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Life is Strange
189 Plays1 month ago
Two middle aged guys talk about a teen melodrama adventure game.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
Talk with us on Discord!
https://discord.gg/ve9fqjgPp2
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Transcript
Introduction and Social Handles
00:00:30
Speaker
hello It's Quest Quest. The ASMR podcast.
00:00:38
Speaker
Fingernails tapping on something.
00:00:44
Speaker
throat noise. Mukbang. Is that how you say that? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Yeah. I'm Ben, PS underscore Garrick on Twitch and YouTube.
00:01:01
Speaker
And I am Jess. That's Decaf Jedi on both of the aforementioned platforms.
The Jedi Name and Online Personas
00:01:07
Speaker
Jess, have you ever thought about changing it to Decaf Jestei?
00:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, I do think about this sometimes. You know how like when you're lying in bed at night trying to fall asleep and you're thinking about like the future fame and fortune that's coming your way when you finally get your big break?
00:01:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So a lot of times I think about that, and I think, like, when I hit it big, like when, you know, some big-time Twitch producer just wanders into my stream, and they're like, we're strapping a rocket to this guy. He's going straight to the front page. Partner. You're going to Hollywood, kid. That's right. That's right. He sees something in me that nobody else has up to this point.
00:01:47
Speaker
And then think to myself, it's like, okay, now I've got, like, to register LLC. Yeah. And will go to my lawyer and I'm to say, I'm like, I'm ready to incorporate. Let's do this thing. This business has taken off. And he's going say, it's like, uh, Jedi is a trademarked term.
00:02:03
Speaker
What are you going to do with that? And I'm not sure, like, what do I become if someday I hit it so big that the fact that I'm using, you know, Lucasfilm Disney property as part of my name, uh, what happens? Who do I become? Who am i at that point?
00:02:21
Speaker
Wow. That's a, you know, these are really interesting questions. I mean, you share the same problem. I mean, I don't know if like Paramount knows that it owns the name Garrick. Yeah. I feel like that's true, but I, I feel that like PS underscore Garrick, like if, if that was taken away from me, I don't think like your brand is, is way more inextricably linked.
00:02:48
Speaker
With Decaf Jedi. You've been Decaf Jedi for a very long time. PS underscore Garrick. I think I started doing that like 10 years ago. I think I've got like 30 on Decaf Jedi now. ah So it's it's going. mean, used to be Decaffeinated Jedi, but you can't log into Xbox Live with that.
00:03:06
Speaker
That's right. I do remember on the on the sub subspace channel. the channel That's right. Yes. Yeah. ah that was That was what you were on there. Decaffeinated Jedi.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah.
Parenting Stories and School Lunches
00:03:20
Speaker
Wow. Wow. Wow. Jess, what did you have for dinner? Oh, man. Ben, had... i had
00:03:29
Speaker
a McDouble from McDonald's. You don't have to say from McDonald's. It would be funny if you said I had a McDouble from Wendy's. yeah Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, ah my, ah my daughter and like came home from school starving. She, she won't eat school lunch.
00:03:49
Speaker
And like, I'm trying to teach her to expand her dining horizons by not just packing her lunch and making it easy. Plus I'm lazy. So I'm like, you try eating what's at school. So I think every day she just gathers together as many apples as her friends will give her and just eats a pile of apples for lunch. But you know, that's like what horses do.
00:04:10
Speaker
yeah And that's no way for a human to live. Well, you're, you're, you're married to a veterinarian. So this will save on medical bills. That's true. I mean, it's keeping like four to six doctors away per day right now at the rate she's going.
00:04:25
Speaker
But that means she comes home starved every day. and She got off the bus today. She's like, Dad, I have to eat. And I said, would you like McDonald's? So we went to McDonald's, home of the McDouble, their most famous sandwich.
00:04:36
Speaker
And I had one of those and it was fine. What'd you have? I bet you had something better than, yeah yeah first off before i get to my dinner i do want to note talking about the apples it just makes me laugh because uh i just went to a concert uh the other night uh fiona apple no the beatles from apple records yes it was the beatles i saw the beatles um yeah john paul ringo and the rest wow
00:05:07
Speaker
All the Beatles. um But no, i so I saw this band and it was this band ah ah called The Witch from yeah Zambia.
Concert Experiences and Musical Memories
00:05:18
Speaker
here and they were incredible they were really really good and the front man of the band he sings all the songs is it i believe he's 73 74 years old he's an old man he danced and sang every song he was so energetic and just like really like really into it but What I loved was every time there was like a long solo and because he wasn't playing an instrument, he was just singing the songs and dancing. um Every time there was a long solo, he would reach into his pocket and pull out a snack and they would eat snack on stage.
00:05:59
Speaker
Sometimes he would sit in the corner. This is, it was all fruit. Your daughter would love it. Yeah. It was clean. eat clean he He started out with grapes and Which he also was giving out to people in the audience because it was like he had a whole like big thing of grapes. So he was like, do you want some grapes?
00:06:19
Speaker
Dan, would you ever take a secondhand grape? I would take a grape from ah ah Jagari for sure. Um... I don't know if there's anyone on this planet. This kind old man singing these lovely songs and then telling grandpa jokes in between the songs. Are these loose grapes?
00:06:39
Speaker
Oh, no, they weren't loose grapes. They were grapes from the... that If they were loose grapes, then I would have a second thought, but no. But they're still on the, like, stems. They grapes on the stem. okay they were grapes on the stem they were not he wasn't reaching into his pocket that's what i'm imagining loose grapes and this is the fans like give me that there'll be a loose grape uh um but then all right so he had uh grapes on the stem he he actually ate them like a a cartoon uh cat heating up yeah like heating the bones of the grapes come out yeah now i got you we should start calling stems grape bones um oh man
00:07:19
Speaker
Then he also ate a banana, which he commented yeah he thought that the bananas that he would get in America where were generally a little sweeter. the cavendish yeah the cavendish i don't know was it what type of bit banana you're getting in zambia i don't know um and then uh uh then he had an orange which he very dramatically ate during one one song like he was i just in't peel and all that's the most dramatic way he didn't eat it like um what's his name at the start of iron chef like biting right into that pepper up the chairman
00:07:56
Speaker
yeah yeah ah I remember, is's this is like a story off a story of a story. I remember seeing Iron Chef for the first time, like the Japanese Iron Chef when it was first brought to the United States.
00:08:10
Speaker
Like my my sister told me, was like, Ben, there's this crazy show. You got to watch it. They play it on the Food Network. ah And watching it, and then like that second where the chairman walks up and takes that big dramatic bite out of that pepper, I was just like,
00:08:26
Speaker
You know, they've they've they've figured something out over there. You know, the Wii version of Iron Chef is absolutely one of the games I've streamed. um I wouldn't say it's one of the best.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah. Wouldn't say it's even the best Wii game I've ever streamed. But, you know, put time it. How does it compare to the B-movie game? You know, the B-movie game... yeah it could be worse. It's better than has a right to be for a bad movie time, but then we're getting way far afield. yeah Tell me more about these fruits.
00:08:55
Speaker
The, the, the orange, he wasn't. So he, he, he He peeled off sections of it. He didn't completely remove the peel. But then what he did was he didn't like section out the orange.
00:09:08
Speaker
Like he just kind of like put his whole face in and just like, like swallowed, like chunked out. And then like just was pulling the peel away. Like just was like eating it.
00:09:20
Speaker
Like it was like, uh, like oysters. Wow. Wow. Which is a pretty dramatic way to eat orange. That is. And again, there is music happening around him and a crowd watching him do this. Oh, yeah. And a crowd that loves it.
00:09:34
Speaker
Just wrapped. And then at the very end, and they're like they're done with their encore at this point. At the very end, he's just wrapping up. Like that that final song reaches into his pocket, pulls out an apple.
00:09:50
Speaker
There you Just starts eating the apple. Does he do that in a sort dramatic way? No, he was just, you know, this is the apple. He was just like, it's time to have an apple. Ben, you are someone who occasionally treads the boards. You're you're you're on stage from time to time.
00:10:07
Speaker
um What would be your onstage snack if you had to in the middle of a performance, maybe while still in character, have to be, it's like blood sugar's low. I need a bite to eat here. what What are you pulling out your pocket? Loose grapes?
00:10:21
Speaker
yeah loose grapes not only would they be loose grapes but they'd be loose grapes and that like kind of fall under the stage yeah like i and it's important to note after being in your pocket these are body temperature they're not even body temperature loose grapes that are also like a little bruised, maybe a little, a little crunched up. And then like, I pull them out. Like, like sometimes people have like loose change and it's like the crumpled up dollar and a couple and like the dollar rolls out of the hand or something like that.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah. Loose scrapes. um He was also drinking ah like a cup of tea the whole time too. Wait. So like hot tea, like of a fancy cup.
