Transcript
Speaker: My bathroom is very boring looking. Huh? Yeah. i So here's the thing. You've been to my apartment. I've seen your bathroom, yeah. You know I'm kind of a maximalist. I like a lot of cool decor. I'm very artsy. Then you go to my bathroom. You probably don't remember ah because you weren't spending like a lot. I hope you weren't spending a lot of time in my bathroom. While you were asleep, I spent the whole night in the bathroom just just doing stuff.
Speaker: You certainly didn't decorate it. Thanks a lot. ah But so like I was thinking about my bathroom. Yeah. There is not a single thing on the wall. And then I was thinking about other people's bathrooms and they put stuff in their bathroom as you as you should. It's another room in your home.
Speaker: It should it should make you happy. You know, nothing. There's nothing on the walls. Nothing. ah Okay, so I know your living room is super decorated. Yeah, it is. Yeah. your i How decorated, and I know your art room, your office is super decorated. Yes. How decorated is your bedroom?
Speaker: Pretty fucking decorated. Okay. So it matches the rest. Yeah, it doesn't match any. Dude, there's even decor in the kitchen. This is like i painting in the kitchen. I was going to ask because I didn't notice. i didn't i don't I don't remember decor in the kitchen, but also there is I mostly spent time in your living room. We spent zero time in the kitchen because I generally spend zero time in the kitchen. what how How does one decorate a bathroom to its optimal? Here's the thing.
Speaker: I want to look at something while I'm pooping. So I've never. Yeah. But you've never had this thought until today. Until today. Until I texted you before. i but val say Comfortable poops without looking at anything. And now you're like, were they not good enough?
Speaker: I don't know. Were they? I don't know. We don't just discuss this because I don't like yucky stuff. It's like yucky stuff. I would just like, or if I'm taking a bath, it would be nice to be surrounded by candles and artwork.
Speaker: um Candles is good. Candles is a good idea. i Candles is good. You know what I think is the best thing for a bathroom is pictures of ships. Like, it doesn't matter if you're a pictures of ship kind of person. Like, I'm not necessarily a pictures of ships kind of person. But that's all I want in my bathroom is pictures of ships. Okay. Okay. So I i see that you have your idea. And I am going to hold you to it. Please go to the thrift store. This is important. This will all be on Instagram, you guys. Go to the thrift store. Get pictures. You're going to of ships. I have one picture of ship. going to I have one picture of ship in my bathroom.
Speaker: Oh, wow. Okay. So you're almost there. Okay. Just a few more pictures of ship. You should see. ah So I decided to map this picture by myself. Nice. And holy shit, is it bad. Oh, my God, is it bad. Oh, my God. It looks like, you know when you cut a piece of cardboard and you're like, oh, this will be fine. i I'm going to cut it straight. Like, obviously, I know what a straight line is. And then you go to cut the cardboard you look at it and you're like, how the fuck did I do that? It's like I spun around three times while cutting the cardboard. You need me to, like, fix your matting? So there's a mat that is...
Speaker: Absolutely ridiculous on my picture of a boat. But listen, at least that gives a personality. I still have nothing in my bathroom. Well, so that's what I'm saying. Like what what about the depths of the sea with Cthulhu rising up?
Speaker: Oh, I mean, we're we're newly Lovecraftian fans. We're Lovecraft. Yeah, we're Lovecraft converts. We used to spend so much time on this podcast talking. I like, there's too much Lovecraft stuff. And then somehow after we played Dark Rites of Arkham, we were both like, i fucking love Lovecraft. I want to read all the love. yeah no i'm but Now I'm a fan. It's really bizarre. That's a great idea. I think um i think that's it. I think that in my bathroom, there will be um dark paintings of Cthulhu. That's so good. And the fucking fish people. Yes.
Speaker: ah Which I've learned that ah HP Lovecraft was absolutely disgusted and appalled by seafood. Disgust, like, in ah in ah and a very strong way. Isn't that wild? I am very disgusted buy olives.
Speaker: Oh, me too. So what if I write a bunch of short stories where the bad guys are just kind of like rubbery and greenish, like like just sewage green. Are they alive?
Speaker: They have evil pits in the core of their souls, is what I say about each of them, and they grow on a tree. Wow, wow, wow. Okay. ah Totally instructions unclear. Putting pictures of olives in my bathroom.
Speaker: Hey, everyone. Pushing Up Roses here with my very special, special co-host. I have to be so nice to him because I kind of negged him in the last episode. You were so mean. You were so cruel. what Listen, it went a little too far um You call me soft minded.
Speaker: Oh, God, he remembers. But but I'm fleet footed is the thing. I might be soft minded, but I'm fleet footed. Fastest boy. Fastest boy in ah in North America.
Speaker: in in Pennsylvania. Fastest boy. Maybe. Just fastest boy. I think you can just leave it there. Fastest boy, period.
Speaker: No, he is my my BFF, the amazing, the smart. He cuts his own hair, Matt Aucamp. Hi.
Speaker: Hi, Matt. Thank you for doing another ah episode of Save Your Game with me after I completely annihilated you last week. Yeah, I mean, i mean of course. Look, the people need us is the thing. They
Speaker: If we eats me if we ah if our friendship falls apart because one of us, I'm not naming names here, but one of us says something deeply mean on recording about one of the others of us. Just it could be either of us could be. But if our friendship then falls apart, we still have to fake it for this podcast because they need us Rose, it no. It didn't actually bother me that much. No, ah roses. um who's I'm afraid that people are going to think I'm serious. We are not we' are not serious. No, they are they know us. Y'all know us.
Speaker: So, we had a cool idea of a thing to do today. i would say it's your idea. Don't give me credit for ideas. had a cool idea. We are a hive mind. Okay. But, before we get into just like explaining what we are doing today, there's just... i roses. Can I please just tell you about one game that I played? but you do it in like three minutes or?
Speaker: Let's try it. Okay. Yeah. So let's try Wave Tale. Yes. That was one of the games on our ranking list. On a ranking list. Yeah. So finally I played It it is like um, a,
Speaker: um a I don't know, like a story-driven, like a narrative platforming adventure game. like I think the closest thing I've ever played to it is that game s Sable.
Speaker: um But it's not quite as, I don't know, artistically ah ah competent as Sable. Okay. Here's the thing. You start playing this game.
Speaker: this is This is my experience with it. It's amazing. You're like, holy cow. This music is great. This artwork is great. I love these characters. This story feels like Pixar level interesting and sweet and ah layered with metaphor. And I'm like these mechanics. like So you play a girl in a postlotic post-apocalyptic world that is completely flooded. um And at the very beginning of the game,
Speaker: um Well, okay, before this. So the the world's completely flooded and you Sort of your precious resource is electricity, which you collect from like floating jellyfish. So you use your electric net to catch floating debt jellyfish to um power the machines that keep you guys alive on your little islands. Yeah. And then...
Speaker: a giant black wave comes in and crashes over everything. You find out that this wave is made of something called gloom, which was sort of the thing that destroyed the world. um There was... it's It's complicated, but gloom is a byproduct of the way that they farm electricity in this world.
Speaker: m And the way that they used to farm it caused a war... That, again, ended up like flooding the world and ending the world. um So you As this wave's crashing down, you see this like weird shadow creature in the water. And after the wave crashes, you find that you you can... so This shadow creature will mirror you under the water anytime you are above it. So you can walk on water.
Speaker: Okay. And you can skate on water. Okay. And you can do all these cool tricks on water. So then you're kind of skating around this world, kind of trying to clean up after this wave of gloom. And you're slowly unraveling like the history of this world and how it affected your family.
Speaker: um And how some of the assumptions that you that have been passed down from like family trauma might be untrue. Okay. so i'm watching I'm watching the trailer again.
Speaker: It looks so good. Honestly, this looks my alley. Feels really cool at first, right? You're surfing on the water. You're taking these massive jumps in the air and you're um you're spinning around. You're hitting things. You're um zipping up to these like ah these like spots that your net can hook onto. Yeah.
Speaker: Your net can kind of work as like a grappling hook. Yeah. and you're sliding along these tunnels. like It's very... rad. Yeah.
Speaker: And then kind of it really plateaus. Okay. Because the game is a little longer than you want it to be. The music doesn't change very much. So you're like, oh, this music rules. And then you're in hour four and you're like, God, it's the same fucking music.
Speaker: um The mechanics don't continue to develop after a certain point. So at first you're like, God, I can't wait to just like skate on the water between islands. this is gonna This is so awesome. And then later you're like, I have to go all the way over there.
Speaker: Oh, no. um You don't you you're you don't like learn new attacks. So you see another group of and you see a group of enemies and you're just like, okay, XXXXXX. Okay, they're done. know what I mean? um Seriously, it's redundant. Yeah, it really it's almost like every aspect of it, the the music, the story, the gameplay, okay um all overstay their welcome.
Speaker: But the ending is very exciting and sweet and thoughtful. So it's kind of like it starts off like a rocket. And you're like, this game yeah is amazing. This is like maybe going to be one of my favorite games of all time. Then it really tanks. And you're kind of like, okay, well, all right. This is, you know, um...
Speaker: this is kind of boring and then you get to the end and you're like okay i had a good experience um that's how i felt about wavetail so that's what we should remember next time we rank every adventure game ever okay yeah fair figure out whether we want to move this we'll note that i and so i do recommend it it's just you need some patience because it doesn't yeah There's a lot of middle this game. and There's a lot of second act that just drags. um
Speaker: But it, again, does have kind of a pixarist Pixar-ish quality. It does have an interesting sort of set of themes and ideas. And yeah at at for the first hour or two, it's really fun to zip around on the waves and stuff. Yeah, yeah, bet.
Speaker: So that's Wavetail. That was more than three minutes, but it was still way quicker than I normally do it. It's true. Good job. I'm proud of you.
Speaker: So I think we have to talk through what we're doing today. we haven't we we We sort of had the idea, tossed it back and forth a tiny little bit, and we're like, yeah, let's do it. But we haven't really like dove into together, off recording, exactly what this is. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So, here's my thought. Okay.
Speaker: This Every Adventure Game Ever list, right? Yes. It's it's taken ah taken a while, and it's going to take a while for us to get some real good games on there, right?
Speaker: Yeah. And I'm not saying we should not add to it. we Like, we should wait for games to come up that are really good or really bad. Like, we we should continue doing that list.
Speaker: Yeah. As we do it. But maybe people need a little supplemental list. Okay. Yeah. To know what we really, as a podcast, like, at adventure games are such a broad, broad, broad spectrum of types of game. Yeah. And we love them all.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. We love all the genres of it, is what I'm saying. maybe people need to know what we, as a show, Save Your Game, recommends as like the highest...
Speaker: the with What's our highest recommendation sure of each of these like many, many adventure game subgenres? Yeah. So each of us, so we made a list of like 15 subgenres.
Speaker: um And I wrote little descriptions about them, which we can we can discuss. Yeah. um Because some of them are very subtly different while some of them are wildly different. Yeah.
Speaker: I would say even like ah there's some there's some genres I'm not even going to be able to speak to either because I feel like they're a hybrid genre or I just don't play that genre like at all.
Speaker: Yeah. Right. But both of us made lists of like five-ish. Yeah. Of each game. And what we're going to do is we're going to go genre by genre and sort of pitch games to each other to make it onto our joint save your game list.
Speaker: Yes. Do you have anything to add to that description? No, I think that is good. Yeah, we are. these This is basically a special episode where we are recommending you games in many genres so you have ideas on what you might want to play. And you get to hear us maybe debate things a little bit. Yeah, yeah we'll be gentle. We'll be gentle. won It'll be gentle debates. Yeah.
Speaker: Unless it's not. Unless I start, like, negging again. So, I think let's play some really old, old, old, old music. I'm talking fucking old. Alright, cool. It'll be just somebody, like, hitting a string..........
Speaker: The End
Speaker: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Save Your Game. um I hope you enjoyed whatever old, old ass music. Look, we just do not want to get copyright strucken. No. Ever again. That's my whole world. don't need that here. deal with that on YouTube. don't need that here.
Speaker: So you don't like hearing Edison wax cylinders, you can go ahead and blame Spotify. For their AI fucking copyright tools. Bullshit, yeah. I'm Matt Allcamp, this is Pushing Up Roses. What do we fucking call this segment, dude?
Speaker: We're calling it, hang on. and so Is that what we're settling on? Yes. Where'd it go? Oh no, I can't find it. We are calling this the Ultimate Recommendations Eleganza Extravaganza.
Speaker: So yeah, so when you're but you're talking to somebody, you're like, oh yeah, this is one of Savior Games' Ultimate Recommendation Eleganza Extravaganza picks. Thank you, yes.
Speaker: Obviously, I came up with that. um All right. So do should we? I don't know. i don't know. We've never done this before. Should we just fucking dive in?
Speaker: Let's go. Let's go. So I think the obvious first part of it, because the thing is, again, adventure games have a ton of different subgenres. And again, and some of them overlap. Some of them have subtle differences. But I think we start with the kind of most classic one, right? Yeah. Yeah. um the one that brought me to the genre and still, still is alive and kicking today. this That's the point and click genre. Now this, click as I describe it, I think is a third person narrative game in which the verbs are not mechanical, but suggested by selecting and interacting with objects or characters or whatever within a scene. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Progress is often gated by either puzzles or discoverable story events. It's the goat. So. It clicks, baby.
