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Give Me Back My BB (Death Stranding Vol. 1 - Part 3)
3 Plays2 minutes ago
We wrap Vol. 1 of Death Stranding! We will get to Vol. 2 eventually but hope ya'll had fun listening to us discuss Kojima's reading of American expansionism and frontier stuff and also smishsmortion?
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Book Synopsis
Mysterious explosions have rocked the planet, setting off a series of supernatural phenomena known as the Death Stranding. Spectral creatures that devour the living have pushed humanity to the brink of extinction, causing countries to fall and survivors to scatter and live in pockets of isolation. Sam Porter Bridges, the legendary porter with the ability to return from the world of the dead, has been entrusted with a critical mission by the President of the United Cities of America. He must journey across this ravaged landscape crawling with otherworldly threats to reconnect cities and people and rebuild America one step at a time.
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Transcript
Introduction & Phil's Illness
00:00:00
Speaker
I can still feel emotions. I just don't need to cry as much as I do. so i You know who else never stops crying? Who's that? Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to Pixel It. My name is Kevin. With me as always is Phil. On today's show, we are finishing up Death Stranding, Volume 1.
00:00:17
Speaker
Phil, still a little sick, but he's getting better. I'm here. It was the Little Caesars food poisoning this past weekend that really rolled things back in terms of getting better from the cold. i mean I'm going to say it was it was like you were getting better and then the food was poisoning... It was a virus that turned into an infection. And yeah, and I was on my way out. I was
Patreon & Food Poisoning Story
00:00:40
Speaker
Kevin. I was feeling so good.
00:00:42
Speaker
And, and, and then, and then little Caesars food poisoning laid me and my wife out for 24 hours while my perfectly healthy son Just, you great you know, merrily danced around us and and demanded blue. Yeah, blue. Sure. Fine.
00:00:58
Speaker
That's not what you're, you're thinking when you go, when when you want it hot and ready, you know? No, no. I don't want it coming up hot and ready. It was, it was always hot. I was never ready. Yeah.
00:01:12
Speaker
It was always hot and I and and i was a 50-50 shot at being ready. Yeah.
Humor & Verminoculture
00:01:19
Speaker
ah You know, if you want to hear more about that adventure and vomit, go to patreon.com slash pixelipod where you can ah join us.
00:01:31
Speaker
You can join us for free, but if you're really into ah ah giving out money, a dollar, A dollar a month helps. You can give us a dollar a month. You can get the ad free episode. Five dollars gets you able to listen to that that bonus episode we just recorded where Phil talked in detail about ah his unfortunate incident ah with some food poisoning and ten dollars gets your name shouted out.
00:01:56
Speaker
in every episode. To that end, I want to thank Jesus Loves You, Kyle
Death Stranding Recap
00:02:00
Speaker
Seaman, Ruthless Mudder Middle Things, Sigma Sal, Sanguine Flatulence, Chet Beaks, Dummy Thick, and Friendly Friend. Thank you so much for being a friend. Patreon.com slash PixelitPod.
00:02:11
Speaker
Do it today. it today. So, ah Phil, with all that being said, Yeah. Your body not ready to be marshed now. You're actually on antibiotics.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah It's not, it it shouldn't be marshed. It'll infect your compost. That'll affect your compost. we want ah We want a brown composting. We're not going for live compost. We just want it to break down. We're not going for the flies, you know? No, no. I'm not doing a verminoculture whatever it's called. Verminoculture verminoculture. Whatever it is, my wife would know. yeah um Yeah, we're not doing that. So we're just going to put the body in the marsh yeah and preserve it. When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in the
00:03:07
Speaker
yeah Because that's the thing is when you put a body in the marsh, it's like, it's going to get, it's going to get preserved, right? It's going to get, yeah and so it's going to, yeah, there's, that's not really composting at all. No, that's true. That's a good point. and yeah and And if there's a way, if there's any way I wouldn't want to be preserved, it's in my current state.
00:03:26
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah So. ah Yeah. i Wake up in 100 years, just like, and you still have a respiratory infection. just this. This is just who I am now. and Like, This is who you are. Just like, just imagine being Solomon Grundy, but you always have just like an annoying cough.
00:03:46
Speaker
you know Yeah, just constant. Oh, my God. That's the worst part because I'm surrounded by people and I'm not i'm not contagious. it's it's It is just an infection that's in me. and and But my poor coworkers and everything like that, I will just like cough like really loud.
00:04:06
Speaker
And I just feel so bad for anyone walking past me assuming that they've got – you know gray mouse disease or some goddamn obscure plague that I'm getting off. One of those plagues that just ah ah pops up out of nowhere.
00:04:21
Speaker
um So we're in Lake Knot City. ah still. ah Sam is taking a shower back in his room and he dreams of himself as an old man before waking up to find Fragile shake taking a shower in his room.
00:04:39
Speaker
ah Sam takes this time to confront Fragile about her involvement with Higgs. So if you recall in the last episode, there was all the stories about Fragile being involved with Higgs, the terrorist, and ah she admits it's all true, but in the way that she was being used, not in the way that she was like an active, willing participant.
00:05:03
Speaker
He came offering a way to rebuild things after her dad died ah because she was overwhelmed with running the delivery service. But then his group began hijacking her beach system and caught that caused the nuke to be deposited in Middle Knot City.
00:05:17
Speaker
um There is footage of Fragile in South Knot. The footage of Fragile in South Knot was her trying to get the package away from the city. She asks if she trusts if he trusts her now and then disappears.
00:05:30
Speaker
The same day as Sam is about to leave the distro center, some employees rush out to meet him and hand him and a package that they forgot to give him, quote unquote. The guy gives a whole speech about how great things are now that Sam has connected everyone in the area to the chiral network and sends him on his way.
00:05:46
Speaker
11 days pass and Sam is finally at a safe house. He hasn't had much in the way of problems, though, on the way there and considers ah and he considers the benefits of building bridges.