00:11:04
Speaker
it was out of ah It was out of just a like a disposable paper cup. You could tell it was tea because like the the little teabag label was still dangling out.
00:11:16
Speaker
So he didn't even he wasn't even worried about oversteeping it. He was just like, i'm going to have this whole fucking thing of tea. I'm going assume if he's singing, and he went hard, I'm going to assume we're we're probably talking mint or lemon.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah. but may Like he's probably not going to go for a caffeinated one because that's going to tear up your fucking probably not going to be good for your throat. If you're just like belting out, ah you know, some incredible tunes.
00:11:43
Speaker
That's why I'm a decaffeinated Jedi. Yeah. ah But anyway, for dinner. Anyway, yeah that back to the topic of this podcast. They just put out a new
Culinary Conversations and Local Eateries
00:11:52
Speaker
album this year. The guy is old and he just put out a new album. Incredible. Anyway.
00:11:57
Speaker
Um, uh, uh, dinner tonight was, uh, some leftovers I made. you know, not very exciting, but you know, one of my favorite kind of boring meals, which is I've loved, I, I've, I make a good meatloaf.
00:12:16
Speaker
I make a good meatloaf. i've I've gotten to a point where I feel very confident in my meatloaf skills, the the the mix of spices that I use. And then ah this recipe, like, had them on a sheet, ah and it was like a one sheet with, I sliced up, like, baby potatoes and Brussels sprouts. So all of those were cooked up in all the meatloaf fat.
00:12:44
Speaker
you know coming out of there and you want to know what spectacular this was uh just about the end here's a question for you what is isn't it so annoying when yeah you have you're having leftovers and you you you make like you put out as much as you know that you can eat and there's just a little bit left You just go ahead eat it. You just eat more than you can eat.
00:13:11
Speaker
That's why you normally do, because I do not like to throw away food. yeah and But that little bit... i the The good thing about meatloaf is that that can go into a sandwich. And so there's enough...
00:13:23
Speaker
for tomorrow that's going between two slices of bread um ben how long do we have to talk about food today oh endless amounts of time okay well let me tell you about something i just discovered well i didn't discover it i've discovered it like 17 years ago but finally tried it last week and grapple scrapple no it's not scrapple snapple have you heard about this delightful beverage No, but I have heard of Fruitopia.
00:13:53
Speaker
Oh. Hey, Paul, Fruitopia. Yeah, yeah, Fruitopia. I don't know why my Paul always sounds like a Beavis. um But, so Ben, at my shopping mall in the food court, right there is a local restaurant called The Big Loafer.
00:14:13
Speaker
Now, Ben, I want you right now to type into Google Big Loafer, West Virginia, and see if you can get a photo of what the exterior of this restaurant looks like. It looks like it is. I will say that it just immediately, like, the Google suggested, it was, like, the Big Loafer restaurant, Barbersville, West Virginia. is. Yeah, so looking this. Let's take look here.
00:14:36
Speaker
What year does it feel like this restaurant, like, flew into the world from? Well, you look at that wood paneling. Yeah. And you look at, and then also, so I could see that, like, the the, because I'm looking at the first photo that Google served up to me, which is, ah like, an exterior. We're in a mall ah that looks very, you know, kind of your 90s mall tile.
00:15:10
Speaker
ah and The menus, which i like, this is at a distance, so I don't see them. But the menus are clearly those like kind of like a finger or a letter tiles kind of slid in that also have like the tiles that they could change the, the price.
00:15:32
Speaker
You have the kind of yellowed. Yeah. Yeah. You have the like kind of yellowed kind of unappealing photography. Yes. Of the food. And, and I would love to know what that font is. If you could send us an email, as podcast at gmail.com of like that.
00:15:50
Speaker
ah Like, that stand menu font. I would be really interested in knowing what font that is. Anyway. Well, let me tell you, I've been walking by the big loafer for 17 years.
00:16:04
Speaker
Okay. I, because my guess was that like, it looks like something that was like opened early nineties, mid eighties.
00:16:14
Speaker
See, that reads like early 80s to me with all the wood grain. But well see, that's see, that's before i was alive. So it was here when I got here. Let's see what year was that mall built. I mean, that's i bet this is an original.
00:16:27
Speaker
If I had to take the take the real guess. Let's see that we get to the bottom of this. This is important for the podcast. Barbersville Mall, 1981. I'm going to say, that is.
00:16:38
Speaker
ah Yeah, that's a 1980. I love this. I love this. I'm on the Big Loafer website. Yo. And, and this is, there's a couple of little, little things here says our decades long history And it says Big Loafer. And I want to be clear here.
00:16:54
Speaker
It's Big Loafer. It's not the big. Oh, wait. It says the Big Loafer. And then it like at the top of the page. And it's the big loafer.com. And then it only refers to itself later on as Big Loafer. So there's a little.
00:17:07
Speaker
They all know. Inconsistency here. They don't have that. Anyway, Big Loafer was one of the first restaurants to open in the Huntington Mall in the 80s. And the same local family has owned it for all 40 plus years.
00:17:19
Speaker
Oh, man. That's amazing. But let me tell Ben. ah Hold on. Do we ship? We would love to ship, but it seems cost prohibitive. What I like about that is that doesn't even, like, like have some and fucking courage of your convictions here.
00:17:36
Speaker
and We would love to ship, But it is cost ah cost prohibitive. Or we would love to ship, but we're a small family run operation. And ah that is beyond our capacity. Or just don't mention it.
00:17:51
Speaker
Nobody's asking if you ship. I mean, how popular, like, all right, so I'm going to read our amazingly good food. This is i mean one is amazingly good. Let me tell you, this was out as well. I mean, what they have is basically made from scratch sandwich as it describes it here. But the bread is like a yeasty biscuit dough that has been formed into a pocket shaped almost like a pita pocket, kind of.
00:18:18
Speaker
But it's made out of biscuit dough. And then you get your sandwich down in this little pocket. And what I had was their meatloaf sandwich, their signature big loafer. i so So that's the big loafer and not ah what they call, ah including the West Virginia crown jewel pepperoni roll.
00:18:40
Speaker
That's right. Well, the pepperoni roll is the official food of West Virginia. I think you've said this to me and it's fallen out of my head a couple of times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's like our official state food. They serve it once a week in all the schools.
00:18:52
Speaker
Uh, uh, gas station just has fresh pepperoni rolls out. Uh, it's a, uh, it's a state tradition that began in the coal mines where, This is so wild to me looking at, at the prices on the menu. It does say that they're subject to change, but, uh,
00:19:07
Speaker
That looks about right. A little different from ah big city Chicago. you can't get a meatloaf sandwich for $6.07.
00:19:16
Speaker
I don't think I could get anything that would fill me up for $6. I got to you, Ben, this was one of the best meatloaf sandwiches I've ever had. It was out of this world. i just had meatloaf and ketchup in one of those delicious little little pockets of biscuit dough.
00:19:33
Speaker
Fabulous. Absolutely fat does this is this the only Is this the only location? far as I don know, yes. That's so funny. Yeah. so like Because it looks like You know, you just don't think of, you know, yeah you you don't think of like a mall spot to have, you know, like to to to be an independent restaurant.
00:20:01
Speaker
Right. I mean, that's that's how hard they're hustling at the Big Loafer. Don't take their name to imply that they're lazy. ah They're anything but... Well, the art of like a Tom Sawyer type...
00:20:13
Speaker
Yeah. Like leaning against a tree, napping on the side of a river. Yes. Yes. That's very much a good description. is like I got to tell you, Ben, first of all, we got to get you to West Virginia.
00:20:26
Speaker
And then we got to get you the big loafer. Listen, i you know, i
00:20:36
Speaker
Uh, hold on. I'm looking at their, their photo gallery. There's like a bunch of photos of like the food and people working there and people smiling. and then there's one that's just a screenshot of a Facebook comment from 2010 that says, I love the, big I love the big loafer more than I like most people.
00:20:58
Speaker
saying here's a this is i will definitely i will definitely say this is the kind of i mean i'll i'll i'll fuck this up like will like i'll definitely have a lot of like the the the problem with this and this is the problem i've realized is i've gotten uh, older is that this is something I'll eat, but it will ruin my day.
00:21:28
Speaker
Oh yeah. Well, you're going want to do is you're going to have that and you're going to walk walkp directly across the food court to the great American cookie. Um, and that will even out any sort of problems that like the greasy meatloaf may have caused.
00:21:41
Speaker
Oh, Jess, I've got, I've got a similar one of those and we do have to get to something eventually, but like, There's this place in Chicago. One of ah the great Chicago barbecues is this place called Lems.