Speaker: So you have a, you yeah, you're clicking on stuff and that click is like suggest use or talk to or yeah eat. yeah um You don't actually like press an eat button or a use button.
Speaker: And, then you know, in the more classic adventure games, you would like put your cursor up to the top and there'd be that little menu there, those little boxes that are like use.
Speaker: Taste if you're Space Quest for some You're a real Sierra person. I am a Sierra person. Or you go to the little difference or you go to the bottom and you select a word. It's either going to be an image or a word or it's a verb coin which also has imagery on it.
Speaker: Yeah, and it it's sort of, again, it it more suggests the verb that you're going to take than yeah is directly analogous to it. There's not ah yeah there's not a jump button. I'll be honest, when I think about point and click, I do think about putting my cursor straight to the top. I still do that. To this day, it's just like this muscle memory. If I'm in a point and click adventure, I put my cursor to the top to see if there's a menu, ah which there was in the Drifter. And I was like super happy about it. There's your little point and click menu. All right. So.
Speaker: ah These are, I'm going to say these are in no, I have five listed here for point and click, but these are not in any order of um like, likeability for me.
Speaker: I'm just listing them. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. I put some in. that's Okay. So yeah, let's try it that way. Why don't you just tell me what your recommendations were here and I'll see you Okay. Do you want me to just like just go ahead and name them? Let's go one by one, actually. Okay. Let's go one to one. So what's your, so again, not in any specific order, what's your first guy?
Speaker: My first one is Curse of Monkey Island. My first one is Curse of Monkey Island. I mean, come on. It's the goat. It's the goat. You love saying goat today.
Speaker: I do. I love saying goat. ah I don't know I was watching that ah Michael Jordan documentary, you know, the basketball thing. They say goat a lot, and now I'm saying goat a lot. So Curse of Monkey Island, it is not my favorite game of all time, but it but it it is a game that I fucking reference all the time as being one of the best. Give like ah give like a a quick 30 to second overview.
Speaker: ah Crystal Monkey Island is the third game in the Monkey Island series. It stars Guybrush Threepwood, who is a very zany and bumbling pirate. It is in 2D graphics. It's very cartoony looking. It uses a verb coin.
Speaker: And the story goes as you're on an island. Your girlfriend gets turned into a gold statue. You got to get her to not be a gold statue. It's very, very funny. The dialogue trees are some of the best I've ever read.
Speaker: It's got some of the best character work out of any adventure game ever. Yeah. It's super memorable. um Gosh, the character, eat eight the character designs because it's 2d, they hold up so well. I love the chickens around Puerto Pollo, which is, you know, chicken port.
Speaker: um I, I love crystal monkey. I love the voice acting. This one, The voice acting is off the charts good, yeah. Yeah, the I think the the voice of Guybrush Threeprood, Dominic Armato, specifically in Curse, is maybe the most quotable game just ever. it at The inflections, man, I just love it. It is a feel-good game. You're going to feel good playing this game. Agreed. yeah um i play it i play it probably once a year, and before we even started doing this podcast, like before I got back into video games, I would still play it once a year. Yeah, it's ah fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic.
Speaker: right, I'm going to bring a second one. Okay. Let's see if we match on this one. My second point and click game is Nightmare Frames. Oh, Nightmare Frames. What a great. ah So that will come back around somewhere else. Okay.
Speaker: so Love Nightmare Frames. You know that. That's yeah maybe my favorite modern. So Nightmare Frames is not is not an old older or is not an old game. It is a it is a newer point and click game. I think it's got a single click sort of.
Speaker: interface Right? Yeah. It might have its might have a dual click where you right click on something and you to look at it and you left click and it'll you know do whatever verb can be done with that thing.
Speaker: um this it's ah it's ah it's a sort of It's a horror. It's a pixel art horror point and click game where you are a horror writer. You're a writer of 80s horror movies and you find yourself getting chasing the scariest horror movie of all time which nobody has ever seen and it turns out it is a it is tied to these like cults and paranormal activity and you just get deeper and deeper it's very very good
Speaker: It's so good. It's so good. know how I feel. I love it. I think it's a good example of the point and click genre because it tells such a very different story than the types of stories that were told in the classic days. Sure.
Speaker: And it still has some challenge to it while ditching the, you know, large tray of verbs and...
Speaker: you know, a single click interface, which I think needs to be on here. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Love nightmare frames. Okay. So my second recommendation is actually King's quest 2015, which was developed by the odd gentlemen. interesting. Interesting.
Speaker: Yes, I really do need to recommend this game above other King's Quest games because it is playable. It is accessible. It is in that lovely style, kind of the telltale style. And honestly, it is just a very heartwarming, well-written, well-voice acted. You've got christopher ah Christopher Lloyd as older King Graham. Oh, really? Yes, Zelda Williams, who is Robin Williams' daughter. She loves video games. She plays a role in this game.
Speaker: ah And it it kind of follows older King Graham in his in his much, much older days. He's reminiscing about his younger adventure days. And it's just how quite lovely. How closely does that game follow, say, the plot of the first one? Pretty close. I would say it follows the plot of it, of the canon, of it all accumulated. So you are going to meet Queen Valenice. You are going to have those like supplemental things in between in the games themselves. I think it's really quite lovely. i really enjoyed it. It's got cute, cute humor in it. And again, it's accessible. What are the puzzles like?
Speaker: They vary. So the first, it comes in chapters, like a lot of those kind of earlier Steam games do. The first chapter is your traditional point and click. Like 100%, you're pointing, you're clicking, you got inventory. And some of the chat, and I would say that's the main mechanic, but because it is kind of this, almost this experimental type of storytelling, ah some of them are, it's still point and click, but there's a chapter with like, do you remember the sanitarium puzzle at the end of the game where you're kind of on a game board?
Speaker: Oh, okay. It's kind of a puzzle like that, just as as an example. Interesting. I think this game is very much worth playing, and there are times when it is such a beautiful love letter to King's Quest.
Speaker: ah If you haven't played it, it played them that's fine. But if you have played them, you will your heart will will be happy, I think. Yeah. All right, my my next game that I would suggest, and a lot of these are are more recent, is Perfect Tide Station to Station.
Speaker: oh Oh, Station to Station. Yes, Station to Station. Okay. I was going to have a little debate right About which one. I think Station to Station is just the better game. And I think it it gets rid of your kind of classic point and click puzzles to show that you can you can tell a story in this medium, in this subgenre, without...
Speaker: without
Speaker: um without puzzles, without like these, these, these, kind of these logic puzzles. You can just date by story events and by choices. yeah um That's true. I think so. Perfect Tide Station to Station is the sequel to Perfect Tides. It's about a young girl who grew up on an island just outside of what is clearly New York.
Speaker: um And this is her moving to the mainland to go to college and to make friends and to date people boys of varying qualities and to try drugs and to read books and to ah try and become a writer. And it is about the sort of torturous experience of growing up, um but the beautiful experience of growing up too. It's one of the most emotionally resonant games I've ever played in my life.
Speaker: Yeah. it's It's, yes, I agree. I don't know if I think it is a good point and click to start with. I think it is a more mature game in the genre.
Speaker: hu but i love But I do love it. i I love all the mechanics. They're way easier to use than you'd even think, which is fucking great. When you start, well, we can debate it more when we start building the show list, but I think...
Speaker: I see what you're saying about it being more mature, but also i think if you've never played point and click game before because you don't like them, I think you might still like Perfect Tides. Yeah. station yeah I could see that. Yeah.
Speaker: I could see that. Okay. Okay. So ah my third choice, where is the thing? My third choice, I haven't played in a while, but it has stayed in my head for very many years. And that is Dropsy, which is an indie point and click from, oh gosh, 2015, 2016.
Speaker: It is kind of in the style of the graphics of LucasArts. What I really liked about Dropsy is... A, beyond just being very fun and kind of surreal and strange, ah there's no dialogue in this game. okay. People speak via visuals, ah which I think is really interesting, and universal, right? So you don't need to know English or any language, really, to play this game because everyone speaks in body language, and I think that's really interesting. You can also hug everything. You can hug everything? that Yes, there is a hug.
Speaker: like As part of the point and click ah action, you can hug things. You're playing a clown called Dropsy who is on some very hard times, but he ends up kind of redeeming himself through ah bringing people together and doing puzzles and like... Hugging people. It's an interesting experience. I really liked this game a whole lot. I did ah i think I did a review and of a Let's Play on it because I really, really, really enjoyed it
Speaker: I've never played Dropsy, but it does look interesting. It looks a little creepy, but you but from what I'm getting from you, it doesn't play creepy? Correct. It's one of those games that does have those kind of weird, creepy undertones to it. There is some ominous things.
Speaker: It's kind of like the song... um like 50 ways to leave your lover by paul simon it's about leaving someone but it is peppy and like it makes you feel good you know what i mean so it's it's kind of like that but i do think this is a feel-good game despite uh despite some of the plot points okay yeah and i just i just love it i think it's really unique and really ah I don't know. I just really liked it. I like how the characters look. I like Dropsy himself. That really helps. Settings are so ah so beautiful. Yeah, highly recommend.
Speaker: Okay. All right, Dropsy. um My next one is The Drifter. Yes! It's just unlike any other point and click game that's ever been made. um It's a, it's just, it's a thriller.
Speaker: It's like it's this, it's this fast paced, like pulp noir kind of thriller where you play this guy named Mick who um is riding the rails.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. And and but he's on his way home to bury his mother, who recently passed away. But while he's going home, suddenly he his rail car gets completely shot up.
Speaker: And he... finds himself in the middle of this like vast sci-fi conspiracy yeah that he didn't ask for at all. It gets very unhinged. And you just keep getting, so you just keep getting pulled into these um like thrilling, tense action sequences where some of it's timing based, but most of it isn't. And it's, it's just so
Speaker: It's just done it's it's a point and click game. It's a single click interface and it's done in a way that I've never seen before. um I've never seen a point and click adventure move as fast as the Drifter does. Yeah. And it's got its lulls. You know what I mean? I yeah i also put it if you guys are interested. I have a review on the Drifter. It is spoiler free. ah But yeah, it's very high octane. It does have some challenging puzzles and exploration too. So I agree.
Speaker: I agree. Sorry, you were saying. So it's high octane. It's high octane, but it does have those kind of moments where has those what I would call those Gabriel Knight moments where you are collecting like information and talking to people. You know what I mean? Getting bigger inventory. Yeah.
Speaker: Dude, I love a big inventory. It gets me going. but Whoa. ah um Yeah, that's the drifter. That's nice what's your what's your number four. My number four is Unavowed by Wajidai. thought about Unavowed, yeah. Yeah, yeah. i remember playing this game in 2018 and being so thrilled and wowed by the storytelling. um
Speaker: it's beautiful. It's always going to be beautiful because it's a Wajidai game. So it's it's always going to be beautiful. But I was very, very intrigued by the story, which you are... a part of the quote unavowed, which is the, this branch of supernatural like detectives. ah So in this world, there are demons and ghosts and you are, um you are playing detectives that look into the, it kind of like, um Oh, what God, the X-Files. It's kind of like the X-Files, right? Okay. These kind of paranormal events and you have detectives looking and, you know,
Speaker: If I, I, it's been a while since I played it, but I believe in this game, you can choose which character you want to be as the protagonist and certain things will be different if, if you do that. Yes. ah Yes. You can choose your, your protagonist is always the same, right? But that you you can choose what their like role is. Right. Right. About that. can choose the protagonist.
Speaker: I have to replay it, but there's yeah it's been a while. Yeah, it's been a while, but man, I just. This is so story rich. And it's so gripping. I played it in one night. I could not put it down. i think it's a great intro to to point and click. It's forgiving. And it's, ah you know, Dave Gilbert, who is the the head over at Wajidai. He loves New York.
Speaker: ah It's very clear that he does. And I think that there are some really nice and really cool portrayals of New York in this game. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker: I loved that game. I think Unavowed is really interesting. It's it's the only...
Speaker: It's the only modern point and click I can remember. I'm probably wrong about this, but that that you sort of build a team like in Maniac Mansion, but it um yeah yeah but it it does it in a much...
Speaker: less stressful yes way. agreed And depending on who you have in your team at any point, you have different cut scenes and you see different, you sometimes get different mysteries. So yeah, I love it.
Speaker: Love it. All right. What is your number five? My last one is i'm I'm having so much trouble between two. Okay. I can't, I'm having trouble picking between Gabriel Knight and broken sword. And I think I'm going to lean broken sword.
Speaker: I would say lean Broken Sword. I think Broken Sword Shadow of the Templars. Yeah. um Because it is a traditional point and click yeah game.
Speaker: um It has.
Speaker: it's an early example of the single click interface. And
Speaker: It's just so full of charm and adventure and mystery. you know like Broken Sword is delivering on what the word word's adventure game promise, right? You go on a real adventure, a world spanning adventure. As I would say, a grand adventure. Right. If somebody wants, if somebody's interested in adventure games. Yeah. and they want to start with point and clicks.
