which fucked me up. Yeah. So I love vegetarian chili. I could barely eat it. But also, isn't it funny the way the term brat has evolved?
00:08:51
Speaker
Yeah. The brat diet, which is what? but Bananas, rice, applesauce and toast toast. Yeah. And it's supposed to like help bad, bad tummy troubles. Right. Calm your stomach. At least not make it worse. You know.
00:09:07
Speaker
But I love thinking about it in terms of like the modern usage of brat. Like brat summer. My brat summer has rice in it. My brat summer is bananas. bananas right like like like kamala is Kamala is brat.
00:09:22
Speaker
Kamala is bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. tama Kamala is good for an upset stomach.
00:09:36
Speaker
Don't make fun of me and my bread diet. How dare you? ah I'm over here dying because I can't have pizza. um do Do you want this? is I don't have much to say, but do you want a quick teeth update?
00:09:50
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, let's do it. Teeth update right here. Ow. Ow. Ow.
00:10:03
Speaker
Update! So, as you know, my wisdom teeth, healing. Yeah. um I've had to go back twice because I just can't... Right now, what I've got is, like, my jaw is just in excruciating pain, right?
00:10:19
Speaker
Oh, no. It's like the muscles are sore. Yep. So... like the sockets whatever they're closing up slowly sometimes they're annoying sometimes they're not whatever um i have to have to i have to inject water into them every night to flush all the food out and yeah it's fucked up how much food comes out of these these fucking mouth holes um but um an entire piece of macaroni just like floods out into the sink and i'm like what the hell
00:10:49
Speaker
ah So i so dear go back to the i go back to the oral surgeon, right? To say like, oh, my jaw hurts. And she's like, I think it's muscular. Hold on. And she just reaches in my mouth and just starts squeezing ah all my jaw muscles.
00:11:05
Speaker
And she's like, what, does that hurt? And I'm like pounding on the on the chair. Like, oh, because her hand's in my mouth, so I can't say it anything. I'm like, oh. And she's like, oh, yeah, that hurts, doesn't it? And she's still squeezing. I'm like, what sadism you must have in your brain.
00:11:23
Speaker
And she's like laughing about it. She's like, oh yeah, that got you good, huh? Like, yeah, wow! I'm entrusted to your care, madam! What in the world? Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
So anyway, that's my teeth update. Alright, teeth update! Teeth update! This has become like a medical podcast. I know! I know!
00:11:48
Speaker
This is what happens when you have a podcast made by two old people. They're just like like, it's just like, ah yeah, had problems with my back this week. i yeah Sometimes that back problem can be caused by constipation. Did you try Metamucil? Like, that's going to be this podcast in just like three years.
00:12:08
Speaker
Oh, no, we can't let that happen. ah We can't. Look, he can't stop the inevitable march of time. we can! are we talking about this week? What?
00:12:23
Speaker
We are talking about ah new game that we both played that hopefully is out. This is also why this ah this episode is a day late, everybody. oh right, right.
00:12:37
Speaker
We had to wait for the embargo. That's okay. I'm just totally cool with waiting one single day. But we played, ah just as a little breath of fresh air, we played an adventure RPG.
00:12:49
Speaker
we played Cabernet. Cabernet. And I have many thoughts because, did I fuck up.
00:12:59
Speaker
It is a very indie, and we'll talk about we'll talk about this, what I mean by this, but it's a very indie, story-driven RPG.
00:13:09
Speaker
What i yeah I think is fair to call an adventure RPG. i think that's totally fair. Absolutely. And it got us thinking ah about this idea of when does an RPG,
00:13:22
Speaker
Adventure Great Games crossover with RPGs. Right. And I think this game kind of gave us some good ideas on when it does cross over. um because And the reason I'm so comfortable with calling it an adventure RPG is it because it is Big Quest for Glory Energy.
00:13:41
Speaker
i and What is that? BQF. BQFG. BQFG. Big Quest for Glory Energy. Yeah.
00:13:50
Speaker
be you are
00:13:56
Speaker
So i i listen, I very much enjoyed this game, which is why I'm angry at it. And it's all, it's all going to come out. um Well, here's what I think we should do.
00:14:08
Speaker
and I think we should play some clanky smokerino and come back and talk about Cabernet and then talk about adventure RPGs.
00:14:20
Speaker
All right. Incoming. Yeah.
00:14:42
Speaker
everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. don't think- did I- did introduce Save Your Game? Did I say that earlier? ah You said you were the host and I was the host. what I don't know the name of the podcast.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, we're check to see if I'm just like, hey, everyone, I'm pushing roses. The name of this podcast is Save Your Game, if you didn't know. Just in case you didn't know. And today, as mentioned, we are going to be talking about Cabernet. ah Matt, do you know who published and developed Cabernet?
00:15:16
Speaker
Uh, no, I've been looking and looking and looking and there's no information. Why are they keeping it a secret from us?
00:15:26
Speaker
I started ah typing in Cabernet and like wine, like Cabernet Sauvignon. How do you even say? don't know. I don't drink wine, guys. Cabernet sal and Sauvignon.
00:15:37
Speaker
Isn't Sauvignon? I don't know anything about. I don't know anything. Okay. Cabernet. I know like Sauvignon Blanc. What does Sauvignon mean? let's all right Let's start there. yeah All right, everybody. start let's We're going to start here.
00:15:51
Speaker
What does Sauvignon mean? ah Sauvignon is a... I don't know. I can't find it. I can't find it without the word Blanc attached.
00:16:04
Speaker
Listen, you look for that. Well, I just confirm that this was developed by a company called Party for Introverts, which I should remember because I restarted this game ah a lot and saw the screen with that a lot. So yes, developer Party for Introverts.
00:16:20
Speaker
Did you figure out what Sauvignon means? um it's just ah It's just a variety of white wine grape, but I don't understand how a Cabernet can be Sauvignon. yeah.
00:16:32
Speaker
that's I swear that's what came up when I started. No, no, it is. No, I see that too. Yeah. Hey. Someone help us. Don't, like, message us about this because we don't care that much.
00:16:45
Speaker
But feel free to send an email and maybe we'll get around to reading it. Yeah, that's true. That's true. um Okay. Yeah. So Party for Introverts. Party for Introverts. You say Party for Introverts developed this game?
00:16:58
Speaker
Yes. Wow. Why? Why? i don't know. I don't know. i was just trying to be engaging. Wow! And Akupara Games is the publisher. yeah It was released legitimately today if you're listening to this on release day.
00:17:14
Speaker
Oh my god. We're so exciting. we We have the up and up and the new stuff. Hey. don't know where I going with that. Did you get all the dresses? No. No.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, there's one I couldn't find. I didn't care to get all of them. But you know what I should upon, well, we'll see. We'll see. i think there's a lot of one there's a lot of this. I think literally I'm going to wait until ah people start releasing guides because I don't know. Because like I played it through.
00:17:42
Speaker
all the way and I enjoyed it and I enjoyed my choices I regretted a few of them but not many and i ah because I mostly I saved scum but how did how did you save scum if you were just playing you were playing it on steam right Yeah, I just walked all the way. We'll talk about it. Okay.
00:18:05
Speaker
But there are some things I'm curious about. Yeah. That I don't know if I want to play this game like seven times. Right. To like see all the different paths, especially because i went back I went back and started it again very briefly trying to do an evil playthrough or a nihilistic playthrough.
00:18:26
Speaker
yeah And just so much is exactly the same. Yes, it is. That I think I'm going to need to wait for my memories of this game to dull a little bit before I do a second playthrough.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, and that actually prompts some of my critique with this game. ah Do you want to start by telling everybody just what is this game? What's it about? What is the general overview?
00:18:48
Speaker
So you are a vampire. No, I'm not. Not you, Matt. Well, you are a little bit. You're very pale. that's i just I'm inside a lot.
00:18:59
Speaker
You are playing a female vampire who wakens from her coffin early. ah You were not supposed to wake up, but you woke up early. And through some interesting means, you get out of your coffin. You get out of this dungeon you were put in.
00:19:17
Speaker
And you go up the stairs and you see like this very regal party with this countess. And that is where you learn that you were turned. You are a vampire. You are now immortal, which kind of fucking sucks.
00:19:30
Speaker
That would be terrible. um I'm dying at age 75. don't know if I told you guys all that, but that is my plan. Because anything else is like torture. I want to live to like 250 or so. All right. ah You'll still be doing the podcast.
00:19:44
Speaker
Somehow you have like found my ghost and I'm also still doing it. 95% about my medical issues and 5% about video games at that point. Yeah. um so yeah So you are...