00:21:56
Speaker
It's in on the South side. ah it is Chicago south side barbecue uses an aquarium smoker, which is like this large... uh like uh room uh like we're like it's it's pretty big and that's where they they'll smoke all the meat uh and so you get barbecue from this place it's a stand uh you get like this big styrofoam full of like uh chicago barbecue is uh links and portends mm-hmm
00:22:29
Speaker
And then, of course, you get, like, the big thing of Wonder Bread, as is true any. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You get that. You eat it on the hood of your car because that's what you do. but ah But you go there.
00:22:41
Speaker
You get this incredible, like, you know, you you ruin your your your your body with smoked meat. And then you go across the street ah ah to this wonderful bakery.
00:22:58
Speaker
um
00:23:01
Speaker
what oh brown sugar bakery and you get a slice of their caramel cake oh a caramel cake now are we talking about a really good ripple like uh like ah caramel caramel ah frosting one of each ah yeah one of caramel but you got someone and they have some caramel here's the thing I don't even know which one I say anymore I don't either can't tell you it depends on whatever one I've heard most recently I think yeah yeah absolutely
00:23:34
Speaker
yeah Yeah. So that's, that's my Chicago equivalent of that. It's like, here's this meal that will destroy you. yeah But well, like if we went all the way here, we got to go across the street, yeah get dessert.
00:23:50
Speaker
Well, let me tell you this. I will say, contrary to its name, the Big Loafer is not as big of a sandwich as you'd expect. Like, it's not much bigger, probably, than, like, a Whopper in size. I loved your pronunciation of Whopper.
00:24:08
Speaker
Did I say Whopper? You really put the spin on that.
00:24:17
Speaker
We like to have fun here. All right. Well, speaking of fun, what have you been playing? Ben? i had a whole thing about why I've been playing, and I was going to tell you i was playing ah Space Channel 5 because I have been lately, and I'm terrible at rhythm games, and I want to be good at rhythm games. I don't even know Space Channel 5. That's like a Dreamcast. yeah That's the Dreamcast ooh-la-la, like, space girl who goes around like... like that uh like y2k like style right like has like a big bubble like when when when you're gen z kids that are into that aesthetic like that's what i like i i know i don't know anything about that game but i know what that girl looks like and i know what that font is and like that big bubble around and it's just a rhythm game it's like parap of the rapper or anything else but i don't even want to talk about that ben because i've got a better love i've been playing You got a better one. Fuck you. That came up. Space channel.
00:25:18
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. i Get bent. Is that something we say? Sure. Yeah. um Right before we came to record tonight, I played, Ben, Trivia on the High Seas.
00:25:34
Speaker
Trivia on the High Seas? Now, this isn't a game, per se. This is an IRL game. My wife is currently on a cruise to Bermuda.
00:25:47
Speaker
And on this cruise, there was a trivia contest, a name the one hit wonder and the artist trivia contest. Were you a phone a friend for your wife?
00:25:59
Speaker
Ben, she put me on speakerphone under the table and I fed her the answers to every question. Wow. I can't believe you're admitting this on out the air. this This is probably a ah transnational crime since it was done in international waters. Yeah, you're on international waters. Anything table out there.
00:26:18
Speaker
Oh, that's true. Well, here's what I yeah here's what i did, Ben. I fed her the answers, and you know what? I won trivia. I got my wife and her lovely sister some drink vouchers with 30 out of 30. It was unbelievable. It was a perfect performance. what was what What's the song that you were the most proud of that you got?
00:26:41
Speaker
um It was remembering who the artist on Spirit in the Sky was. and And here's my other question. So you're on Speaker.
00:26:52
Speaker
Were you texting her the answers and using Speaker to hear the songs or were you like just talking? I was listening over the speaker to hear the song. That's what I thought. Because it's like if people would hear, and be like, wait, what the fuck? What the fuck?
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, there's somebody else helping those people. Yeah, so I cheated my wife on my wife. but I didn't cheat. I answered them honestly. I didn't use Google, but i helped her cheat.
00:27:20
Speaker
So that's what I've been playing. I've been playing trivia on the high seas. Ben, what have you been playing? Well, Jess, you know, this is Same thing. Yeah.
Gaming on Steam Deck and Compatibility
00:27:30
Speaker
i was i was helping at another table and I wasn't as good at it. is this is... i kind of wish that... i I have not really played this. I'm just proud that I got it to work.
00:27:47
Speaker
Oh. I'm going to count that. like this already. Which was that for some reason... I think I heard someone talk about it on the podcast or something, but for some reason i just had in my head, you know what?
00:28:04
Speaker
I want to try try out Batman Arkham Asylum. Okay. been in Steam forever. I know it's a game that is very highly regarded. Like this beloved, is it? Like 2008 around Yeah.
00:28:19
Speaker
It's like I've had it on Steam forever. I had it on my PlayStation, I didn't play very much. Yeah. Like, it's it's just a game that's always been on the periphery. You could not have surprised me more with a pick. Let me just interrupt you to say that. Continue.
00:28:34
Speaker
And so I was like, there was just part that's like, I bet that would be a lot of fun to play on the Steam Deck. Yeah. that Yeah. And so... But of course, then I look on my Steam Deck and then it says, not compatible with the Steam Deck.
00:28:51
Speaker
And I'm like, come on, come on, it's gotta work. Yeah. And so I had to like go online and follow. and And I don't want to make this sound too impressive.
00:29:02
Speaker
It was like two steps and they weren't very hard. It was like, go to this website and download this specific version of Proton, which is like the wrapper. Yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
Through which they they fool Windows games into playing on Linux. So I did that. And I was like, this probably won't work, even though everyone says it will, because I'll probably fuck something up.
00:29:26
Speaker
Because, you know, this stuff's always annoying. And then I got it to work. And i I played, like, the intro where they're fucking into Arkham Asylum, and that Joker.
00:29:39
Speaker
Oh, man. like he's he's He's laughing, and he's making fun everybody. seems pretty confident for someone about to go into a maximum security prison.
00:29:50
Speaker
You know, the thing about him, i mean, he's such a rich fictional character that's been developed going all the way back to like the 1940s. And, you know, the more you think about it, he is just a clown who thinks crime is fucking hilarious. He can't get enough of it.
00:30:10
Speaker
He just thinks crime is so funny. But also, I mean, it like this is... It's not the last one. Doesn't Mark Hamill do the Joker in one more of the Arkham games and then he's done?
00:30:25
Speaker
He does a few more, I believe. I believe he's there all the way up until like Arkham Knight, isn't he? But yeah, I don't know. i There was just, and it's just funny because I'm not a comic book guy. I don't care for Batman.
00:30:38
Speaker
don't care for any of this. It was just, there was just part of me. was just like, you know what? You should check out. Batman Arkham Asylum.
00:30:49
Speaker
It's a solid game. i mean it's It's a game that is like you have it and it is considered a classic. And I was just like, all right, I'll give it a try. And so I got it to work on my Steam Deck and and now I'm on this podcast.
00:31:04
Speaker
so Well, if you enjoy it, let me say, i think the general consensus among players is that the sequel Arkham City is the the stronger game.
00:31:17
Speaker
But I think that's a matter of taste in the sense that Arkham Asylum is a very closed, like fully realized setting, whereas Arkham City opens up into an open world, which is kind of cool, but also, like most open world games, you sacrifice some of that like really minute detail that ah that a limited area to explore can give you. so It's, both are pretty good. played all those games, of course, look at me. I mean, ah that's my kind of jam, but doesn't seem like be perfect for Steam Deck, not lots of teeny tiny texts to worry about or anything weird like that.
00:31:52
Speaker
hi you know, and I think what, A thing that got me to bounce off it at the time was I was like, I'm not really interested in wandering around Arkham's side. Yeah.
00:32:03
Speaker
But but now I'm kind of Easter eggs, Ben. All the Easter eggs. None of that shit is. hey I don't care about all the Riddler's little treats or whatever. Calendar man. Mr. Zazaz.
00:32:16
Speaker
think that's how you say his name. This might just be that I play it for a half hour and put it down. Yeah. But, uh, but I think there's just something in me right now that is looking for like that, that kind of tight world.
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know why. And, uh,
00:32:38
Speaker
uh, are you referencing that I'm playing what? Thimbleweed Park? No, no, it was more just that like our actual world that seems a little looser than I'd like right now.
00:32:50
Speaker
But actually it feels like I'm stuck inside Arkham Asylum right now. Oh, yeah, they locked you up with all the all the lunatics. Yeah. Anyway. That Joker, man. He'll just do anything for a laugh. Yeah, he'll, you know.