Speaker: Broken sword is going to take them on a a true adventure. Um, and give them just kind of like, uh, a likable dorky, uh,
Speaker: capable but funny protagonist. yeah um It's got... Yeah, everything you could kind of want out of an adventure game. It's it's funny.
Speaker: It's exciting. It's mysterious. It's got a good story. i love Broken Sword. It's got those 2D kind of cartoony graphics, which are very appealing. Yeah, that are sort of timeless. right Yeah, they're timeless. um I guess I should just quickly say the plot. You play a ah just a guy who's on vacation in Paris. His name's George Stobart and the cafe that he is sitting outside of explodes. and he becomes sort of instantly obsessed with figuring out what happened here.
Speaker: um he saw a clown run in and then a clown run out and then the cafe exploded. and, And so he he sort of deputizes himself as the person in charge of this. And it turns out that the explosion in the cafe is linked to a, you know, um a mystery that's hundreds and hundreds of years old um and involves the Knights Templar. It's really, really good. I can see why you were between that and Gabriel Light, because I think there's a lot of kind of overlap in the adventure itself.
Speaker: feel ah agreed and then I was thinking you know Gabriel Knight does just I wouldn't hand Gabriel Knight to a newcomer yeah as readily as I would Broken Sword because Gabriel Knight has some difficult little yeah difficult like humps in it there's there's some stuff in Gabriel Knight that's really hard it's probably yeah It's true.
Speaker: ah So I have one more as well. um I don't have five for every single genre, but in terms of- You're Gabriel Knight. After I trashed it. It is not. It is not. And I- This is going to be so obvious. It is Grim Fandango. Okay.
Speaker: Grim Fandango is one of the first LucasArts games I played. i would say it's one of the first adventure games I played after the si after my kind of love of Sierra and growing up with Sierra games. Sure. I think this is one of the most beautiful and funny, and extremely funny dialogue trees, but not in the zany way that Curse of Monkey Island is. um It's a little more...
Speaker: Kind of snarky and it's got a bit of an attitude yeah to it. ah You're playing Manny Calavera, who is a grim reaper, essentially. ah You're working for the Department of Death and you reap people. That is your job. And the better the person was in life, the more commission you get. So if you reap a nun, you get commission for that. And when I say commission, what I really mean is if you're working for the Department of Death,
Speaker: you are atoning for something so the better you do at your job the more atoning you are i think this is also the definition of ah of a grand adventure you know you start out in at the department of death you become a casino owner in rubicava you can see captain Like decades pass. Decades pass. Yes. Many. Not decades. I say it like four years, I think. Oh, really? Okay. Four years. I don't think years pass in this game. Years pass in this game. I think four years is a lot to pass in an adventure game. That's very rare. um
Speaker: It is. Hmm. Here's my qualm. okay It is both tank control and point and click because Grim Fandango was re-released for the PlayStation and it they gave it a verb coin to make it a little bit easier. And I played it with the tank controls and kind of like it. However, however, don't recommend playing it like that. I recommend playing the remastered version with the point and click with the verb coin. Right. Yeah.
Speaker: I don't think it's as hard ah as like of a game that other people do, but i grew up on this game. I love this game. I know this game like the back of my head. I think it's worth playing for a couple different reasons, though. A, it's beautiful. It's yes it's kind of unique in its genre for even just how it looks. It has a cast of mostly um people of color or or Spanish speaking Spanish speaking people. I think that's very rare. Tony Plana plays Manny Calavera.
Speaker: I like totally flaking on her name, but ah the woman from Wizards of Waverly Place, you played the mom. She plays Meche. It's great. Honestly, it's it's really great to see that kind of culture brought in to a point and click because point and click historically hasn't been very diverse. Correct. But I think Grim Fandango is, and it's it's very rich in culture. It's very beautiful.
Speaker: It's my favorite game of all time. And I i don't know. i only recommend it to newcomers so they can see kind of this... ah Just this beautiful, wondrous game.
Speaker: You know what I mean? I want new people to know that it exists. Even if they're bad at it. Yeah. And that's it. That's my five. Okay, so we each we each recommended five. Now, do we want to try and build... So here's the here's the question. we're We're building this plane as we go. um Do we want to figure out the show...
Speaker: Top, I think where were we were going to do top three. Top three sense, yeah. Or do we want to do all the genres and then come back? Let's do em now.
Speaker: Okay, all right. Let's do them now. So I think Curse of Monkey Island has to be on there. It has to. It's on both of our lists. And it's the first thing we said. is just such a perfect encapsulation of that era of...
Speaker: point and clicks. Now, I'm okay with leaving Nightmare Frames off. I am too. I think Nightmare Frames is great, and I still highly recommend it, but I don't know if it's like one of the first three things I would give to somebody. Okay. yeah Yep. Fair.
Speaker: That said, ah all right, are there any you want to strike from your list? I'm going to go ahead and strike. um Oh, God. It is hard. It's hard.
Speaker: It is hard. I'm going to strike Grimm, but just know that I want you all to play it. Yeah, I think Grimm has some tough... so I think it's similar to... um Similar to... Gabriel Knight, right? Grimm... Grimm Fandango has some tough parts. Some parts that are rough um and might make a person quit because they're just like, this is just old game shit that But i know that if it was a top 10, I would be pushing for it. And I push for it anyway. It's just not going to be the top three. Yeah. um
Speaker: Oh, man, this is tough. All right. So he i'm gonna I'm going to strike Broken Sword just because i think I think it covers similar ground as Curse of Monkey Island. Agreed. Yep. Is is is the only reason i'm I'm cutting that. I think it...
Speaker: I think it can hang with Curse of Monkey Island, but I think we've already made our choice. It's Curse curse above Broken Sword. But I think there is a reality in which somebody chooses Broken Sword a but instead of Curse yeah and cuts Curse from this list, and I wouldn't be mad at that.
Speaker: I am going to make a push for Unavowed be on this list. Thought? All right. It's really hard to argue with Unavowed.
Speaker: Yeah. But I'm having In mind, it's not for us. It's for people that we... yeah you You know what I mean? But I'm having a really hard time in my mind which of my two I would want to push for push off for Unavowed. Because we have Perfect Tide, Station to Station, and The Drifter. Both of them are so unique and so important to sort of this modern...
Speaker: landscape of point and clicks but unavowed but unavowed doesn't cover neither of those cover the same ground as unavowed yeah i know
Speaker: And Unavowed has a level of writing, like adventure writing. Like Perfect Tides might be the most well-written game on... and on But it goes I think Perfect Tides goes a little bit beyond kind of your traditional point and click. Whereas i if I'm introducing the genre to someone, I would give them Unavowed or The Drifter. But what other genre would Perfect Tides go in?
Speaker: I don't know. i think ah I think a lot of it is a visual novel. I think it's a hybrid of a lot of things. I don't think it is just traditionally a point and click. You know? Right.
Speaker: So your your pitch is Unavowed and Drifter. That's my pitch. Yep.
Speaker: Curse a Monkey and Let me just look at it. Let me give it. let me put my Let me put my eyes on it and let's see. So, all right. Let's say on it I'm going to type Unavowed
Speaker: and then The Drifter. And I'm going to see, how does that feel in my heart? And granted, again, all of these are recommended recommendations. So like you could you can't go wrong with any of the games that we've brought up. But all right, I feel good about it. Curse of Monkey Island, Unavowed, The Drifter.
Speaker: I think if I were to have those three games, just like in my point and click inventory, I would feel pretty comfortable.
Speaker: All right. That sounds good. All Let's move on to one that I think might go a little quicker, but I don't i also don't know. This is the – it's kind of like the sister – Genre to the point. It's the goat. yeah Everything can't be the goat. It was but before.
Speaker: Before we had the point and click, we had the text parser. yeah um This is what got me into adventure games was a text parser game. Text parsers are games in which the primary interaction is typing and the game interprets the meaning of your text.
Speaker: Yes. So. Largely, this is typing sentences or verbs. like Yeah. Well, it's sentence fragments. Like...
Speaker: open trash can, search in trash can, yeah put trash can lid on head, right? Yes. And um mean let me just say, if you where are you if you're a millennial like me and you started on text adventures, that was magic, honestly.
Speaker: it was absolutely magic to narrate your character almost and command your character to do things. And anytime you actually got something, like a point, it was like the best day of your life. So we'll we'll we'll slow down and talk about these for a second, but I just want to get the top two out of the way because I feel like we probably both have the same top two. Let's do it.
Speaker: And they're a very similar game, but 30 years apart. I bet we don't. I bet we don't. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think we have one of them, though. All right, then then then we'll just go one by one. Okay, Crimson Diamond.
Speaker: Yep, that's mine. That's the one. Yeah. Okay. The other one I thought you would have, and we'll we'll talk about Crimson Diamond a little more, is Colonel's Bequest. We'll talk about that.
Speaker: That will come back around for me, and I will make a push as to why I put it somewhere else. Okay. Interesting. All right. yes ah My second one is obviously it's not Colonel's because it's actually Trilby's notes from the Trilby series by Ben Yahtzee Croshaw. That is a parser game and it's very well done. Agreed. Okay. yeah So just to back up a little bit, Crimson Diamond is a story about a ah would Would you want to explain the plot of Crimson Diamond since we both had it?
Speaker: Yeah. ah You know what? Let's talk about Colonel's Bequest first. That would make it make sense. Okay. All right. Even though Colonel's Bequest was my pick, I'm going to let you do it because you are the Colonel's Bequest ah mega fan. Yes. So Colonel's Bequest ah was a kind of whodunit based on Agatha Christie story style game. um It says it's written by Roberta Williams, but there have been some controversial controversial statements on who was the main writer. But like for the sake of this video, we're going to say Roberta Williams. okay Okay. It's one of those stories kind of like, and then there were none where there are like
Speaker: This is not the correct number, but there's like 10 characters and they're all wanting to get the colonels. They want to be in the will. Right. He's he's rich. He's got this will.
Speaker: And throughout, ah everybody is invited to his mansion to talk about the will. And that night, everybody starts dying. And when I say dying, I mean murdered. Yes.
Speaker: It's again, very and then there were none, very Agatha Christie style. ah The parser comes into play. where you say it's a very interrogative game. So you mostly what you're going to be doing is talk to Rudy, ask about Rudy, ask Rudy about Lawrence. Like it's it's ah it's it's kind of repetitive in that way, but it is an inventory object puzzle as well. You are getting clues, you are getting evidence on the way, and it is dictated by the parser. It's a great game.
Speaker: I think it's unique for the time. i don't think anyone did anything like that besides Sierra, who did Mystery House prior. It's great. I love Colonel's Bequest. It's it's high up there.
Speaker: So then almost 40 years later, susan um a game developer named Julia Minamata created a game called The Crimson Diamond, which is very much...
Speaker: akin to like an update of the Colonel's Bequest. Yeah. um Where in the Colonel's Bequest, you play a young reporter named... Laura Bowe. Laura Bowe. In the Crimson Diamond, you play a amateur geologist named Nancy Maple.
Speaker: Yes. Who gets invited to a friend What grandfather's mansion? Is it grandfather? Is it some grandfather?
Speaker: um I don't remember, but it's it's definitely in line with like the whodunit where you're among kind of all these different characters. You're all staying at mansion's close circle.
Speaker: But the plot is that they have recently found a massive diamond. in the river by this mansion on this property. And you are trying to investigate, like, what is this diamond? Where did it come from? And at the same time, there's a ton of people at this house for various reasons. Yeah.
Speaker: And they start dying. Love it. It's like one of my favorite genres. And it is a it is a modern way of using... it is a ah mod One of the very few modern games that uses a text parser for verbs. you ah You walk with your cursor or your, I think you can do it with arrow keys, but then, you think I it arrow keys, yeah. But you say, talk to.
Speaker: this guy talk to this lady, talk, ah ask about blank, look at blank. And um the story is really good. It can be a little finicky at certain parts.
Speaker: um Trying to get all the clues that you need to get the good ending is pretty difficult. And sometimes just to advance to the next part of the story, you're like, what did I, what am I missing? But yeah,
Speaker: As a whole experience, it is It's an incredible... It's not just a good throwback. it is a It is almost like a good suggestion of how people could still use a text parser and make a compelling video game.
Speaker: Yes. do you want to explain Trilby's Notes and then I'll tell you my next one? Yeah. So Trilby's Notes is the third installment of the Trilby series or the Cho Mythos series by Ben Yahtzee Crowshaw. He does. that He's from.
Speaker: What does he do? It's fully, i think it's called fully ramblamatic, but he does, oh, zero punctuation. He's a zero punctuation guy. Okay. um So his first game was a point and click. It's called Five Days a Stranger. His second game was a point and click.
Speaker: I forget the name. The third game changed mechanic completely and became a text parser game. This is one of the scariest games I've ever played. Nine Days of Skeptic? Is that the? that's one. Six Days of Skeptic is the last Six Days of Skeptic.