Resource Management and Game Bugs in Cabernet
00:19:56
Speaker
You now have to live your life as a vampire while also kind of untangling this interesting story that's going a along going alongside of you.
00:20:08
Speaker
And the thing I compare it to the most two and this is why I liked the game, is it reminded me so heavily of Quest for Glory 4, which is Shadows of Darkness, which is also about vampires and Eastern European. That's where this takes place.
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah. And so it's got a lot of the same a lot of the same ideas, a lot of the same folklore in it. ah There's Damavoy, there's Rizulka, there's... yeah Yes! there's I mean, that's what really nailed it and for me, is helping the Rizulka. That reminded me of Quest for Goy 4.
00:20:44
Speaker
This is also a game in which... your choices matter. Much like if we look back at Quest for Glory, you know, four or five, your choices really matter and you get kind of a lot of them.
00:20:56
Speaker
um Your choices matter here. And I know that they matter because fucked up my game so hard. All right. Let's get into the choices in a minute. I want to talk about the systems really quick because there's a lot of systems you're managing in this game. You start out by sort of like over your grave, your family's talking about your death. And they that through that, you choose like your skills, your primary skills. I forgot. This is still an RPG. Yeah.
00:21:24
Speaker
Like you have stats. Your stats are ah music and arts, literature and writing, science and logic, and history and politics. Those are four different stats that you have. Yeah. um And let me just say, yeah really happy that there's only four stats as opposed to like quest for glory. I'm Yeah. And throwing that you level up by just throwing rocks over and over and over at a tree. For an hour.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. an hour um so i and So this game, you level up by passing skill checks, and your skill checks, there's not there's no random dice rolls. So you could claim this is more of a ah ah ah simulation game than an RPG because there's no there's no randomization.
00:22:12
Speaker
here It is all based on the stats that are right in front of you. And if you have, say, a 15 in literature, you can then you know about Tolstoy and you can quote Tolstoy to somebody. right And then maybe they like you a little more or maybe you're a little more convincing about an argument you're making yeah to them.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that is simulation, but it's giving those RPG vibes. 100 percent. And the other thing is, as you level up, you gain vampire ranks. Right. This is a little bit weird because your vampire ranks don't affect your vampire powers. You do have four vampire powers.
00:22:47
Speaker
You can turn invisible. You can turn into a vampire and bite people. You can turn into a bat and fly around, which I did nonstop. Same. And you can... ah It's almost like the running...
00:23:01
Speaker
action in this game like you can run in this game but it's like when you're playing a metroidvania and you can run but really you're going to be jumping and double dashing your way through every level you're just power walking yeah yeah this is the jumping and double double jumping in ah and ah air dashing yeah version is just being a bat all the time and like like i have to go five feet Bat, fly five feet, unbat.
00:23:28
Speaker
I'm going go up the stairs, bat. that Bat to my room, unbat, go in the door. um but it was halfway through the game before I realized you could open your bedroom window and bat out the window. and oh way.
00:23:41
Speaker
ah That is something I want to talk to you about, about save scumming, because that was a huge help. um Yeah. But ah so your vampire powers don't change. You just have the four. ah Oh, the fourth one is you can ah mesmerize people.
00:23:56
Speaker
Enchant. Enchant people. You're right. um And then every time you level up, you can change your, you know, literature, music, science or history stats.
00:24:07
Speaker
i You get five points to spread out amongst them. You can also level up those stats by reading books, which are available through to you through the game. um And they take time. The way time works in this game is you are awake from dusk till dawn.
00:24:23
Speaker
You have three chunks of time with which to perform major actions. So you can like go around and talk to people. And most of that doesn't require an action. Yeah. Conversation doesn't really count as like a time consuming action.
00:24:37
Speaker
Right. What counts as a time consuming action is either like a like ah Like a ah ah task, and such as reading a book, um or ah something that's going to trigger a scene.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah. um And it'll tell you. It's actually a lot like ah Colonel's Bequest, isn't it? Because time stands still until you trigger it. Although I think there was one point...
00:25:04
Speaker
Where I was just like, I didn't, for some reason, I didn't know what to do. And I was just farting around. And I swear, i farted around so much that time turned. But in general, you have to make it turn. You have to trigger yourself.
00:25:18
Speaker
Farting is an action in this game. If you fart, you you pass by a hole. I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm sitting here giving you the stink eye that you see.
00:25:32
Speaker
But you, ah so you have three chunks of time every night. You have, I think, dusk, midnight, Twilight.
00:25:42
Speaker
And then um in the fourth chunk of time, dawn, time moves on its own. Right. And you have a specific amount of time and a pretty generous amount of time to get back to your room and your coffin and ah before you get caught in the sunlight. I never got caught in the sunlight. Did you?
00:26:00
Speaker
Never. Nope. But I almost did on my one of my latest. Really? I was really rushing. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to do it and I kept forgetting, but I wanted to do it just once to see what happens. um But most of the game overs in this game are not.
00:26:16
Speaker
There's not a lot of ceremony around them. You just get a text pop up that says game over. It's very Sierra. It's just like you do you're dead. Yeah, um but it would have been it would be cool. I'll have to check it out. It would be cool if like.
00:26:30
Speaker
you watched Liza burn to death. Yeah. But some other things in this game, you ah your actions will... che like well um ah a lot of your actions will either give you humanity or nihilism, which will, you know, affect how you can interact with certain characters.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah. um And ah you also have different relationship meters with all your characters, all the different characters that you meet in the game. So you can improve or damage your, or deteriorate your relationships with Which don't recommend deteriorating.
00:27:07
Speaker
ah There does not seem to be any benefit to deteriorating. There's not. I don't think there is. I think that's always not a good thing. Right. That, I think, is one of my criticisms in this game that we'll get into is I don't think there is any benefit to playing the evil route.
00:27:22
Speaker
I think this game this game is really pushing you to be to do the good route. And you don't it's not like, you know, in some games it's like, oh, you get the better Obviously, there's no combat in this game, but it's like you get the better weapons, you get the better whatever by being evil.
00:27:39
Speaker
um And interesting story beats. In this game, it doesn't seem like it. It seems like you just lock yourself out of things by being evil. I do think that you do have to have a ah healthy amount of nihilism, though, to get really interesting conversations and like...
00:27:56
Speaker
Just to spice things up a little bit, you know? So when i when I was done with the game, I had my humanity was maxed and my nihilism was also very close. I was trying to... On my second playthrough, I was kind of going back and forth.
00:28:09
Speaker
My nihilism was about half and my humanity was maxed. Okay. um My humanity maxed early on and my vampire... This was another thing that bummed me out.
00:28:19
Speaker
yeah My vampire level maxed about halfway through my playthrough. And it felt like I didn't have much to strive for. Also, um so there's a money system in this game.
00:28:33
Speaker
And you get money by doing some tasks or stealing from people or ah you can harvest mushrooms. This broke for me. This game also has a lot of bugs. um It's a little buggy as of right now. Yes.
00:28:48
Speaker
um But this game, you can also, this was bugged for me, so I couldn't do it. But one of the systems is you can harvest mushrooms. What? I didn't know that. If you get a high enough relationship with Maruja, you can go the forest and harvest mushrooms. About her.
00:29:05
Speaker
Like I said, I'm fucked up. And i guess the so one of the biggest way you can get money is by gambling. There's a game that's very similar to blackjack.
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah. um That you can play. And it is very hard. It's the only thing that's random in this game. um And some people cheat. Yep. um But this is where safe scumming really worked for me.
00:29:32
Speaker
can't believe it. I found, when I found that you could open the window, i i would save the game at the mirror.
00:29:42
Speaker
That's how you save the game. You would get three safe slots and an auto save. And yeah you could only save at the mirror in your room. Yep. um So I'd save at the mirror, fly out the window, fly down to the pub, gamble.
00:29:55
Speaker
If I lost, I'd load the game. If I won, I'd fly back to my room and save it. And because you can double, you can all in at any points, you can double. So it didn't take that long for me to get a thousand coins.
00:30:07
Speaker
Oh my god. I did not do that. I mean, like, i realized that I could if I wanted to. i just didn't really want to go back and forth flying between the things. It wasn't fun. Yeah, it's not fun.
00:30:21
Speaker
I had a good amount of coins in my first game that, again, I fucked up and had to start over. Yeah. So that's basically, and then the only, I guess, other thing is that, yeah, sometimes you get, ah this is what I was referring to. Sometimes you get dresses that help increase your skills. yeah Stats, yeah. um So how was your playthrough?
00:30:46
Speaker
Well, let me tell you what the fuck happened. So for some reason, I didn't, I fucked up releasing my first victim. So as a vampire, you do have to feed to survive.
