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Episode 79 - Astrologaster
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After Matt and Roses dive into the lore of “Bawitiba”, they come in hot with some exciting gaming news, then have a charming little conversation about a game on their ranking list!
Games Mentioned:
- Paranomasight: The Mermaid's Curse
- Perfect Tides: Station to Station
- Mio: Memories in Orbit
- TR-49
- Danganronpa
- Strange Horticulture/Antiquities
- Astrologaster
- Orion Burger
- Pine Hearts
- Wavetale
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fPv7hRgTeV
Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/saveyourgamepodcast
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Transcript
The Bears, Patriots, and Sporting Legends
00:00:00
Speaker
I thought of the two of us, you would be the one who watched the Super Bowl. It makes sense, but because the Bears weren't playing, i didn't care. Did they come close? They got, yeah, they did better than everybody thought.
00:00:11
Speaker
But in the end, it was like the Patriots and some other thing. This is like all, ah I know so little. I know so little about sports. But I do happen to know that about the Bears. is that that Isn't that always the thing? Yeah. They did better than everyone thought.
00:00:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, they did a lot better than everyone thought. Like, it's kind of been a minute. The Bears, you know, they got a little bit of a curse going on. Is that like a long time thing?
00:00:38
Speaker
I think so. i think it's like, yeah, I think it's like 100 years I made that up. I don't know if it's 100 years, but as long as I've been alive, there's been talk of the curse. So they didn't make the Super Bowl, but did they make the Patriot Bowl?
00:00:52
Speaker
No. Is there a Patriot Bowl? What's a Patriot Bowl? The Patriot Bowl? Oh, it was the real Super Bowl. I didn't watch it You didn't watch the Patriot? Okay, wait. have idea what you're talking about.
00:01:06
Speaker
i didn't watch it because the Bears aren't in it. I hear you didn't watch the Super Bowl, but I thought you'd at least watch the Patriot Bowl because I thought you loved our country. i ah I like
Halftime Show Humor and Kid Rock
00:01:20
Speaker
my house. he moves about Everybody knows about the the the patriots the Patriots Super Bowl halftime show, right?
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah. ah The one where yeah Because they had that bunny guy. yeah Bad Bunny. Yeah, in the regular Super Bowl. And I guess everybody was mad at him because they thought he was Bugs Bunny and he's not. So they were like, ah they were like well, if Bugs Bunny is not going to be there, then this is anti-American or something. So they put they did their own one.
00:01:53
Speaker
oh And it had Kid Rock in it. Ew! Ew! Ew! Oh, hate him much. What do you mean? Who represents America better than Kid Rock? oh That's disgusting, and I hate it, and I don't like it. Us as a Christian nation... We are? like Yeah, I guess we are. Yeah, so as a as a God-fearing Christian nation, what we believe in is a...
00:02:23
Speaker
ah middle-aged, scraggly-haired man rapping about prostitutes and ah his own balls.
00:02:35
Speaker
Kid Rock is not hardcore. That's not how you be hardcore. So, obviously, I watched the Patriot halftime show. Why'd you watch that?
00:02:48
Speaker
Because... What do you mean? Because I'm a Patriot! But, okay. I wasn't going to watch. And then, but the thing that I didn't get to watch because I was um caught in quicksand was the Patriot Super Bowl.
00:03:08
Speaker
And that's why i didn't know if the Bears were in it or not. But apparently, the regular Super Bowl wasn't patriotic enough, so they did their own sports game too and i think um just like kid rock did a lip sync all throughout the super bowl halftime did the fake super bowl halftime show i think what they did was they did a sports sync where they pretended to touch the ball but it was running around this court on a little uh the the field on a little wire and they had a guy in
00:03:43
Speaker
They had a guy in blimp who who was who was who was making it look like it was like cool plays and stuff. Maybe I need to watch it? i but Well, you should if you're actually a true patriot. And ah actually, J.D. Vance played, and he was really good. Or, well, the guy on the strings made him look really good. The guy on the strings made him look really That's good to hear. At least he's better at that than ordering donuts in a liquid donut shop.
Kid Rock's Musical and Political Contradictions
00:04:13
Speaker
I don't know. I think J.D. Vance is cool.
00:04:18
Speaker
Anyway, it's been nice working with you, Matt. That's what the main thing I think about that guy is, gosh, he's cool. ah
00:04:50
Speaker
where did the bawa da ba originally come from because i think that part like he made he ah he did his own lyrics but the i think bawa da ba think that part was already something could be The lyrics of the song are dedicated to the shots of Jack, chicks with beepers, as well as all the crackheads, the critics, the cynics, and all my heroes at the methadone clinic.
00:05:23
Speaker
Well. Cool. Hold on. Here's the thing, though.
00:05:32
Speaker
The politics that this dude now identifies with. Yeah. would not consider ah anything about a methadone clinic clinic to be heroic.
00:05:45
Speaker
That's Mr. Drifter. He's one of those. yes no He's one of those guys. He's just doing whatever gets him attention and money as he's morally bankrupt. Where did Ba-Wid-a-Ba come from?
00:06:00
Speaker
No, not the song. Not the song, the noun. The the yeah the thing of bah-wa-da-bah. Matt, we cannot spend this podcast talking about bah-wa-da-bah.
00:06:14
Speaker
Busy bee. Busy bee. but Yes? What is that? Bah-wa-da-bah, da-bang, da-dang, diggy, diggy, diggy, said the boogie, said up, jump the boogie. Uh-huh.
00:06:26
Speaker
is Oh, wait, that's Kid Rock. Busy B is... Okay, so it's from Rapper's Delight. Is it riff on Rapper's Delight? It's not rap... Wait. That's what you just did. You just started quoting Rapper's Delight.
00:06:42
Speaker
okay so it's from rapper's delight it's like is it like a riff on rapper's delight it's not rap wait that's what you just did you just started quoting rapper's delight No, this is Making Cash Money from 1982. Okay.
00:07:00
Speaker
And then, okay, so Rapper's Delight also has... To the Boogity Beat. To the Boogity Beat. Yeah. Upjump the Boogity... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:07:11
Speaker
Huh. Yeah. It's just a Frankenstein song of words. You know, I think Kid Rock is cool. Okay, anyway...
00:07:24
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. i i don't think Kid Rock is cool, making me the better co-host. I'm pushing up roses with me as always. Kid Rock fan. i would i dont like and you know i don't like his music. okay i just think
00:07:44
Speaker
he's really cool you know like like he's you know he's like he's like hit He's like a cool guy. and Not as cool as J.D. Vance, though. Imagine hanging out with Kid Rock and J.D.
00:08:01
Speaker
Vance. Pass. Really hard pass, my dude. Oh, my God. Can you imagine? There's a room that those two men. at this point, there's a room. There's multiple rooms, I bet, that those two men were both in at the same time. m Yeah.
00:08:18
Speaker
yeah Burning that room. And then rebuilding another room where that room was wouldn't get the smell out.
00:08:31
Speaker
So gross. i I look at Kid Rock as somebody who I could probably beat up. That's my that's my assessment of that. JD Vance, too. I think I could beat both of them up.
00:08:42
Speaker
I feel like Kid Rock – I could definitely beat up JD Vance. um I mean, Kid Rock is hiding weapons all over his body, I'm guessing. Probably. So I don't know that it There's something up that butt, you know? don't know that I could beat up Kid Rock, but I could beat... I could definitely beat up JD Vance. You could beat anybody.
00:09:02
Speaker
But...
00:09:06
Speaker
I feel like Kid Rock is like...
00:09:10
Speaker
he He has ex-boyfriend, like the your worst ex-boyfriend energy. i know know. Here's the thing. He wasn't even like the most abusive ex you could have. He was just terrible. Like cringe. He was just that guy that you were like – Yeah, that you're like, you dated in during like a weird phase. Yeah.