00:05:58
Speaker
Sam goes to his room and sees that his big toenail has ripped off again. the It's just a wonderful detail that everyone needs. It's that everyone needs. And then he recalls a story about a Porter. He knew who would rip off all of his toenails and dip his toes in acid so that the nails couldn't regrow.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah. Cause he just, he knew that this is part of it and I need, I just need to, this will save me a lot of time, time and and heartache, uh, which is that. So this is what they do for ingrown toenails.
00:06:28
Speaker
They, they cut the toe ingrown part out, uh, ah down to the base and then they put acid ah on the base of your toe so that the sides where the ingrown part is can't regrow can't like come back yeah up so it's like your toenail is just permanently narrowed a bit um so So there's precedent for the idea. There's precedent for the idea. Yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah. um The next morning, Sam wakes up and starts getting ready when he has a vision from BB, a memory of someone calling himself BB's Papa and trying to get him, quote, out of here.
00:07:06
Speaker
Sam feels sick after the memory, but BB is asleep like nothing happens. Sam continues on and gets a lore done from Hartman about the how chiral networks are able to pull data from the past ah that is thought to be lost.
00:07:21
Speaker
We're at South Knot City now, and we get a POV from a guy named Owen Southwick. He is in charge of waiting for packages, and he thinks back to how the terrorism incidents ah had polarized people's perspectives of Fragile Express, but had unified everyone against the terrorists, including the preppers.
00:07:37
Speaker
To him, Sam is synonymous with the word savior.
00:07:43
Speaker
A lot pressure. lot of pressure. Owen had received a text from Mama about increased chiral issues in the area. Her home isn't too far from South Knot City. Owen goes outside and can feel something different in the air as he climbs a hill and can see Sam in the distance.
00:07:59
Speaker
And it looks like he's being chased by Fragile. Meanwhile, from Sam's POV, he's walking toward the city, then fragile appears in front of him. She's trying to get him to come back to the lake because there's a bomb in the cargo.
00:08:11
Speaker
She had gotten a query from Lake Nada asking about missing cargo. She realizes that it was the guy. ah Sam realizes that it was the guy who had given him the package as he was leaving when he was there.
00:08:22
Speaker
Higgs is behind it all. Fragile tells him to dump the package in the nearby crater lake, but then she can't jump him there because, but she can't jump there because her jumps have, uh, are being suppressed by Higgs or someone who is like Higgs.
00:08:36
Speaker
So it's like somebody who actually has control over other people's dooms or beach abilities. He's nulling her. He's yeah. Yeah. He's, he's gas like silence in the area. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:08:49
Speaker
ah There you go. Um, So Sam, ah Sam gives her BB to take care of and he runs off towards a lake.
00:09:00
Speaker
Sam thinks about how Higgs had to have planned this all and was possibly watching them right now. Somehow his feet are bleeding, which should be enough to keep any BTs away. He gets to the edge and he throws the package in and it sinks into the tar like lake and detonates it.
00:09:17
Speaker
And the, the, the tar that the lake is made out of kind of like keeps the bomb from doing anything. Um, fragile key catches up to him out of breath. Sam tells her that they just saved South. Not fragile. Tell Sam the story of what happened the first time Higgs tried to blow up the city.
00:09:34
Speaker
Higgs had her, uh, had found her trying to get the bomb out. And that's like the footage of fragile, like holding the bomb is her trying to leave with the bomb. Um,
00:09:45
Speaker
And forced her at gunpoint to strip to her underwear. He gave her a gas mask to protect her pretty fit her pretty face and he said that she had a choice to either let the bomb go off and save her body or deal with the time falls effects on her body and get rid of the bomb.
00:10:05
Speaker
This Higgs guy is a...
00:10:09
Speaker
Real piece of shit. Yeah. Not not problematic in the slightest. Not problematic in the slightest. Yeah. So I'm fine. Yeah. She decides to get rid of the bomb, but ultimately doesn't consider herself a hero because she writes what the time fall did to her.
00:10:23
Speaker
Sam calls her a hero, though. Fragile wants to ask. Fragile wants to ask Higgs one more question and wants Sam to leave him alive just long enough for her to ask it. Fragile grabs a cryptobioid out of the air and gives it to Sam, who finally eats one.
00:10:37
Speaker
But it's super gross and it makes Fragile laugh when he reacts to it.
00:10:43
Speaker
i I love that. wait we That's been like teased for so long and it finally happens. And you kind
Sam's Visions & Mama's Insights
00:10:50
Speaker
of, there's a part of me that was kind of like thinking, oh, he's going to be like, oh I get it. I understand. And I was like, no, that's ah every bit as gross as I expected it to be. Yeah.
00:10:58
Speaker
Yeah. She's constantly eating these gross, like floating tar grade bugs that kind of just like float in the air sometimes. yes Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:09
Speaker
yeah ah um Back at Southknot City, Sam drops the rest of the cargo off at the city and meets Owen, who tells him about Mama's message about the chiral density being weird. Sam heads down to his personal room and sets up the BB up to deal with the autotoxemia.
00:11:25
Speaker
He gets a message from Amelie about saving South Knot City, but it's interrupted by a message from Higgs. But then that signal gets hijacked by Mama, who tells him that there's a chiral spike and the numbers are off the charts.
00:11:38
Speaker
She's saying this while making a pained expression and holding her breast. Also, BB is crying and get people. BB's crying is getting louder and louder. Sam grabs BB and goes outside and the sky is transforming into a huge disc, an enormous supercell that defies the laws of physics.
00:11:56
Speaker
As the wind picked ups, as the wind picks up, Sam tries to hold onto a pillar, but he gets sucked up into the supercell. Episode five, Unger. ah he Sam is inside the supercell. He can hear the baby crying.
00:12:11
Speaker
He's in some sort of dream or delusion or something where soldiers are shooting at him and he drowns in his own blood. But then he swims up in the blood and he sees Golgotha.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah. but Yeah. Okie dokie. Okie dokie. ah Where a savior is being crucified. And then while a whale's stomach opens, like blooming like a flower, the visuals in this scene are nuts.
