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Episode 67 - Strange Antiquities
1.5k Plays27 days ago
Very weird cold open this week (aren't they all?), and then Roses and Matt get some gripes about GAMING CULTURE™ off of their chests before talking about some really amazing games!
Matt played a promising demo for War of the Western Deep and an amazing short indie game called The Dark Queen of Mortholme. Roses and Matt both get excited about games that are either discovered or released during the recording of the show.
And then, after a brief recollection of Strange Horticulture, we go in deep to talk about all the things we loved (and it’s pretty much all the things) about Strange Antiquities!
Games Mentioned:
- Leisure Suit Larry
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Plumbers Don't Wear Ties
- Cabernet
- War of the Western Deep
- Brok the InvestiGator
- Date Everything
- The Dark Queen of Mortholme
- Dad's Monster House 2: Medal
- Strange Horticulture
- Strange Antiquities
- Stardew Valley
- Papers Please
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
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Transcript
Sound Experimentation Mishap
00:00:00
Speaker
What does it sound like when I do this? You sound like you're in a tin pan. Yeah. I'm just, i like I said, i started talking while I was taking a drink of water and now was like, what if I hold it up to the microphone? Does that sound weird? It sounds horrible.
00:00:12
Speaker
It sounds like our sounds like our quality just went down like 10 notches. It sounds like I'm talking into the wrong mic or something. Yeah, that is what it sounds like. You know how sometimes your monitor picks – like my monitors have mics and speakers on them. Sure, yeah. And sometimes it'll pick that up when I'm recording voiceover, and I have to be so careful because it sounds like garbage. Yeah.
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah, no, i that definitely happens. Like sometimes ah you'll be starting to record something and you'll be like, why the fuck does this sound so bad? And you're missinging messing with everything. It's like, oh, it's recording from my webcam.
00:00:49
Speaker
But no, yeah in this scenario, I'm this whole time, I'm just leaning over and holding a cup to my face.
Instagram-worthy Destinations
00:00:55
Speaker
Okay. So I'll put it down. I was going to ask you, have you ever seen those, um those fields of sunflowers that people grow now for specifically for Instagram?
00:01:12
Speaker
No. You've never seen those? I don't think so. They they started a lot. Weirdly, I think they started along with like pop-up beer gardens and stuff. Just like, you know, in the past five years or whatever, where people will grow an entire field of sunflowers.
00:01:31
Speaker
Okay. Not to harvest. Not to harvest. Not for any reason. Besides to attract people to the field and to take it to take Instagram pictures. Okay. yeah Are you making this up?
00:01:43
Speaker
No, not at all. Stout's made up. I don't know if they're trying to drive. Like, I guess sometimes it's probably they're trying to drive somebody to the local business that they own on the land. or sometimes they're trying to just like get money, like charge for parking or whatever. But it's literally just one of my ex-girlfriends like years ago um took me to like drug drug me.
00:02:07
Speaker
She drugged you? She drugged me and left my body in a and I had to find my way out of the and we dated for another couple years after that. Holy shit. All my friends were like, you should leave her. And i was like, it was just one time. It's just the one drugging.
00:02:23
Speaker
no and she she dragged me to a to this exact thing where it's like ah big sunflower patch. And then we took pictures.
00:02:37
Speaker
And everybody, ah and all over this thing was also other people taking pictures. That's weird. So she wanted all these nice pictures where she was like posing in front of a sunflower or smelling a sunflower or like acting like she was really happy and enjoying the sunshine with sunflowers behind her.
00:02:53
Speaker
But I did like, I was ah was a prairie dog. And I was like, take a video of me. And I like popped up and looked left and looked right and then popped back down. Ha ha ha ha
00:03:08
Speaker
That's definitely how you should be using these strange, what are they called? Like, what are those called? Photo ops or something? you know I'm talking about? Yeah. Go to places and it's all Instagram, like photo ops.
00:03:22
Speaker
What are those called? They're called something. I'm sure they have a name because they're fucking everywhere. mean, there's entire bars that are that, right? I know. Last year, I went to a Christmas bar. And it's just one a bar in ah Westchester, Pennsylvania. they They cover their bar in Christmas trees and like Christmas trees hanging upside down from the ceiling. And they put tinsel everywhere. And it's like, this must have cost you $300 to do. Yeah.
00:03:48
Speaker
yeah And yet your business just quadrupled for the next two months. Yeah. Dude, I went to a pumpkin patch a couple years ago in the city. I'm not really sure if this qualifies as a pumpkin patch. yeah But it was like, you know, a pop-up pumpkin patch.