00:09:33
Speaker
Like for somehow. It's like embarrassing. And you still don't know how. He was charming when you met him one day. And then you dated him for like three months based on that first interaction. Yeah. And every one of your friends is like, what the fuck are you doing? And you're like, I don't know. He's sweet. And they're like, no, he's not. He's cringe.
00:09:55
Speaker
And then for the rest of your life, you're like, why the fuck did I date that guy? He's the guy that, like, is embarrassing in public to date, which would be
Embarrassing Relationships and Social Dynamics
00:10:04
Speaker
horrible. Have you ever dated anyone like that? Somebody who was kind of, like, embarrassing to be around in public? Yeah, that is that is the quickest way Was the Kid Rock?
00:10:14
Speaker
Did you hate Kid Are you trying to tell me something? i wish- He's so cool. He's just so cool. No, it is ah it was Erica Kirk.
00:10:30
Speaker
You dated Erica Kirk? Yeah. Like, recently? Yeah, it was it was it was in the past month. Why? Is that weird? Interesting. Anyway.
00:10:46
Speaker
She seemed really excited to be in the dating world. Well, I bet she was. ah So, no, i ah ah ah um no, it's that there's no quicker way for me to lose interest in you than if we are out, we are around people I know and I have become embarrassed.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah. Right? Like I've become embarrassed that you are there. Yeah. i think that I think everybody has like embarrassing moments around their partner with friends and stuff because it these are things that happen. We're human beings. Yeah, sure. if you're constantly – I know exactly what you're talking about because I did date a guy like that and I felt like I couldn't bring him anywhere.
00:11:29
Speaker
Right. Because I didn't know how to act around people. And he was like not neurodivergent. He was just an idiot. like Like inconsiderate. I've had – girlfriends or just people I was dating do embarrassing things in social situations or do things in social situations that my friends were like, ugh. But I've had that situation happen where I really liked the person.
00:11:57
Speaker
Yeah. And I was like,
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's embarrassing, but we all do embarrassing things sometimes. Like, it was it was it yeah cool, but, like, i've had I've had situations where I was just, like, mortified, where i was like, oh, my God. Oh, my fucking God. i can't. I'm going to have to, like, walk out of here with that person.
00:12:16
Speaker
Like, they're going to, like, hold my hand in front of all these people that they just did that in front of. ah Whatever that may be. I'm never embarrassing. I'm actually very cool to be around.
00:12:33
Speaker
Right? you play any games this week? How dare you? No, but. Would all of your, would would every, would all your, would your your current partner and anybody you've ever dated say this say that about you?
00:12:48
Speaker
That I was embarrassing? that i've That you've never been embarrassing in front of them. Yeah, like I think they would say that. Yeah, I think they would i think they actually would say that. I'm pretty and pretty social and like outgoing and pretty observant.
00:13:04
Speaker
So, yeah, i think i I'm confident of that. I think they would say that. I don't think they they would. Yeah, I'm confident. You? um You know, I can be...
00:13:20
Speaker
Okay. Like anybody. We've hung out. Like anybody with ADHD. Right. There are moments where I'm not exactly sure why I'm saying the things I'm saying. True. and So I think I can be, I don't know if embarrassing is the right word. Cause I think I, I, I'm very, I'm very, very socially adept, I think. But, um,
00:13:47
Speaker
I think there are definitely times that I say things that are embarrassing. And while maybe I can spin my way out of it because I've lived in this brain my whole life. Yeah. I am sure that I have had partners that didn't quite, you know, that what like,
00:14:14
Speaker
that weren't, that didn't, uh, it Whatever it was didn't stick with me and maybe didn't stick with any of the other people that we were with.
00:14:29
Speaker
But stuck with that person because they're not used to saying bizarre shit and then having to like weirdly not that I don't want to say weirdly walk it back.
00:14:41
Speaker
Yeah. But like. Diffuse it maybe. Diffuse it. Diffuse it and be like you know i don't know. so i have a word I have a word that I use to describe you. Would you like to know what it is?
00:14:52
Speaker
Is it going to hurt my feelings? It will not hurt your feelings. Okay. I would not. like I would do that. Never say something just to hurt your feelings. Well, maybe maybe you didn't say wouldn't say to hurt my feelings.
00:15:06
Speaker
i I don't even want to accidentally hurt anyone's feelings. I'll tell you this hurts my feelings or not. Okay. I use the word excitable to describe you a lot. Okay, that hurt my feelings. It did not. No, it didn't. You're right. I lied to you. um I just lied to you.
00:15:24
Speaker
ah Excitable I think is true Yeah i think I think that is true I think you're excitable because it it It makes it fun to be around And also unpredictable but i think I think that's true And and you know and I think unpredictable Resonates differently With different people Because I think is unpredictable can make some people nervous And so like Love that shit You don't know if I'm about to be rude I'm not Right. But if you don't, if you can't predict my behavior, you might, and you, and you haven't known me for long enough, you might be worried. I'm going to say something rude or like if, uh, or say something that's going to offend somebody nearby or i don't know.
00:16:14
Speaker
Yeah. right. Now me, now me. What word do you use to describe me? One word I use to describe you.
00:16:21
Speaker
And these can't, these aren't supposed to hurt each other? Yeah, they're not supposed to hurt feelings. Okay, then let me think of a new one. No! No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. um One word I use to describe you is...
00:16:35
Speaker
um
00:16:39
Speaker
Wow, I'm an enigma. they' right not to use i'm trying not to use excitable
00:16:48
Speaker
didddy what i am It's like you've described where you're like, I'm thinking of Gideon like, oh is there a is there a positive word that means reactive?
00:17:01
Speaker
Like reactive, but in a positive way. think so. Like are oh yeah you were often, like and that's I think what i mean. animated? i mean when you encounter a stimuli. Yeah.
00:17:17
Speaker
You are either excitedly confused by it or excitedly enjoy an enjoyment of it or excited to make fun of it. Man, that... Actually, you pinned me down hard. That's true. That's very true. What is that? You're not the only one to have said that me. It's kind of like this amused state that I'm always in.
Kid Rock in Gaming Culture
00:17:45
Speaker
A previous partner told me I just simply...
00:17:48
Speaker
love the world that I'm in and I love the things in that world so I get I get super excited if I see something cool on a menu I will be like oh look at that and that's not even what you order yeah i don't even order it I'm just like, oh my God, they have that? Incredible. What a great restaurant. No, I am pretty reactive. and But mostly, you know like you're saying, reacting with some kind of um joy or amusement. Yes. And I have a hard time hiding that. And I don't know. i So I don't know what word...
00:18:26
Speaker
Because reactive does not sound good. But know what you mean. i don't know what word would be better there. but ah Listeners, write us How would you describe oh me? We're still on recording.
00:18:39
Speaker
Of course we're still recording. So as you guys can tell, this is a video game podcast about video games. Well, you asked me what I was playing and I'm like, ah and then you're like, wait, I have more to say about Kid Rock. I'm like, okay. Has Kid Rock ever been in a video game? Hold on, Google. Probably what, like, i I would bet that, like, maybe like a GTA type game, maybe a song made its way into it, like a game like that.
00:19:07
Speaker
um That's what I think. He was, his his music was in Road Rash 3D. Yeah, there you go. And Madden NFL 10. Okay.
00:19:18
Speaker
Power Gig, Rise of the Sixth String. yeah, yeah, yeah. Which sounds seems like a Guitar Hero ripoff. Yeah. EA Sports Ultimate Fighting. Wait, what's the C in UFC? Championship?
00:19:34
Speaker
Championship? ah Yes. Yes. Cool guys. Cool guys. you exist were ah WWE 2K18 and Twisted Metal Harbor City.
00:19:45
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, those are all like, that makes sense. Sports and car games. It makes sense. Yeah, just anything that feels like it's greasy. Yeah. but' if It feels like it's greasy. Greasy.