Speaker: There's one where you're in space. Seven days. seven days ah Yeah, the one in space that I think is... God, that's scary. That's the best one. Yeah. It's fucking frightening. Honestly, I don't, i don't honestly, comedians make the best horror content. It's for another, it's a topic for another day, but yeah. um This game takes place at a hotel ah that is obviously haunted. um You are playing Trilby again um,
Speaker: I don't quite remember the specifics of this game because I mostly remember how much I actually loved the text parser and how successful I thought it was in this game. But it has to do with um like spirits and like the occult and like talent like like cursed items and and stuff like that. um I think it is connected to Five Days a Stranger. It's not connected to the space game. That's a different thing. But it is connected to his first game.
Speaker: There is a connection to the space game. you're right there' You're right. You're right. There is. um But it's it's just a little yes different. Yes. I think that's – yeah.
Speaker: um this is one of the scariest games i've ever played ah yeah like how can a text parser be scary yeah but it is you know you're almost afraid to type or or you feel like you have to type right away to pause the game because in in text parsers when you start typing in general if it's not sierra you get like a little pause um i Yes, ah the jump scares in this game, it it's it's kind of gory.
Speaker: ah There's blood everywhere. It's closed circle, kind of like the previous games. I think these games are great. I think all the trilogy games are great. I think they're great too, yeah yeah. I appreciated that he made a successful parser game back in, what, 2006, 2007? This is earlier on. Yeah.
Speaker: I would say this is not even a modern adventure game anymore.
Speaker: So my next text parser game is a FMV game um by Daveki Studios. It's called The Infectious Madness of dr Decker. You know what? I didn't know that was text parser. i didn't play it. So it is text parser in that you are successor the successor To a psychologist who was just murdered.
Speaker: um And you know... You are also... you are aware that it is one of his patients and you're kind of trying to figure out which one of his patients it is. And you go through a series of therapy sessions and each of these patients is also undergoing some sort of very bizarre set of life circumstances. They all have a secret and all of their secrets have a, at least a tinge of paranormal to them. And, um,
Speaker: and It is a text parser game in that you are listening to what they say. And then you are asking about subjects based on what they say.
Speaker: Yeah. So you're not clicking from a list of things you can ask about. You might hear them mention their husband and then you say, who ah say, how long have you been married to your husband? Or something like that. um And the game will interpret your questions. Sometimes probably all you need to do is and and enter one word. Like for that, you could probably say husband question mark.
Speaker: and And you'll get the next scene. But other times you have to ask questions in some pretty specific ways. yeah um And I think that is just a very different modern interpretation of what you can do with a text parser and it makes for an incredible way to solve a mystery and way to interact with a video game for sure for sure i haven't played it so i am now very uh i'm now very intrigued it's so good it's really good yeah i love that um my final i only have three
Speaker: This is also my final. I should have said that. This is a harder one because, honestly, it is hard to recommend Text Parser. Agreed. to people who To new people because the old Text Parser games are so difficult.
Speaker: um So for new people, I am going to put Enclosure here. Okay. Which, strangely, is another horror game. ah But it's it's a more slow burn horror game. Trilby's Notes is a little more like...
Speaker: in your face and kind of gory enclosure is maybe a little more tense and disturbing i think of maybe like the thing um so ah enclosure is a somewhat new game that is using kind of the sgi graphics the sierra style graphics so it very much looks like king's quest one through three um but it was it was done i think in like 2002 i i let me see when was it done
Speaker: uh it was done in 2022 that was no that's the uh that's the 3d one sorry you the original one is not and i don't know what the yeah i don't know the original oh gosh you know what i did a review on it just go it was done in the earth i do i do know it was done in the early 2000s um and you are playing a con artist named mike and ah in the beginning, and when I say con artists, you are, what are they called?
Speaker: Like crystal ball reader, fortune tellers. ah You were playing fortune tellers said you're exposed basically. And you suddenly go into debt because you cause like $10,000 of damages. I think as you're exposed, you like set things on fire on accident. Yeah, it's awful. ah So now you're in debt and to pay off the debt, you are invited How would I describe this setting? It's like – it's not a space station. But, it's again, it's like the thing. It's almost like a bunker. Right, like an like a base in the Arctic. When you're in the Arctic, you can't be outside for any length of time because it's too – Right, right.
Speaker: It's just too cold. yeah so yeah So again, it's great for closed circle for whodunit because when you're there, giant snowstorm, of course, and everybody is stuck in this base. And once again, people start dying. Yeah. But it is you know it is different from the classics in that I don't believe you can get terribly stuck. it that you know The ease of play is a little bit better. It's a little bit more forgiving. And strangely, for a game that's done in that SGI style, it does get scary. It does get very tense. So I think it's kind of a little bit of a gem, a lost gem. Yeah. think it's a little underrated. I really think it deserves a little bit more, a little bit more attention.
Speaker: Okay. you've You've recommended Enclosure to me ah many, many times. I don't know why you haven't played it And i still haven't played it, but I will, I will, I will, I will. So once again, Crimson Diamond we share as our number one, and I think that should be on our show number one.
Speaker: Yep. So... I'm going so let's put, oops, I'm in the wrong thing. They changed one of our categories to Crimson Diamond. Category Crimson Diamond. What's your favorite Crimson Diamond? Well, Matt, I really enjoyed Crimson Diamond. How about you? ahio Here's my pitch. Here, and um this is going to be visual for a second. So here's my pitch, and um then I'll explain it.
Speaker: And this is my pitch. it I just crossed out Colonel's Bequest and Trilby's Notes. Yeah, and i I agree with that. Oh, okay, then I'll leave it. and The reason for Colonel's Bequest is because I do agree that maybe it fits better into another category. Yes, I will be bringing it up. Don't even worry about it And number two, Trilby's Notes, just because it is in the middle of a series and it is kind of trippy and psychedelic in a way that you might not appreciate if you haven't played the first two games. Yeah. um And it ends in a way that you might not appreciate if you don't move on to the fourth games. So I think it's just it's just a really weird one for somebody to pick up randomly. I think so too.
Speaker: I think it's great. I think it is a masterpiece. um But so neither of us have played the other person's games. But let's put them on there anyway.
Speaker: But let's put them on there anyway. So Enclosure and Infectious Madness of Dr. Decker. I think they both, you know, represent. I think they're at least good introductions. And if you do want to play those classic text parsers, if they so strike your interest, do it.
Speaker: Definitely give it a shot. So. This next one's going to be a little difficult to define exactly. I have a definition here, but yeah but it's open to discussion, and I'm open to discussing it with you because there are – there's a lot – so this next one's the mystery genre, and there are a lot of adventure games that are mysteries. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: There are a lot of all of the games on this list that are mysteries. But the way I've defined a mystery game specifically, and why I crossed Colonel's Bequest off the list, is because I think mystery games are games in which the narrative is centered around a mystery. Okay, that's a lot of them. But the gameplay involves investigating that mystery through finding clues or interrogating characters. Mm-hmm. And most importantly, progress is made through testing conclusions against the larger mystery rather than solving individual obstacles. Right.
Speaker: So in Broken Sword, you're solving a mystery, but your progress is... Right. How do i I've got to use this cane on this, on this clothesline so I can swing down. Like what? That's not in Broken Sword, but um you know what i mean? Whereas I think in a true mystery game, you are testing against.
Speaker: Yeah. But I'm also separating this. I'm going to push for some of these games because I do think they fit ok what you're saying in in kind of different ways. I'm also going to say that this is different than a deduction game. Yes, it's different. um Which is a fairly new genre that we will discuss, I guess, next. um but you know So I don't think a game like, for example, um Return of the Obra Dinn or Case of the Golden Idol fit under Mystery Game. Correct. yeah
Speaker: Because I think those are deduction games. but I agree. I agree. And we can discuss that more when we get there. So Mystery Games as a genre makes sense to you? Yeah, I have four. And you agree? Okay, cool. I have, oh i have five.
Speaker: Okay, I might push back, but we'll see. Okay, let's see. What's your number one? Colonel's Bequest is my number one. i Yeah, that's a yeah good call. I think it is a good call too. I think this is absolutely a game that centers around interrogation. ah That is what you're doing the majority of the time. You are really going to feel like a detective in this game. You are looking for clues. There is a murderer.
Speaker: we need to figure it out. And the interrogation... is that it it that it is a interrogation. When I was kind of explaining it earlier, you are asking people about other people. You are asking people about the evidence that you have found. And you are actually, ah you're actually scored at the end to see how well you've done. Like, did you find all this evidence? Did you talk to this? Did you see these cut scenes? you know And unlike Crimson Diamond, you're not...
Speaker: Your progress is not gated by solving any any kind of puzzles. You could stand in a room the entire time. yourre this is This is what swayed me. This is the thought I had that swayed me, which is the only progress you make in the game, besides just waiting, if you like you can just wait. The only progress you make in the game is testing your conclusions at the end.
Speaker: Yes. Yep. And as an aside, i didn't put this on the list because I would never ah suggest this to a beginner player. But Dagger of Amon Ra is a mystery game as well, and that it is not deductive. It is a collection of clues. It is extremely interrogative.
Speaker: It is one of the hardest games ever written. There are puzzles in that game, though, right? i Yes, there are. Yeah, you have get the ants or whatever. You have to get ants to eat a man. And I think that's very funny.
Speaker: Yes, I mean, you have you have to give – listen, guys. You find a trunk. You open the trunk. You got to throw some meat in it. to Because they're not ants. They're actually beetles. They're to be domestic beetles or something. And they will eat you if you don't give them the meat. And then they carry the meat away out into the hallway. And it's very silly. And then later they eat a man.
Speaker: They did eat a man. They did eat a man. To save you. Just so you guys know. All right. But I would say that that is also at least an example of a mystery game. It does test you at the end. You can fuck it up. You can fuck it up. If you had picked that one, I might have, it would have been a discussion, but I don't know which way I would have fallen. Yeah, I still, I don't know which way I would have fallen, but I know would have had to have at least a little debate about it. You can fail that game if you don't find all the evidence, and that kind of solidifies it at least a little bit for me. But what is your number one then? My number one is going to be Seance of Blake Manor.
Speaker: oh fuck The entire game is centered around interrogating and finding clues and time can progress. You can do nothing. like You don't actually have to solve any puzzles. And then by the time you get to the end, you just have to know the answers. yeah It's an incredible mystery game. um Just to give some ah background. I think this was both on our game of the year list last year. It was my number one.
Speaker: um i love that game. I thought it rocked. You are a detective who is summoned to a place called Blake Manor by you don't know who. um This is in 1897 Ireland, and this is very those that setting is very important to this game. um More important than most settings are to most games, I'd say.
Speaker: And... and You are investigating. a girl has gone missing and a lot of people don't seem to think that it's any like that she's actually missing. Right. A lot of people don't seem to think that there's any crime here. But somebody does and they hired you to check it out while you were there.
Speaker: You happen to be there as a bunch of people are gathered in this like kind of like dying mansion. This mansion that is running out of funding and, you know, ah the the family is running out of money. And they've decided to hold a seance there.
Speaker: This is the spiritualism craze um of the late 1800s. Oh, yeah. Yeah. um You notice a lot of games have that as as an aside? a Like a kind of a spiritualism type of thing? I'm i'm just – It was just such a fascinating part of part of recent history, right? Yeah. as you As you said that, I thought about in English Haunting. Yeah. But go on.
Speaker: Yeah. um So – Yeah, you there's a bunch of people who are there to take part in this seance. It's supposed to hopefully bring people to this mansion that is now being used as a hotel. And you kind of walk around and you discover each person has a secret. And you have to find clues and then interrogate them to to get their secrets out of them and eventually figure out what the fuck is going on in this goddamn mansion, what happened to the missing girl. And it involves, you know, the mythology of Ireland and it involves, it's so good. It's just so good. It's so good. It's so, I don't know why i didn't, I don't know why I didn't think of that. Cause I, you know, I love that name. I know you do. I'm so surprised it's not on here. That's crazy. That's crazy. I don't know. I had a brain fart.
Speaker: So ah my second one is is a little on the nose, but man, in terms of the mystery genre, I really got to push for L.A. Noire. Okay. i had the best time with L.A. Noire. This is a game for people who love mystery and like hard-boiled, hard-boiled stuff. So it's definitely, it's got that hard-boiled nature. You're playing a detective character.
Speaker: think It's either the 30s or the Oh, it's the 40s, I think. um There's also kind of a Black Dahlia. Yes, Black Dahlia? I don't know. I have not played this. Hang on one second.
Speaker: I think I, why am I brain farting today? I didn't even have any edibles. Okay. ah There is a bit of a Black Dahlia-esque um murder mystery happening. that's That's a real murder mystery that happened in the 40s. It takes place in Los Angeles in the 40s, which, man, is a different beast. ah But this the settings are true to to that l LA area. Like, you go to the La Brea Tar Pits at one point.
Speaker: um Some people think this game looks a little... cringe because it was rotoscoped. ah Is that the right word? Rotoscoped? It was, um you know, they had real people and they're using kind of these like real faces for for the characters. But man, I love a game where I have to catch people in a lie. This is the game that ah that really like popularized, mean, maybe it's the only game that did it, but when you're interrogating people, you can accuse them of either lying,
Speaker: uh or telling the truth or like doubt there's also like a doubt ah like a doubt option where maybe that's a good option but you are tested on this uh you are tested on how many things you get right right away you're also collecting clues i was very amused i started playing this again last year you want to know what the first things i came across was what fucking loose crank.