00:04:03
Speaker
The whole thing was photo ops. Oh, my God. Yes. That's it. Yeah. I went to a pumpkin patch a couple years ago, and it was the same – There were her families and stuff like getting pumpkins.
00:04:17
Speaker
Sure. It was normal pumpkin patch stuff. And then all of a sudden, I saw this army of women all in the same cottagecore outfit with the same...
00:04:32
Speaker
um same pumpkin sp slatte The same The same. Right. all this Their names are all Becca. The same Ugg boots. The same like wavy, like like looks like it was accidentally messed up, but definitely wasn't haircut.
00:04:47
Speaker
And I don't have much time to talk about that. but Yeah. But I'm just saying, i just think all of them looked exactly the same. And they were all just coming to take pictures with the pumpkins. And was like, I'm trying to just buy a pumpkin to chop up.
00:05:03
Speaker
Get out of my way. Anyway. I don't think there were any pumpkins at the one I went to. Jesus Christ. the The initial thing I was going to ask you is what else would be funny to like plant a field of and make people take pictures in front of it. But I think instead me and you are just complaining about fucking kids, the Instagram kids these days. Fuck these influencers and their weird patches. don't want that.
00:05:28
Speaker
I'm sick of patches. I just wanted a pumpkin and what did I get? A photo of myself. Great. sad Sad because you didn't have pumpkin.
00:05:41
Speaker
That is the next one. I just open up a big empty field and you can come take pictures of yourself. Sad that there's nothing in the field. I'll be right there.
Critique of Online Culture
00:06:12
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Save Your Game. I'm pushing up roses. I like to laugh, apparently. Is it obnoxious? Let me know in the comments. but oh always You do not want to ask that. You do not want to court that.
00:06:28
Speaker
you You do not have an obnoxious laugh, but you are a woman on the internet. There's zero chance that somebody's not going to be like, ah yeah, it's shrill.
00:06:41
Speaker
I thought, oh, I know. I thought people liked me. and thought people liked my laugh. They do, but man, people will think any moment, ah people will ah criticize a woman's voice.
00:06:56
Speaker
Back in my ah gaming review days, and um when when I say that, I mean like that was the only thing I was doing. I do one every now and then. i have this podcast, but back when that was the only thing I was doing for YouTube,
00:07:08
Speaker
i I'm a snarky reviewer. I think we can agree on that. Sometimes dry. But overall, very enthusiastic about what I'm talking about. Whether I'm snarking on it or not, right? I'm very enthusiastic about adventure games.
00:07:21
Speaker
And there was a large amount of people... men There were a large amount of men who didn't like that about me. They're just like, oh, she's just some girl on the internet pretending to like video games. It's so obnoxious.
00:07:36
Speaker
As though they wanted me to be like James Rolfe. And there's nothing wrong with that kind of characterization. ah Angry video game nerd. Oh. There's nothing wrong with a characterized... kind of don't know who that is either, but Oh, my God. How are you even on this podcast? You're going to get canceled.
00:07:56
Speaker
Cancel me. Cancel me Who am Why do you want to be arrested and canceled so badly? Who Roses, who am I? You're Matt, Matt Allcamp of the Pennsylvania AllCamps. I'm here too, everybody. hey nice to be here.
00:08:15
Speaker
I'm the co-host. Okay. Anyway, now you can keep telling your story. thank you. Sorry. Matt was feeling left out apparently. i didn't know who I was. i was having a crisis. I was going all girl on the internet and and everything. But yeah. Okay. Let's see.
00:08:28
Speaker
Like not every, I don't think, ah you know, back in the day, there was a lot of quote negative gaming reviews that maybe surpassed Snark. And I was just kind of like, I don't want to do that. i just don't. I don't really want to be angry at video games. And plus the video games I like, I'm not, I'm not angry at the I mean, I'm a little angry at Leisure Suit Larry, but, you know, in jest.
00:08:49
Speaker
And there was a lot of people who just didn't just didn't get it. They didn't like it. They thought my enthusiasm was um obnoxious and a quote, being an attention whore, which is wild because in real life, like in person, that's why people like me.
00:09:06
Speaker
Like, that's why my friends like being around me. But on the Internet, people are like, oh, no, she's way too happy. She's way too enthusiastic. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that wild? i I mean, I think, yeah, I think there's there was a period on the internet where people were, at I mean, there is every part of an American culture, and people have been allergic to women. But there was a period on the internet where people were allergic to joy, right? To sincerity.