00:12:41
Speaker
Yeah. like it's It's so surreal. And it to me, it feels like Neon Genesis Evangelion a little bit. Yeah. I can totally see that.
00:12:51
Speaker
just Just down to the... you know, and the the the the right Christian illusions that are good, but off by just a little bit.
00:13:02
Speaker
By a degree. Like that urban legend of um a Japanese department store putting a crucified Santa in their, and that you know, in their store window, which of course wasn't true, but,
00:13:15
Speaker
It's a similar kind of vibe where it's like, it's an outsider perspective on something that, yeah. Right. Anyway, it it's it's it I totally see where you go with that one.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yeah. Sam wakes up and he has the BB and he's in the midst of some sort of war and going through trenches as there's gunfire all around him and blood and mud covered corpses. Yeah.
00:13:40
Speaker
Living the living soldiers he runs into yell at him in a language that he can't understand. Then a bomb drops and several and skeletal soldiers start coming after him. But Sam has gun now and he fires at them, tearing apart their bones with bullets.
00:13:55
Speaker
Bebe cries and Sam is looking for him. A wave of sediment washing washes over Sam, then vanishes. And he is face to face with a man telling Sam to give him back his Bebe.
00:14:06
Speaker
Sam keeps ah the BB away from him and the man repeats it over and over again with complex emotions playing out on his face. And then eventually Sam is shot out of the storm and is on his back next to the South Knot Distro Center.
00:14:24
Speaker
ah Episode six, mama. Here we go. they mean yeah this this is This is what you came for. Fucking episode six. This is. Yeah. Meanwhile. Yeah. Episode five is really short.
00:14:36
Speaker
um Yeah. We're at ah Mama's place in her point of view. She's breastfeeding a baby and the baby won't stop crying. She's trying to figure out if it's due to the chiral density changes.
00:14:48
Speaker
Sam's vitals from his cufflink had cut out for a second and she tries calling him. To Sam, he was gone for a long time, but in reality, he was only gone for a second. And it's only been a minute since he and Mama had last spoke.
00:15:01
Speaker
He tries to recount what happened, but it doesn't make any sense. And then he says, never mind, I'm coming to you. Sam continues walking and comes upon a bridge that had been destroyed in a terrorist attack. The bridge had been preserved as a monument prior, but it ultimately had fallen.
00:15:15
Speaker
the area where The area that he's in attracted Mama to stay after Bridges One came through because of its presence near an old super collider. The building, though, that Sam arrives in is a mess, and Sam eventually finds the entrance.
00:15:29
Speaker
The whole place is creepy. BB doesn't like it, and the Odrudex sensor is going off. But when Sam tries to leave, BB gets more upset, so he keeps going in. There's machines, ah motorbikes, and of all sorts of stuff strewn about.
00:15:44
Speaker
He sees a mobile for a baby made of shells, hearts, whales, and dolphins. BB stops crying and starts laughing as the mobile rattles. That's when Sam sees a dead baby BT floating near it.
00:16:01
Speaker
the dead baby yeah buddy here's where we're here now here we go here we go the dead baby is attached to mama via an umbilical cord she is still producing milk even though the baby can't drink it weird stuff mama and Mama and Sam get to talking about the supercell.
00:16:22
Speaker
Mama explains that chiral densities are getting weird and there's a chance that the issue is with expanding the chiral network the way they are. Sam's cufflink confirms that for him, he was gone for hours within the temporal phenomenon of the supercell.
00:16:36
Speaker
And if they don't figure out what's causing it, they could be in line for more temporal phenomenon or perhaps another death stranding.
Mama's Sacrifice & Sister Reunion
00:16:45
Speaker
Mama has a Cupid that she designed that could help better regulate the chiral densities of the connections, but it needs a software update, which needs to be done by her identical twin sister, Lachne, in the mountain knot city.
00:16:57
Speaker
A BT tries to reach into the room through a crack in the ceiling and snatch the BT baby, but mama like waves it off, like swatting at a fly.
00:17:08
Speaker
They're so casual about it. Like it's like this, and a hand comes down from the ceiling and tries to grab it. And she's just like, get fucking... lost You know what it made me think of was in The Legend of Zelda, ah the Wallmasters.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. sure we there's those Those enemies creep me out so much. The hands coming out of the wall and grabbing you and pulling you back.
00:17:34
Speaker
It was genuinely spooky shit. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then dropping you back off at the beginning of the dungeon. That was like the main you know thing was that they just basically. Yeah, they didn't really do a lot of damage to you. They just.
00:17:46
Speaker
it just rins the shit out of you They just grabbed you and dropped you back at the entrance. ah yeah So fucking creepy though. So creepy. um Mama, ah her real name is Mulligan, was waiting for a C-section. She's explaining how this happened, ah how the beat baby BT happened.
00:18:06
Speaker
Uh, she was awaiting a C-section at a hospital at the time. Uh, things kind of fell apart. She was asleep from anesthesia. And when she woke up, the building she was in had collapsed.
00:18:17
Speaker
She cried and called out and heard her baby crying and calling out as well. And when she was finally pulled from the rubble by the bridges medical team, the baby was revealed to now be a BT.
00:18:29
Speaker
Sam in his mind, Lincoln's mama to the Virgin Mary. um And then while he's thinking about this, mama grabs his arm and just like injects him with a needle to get some blood from him. Yeah.
00:18:42
Speaker
No takesies, backsies. Done. Done. ah To make a new weapon. And then she's like, all right, I need to do some work. Go do your own thing. ah Sam, while he's off on his own, has more thoughts about fetuses and personhood.
00:18:57
Speaker
And i was like, really leaning into the anti-abortion angle of the book. Very much so. Yeah. His thoughts are interrupted by Amelie talking about Higgs and...
00:19:08
Speaker
And are interrupted by Amelie, who calls him and says, Higgs and the other terrorists have arrived and they've killed everyone in the city in Edge Knot.