Speaker: I'm not even kidding. could not believe it. I could not believe it. LA Noire to me, I've never played it. i i i We have plans that I don't want to say because they're too funny and they have to be a surprise. ah But I will play this game sometime very, very shortly. okay um This game to me, I know it from it sitting in my Steam library for a very long time and it getting just updated constantly. This game gets pushed updates in Steam like every week and it's like 15 years old. What are they still updating L.A. Noire? Yeah.
Speaker: There's also DLC. So there's like separate mysteries that you can, that you can download little one shots, you know, but yeah, I think, I think this is your mystery lovers mystery game.
Speaker: It's noir. You are playing a detective. You are collecting evidence. You are catching people in lies. You are following a murder mystery. Interesting. I really loved it, man. I was hooked. Like I said, the graphics are they're a little strange. You will get used to them.
Speaker: um I think it's very worth very much worth playing as if you like mystery, if you like especially hard-boiled mystery.
Speaker: Okay, my second game... was a game that we have talked about on the podcast before. It's called Tangle Tower. Okay, you're goingnna have to you're going to have to make a bit of a ah an argument for this.
Speaker: Okay, so Tangle Tower is a game. It's part of the Detective Grimoire games, and you are... um You're brought to a mansion full of strange people because there was a murder. And you are interrogating a bunch of people trying to figure out a murder. Now, there are a couple other. This is a hybrid-y game, right? It's hybrid. I was going to say, is this not a deduction game? there There are deduction segments of this game.
Speaker: There are... yeah um logic puzzle segments of this game that might yes classify it as a puzzle adventure. But I think those are the o The deduction part of this game is such a small aspect. The large aspect of this game the larger aspect of this game is interviewing and talking.
Speaker: And even sometimes your interviewing of one person causes a conclusion which allows like opens up another scene yeah with a different person, right? So your progress is not...
Speaker: entirely gated by these deduction scenes. And the other thing about the deduction scenes is they are, um,
Speaker: Very limited in that you, it'll give you pieces of a sentence and you just have to fill in like two words. Yeah. There are two two sections of the second sentence. um I think it's on the border, right? Like I thought about putting it in deduction, um but I decided to go with mystery because it's, it's I think this game could still work without mystery.
Speaker: the deduction pieces, agree just like it could still work without the puzzle adventure mini games. Um,
Speaker: i I think the larger thing is just trying to understand the mysteries of each character and trying to understand the how those relate to the larger mystery of the game. Sure. i agree with that, actually, because even just playing Mermaid Mask recently, ah i did get more of a sense of interrogation and kind of coming to your own conclusions about so many things.
Speaker: Yeah, and...
Speaker: Yeah, it's a tough one. i think I think it fits more in mystery than deduction. But any regardless, I think it's an incredible game. It has great voice acting. The characters are phenomenal. i think yeah I wonder if Mermaid Mask is a little better, but Tangle Tower is just is kind of a classic at this point. And...
Speaker: and I think if if it came down to it and somebody was like, oh, which Detective Grimoire game should I start with? I'd probably tell him Tangle Tower rather than Mermaid Mask. Okay, that's fair. I think Mermaid Mask is a little more complicated. i think you will benefit from playing Tangle Tower first and then following that with Mermaid Mask.
Speaker: That's my second game, Tangle Tower, hey in the Detective Grimoire series. Nice. Which are pretty much self-contained. You don't need to play the other games to play to play Tangle Tower or to play Mermaid Mask. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Hear me out. Oh, no. Okay. So I am going to make a push for Gabriel Knight one. I would actually also make a push for Gabriel Knight two, if I'm honest, three is terrible. So I'm not going to suggest that to anybody ever. But the reason I am putting this on here is because it we kind of talked about it last week in the way that it is kind of a thriller.
Speaker: um To me, it it kind of it resembles a mystery. It almost resembles a murder she wrote. You are a writer ah getting entangled somehow in this case. It's almost procedural, right? You are interrogating in the majority of this game, I think. I am recalling all of the the interior all of the dialogue trees. There's so many, you guys. Yeah.
Speaker: I think this is very dialogue interrogation heavy. I think that as you learn a new stuff, you go back to interrogate people. I think there is a larger mystery at hand that you, the player do do not know and are figuring out. And it kind of culminates in this kind of, uh,
Speaker: intense ending when you figure it out. I know it's a point and click. like I get that. But to me, it is just so interrogation heavy. It is that it depends on those dialogue trees. It depends on you figuring out these mysteries, figuring out who you are, who your uncle is, who um who the murderer is.
Speaker: And yeah, because it is so interrogative heavy. I think it is a mystery game. It's a point and click, just like Tangle Tower. Yeah. a tin is to help help me whatever help help me Help me figure this out.
Speaker: What are the puzzles in Gabriel Knight that are point and click puzzles that aren't,
Speaker: that don't involve showing a character something making conclusion? Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that actually goes to my point that it is yeah heavily mystery because it is so – you are showing people evidence. You are asking people. would – go ahead The distracting the cops
Speaker: by getting – with the beignet card? By the beignet, the mime scene, – the
Speaker: I think, let's see, the um the scene in which you have to distract Mosley so that you can make copies of a document that you're not allowed to make copies of.
Speaker: But even that in in tone, in nature, right, is very, like, mystery. It's very, like, I'm a snooping detective. I'm going to get this file illegally. The the things that stick out in Gabriel Knight aren't the point in click puzzles. It is the clue finding. Like, for example, finding all the... um scales, the snake scales, and matching them against one another so you can determine which snake is the right one. um Showing Mosley a series of, a bunch of evidence until he agrees to reopen the case. yeah These are the things that stick out far more
Speaker: than the puzzles. But then again, here's one puzzle that sticks out is when you're in Schloss Ritter, that that Gabriel Knight's family castle. and you Arguably the worst part of that game, to be honest. You have to perform a special magical ritual to get a door to open.
Speaker: That's very point and click. It is. But think in these kind of hybrid games, like there's always going to be something like that. i But it does feel like a mystery to me. I've always felt that way when playing Gabriel Knight, and it's why I love it so much. Pushing up roses, don't say I never gave you anything anything, okay? Because I'm going to allow it!
Speaker: ah did But it is it is on the edge. It is on the edge between point and click and mystery. So my next three, I think, are all three games that you haven't you haven't played.
Speaker: Probably not. I'm going to have to sell you on them. for it. Number one, so my number three, ready ah is The Forgotten City.
Speaker: I have not played that. That is correct. This game is fantastic. It is, um okay, this game was originally a Skyrim mod.
Speaker: I can tell by looking at it, yes. And eventually the creators wanted to really like expand on it a little bit and cut out things like like like the majority of like the combat and all the Skyrim-y stuff, right? yeah And just focus on the mystery here. So what happens is you find yourself, rather than an a rather than in a dwarven, ancient dwarven city or whatever in Skyrim, in the commercially released version called the Forgotten City, you find yourself in...
Speaker: a
Speaker: pocket and like ah like like a little a little time pocket. It is a city from ancient Rome that has been caught in a time loop for 2000 years.
Speaker: um And the thing is there is a list of sins that can't be committed in this in the city as told by the gods and if a sin is committed basically something horrible happens to everybody
Speaker: somewhere during this day somebody commits a sin and the world ends their city is destroyed um in a pretty crazy way and So you have to live this time loop over and over and over again to interrogate characters, to observe events, right? Like, oh, now I know where this person is going to be at this time.
Speaker: So I'm going to get there first during the next loop and watch them and see what they do, see where they go or see what where they just came from or whatever. Okay. Yes? Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, i'm no, I'm just saying I'm with you. I can understand where you're coming from. So you're also going, you're also like, you also sort of ah uncover various secrets about people in the town, but then you do have to uncover the big final secret, which has a very interesting, um thoughtful, meta, not metatextual, but um layered, textually layered ending. Yeah.
Speaker: But it is, you are solving a mystery. Now, this falls a little bit under a different category, the Metroid-brainia, Myst-like category. But I think it fits better under mystery.
Speaker: Yeah. from what you're At least from what you're telling me, I would agree with that. Because it's not like you can, even if you know the answer, it's not like you can, I don't think you can just go right into the game and solve it right away. I think there are still steps you have to take. I don't,
Speaker: It's been a while since I played it, so it might be more Metroid-brainy. But i felt I remember it more as a mystery that I was solving, and there's a lot of clue-finding, a lot of interrogation, a lot of observing, a lot of... yeah Like I said, there's going to be hybrid stuff in these kind of more niche genres, so that makes sense to me.
Speaker: So that's The Forgotten City. Okay, cool. ah So the last one i have we've both i have four ah so last one I have that we've both played, and you can push back on it if you really want, but it's Paranormacite, The Seven Mysteries of Honjo.
Speaker: Now, that game started ter it started out terrifying to me. That's so scary. I've never been so frightened in my entire life to interact with my mouse and my screen. It was it was not good. I thought it was going to be driven by horror, but it to my...
Speaker: I felt that after that kind of calmed down, after I wasn't so scared, I really felt like I was unraveling a mystery in this game. It felt like I was talking to quirky characters. I understand that this is also visual novel. Yeah, that's where I might put Yeah, I totally get that.
Speaker: ah But the feeling I got from it was solving mysteries. It's very information heavy. I think one of the most information heavy games i've I've ever played. And it felt like I was a detective looking over my books and like...
Speaker: and like looking over articles and documents and learning about this rich. yeah Yeah. Yeah. I really felt that way. And I know it's, it's a hybrid. We could probably put it in visual novel, but I think visual novels also have genres. And if we're doing something as kind of open ended as a mystery, i do think paranormal site is a mystery. i do feel like we were going back and forth. We were going to different locations. We were talking to people.
Speaker: Personally, I think it's a little more involved than just a visual novel. That's just my that's my opinion. hu But you can push back on it. Yeah. I mean, i Bowl of Lentils, YouTuber, will agree would agree with you here that we misuse the term visual novel in the United States. And they're not wrong. um And you're not wrong. it's yeah but i just think i think like we're I feel like we're doing more than just a classic visual novel in this game.
Speaker: But I feel like if I were to throw this into one of these categories, if it was like, recommend me a mystery game and a visual novel and... and I want one of each.
Speaker: I don't think I would recommend Paranormacite and then a different visual novel, right? Like I think i would recommend a mystery game and then say Paranormacite as the visual novel. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, obviously, it could I just don't think it's advancing. Like, I think leave it on your list because i totally see what you mean. I think it does. i think you do need to do certain things to advance it No, sorry. I'm saying I don't think it's advancing to the show list. Oh. That's what I'm saying. Like, I'm not just going to disagree with it being on your list. Okay, sorry. I was ready to pass. No, no. i I agree with you on that. I don't think it's going to move on because i I do think it falls more under visual and I think we're going to be talking about that game again. That's fine. That's fine. Totally fine. Do you want to hear my last two?
Speaker: Yes. You haven't played them but number ah four is Chicken Police. chicken police oh how cute I do want to play that game though because it looks really good it is really good so you play a year it's so noir right you play a down and out um ah detective god i can't even remember what your name is I think it's like detective chicken it is ah it is a chicken pun yeahm think it's a chicken pun your name is sunny but I can't remember what your last name is and then
Speaker: you have to team team back up with your old cop buddy to solve a mystery. And it's it's just like ah ah a woman walks, a mysterious woman walks into your office and she has a mystery to solve and the mystery ends up being much deeper and she ends up you know being part of it, right? Yeah, yeah. Just straight up,
Speaker: Noir mystery shit. it's all It's almost all black and white, but there's little shocks of color here. here and there I love this recommendation. Honestly, this is a really good one. Little shocks of color here for um ah mostly the color red for emphasis. um Except for certain things like the the woman's eyes are green and like certain things like that. She's a cat. but i left out the most important part here.
Speaker: All of them have ah animal heads. Yeah. That is you true. You're a chicken. Your partner's a chicken. The woman that comes in is a cat. like there you There's a woman with an alligator head. There's a there's like There's a police. ah yeah I think the police chief is a dog. There's a there's a rat who's a rat. um I did play the demo. I think we talked about this kind of a long time ago when a new demo came out and I did really like it. And I like this is probably going to advance in my opinion.
Speaker: It's so there is an argument to be made that this is more visual novel, because the way that this story progresses is not by you testing your conclusions. It is by.
Speaker: um it it it is linear. it It's as a matter of course. Right. And then I go do this and then I go do this and then I go do this. Right. You don't have much control over the progression of the story. But.
Speaker: but the main mechanic here is investigating you taking, letting, you know, the character takes down notes, but you should probably take down notes as a player too. And then as you are interrogating somebody, it is like,
Speaker: you have to make a decision of what you're going to ask and when and how, and based on, That sequence you can do better or worse at the interrogation and get more or less information.
Speaker: Yeah. So... Your interrogation skills are entirely based on your read of the character and the things that you know so far. So it is you are making deductions in that way. And then you are one other aspect is that occasionally you go review the case and you look at your evidence and you look at the information you have and you make connections. Yeah.