00:09:37
Speaker
And you put that together, man, and it's a hot mess. Yeah. i And I think that shifted and now people are allergic to... okay people are allergic on the internet to insincerity and sincerity.
00:09:51
Speaker
But it's like ah detached irony or sarcasm or snark. Like that's what people wanted. um Yeah. And I think people have gotten over that and people are okay with...
00:10:06
Speaker
sincerity and joy now, but there's there's still always going to be this contingent. Like when a great game comes out, for example, you will go any... any Any place there are reviews, any comment section, and people will be like, this is the worst game I've ever played. i really know.
00:10:25
Speaker
Silksong is the worst game you've ever played. Really? The hyperbole of it all. Like, this this is the worst one. Really? Yes. Yeah. Like, this is, okay. You didn't like the game. That's fine. A lot of people maybe didn't like the game, even if they're wrong.
00:10:41
Speaker
But I think there's there's there's real reasons not. You could just not enjoy that type of game. But this is the worst game you've ever played. Have you not played Plumbers Don't Wear Ties?
00:10:56
Speaker
I name like a thousand games that are worse. Have you not played... at What's the... Path of the Druid? Is that it or is that the final? Oh, yeah, yeah. Mystery of the Druids. Mystery of the Druids. Path of the Druid is a good one, I think.
00:11:12
Speaker
i think Path of the Druid is a good one. I wanted to say that because I'm sorry. I think there's a game called Path of the Druid. Is there? Isn't there? Is there? Path of the Druid. If not, we should make it.
00:11:25
Speaker
should make a game called Path of the Druid. On kind of related side. Plot of the Druid. Well, there's a lot of games with the Druid. There's not a path of a Druid. There's not a path of Druid. We will make it. I'll tell Grunaslav Games to get on that.
00:11:39
Speaker
i'll tell i'll tell gruslav games to to get on that Grundislav, make Path of the Druid and say it was us.
00:11:50
Speaker
We were very goofy tonight. What's wrong with us? We started late. lord. Sorry, you were saying. We did start late. I was going to say on ah on a related note, and I'm happy to talk about this since it is gaming. It's all gaming related and my kind of gaming career related stuff.
00:12:07
Speaker
But on a different note, I did have a few negative reviews out there. ah One was on Leisure Suit. Sorry. and don't know why i said that. One was on Police Quest 1. I said that because Lowe ghost wrote for Police Quest 1 and put some Leisure Suit Larry screen gaps in there. I would have just cut it out. But now that you've justified it, I have to leave both Yeah, you got to leave it in.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, you got to leave it in. Well, yeah we strive for honesty. No, that's fine. I got it mixed up, but that's the reason I got it mixed up. So it makes sense. And the other one was quest for glory too.
00:12:38
Speaker
And I gave them negative reviews. And then instead of being happy that I am now pivoting into a different emotion, those same men were mad at me because those were the best games ever made. And how dare I not like that? I just, you cannot win.
00:12:54
Speaker
Well, you violated- let's you honest You're still violating rule number one, which is don't be a woman. I'm sorry. What should I do? don't- I mean, technically, you don't know that. I could be a lemur in a trench coat.
00:13:08
Speaker
Or three lemurs. Yeah, I've never seen you without your trench coat on.
00:13:14
Speaker
You didn't notice all the paws, like, sticking out of my clothes? No, guess don't. I guess I'm just like- Were you wondering about that? I don't pay much attention.
00:13:26
Speaker
Oh, great. Don't worry. hey i'm on I'm on Adderall now. So it's okay. Next time we meet, I'll see all your paws shutting out. All the little lemur hairs yeah floating. and It's shedding season. So, you know, or it was. It's not really summer anymore. Anyway, that's my story about games.
00:13:46
Speaker
I'm going to be enthusiastically talking about a game today. So if you don't like that, get the fuck out. I've actually, I've got a few games to talk about enthusiastically. Really? Yes.
00:13:56
Speaker
I have a question. When's the last time you didn't like a game? When's the last time you were in recent times during this podcast recording? When's the last time you just didn't, you weren't feeling it?
00:14:08
Speaker
Well, I think, okay. there's a but There's a bunch that I just had, I just don't talk about on the, on the show. um Because there's a lot of games I play that I'm not in love with and I stopped pretty quickly. Yeah. And,
00:14:25
Speaker
i i I don't have any desire to warn people about them or to – like, there's not enough – I don't hate it or – I don't hate it enough to want to yell about it.
00:14:37
Speaker
And I don't love it enough to be like, this is great, but – Yeah, that's fair. And sort of say, like, people should look at this, but I wish it was different in all of these ways, right?