00:19:19
Speaker
um Amelie then tells Sam that if he can finish connecting the chiral network, then she can go back east with him. But then the call dies.
00:19:29
Speaker
Uh, mama thinks about the chiral issues and knows that the issue specifically, at the lab and knows that the issues specifically that ah at the lab are because of her and how the chiral network got closer to than the lab. it would, uh, the more it would pull the BT of her daughter away.
00:19:47
Speaker
ah She had tried previously contacting Lockney for help, but all the messages have been refused for a while now. Mama then looks at two new tools almost completed, the new cufflink and the new Cupid.
00:19:58
Speaker
The cufflink is now functional and she tries to use it to sever her bond with her b BT baby, but it doesn't work. The communications equipment come back online and displayed on one of the monitors is give me my daughter back from Lockney.
00:20:14
Speaker
Sam comes in. Mama explains how the new cufflink works and how the metal is made it's made from is infused with Sam's blood. She then asks him to cut the cord between her and the baby because it won't work for her. She has to go to Mountain Knot City with him, and she can't do that because she's bound to this location by the child.
00:20:32
Speaker
She explains ah the relationship between her and Lockney. Lachne and Malaghan are named after a pair of ancient craters that struck the earth. They have always been able to communicate with their minds ah to each other and have always been very close. So the, i the, they talk about, she talks about how before they were born, uh, they had, she, they remember having, being on the beach together.
00:20:56
Speaker
um And it while they were in the womb. um So ah one day, Lockney's lover dies ah and she wants to have a kid ah using his sperm that had been stored by bridges.
00:21:12
Speaker
But her uterus can't carry a kid. So Mulligan volunteered to carry the baby. Then the incident at the hospital happened and the connection between the two got severed. Lockney kept sending messages asking Mama to give back her daughter, but Mama couldn't and send anything back, and she couldn't bear to tell Lockney the truth.
00:21:30
Speaker
So she needs Sam to sever the bond. Sam is convinced and severs the bond, but once he does, the BT baby is replaced by a BT of a woman with a swollen belly. Mama collapses and asks Sam to take her home to Lockney.
00:21:44
Speaker
So there it's hinting at it the entire time in this scene that, um,
00:21:55
Speaker
mama is actually dead that she's basically like, uh, her, she's basically like a ah reanimated corpse or like a revenant.
00:22:05
Speaker
Like she died in the, in the thing. And the only thing keeping her alive is the, uh, the BT baby. And then once the connection is severed,
00:22:16
Speaker
Her true form, like the BT of herself as a pregnant woman, is revealed. And it, like, carries on. and But she's still, like, alive, so to speak. Her ha, her body, is still alive.
00:22:34
Speaker
Right. At the moment-ish. Yeah. But not for very long. In this weird symbiosis with the the BB. Yeah. um So Mountain Knot City, we get a point of view that is mostly a retelling of everything we've learned so far, but from Lockney's point of view and how upset she was with Mulligan being called Mama and the bond changing between them.
00:22:58
Speaker
Then suddenly she started feeling the connection to Mulligan again and she begins to cry. As Sam and Mulligan get closer, the beach Lachne shared with her relinks, and a panorama of memories plays out for Lachne.
00:23:10
Speaker
She sees everything that happened. Realizing what has happened, she runs out of her room and starts sprinting towards where Sam and Mama are. The sisters ah then embrace as Mulligan is dying, apologizing to each other for missing their connection.
00:23:25
Speaker
Mulligan asks Lachne to fix the Cupid and then passes away, dropping the baby toy that she was holding. Later, Lachne calls Sam in his room and tells him that the Cupid was fixed. She also mentions that basically Mulligan's ha had passed on, but her ka was bound to the daughter in the world.
00:23:42
Speaker
That's why she
Bridge Babies & Hidden Truths
00:23:43
Speaker
ah never had both cufflinks on, because she didn't want anyone seeing her vitals. After Mulligan's death, her spirit entered Lachne and turned one of Lachne's eyes a different color.
00:23:54
Speaker
As they speak to Sam, Lockney and Mulligan alternate sentences. So. Yeah. Yeah. um Episode seven, Dead Man.
00:24:09
Speaker
ah We're in Mountain Knot City and Sam is thinking about Lockney and Mulligan and all that jazz when he realizes that BB is screaming. He calls out for Lou, the name he has decided to name the BB, and finds that Deadman is in his room, having been warped there by Fragile.
00:24:24
Speaker
Deadman is giving Sam a whole song and dance about ah BBs. He mentions that the child is gaining weight and brain function activity and it is increasing, but despite that, there would be a 70% chance of catastrophic failure if he was removed from the pod.
00:24:39
Speaker
Deadman continues, though, that he can fix the BB by realigning it between the land of the living and the dead, but it may erase its memories. Then Deadman starts taking off his clothes and goes into the shower.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. it's Wait, where are we going? What are we doing, Deadman? What are we doing now? Guillermo, what are we doing? Guillermo, what are we doing?
00:25:01
Speaker
Deadman continues talking as if the conversation is ah going on, but he keeps darting his eyes around to different parts of the room. Sam realizes that the room is bugged and gets into the shower with Deadman, who removes his cuff and Sam's.
00:25:15
Speaker
Deadman starts talking about the original bridge baby experiments, how they were originally ordered by the previous president, Canonically President Donald J. Trump, but died.
00:25:29
Speaker
Look it up. Look it up. ah But he died when Manhattan voided out. President Strand then publicly shut the experiments down, but kept them going in secret.
00:25:40
Speaker
The goal for the BBs was to create bridges for anyone to go back and forth between the beach. Dead Man also says lots a lot ah lot of stuff seems to be hidden about Die Hard Man. And he asked Sam if he knows anything else or has seen his face.
00:25:53
Speaker
But Sam says he was already wearing the mask when they first met 10 years ago. Dead Man also tells him ah that up ahead he will meet Heart Man and his team of scientists, but he will take care of the BB and get him back to Sam as soon as possible.