00:31:01
Speaker
um It's just kind of the nature of it. Thankfully, you don't have to kill people much like in the lore. You can release them. You can enchant them and kind of erase their memory. Well,
00:31:13
Speaker
I came upon my first victim. Well, victim. But the first person I was going to feed on. And he was also like my love interest. There are love interests in this game. You can yeah get romantic with certain people.
00:31:24
Speaker
I think you can have up to three. There's four. i this I think I might be missing some things because there's a lot of branches in this game. But I think there's four romanceable characters and you can romance three per playthrough.
00:31:39
Speaker
like And listen, romanced all of them except the one I really wanted to romance. Because the first time I tried, I killed him. So so if you if you stay attached to somebody for just a second too long.
00:31:54
Speaker
You'll drain them, yeah. You drain them of blood and they die. He died! The game warns you about, I'll say that. I know, I know it does. I just, I messed up and I was so sad because I'm like, well, wait a minute.
00:32:08
Speaker
I liked this. I liked it. I wanted to help this character. I liked this character. And so i got really fucking far in that first playthrough, but I was missing that character.
00:32:20
Speaker
i had like romances with other people that didn't like as much. So I restarted it after yeah many hours. And it's tough. It is a slog to restart.
00:32:30
Speaker
um And we'll we'll get into that when we talk about maybe the saving system. i i i killed one there one character. yeah because there is one quest that apparently me and you talked about it you can succeed in lying to a character wants you to kill another character and you can succeed in the lie and not killing them in the line yeah i whatever whatever choices i made i couldn't i my line was not working my line did work so i had to kill one character
00:33:08
Speaker
um they were a very minor character. I thought I wouldn't miss them at all. Yeah. Because they they didn't seem to have their own quest. They didn't seem to have any personality. minor character.
00:33:19
Speaker
But, and I don't, I think this was a, I don't know if this was a bug or if this is a consequence on purpose. This character was, how to do this without spoiling, this character was a merchant of sorts.
00:33:33
Speaker
This character was a person you could buy things from. yeah And i There is a secondary character that is supposed to take that person's role.
00:33:44
Speaker
But again, I don't know if this is a bug or a consequence. I could not buy things from this other character. Oh, no. So for the rest of the game, this entire oh this entire se section of the game where there's like a uh this one merchant that you can buy certain items from i couldn't buy and so hug i think it was a bug too and so there was one quest and this is a thing that's but happening happened a lot through the game because i i did save scum i know you didn't um but i did sometimes but for for the most part no
00:34:22
Speaker
Save scumming occasionally breaks this game. yeah And so there were times that I would complete a quest, complete another quest in a way I didn't want to, and then save scum.
00:34:34
Speaker
And then for whatever reason, one of the like... Outcomes of my. ah The quest I did complete. Would be there while. Like okay for example. if if i had If I had two quests.
00:34:48
Speaker
Roses one was to um Meet you in Chicago. And get a pizza. And our relationship. Went up by 10 points. And then.
00:34:59
Speaker
I was supposed to go. yeah ah rob ah bank. ah And. So I did the quest with you. And. Then I went to rob the bank and I fucked up and accidentally killed somebody. i was like, I don't want to kill somebody. So I loaded my game from the beginning of the day.
00:35:15
Speaker
i go look in my inventory. I have not had the pizza with you yet, but the pizza's in my inventory. And, ah but I still have the quest, eat pizza with roses.
00:35:28
Speaker
And our relationship hasn't gone up. Yeah. So little buggy things like that would happen. So there was one thing. had the game totally freeze on me. There was one thing where I had to buy a character something, and I think that's what advances his quest.
00:35:45
Speaker
Well, their quest. Their gender is a little ambiguous. okay if If you know which character I'm talking about, this is the character voiced by Brian David Gilbert.
00:35:57
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. which Can you give me a hint? Where do you find him? um He becomes an either it or her character. ah Yes. Oh, of course. Of course. Okay. that is okay That's going to sound like I'm being like saying it sounds like I'm being maybe transphobic or something, but no, literally, no he becomes an object. it's Honestly, amazing. I actually really enjoyed that story and I enjoyed where that went. But yes, I know what talking about. I think you're supposed to buy that character something and that advances their quest.
00:36:32
Speaker
Okay. So I bought, you couldn't, I bought them that s thing. Then fucked up a different quest. Reloaded back a couple of days. um They were no longer using the item.
00:36:47
Speaker
um But I had um the the thing in my quest marker by this person, this thing, checked off.
00:36:58
Speaker
Yeah. So was like, okay, I guess whatever, somehow I already did this. Yeah. So I moved on. Then I kept noticing this quest was not advancing.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah. And the dialogue options I had for this person about them using this item weren't coming up. So again, I think it just it just got bugged. And so i never increased, I never advanced in my quest with this person. I did i did finish my quest with that person. is It was great.
00:37:31
Speaker
But yeah, I had the same bug. It does depend on that item. Am right? Yes, it does. Yes, it does. So um yeah yeah, you can't finish anything if you don't get that person the item.
00:37:43
Speaker
Also, I want to hear about your experience, but I have to complain about something real quick. I apologize. Yeah. Maruja at one point, and maybe this is just doing it. I did this out of an or out of the order that the game expected you.
00:37:56
Speaker
But before I met Maruja, when I'd only seen her very briefly in the music school, school, um, uh, I didn't know where she lived. I didn't have an invitation to her house. You can't go into people's houses in this game without an invitation. Cause you're a vampire.
00:38:12
Speaker
yeah Um, So I didn't have an invitation to her house. I didn't know where she lived. I couldn't find her. But because I had all this money, I bought her to the violin like right away. Okay.
00:38:23
Speaker
And then I couldn't find her for the entire game. oh no. Until suddenly I was launched down her quest line and every interaction I had with her was pre-scripted.
00:38:37
Speaker
Right. So I never had the option. And I kept going to her house every day, actually multiple times every day to try and give her her violin and the book that she wanted. I had both things.
00:38:49
Speaker
And I never found her to give. and Again, the only times I found her were in pre-scripted scenes. So I carried her book and her violin the entire game and was unable to give them to her. I still got like the best one of the best endings for her, but one of them was locked off. At the end, it's like, this is a little bit of a spoiler, but it's either like send her to college or um inspire her to become a music tutor.
00:39:16
Speaker
I couldn't inspire her to become a music tutor. Probably because I never gave her the violin. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah But I tried nonstop and she was never anywhere.
00:39:31
Speaker
That drove me crazy because I really liked Maruza. She was one of my favorite characters. And it just, anyway. Yeah, I had an unfortunate thing happen. ah and
00:39:42
Speaker
All right, let's hear about your playthrough a little bit. So in my first playthrough, again, I killed my love interest and I was sad about it. and Even though I got really far, like I got to like chapter five.
00:39:55
Speaker
I was just sad about it. So I restarted the entire game. yeah And i you know i I didn't kill him this time. but Things were going pretty well until I realized I had to make a really difficult choice um a bit later in the game.
00:40:15
Speaker
And there is a way to not kill people, but I fucked up and didn't have that choice. I forgot to do something. I forgot to visit someone. And I didn't have an item I needed. So yeah. Did I kill Maruza?
00:40:28
Speaker
Yeah, did. Okay. and
00:40:32
Speaker
Stop looking at me like that. Yes, I killed Maruza. What do you want from me? And your annoying fucking brother. I did have the item. You had what?
00:40:44
Speaker
I did have the item that allowed me not to. had it in my first playthrough. So now I have two terrible playthroughs. How did you know it existed? I mean, you knew the item existed because you had in first playthrough. How did you know that it was? Oh, because you saw. Okay.
00:40:57
Speaker
This is something players should know. When you. You get to see all the options. Even when you have not unlocked. Unlocked.
00:41:08
Speaker
the story beats that allow you to use them. So there sometimes you see grayed out options that you can't use that are just confusing.
00:41:19
Speaker
You're just like, wait, what? Yeah, it's locked. Yeah. Because it's locked. And sometimes what's locked about it is something that you don't even, you have no reference for.
00:41:30
Speaker
Right. And that's a little weird. I almost wish those would have just said unavailable. Yeah. I agree. I agree. Unless it's there to, like, motivate you or inspire you to try to unlock that That's a good point.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, I have two terrible playthroughs. But also, with only, I'll say this, with only three save slots, this game does not really encourage you to try multiple things.
00:41:58
Speaker
Yeah. That is my issue. So I understand ah having a game in which you want players to kind of live with their choices. And that's the gameplay that you take.
00:42:11
Speaker
The problem is there's there's so many choices I want to see. And so what is so what is the answer to just replay the game? Because I'm not going to do that. Because like I said, it is ah you can get a little redundant. Things aren't different enough.