00:19:57
Speaker
Greasy. When I type in, has Kid Rock ever? Oh god. what do you think the good like What do you think the Google results are? Like the Google autofill.
00:20:09
Speaker
Has Kid Rock ever gone to jail? Close. Been arrested. Yes! Oh my god, I'm good at this. Has Kid Rock ever been to space?
00:20:22
Speaker
The fuck? Who cares? Why are people searching that? Been on The View. Weirdly specific. climbed Mount Everest.
00:20:35
Speaker
I need to get myself in the searches for that. Like, has Fishing Up Roses ever climbed Mount Everest?
00:20:43
Speaker
There's like no answer because nobody actually knows. Matt. Yeah. I need you to put down Kid Rock. Just for a second. We can revisit it later. so for a little bit. Everyone's always making me put down Kid Rock. You need to put him down. Put him down.
00:20:59
Speaker
He's not a toy. um I believe we have some good news. Well, he's not a man. Interesting news. Oh, do we? I think we do. i want to hear it.
00:21:10
Speaker
Well, you're actually the one who brought this news to me, so I'll bring it the public. then I don't care about hearing it. bye
00:21:18
Speaker
Sorry, Matt left to go listen to Bawa Daba. This is going be his new
Excitement for New Game Releases
00:21:23
Speaker
karaoke song. don't like his music.
00:21:29
Speaker
ah Just his aesthetic. but ah No, I think this is very exciting gaming news. And I think we, I think we did this. I think we manifested this. We have. So not so long ago,
00:21:46
Speaker
I was talking to Matt and I said, we were talking about video games. That's what we do. Believe it or not. I know you probably don't don't realize that from this conversation, but we do talk about video games off recording. And I said something akin to like, I just want another game like Paranorma Sight. I want another. that That's what I want. That's what I want to play. We've said this to each other so many times after like since we played that game. Yeah. This last one was recent though. It was like a few weeks ago. Yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah, because there's nothing else like it. Like, there's no other – we stopped saying it for a while because it just – there wasn't – we knew that there wasn't anything there. But then that feeling came back. And that feeling came back in you said it to me and I was like, oh, my God. Yeah, I you know exactly what you mean. Yeah.
00:22:37
Speaker
Well, guess what? It's insane. There's gonna be another Paranorma site. And it's coming out soon! It's coming out in a week.
00:22:48
Speaker
Oh my god! and I love a surprise drop. Speaking of like being reactive, that like reminds me of how I reacted to like the Monkey Island return. like Secret drop. Oh my god. that's That's how I feel about this one. I'm like, I love a secret drop. It's so exciting. We don't have to wait like six months. We know when it's going to be out. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. i love it.
00:23:12
Speaker
Right. i People gave us a bunch of recommendations of games that were like Paranorma Sight. Yeah. it it None of them quite had.
00:23:23
Speaker
the juice. Yeah. But agree. And not that ah all of them were bad, right? Like there were, there were a lot of interesting, what seemed like interesting visual novelty games with maybe either similar aesthetics or slightly similar, um,
00:23:41
Speaker
mechanics But nothing was Paranormalcite. paranormmaite and now this is fucking Paranormalcite again. And I'm fucking so stoked. I'm stoked. What? Yeah. It scratches a very specific itch for me. yeah Because it obviously it's square. So it's kind of scratching this Final Fantasy character type of storyline where you got all these like...
00:24:03
Speaker
These kind of adolescents trying to figure shit out. But it's not, obviously it's not a JRPG. And so it also scratches like that adventure interactive fiction thing. It's so, ah, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So here's
00:24:20
Speaker
here's 2026 so far in adventure games. And it's already wild. There's Perfect Tide Station to Station.
00:24:31
Speaker
Yes. Which I've started. I've not gotten far enough in to talk about it. but Yeah. We will, though. We will. wellll but There's no chance we don't. I heard some like extremely kind, generous person gifted you that game. Is that is that true?
00:24:48
Speaker
Like the most kind, like most generous person like you've ever met? I'm trying to get my inbox to see if Kid Rock sent this you.
00:24:58
Speaker
right Kid Rock isn't that cool. please um ah Earth Must Die. Oh, right, right, right, right. Man, one looks interesting.
00:25:08
Speaker
TR-49. It's the new Inkle game. the ah Dark Rites of Arkham. The new post-modern adventures. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.
00:25:20
Speaker
What? yeah It's awesome. It's great. paranormal site's gonna be on my like list of best of like next year ah it's already there it's already at number one it's hard when it it feels like yeah i i mean it's just that video games are getting better and better yeah guess is the only thing to say about it um i played a game this week
Exploring 'Mio, Memories in Orbit'
00:25:49
Speaker
what'd you play It's not quite an adventure game. It's it's a... I played Metroidvania that came out um in January.
00:26:02
Speaker
It's called Mio, Memories in Orbit. Okay. And you're a little... I don't want to give too much away about the story. even though You are... You're a little robot girl.
00:26:16
Speaker
Thanks. Yeah.
00:26:21
Speaker
And in this game, you play a little robot girl. Cool. um And you're in this you're in this big world that seems very contained.
00:26:33
Speaker
And it's full of robots, most of which who seem like they're dying. Okay. Okay. Or robots are dying? Yeah. Or do you find dead robots all over the place? And you One of the things that's interesting about it is early on, dying is a mechanic that pushes the game forward.
00:27:01
Speaker
it's So it's like... um there's a bit of a souls like element to it. And you're collecting some, you're collecting, it's called Naker N A C R E. And it's some kind of, um, energy,
00:27:16
Speaker
That you can use to build upgrades and whatever. and But when you die, you lose it. It doesn't, it's not like a souls, like where it floats there and then you have to go back and get it. Like you lose it, but you discover as you're losing it, it floats into this pool where there is this kind of computery lady.
00:27:36
Speaker
there and when you and you can also if you don't die you can also just donate your nacre to this lady so like you you can progress without dying but every time you die it goes into this pool and enough goes into there and then she kind of comes to life and she tells you that you need to sort of collect these various um elements Of this world. that i Again I don't really want to explain. What this world is. But you need to collect these elements. Of this this world. And bring them all to her.
00:28:14
Speaker
um So that she can restore the world to life. Is this um strictly a Metroidvania? Or is there. put is there um Other like puzzle element games. Like how close to it. ah Is it to like Silksong?
00:28:28
Speaker
Oh very close. cool cool Yeah I think it's it's strictly Metroidvania. But. There's something really fascinating because in this world, because much like Silksong, it's sort of centered around this idea of belief. Okay, wait, actually, this is you're in a spaceship. All right. This is in the promotional materials, so I can spoil it. It turns out you're in a spaceship, a spaceship that has basically died.
00:28:57
Speaker
um And the spaceship is huge and there's all these elements to it that are, it's it's just, it's absolutely fucking gorgeous. And if there was ever humans on this vessel, they are not here now. and There's just robots that are slowly becoming corrupted and dying. And many of these robots have begun, you've been in space so long that many of these robots have begun to see the elements which keep their, the ship running. Mm-hmm.
00:29:27
Speaker
as religious icons like they've sort of built uh systems of belief around the ai that runs the heating system and the ai that runs the oxygen filtration system and the ai that steers the ship and so you you different robots that you encounter in this world have different sort of relationships to that faith. And it's just, it's really, it's really fascinating. So speaking of silksong, it's got like that, it it it does have that idea of, there's a conversation happening in the game about faith, but there's also a conversation happening around um
00:30:20
Speaker
sentience, and Like ethical things of that? like Is ah is a kind of like one of those like ethics and computer science type of a vibe?
00:30:32
Speaker
um Only in that you do feel real bad for these robots. oh all um Right? like yeah Like they were clearly meant to serve a different purpose and now they've been floating in space for a year, like an untold amount of time, floating aimlessly in space because...