00:26:06
Speaker
Sam realizes that even if BB's memories are erased, it would be better for the kid in the long run. The book ends with Sam thinking about the darkness that Bridges might be hiding.
00:26:18
Speaker
Dun, dun, dun.
Themes & American History
00:26:20
Speaker
Literally to be continued. Literally to be continued. Phil, what do you think so far? i I sent you this message the other day as I was wrapping this up.
00:26:30
Speaker
And, um, And Stan's I, I feel like if I had read this book ah without knowledge that it was a video game in the first place, just assuming that this was just a book to begin with.
00:26:44
Speaker
um And then I found out that it was a video game. My first reaction would be, but how, how do you, how do you even, how did you fucking turn this into a fucking video game? What are you talking about?
00:26:58
Speaker
And you correctly pointed out that most of the gameplay stuff is walking around and climbing and stuff like that. And that's only kind of alluded to- There's like combat sequences with mules and stuff like that that's just skipped.
00:27:13
Speaker
yeah know Right. and and and which Which makes me think this is probably one of the better novelizations we've ever run into because it has a full awareness of its- um its genre of its, ah you know, what it what it can do with its skill set.
00:27:33
Speaker
um And so it just does what a book can do well and kind of, you know, plays down all the shit that you get a video game out of. And as I said last episode, I believe is it has fully ah encouraged me to want to play this game, ah which I was not there before we started reading this.
00:27:54
Speaker
ah So I guess they mission accomplished. Yeah. You know, there you go. ah So it's, it's really well written, really well translated.
00:28:05
Speaker
Yep. It is, it is filled with all kinds of sci-fi gobbledygook. Yep. Which on one hand can be very obtuse. And on the other hand, does, does succeed in lending some weight to the subject matter.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I talked about it before ah last episode, I think, where it's just the ability to talk about the United States and its frontier past and its Western expansion past ah in such a startlingly clever metaphor ah coming from someone who is Japanese, who is not from right this country. i I find it incredibly laudable. I find it really impressive.
00:28:57
Speaker
But yeah, and I would say it's... yeah I would say Kojima has definitely demonstrated that he's very... um He's very much aware. ah He's like...
00:29:11
Speaker
There's two things Koja Mino's. it's ah It's movies and American history. Sure. i'm sure Yeah, he's a somehow nerdier version of Quentin Tarantino, really. Yeah, he is he's the he does have very much ah the Quentin Tarantino of ah video games kind of vibe. but Absolutely. Right
Adaptation & Kojima's Style
00:29:33
Speaker
down to casting Margaret Qualley in this, the same year that she's in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
00:29:42
Speaker
Oh, there you go. I didn't even think about that. Damn. Damn. You're right. ah Because in this, she plays the identical twin sisters, Mulligan and Lockney. um That's right.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah, I agree. It's impressive book. Very impressive. I agree. um And so originally I was going to try to cover these books, the two parts of it back to back, but I realized I need a little, um want a little breather in between these two parts just because ah just want to do something else. You know, um i think I even put on the calendar.
00:30:20
Speaker
Did I write, actually write down what I was, what I was, what you wanted to do instead. ah I might not have. I might have been like, I'm going to remember it.
00:30:34
Speaker
Never. Not in a million years. um But yeah, I agree with a lot of what you said in terms of like, it's a lot of sci-fi gobbledygook and at the same time yeah by the time ah we finished reading it, I was like,
00:30:55
Speaker
Yeah, I get it. um Like, I understand, like, i I can define all of the terms that they're using, you know? i know i know what they are. Like, it doesn't hold your hand and try to explain them ah all right off the bet bat. You kind of get to understand them more as the the book continues.
00:31:16
Speaker
What's a BT? What's a BB? What's a Cupid? What's the chiral network? What's chiral density? What's time fall? All that stuff. um you know and and and yeah ah I would say it's got two very big can like themes.
00:31:37
Speaker
One bigger than the other. so The big one is like American expansionism, the frontier, underneath that the value but underneath that like the the value of
00:31:54
Speaker
Not just the value of connecting, but the value of community ah ah is a big part of it because it's and you have different points of view, whereas, you know, Guy Hardman and and President Strand were like connections for connections sake. You know what i mean? Right.
00:32:12
Speaker
Right. Where you have other people with more nuanced takes as Sam kind of goes along his his journey. but Like, well, yeah, connection. want good connections. We want to make sure that the it's it's right. And we want to make sure it's being taken care of rather than it just being...
00:32:30
Speaker
there you know right Right. Because that's not doing anyone any favors. That's not doing anyone any favors. um So I think that is, ah that's pretty cool.
00:32:42
Speaker
As I've mentioned several times, i there's like the one weird theme of anti-choice, ah you know, anti-abortion stuff.
00:32:53
Speaker
like thematics underneath the bridge baby stuff very much so yeah where like and maybe that's my mic is falling over um maybe that's not the intention um but it feels very much the intention yeah Yeah, yeah.
00:33:14
Speaker
If you're going to play the metaphor game, it is kind of impossible not to at least entertain ah that notion ah with this. It's it's basically a impossible.
00:33:24
Speaker
Because let's be honest, Kojima's and and his his writer on this one, I've forgotten his name, Hitori... um
00:33:38
Speaker
I can't remember. ah ah the But the the author of the story and the in the book and Kojima, not very... Subtle. no No, no. I know writers use subtext and they're all cowards.
00:33:58
Speaker
they they They can make a complex story. They can hit make an interesting story. They can make a thoughtful story and they can make an exciting story. But subtlety is not a thing that they are doing.
00:34:09
Speaker
No, and that's fine i like that's fine. I'm actually a fan. i I am in the camp that not everything needs to be subtle. Yeah, um plenty of room for that. set subtlety is Subtlety is one of the more overrated critiques, positive critiques that we can give media and be like, oh, it's so subtle and it's handling it seems like, okay, you know, that's good for them.