00:42:25
Speaker
To make me want to replay it. To do these choices. So while I i understand. like This is how it's meant to be played. There's got to be a better system for this. Because I don't want to play the game again.
00:42:38
Speaker
i agree with you. I think I would have loved. To see all the writing in this game. Yeah, me too. i was I think this game was really well written. um Oh, I loved it. I had a ball.
00:42:50
Speaker
I had such a good time with this game because yeah it was like if Quest for Glory wasn't hard as fuck.
00:42:57
Speaker
You get these characters and you've got that sense of like you are in a town and you stay in that town, you know, and you get an inn and that is where you sleep at night. There's so many things that are very similar to Quest for a Glory. and That was familiar to me, except I wasn't dying every two seconds. like i So that was nice.
00:43:18
Speaker
And yeah, very character driven and you can kind of choose who to romance and. But the yeah, even Quest for Glory had a ton of save. If you remember Quest for Glory 5, it's like unlimited, I think.
00:43:31
Speaker
Yes. And I think i think this this game could have done with save slots or, again, a little more ambiguity about your choices so you don't feel like you're missing out the whole time.
00:43:45
Speaker
Because it it it feel it felt like it wanted to have it both ways. And right i think it should have picked one. Because as it is, it when I couldn't do something, it just felt a little disappointing.
00:43:57
Speaker
what do you have any other What other sort of interesting thing has happened in your playthrough? ah
00:44:04
Speaker
Well, other than killing people I didn't want to kill, um i was so... Again, i've I restarted so I could try to get this love interest. yeah And I still failed.
00:44:17
Speaker
I still failed at I did. Yeah. And I don't know if that's because I did romance the other three characters first and I didn't quite know what I was doing or if I don't know. There were some things I were i was kind of tripping on. And like I said, I didn't I didn't want to restart because things are too similar.
00:44:38
Speaker
Like choices can be too similar. So just to have like my love interest be like, yeah, let's go make out. That's not enough. for me to replay the game but like i said we have we've had some different experiences mainly me killing everybody but also i spared a human that you didn't and i thought that was really interesting that is interesting and again i'm still not sure how you did it like this is because again seems gotta be dialogue choices this game is pretty transparent and i yeah i think you're right but this game is pretty transparent like i said and
00:45:15
Speaker
again, maybe even a little bit to its detriment, um in letting you know why you didn't get a certain option. Yeah. um But I had the option to lie and say I killed the guy when I didn't.
00:45:35
Speaker
And it failed. And you're succeeded. Well, interestingly, here's something interesting. It failed on my second playthrough. And you don't know why. And I don't know why. I don't i don't remember what I did differently. It's got to be dialogue.
00:45:48
Speaker
My guess is that it has to do with how high your relationship is with the character. But how do you get high relationship with that character, though? Agreed. Yeah, it must be dialogue choices that happened earlier. It must be just... Like, it must be the difference between 60 and a 65. Like, it must be a really narrow window. yeah And...
00:46:09
Speaker
um ah The other strange thing about it, like it was certainly we were saying, and is that the difference – usually it'll tell you if your relationship has an effect on a choice. It'll say you can only say this to a person if if you're if you have relationship 60 or higher or 80 or higher sometimes 100. Like can feed on people with a relationship of 80 higher. Right.
00:46:39
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Because you have to ask them to a secluded location. private area. Yeah. ah Which always sounds sexy. And then later. and then it's not. But later, it is.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah. and And that takes an action point. Yeah, that's true. It does take an action point. That is true. Kissing doesn't. No, kissing doesn't. But asking somebody to a private place for for romance for romance not feeding not but yeah yeah you would think you could do both it sounds kind of hot but no you can't can't mix the two what if what if you came back from the sex in the game because again we're talking about sex the game has sex it's just off camera it's off camera what if you had sex in the game and you came back and your blood meter was all the way up and you're like wait what the
00:47:30
Speaker
ah Because, okay, so that's another thing. There is a blood meter in this game. Again, you have to fulfill fill your blood. I never completely ran out of blood. I don't know if you die when you do that. You do die. Yes. Oh, okay.
00:47:41
Speaker
is it a Is there a cut scene or is it just ah text box? I don't remember because this was in my first playthrough before I tried to, I don't know, wonky myself out of all the things I did.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yeah. um So... ah
00:47:58
Speaker
The other thing is you can, and this it's really easy to do this, you can overfeed on blood. Yes, you can get, like, intoxicated. and Yeah. Which I did use to my advantage, because if you are intoxicated, all of your stats go up.
00:48:14
Speaker
And there's it's said there's a consequence to it. can't. Don't know what that consequence was. I do. I know what it is. So immediately after you're sober, you start with half thing of blood. that's it?
00:48:27
Speaker
That's it. I had a thousand gold. I should have overdosed on blood every day. You should have. Yeah. Your stats could have been like off the charts. They said something about like going faro if did it too much.
00:48:39
Speaker
So I don't know if that's a mechanic in the game or if that's just like a narrative threat. Okay. I mean, i um I only did it a few times, so I don't... and Maybe you do go fair. Like, if you do it all the time, maybe?
00:48:53
Speaker
So, what did you think about... whats your What's your opinion on this game overall? Okay. I really did like this game. ah And if had I not, I wouldn't have started it over three times.
00:49:04
Speaker
um Yeah. In my second playthrough, I did go ahead and beat that game. I beat that playthrough just to have an ending, just to see. And honestly, the ending that I got, very underwhelming.
00:49:17
Speaker
I didn't like my ending. do you wonder if there's a better ending. The ending is long and there's a lot going on. yeah Okay. The ending sets you on a path.
00:49:30
Speaker
i'll say I'm just saying this for the audience's sake. I think you've probably seen at least a lot of it. The ending sets you on a path that is you're on for a long time. Yeah. um Once it's like one of those, once you get going, ah you're pretty locked in for about an hour.
00:49:48
Speaker
Yeah. um and that was a little frustrating because i'd I'd really gotten to like the loop of this game. Yes, I did too. Very much so.
00:49:59
Speaker
um And ah so when I was suddenly locked into this end game, and it was almost like I wanted it to, I wanted to quickly get to an ending.
00:50:10
Speaker
So maybe I could play again. yeah But one of the things about it having such a long intro and such a long ending and is it really dampened my desire to replay.
00:50:22
Speaker
Yes, I had a lot of my desires to replay was maybe even more dampened than yours because I kept trying to achieve something that I couldn't seem to achieve. Even in my second playthrough, i got my love interest to be i finally was like, hey, are you single?
00:50:38
Speaker
And if you are, let me know when and that is that's as far as I could get it. I could not I like planted the seed. But couldn't get it any further. and i And you made it all the way to the end? And he never?
00:50:49
Speaker
Because i got that. I got that. And then after. And I was also romancing his wife. I was too. I was too. Yeah, let's be honest. And i got them both to that place.
00:51:03
Speaker
Yeah. And then about a ah ah a few days, maybe a week in the calendar before the end of the game. There is a definite end on the calendar to this game.
00:51:14
Speaker
You cannot go past a certain date. um Which is also a little frustrating. That is frustrating, yeah. I don't, I just kind of don't like when games do that. But on the same day, they both sent me letters.
00:51:31
Speaker
And i went to one. And I was like, ooh, here we go. And I went to one. And um um my relationship with her advanced. And then an option opened up with her.
00:51:43
Speaker
And I was like, I'm not going to click that yet. And then I went upstairs to her husband. And her husband was like, ah we divorced yesterday. And she and she left to go to her mother. So I was like, i was just.
00:51:56
Speaker
I just saw her. I just saw her and kissed her. yeah And i she just offered to have sex with me. she You're lying. Maybe that's where I went wrong. Because i in my playthrough, my quest with the with the guy, it's not ended. And it won't end.
00:52:14
Speaker
It says, check mail. and there's nu And then the mail never comes. Same with Roman, who is another character that has a quest. It says, check mail. The mail never got there. never got even letter. You went down to the mailbox and clicked on the mail and yeah then checked your inventory for the mail.
00:52:29
Speaker
Yeah. So I have no letters. So it's Yeah. Yeah. I have no letters. And I think and I didn't even get or read a letter from the wife, but I did end up like we had something like there was, I think, an intimate moment. There's definitely a kiss.
00:52:48
Speaker
So I don't know. don't know what's going on here. This guy doesn't like me. I got letters from just about everybody. um Because that's generally when you get to the end of a character quest. And almost every character in the game has a quest.