00:30:55
Speaker
you know, their purpose has left. There's clearly, like I said, there's clearly no humans on board this ship. Yeah, yeah. um And so they've had to sort of develop their own life, and it's a hopeless life. um A life where, you know, there's... It's not going to end well for anybody. yeah um And you...
00:31:16
Speaker
sort of serve as like this growing messianic figure trying to put the ship back together again in a sense. um And like a messianic figure, like you are regarded as in like and basically an, a heretic, an enemy of the faith by most of the people, up by many of the robots you encounter. And some just don't believe in you and some believe in you,
00:31:45
Speaker
To the nth degree. Really interesting stuff. um And also, as far as gameplay goes, because this is a Metroidvania, it feels really great to hop around and jump around and, like, ah it looks beautiful.
00:32:03
Speaker
The bosses are very hard. Yeah, I bet. And... the And also the music is incredible. The sound design is excellent. It's it's really worth playing. So if if you're Metroidvania fan at all, Neo Memories in Orbit is, I think, i think can hang with yeah a game like Silksong. That's cool. It looks really lovely.
00:32:30
Speaker
it is. Yeah. It's beautiful. It reminds me a little bit of Silksong. There's like a specific character theme and like a very specific world. guess that makes sense for Metroidvanias, though.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of been the Metroidvania thing. It's like you create... I mean, you're you're usually now, these days, cute character.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. Hopping and bouncing around a really intricate, amazing fantasy world. Yeah, yeah. um I'd say ah this can hang with a game like Silksong, but I'd say it it feels, it's a little floatier. Okay. Yeah.
00:33:15
Speaker
And a little more whimsical. So it feels a lot more like the Ori games. Oh, okay. But it's great. It's great. It's really great. nice That's awesome. I have not beaten it yet, but i'm I think more than halfway through. I think I'm i'm i'm i'm getting getting towards the end. Yeah.
00:33:35
Speaker
I've also been playing the 100-line last defense academy. I don't have much to say about that, though, because ok I'm not very far, and I think it's like a fucking 120-hour game or something like that. How do you even do that? How do you find time do that? I don't anymore, but is the thing. um But it's by the...
00:33:58
Speaker
um It's by the people who did the the creative team behind Danganronpa games. Oh, yeah. Yep. And it's very conscious of that.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah. And there's a lot of there's a lot of inside jokes about that. Maybe I did. I talk about this that a little bit on the show. Yeah, you did. I'm pretty. Apparently, main story is only 34 hours, but I don't I don't see how that can be true.
00:34:25
Speaker
Because this game does have 100 different endings to unlock. Oh, my God. And apparently, like, that's part of the game. Part of the game is, like, a time loop yeah situation. I haven't gotten to the end of the time loop.
00:34:41
Speaker
Well, awesome. so I've played nothing as usual. Except for... Well, yeah, that's true. I did play the game that we are going to discuss. Shall I shall i put on a janky wck waxer, you know? i don't Listen, I don't have a generator like you do. You put yourself in the position. did. You put yourself there. you could have I went there. could have waited for me, and yet you put yourself there, so no one feel bad for her.
00:35:13
Speaker
oh Well, if I make a little puppy dog eyes and I powder a little bit, now does anyone feel bad for me? Right in. Matt and Roses. Right in. dot com Do you feel bad for pushing up roses in this moment?
00:35:44
Speaker
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to Save Your Game. I am your host, Matt Allcamp, with me, the puup the the the puppy-ish, the sympathy-eliciting. It's pushing up roses, everybody. I would never! Also, hi.
00:36:03
Speaker
Welcome back. So... We both played a game. Okay. I think this needs a little bit of setup because I bet people saw the name of this game as... Especially with everything else coming out.
00:36:16
Speaker
And they're like, what the fuck? Why is that the game this week? What is happening? And... what we What we decided to do here at Save Your Game Industries, we we launched a new initiative.
00:36:32
Speaker
know Me and Rose, as we've been talking, and we thought it would be a very fun thing to do as like a a theme for the entire year is to finally start attacking some of these games that we've been ranking in the ranking segments. Mm-hmm.
00:36:51
Speaker
And actually playing them. Yes. Seeing where they might... or might not belong in the ranking. I think it's a good motivator to try out some of these games because i don't think they're ever just going to, like, especially some of the the more obscure ones and the the deep cuts. I don't think we're just going to decide to do that and just play in our spare time. So let's make it. but It's already part of the podcast. We already talk about these games. We already
Astrologaster: A Historical and Humorous Game Experience
00:37:19
Speaker
ranked them. We should play them and see if we would like to move it up or down or yeah, do something with it. Yeah. And in the meantime, it's just interesting to play these games that we'd never heard of before we did this. So I think throughout this year and, you know, you guys may have might have noticed our schedule's been a little wonky. It'll probably continue to be wonky. ah
00:37:43
Speaker
Maybe it will get back on track at some point this year. We hope so. we We'll try. But...
00:37:51
Speaker
The point is... Yeah, what's your point? Throughout this year, we'll still be playing new games that come out um because there's a lot that we're excited for. There's a lot we want to play and a lot we want to talk about. But in between, i think we're going to be playing a lot of those those ranking segment games. Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
So that's that's at least the plan. If that doesn't happen... um then the eggs on my face. It's going to happen. Cause I'm going to insist that, that we keep up with this, this theme. So what's the first game we played?
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah, ah it's hard to pronounce, but the first game we played was astrol astraalli Astro... Astro... How do you pronounce this word?
00:38:42
Speaker
Astro-galaster? Astro-galaster. How do you pronounce it, Matt? I think you're switching... Astro-la-gaster. Astro-la-gaster. Yes, I'm like skipping something. Astro-la-gaster. Yes. And I don't know...
00:38:58
Speaker
why it's called that like i get there there's like astrology right i thought it was a portmanteau of something but what's the gaster exactly that's what i that's what i don't get um there because the main character is a combination of two things m a astrologer And a gaster. Oh, we're so stupid. He's also a gaster. No. Oh. He's an astrologer and he is a doctor.
00:39:32
Speaker
Yes. Well, yeah. Sort of. He's he's good sort of like out a wannabe physician. Right. In the fifteen hundreds Right. um
00:39:44
Speaker
around Yeah, around the time of the plague. Not around the time, the time of the plague. During during the plague, yeah. The the the game opens and closes with the plague. Yeah. um So tell me what this game is actually, like, specifically, what's this game about?
00:40:03
Speaker
So this is about a real life person named Simon Foreman. That is who you play in the game. And that is who it is based on. Simon Foreman is a real person yeah ah who lived during the plague and was an astrologer. He called himself an astrologer. he was deeply into the occult. um and reading the stars and kind of doing, you know, occultish witchy things, but also wanted to be a physician um and treat people. And the way he treated people was kind of like the more holistic approach.
00:40:34
Speaker
ah And that is what you do in the game. You read the stars and that will tell you how to treat somebody, you know, to varying degrees of of success and and such. um But yeah, this is a real person. um the game introduces us to Simon as somebody who at least thinks that they helped to clear up the plague, like helped to cure people with the plague by um inventing something called strong water.
00:41:05
Speaker
And he is he like convinced himself that this is this is helped, like helped people with the plague. And so this kind of a puts a fire under his butt to become a physician using you know astrology. In real life, at some point, he was given a medical license from, I think, the University of Cambridge.
00:41:24
Speaker
um He was granted a medical license. But I mean, you got to imagine in like fifteen hundreds London, how many people were like, this guy is a witch. well like Imagine if this person was a woman.
00:41:38
Speaker
There is only... There were only like two way two colleges from which you could get medical licenses by the way at this time. so This is...
00:41:50
Speaker
And this is all in the game. This is a really interesting time for England because not only was this during the plague. We're talking, you know, late 16th century, early 17th century. Not only was this the time of the plague, this was also the age of exploration.