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah. But sometimes it just needs to be fucking on the sleeve. Yeah. Just like wear it, man. Especially nowadays. Especially especially nowadays. Yeah. um
Gaming Experiences & Upcoming Interests
00:34:45
Speaker
So yeah, I'm i'm fine with with hitting somebody in the face with with it when the story calls for it. And I think it very much is obvious with...
00:34:54
Speaker
um in terms of the frontier and the issues of of the United States when you have like this elder story and and all that. um But then you can't argue that they're not talking about ah abortion with the BB stuff at the same time if we're understanding that, yeah, the subtlety is...
00:35:19
Speaker
is non-existent. Like I, one of the, one of the characters literally says, this is not a baby. This is a, this is a, this is a piece of equipment. Yeah. Yeah. It's a piece of meat. You know, it's like, it it's, it's, you just need to change a few words and you've got, you know, the standard, you know, uh, pro-choice, uh, language there.
00:35:41
Speaker
Right. So yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of where I landed on it. So overall, I really like the book and the story in general so far with the small caveat carved out, carve out like, I don't like that part so much. Yeah. And that's okay. And that's okay.
00:36:03
Speaker
I just, just the way it's framed is, is, is it's kind of rough for me. Contrary to popular belief, you can have a problem with something that you otherwise enjoy.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yes. You don't have to throw the BB out with the bathwater. a Ah! Well done. I think we've done our job today, Kevin. I'm proud of us.
00:36:26
Speaker
And a tip of the hat. Very nice. Very nice. Just going off singing, hello, my baby. Hello. Yeah, there you go.
00:36:35
Speaker
Just got a Michigan J frog. Phil, with all that being said. Yes. What are you playing? Oh, oh, ah well, um first and foremost, I've been playing its on a ton ball pit.
00:36:50
Speaker
Ball X pit. It is an exceptional handheld game. I have been, it has been my go-to in my sickness.
00:37:05
Speaker
On your Switch. You know. yeah Yeah. On my switch. I've been sitting there playing it on my switch while me and the wife watch Halloween movies and ah hang out and stuff. And it is so good for that. it You can do it in bite-sized chunks. You can do it in longer stretches.
00:37:22
Speaker
The combination of the ah just the bouncy breakthrough, not breakthrough. oh what do you call it? Breakout. Breakout. ah Breakout ball bouncing kind of thing, which I always loved um with the fantasy elements and the roguelike elements and the town builder and all of it.
00:37:43
Speaker
And it's very clever. um The art design is very dark cartoony, which is a lot of fun. um Love it. I think it's it's ah it's a very simple, fun game. It's very easy to just get sucked into.
00:37:59
Speaker
some of the characters Some of the characters you play as just kind of like really creep me out just looking at their little their little picture. ah How many have you unlocked? I think like five or six at this point. i I take my time with them because I'm like, you know me, i'm like I get a new guy and I'm like, well, he has to be at least the level of the rest of my guys. So I...
00:38:20
Speaker
ah do that until he's ready and and it just takes forever to get anything done yeah um but uh it's yeah yeah yeah the the i think the mummy kid is spooky as shit which is kind of fun um yeah it's got an unsettling art vibe doesn't it Yeah.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah. yeah the the The couple, the, have you, did you get the couple? The, uh, okay. That sounds fun. Yeah. They're, uh, it's a pair and they're, they look like, uh, American Gothic. Um, uh, they're like styled after American Gothic, but you know, they're just standing there with their, with their no eyes, you know?
00:39:02
Speaker
Yeah. It does have, you know, it does have a, um, um, ah What is the spooky ass roguelike game with the kid stuck in the basement with the ah religious oh binding of Isaac?
00:39:15
Speaker
Yes. There's some binding of Isaac vibes there. Yeah. A little more fantasy driven, but but I can totally see that. Yeah. um but That makes me think of that. Yeah. That's that's very interesting.
00:39:26
Speaker
um so that's been a big part of uh of what i've been doing because i just i haven't been able to like leave the easy chair uh very easily um i did play a couple of demos uh i played the demo demos absolutely what kind of a week would it be if i didn't have some demos um i played the demo for reanimal Okay. um this is This is done by the Little Nightmare guys.
00:39:55
Speaker
um And it is essentially a Little Nightmares. It is the same same idea. um Little kids in spooky Halloween kind of masks, ah you know, hiding from ah what I can only describe as a Tom Waits train conductor at one point. And, and you know, it's that it's that spooky children's book that adventure thing that's become so popular in the past 10 years or so. And I, and, and it's very, very good.
00:40:27
Speaker
um Little nightmares. Ironically, it made me kind of want to play little nightmares again, because I played the the first one and I just wasn't all that impressed by it. Sure. um but it's come out with sequels and everyone seems to love the damn thing. So I think I need to give it another shot. This, this was, it's very good.
00:40:44
Speaker
It's compelling. It's creepy. ah The demo is absolutely worth a go. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. um The other one I did, i did a demo for sigils of nightfall, which this is this is a fun one because it's just It's a dungeon crawler card game.
00:41:06
Speaker
um it's It's Slay the Spire with cards, essentially. Yeah. it it is It's very cool. and and it and it And it does basically the same shit, as far as I can tell, with the demo.
00:41:21
Speaker
But it's all done in the Morkborg world. um And for those of you who don't know, Morkborg is a TTRPG. um made by a team in Sweden, and it's basically death metal, the role playing game.
00:41:37
Speaker
um It's very brutal. It's very rules light. It is not meant for long speeches and, and and you know, ah intricate storylines and stuff. It is is about going in and kicking ass and and ah being a really weird goddamn character while you're at it. There's no like just standard night. It's always something spooky and grim.
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah. And it's a great world to play in. so So you said, so Sigils of Nightfall? Sigils of Nightfall. Yeah. So it looks like, I mean, it's like a deck builder, right? Yeah. Yep.