00:33:05
Speaker
But anyway, yeah, so I might bounce off. if I might be like, yeah, I don't really give a shit about any these characters. What am I doing here? But I don't know. It was just like I was just going through my Steam library, and it's just been sitting there for years and years and years. i don't even know where I got it from. It must have been some... Like, I didn't buy... Like, it was, I think...
00:33:24
Speaker
like a humble bundle or something. Yeah. Well, mean, anyone who listens to the podcast knows by this point, you're a huge achievement hunter too. So like having that there with all those unclean, the steam cards, like you're constantly trading those on the steam marketplace and turn a penny here, couple cents there.
00:33:41
Speaker
I mean, you can't something like that just sit in your library forever untouched. Yeah. Well, well, Jess, I'm hella, uh, interested in talking about today's game here today we're discussing life is strange yes and and specifically ah at least as far as my experience we're talking about like the the very first life is strange the jess i know you've played a bunch of
00:34:14
Speaker
At least bit the, the ah like, kind of the the story, the prequel and sequel stories around, like, this first story.
Exploring Life is Strange
00:34:22
Speaker
did you Have you played, like, Life is Strange 2 or True Colors or any of these? I haven't played either of those. I've played the prequel to Life is Strange before the storm and then Double Exposure, which continues ah Max, the protagonist, continues her story.
00:34:37
Speaker
But I haven't dipped into Life is Strange 2 or True Colors yet. soon because i like this game spoiler alert i like life is strange yeah so ah life is strange came out in uh 2015 was uh developed by uh don't nod is uh published by square it was was like where is that a a french company or uh like don't nod are they like i believe they are i believe they're french yeah
00:35:10
Speaker
um so so therefore this is uh we're checking this off our our foreign games list that's right yeah and absolutely captures that spirit of uh of french game design uh i mean i'm i'm looking i mean i don't know like uh the ah the The guy who, like, the first guy listed as a a writer for it is an American. So, you know, I don't know. I was reading about this earlier. Apparently, the original script was written in French, presumably by ah by someone from France, and then apparently punched up during its translation and and localized quite a bit.
00:35:55
Speaker
ah So, yeah, I think there are a lot of hands on this one along the way. ah But yeah, so Jess, what is but the general plot of Life is Strange? Keeping in mind, obviously, that it's a it's a game with a lot of twists and turns.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. It is the story of a young woman named Maxine Caulfield or Max. ah She's returned to her hometown after a few years away, her hometown in the Pacific Northwest, Arcadia Bay.
00:36:32
Speaker
And she's returning there to attend a ah private academy, Blackwell Academy. um Once she's there, ah she begins having some visions of some sort of mysterious, catastrophic storm that that threatens threatens Arcadia Bay.
00:36:52
Speaker
And before long has an interesting encounter. ah She is in a restroom at her school where she witnesses a woman being shot. ah and following this traumatic event, Max, our protagonist, realizes she has the ability to rewind time. And that supernatural element is going to be ah one of the key gameplay mechanics throughout this one. She's going to rewind time, undo what's been done,
00:37:19
Speaker
um she's going to be able to sort of reshape how events unfold. Also, it turns out when she saves this woman ah from being shot, when she rewinds time and saves this woman's life, she discovered this woman is her childhood BFF, ah Chloe Price.
00:37:36
Speaker
And she's, They fell out of touch when Max had left Arcadia Bay, and they very quickly ah rekindle a friendship as Max begins to learn how to use her powers and unravel the mystery of another young woman from this town named Rachel Amber, who had gone missing in the past. They start working together to use Max's powers to figure out what happened to Rachel Amber.
00:38:03
Speaker
That's my quick version of this. Yeah. So, i yeah, no, and i think I think it's a good one. it is the the the the style of the game, if you're unfamiliar, is that it is episodic.
00:38:19
Speaker
3d third person uh control of max and it is ah yeah it's a a walking denim up uh yeah it's very much of the telltale style it's not a telltale game but it is that sort of very narrative focused uh sort of game i mean there are limited puzzles yeah there's puzzles but they're all pretty yeah like light That's right. And the mechanic of rewinding time plays in there as well.
00:38:54
Speaker
But yeah, for the most part, this is going to be a game that you're going to be able to push through without a lot of hints and, and really focus in on the story. Cause I think that's probably what most people really responded to in this one.
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah. It, uh, it, it was a, like,
00:39:12
Speaker
and And you could kind of also see as an episodic game, it was six episodes, right? Nope, five. Five. Five seems to be the the magic number that they all landed on. That's sweet spot.
00:39:27
Speaker
Because that's what Telltale ended up doing, too, is they started at six and went to five. um But you can kind of see them respond to like player feedback.
00:39:41
Speaker
as they're, they're working on it. Like there's some kind of ah like annoying puzzles and kind of the earlier episodes that yeah like by the later ones, they, they, they kind of let go.
00:39:53
Speaker
Also at the same time, like there's some, uh, uh, like there's, uh, and you know, this is what I was alluding to at the start.
00:40:05
Speaker
There's i some writing ah that betrays that it's written by ah ah to middle-aged men writing for two ah teenage women.
00:40:23
Speaker
who are supposed to be relatively cool and hip at some level. And yeah, when you have, I mean, you joked earlier, you know, Chloe, ah you know, uses the word Hela, you know, a few times in the early episodes.
00:40:35
Speaker
And it is one nice thing about this being episodic because I think they were able to see that the community was having a lot of fun with that. yeah And almost start dropping it like an end joke by the later episodes. Even the settings menu, like if you crank it up to to like maximum graphic fidelity, I think the setting is like hella good instead of just good graphics. So they even start having some fun with that sort of stuff. But the tone of this one, i mean, I think the way I thought of it when it came out, and I didn't play it until years after it came out.
00:41:08
Speaker
But to me, it felt like it was pitching almost like a CW teenage drama yeah sort of show. Yes. Between just like almost melodrama. Yes. Between, you know, this sort of.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. And even the supernatural element feels like it would be right at home on the CW network. Yeah. Home of the show. Supernatural. Oh, okay. No, what I mean, I think that's on C. I don't know that for sure. i thought that's where you were going. That's where I was, but I was making a joke out of it.
00:41:38
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean, it it feels like... a like exactly as you said it feels like a supernatural teen drama uh television show made into ah a a telltale uh branching choice this person will remember this there's timers on the dialogue choices ah you know, like ah ah there are, you know, branches where like an irrevocable change may occur that changes the direction of how one character ah will be for the rest of the the episodes.
00:42:25
Speaker
And also probably at the same time, and I've only played it once, but probably at the same time, if you played a second time, that magic trick kind of, falters a bit but I actually can't confirm that because I haven't played it twice.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah, no, I haven't either. i've I've got one playthrough on this one. But I suspect you're I think a lot of the big changes happen at the fringes of the story. And probably the core of this story of Max and Chloe stays the same. You know, I think what's funny to me like, what fascinates me most about Life is Strange is I feel like it shouldn't be a game that resonates with me.
00:43:05
Speaker
i feel like I'm absolutely not the target audience for this. I mean, I'm an adventure gamer, but I'm also, i mean, listeners may not realize this. I'm pretty old. I'm in my late 60s.
00:43:18
Speaker
Didn't I just see you ah perform a show? took a snack in between, like when there was a long guitar solo? I got out my loose grapes and just went to town on them. You're 60.
00:43:33
Speaker
No, but I mean, I am not, you know, I feel like this is, i don't know. i don't know if it's like your age group. You're a few years younger than me. Probably a little bit younger than that, right? I feel like this is the Tumblr generation that this game is really,
00:43:47
Speaker
made for and yet I found myself really invested in the story of Max and Chloe and I mean people who watched me stream this uh you know can can confirm I teared up a few times through the course of this game I mean this is a game that was able to make me cry which isn't hard I cry a lot uh you know king's quest four i when you went to a big loafer earlier i did i was like this is because you saw the big loafer and it reminded you it was like uh preuss madeline yeah and also i was just like i wish ben was here to enjoy this with me it makes such a great ered introductory segment on quest quest the adventure game podcast if only you were here okay we'll do our first live show at the from the big loafer yeah yeah
00:44:36
Speaker
And then we'll, oh man yeah, yeah. Well, we'll, we'll get big loafers for everyone. Cause guess what could probably afford ah bunch of big loafers. If those prices are like, what is it? Was it $6 and seven cents, a common price for food.
00:44:55
Speaker
You know
Adventure Games and Storytelling
00:44:56
Speaker
what i bet? I don't know this for sure, but I'll almost bet you that price exists so that with tax, it like rounds out to something even. I'm going to say that is, yeah, that's a backwards move. But that we should probably leave the, we should rewind time and not go back into the big loafer there.
00:45:14
Speaker
but Butterfly effect. Oh no. So, You know, I've been thinking, I think there's one big thing that Life is Strange brought to...