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah. um This was also only about, what, 50 years or something into... No, i guess I guess more like 80 years passed when the King Henry VIII um gave a charter to the Royal College of Physicians. like it's when like but We're less years from at since there's been a...
00:42:36
Speaker
ah governing body of physicians like it's yeah it you know it wasn't the same time where there's like a there's like home trade fighting between like religions that are extremely similar speaking of king henry the eighth yeah right like we are we are only about 50 what 50 years less than 100 years into the war between the protestants and the catholics in yeah in england yeah um And this is the time of Shakespeare and fucking all of these things. Age of Exploration, the plague, the the controversy about home physicians versus licensed physicians. yes Catholicism. Catholicism versus Protestantism. Shakespeare. All of these things are part of this fucking game.
00:43:26
Speaker
It's honestly great. This game is special, I think, and it's not what I thought it was going to be. i did It's hard to gauge what a game is going to be like simply by looking on Steam, you know looking at screencasts and things. You really have to sit down and play with it and get the story. It's a very story-rich game. I would consider this more of an interactive fiction game.
00:43:49
Speaker
You are making choices, 100%. hundred percent You are doing that. But it's It's not quite on the same. but i want to make a very, very light comparison to like Strange Antiquities because you are dealing with people coming to you, having a problem and like trying to solve it or figure it out or give them answers or something like that. Except that you are not doing like insane research to come up with these answers. You are reading the stars.
00:44:18
Speaker
That's the main mechanic. And reading the stars is really like, hey, you look up through your telescope. You get three constellations. that's And you're given these. you know You don't pick them. You're given them based on the day. Yeah, you don't have to intuit them. You don't have to like find them. Right. You don't have to find them. They're there for you. It's basically a choice-making game. Like, do you want to read this set of stars and this constellation? Here's what this one means. Here's what this one means.
00:44:46
Speaker
And some can be you know some could be bad news. Some could be good news. um And your clients or querents, as they call them in the game, They can take them well. They can take your advice really well. Or they could take them not so well. um I do want to, before we get too far away from it, want to pick up where you left off in one second, but before we get too far away from it, like ah the actual Black Death, like the the the big plague pandemic was in the 1300s.
00:45:16
Speaker
So I just want to but put down your emails. Put them down. It's not a toy. Put your email pen down. um ah Throw your iPad across the room. We don't need your emails.
00:45:34
Speaker
There were outbreaks of the plague yeah that happened several times after the 1300s. And yeah two of them um play into this story. Anyway, back where you're saying, so you – I would kind of call this, even though there is a strong story here. Well, sort of. There is there are a bunch of strong stories here. i would call this a um Casual game. I would too.
00:46:03
Speaker
It's interesting. It's casual and also very rich and and casual gameplay, but you do need to put your attention to the characters. You do need to, you can't just flippantly make this. i You can recommend it but yeah, you should be paying attention to the to the dialogue trees and the choices that you're making and which stars you're reading for for your clearance. Yeah.
00:46:27
Speaker
Right. is it It really, though it really is about, um
00:46:35
Speaker
it really is about choices. um It is, yeah. you So somebody will come up to you and they will have, they have a problem, like lake Rose is saying, you do, you you will get these. If you're paying close, if you know a tiny little bit about medicine, not like a lot, um enough to know that, say, you Pain while urinating plus...
00:46:59
Speaker
Back pain equals kidney stones. Right. Like that level of knowledge. There is some like physician-y stuff here. He did want to be a doctor. And so like he did have his own way of like, oh, you're coughing up this? Well, you probably, the stars say you have this. and it Right. but And it might be right.
00:47:17
Speaker
This was also during, I think towards the end of the humoral system of medicine. So we're talking black bile, yellow bile. Yeah. bi all yeah you know phlegm and blood with child ah so yeah women have an interesting role in this uh but they sure do though i will say here's something cool about this game developed by two women awesome and writers uh catherine neal director is jennifer schneider right so
00:47:51
Speaker
you will People will come to you with these problems and with a tiny little bit of knowledge of medicine, but more so having paid attention to what the person has said to you, you can generally make a choice. You can generally – you're not always going to be right.
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah. But oftentimes you can figure out probably what they want you to say to them. Right. That said – Your choices will affect their reactions to you and ah and um a main mechanic of this game, which we'll get into in a second, which is letters of recommendation. But if no matter what you say to them, the stories are pretty much set.
00:48:38
Speaker
Yeah, they're set. you They might like you more or less, but the same events are going to happen to each character as they leave and come back. Much like Strange Antiquities or Strange Horticulture. Actually, even Strange Antiquities and Strange Horticulture have a little bit more branching than this. yes Yeah, they do. um The main thing about trying to get these...
00:49:04
Speaker
ah diagnoses, right? And they're not all diagnoses. Sometimes it's like, what should I bet on? Yeah, because he's he's an astrologer. So he's reading the stars. So yeah, not everyone who comes in has a medical issue. A lot of them are like, hey, should I date this person? inside And Simon would be like, well, let's look at the stars, I guess.
00:49:23
Speaker
And that all gets more complicated as it goes along. But at the at the beginning, yeah, it's just a bunch of random questions. But
00:49:34
Speaker
ah Whether or not – if you make – if you tell them something they want to hear, they – you will get pages added to your – like your – the meter towards your letter of recommendation. Right.
00:49:52
Speaker
And – If you get to 100, you get a letter of recommendation. And if you get enough letters of recommendation, ah you can be cut you can get your physician's license. Which i I did. That is the path I did got.
00:50:03
Speaker
Oh, no. You didn't become a physician? No, but also I was kind of rushing through the game. so so there were some segments. I'm going to play a lot of this game over again because I really liked it. I might play it over again, too, just because I think it's so pleasant. um Gosh, it's really funny, too.
00:50:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I don't know if I found it laugh out loud funny at all, but i i found it funny. I might not have been laughing out loud, but I did find it funny and amusing. So you want to get these letters of recommendation. And at first it's what do they want to hear from me? Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:41
Speaker
But you also have to kind of keep in mind, but also what is going to help them. Yeah. that is true. Because they might say, they might, you might tell them something they fucking don't want to hear at all. And your meter, the letter of recommendation meter for that character goes down. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:59
Speaker
But they might come back tomorrow or in a couple days or whatever and say, ah fuck, I'm sorry, doctor. You were totally right. Yeah. And I was wrong. And those that letter of recommendation meter is going to skyrocket upward. Yeah. And most of the character, I would say all of the characters you meet do come back. They have their own little, their own little mini arcs. You know, they're not the most insane stories you've ever heard, but they all have one. They all have kind of a goal and a story and a specific thing that maybe they're looking for.
00:51:34
Speaker
i love that. I love recurring characters. It's such a good way to world build because This game, much like, you know, strange antiquities, you do not go anywhere. You are simply a astrologer and a quote doctor in your house. People are going to your house. That's where it all take place.
00:51:55
Speaker
But what makes it kind of, i think, kind of unique is it's told like a pop up book. Um, the graphics are kind of pop-up book style and it's told like a pop-up book. Uh, like when you have to go to the next screen, it says like drag the page to the left or something like that. Like it is popping up a book again. There's, there's even another layer to it than that. Cause it's a pop-up book that's meant to look like a stage show.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah like Yeah. Like Shakespeare. It's, you're kind of living in a Tudor house even I think. And yeah the the see the area where you, the part of the game where, the screen where you talk to your customers is kind of like framed with the curtains on either side. it is, yeah.
00:52:40
Speaker
It's interesting. But yeah, at at the end of every interaction, you... but Well, actually, let's just walk through it. So you start... Generally, to start, there will be a song.
00:52:52
Speaker
Which I think is amazing. That's how the main story is told, honestly. Like every time you you finish with a client and a new client comes, they're introduced via song. They're introduced via song every time based on what they're doing now.