00:53:02
Speaker
um There's only like two characters I didn't finish the quests for. One was the criminal. Yeah, same, same. And the other was the guy with the guy we were talking about who turns and into... i did finish that and i was really happy with that quest but you know what now that you're saying maybe i should recheck my inventory maybe it did go straight in and i just did a notice but I'll have to check and see. to scroll down so much. I just need to scroll.
00:53:33
Speaker
Because i had all those mushrooms that wouldn't go away. and And I had so many vials of blood because I was rich. And I just bought so many extra vials of blood. That's funny.
00:53:46
Speaker
um But yeah. That being said, I liked this game enough to start it three times. the the The problem, again, the problem I'm having is I don't want to start this again. Yeah.
00:53:56
Speaker
And but in it's that's unfortunate because I do want to see these other options like so badly. And so I feel there's got to be ah better system, even if it was like start on chapter one, start on chapter two, not these three save slots, which who knows what I'm going to end up using them for.
00:54:15
Speaker
You know, I try to I try to use them smartly, but there's only three and that's tough. And not only is there only three save slots, it's not like you can have different characters. You know, some games like this, it'll be like...
00:54:27
Speaker
um you're You have three save slots, but you have also three games that you can play concurrently. And no, it's you just have the one. Exactly.
00:54:38
Speaker
So I do feel like there needs to be a better system for this. Or you just make the game so different in the choices, you know, a little less repetitive that it encourages the player.
00:54:48
Speaker
Because I was angry at the end. I'm like, I didn't really let... I think I got a bad ending. We'll talk about it off screen so we're not spoiling since this game just came out. But I wasn't happy with mine.
00:54:59
Speaker
um And again, this game has a lot of bugs. If you play it, maybe there's a day one patch that's going to fix a lot of this stuff. But if you play it, um I think it is worth playing through the bugs.
00:55:10
Speaker
Just be patient. um You might end up having to, especially if you skate save scum like I did, um you might end up having to go back like several days.
00:55:22
Speaker
um Because like, okay, if I reload from... this morning, the morning, like, again, the more this morning meaning the in-game days, not for real life days. right If I reload from this morning, and by morning, I guess I mean dusk.
00:55:40
Speaker
If I reload, ah, Jesus, this so hard to talk about. If I reload from the dusk of this in-game day, this quest is broken. But if I reload my save that was two in-game days ago, and then redo all my choices, the quest doesn't break.
00:55:58
Speaker
right So that's a thing that I ended up having to just like click through dialogue I'd seen already really, really fast. To cast you up to just be like, okay, if I try to reload...
00:56:11
Speaker
this more recent save it's broken and if I reload this older save I'll just redo all this stuff yeah um so just employ a little bit of patience um hopefully they'll patch a lot of these bugs um but uh it's just it's just such an indie game right like this game is very clearly um indie as hell and with that sometimes you have to digest a little bit of jankiness and yeah this game has a little bit of jankiness i still really enjoyed it though me too i really like it i yeah i really i like these kind of familiar cozy games like i said there's so many things that i liked about it because they were the things i liked in an action rpg i love going back
00:56:55
Speaker
to an inn or to my room and that's like my little haven and I like you know when characters move around the world and i like seeing how things change I like the relationship meter so it hit a lot of things that I really enjoyed and like I said i started it three times so there you go Me too. I liked the writing. I liked the atmosphere. i liked making the choices. i like I enjoyed most of the characters. i enjoyed getting to know them.
00:57:22
Speaker
And i get, you know, these sort of, and we'll we'll start talking about this now, this sort of um narrative RPG. I really like narrative RPGs where I get, like, it's find it so satisfying to have the right amount of stats to achieve a specific out outcome yes i do too i find that so satisfying and to jump from citizen sleeper to this it like it just i found i found again just like it really really satisfying to just have some minor goal yeah and to just have the right dice or the right stat or the right whatever to just achieve it and see what the outcome is
00:58:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. what do you think tips an RPG into ah like dual qualifying as an adventure game?
00:58:20
Speaker
So, you know, I think we can talk about mechanics a little bit, but as I thought about this, because we had a little bit of an interesting conversation where i recommended Chrono Trigger to you. And then I said how I felt when I was playing Final Fantasy VIII.
00:58:37
Speaker
I felt... that that was an almost an adventure RPG. It felt like I was doing quests. It felt like I was on this journey. So I wonder if it gets tipped into it when there's like a certain,
00:58:51
Speaker
itch that gets scratched. For example, um the relationship meters is a big one. I don't see that in adventure games necessarily, but I do see them in RPG. So I think it starts to tip when you have like friendship meters, relationship meters.
00:59:07
Speaker
um And certainly when you are having stats that affect your dialogue options, I think adventure games and their dialogue trees, I think they are a little bit more traditional.
00:59:18
Speaker
um Not that they can't be detailed because look at the dialogue trees for Grim Fandango. They're hilarious and amazing and clever. um But they are conditional in the same way.
00:59:30
Speaker
Correct. I think. you know Choices matter in adventure games, but choices really matter in RPG games. and i think that is how I think that's what makes it feel like you're playing the role. That's like the R in RPG. You are playing a role.
00:59:48
Speaker
You're not playing kind of a flat character. um i think adventure games... flat Stanley, if you will. What about a flat RPG? you know i think like what about a flat staley rpg You get to be Vlad Stanley.
01:00:05
Speaker
ah Yeah, I'm down with it. I am absolutely down with it. Somebody make us a flat Stanley RPG. you Grab RPG Maker. You know, there was actually, sorry, i've I'm hijacking for a second. But um there ah there was like an RPG ah Steam Fest or whatever. last like I think last week, maybe two weeks ago.
01:00:27
Speaker
An RPG Maker VX8.
01:00:32
Speaker
um was free. Oh, wow. They just gave it away for free. It's normally $70. It's back up to $70, but it was free. And I got it.
01:00:43
Speaker
And I have RPG Maker VX8 Ace for free. Oh, yeah, make us game. I'll make a flat Stanley game. No, make an original game. I'm going to make a flat Stanley. I'm going to, you know, ah violate copyright law and make a flat Stanley game. Great. Wonderful. Then we get sued and our podcast like goes down the shitter.
01:01:06
Speaker
So, all right. So go go ahead. about talking You said something about flat Stanley. No, I did. Oh,
01:01:17
Speaker
ah my God. He's hijacked the whole thing. um No, I was saying... um I was saying that like, I want to feel like the art in RPG. And so when games, I don't know, adventure games are a little more linear. I think adventure games, they make you feel like you have a lot of choices, but you commonly don't.
01:01:40
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like you can die. That that sucks. Sometimes there's multiple endings. That's kind of cool. But in an RPG, yeah. You're essentially playing this role where your choices to these characters matter.
01:01:52
Speaker
You know, these characters, they can be your friend, they can be your enemy, they can be your romantic interest. An adventure game, just strictly a adventure game, is really more storytelling and linear than that.
RPG Narrative Depth and Adventure Vibes
01:02:05
Speaker
It doesn't have that many choices. I think when you get to a certain amount of choices, that's what tips it into an RPG. Yeah, yeah.
01:02:15
Speaker
I think that combat is a very important element of this. um i It's not that I don't think it's possible to have combat in an adventure game. Sure. and But I do think that really pushes things, right? Like when I play a Final Fantasy game, sometimes I like the story.
01:02:38
Speaker
and Granted, I haven't played, I've played Final Fantasies 1 through, i'm I'm in the middle of 8 right now. Yeah. um And I haven't adored any of the stories yet. I really, I liked the story of 6.
01:02:51
Speaker
six um Seven was fine. Five was pretty interesting because five was, I think, the first one that felt like a real story. i think you should play Chrono Trigger. You might appreciate the less unhinged story.
01:03:04
Speaker
ah you know it' a Final Fantasies, man, they go off the rails. But largely, i think in Final Fantasies, I feel like it is a it is a power fantasy story.
01:03:17
Speaker
where my characters are getting stronger, getting better weapons, fighting bigger enemies. um I'm going around collecting the rare and secret summons.
01:03:28
Speaker
And yeah to me, like the combat is really, the combat and the advancement are really the important things. Yeah. i and and Rather than the story the exploration.
01:03:41
Speaker
That holds hands kind of like what I was saying because you are advancing relationships too. Like when you are advancing things in a game, I think that does differentiate it from a strictly adventure game.
01:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. um and And so when it feels more about the advancement or the combat, right? I stopped feeling as much, as many adventure vibes.
01:04:08
Speaker
But when I have a but when there's not, when combat's not the focus and narrative, the narrative is really strong, um there's a lot of times I start to feel very ah adventure-y about it. So yeah some examples I want to give,
01:04:26
Speaker
um and And I think these sim game, like simulation games, are really... Like... They really...