00:45:27
Speaker
uh, this, this, uh, style of adventure game, the puzzle light story first, where like the big, where you're spending your brain power is on like emotional choices. and Yeah. Like puzzles, which is true of walking dead and all that like era of telltale.
00:45:49
Speaker
Um, but what I think that, uh, life is strange brought to it. Um, beyond being an original story, which I don't know. ah do you know if anyone...
00:46:06
Speaker
i i i hey Is there any other games in this Telltale style i that are original...
00:46:21
Speaker
games like original like you know i hate to use the word like original stories like not licensed um that came out before life is strange or is this the first one that's a good question i mean since then we've seen sort of a boom in them from studios like don't nod and deck nine and uh and others but before this i'm not so sure and certainly not one that had this kind of money, this kind of marketing. Yeah. This, this definitely had, i mean, and like it's a square game. Like it's, you know, like it's gorgeous and it sounds great. Yeah. So, so what I was going to say is what it brings to the table that, i like that really struck me when I played it is how, uh, like how aware of,
00:47:11
Speaker
the camera it is in composing like a scene. Like, so when there's like a long dialogue scene, ah your like point of view camera shots will like move and it will use lighting and it will use like angles and point of view to to create a,
00:47:35
Speaker
mise-en-scene um that is very like filmic yes and like uh that that keeps you as a player and as a viewer uh engaged in it even during like long talky scenes where because that's what most of the game tends to be is long talky scenes yeah and it really does it beautifully it it just uh i mean it feels cinematic and a lot of what in a way that a lot of games aspire to and from what we understand i mean you and both enjoy a lot of telltale's output but apparently that was a game engine that
00:48:15
Speaker
doing anything two you know outside of the box was a was a real challenge to program in there i think that they they aspired to be as cinematic as possible and struggled and this uh this game uh life is strange which i think has its own engine i think it's a proprietary engine i may not be right about that um it's uh unreal okay it's unreal so they created unreal to make this game that's unbelievable yeah they created the unreal engine Wow.
00:48:43
Speaker
i This is more of a landmark. Haven't you heard of Tim Sweeney?
00:48:50
Speaker
But no, this is, um so I was wrong about that. ah But what I thought, I think when I first played this, and maybe this is a silly thing to to say, was it's maybe the first, and quite honestly, one of the few,
00:49:07
Speaker
adventure games i've played that i would like think of is like this is what a triple a adventure game feels like you know yeah yeah i mean i don't know i mean certainly for their time you know sierra and lucas arts were pushing the the boundaries of you know what the what the field was you know during the ladies and 90s phantasmagoria would definitely be like a triple a Yeah, absolutely. Like King's Quest, all of the King's Quests yeah were triple A's. That's right.
00:49:37
Speaker
But I mean, in terms of modern games, it's like, to me, in a way that Telltale always just, you know, a lot of their games felt like they were just still slightly janky enough and and everything.
00:49:49
Speaker
This one adds a level of polish that I think really sets it apart. And to varying degrees, the sequels and prequels do as well. Yeah, and and that's like, yeah, i what what really struck me when, so I bought Life is Strange about a year after it came out.
00:50:11
Speaker
I think I got it during like a like a Steam like winter sale. And when I played it, I like i pretty much completed it in the space of a weekend.
00:50:28
Speaker
And honestly, i would have finished it in a day. ah if I hadn't like pulled myself away to like, you know, go visit with my friends. Um, what sucked you in that much? Like what was it that really hooked you there? There's a couple things. One is, is that like, it has this really, uh, great cinematography.
00:50:52
Speaker
As I said, like it it really composes a lot of that. And that was not like something I'd seen before in this type of game. ah Another thing was, it's like, yeah, you fall in love with the characters. Like, Max and Chloe are are are such, like, yeah for for all the the teasing that you can get ah justifiably, that you can toss at the game for, you know, like, oh, these are, you know, teenage you know teenage girls written by old men.
00:51:29
Speaker
uh like they're still well drawn and interesting characters that you fall in love with um yeah i mean even if they're at some level like stock characters i mean maxine is kind of the the good girl and you know chloe definitely reads a little bit somewhere between teenage rebel and manic pixie dream girl i think in this but they're well done enough and well written enough and likable enough. That's easy to sort of look past the, the stock roles they feel because they, they managed to make them a lot more layered and nuanced than just those easy tropes. Well, and, and really good voice performances oh yeah go a long way to, to really solidify.
00:52:11
Speaker
ah Like, you know, if, if there's something, and I mean, and this is true of a lot of adventure games is that I I'm generally like, like my uh mediocre or bad voice acting can really bring down an adventure game for me to the point where like i'll just play it with the text yeah but really great voice acting uh will will take it all the way up like and it can forgive a lot of sins will be too in the process yeah exactly yeah and
00:52:50
Speaker
Max is played by Hannah Tell. And I think probably, ah Chloe's voice. She left Telltale. Yes, they, they got her, uh, the co-founder of Telltale, uh, left to be part of this. Jessica tail.
00:53:02
Speaker
Oh, did she play Chloe? No, ah Chloe is Ashley Birch, who, of course, is, you know, one of the biggest voice actors in the video game biz, not to mention animation and elsewhere as well.
00:53:18
Speaker
ah So it's a it's a top notch set performances and it's it's well rounded out through the whole cast. But those two, I mean, they are, they're charming. They are easy to love as you see them sort of rekindle their friendship with one another after years apart and, uh, and see Max doing everything she can to help, uh, to help Chloe find her lost friend, uh, Rachel Amber.
00:53:42
Speaker
And, uh, the, the, the other, The like, and then the, the final ah piece of it is that it is ah like, and this is what really makes it like the CW thing also is that it has really enjoyable and compelling cliffhangers. And this is also all know something that telltale was very good at too.
00:54:06
Speaker
hey Telltale. loved to throw a really chewy a very very chewy cliffhanger at you and I love this about episodic games like actually i know there are lots of people at the time who just hated this idea of episodic adventure games don't know they saw it as a cash grab but or what their beef with maybe was just having to wait several months at times from one episode to the next but I love an episodic adventure game I just wait. yeah
00:54:36
Speaker
I just wait until it's all done. ah You don't even have to complain. All right. like That's me with early access games too. Like Hades, I think Hades 2 is out next week.
00:54:47
Speaker
yeah That might be with ah my next one I'm playing or we're in a couple anyway. like That's been on early access for what? Like a year and a half or something? yeah I loved Hades.
00:54:59
Speaker
I was like, I'm not... I'm going to leave that shit in the oven. I don't need to play... Hades while they're figuring out Hades. I want Hades when it's done. Yeah. So yeah, I really like that this episodic structure allows it to to unfold a little more slowly. It's a slow burn sort of story. It's not in a hurry to get to the big climax necessarily. As you said, each episode ends with its own little cliffhanger, but it's a...
00:55:27
Speaker
game that likes to sort of dwell in the moments and the small moments and really let those emotional bits like just play out. And it's it's really helped by the fact, I mean, it has some really tremendous dreamy style lighting throughout the game. Yes. And and lo-fi music ah that I really love. It's one of the few games. don't listen to a lot game music, ah but I'll oftentimes put on like Spotify playlists of music from the Life is Strange series and just enjoy some nice little lo-fi ah bits of music.
00:56:02
Speaker
um I think that really helps serve this sort of slow pace. you're You're working your way through the game that eventually ramps itself up into some serious drama. ah Yeah, and I yeah i don't know. it is It's just a ah really...
00:56:22
Speaker
i I think it's a total package, and it's not one without flaws. as i say like Some of those puzzles are ah kind of empty, and kind of like, all it's like all right, get get to the point.
00:56:34
Speaker
And some of the dialogue... like the dialogue It doesn't necessarily work great. There's a couple, i there's a like a couple um ah like plot twists where I'm like, I don't know about that, but Yeah, no absolutely. I mean, something else I think it does have going for it, though, and this is something we talk a lot about here on Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast, is in terms of the setting, this game has a really well-established sense of place. I feel like that's something that i think that we come back to in a lot of the games that we both end up
00:57:13
Speaker
really enjoying yeah is yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. o gettingdding And Arcadia Bay, which I guess is in Oregon is Pacific Northwest. Yeah.
00:57:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's got very autumnal vibe throughout the game. it is, Very chill. It's like, ah it's like the video game version of jacket weather.
00:57:34
Speaker
I feel like, uh, in like the best way. um but yeah, this, uh, this setting, I mean, you get to know a lot of people around the town and become investigated, ah investigate, become invested in what's going on in, uh, in Arcadia Bay. And eventually the decisions you make, you know, may have a pretty big impact on the city and the people living there. So.