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah. And it's it's like it's like early Renaissance music yeah when multiple singers have just started ah learning how to harmonize with one another. Yeah. So it's, it's a really interesting sort of like Renaissance-y, folksy, early Baroque maybe. Kind of poetic and in kind of the sonnet Shakespeare type of way. It's honestly really artistic. This is a very artful game. So they'll sing a quick verse and,
00:53:51
Speaker
then
00:53:55
Speaker
you will see your patient arrive at your house.
00:54:02
Speaker
Um, actually, usually that's the same, right? Your patient arrives at your, at their house as they, i
00:54:10
Speaker
sing a verse about, you know, like ah is sort of about that person. Usually it's yeah some sort of joke, right? Yeah. And then it'll cut to the other screen where you are talking to them.
00:54:25
Speaker
There'll be a dialogue between, and so to get to when one of these screens, when one of these little mini scenes ends, you have to kind of grab the side of the screen With your mouse or I'm sure in other form factors, you just use your finger.
00:54:46
Speaker
um Like if on a touch screen. But you actually just turn the page. Yeah. And then you're in a screen where it's just the two of you.
00:55:00
Speaker
They... have a dialogue and then it cuts to this astrology, you know, screen yeah where you make your recommendation. Again, sometimes there's a right answer, but the right answer is not always the best answer. um
00:55:18
Speaker
There's a guy later later in the game who has hypochondria, like clearly, very obviously has hypochondria. But you kind of, so you don't want to take him seriously, but you also don't want to tell him he has hypochondria. So you generally want to pick an option that will do him no harm, but make him feel heard.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yeah. Like you invent the sugar pill in this game. You invent the placebo. like went Out of this guy. Out of actual sugar. You give him sugar and then he's like, oh, you should put this into some sort of round tablet.
00:55:55
Speaker
um So you pick you yeah you pick one. Usually it's between sometimes it's only one, but usually it's between two and three options. And then You see another little dialogue between them where they react. Then it cuts to the screen where it's like, how did they do? And on that screen, you'll see how, you know, if you gained or lost points towards their letter that person's letter of recommendation. But also you will see a little ah
00:56:29
Speaker
you'll see how like a little indicator of how many chapters this character has and how many are left. Right. Right. um Which is cool. You know they'll be coming, you know, like Nicholas Mug yeah has will visit you five times. Yeah. And so if you fuck up this one, you have another chance. Yeah.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. it is real it ah It is an interesting mechanic. It's really cool. um Another interesting thing yes that is true to real life is that Simon was slut. Yeah.
00:57:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh. He loved the women, especially if they were married. yes ah Yeah. There's a little bit of a love story going on. It's kind of sad. I don't want to spoil it, but there's kind of a little bit of a sad storyline.
00:57:22
Speaker
um And I slept with two of the women. I don't know if you can sleep with more, but I slept with one. i got rejected by another. I got – yeah. I'm sure we got rejected by the same the same character because not every woman is going to want to sleep with you, Simon.
00:57:42
Speaker
Jeez.
00:57:45
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. So he he fuck all the time. And you get a little – it says when you sleep with a patient, you get a little –
00:57:55
Speaker
there's There's a little, what what does it say? So not only does it... Coitus post, ah like post something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Post consultation. Coitus post consultation. Right, exactly. Yeah. And it'll say that on the case summary. It's very funny.
00:58:14
Speaker
Yeah, some of these characters you interact with, do you want to start talking about them? Yeah, let's talk about the characters. ah Some of them are real characters. Like, who's somebody who's real?
00:58:27
Speaker
I think, if I'm not mistaken, because I did do some Googling because I thought this was so ah i thought this was so interesting. I think Emilia Lanier might be real.
00:58:38
Speaker
Emilia Lanier is definitely real. She was – if you are a person who knows a lot about Shakespeare, you might know her as Shakespeare's dark lady.
00:58:51
Speaker
yeah. There's even some – you know how there's all those conspiracy theories about oh Shakespeare didn't write his plays? Yeah, yeah. ah One of the leading ones is that they were written by this woman.
00:59:04
Speaker
Okay. And that is played with in this – ah in this game. Yeah. It's great. I love that. I actually really like that storyline a lot.
00:59:16
Speaker
Amelia Lanier's storyline is really, really cool. It is cool and it's fun. And I like her character a lot. She's very... direct um she's the one who will reject simon because she's just not it's just not her vibe and man she just wants to be a writer and respected by people and yeah i liked her character a lot i think avis is also real i don't know if avis is real under that character name though you think avis is real under a different character name I think Avis might be, well, it it does say that, you know, he wrote in his diaries of like a true love type of a thing. I wonder if that's kind of referencing the Avis character because that's the one you do without a doubt. You're going to, you don't have a choice in this. This is just part of the story. That's your love interest. yeah ah The other women, they're kind of love
01:00:12
Speaker
and interest but they're more like lusty you know um yeah so in fact you know before we get off Amelia Lanier actually I want to I want to point out that she was actually mentioned in the actual case books kept by the real Dr. Simon Foreman she visited Simon Foreman several times now you can you can actually go read Simon Foreman's cases who in full at, ah there's ah there's a website, casebooks.wordpress.com. And it has all Simon Foreman's and Richard Napier's medical records. um Simon Foreman kept really meticulous medical records. yeah And i think Cambridge has all of them archived.
01:01:07
Speaker
So you can read them at Cambridge, but it's it's a little, there's there's this blog that I just mentioned has them a little um more well organized. But you can read about the consultations of, like on the University of Cambridge website, there's a list of Amelia Lanier's consultations.
01:01:30
Speaker
Amazing. With Simon Forman.
01:01:34
Speaker
And sort of like a summary of what they talked about. That's so cool. It's very cool. What an amazing like historical record to have. That's amazing.
01:01:48
Speaker
So in lot of these, so a lot of these cases that are in this game are sort of comical or exaggerated or storified.
01:02:02
Speaker
yeah interpretations of actual cases that Simon... yeah That's why I think Avis probably was an interpretation sure yeah of a real client that he had. i Like as I said, don't know if that is the name, but I would – I think the women who wrote this game probably did a lot of research on this ah on this person. Oh, 100%. Because it's just so interesting. So I'm sure they did like do a lot of interpretations that fit, you know, what he did in real life.
01:02:32
Speaker
This is one of those premises where it's like you don't – You don't make a game like this. You don't make a creative work like this unless you had a specific interest in this thing.
01:02:44
Speaker
Yeah. Right? Like, it's very clear that ah they were probably the idea came out of our like came out of reading these case books, not the other way around, right? Yes, absolutely.
01:03:00
Speaker
So, okay. What other characters do you want to talk about? ah There's one character named Humphrey Bell ah that you have to help. And he wants to be an actor in as as we mentioned, Shakespeare is a part of this world. He wants to be like an actor in Shakespeare plays.
01:03:19
Speaker
But like his first case was like, I'm unhappy with my body. So we have to like help him get more fit. And then his hair starts falling out. And we have to be like, you got to fix that. Like, why are you doing unhealthy things? why is your hair falling out?
01:03:33
Speaker
And I'm not going to spoil it, but then he falls in love with somebody in the game as well. And it's just a very interesting yeah an interesting pairing. And i liked I really liked where that story went and and how it connected to another character. yeah um There's also a pretty important character. It's important to the story and the real story. um There is a mole in this game. There is somebody posing as a client.
01:04:03
Speaker
And I won't say who in case you decide to play this game. But i don't think this is very much of a spoiler because this is what happens in real life. Basically, the ah the what are what is it called? Like the college operations, the university.
01:04:18
Speaker
The Royal College of Physicians? Sorry. Yes. Sorry. Yes. The the Royal College of Physicians. ah There is a mole from that organization like spying on you so that they can basically take you to court and call you out as a quack. like i didn't know you encourage people I didn't know that was part of his real life story.