01:04:37
Speaker
walk the edge between like they, they seem to be like the, the day walkers here where they feel a little bit like adventure games. They feel a little bit like RPGs. You feel that way about Stardew Valley, for example.
01:04:52
Speaker
Right. um But so the, both the citizen sleepers, I feel this way about, I get the same feeling from a citizen sleeper that I do from an adventure game, but it definitely has RPG feels.
01:05:04
Speaker
Um, you're advancing. You are, uh, a lot of your choices are based on your stats and your roles. You, uh, you are making choices that affect the narrative, um and affect how different characters are going to treat you throughout the game. Again, very, very, um, uh, uh, RPG and very sim.
01:05:32
Speaker
Um, but, There's something about the depth of the story there that I really, that makes me think of, makes me feel the way I do when I play an a adventure game.
01:05:48
Speaker
Yeah. Um, Another good example of this, these are some games that I have not spent much time with. um But i've played I played a little bit of both of these in preparation for this episode. Again, very little time. So these are things that these are games that I want to continue playing, but like I've only just scraped the surface.
01:06:11
Speaker
um Heaven's Vault. By Inkle is another example of this. um And ah I was a teenage exocolonist.
01:06:24
Speaker
Yeah. You mentioned that. I think on we were talking about that at some point. um And it's games where, like you're yeah like you're saying, your relationships with people matter a lot.
01:06:36
Speaker
um The way the story advances, it matters ah matters a lot. The exploration of the world matters a lot. And...
01:06:46
Speaker
it doesn't rely just on power fantasies and combat. Right. um I also know when we were talking about Disco Elysium and the thaumaturg, Francisco Gonzalez mentioned Planescape Torment.
01:07:05
Speaker
Yes. Yes. That is a big, that one has a lot of intersection of like adventure fans and RPG fans. Right. Yeah. um That's a game i want to play because I know that that does have combat and it looks a lot like Baldur's Gate. But I know that a lot of that game, um the the gameplay is based on choices and puzzles and um creative solutions to problems rather than simply fighting everything.
01:07:42
Speaker
Right.
01:07:45
Speaker
And I do feel like another thing these games have is like an intersection of, at least to me, maybe not to you, but how it makes you feel and that, am I on a journey right now? Am I on like a grand adventure? And I think that's why I get similar feelings of like when I'm playing...
01:08:05
Speaker
I mean, they're vastly different games, right? But like Grim Fandango versus Final Fantasy. I do feel like I'm traveling. I'm on a journey. I'm on an adventure. And I get those, like the itches are scratched, you know, as opposed to like, I load up Doom, right? I'm not on a journey here.
01:08:22
Speaker
killing things. You really like Itch Simulator VR 4000, right? That's another big one you like for scratching itches.
01:08:35
Speaker
Where you look down at your VR body and it's covered in sores and boils and you use the VR controllers to scratch them and then they disappear. Your skin like scrapes off of your VR body. satisfying. I mean, I look insane and terrible. But the itches are scratched. Yeah.
01:08:57
Speaker
But, you know, you make a good point, but I do want to, I do take argument a little bit with um just the idea of being on a grand adventure, making it feel like an adventure game. Because I feel like I'm on a grand adventure when I'm playing Skyrim.
01:09:11
Speaker
But no part of me feels like like I'm playing an adventure game. i It is to me. i i feel like both both itches are scratched. Playing like,
01:09:22
Speaker
One of the Skyrim games. One of the, what are they fucking called? Why can't I think about The Morrowind? Elder Scrolls games. Elder Scrolls. There we go. Morrowind's another one of them. Fallout or Fallout. Like, I feel very, I feel like I'm on an adventure, but I don't feel like I'm playing an adventure game.
01:09:38
Speaker
think I just operate on feelings and vibes. Okay. Yeah. I think that's what's happening here. Like, for example, I would recommend Disco Elysium to any adventure game fan.
01:09:50
Speaker
Yeah. i would say. Even though that's rough because it's got the dice system. Right. I would. But I would also recommend Citizen Sleeper to any adventure game fan. I'd recommend Cabernet to most any fan of indie adventure games.
01:10:03
Speaker
Yeah. um ah from a the little bit of I've played, i would recommend Heaven's Fault to any adventure game fan. I would recommend I was a teenage exocologist to some adventure game fans, people who like visual novels, for example.
01:10:17
Speaker
But I would not recommend just based if all I knew about a person, they liked adventure games. I would not recommend Morrowind. I would not recommend.
01:10:29
Speaker
i would not recommend my favorite game of all time. Fallout New Vegas. Yeah. Uh, I would not recommend Baldur's Gate.
01:10:39
Speaker
Right? yeah um Yeah. Because i know because they they just have such a different feel to them, even though it feels like I'm on an adventure. Yeah. No, I totally get that. And I don't feel that way about every single game. Mm-hmm.
01:10:54
Speaker
there i don't I don't even know why I feel that way with the Final Fantasy games. And maybe maybe that's because the Final Fantasy games, they do have an emphasis on quests and like fetch quests and kind of those adventure-y mechanics.
01:11:08
Speaker
And, mean, something that a Final Fantasy might lack in terms of like statistics is that those games don't really have relationship meters. There's so many characters in Final Fantasy. Can you even imagine like trying to...
01:11:24
Speaker
Like trying to watch all these characters and be insane. Trying to manage your relationships with Biggs and Wedge and Like, oh my God. And then all the minor characters. No, fuck it. ah and and again like it's I love these games, right? Like I've played...
01:11:45
Speaker
I was playing Skyrim before I got back into video games, right? Like, when I was in my non-video game era, I was still... When I would power up my laptop, laptop I would fucking play more. I'd play um either Morrowind or Skyrim. Like, I'd play the Elder Scrolls games. I'd probably...
01:12:03
Speaker
put, who knows, a thousand hours over 10 years into Skyrim, right? um And same with Stardew Valley. But I just, they don't, I love these games. I don't want to take anything away from them. They just don't feel like adventure games to me. i Yeah, I want to like kind of Go ahead.
01:12:21
Speaker
I just I wanted to touch on I want to hear what you want to say. i i I want to touch on the fetch quest idea. But yeah what were you going to say? um I was going to say I don't necessarily think of Stardew Valley as an adventure game.
01:12:35
Speaker
ok What it does do, though, is, again, it scratches the itch. okay So if you like adventure games, you might also like Stardew. ah You know, so many of these games hold hands, you know, um and they they have like at least similar vibes. ah But would I say Stardew an adventure game?
01:12:52
Speaker
No, probably not. But is there an adventure aspect of it that drew me in? Yes, definitely. um You mentioned fetch quests being very adventure-y, and I understand what you mean, but there's a thing that separates fetch quests to me Fetch quests outside of adventure games to fetch quests in adventure games. And this is something that I've always felt. This is something that I always like, it would annoy me when I played Skyrim, for example. And there's legitimate fest quest.
01:13:21
Speaker
Go to this town, get this thing from this person. They tell you to go back to this other guy, give them this thing. He tells you to go to this place and give it to them. Right? That to me is ah just a legitimate fetch quest. Travel here, do this thing that I said.
01:13:35
Speaker
Yeah. To me, and what that always felt like an inferior type of quest because I'd spent so much time with adventure games. I was like, ah this is this is a lazy way to do this.
01:13:47
Speaker
I know what a good way to do this is because I played adventure games as a kid. The good way to do this is come up with a creative thing. and say Say, you have to go somewhere. You need to give this item to a guy who can do this thing with it.
01:14:06
Speaker
And then don't tell you who that is. So as you explore the world, you can be like, oh my God, this is the guy who can do this thing for me. yeah yeah Leave you some creativity. And even if there's only one solution, and leave you some room for creative problem solving.
01:14:21
Speaker
that's what it That's what an adventure game does. right It gives you the problem, not the solution. Where in a true fetch quest, It gives you the problem and the solution. All you have to do is go from one place to the other.
01:14:35
Speaker
And that sure is a thing that bothers me. And so that that is a thing that's always bothered me in... Yeah, Skyrim. Morrowind. lot of these RPG quests.
01:14:50
Speaker
But sometimes...
01:14:54
Speaker
In these games, they do put in a real adventure game... but like kind of puzzle. Disco Elysium is great for that. Yeah, it Telling you what you need, what you're what you need to do, but not telling you exactly how to do it.
01:15:08
Speaker
So you might be traveling all the way over the map, running back and forth between two characters. Yes. But you are making the choice to do it because you know these people have these skills, not because they're just saying, hey, go back to him.