00:57:57
Speaker
Yeah, and it's also, it's like, you know, this is this is part of i you know, Life life is Strange is is also interesting because it's it's part of this this kind of, um you know, it's time for me to make another, like, ah sweeping generalization based off of the time that this was released.
00:58:22
Speaker
This is just like your favorite Czech movie. Yeah. Yeah, this is just like, ah yeah. ah But um there the the game makes explicit reference.
00:58:33
Speaker
i the The game makes explicit reference to and ah the license plates in the the school parking lot, ah Twin Peaks and X-Files, and I think some other stuff. I don't ah don't remember.
00:58:49
Speaker
And then the Pacific Northwest locale. is also like a like a like a little bit of ah a Twin Peaks nod and it's interesting to me because it feels to me that there was this is another thing where I'm like there might be like a thesis here there might be like something that somebody could pull together is that like In the early 2010s, pretty much up until Twin Peaks actually came back. Yeah.
00:59:22
Speaker
Just 2017. i There was a hunger for like the and I think part of this was also that they like there was a big like re-release of Twin Peaks and it was on Netflix.
00:59:38
Speaker
I think it's legend simply grew as time went on as well. You know, i think just on its own. um So for, for a long time, the, I believe the pilot movie and i think the second season were not like legally available.
00:59:56
Speaker
If I recall correctly, you would only get ah just the first season. Um, uh, and, and so that all, they, they got whatever they had, they did whatever they had to do to get all that worked out some point around then.
01:00:12
Speaker
And, um, so like there There was this period where ah like there were a lot of kind of Twin Peaks-inspired things.
01:00:27
Speaker
Yeah, the other big one in video games that leaps out to me it be Alan Wake, right? Alan Wake, also Pacific Northwest, also weird. yeah Like on television, you'd have something like ah Legion.
01:00:41
Speaker
mm-hmm okay yeah uh can't quit talking about comic book properties today you want to know what's interesting about legion is that i put it on because people are like this you know if you like twin people like this it's really weird and was like well i like weird stuff and i like audrey plaza um yeah who doesn't So I'll watch this. And then like I watched the first couple episodes. and I was like, all right, this is kind of interesting. And it has nothing to do with any ah like it's very tenuously connected to Marvel stuff. So i i you know, I'm not holding up my nose too high.
01:01:12
Speaker
Hawkeye doesn't show up halfway through the first episode. Yeah, you're good and then And then I put it down immediately once the new season of Twin Peaks started. i was like, oh, why I getting this pale imitation now that the the master has returned?
01:01:28
Speaker
We were talking about We were talking about this before. we were talking about this before uh, like we were talking about this before the the podcast started, but I've been streaming, uh, Thimbleweed Park that came out in 2017. And that is explicitly making ah reference to, ah Twin Peaks and X-Files in the same way. Like, yeah and you can't, I think you, you have to, to be clear that also X-Files is kind of part of that,
01:02:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. As well. but so do Yeah. it did It overlaps. Yeah. And, uh, but, but yeah, like it's, I think life is strange is just kind of interesting in that it's part of like this, like twenty ten s ah like a bunch of people you know like velvet underground thing like a bunch of people who really got into Twin Peaks and really got obsessive about it ah then all got to make their weird video games yeah so there's Link's Awakening which was made ah contemporaneous to it which has references to Twin Peaks but that's because Twin Peaks was super popular in Japan
01:02:42
Speaker
Yeah. No, it is fascinating. That's a fun thing about it. I believe I'd read that at some point. I mean, i mean we'll just go ahead and say it here. The official position of Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast is that Link's Awakening.
01:02:55
Speaker
Pretty good game. It's pretty good game, Ben.
01:03:01
Speaker
Yeah. i heard I'm not going to disagree with that. and the Zelda games are pretty good. When are you going to get back to that? I need to, I can't decide. Like, I feel like I need to play. You started streaming like various other Zeldas. Yeah.
01:03:16
Speaker
And none of them really, really grabbed you because I remember watching you like, because you did Jess of the wild. And then I would say that's seminal Jess streaming.
01:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's some your best streaming work. if no anyway you If you know in his YouTube, that's like, I think that's really when you started to crack it open as a streamer.
01:03:41
Speaker
and I loved playing Breath of the Wild and I played Tears of the Kingdom. um I think I played, what else did I get in there? I got Link's Awakening. Was that in 2020 when you played Breath of the Wild?
01:03:55
Speaker
It was either 2020 or 2021. It was early. It was a period when we all had a lot more time. That's right. Yeah, I could do things like just like play Breath of the Wild for four hours a day. Yeah, and then like and I would watch you for four hours because I was just like, what the what else of you know what do I have on?
01:04:14
Speaker
That's right. No, absolutely. I mean, i need to get back to that. What Zelda game should play? but Well, all right. but let's What are the ones that you bounced off of? Because you did, um you know, I liked Minish Cap and I got distracted by something. I should probably go back and play Minish Cap.
01:04:30
Speaker
You should do just Link to the Past. Have you played Link to the Past? played Link to the Past. Okay, did you stream it? Yeah. I haven't played Ocarina. Have you done a Link Between Worlds? No. Is that the DS game? It's the 3DS sequel to A Link to the Past, and it's excellent.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, it is that wouldn't be a bad idea. Excellent. um yeah It looks great. It has really, really good music. ah It's extremely playable and fun.
01:05:03
Speaker
I had such a great time playing ah Link Between Worlds. Maybe I should play Link Between Worlds. Yeah, Ocarina. here's a you know Here's my annoying thing about Ocarina that even at the time, I've just kind of never liked how it looks.
01:05:21
Speaker
Yeah. It looks a little like even, ah and and this is like kind of verboten, like because it's such a, like ah a seminal classic. And I feel that like one day I'm going to replay it and go like, okay, I got it.
01:05:35
Speaker
But i like i'll play like I'll play the first couple hours and just be like, I don't like how it controls. I don't like how it looks. I don't like, you know, like it just, it's never, it just never got its claws in me.
01:05:49
Speaker
Oddly enough though, and I've never beaten it, but I've played a ah bit of it. I always was like kind of intrigued by Majora's Mask because I just liked how weird it was. Yeah. Yeah. yeah the The weirdness of Majora's Mask really pulled me in.
01:06:04
Speaker
I never beat it. So there you go. But um Link Between Worlds is just, it's just good, clean fun. Well, that's what I'm looking for, Ben. That's why, you know, speaking of weird games. What about Life is Strange? Yeah, I know. How about Life is Strange? I mean, what's fascinating to me, like,
01:06:21
Speaker
right now about life is strange is that it has recently been announced that there's going to be a television adaptation of life is strange produced by Amazon prime studios, uh, creators of the excellent fallout series. Ben, have you watched the fallout?
01:06:40
Speaker
No, but also I don't like, I do plan on watching it because I like, like I plan on watching fallout at some point because I like Walton, Walton Goggins. Yeah. I mean, honestly, he's he alone is worth it. Yeah. And that's what people say. People say that he's really good. Zach Cherry is really good at If you like any Zach Cherry. I like Zach Cherry.
01:07:00
Speaker
He likes Zach Cherry too? he's a He's a good podcast guest too. Do you think we can get him? Yeah, Zach Cherry, if you're listening, send an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com.
01:07:12
Speaker
You can come on and talk about anything except for Space Quest. Ben doesn't allow that. And ah we've already booked up Police Quest for our friend Grayson. So those are off the table. ah but and And I believe he's a vegetarian. So that will add an interesting of discussion.
01:07:28
Speaker
bit of yeah discussion But yeah, Zach Cherry hit us in the comments, Zach Cherry. and Spotify comments or yeah but our Spotify comments better.
01:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, um probably we'll see the Spotify comments first. I check those daily. Yeah, but I'm i'm just not as much a ah fallout. Like I'm not like a big fallout guy.
01:07:51
Speaker
I just never got into it like, i that's another thing where I tried it and just never it just never clicked for me. um Yeah. right I like that. I'm fascinated by i mean, they got that one right.
01:08:03
Speaker
And I think air everybody was like, oh, my God, you guys, we know how to adapt video games now. And i assume that's going to lead to the worst glut of terrible video game adaptations that's ever existed.
01:08:16
Speaker
It's crazy that there's a question mark of would Life is Strange be a good TV show? Because as we've said, it's like a TV show.
01:08:30
Speaker
Like, it feels like it would, like, nicely fit. Yeah, absolutely. As a TV show. But also, it like it also seems like something they could really fuck up.
01:08:46
Speaker
That's just crazy. Well, right away in the press release for the series, um it they say in the first sentence, ah we've always believed that Life is Strange deserved to be more than just a game.