00:42:20
Speaker
And it looks like the art style is very ah darkest Dungeon. It's very Darkest Dungeon, but to be fair, ah it's also very Morkborg, which has a similar vibe. it's just They know how silly that sounds, right? to yeah Yeah, that's the idea. it's all They've created other games based on the same system um that ah that go in in other universes, and it's always something Borg. ah yeah It's to be...
00:42:53
Speaker
it's it's meant to be It's very, ah what's the word? Irreverent. child Blood and guts and heavy metal. it's it's I love it. Without being a shithead about it. That's the thing. So many people with the old school RPG dungeon crawler thing have become shitheads about it.
00:43:11
Speaker
And this is like, let's do that and not be a bunch of pissy old grognards about it. Let's let's let's have some fun with it. And the powers are really interesting. And the characters you can play are...
00:43:23
Speaker
weird and unique and uh and the oh and the and i said it's heavy metal the game uh uh the music fucking rocks uh it is it is metal so uh real i've been waiting this one's been on my wish list for a minute and i've been waiting for a demo for a while so i was really happy when it finally released uh and and uh and i got my hands on it uh it's it's it's definitely worth a look uh i hope against hope that this one will also be unlike the switch for example because i feel this is another one that like you could play the shit out of on a handheld uh kind of thing and i i haven't yet swung for a ah steam deck uh yeah yeah
00:44:06
Speaker
This is another one that's really good for that shit. So there's two. ah What's funny is there's two two games using Morkborg coming out soon.
00:44:18
Speaker
So Sigil's Nightfall and a game called Heresy Supreme, which is... Oh, I didn't know that. Wretched anti-heroes explore side-scrolling semi-procedural grimdark fantasy word world searching for a way to prevent the apocalypse. Was called Wretched Supreme?
00:44:34
Speaker
Heresy Supreme. Heresy Supreme.
00:44:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah, more pork. Oh, well, this is even more Darkest Dungeons, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This this looks pretty tight.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah. It's just a spooky-ass goddamn world. I like it. and But they both are, yeah, they're both very much, yeah, both games look very much ah inspired by the same that same art style. um a Right down to the colors, like grimdark with, it's like grimdark with these like bright yellows and and stuff like that.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. when the The whole color scheme is black, white and yellow. It's yeah very, very stark. And I think that's cool as shit. ah So yeah, yeah. Very. it's It's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.
00:45:37
Speaker
That's awesome. that And I'm seeing that the designers also have a game now. They have a demo for a game coming out called Lurks Within Walls, which looks crazy and downloaded.
00:45:49
Speaker
uh because that lurks within walls oh by the same same yeah developer thinks the same oh yeah yeah two wedges two edges yeah yeah yeah another dungeon crawl kind of thing but with more of a horror vibe Dig it.
00:46:07
Speaker
That's awesome. Okay. All right. Well, Kevin, with all that mind, ah what do you plan? Oh, okay. um So let's rewind a little bit. I beat Bollock's Pit.
00:46:20
Speaker
um Okay. I mean, i I did not get the, i didn't achievement hunt necessarily on this one. Right, right, right. You can roll credits at about like, I think I'm about 16 hours in or something like that. Okay, that makes sense. And I had a little leg up because I played that way too much of the demo.
00:46:39
Speaker
So when I got into into the main game and it like moved my save file holder, I had like said so much gold. Nice. Nice. So I didn't have to worry about gold until like the end of the game.
00:46:52
Speaker
um So yeah, Ball X Pit, uh... You know, really good game, probably going to be on my game of the year list. ah You know, ah little a little breakout roguelike-ish with the RPG elements and town building. you know It's got a lot of got a lot of fun stuff in there. Got a lot of stuff there that I like.
00:47:16
Speaker
lot of good moving pieces. A lot of good moving pieces. um So what else have i've been playing? um i have been playing. i played the first two episodes of Dispatch, ah which is a game. It's very much similar to the Telltale a style of game, ah but it's it's looks like it's you know it looks animated. looking.
00:47:42
Speaker
um very good looking um It's very beautiful looking game. it has ah It's mostly like you know choosing dialogue choices, building relationships, so-and-so will remember this type of stuff. But then there's like a gameplay loop of you are a dispatcher for a superhero organization. ah Your team that you have been assigned to is the worst team in the company ah because they are all reformed villains.
00:48:12
Speaker
ah that were, well, reformed. They just didn't want to be villains anymore and they have powers. So youre like you're basically sending them out to to deal with ah things as they come up. And that could be anything from like, oh, we can make a big drug bust to um this lady needs help getting her cat out of a tree. So, i don't know, send the biggest guy you got or send somebody who could fly or something like that.
00:48:37
Speaker
You know, it's it's little stuff like that. um ah And each of the heroes has a um has like a it's like five There's like five ratings. They have strength, ah intelligence, ah charisma, stuff like that. And each each ah mission will depend on The success or failure depends on...
00:49:06
Speaker
oh what the mission calls for and what they have. The thing is, you won't know what the mission actually calls for. Like literally, you have to figure it out by what the dispatch call says. So it'll be like you have to do this and you have to also talk someone down from doing something right.
00:49:26
Speaker
So To fulfill the second part, you might need to send one person. You might need to send one of the people that has like a lot of the charisma stat. It's like there might be because sometimes you can as send two heroes. So like one strength and one charisma to kind of deal with with the the ah the problem.
00:49:46
Speaker
So that's kind of like the. the game within the game um element of it. Otherwise, the main game is the standard your standard telltale, like talking to people, making decisions about how you're responding to folks.
00:50:01
Speaker
um As of recording, episodes three and four ah had just come out ah yesterday or two days ago, I want to say. i haven't haven't gotten back into it yet, but I i will ah soon. Nice.
00:50:16
Speaker
So yeah, ah Dispatch. Really cool. ah Power Wash Simulator 2 is out. I knew that was coming. What can I say? It's the greatest game of all time. There you go. now it's It's more Power Wash Simulator.