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. um so i So I don't want to name and the three games from this year that I'm looking at right now that I played. um Some of.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah. And just couldn't continue. That's fair. That's fair. like this Honestly, this is related to what I was doing with my channel. and I didn't really feel like talking about yeah games that I'm just not really feeling it. And here's why I just didn't, you know, i obviously I'm obviously I'm a critic in my own right. And I yeah believe in art and I believe in that.
00:15:25
Speaker
So I'm not afraid to to criticize things, but I can do that in like a happy way. Yeah. um Yeah. Okay. so the last game on the show, I think we were the the last game that we were the most critical of, which I know has two qualifiers. So that almost renders it meaningless. But I think you got you kind of know what I'm saying. um The last game that me and you were the most critical of What, too? Yeah.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yes, is probably Cabernet. Okay, yeah. A game that we both really loved in concept and we played a lot of and there was a lot of stuff we really, really ah loved about it.
00:16:09
Speaker
But yeah it was just a bit too many steps away from what it could have been or what they wanted it to be. um Since then, they've updated it a few times. So I like i do want to eventually go back and replay it and see if some of those kinks have been worked out. But I think that was the last game that me and you had as many critical things to say about it as we did praise.
00:16:36
Speaker
And I liked that game too. But no, you're right. I did have some, it was buggy. I did have some criticisms for sure. Yeah, it was buggy. The pacing was weird in places. Some things didn't work for us as well as we thought they were going to. yeah but ah you know again, i wonder if...
00:16:52
Speaker
I think if all those bugs have been ironed out, which by now hopefully they have, and a couple of those little quality of life features have been improved, I think I would love it. I think it would I would go back to, I think I would, my might be b b B minus score would maybe jump up to an a a minus. Yeah, yeah.
00:17:12
Speaker
Sorry, I know I went on a tangent there by asking you, opening the floodgates by asking that question. But I am interested to know what games you did play this week. Yes, this week. Okay, so one of the games that I want to talk about real quick is just a
Game Reviews and Demos
00:17:25
Speaker
game. I played a demo, and I talked about this last year when I went to ah Adventure Game Fanfare. There was a demo by Sunsgrove Studios called War of the Western Deep.
00:17:39
Speaker
And they just released a, I don't know if that demo was ever available to the public or if that was just at the convention, but they just released a new demo.
00:17:50
Speaker
Okay. What it is, it's like a it's like an anthropomorphic animal adventure. Oh, you know, didn't know you were a furry, Matt.
00:18:01
Speaker
Stop. As if there's not enough of those, though. Right. Like there's so many of those. And people like what can I say? People like animals and they're even better when they can talk.
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah, but the animation here is really good. the the graphics are kind of cartoony and really fun. yeah The thing that it's closest to in my mind, the the game that it's closest to is probably Brock the Investigator.
00:18:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good game. Yeah, it was really good. and Yeah. And I think... ah this This game has a lot of similar elements where instead of beat-em-up, there's turn-based combat.
00:18:43
Speaker
Oh, fun. Along with the point-and-click stuff. Yeah. and you play a courier in the middle of ah you know a fictional fantasy world of animal people that seems like it's on the brink of war between a bunch of different factions.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah. Like any fantasy war scenario, it's very hard to keep track of. And unlike a game a game of Thrones or something where they dole that out to you little by little, it there's a lot of info dump stuff.
00:19:14
Speaker
Oh, geez. do Is it good info dump or bad info dump? I had trouble following it. Got it. But it didn't ruin, there was still characterization in the info dump, so like i it didn't ruin the experience for me.
00:19:27
Speaker
isn And yeah, there's ah there's a cute little demo that seems to be sort of like the beginning of the game. um You are investigating a little mystery. You fight a little creature.
00:19:40
Speaker
And Roses. Yes. The ultimate goal of this demo. Uh-huh. Is to find a loose crank. No. Yes.
00:19:51
Speaker
No. No. Yes. They had to order one. Their crank broke. Their crank broke. so they had to order a new loose crank. I love it. You have to.
00:20:03
Speaker
Because you you find like a. but It's a demo. So like I can spoil you whatever the fuck I want. Whatever the fuck I want. So she comes across a. yeah She comes across a camp of one of these factions. Yeah.
00:20:15
Speaker
And she's like, where are the border guards? They should have stopped me. And then she finds them dead.