01:15:23
Speaker
Okay, go back to her. Okay, go back to him. um They're just saying, You know, they're they're just they're sort of hinting at it and you're deciding who you need to go to. Yeah.
01:15:34
Speaker
It might be a subtle distinction, but it matters think it's a good distinction, though. Like, mechanically, I think that is a good distinction and a good way to ah differentiate kind of the styles of these games.
01:15:48
Speaker
But yeah, I still kind of stand by, like, the vibe aspect of it. And that's why I like these genres, you know? It is a different... I can compare these genres and it makes sense as opposed to comparing, like, an FPS to, like monkey You know what I mean? Like some genres just kind of work together really well.
01:16:07
Speaker
um And yeah, but do you so that being said, do you think Cabernet is and adventure RPG based on what we just said? Absolutely. Yes, I do. um And I think um it doesn't do a great job at making you creatively think through quests.
01:16:28
Speaker
Yeah. Correct. it's I would say it's a pretty easy game. a little it's It's breezy to get through, you know? Right. But it does have a very strong... it like Narrative is clearly the focus.
01:16:40
Speaker
Yes. I wish it had a bigger map to explore. That was another thing that I found disappointing with it, that the the town is pretty small. It is small, yeah. And some areas of the town, you can't do anything in.
01:16:52
Speaker
um Or you can do very little in. Yeah. say Again, there's not that many characters and some of the characters you can't do much with. Yeah. um There's one location in the town and this ends up being like a pretty interesting um
01:17:11
Speaker
poetic point in the epilogue. But there's one building you can't even go in. Yeah. Yep. that ah That's true. um Yeah. Yeah.
01:17:23
Speaker
but ah so so for But because it's so narrative heavy and because um the there's no combat and the progression seems less important than the ah not not necessarily physical exploration, but narrative exploration.
01:17:47
Speaker
um I do feel like this is an adventure game. How about you? I agree. Yep. I definitely agree with all those points. And even though I think the game could use some polish, um especially in regards to obviously the bugs, I think those will be patched if I'm honest, though, I think they'll be fine.
01:18:06
Speaker
But in regards to the saving and maybe some of it, and like you said, you thought you did something out of order, right? Yeah. And that kind of affected gameplay. yeah Yeah, because it just didn't give me, I couldn't, Maruja wasn't anywhere! Maruja, why?
01:18:23
Speaker
Why? I want to give you a violin and a book!
01:18:28
Speaker
Take this book! Take this book! Take this violin! Stop being a weird dude! Oh, we play a little bit in the thing, but still, if you were a dude, that'd be weird. Hey, lady, read this book! Yeah, if I'm, like, chasing a lady around with a violin and a book.
01:18:42
Speaker
They're gifts! Let in your house! You're lucky to have them! Let me in your house! um But yeah, that that all being said, with some more polish, I think it could be even greater.
01:18:55
Speaker
But I really liked it. It was a fun adventure. And I'll play it again in a year, maybe, when I have forgotten yeah everything. Same. i'm yeah And I'm curious to see if there will be DLC. I have no idea. I want to i don't i don't want to...
01:19:12
Speaker
I don't want to get anyone's hopes up and I don't want to make the developers think that I'm saying that like ah but that like it would be a disappointment if there wasn't. But I think, it' be it you know, I could see room for DLC.
01:19:25
Speaker
me um Me too. Me too. But I'd still be happy with this if if there never was. um I would still think that I had a good time with this game. and yeah um So I think this is a subject that might be worth revisiting ah in, you know, a couple dozen episodes when we've had... Next week.
01:19:45
Speaker
yeah When we've had time to play things like... Planescape Torment. I was a Teenage Extracolonist. yeah i Maybe if you wanted to try Chrono Trigger to see what you think.
01:19:56
Speaker
I think that's a good idea. i think maybe in a dozen episodes or so, we should do an episode on Chrono Trigger. a legitimate RPG like Chrono Trigger yeah and revisit this ah discussion and talk about maybe, and by then maybe we'll, both of us will have completed some of these other adventure RPG games and we can talk more ah authoritatively about them. Another one yeah just ah that that just popped in my head is that game vampire or vampire.
01:20:27
Speaker
like Oh yeah. Yep. Yep. um i think there is a lot of combat in that game but i know it is choices like there's it's like a choices matter game and it's very story narrative heavy and i know so like people really love that game more for its story than its gameplay yeah for sure so that's another one that i'm really interested in at some point uh diving into and seeing what what sort of um you know uh what secrets it holds
01:21:00
Speaker
ah It's very mysterious. um So.
01:21:07
Speaker
you. Yeah. Are there any other. Are there any other games that fall in this category that you want to mention before we dip. I can't think of any offhand and I'm sure I'll think of a ton. As soon as we wrap up. Yeah.
01:21:19
Speaker
Again we'll have to revisit this this topic at some point because there's a lot to talk about here. um Do you.
01:21:29
Speaker
Want to raid a couple adventure games before we go? Let's raid a couple adventure games. um before we go Before we skip to this final segment, we are part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network.
01:21:42
Speaker
um You can go to adventuregamehotspot.com, check out reviews, check out ah other podcasts, check out video series.
Adventure Game Reviews and Rankings
01:21:48
Speaker
um You who can find us at Instagram, saveyourgamepodcast.
01:21:58
Speaker
Yep, saveyourgamepodcast. Fuck! I'm so bad at remembering that. ah You can email us at maddenroses at gmail.com. We'll get to another Q&A episode eventually it'll come yeah it'll happen what else do you want to tell the people I can't have tomatoes
01:22:23
Speaker
so swanks yeah let's do plucky druggerino what
01:22:54
Speaker
Alright everybody, welcome back to Save Your Game. i am Matt Allcamp with me. The tomato intolerant. you know Pushing up roses. How's it going? I'm sad about the tomatoes, but... I gotta stop rubbing it in then, huh? Yeah, we move we move. We move forward. I really gotta stop rubbing these tomatoes into you. It's causing these horrible allergic reactions. Why you keep smearing salsa on me? i thought it would be funny!
01:23:23
Speaker
Not everything is a joke, Matt. Alright. You just need to spend some time in Itch Simulator VR. Itch Simulator, yeah. My favorite game.
01:23:33
Speaker
Itch Simulator VR 4000, was that it? Alright. We are... ah This is a segment called Ranking Every Adventure Game where we ah have a list of every adventure game ever released um from all the way back in 1976 to the present day there's...
01:23:56
Speaker
Well over 3,000. And I have them all numbered here. We pull random numbers out. And we rank the games. Whether we've played them or not. Currently, we have 83 games on our list.
01:24:10
Speaker
Yeah, we say we were fair. We've probably played about 20 them. I know. So ah we're allowed to skip one per episode. And we are going to do, I think, three today. So. yeah um I ah want you to give me a number between one and ten, but don't say either seven or eight.
01:24:33
Speaker
Okay, four. Okay. Oh, I haven't played any of these in the... Welp. ah Okay, so our first one is number 1,573 by Igor Krutov 2015. It's called...
01:24:46
Speaker
by igor kruovv in twenty fifteen it's called Through Abandoned the Underground City. Oh, okay. Through Abandoned the Underground City.
01:25:02
Speaker
um so it looks like a hand-drawn.
01:25:07
Speaker
Yes. looks like hand-drawn 2D first-person um puzzle game. It looks cute. And it looks, it looks pretty cute. Yeah. let it and It's clearly first person.
01:25:23
Speaker
So you know how I get, you know, kind of like reminds me a little bit of mist, but like 2d and kind of cute. um Or kind of like, what was that game that I played last year that I loved so much? The Forgotten City? The Abandoned Planet.
01:25:41
Speaker
Yeah. The Abandoned Planet. Or like, um ah those games I like, ah Isoland. It looks a little bit like the Isoland games. It looks like it would do really well on a phone.
01:25:52
Speaker
This gives me pretty good vibes. And it here's the thing about it that I just discovered. It's very short. Okay.
01:26:05
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, I see that. I see that it's very short. is 15 minutes long. um You can get it on Steam, but again, I assume that this is also for like available on phones because it just looks like a phone game, right? It does. And if it is that short, it does have very positive reviews. So people did like it. They said it's a very fun game.
01:26:26
Speaker
it's also buck. Yeah. So I would be... new middle I don't know Igor Krutov, but it looks like he's done a bunch of these. He's done Through Abandoned the Forest, Through Abandoned the Refuge.
01:26:40
Speaker
um And they all look kind of... They they have this like... they have this grounded... but futuristic look to them.
01:26:52
Speaker
Yeah. They look like, they look like they take place in an abandoned world, like a post-apocalyptic world. Yeah. And I kind of, and they, they also have another thing ah that you might be able to say about them. They have like a cube escape feel.