00:50:32
Speaker
um They did some nice quality of life improvements. One of the main things, an issue I had with the original game was the way it handled soap. um So each surface...
00:50:43
Speaker
had its own soap that you had to buy from the store, ah from your, like the little shop that you get all your stuff from. The problem is ah the soap sometimes would just like run out and you're at a point in like a free play whatever where you're like, oh, I'm out of soap. And be like, well, there's no more soap available.
00:51:05
Speaker
And it's like, Okay. This... All right. um So I haven't used... In Power Wash Simulator 1, I haven't used soap and ages. And then in Power Wash Simulator 2, soap is... There's only one soap.
00:51:20
Speaker
ah And it... ah You use it. And when it you run out of it, then you have to, like... You have to clean off the areas that you used it on. And as you do that, your soap meter refills.
00:51:34
Speaker
Oh... So, yeah, that's I was like, that's that's better. That thank you that that handles it a lot better. um But I'm really loving it so far. It's exactly the kind of game that I need, at you know, when I'm like, yeah.
00:51:53
Speaker
when I'm just like, yeah, I i just need to sit here ah and and play me some some power wash too and clean some clean some stuff. And I know that they are going to be, they they have a roadmap of everything that they're going to to be doing.
00:52:09
Speaker
They're no longer published by Square Enix. They're self-published now. oh yes so uh that that's kind of cool um that they're they're their own thing future lab um so yeah go support an indie developer with their with their own big old machine like game of of power wash too i'm sure this is is gonna sell uh like like the proverbial hot cake They are they're going to do fine. Yeah, no question. They'll be fine. um
00:52:45
Speaker
And I'm looking forward to the eventual, ah you know, the the DLCs that they get. Those were always
Listener Engagement & Community
00:52:54
Speaker
kind of like the best part was the DLCs with with like...
00:52:58
Speaker
you know, Warhammer 40K DLC or the Final Fantasy 7 DLC, which they probably won't have Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider going forward just because they're now publishing themselves. Sure. Prior, it was because they were s Square Enix. They could they could pull that off.
00:53:13
Speaker
But absolutely. um Yeah. So Power Wash Simulator 2. ah Otherwise, I've been playing Tormented Souls 2. oh The sequel to Tormented Souls is now out.
00:53:27
Speaker
Tormented Souls 1 was a pretty good, I'd say, 8 out of 10 Resident Evil-like game. You played as a girl named Catherine Walker, who is looking for who has been told in the first one you're You've been told to go to this place to find something out and what you find by the end of the game is your twin sister, except she's 14 years younger than you ah because there is some alternate dimension timey-wimey bullshit that happens, but she is your identical twin sister.
00:54:04
Speaker
in ah part two, Mereens and Souls 2, you and your twin sister are going to a convent because they apparently there is a nun that lives there who is the best at dealing with one particular psychological issue that has been dealing with that ah the younger sister has been dealing with.
00:54:25
Speaker
um as As a as a as lapsed Catholic, I will tell you If there is any, if there is any, listen to me, look at me. hu Look at me. Oh yeah. If there's any time that someone tells you this nun is the person to go to for this thing, they are lying.
00:54:50
Speaker
Sure. The nun is never the person to go to. Never.
00:54:58
Speaker
So yeah, ah
00:55:02
Speaker
Tour of Souls 2, though, is great. um It is very much yeah ah an old school Resident Evil game the ah ah in style and in play.
00:55:15
Speaker
um It carries over the thing that the first game had, which is basically the darkness like standing in the darkness will get you killed. So you always have to have like your your light out in this game. It's she has a lighter um that she's basically just like keeping on to to walk through shadowy areas. um There's there's like two phases to the game where it's like You're exploring areas that are in the dark.
00:55:42
Speaker
And then once you've turned the lights on, there is usually some going to be some combat once the lights are on. um Sometimes you're in the dark and things are attacking you. And the only thing you can do is run towards the light ah to to as turn around and pop them.
00:56:00
Speaker
Yeah. um It's it work does a lot of the puzzle box Resident Evil style formula. So you start in one one like a mansion type place. So the convent and you solve all the stuff and you're you're finding the keys and you're doing the things and you're unlocking the doors and then eventually There's a boss fight. And then after the boss fight, you can get out of the convent and you're in the town and you're doing the stuff. And then you're in in this place called a you're in a mall and you're you're same thing. Puzzle box. You're finding keys, turning power on.
00:56:35
Speaker
And then eventually, um oh i see a kitty behind you. oh ah Yep, Jonesy. Back in from hunting. This guy is murdering the shit out of ah the shrews in our vicinity.
00:56:51
Speaker
Yeah, maybe youre maybe put a bell on him. um he He's nuts. i'm just i'm I'm just happy he's happy. That's all that matters. Yeah, and that's the i it it wasn't until recently that the reason you put a bell on a cat is so that they don't kill ah so many things.
00:57:11
Speaker
Right. We have warned him several times that there are apparently coyotes in this area, but he don't give a shit. He don't give a shit.
00:57:22
Speaker
To quote Mark Maron, that's a noble way to go out.
00:57:31
Speaker
Yeah, Tormented Souls 2. I'm maybe a fifth of the way through the game, I think. ah But loving it so far. ah Really good Resident Evil-like game.
00:57:42
Speaker
And that will bring us to the end of the episode. So ah if you haven't, go ahead, please follow us on ah and Blue Sky, on Instagram, on Patreon, patreon.com slash pixelippod.
00:58:02
Speaker
Great place to go. Jump into our Discord. Wonderful Discord to be in. A lot of lovely people. ah The Marshies are are a welcoming bunch. They sure are. They sure are.
00:58:13
Speaker
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00:58:29
Speaker
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00:58:43
Speaker
It's something. It's a word. It's probably in English. Probably. Probably. I'm not going to say it absolutely is, but there's a good chance. yeah Anyway, good night.
00:58:56
Speaker
Good night.
00:59:04
Speaker
who