Speaker: So that's why I would say it's a mystery game for those reasons. Yeah. And I do think there is an argument for the tone of a game yeah well. Like ah that the reason I push so hard for Gabriel Knight one is because a lot of the tone is unique yeah in this point and click. So I think there's an argument for that for sure. And you have, you have five. I have one more. it is a game that I love. Yeah.
Speaker: It is called Paradise Killer. And it is a neon fever dream of a game. You play a woman named Lady Love Dies in this bizarre god world that is about to end. These gods live for a certain amount of time. They create a new world. They live for a certain amount of time. And then they...
Speaker: End the world and start a new one. And you are, I think, on like the last few days of this world's existence. And you have been in jail for a very long time, but they pull you out because you're the best detective amongst them. And so you are going around interrogating, you're you're finding clues and you're interrogating all these insane characters. Nice.
Speaker: um That are all so deeply horny. Why haven't I played this? I don't understand. this like This looks like a game that I would love. You would love it. It's so good. don't even understand. And at any point you can go in front of the like trial council. So what happened is one of the guys, a God was killed. A God was murdered and um somebody was arrested and they, not everybody believes that person is guilty.
Speaker: Okay. um So at any point you can go to the council and say, I'm ready and make your deductions. Okay.
Speaker: And you basically pick from a series of, you like answer a series of questions. It's like, all right, who did the killing? And then you have every character in front of you and you select why or who, and then it asks why. And you have a series of things that you can say, like a long list of things you can say so that like you have to know, right? You can't just guess.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. And fuck, it's good. It's so good. That's awesome. I don't know why it never got the... I don't think it got the plaudits it deserved. um And I can see why it's like a little it's a little weirdly structured. um it's very It's a very specific style. Also, the Navig...
Speaker: the navigation here is kind of Metroidvania-y where you um get different traversal mechanics like a double jump and an air dash and those help you reach different clues that you couldn't reach before. So there is some Metroidvania-y stuff here and I can imagine playing this game and being like, I don't want to do that.
Speaker: sure um I just want to interrogate the characters or whatever. And that might be why it never got the... Again, the plaudits that I think it deserved. But I think it's an an awesome story. Amazing characters. Really cool art style. And an interesting mystery that ah unravels through just kind of like ah organic, like you interrogate people and you have to figure it out. You have to figure it out. The game's not going to figure it out for you at all.
Speaker: yeah You can have, you can have found every piece of evidence and exhausted every dialogue option in the game. And that's not going to make you just know you have to sit and think about it.
Speaker: That's kind of why I, in you describing this, that's why I mentioned Dagger. Because same, you can find everything. You can listen to everything. You can find anything. That doesn't mean you know.
Speaker: That doesn't mean you'll you'll pass the test on the end of Dagger, you know? but I'll say, Paradise Killer, there's no puzzles to solve other than this. You can just go, like, you can, you'll learn other information about the characters that's interesting. I think though the conclusions that you can make with the characters are really interesting. um the story is really fascinating and the world is fascinating to discover, but you could go at the beginning of the game. If you know the answers, you could go straight to the council and just do your shit. I think maybe you have to have evidence that you point to. I'm very confused as to how I ever play. I think you made a a super good point in that it doesn't look like your typical mystery game. It it looks...
Speaker: you know It looks kind of like a visual novel, and it's got that kind of um like Japanese look to it, almost like Danganronpa.
Speaker: Yeah. like it's a little It looks a little Danganronpa. It looks a little... It looks horny, yeah. and It looks horny. It is very horny. And it looks a little um persona, too. also Persona also. um The characters are static images, two d images sitting in 3D backgrounds. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah So, yeah. Very, very cool game. Paradise Killer. so yeah I'm excited. I'm going to play it. Okay. I think I'm going to. Yeah, this is tough, but I am going to. The third one, I think, is the most tough because I'm going to go ahead.
Speaker: and I think I know. i think we're going to both agree on Sands of Blake Manor and Colonel's bequest. Yes, I was going to push for. I didn't think I had to because I think we both understand that that is a mystery game.
Speaker: Yes. like through and through And the great thing about Colonel's Bequest for a new player is even if you mess up, you still get an ending. let's Just try again. Really, it's it's yeah great in that way. ah Definitely Stance of Lake Manor.
Speaker: I struck Gabriel Knight in Paranormicite. Because they both fall under other categories too. Because they're little more hybrid, even though I stand by what I what i said. I'm going strike Forgotten City. It's an incredible game, but it just doesn't stand up mystery-wise to the other games on this list.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Now, I don't, I'm having trouble. So we could strike Tangle Tower for the same reasons you struck Gabriel Knight and Karen Norma's side. I think we should. They fought it all. But it's not going to be one of our our deduction games, I don't think. No, it's not. That's what's going to frustrate me, is if we strike Tangle Tower, it's gone forever. We can't all make it, Matt. I know. right, let's strike Tangle Tower. Let's strike it.
Speaker: i i i'm policing I'm a little conflicted because I think Noire, I know you haven't played it, is a mystery game through and through, but it's on the same level as kind of Chicken Police. it's ah It really it it exudes...
Speaker: mystery But at the same time, Paradise Killer seems to have more mechanics. Well, I don't know. Noire probably has the most mechanic of mystery mechanics. Yeah. Paradise Killer. I think I love Paradise Killer. I i want to be Paradise Killer's cheerleader forever. But yeah i think if we're talking straight up mystery.
Speaker: hmm.
Speaker: I don't know, because you do make the conclusion at the end, whereas Chicken Police is a little more visual novel. Yeah, I think it's between Paradise Killer and L.A. Noire.
Speaker: OK, both have mystery elements. If you're asking me, I think L.A. Noire has more mystery mechanic and is a heart. It's it exudes mystery, right?
Speaker: I don't I don't know. I don't know which one to pick, because unfortunately, we haven't played each other's each other's games tough so this is tough how do we come up with a third a number three should we just uh flip a coin let's just say this for new people i'll go with paradise killer
Speaker: Because I think it'll be more accessible for people. And because L.A. Noire, because it is a rock star, it does have those like GTA elements to it. It is a mystery game. Don't get me wrong. But you're going to have to chase murderers and stuff like that and like shoot them. So for the sake of this list, I will say Paradise Killer. And I'm going to say you may play Paradise Killer.
Speaker: I definitely am going to play L.A. Noire. Yeah. And maybe we could revisit this list someday yeah we once we've played those games and maybe we'll be like, what the fuck were we thinking? um This is all in fun, you guys. So we're not going to make it through us. We're not going to make it through every genre today. i think should we do two or three? sure Let's do two more and then we'll see what time we are at. Yeah, we're definitely going to get to the next one, and we should because it is slightly connected. yeah So we absolutely should follow. So we've already talked about it one a bunch of times, but ah it's it's the deduction game. This is sort of a subgenre of mystery games, but it is very distinct, I think. I think it is, too.
Speaker: It is a game in which the player investigates scenes... In order to draw conclusions that the game does not supply. Yeah. um You know, where it's not like the the character doesn't come up with the conclusions on their own. You have to. There's just data that you have to string together yourself. Progress is made out of game by the player's own deductions and then tested through mechanisms of suggesting conclusions within the game.
Speaker: okay So can we crafting sentences. Can we get one out of the way, like real quick? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it Golden Idol? Yeah, it's Case of the Golden Idol. Of course it is. Let's put that on there because we align.
Speaker: That is like the deduction game, in my opinion. It is all deduction. Ooh, I'm sorry. i hit my mic. It is all deduction. Yeah. That's the mechanic. You're using your brain meats.
Speaker: I've never played anything like it. Give him a rundown of Case of the Golden Idol. ah So, yeah, these games kind of... The first game went over my radar. I played it on your suggestion. And when I did, I was... ah ah just so pleasantly delighted. So right ah remember, we streamed this game and you kind of because I've never played a game like this with mechanics like this, you had to kind of nudge me in certain directions. But just as a basic mechanic, you are given a screen with something happening on it.
Speaker: And based on that screen, you collect clues in the form of keywords. um What's a good example of a keyword? ah Dead? i don't. t Yeah. um Stole.
Speaker: Stole. Yeah. Adjectives, verbs, ah and those keywords you use in your deductions. And proper nouns too. Proper nouns. Like people's names. um Yeah. Yeah. You are truly, truly using deductive skills to identify people, to identify what happened in the scene. You are not walking around. That's not the the kind of game this is.
Speaker: ah You are given screens with something happening on it, and it is your a job to deduce what happened in this scene. and they're all and And then they all kind of connect into one kind of overarching story. I have never played a game like this ah to the to the point of like I didn't quite even know how to play it until we played it. So at the end of...
Speaker: Or not even at the end, but like along with each scene, you get a Mad Lib that has a ton of blanks and you have to fill it in. And it'll be like, to it'll be blank, blank in the blank because he blank went not. It wouldn't even say he because blank, blank when blank blanked the blank. Right. And then you have to find all the words to fill that in. And it is that it gives you that little.
Speaker: You have to understand exactly what happened and build it out of the words that you find in the scene. It's hard. Man, I found, I found, I found, but it's rewarding too at the same time. And i don't want to say it's just in case people haven't played it.
Speaker: It's not words. It's not like literal words are hidden in the scene. Like it's like you click on a guy ah and it says you click on a dead body and it'll say dead body. Or yeah, if you find Jeff's ID, then it'll say Jeff. say jeff and um yeah Or There's not words floating around the screen. Yeah. If you see a knife in somebody's back, you'll get the word stabbed. Right? like Yeah. yeah um and And it basically takes place in... but so Case of the Golden Idol and Rise of the Golden Idol are the two games. there
Speaker: They are about following this... cursed idol yeah through time and all of the
Speaker: all the trickery That characters, you know, subject each other to, to be cut to come in possession of the idol. All the crazy things people do with the idol um to seek power. um There's murders, there's theft, there's...
Speaker: there's um There's cults that form. There's political power that's that's stolen. And then Rise of the go and Golden Idol moves it like 100 years into the future. So like kind of our present. um Where Case the Golden Idol is is in, I don't know, 1800s or something.
Speaker: um It's also a parallel universe. there's it's Not everything about that world is the same as ours. But um similar enough that yeah it's going to be familiar. Anyway.
Speaker: Yeah. um So good. All right. The goat. it It really is. like I'm saying that word a lot, but I really feel that way about the Golden Idol games. I think they do deduction maybe better than and any other game that I've even listed here. So I'm going to give my second one just because everybody' everybody's to expect it.
Speaker: It's Return of the Obra Dinn. Okay. I don't like that game. So I didn't play that one. Interesting. So this is a game, this is sort of the birth of this genre.
Speaker: Yeah. Return of the Obra Dinn is where this all started. What happens is you are a tax person who is sent to a boat...
Speaker: That has just kind of floated into harbor and none none of the crew survived the voyage. um So you just have a boat full of dead bodies.
Speaker: And your job is to go around and identify everybody on the ship. You have a list of names. You have a photograph of the entire crew. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: You have a list of jobs and a list of ways that a person can die. And you basically just string them together.
Speaker: You have to figure out who every, you have to find every person, figure out who they were, what their job was, which portrait is theirs and what, um and how they died.
Speaker: um As you do this, you have this like magic pocket pocket watch. And you, so when you happen upon a body, you can pick up your magic pocket watch and you will be transported to the exact moment of their death.
Speaker: Right. So the moment a bullet enters their brain, for example, and then you can walk around this scene In 3D, it's a one-bit game, so it is just two colors.
Speaker: that's I think that's where I struggle with it, to be honest. It is three d it is a 3D game, and it is two colors. And so you can walk around this world in this scene from the past, and you can see who's holding the gun.
Speaker: That's being fired when the bullet is entering the person's brain. Right? Yeah. But some of these deaths are way more complicated than that. Right? um And what's even more interesting is so you are in this scene.
Speaker: You're but able to walk anywhere you want to on the boat as this, you know, again, a bullet's entering a brain and a guy is holding a gun. But then as you're walking around the boat, you find a different dead body that...
Speaker: in the memory, in the past. And you pick up your pocket watch and you go even deeper. You go one memory deeper. And so you're kind of stringing together the entire history of the Obra Dinn. And there's a lot of weird shit that happened on this boat. yeah um A lot of it's supernatural and it is it is fucking, it's such a good story. It is such a good puzzle.
Speaker: um And again, this is this is sort of what sparked the deduction genre yeah i will say also the progress is made by if you have three conclusions entirely correct right job right name right death who if you have three of those it'll tell you it it'll confirm those for you Um, so you can't just test everything against everything, you know, I'm seeing you moved it over to our number two. i got it. I got to give it props. Like I didn't like it, but the reasons I didn't like it are they're not going to align with other people like at all. Um, I think it's an amazing example of a deduction game and it does it perfectly because It hurts my eyes. It gives me a headache. I can't get through it. Some of the things are are were so difficult for me and I kept getting kind of a migraine at just, again, just looking at it. So my reasons for disliking it are not going align with yours, but credit where credit's due, right?
Speaker: I will say this. If it does give you a headache, I can totally understand that. You can change the colors. Yeah. At any point, both the the two colors, yeah ah there's a list of colors you can change it to that might help. But like some people for a higher contrast will be better. Some people a yeah softer contrast will be better. But for some people, it's just going to give them a headache no matter what.