01:04:40
Speaker
I think actually the mole night might not be real, but I think he was called out. Oh, yes. but Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about the mole, but I am saying that he was. There were a lot of detractors that looked at him like a quack um and kind of warned of, you know, occult behavior and which like behavior or just like, you know, buffoonery, just not real. You know, this not a real doctor.
01:05:05
Speaker
um right but in the game it is told via you know somebody posing as a mole and like getting information and then taking you i part of the organization i had that character all pegged all wrong i knew there was something suspicious about them but i thought it was something very different i did too and i bet we thought the same thing yeah yeah yeah yeah because so did did you think it was going to be a different gender i thought it was going to be a different gender. And I thought, yeah, yeah.
01:05:33
Speaker
yeah Because I didn't know anything. I thought it was just a weird joke until that moment. And I was like, oh. Yeah. But ah so there are some other historical characters. There was um there's Thomas Blague, who was the dean of Rochester.
01:05:51
Speaker
Right. And his wife, Alice Blague. I do. Yeah. And I honestly, I don't know if Alice Blague is real or not, but I don't know, but I slept with her. She's a great character in this game. she fucking rules. She comes in and she's like, I have been having headaches and throwing up in the morning and you got to tell me what's wrong, doctor. I think I've been bewitched. And he's yeah like, hey, um you say this only happens on Saturday mornings.
01:06:16
Speaker
Do you think you might be hung over? And he's like, know. oh my god you're right she's gonna get mad at you and she's like oh you're right i've oh man that's totally it i gotta to go apologize to the next door neighbor for calling her a witch i know i was so pleased with that i'm like oh thank fuck and the next time she comes in she's like thank you so much for telling me about the hangovers now me and that that person i accused of a witch we've been drinking together every friday night so funny she's just still doing it she's she rules yeah um
01:06:48
Speaker
Robert Devereaux? is that the Is that the slut? No, that's this that's the second it's the second Earl of Essex. Oh, right, right, right, right. um so that Guys, there's a lot of sluttery in this game, so don't don't mind me if I get some wires crossed.
01:07:05
Speaker
um Yeah, this dude comes to you a bunch of times, and like you learn a lot about his... Actual contributions to um
01:07:24
Speaker
the Age of Exploration and his... um And, like, the Spanish Royal Navy and Sir Francis... yeah I don't know if they mentioned Sir Francis Drake, but they mentioned wal Walter Raleigh lot. Yeah, they definitely mentioned Walter Raleigh.
01:07:40
Speaker
um and His story is really interesting. You're sort of advising him on how to interact with the gentry. Mm-hmm. And of course, because he's a real historical figure, you can't change his story. Like, almost none of i don't think you can change anybody's story. Maybe a couple of them have different endings, but like, yeah mostly, mostly. It's mostly set. Yeah. Yeah. um Who else rules in this game? Who else rules? I think we've talked about all the people that absolutely. Oh, no. Sybil Fortescue is great. Oh, yeah. She's just fun. She's like a socialite, right? Yeah. Yeah. And she keeps coming in and she's like.
01:08:26
Speaker
I was at a dinner party and everybody started shitting everywhere. Help.
01:08:35
Speaker
And then you have to like kind of – you're like, okay, you said you were eating these new – it's all about the new world too, right? is, yeah. She's like, oh, was eating these new green vegetables. My husband sent them to me from overseas. These crunchy green vegetables called the potato.
01:08:53
Speaker
And he's like, ah I don't think they're supposed to be green and I don't think they're supposed to be crunchy. Oh, no. And then later she's like – we were so We were all sitting around some ah new incense from the new world. Yeah. yeah And we all got hungry.
01:09:11
Speaker
And like like we all got sleepy. And we got hungry. and got got like Just describing being high on pot. So funny. But every time she just keeps coming back to you about talking about dinner parties that got ruined by everybody. yeah Also, raw potatoes are poisonous. Yeah.
01:09:31
Speaker
Yes. Like they might have been rotten and maybe that's why they were green. And they thought it was like a vegetable because a lot of veg is green. But I'm pretty sure even just raw potatoes can be poisonous. Yeah. Not kill you poisonous, but definitely poisonous. They're they're actually often thought of. They are a hangover, like a folk hangover remedy. Oh, interesting. And I know this because one time I did a comedy show on the morning after...
01:09:59
Speaker
um i did ah I did a house show the morning after new Year's Eve. like Well, I guess New Year's Day. There's a name for the day after New Year's Eve, huh?
01:10:14
Speaker
And we centered the whole thing around being hungover. And so we we did a bunch of hangover read remedies, like folksy hangover remedies in front of the crowd. and i ah
01:10:29
Speaker
took a bite of raw potato. And I was hungover, by the way. Uh-huh. And I threw up. Yeah. yeah Oh, my God. Do not eat raw potato. First of all, there's nothing worse than just a plain potato. Yeah. Gross, but a plain raw potato.
01:10:52
Speaker
we also did a bit a bit that some of my friends still do every year on New Year's Eve. We were like, you know what the best part Of New Year's Eve is it's the countdown. The potatoes.
01:11:03
Speaker
So we just did it over and over and over. but we did the countdown like 30 times during the show. And then it turned into such a running joke that anytime somebody said a number, the crowd started counting down from that number. That's so funny. And then we had to do Happy New Year. And it like completely derailed the show. It was so fun. That's so funny. Oh, my gosh. And yeah, my friends still do that every New Year's Eve. Anyway, don't eat raw potatoes, guys. The point is don't eat raw potatoes. So...
01:11:34
Speaker
Sybil Forescu rules. She ate very at raw potatoes. she She has a pet monkey that she brings in every time. That's true. Yeah, it it is all stuff from the Age of Exploration. Like her husband's an explorer and sends her back stuff. And then she shows it off even though it's – she's doing it all wrong. All of it all wrong. I actually thought that in the storyline that maybe her husband didn't like her because he would send her things, you know, from the new world. And she would take this as a grand gesture and like a gift. But it it was it would be something like the potato like that got her sick. I'm like, yeah is her husband trying to murder her? I'm not sure. her
01:12:13
Speaker
Speaking of that, there is a murderer in this game. There's a murderer in this game. So there's a woman who keeps coming in. Oh, yes. I clocked her from her first visit. Same. Same. I was kind of hoping she wouldn't be.
01:12:32
Speaker
But no, that makes sense. keeps She keeps dating old men and then coming into because she's concerned. What if they die and then she's alone? Yeah. Yeah. And then marries them.
01:12:43
Speaker
And then they die. She's a black widow. Yeah, she's a black widow. There's a black widow in this game. Nice. So every single time she comes in, you can tell her that what you saw in the stars was that her husband... Oh, bad news. Your husband was bewitched.
01:13:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And if you keep doing it over and over, she's like, oh my god, this again. Because she can't using the same excuse for killing all of her husbands.
01:13:16
Speaker
That's so funny. We kind of helped. We kind of enabled then. it Enabled her to kill them all? Yeah, kind Yeah, yeah, we did. I mean, we certainly weren't what weren't preventing it. We were kind of complicit.
01:13:30
Speaker
I didn't get a...
01:13:34
Speaker
I didn't get a, ah well, yeah there's, okay, two things. Number one, I didn't get a letter of recommendation from her. Okay. Because I kept saying witch. i think i I think I did, because I didn't go with those. and I did not go with those. And eventually he starts implying she is that witch. Okay. So, um but you also can thwart one of her murders.
01:13:57
Speaker
ah There is a character who is like, hey, I met this um amazing woman and she is a rich widow. And you can be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. bla but Right. You can like, yeah, you can like read the stars and be like, hey, bad news. Bad news. um Yeah. Don't don't marry this one. but Yeah.
01:14:18
Speaker
This game is really cool. Really great. I really do think
Re-evaluating Game Rankings and Community Engagement
01:14:22
Speaker
it's special. i It's just got such a charm. and And something I would like to do is revisit the document and see if we would like to move it. Yeah. Now, I i was thinking about this the whole time I was playing it. Uh-huh. Because...