01:27:05
Speaker
Yes, they do. I was going to say it does kind of give me that vibe. um i I think these look kind of dope. yeah yeah I I I do like it.
01:27:16
Speaker
I think I kind of want to play these. Okay. Yeah. um Where would you like to put it, though? Good point. I mean, considering you said we do have a little bit of a ah like parameter when we say, oh I do want to play that, that kind of ticks it up a little bit.
01:27:33
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Where Midnight Girl? 24. Okay. i write ah Two below Orion Burger.
01:27:48
Speaker
ah you think it should go below Orion Burger, right? Yeah, because that game has captivated, even though we didn't, even though you said it wasn't very good and I think it's not going to be very good, it captivated us for like Our entire lives. Yeah, it did. It truly, truly did.
01:28:07
Speaker
kind of want to put this in like the 40 to 50 range. Okay. um So like maybe just that we're you're talking about right above the mediocre block.
01:28:19
Speaker
Yeah. So like, okay, the last game we put near there is at 39, we put Pine Hearts. Or sorry, 38, we put Pine Hearts, which was ah one of those playground games.
01:28:33
Speaker
um like
01:28:36
Speaker
Like a ah short hike or whatever. um Right, right, right, right. I think it should go around there. And ben the two two Ben Jordan games are right above that. Okay. Can we put it?
01:28:48
Speaker
would put it below Pine Hearts. Okay. I'm fine with that. i And like this is another rule that we haven't utilized too much.
01:28:59
Speaker
But we do have a standing rule where if we play these, the only way we are allowed to move these games Is if we play them. So yes if we play through Abandon the Underground City. Then we can move it.
01:29:12
Speaker
And decide this game fucking rules. Yeah. Maybe we can move it. All right. All right. Next one. I've never heard of this game. Oh, dear. It's by Herculean Effort.
01:29:24
Speaker
It is from 2006. It looks fucking insane. It's called Super Jazz Man. ha ha ha ha. Okay.
01:29:34
Speaker
It is not on Steam. why why What? It was an Adventure Game Studios game. and um and Oh, number one. Hands down. jaine Come on now.
01:29:47
Speaker
You know, it has like one of these. It's pixel art. um Point and click. It's got a yeah ah limited palette, which I really like.
01:29:57
Speaker
I do too. I like how this looks. um And it's like, it seems like a superhero character. Who plays jazz. It's got like a. It's got a point and clicks. A Sierra point and click vibe to it.
01:30:13
Speaker
It's like a little space quest. Even more cartoony than space quest. But that's kind of the vibe I'm getting. So that being said. If I had seen this. I would want to play it. Yes but let me tell you how the trailer starts.
01:30:26
Speaker
Uh oh.
01:30:28
Speaker
God. In a world. Where rap rules the streets. Oh, God. Where the winter holiday known as Crip-ness.
01:30:41
Speaker
Oh, dear. One superhero must save his kitten. He kicks, flies, punches, plays, talks, and kicks. he says kicks twice. In the most daring, most musical rescue in an adventure game yet.
01:30:56
Speaker
Stevie Jack Marcel is a busboy by night, super jazz man by day. Now,
01:31:05
Speaker
there's something a little crypto racist about this. Yeah, no, no, no. I totally get that. Totally get that. We haven't played it, so we don't quite We haven't played it.
01:31:19
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Based on the trailer, the heroer hero is white and all the people he fights are black. Oh, God. Okay, I have an idea. Okay. but Well, you're getting Walls treatment then.
01:31:32
Speaker
Where's Blue Force? Oh, good. Yeah, because it might be a good game, but we might not agree with it. Yeah. Well, not Blue Force, but... Not Blue Force. That's a bad game. It might end up being in a good game, but we might not... We probably do not agree with this game. Yeah, it's got to go there. It has to. And I'm not accusing... I just want to be clear.
01:31:53
Speaker
I'm not accusing cu Herculean effort of being racist in any way. Correct. And also, this is 2006. I don't know, you know... Right. When I say crypto racist, I mean crypto racist, right? Like right this person might not even be aware that there are some racial overtones to what this game might be saying. ah And who knows? And maybe some of those disappear in nuance as you play the game.
01:32:22
Speaker
But this trailer is giving me some real bad feelings. um So I think... i say I say put it above Blue Force, which we know is racist.
01:32:33
Speaker
ah Put it above Blue Force, yeah. um But I think we'll keep it around there, right? Yeah, we can keep it there for now because we're just, we're not sure. Maybe we'll play this game. and It's four to six hours, which is crazy. Oh, wow. This looks like a two-hour long game.
01:32:47
Speaker
It is giving me Police Quest vibes. So if we had Police Quest on here, I would try to maybe put it around there. um yeah i we Yeah. We don't, do we? No, we don't have a single Police Quest game on here. just It's so weird how few of these Sierra classics we've gotten on here so far. Yeah, I know. I'm really hoping for one soon.
01:33:13
Speaker
And even though this game, there's clearly stuff about this game that makes me uncomfortable. um i
01:33:22
Speaker
i i wouldn't be opposed to trying this game. I would try it. Yeah, I would try it. I got to make sure. Yeah, if there's something cute about it, right? um and And here's another thing.
01:33:34
Speaker
These are the guys who made Apprentice. I didn't realize that. And the Apprentice games are really good. Okay. Does that kick it up a few spots? Or do we leave it where it is?
01:33:46
Speaker
Let's leave it for now, and then if yeah play it, we can pick it up. Good point. Good point. Okay. All right. ah This next one, I've also never fucking heard of. Oh, man. it's the it's drinking out It's the day for that, right? Yep.
01:34:00
Speaker
This is a psychological horror game released in 2014 by the Domaginarium. Okay. Okay. It's called Enola.
01:34:12
Speaker
Like the Enola gay. Okay. Alright, let me look at this. Okay, here's what I'm saying. Here's I'm say. I'm going to say no. This does not look like I would like it.
01:34:24
Speaker
First look doesn't look good. It does not. ah Second look. Doesn't look good. Pulled it up on Steam. Mixed reviews. Did you know what that means? Let's look at this trailer. Parts of this game are disturbing or cruel is the first thing. And a narrator who is not good just appeared in my headphones. ah oh There was a young girl one day. She met three monsters is what he's telling me.
01:34:55
Speaker
And there's like just a shitty 3D avatar of a girl kind of dancing. Yeah, it's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. um This looks bad. oh man, this looks bad. bad?
01:35:06
Speaker
bad, but how bad? bad but how bad Yeah, so the bottom of our list is generally ah populated by ethically dubious games. Yeah, just the worst of the worst. We have the one where they, that we have two that are purely. Like missed knockoffs or something.
01:35:26
Speaker
Purely pirated, not pirated, ah plagiarized. Right. Secret Doctrine and Limbo of the Lost. Yeah, that's going to always be at the bottom, I think. We have, ah seventy we have you know, a Blue Force at 73, which is racist. We have The Fan at 75, which is where you just torture a woman.
01:35:44
Speaker
yeah that i was actually going to ask you, where did you put The Fan? Because this could be comparable to me. Yeah, but it looks worse than the fan. me, this looks kind of like ah like ah what was that game that we wrote in? Madness of the Architect.
01:36:02
Speaker
Yeah. Do you remember that one? Yeah, know. It kind of looks like that. Not quite as bad as Madness of the Architect. Maybe, ah or what's some of the other ones around there? Of Light and Darkness, the prophecy has that disgusting 3D look to it.
01:36:17
Speaker
Really don't like it. Yeah. Yeah. This has the disgusting later 3D horror look to it. Yeah, I really don't like it. so many games had. So maybe maybe around there, maybe like ah next to above or below of Light and Darkness, the prophecy.
01:36:34
Speaker
Let me remind myself of Light. God, I hate these game i hate these titles like so much. No, they're so bad. oh How do you keep them in your head? they're all like These generic titles that are here by the bottom.
01:36:50
Speaker
For quality alone, I would put it below Light and of light and Darkness. But above Madness of the Architect, which looked like just slop. Above.
01:37:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um Okay, Enola is our new a number 82. Dang. i Okay. That is our episode, folks. And maybe after our next ranking episode...
01:37:18
Speaker
we should refresh everybody and read the whole list. Yeah. boom We'll do that. You know what I'm going to do What's that? I am going to play. Not eat. Well, no. I'm going to not eat tomatoes. I'm going to go play um itch quest.
01:37:33
Speaker
Itch simulator, I should say. And you know why? Because it's art just like podcast. Podcast is art. And art, like itching and scratching is suffering.
01:37:46
Speaker
You got it. Yeah.