Speaker: It's just tough because it's also like first person. So I'm already feeling a little queasy. And requires so much thinking. It does, yeah. um Like this this game gave me a headache and I loved it.
Speaker: It gave me a headache because I had migraine because i had to think so hard about some of these things. This is one of those games, like Myst maybe, where at some point I'm like hitting my head like, if I was just 5% smarter.
Speaker: If I could just scale that wall. if i was All right. What's your number what's your number two? ah My number two is Contradiction. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah. Contradiction. ah Which is an fmb game live-acted FMV game. FMV game. This another game you've told me so many times. I should i would love it.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's it's very funny. It's very campy. i think it's very memeable. People really liked the actors in this game. And i like the way it works deduction wise. So it's interrogate. At first glance, you might put it in mystery because there is a lot of interrogation. But the way you need to progress is you need to catch people in contradictions. Okay. And you need to deduce why it's a contradiction if they said something else. It is very deductive.
Speaker: It's very, very corny. and i think it's great. I think it's so unique. Like compare this game to the other games we just talked about, right? I think it is very unique in terms of a deduction game that is using live actors and ah interesting, like, you know, catching, essentially catching people in a lie, but it is also using the deduction mechanic. um I don't want to say too much more about it because it is so like...
Speaker: visual okay you'll get a lot from it just by looking it up honestly just by looking up but you you play kind of this quirky detective character and he yeah he interrogates people very in this kind of funny way i believe you are on maybe i should look this up first i believe you are in the english countryside okay okay
Speaker: I'm trying to figure this out. Why is there an age appropriate thing on? Really? On contradiction? Is it interesting? Okay. That's very strange. um never Let's see. Does it say where it's set? Okay.
Speaker: does not say off It does not say on Steam where it is set, but I believe it is in the English countryside. Okay. okay But yeah, I think the only difference between this game and the games that we're talking about is you are moving freely about.
Speaker: Kind of. You're kind moving, you're kind of moving, Sally, about in that weird FMV like rendered background like kind of way. So okay it is interesting. Yeah, it's an adventure game, but it is deduction in mechanic. And I recommend it. I think it's I definitely was underappreciated.
Speaker: I definitely want to play it at some point. Yeah, and the reason I put it in deduction is because that's the main thing you need to do to get anywhere at all. Okay, okay.
Speaker: um My next one is a game called The Incident at Galley House. Oh, yeah. why why You forgot the last year of games. What's wrong with me? It's a good one, Matt. It's a good one.
Speaker: it's ah So we talked about it, and that we have a whole episode about it. You are in charge of this um this seance kind of machine that um will, if you pick the right person, the right room, all the right people, and the right room, and the right fragment of time,
Speaker: ah Like, man, that that is incomprehensible. Hold on. Let's start again. In terms of that tends to the game in which... Okay.
Speaker: So you have seance machine. What you're trying to do is you're trying to... like conjure in your, but like using this machine, this machine will create like an image in your mind of moments that have happened in this house. If you can find the exact, the exact people that were in an exact room at an exact time and you get all three of those correct.
Speaker: you will see that scene. And you're trying to basically unlock each of these scenes to find out why there is a house in that in 1936, a bunch of they found a a bunch of people, like 15 people, I think dead inside of it. and no one knew who any of the people were.
Speaker: and in fact, everybody thought this house was abandoned. And at the moment that you see a scene, you realize that something's fucked up about that.
Speaker: they Like, this just can't be true. um And so you're just you're just viewing scenes. And you're testing conclusions by, again, using this mechanic where it's like, okay, I know this person left this room and said they were going over here. Right.
Speaker: And I know from this other scene that I watched that this person was going to be in that room for a while. So maybe during this time fragment, both those are the only two people in this room. And then you set that to the thing and you pull the the lever and you see a scene. um So you have to continuously make deductions um and in a very unique way, very different than the way that other deduction games up to this point have worked.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. This is a bit of ah an outlier, but it is deduction. That is exactly what you're doing. It just has a more unique way of doing it. This by the same developer as the Root Trees are Dead, I just couldn't, I don't know. just think Incident in a Galley, which, and Root Trees are Dead is a little more line with the genre, but man, Incident in a Galley House was so good. was good. Yeah, it was good. was really fun. Yeah.
Speaker: and i think ah And I think it solidly belongs in Deduction Game. Sure. Yeah, I agree. I agree that that is where it belongs. Okay. All right. I have two more. have four for this one.
Speaker: I put Duck techck duck Detective on my list. Is that yours too? No, I just knew it would. You just knew? Well, I have Duck Detective on here. i have Duck duckt Detective. Which one do you have?
Speaker: ah In general, the first one. Yeah, the secret of the salami or something. Yes. Yeah, I have it on here. i had it kind of low on my list.
Speaker: But okay, tell tell people about Duck Detective. So Duck Detective is what I think is a more accessible way to play deduction games. it is funny. It's hard-boiled, once again.
Speaker: Looking at you type it on the on the document. What? What? what's What did I do? ah Matt is now calling Duck Detective Salami Boys. a hunt don't remember. Also the name of my band, coincidentally. don't remember what it's called. The Salami Boys. The Salami Boys.
Speaker: So Duck Detective, interestingly, unlike the case of Golden Idol, as an example, Duck Detective is a hybrid point and click and you are playing third person. You are playing Eugene, the Duck Detective. He's on hard times. He's very hard boiled. He has a bread addiction.
Speaker: it is very funny. These games are very funny and very solidly voice acted. The mechanic, however... is very case of Golden Idol, where you are once again trying to identify people, ah figure out what their like motivations are, and get these keywords that you can then use to string deductions together. I think this is very much a deduction game. Agreed. um Just simply because that's the the mechanic that we're using. You can also quack at any time.
Speaker: uh which i think is very valuable it's very funny and you can knock every you can knock shit over it's which the design is like very angry the design is like you're a bunch of stickers on a on a 3d scene yeah um but it's it's very cute it's very silly um I think these games are just peak cartoony voice acting.
Speaker: Like Animaniacs energy. Very like just so over the top. I truly have a great time playing these games.
Speaker: And I do think these deductions are easier than Case of the Golden Idol. So I think it is a little more accessible to maybe somebody who's never ever played a deduction game. Yeah.
Speaker: I think that's true. um um Before we go on to my last one, i want to know what your fourth is. My fourth you may push back on a little bit, and it may fit better somewhere else, but I'll get your opinion on it. I put her i put her story on here. Huh, yeah. waste um Her story is is an interesting one because it's kind of an immersive s sim.
Speaker: Yeah. It's kind of also just a mystery, but I do think you are... Kind of on your own in this game, the way you are on your own in case of the Golden Idol, you're just using different media to get where you need to be. so in her story, you're just on a computer, you're on a computer and you're watching clips of an interrogation.
Speaker: of of this woman who is like, ah like almost giving like ah a deposition of sorts. And ah you need to use, it's kind of like a search engine, right? Based on what she's saying. Like let let's say she says the word a camera, like she's using a camera. You can then go into the directory, type camera and see if any other clips come up related to that. And hopefully it is related.
Speaker: I don't know. what What is your opinion on that being in the deduction category? I think we're going to do, i think probably we'll do one more category before we close out today. And I think maybe it belongs in that category. I think it's more of an immersive sim, right? Like I think because the things that you are doing, you are taking on the role of a person doing those things. Yes.
Speaker: Um, I can see. i There is a lot of deduction here. Yeah, you can but see where are you can see where I'm coming from. But you also could be... You could also make zero deductions and just type in every word that you hear and still progress in that game. Okay. Yeah, fair. there um You wouldn't have a good time.
Speaker: You'd get to the end and be like, I don't know what happened. was a terrible time. don't know. What the fuck? Yeah. um My last one here is Chance of Cinar. Okay. I have not played that one, but I know that you really like that game.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think it's going to advance for that reason. um But it is a game where you are... um God, i don't I don't even remember the setup here, but you are in this fantasy world um that is set up... this This Tower of Babel-esque fantasy world where um each cast...
Speaker: of this society lives on a different level of this tower. And each of them speak a different language. And you start as a guy who ah kind of doesn't speak any language, um but you have a little book and you see somebody say, point to a lever and and make a noise that has a like little symbol that pops up on the screen to represent that noise.
Speaker: um And then you, it points to the lever and you go ah over and you pull the lever. And so, you know, what he was saying was pull. um And then you come to a button and that guy is there again. And he says, you know, another little noise.
Speaker: And what you have to do is push the buttons. You know what he said was push. right and over And like Return of the Obra Dinn, you have to get a certain number of these.
Speaker: So with he will draw a picture of the thing in his notebook, and then you will have a series of symbols, and you have to match the drawings with the symbols. Then later, you will learn a different language that has some analogous words, but some things are different.
Speaker: Like, for example, there might be a a little, um there might be something that makes words plural in this new language. And you have to figure that out.
Speaker: And you're progressing up this tower, solving little puzzles, but these puzzles can only be solved if you understand the language. So you're putting together this language, and when you get three of them correct, ah it'll confirm it for you. Okay. So you're slowly putting together, i think, four different languages all at the same time to try and progress up this tower. is...
Speaker: it is very heavily inspired by the myth of the Tower of Babel. Sure, sure. But it's beautiful. It's a beautiful 3D game with these like um very singular palettes.
Speaker: Each tier of the city has a completely heit completely different color palette, a completely different um architectural style and design sense. Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know. It's so unique and it's so beautiful. And it does look beautiful. I got it's got to give it that. It's very touching. And that that this style of puzzle is just so it's just such a unique way to do this style of puzzle. And I think it's really, really incredible.
Speaker: um Now.
Speaker: We've got Case of the Golden Idol and Return of the Obra Dinn. You've already put those in there. And I agree with both of those. You've already put those for the show. feel like we probably would do Duck Detective as number three.
Speaker: but let's let's just toss around Galleyhouse for a second. Yeah, yeah. um My only qualm with, like, I would recommend Galleyhouse all day to more of a seasoned player.
Speaker: I think this game is a little tough. I think the user interface is a little tough. I struggled with it, and I play a lot of mystery and deduction games. Yeah. um I don't know if I would recommend this for a beginner. It's a lot. It is a lot to throw. It's a very complex game. I think I would throw Duck Detective at somebody before Galleyhouse.
Speaker: And I think a lot of people not I know you were, and I think there's... It's not a... um This is a very well-reviewed game, a very well-loved game. yeah, yeah. It's good. But...
Speaker: ah And this is not unanimous, but I think it is, there's a lot of people who were not happy with the resolution of this game. Sure. That felt like there was either more to do, or there should have been a better explanation, or the explanation didn't fully explain events.
Speaker: I mean, I was there with some of that at least. Remember? I'm like, oh, goodness. Yes. Yeah, and i i'm I'm fine with the explanation. i just think they could have done more. So I think there are some ways that Incident Galley House could be improved. Look, if they do two DLCs of this game and let us see the who the very beginnings. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Of this. ah God, how do I say it without spoiling anything? The very beginnings of why this all happened. Like the very beginnings. And the other incident that is alluded to. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: and it reveals like a maybe more satisfying conclusion, then this game incident galley house might be, might overtake return. Oprah didn't for me. Like it's so but as it is now, i think, I think we go with duck detective salami boys.
Speaker: Salami. What's the actual, if we're going to do that, what's the actual case of the, I'll, I'll look it up. Hang on. The case of the stolen, stolen salami, the secret salami.
Speaker: The case of the secret salami? No, just oh just the secret The secret salami. Okay. Yes. So what do you say we do one more genre and then we go to sleep because this is a long one? And then.
Speaker: Okay. So the immersive sim is, I would argue, a type of adventure game um because I think it's usually, I mean, there are immersive sims that are not adventure games. But- So maybe we'll call it the adverse in immersive sim adventure. I don't know.
Speaker: and i don't know. Let's just throw our things out there and that'll give us an idea of what we're talking about. It's just like there's immersive sims that are like gun shooting games and stuff. You know what i mean? So like this is a specific type of immersion sims. They're first-person games in which the primary interactions work through simulated systems that exist within the game's world. The character and player actions are directly analogous, and the challenge comes from solving problems through creative use of those systems. So if the character has to pull a lever...
Speaker: you're grabbing the lever with a mouse click and you're pulling down on it. Right. If the character, um, you know, if the character is a, a shopkeeper, you are sitting behind the counter encountering. Right.
Speaker: Person after person. And you are, you know, if the character has to research something, you have to pick up a book and read to yeah research it. So, um, Why don't you start this one? This is such a this was a hard genre for me. i wrote down four. don't know if I'll use all four.
Speaker: but i did i did I wrote down four, but then I did get to five later. um So I have five, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. don't know. My first one is Strange Horticulture. I think that is an immersive sim. Yes, I agree. ah I was kind of late on playing this game, but when I finally did play it, I loved it. ah So you are ah a shopkeeper of a plant store. You're in a plant store. And people come in. to buy certain plants that might help them with woes that they're having. Right. So somebody might have trouble sleeping. So you would look up lavender and try to find them like a lavender plant. Um,
Speaker: To me, this is simulation because it is simulating being that shopkeep while also kind of following a storyline by talking to the characters. It's very segmented. It's very like every day you wake up, you do a lot of the same things.