01:14:39
Speaker
I remember us putting this unusually high. Oh, well, maybe we're right. Yeah, exactly. Because we were like, this seems... seems cool Hey, hey that means like you know what that means? well game Do you know what that means? We are the experts that we always thought you were. Yes! That's exactly what that means. It means that we're good at observing what might be good adventure game. That's our job. So are you a little afraid that if that ends up being true, then that ruins the whole ranking adventure games bit?
01:15:16
Speaker
No. Okay. Just means it's accurate. Let's see. um We're professionals. Docs.google.com. All right. Where is the.
01:15:30
Speaker
Oh, no, it's on a drive, right? It's on drive. Yeah. Let me bring it up as well. Gotta find it. Gotta find this thing. Wait. Gotta find this thing. Yeah, right here. Okay.
01:15:44
Speaker
i wish it off Off recording, I wish we could play Cosmology of Kyoto. so We can't? um It's not anywhere. i mean, maybe with an emulator. Okay. might be a little It might be a little tough.
01:16:00
Speaker
um Okay. Okay. Okay. We put it all right. So we put it at 44. We did. We did. Which is pretty high given that there's 135 games.
01:16:12
Speaker
But let's look what's around it. So we put it above our block of like Nancy Drew, Reed, Agatha Christie, all those games. think that's Yeah, I think that's fair. It should be above those, yeah. Yeah.
01:16:29
Speaker
But we put it under the games that we were excited to play but have heard are bad. Right. um Goblin's Quest, Orion Burger,
01:16:41
Speaker
ah I've played Orion Burger. i kind stick I kind of stick to it. Book of Unwritten Tales, Critic Chronicles. So we decided, like, these are games that that look good and we know people who are into adventure games like, but we didn't like them. Right.
01:16:59
Speaker
um So maybe it should go above that, but then we're getting into the 20s. I don't think it should go in the twenty s My question is... You've played Pine Hearts. Does it go above or below Pine Hearts?
01:17:13
Speaker
It goes above Pine Hearts. Why don't we put it? We've got Wavetail up there. ah It is our plan to perhaps play Wavetail. Why don't we put it next to Wavetail?
01:17:25
Speaker
Put it next to Wavetail. So we're moving it from 44. To 36?
01:17:30
Speaker
to 37. 37? I Or do you mean 36? Do you want it to go above Wavetail? No, 37. 37 is fine. Okay. So Astrologaster
01:17:45
Speaker
hops up a a good seven spots. Nice. I was tempted to leave it there, but because Pine Hearts was there and you played that, I figured we can get a good idea. That's A a better idea. That's a good call. i Yeah.
01:17:59
Speaker
And I think it's below games like... Erica and Amnesia Rebirth. Oh, yeah yes, it is. Absolutely it is But you still believe it it belongs below Orion Burger.
01:18:15
Speaker
only for Only for the reason of Orion Burger is more of a classic point-and-click adventure game. and i i And I was stoked about fucking playing that game. I still never have. But I was stoked about playing that game for like my entire entire childhood when I saw it in a gaming magazine and then was never able to actually find it on ah on a store shelf Yeah, it it was on Home of the Underdogs for a little while. It's still difficult to play.
01:18:44
Speaker
Man, some of these games are, I hope they're not too forgotten to time because I feel like there's a lot of us out there who like saw Orion Burger in a magazine or on Home of the Underdogs and never got to play it. And we still don't have a good way.
01:18:58
Speaker
yeah yeah i think in the um you know in the in the early 2000s i think i did manage to get a copy of it oh wow nice like a pirate copy of it yeah um i mean it's not available anywhere it's abandoned where yeah yeah yeah and i could not find a way back then to play it i would be able to now like i i know a lot more about emulation now yeah back then yeah yeah Yeah. If we wanted to play this game, if we found like a burned image or something, we could play it probably with an emulator. But it is one of those games that's like notoriously in that era where games were more getting more difficult to run. yeah
01:19:39
Speaker
ah The easiest games to run are honestly older than that. If you can run it in DOSBox or SCUM, you're set. yeah If it's like a live-acted FMV game, no. So difficult to run. Right.
01:19:52
Speaker
They're already broken. Yeah, they were bad. They were bad when they came out. know. They were bad at being games. um All right. So that was fun. i think it's real fun to be able to revisit or to visit for the first time to check out these games that we unfairly judged. I think so, too. And I'm kind of stoked that our intuition was kind of good fair for this game.
01:20:18
Speaker
Well, I think I told you when it came up. That I already owned the game. Right, right. I had already, i had had it, I'd i'd seen it um on Steam and been like, that game looks great. Yeah. and put it in my wish list and at some point it came up for, like it was on Steam sale and I was like.
01:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, fuck yeah. I'll do that. Yeah. And so it was already sitting in my library when it came up the first time. And so I still had it to play for this episode. That's awesome. I really think it did get a ah pretty good reception, but I think it could always use more plays. I think if you guys are interested in anything that we said...
01:21:04
Speaker
I think people more people should play this game. I do think it is a good quality game. I think it's very amusing. Voice acting is great. Fully voiced. And it'll take you, don't know, between four and six hours probably. Yeah, it's a good chunk of time for like a story rich game like that. Yes, and it's it's it's cute.
01:21:27
Speaker
It's kind of funny. Like, I didn't laugh out loud at any point, but I, you know, it got it got some smiles and some breaths from me. Yeah, to absolutely. Absolutely.
01:21:37
Speaker
And it's an interesting chunk of history. Like, it's an interesting piece of history. and Yeah. Like, ah yeah. Very, very interesting game. Very fascinating. Astrologaster. I'm glad we did that.
01:21:52
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad we played it. I'm glad we're doing some games from the ranking list because, I mean, we've ranked a lot now. We've got to be able to have the chance to move them. i know, I know.
01:22:05
Speaker
ah So, yeah, absolutely. It's funny, as as just a little tease, there's a conversation we had but just, and I don't think it was on recording, was it?
01:22:22
Speaker
Where we talked about doing, we talked about playing a whole series of games for one of these episodes. I don't think, I think that might've been off recording. I think so too. But the thing that give that made me wonder about it is the Discord, which you guys can find in the show notes. Join our Discord. It's really fun. There's always people chatting there. They're a great community. Yeah. The Discord...
01:22:50
Speaker
Basically, the week after me and you had that conversation, started discussing how cool it would be if we did that entire series of games. Yeah, yeah.
01:23:01
Speaker
Some of which are on this list. Yeah. Yeah, very, very, very weird. Very weird and very fascinating. Yeah. We're all on the same page, I think. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Matt. Well, I think that this was a great episode. I think this is a good idea. we will absolutely ah revisit our ranked list and maybe even move more games. But is there anything that you specifically, Matt, would like to tell our listeners?
01:23:31
Speaker
You know what? I do want to tell them something. Not only do I want to tell them to join our Discord, I want to tell them to go to our Instagram at... ah Save your game podcast on Instagram. And I want them to email us.
01:23:50
Speaker
want them to email us at mattandroses at gmail.com. Yeah. Well, those are lovely things. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. No, those are so easy to do. and normal.
01:24:04
Speaker
You will love doing them. Is there anything you want to tell our listeners?
Podcasting Reflections and Creative Insights
01:24:09
Speaker
um I have a new Murder, She Wrote up. It is up on my channel now. So if you'd like to see an extremely unhinged recap of Murder, She Wrote, where they eat the murder weapon, that is on my channel. You know where it is, Pushing Up Roses. i just have one, I think, really important, like, poignant thing that I would like to tell you personally. oh And the audience. and not You personally.
01:24:35
Speaker
Okay. So this is this is on recording. you This is on recording. It's for everyone. Okay. Well, now I'm nervous, but all right. I just want to say that podcast is art. Oh, oh, oh. Art is suffer.