01:08:59
Speaker
Which right from the start, it's just like, You know how this is currently just a shitty video game for kids? Guess what? We're bringing it to the small screen so it can be a classy work of art finally.
01:09:10
Speaker
But i do think it should work. But they're like, how do you mess that? Like, what are they going to, if they mess this up, where are they going to go wrong? How do you mess up Life is Strange?
01:09:22
Speaker
I'm, you know, this is a stupid idea, but I'm looking at the the top voted comment on Reddit about this.
01:09:34
Speaker
So statistically the best one. Yeah. It's statistically the best one, but it is funny, but it just starts with you. You all thought the last of us community was tosic he toxic.
01:09:46
Speaker
That's a really good point. Yeah. And then it goes on to, to say, and I won't be specific, but life is strange has two potential endings. And like, there's one that,
01:09:59
Speaker
seems like it's the ending and I believe is the ending in ah the, the sequel and one that seems like it's probably not the ending. And, but apparently the, i ah ah the fandom prefers that ending. Yes.
01:10:14
Speaker
The sequel actually allows both of them to be. yeah Yeah. You get asked a question early on in the game by another character and your response to it sort of puts you in one of two universes at that point.
01:10:27
Speaker
So there isn't a Canon outcome. How interesting. I didn't know. It really is. And actually, i mean, it It's hard to talk about this too much without giving away the big spoiler, but it's, they do it in a pretty clever way. They actually managed to make it feel organic so that your choice still mattered, but...
01:10:47
Speaker
whichever one you chose at the end of the game allows the sequel to still continue forward as intended. um So they they really thread the needle. But yeah, gosh, people are mad about the last of us.
01:11:01
Speaker
yeah but Everything from casting to some of the story beats they chose and things like that. People are gonna be real mad, real, real mad if they get life is strange wrong. Like I mean, what if it just blacks out like right at the end?
01:11:15
Speaker
Oh, that'd be so good. Yeah, what if it's just like... Just as a Sopranos. ah Yeah, it gets you up to that point at the very end of the game where you make like that final fateful decision. One gives you one ending. The other one gives you the ah other ending.
01:11:34
Speaker
And yeah, it's a Pran... And then Don't Stop Believing starts playing. And the camera just pulls out. yeah And then you just see a whole bunch of like created by like a whole bunch of French names. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's what I want see out of this. No. I mean, even the Max and Chloe relationship would be really easy to mess up in the wrong hands. Like, I mean, it's, it's multi-layered, um you know, probably a lot of people know that, you know, depending on the choices you make going through this game,
01:12:08
Speaker
This may be an incredibly tight bond of a friendship between Max and Chloe, or it has the potential to ah take a more romantic direction, depending on how you choose to pursue that. They're going have to make some choices on how they do that.
01:12:24
Speaker
I could see that being something that could be a potential pitfall.
01:12:30
Speaker
You know, I think the risk of speeding up the pacing i would spoil little bit of the chill vibes that I feel like this game has. But I'm curious to see how you do it. Like you said, it should be something that translates well to the screen. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to adapt Life is Strange because Life is Strange started out by feeling like a television series.
01:12:51
Speaker
It's come full circle. Yeah. Life is Strange, colon, full circle. All right. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, if you told me that just like went up for pre-order on steam, I'd be like, that sounds plausible. Yeah.
01:13:03
Speaker
Yeah. That's a good subtitle. Well, folks, uh, we've done it again. Unless he had something else to say. I'm right. It just feels like it. Just wad up my notes here. I'm now I'm just looking at people arguing, on, uh, on Reddit over which one's the correct ending.
01:13:26
Speaker
Oh man. and We haven't figured that out in 10 years, huh?
01:13:32
Speaker
You know, I think the cra thing there's, there's, you know, some fandoms have really just melted their brains. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that one is, i mean, this relationship, I would say there was a time when probably 30% of Tumblr was nothing but like Max and Chloe memes.
01:13:53
Speaker
there I mean, this is something that its fandom was wildly obsessed with. And it does not surprise me they are still fighting this battle in the comments on Reddit. That is that is wonderful. and I mean, it says something too about how much people care about this game, that they are still deeply invested in which ending is the real one.
01:14:15
Speaker
Yeah. I think the real ending is at the end of episode one, because that's the free episodes you can get on steam. And probably most players played that and didn't continue. So I'm to say whatever the climax of episode one was, is the true ending.
01:14:28
Speaker
All right. Well, this has been quest quest, the adventure game podcast. i do you have strong feelings over what the canonical ending of Life is Strange in is? And can you discuss them in an email without spoiling that ending?
01:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, ah shoot us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com. Also, if you've been to Big Loafer or if you're going to go to our live show at the Huntington Mall. that the Yeah. It's not in Huntington. Don't get twisted.
01:15:01
Speaker
The Huntington Mall not in Huntington. No, that's a city over. That's it. All right, whatever. um ah what what are What are some of the highlights? What are the stores you're going to if you're going to them?
01:15:13
Speaker
what What level mall? Is this like a dead or dying mall? Does it have like does it have like weird? Because if you go to like some malls now, like they have like a lot of weird shops in them because now they'll just take any fucking tenant.
01:15:27
Speaker
or or this one is doing okay like it helps that there isn't a lot of competition for shopping around here so like uh we have a dead sears like there's a sears that's been gone for like 10 years that anchor store is gone it's just it's who's the the guy that uh has like the calendar of the dead sears um
01:15:46
Speaker
I don't know. and don't know this, but our anchor stores are going to be a Macy's. Um, we have a, uh, JC Penny, a Jacques Penny. Uh, we have, uh, we have Dick's sporting goods. We have an H and M. We have a, uh, Marshall TJ Maxx home goods.
01:16:06
Speaker
Um, we have, oh my gosh, Ben, this is quite a mall. Yeah. Books a million. We got bam. Bam. We got bam. Uh, I mean, it's, uh, this mall's got it all. It's a fairly thriving mall in a world of dying malls.
01:16:23
Speaker
Oh man. I've got the big loafer. Went into a really great, I've become a used bookstore guy. let's Yeah. couple months And I've started to also like get strong opinions on the used bookstores of Chicago.
01:16:41
Speaker
But also, there's a used bookstore that I like so much that I i don't want to mention it because I i feel that I found a lot of really great deals. Like, I went there and got a bunch of things and was like, I'm going to come back for more. don't want rushing in. yeah you I don't want them to get the Quest Quest bump.
01:17:00
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, you've got, I mean, we do have listeners in Chicagoland. We we do. We're going to nap. We do. Yeah, i know. So we got to be careful there. I mean, Ben, i will say, i mean, we've got, how much time do we have for this outro?
01:17:14
Speaker
Oh, hours. Okay, good, good, good. I do want to say, the first time that I came to visit Chicago, and you're kind enough to give me the tour of the city, not a used bookstore, but you took me to Women and Children first. Oh! A great bookstore. One of the best. great but Amazing bookstore. The inspiration for women and women first in the television series Portlandia. yep um Just a fantastic bookstore with the just a wonderful selection. I mean, that that was one of the highlights of our trip through ah through Chicago together. i think I think the thing about a used bookstore
01:17:53
Speaker
is and this is true of like kind of like antique stores and stuff like that is it's like uh I was actually, I was talking to my neighbor about this is like, he, he, my, my neighbor put it in a good way. He's like, you know, this used bookstore is really good because it has good turnover.
01:18:13
Speaker
Like there's a like there's a used bookstore. I've been to ah Jarvis square books here in Chicago. That's tiny. It's like a little like closet of a used bookstore. They like, they turn over their collection all the time.
01:18:27
Speaker
And so that's good. But it's like, it feels like the spectrum of it, of of used bookstores are um like high turnover, ah like bookstores, and then like ones that are essentially like hoarder's nests.
01:18:42
Speaker
Yeah. you see It's just like some guy like has a disgusting attic, and now he's made it into a store. Yeah, you know, we have a really lovely independent bookstore in Charleston, Taylor Books. um it's It's like a little ah cultural landmark for for the city. And they mostly are dedicated to um to new books. they Ben, it's the kind of independent bookstore, they have a little art gallery off to the side and a small screening room so people can show their short films.
01:19:18
Speaker
we're about the good stuff we're talking about the good stuff that's cool they also have a back room that's a used book section oh i thought you're gonna say they have a back room and that's where the sex happens that's where that's where the sex happens you know what we call it ben the sex room if they have like an orgy room yeah you just go to the back there's a glory hole yeah but scar um No, it's ah here's the problem it. They don't curate their used book section. So it becomes like someone's aunt died.
01:19:52
Speaker
They went to her house and got all the books off her shelf and brought them in a big cardboard box. So left behind is what you're saying. So many left behind books. Yeah, that's right. Books that nobody wanted and now have landed here.