Speaker: um I really loved this game. i loved the tone. I just loved keeping shop. And to be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to put this or Strange Antiquities on here. Yeah. But you know what? Strange Horticulture got me more into this genre than I ever had been.
Speaker: So I got to give it to Strange Horticulture. And I know that's probably on your list. i It put it on my list. Here's what I did. i put both of them on my list. um I put Strange Antiquities as my number one.
Speaker: And then Strange Horticulture I put a little later. So I also had Strange Horticulture, but Strange Antiquities is just a better game, I think. But plants. The mysteries are so interesting in Strange Antiquities. The...
Speaker: the The way that you research is so much more complex in Strange anticipat Antiquities. And I like the story of Strange Antiquities a little better. I just think Strange Antiquities is... Have you gone back to Strange Horticulture since you played Strange Antiquities? No.
Speaker: i i I did, and I felt like it was a step down. like I was like, oh, where's all my stuff? Where's all the cool stuff? Where's all my stuff? I didn't recognize it as being as rudimentary as it was. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker: So Strange Antiquities is very similar. You um are... I think you're also in the same town, the same creepy city called under mayor, um, under mirror. And, ah instead of,
Speaker: giving people plants to solve their problems or giving them ah artifacts, strange artifacts to solve their problems. The problem is I like plants. So I don't know what to do with that. That's a pretty good argument. I know. Thank you. I should have been a lawyer. I don't know what I'm doing here. um All right. What's your number two?
Speaker: I don't know if this counts. I put hotiful boyfriend. Yeah, a dating sim is interesting. Dating sims are simulators. They are. like they're not visual I don't think they're visual novels because you're doing too much to date people. I think it is a dating simulation. It does feel like I'm dating. It's just in this game, you're dating pigeons.
Speaker: So like ah i don't I don't know how you can say no to that. you know I'm not going to say no. i haven't played it. I'm not going to say no. I mean, i don't know.
Speaker: But what you're not like, huh.
Speaker: Are you planning dates? and like Tell me tell me how the how do you play Hot Up Full Boyfriend? I'm not going to say no to it. I'm i'm letting it on your list.
Speaker: But I'm just curious about it. I've never played it. Have you played Honey Pop? No. Dang it. and Now I have nothing to like... Well, so I know what a dating sim is like, um but I just wonder, like, how does this one work specifically?
Speaker: I believe this one works by going to find different birds. And sounds so stupid. And date them. And date them, yes. ah And, like, get it – you know And there's like dialogue trees. You can like interrogate them and ask them questions to see which pigeon like you i you like the most. and like I remember there's a scene where like there's two pigeons arguing and you have to like break up that argument. And that dictates like if you're on somebody's good side or not.
Speaker: I think dating sims are simulation games. I think this feels like we're on dates with birds. Yeah. Yeah. Like you plan dates. You go on dates with pigeons.
Speaker: It's funny. It's kind of like honey it's like it's like Honey Pop. Maybe even Honey Pop might be is that the reason I'm not doing Honey Pop is because that's meant to be a different kind of game. ah Right. It is. a Maybe even a one handed game.
Speaker: Yes. You know what, though? Maybe Honey Pop, by definition, is more of a dating simulation game because you are going date on you're not only going on dates, you're not only planning dates with women, you are also getting them into your bedroom.
Speaker: I love women and I love my bedroom. And we love our bedroom. ah But it's a little naughty, so ah put Hateful Boyfriend on there instead. Yeah.
Speaker: i just like I'm not going to argue it. um All right. My number two is her story. Okay. I am with you on that. that's why That's kind of why I was like, let's cross it off of deduction because her story You are just sitting at a computer typing in words into a search engine. You're searching the terms and you're viewing the footage. You are completely immersed in this world um to the point where when so there's ah one thing that happens at the end of this game that like breaks the sequence of the things you're doing and you're kind of so kind of sucked in it like takes you by surprise in a really ah kind of shocking way.
Speaker: Yeah, I actually am very aligned with you. I'm going to add that to mine and I'm going to add it to the show as well because I think we're aligned. Yeah, I think we're aligned. I think we're aligned. We're going to have to or argue about horticulture versus and antiquities, but we're aligned on her story. Okay.
Speaker: ah So for my fourth one, so yeah it's it is now going to be my fourth one because her story I have added as we went. Okay. I put, no, I'm not a human.
Speaker: I think that's a simulation game. I think much like strange horticulture, you're simply in more of a horse and a horror situation. You're in your house.
Speaker: And you are testing people over and over again to see if they are, what are they called again? They're not, is it intruder? are they called intruders? Yeah.
Speaker: visitors Visitors? Yeah, yeah. To see if they're did evil monster people, essentially. Yeah. That feels very, more than other genres, because it's not a point and click. It is not a visual novel. There's too many mechanics for it to be a visual novel for me.
Speaker: ah To me, it is a simulation. ah You're simply simulating a horrific situation that you are in Yeah, i i think it i think as this is, we are kind of using our own definition of immersive sim.
Speaker: And I think that, sure I think, no, I'm not a human definitely fits. um If you search like immersive sim on Steam or whatever,
Speaker: gonna find a lot of day of sex i will do it right now i will do it right now yeah what you have day of sex more like am i right day of fishing game a driving game a dating sim a the romance of the three kingdoms is on here house flipper ah What's the... That hole digging game. um Power wash simulator. Yeah. Coffee talk. Like, there's a lot of different types of simulation, but I think as long as it's got that redundancy to it, you are, you know... And I think we are talking about these games that...
Speaker: Because we're talking about adventure games. We're talking about games that ah tell a story with this. Yeah, we are. Tell a story with their mechanics. yeah And for that reason, my next game is going to be Papers, Please.
Speaker: Yeah, that makes sense. The story that it tells is with its mechanics. You are telling the story by doing the things that you're doing. You're stamping... pat what What you are is like... It's is very clearly like a USSR analog. um And you are a border pat border control agent who is in charge of stamping people's passports and letting them into the country. And you're having to... you You have to make sure they all conform to a certain amount of like a specific set of rules. And ah if they don't, you can get in trouble. So some but people might come with a really compelling sob story yeah and you want to let them through.
Speaker: so tough. If you do, you might get in trouble and lose your job. And like you get these scenes in between each day, each work day where your family is starving and needs medicine and the heater's broken. And like you were living in abject poverty and this is your only way to get money. But then some days during work, a terrorist comes in and and blows everybody up. So you're like, what do I value here? What do I It's really tough. It's it again, the immersion is the story. And I think that's really, it's really, really good. Yeah. I love, I love papers, please. And I'm confident in that to put it on, on our show rec.
Speaker: I think so too. I think everybody should play papers, please. Yeah, that's true. like ever Yes. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. Everyone should pay, play papers, please.
Speaker: So I'm going to strike my my last one because I actually put, I pretty much put her her story in there. i initially But I want you guys to know I initially put Dredge on here.
Speaker: Okay. Because that to me was very, very much a simulation. Mm-hmm. But I don't know how much I, but it's so hybrid.
Speaker: Even though I do think it simulates a very specific type of thing. It is a hybrid. It's a little horror. And what do you do with that? What do you do with like, man, is like every game can be a simulation game, right? If we don't draw lines and like,
Speaker: My line really is like kind of it falls in line with like redundancy. So am I doing something that's almost like that's almost like work, right? I think a lot of simulation game have like a work aspect to that, you know, in strange horticulture, strange antiquities. We are working every day. In Letters Lost, we are letter lost we are working every day. yeah ah In her story, we're just doing all this redundant work. In Dredge, there is a redundancy in which you are fishing every single day.
Speaker: ah But I think Dredge, even though I do think it is very like sim it is a simulation to me, it's still more of a hybrid, so I'm striking it. But i do i do think people should play Dredge, and I do think it has some simulation aspects to it.
Speaker: It is so funny, that the the ah Letter Lost thing. It's like, if we could do an anti-recommendation of our favorite. Stop it! Letter Lost is a favorite game of me and yours. We love this fucking game. I know, I can't. stop but neither of us would recommend it to anybody. We'd be like, do not play this game. i love it. So so if we did an anti-recommendation, the whole list is letter lost.
Speaker: um So my fifth one is a game that I don't know that I've ever talked about on the show, but I reviewed it for Adventure Gamers way back in the day. So that review is kind of lost to time. Yeah. I think it's probably it might still be there, but I don't recommend viewing it because Adventure Gamers is a terrible site now. um It's a game called Nuts.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. It's about two testicles that, no. I mean, I'm not surprised by anything you say, so.
Speaker: you No, Nuts is a game where you i you take a job in
Speaker: um Or or you're you're a grad student or something. Whatever the case, you're studying squirrels. there's a There's this area in which squirrels have been exhibiting kind of like weird behavior.
Speaker: And so what you do, you're in a van with a bunch of TVs. You set up three cameras and Each night or each day you go around and you set up three cameras. And then during the next day, you watch the footage of what happened during that night.
Speaker: And so you're trying to find, okay, so I saw some nuts over here. So I'm going like a stash of nuts here. So I am going to film that spot. And then um maybe I'll film this spot over there. And I'll just pick two random spots. Right. yeah yeah And then.
Speaker: you see the squirrel in that first camera during the next day. You see it jump into frame so and then out of frame. So now you're going to set camera two up from where it jumped from and set camera three where it jumped to so that you can kind of track the progress of this squirrel.
Speaker: yeah what What is going on with these squirrels? And you... you ah And when you find the thing you're looking for, that when you find the answer to your question, you so you send a so you fax a screen screen yeah a printed screenshot to your boss and they will tell you if you have sort of solved that mystery. If what you you know what you found seems like it answers the question they were looking yeah for you to answer.
Speaker: It's so good. It's just, it's so meditative and sweet. It's these day glow colors. It's this cel-shaded scenery. love squirrels too, like.
Speaker: it's um you're just yeah You're just following some squirrels around. it's that really It's really cool. It's just such a unique and so fun and sweet game. And the soundtrack fucking owns, dude. It's a soundtrack that I listen to ah and like on Spotify.
Speaker: Nice. i um So that's nuts. And it's it's great.
Speaker: So I think that we don't have to do much debate here. i am willing to concede that Strange Antiquities is the better game.
Speaker: Okay. Out of the Strange Games. And that could be on our show recommendation. But people should play Strange Horticulture because it's fucking so good. You got to start somewhere. like yeah Yeah, absolutely. You should play it. But so then our show recommendations as a reminder, Her Story, paper Papers, Please, and Strange Antiquities. So just to quickly go down all of it, our point and click, our top three recommendations as a show are Curse Monkey Island, Unavowed, and The Drifter.
Speaker: Our text parser recommendations are recommendations are Crimson Diamond, Enclosure, and the Infectious Madness of Dr. Decker. Wow, weird ones. um mr Our mystery recommendations are Colonel's Bequest, Seance of Blake Banner, and Paradise Killer. God, I forgot. we took Deduction Games is talked about Case of the Golden Idol, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Duck Detective Secret Salami, and Immersive Adventure Sim, whatever, hybrid, is Her Story, Papers, Please, and Strange Antiquities. Perfect.
Speaker: I think we got to stop there because we're at fucking two and a half hours, bro. We are. Yeah, we're even more than two and a half hours Because we didn't really take any breaks. We just like went a full on. That's why we need to make this like a limited series.
Speaker: I think so. This was so fun. And um i I'm glad we are doing this. i We have a lot of, um
Speaker: you know, spooky seasons coming up. Yeah. and then we have And then we have a fun idea for November that you guys will find out about when November.
Speaker: um Amazing. amazing and then but So maybe we can try and cram these in throughout September and the then just ah sort of reset for spooky season.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Thank you guys so much for listening. That was so, if I'm so excited to do the next segment, honestly. i wish we could just do five-hour podcast, but we really should not. We should, my throat already feels bad. Yeah, I know. That's that's what happens, man.
Speaker: um
Speaker: Well, thank you guys so much for listening. um If you like the show, you can always rate and review and and and share with your friends on the social media, like these whatever everyone asks you to do it but it is really important and we would really appreciate it you can subscribe to our you join our discord sorry in the show notes it's i don't know it's a fun time there's a lot of cool people there they have a lot of interesting conversations about video games and about
Speaker: ah ah and of x x-men and then about random shit like life um Hey, are going to tell them about my new favorite X-Men's?
Speaker: Oh, yeah. You really like so the villain Selene. Yeah. She's the best. She's confident. She knows who she is She's a little evil.
Speaker: She's deeply, deeply evil. She's one of the most unrepentantly evil characters. of She knows who she is. um
Speaker: You can email us, mattandroses at gmail.com. I don't know. What else am I missing? Check out our Instagram, ah Save Your Game podcast on Instagram. I think that's just about it. ah Hopefully by the time you guys ah see this, my next Murder, She Wrote will be up. If it's not out, it's copyright struck and just give it a few days and it'll be up.
Speaker: That's awesome. i'm i I'm glad new one's coming out. Yeah, me too. ah All right. Well, that just leaves this one thing I've been thinking about all episode. Podcast is art.
Speaker: I'm going to suffer. will.