01:20:03
Speaker
And it's just like, it's such a nice bookstore. I wish that they would thoughtfully curate books. what they're putting in that section ah the same way that they do the rest of the bookstore. Like right when I walked in last time, they had the book out on their like employee recommendations.
01:20:20
Speaker
ah Meet me at the fountain, the social history of the American mall to kind of loop back to our larger mall discussion. What sort of bookstore offers that as a staff pick a good bookstore?
01:20:32
Speaker
I love a, I love a, a, a pretty, like I, I, I love reading the little staff picked. I do too. More of the merrier. More. Absolutely.
01:20:42
Speaker
Are you reading a good book right now? I'm reading a great book right now. I'm reading a decent book. Why are you reading Ben? I'm reading ah Jack Holmes and his friend by Edmund white.
01:20:53
Speaker
Okay. Who's an author. I really ah have gotten into in the past year. Edmund white. ah passed away earlier this year. And so that's kind of where, like I saw a lot of people ah writing about him.
01:21:07
Speaker
um He is ah like one of the the kind of foremost American ah gay authors of like, ah of, I would say the 20th century, but he wrote a ton of books pretty much up until he passed away this year, including a book I believe that came out this year.
01:21:29
Speaker
Um, and, uh, like, you know, the, the weekend after he passed away, I just walked into the library and just picked up, uh, the first book of his that I just saw on the shelf because I was just like, all right, well, curious. Everybody has so many nice things to say about him.
01:21:44
Speaker
And it was, uh, this really, really good book. Uh, the, uh, a saint from Texas, something like that, which is excellent. And then I cannot put down ah Jack Holmes and and his friend.
01:21:59
Speaker
It's a just a very sweet and funny, quite like so he's a very he's very I love how he constructs sentences. He's a very, very talented and technical writer.
01:22:14
Speaker
um ah And I'm like just burning through it. What are you reading? i i'm I'm in nonfiction world. I mostly read nonfiction. i My life is already like a fantasy. So yeah I don't need any more of that. I've been reading...
01:22:30
Speaker
um A book by Elizabeth Samet, who is and I love this this job. She is a professor of English at West Point, um which right away, that's kind of an interesting gig to have. But the book is looking for the good war, American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness.
01:22:49
Speaker
It's a story or the the book's sort of conceit is a look at how American popular culture essentially has had a decades long project to mythologize World War II and sort of in our popular telling of it, smooth out all the unfortunate realities of America's you know, involvement and actions during World War II. Because for our cultural identity to be sort of the good guys we like to imagine ourselves to be as a country, we need this one good war. and we've kind of been chasing that high ever since 1945. We keep hoping we can frame every war that comes our way. For sure, for sure.
01:23:30
Speaker
As the good war. And it talks a lot about how everything from like, you know, popular histories by like Ambrose and Steven Spielberg movies and, uh, you know, the Tom Brokaw greatest generation stuff is all this huge cultural project
Books and Historical Narratives
01:23:44
Speaker
to sort of. That sounds fascinating.
01:23:46
Speaker
It's really good. I really recommend it. really beautifully written. She's someone who, like, I read a lot of books around this sort of like politics and culture kind of kind of genre.
01:23:58
Speaker
And she does a really beautiful job of weaving in lots of examples without it just turning into a bullet list. Like, now here's my paragraph about Saving Private Ryan. And now here's my paragraph about Apocalypse Now.
01:24:10
Speaker
She really weaves that sort of stuff in more organically and hits on a lot of pieces of pop culture. that I wasn't as familiar with and had to kind of go look up and check out on my own as I've been working my way through it.
01:24:20
Speaker
So in that sense, it, it, it's really well done for this kind of writing. I think highly recommend it. It's a, it's good stuff. That sounds really interesting. I was on like almost like I was on a nonfiction kick for like years and years and years and read like a lot of biographies and a lot of histories and stuff like that. I read, i think two by like biographies of Ulysses S. Grant.
01:24:50
Speaker
And then I have a third on my shelf unread. um ah Like maybe, maybe two. I don't know. Like I just read a lot lot of shit about him.
01:25:01
Speaker
And then i like, but ah have you read, um, And I've read a lot of like kind of either like contemporary history or like, what would you call that? Like, you know, like a book about ah like Reagan affairs. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Well, like, yeah. ah Have you read ah Rick Pearlstein? Yeah.
01:25:23
Speaker
No. Oh, really? oh you haven't read Rick Burlstein? This is when the podcast gets really interesting. The book corner of the air. Listeners, we will know. We can see in the metrics if you've turned this off with like five minutes left or ever how long this conversation takes.
01:25:40
Speaker
Yeah. So we will know. So, and it'll hurt our feelings. So you better still be listening. yeah You really have to be tuned in for a book corner at the end of it, a new feature. um Normally we do it after the, the theme at the end, we play the theme and then we do 40 minutes of book corner.
01:25:56
Speaker
And I don't know if a lot of our listeners stick around. I think they're moving on to the next yeah podcast. This is, they hear that ending thing. Rick Pearlstein wrote this, these ah four books.
01:26:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:10
Speaker
let me, it was, uh, the essentially I forget all their, their titles. The first one he wrote was about Barry Goldwater. i it was, Oh, before the storm, the second one that he wrote, uh, is called Nixon land.
01:26:28
Speaker
Uh, the third book he wrote is called the invisible bridge, the fall of rise of Reagan. And then most recent one. And I think the last of like this, history is uh reagan land and i could tell you like if you want to just read the good parts nixon land is one of the most fun history books you'll ever read because he's such a like a compelling yeah figure in a way that like reagan and barry goldwater just straight up aren't they're yeah they're just not as interesting whereas like nixon is just a strange man yes in every way i mean it's just an
01:27:08
Speaker
odd weird person and so uh like you know whereas like i mean yes reagan was too as was barry goldwater but nixon is just compellingly pathological yeah i mean i will say Ben, do you want some deep Jess lore in the middle of book corner? Yeah. Okay. So after my freshman year of college, I didn't know what I wanted my major to be. I kind of like started to flunk out of the natural sciences and I was going on vacation with my family over the summer and picked up at a used bookstore in this little vacation town, a copy of Richard Nixon's memoir in the arena.
01:27:50
Speaker
which one of his many ah and ah memoirs. This is like you know a lot of his efforts to launder his career as a politician long after the fact. And even in this memoir that he wrote himself, he was such a tragically bizarre figure.
01:28:08
Speaker
that reading that was a small part in what made me decide to sign up for political science classes and later eventually become a political scientist upon returning for my sophomore year.
01:28:20
Speaker
ah that's That's the level of weirdness that Nixon still commands is that I could read his own memoir and think, what is wrong with this guy? I want to understand politics better.
01:28:32
Speaker
All right. Takes on Nixon. Have you read one more recommendation? Yeah. Yeah. Do you have one more? Go for it. Okay. The last time I was at Taylor books, that lovely bookstore in Charleston, West Virginia.
01:28:43
Speaker
um I picked up a copy of hip hop is history by quest love. Ooh. And I have to tell you, Ben, If you have any interest in a history of hip hop, it is a fantastic read. Encyclopedic knowledge of sort of the cultural forces that shaped early hip hop and then the way that early hip hop went on to shape the broader culture.
01:29:06
Speaker
Really good stuff. i've've I've read a few histories of hip hop. It may be my favorite, mostly because like Questlove manages to write both as an obsessed fan and an expert in his own right.
01:29:19
Speaker
ah Worth checking out. Hip Hop is History by Questlove.
Wrap-up and Listener Engagement
01:29:23
Speaker
All right. Well, we've got several books, i but all right. I do think we should end.
01:29:30
Speaker
ah Ben, you seem like you have one more book in you. I do have more. I do have more books in me, but but we we should stop. This may end up on the cutting room floor or maybe a book room discussion. I used to cut this stuff out, but no, now, now it all stays in. Um, all right.
01:29:50
Speaker
It stays in the pit. The kid stays in the picture. Ben. Yeah. They should email us at quest quest podcast at gmail.com and tell us their favorite book. All these listeners. ah Let us know what your favorite book. If, uh, if, if you enjoyed, ah like if you enjoy, Edmund white,
01:30:07
Speaker
Who else should I read? i listen and I know about Garth Greenwell and I also know about Christopher Sherwood. I know the the the canon gay writers. You don't have to worry about that. But if you got any ah other good ones. Oh, and Les. I read that. That was pretty good.
01:30:21
Speaker
Anyway.
01:30:25
Speaker
um All right. ah Yeah. QuestQuestPodcast at gmail.com. Give us a five stars. Tell all of your friends. um And join us next week. for book quest only it's all book corner next week bye and food no i mean the food stay in any way