00:20:21
Speaker
They've all been killed by this creature that you're eventually going to fight. But in order to so first she wants to investigate and see what the hell is up. But then in order to keep going, there's a bridge that she needs lowered that normally the border guards would. They can't because dead.
00:20:40
Speaker
And you find that the crank mechanism broke and then the order of the crank. So you basically kind of have to like find a combination to a chest to get a key to get into a room. Oh, God.
00:20:54
Speaker
To find the crank to get across the bridge. That's. But in the meantime, like in the. Yeah. In the meantime, you're sort of investigating a little like what happened to these guards, which I already spoiled, but it's fine. It's just a demo.
00:21:09
Speaker
It's a demo. Yeah. um And I think, like Brock, I think this is going to end up having branching paths ah because it's it's listed as a choose your own adventure.
00:21:21
Speaker
And I think that's, I don't know. I'm excited for it. Okay, good. I think. Could you repeat the name of it for me? War of the Western Deep by Sunsgrove Studios. It's their first game, and but they seem to be putting a lot of work and a lot of love into it.
00:21:38
Speaker
And I also really liked their original demo. Oh my God. This looks so cute.
00:21:54
Speaker
I don't know what I was expecting. I don't know what I had in my head while you were explaining that, but it was not this. Oh, interesting. was It wasn't. It was like when you said when you said turn-based, I immediately thought...
00:22:06
Speaker
Not 2D, actually. It went 3D in my head. I think I'm wrong about that, by the way. I think it is. i don't think it's turn-based. I i just played it. I don't know why I said turn-based. It is real-time. It's real-time combat, but in you know in their own like in their own screens.
00:22:24
Speaker
Okay. you know you look cut so um Wait a minute. Are you playing a squirrel? yeah. I guess maybe you are. This game is meant for me. This is meant for me.
00:22:35
Speaker
um The combat is really simple. Again, i'm going to say, like Brock, the combat is the simplest version of the thing that it is. But there's enough character and enough ah really well done animation and...
00:22:53
Speaker
the the combat is functional enough that I think it's it's gonna be good I mean I'm excited for it I downloaded the demo just now it really looks cute you really sold it on me it really looks cute I love squirrels I relate to squirrels ah
00:23:13
Speaker
I relate to loose cranks what can I say yeah Me and you, couple of loose cranks. that We've said this before. um We should have named our podcast Loose Cranks. What what were we thinking? Nobody would have known at all what the fuck this podcast was about. Nobody would listen to it. No. This is like a naughty podcast.
00:23:35
Speaker
Loose Cranks. but We just start talking about adventure games. Totally disappointing. We're like a slutty improv team, the Loose Cranks. The Loose Cranks. But we're also the worst improv you've ever heard in your life. yeah but Every single thing turns into our characters trying to fuck somebody else.
00:23:56
Speaker
Brilliant. come to Come down to Chicago, the improv scene, and we'll get this going, Matt. Okay. So... Yeah, so War of the Western Deep, I don't have no idea when it's supposed to come out.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. But again, that's did I've seen two demos of it so far. So there's some vertical slices already finished. Mm-hmm.
00:24:18
Speaker
that could mean that they are very far, or it could mean that they've worked very hard on two demos. Sure. That is a thing that definitely happens.
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, mean, you know how game, especially adventure game development in the indie scene, it can take a while. Right. Yeah. Not a criticism, by the way, just, and you know.
00:24:40
Speaker
Again, there can be, especially when you've done successful kiss, kicks, a kiss starter. A kiss starter? Huh. Huh.
00:24:51
Speaker
It's an idea, Matt. You're just full of ah well great ideas tonight. Especially when you've done a successful Kickstarter, which I i believe they have done.
00:25:03
Speaker
um
00:25:06
Speaker
As I'm looking it up, I think they also have a comic book. it It looks that style, doesn't it? Yes. That's why I'm so like entranced by it. It's so cool looking. Huh.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah. Beyond the Western Deep is an ongoing all-ages fantasy webcomic that I've been publishing by ah with Rachel Bennett, Jerome DeSinto, and Leah Breer since early 2012. Holy cow.
00:25:32
Speaker
So there's a whole there's a whole world here. Dang. That's cool. My interest. Something to Yeah. My interest, however, is in the this this game.
00:25:45
Speaker
I'm not sure. yeah i If the game really, really captures me, who knows? i mean I need to add something to this. Yeah. Please. So I was on the page because I just downloaded the demo and...
00:25:58
Speaker
In the related games is a game called Date Everything. And I think I need to play this. There's a game from this year called Date Everything. I listened to an interview with the developer. it is a visual novel where every object in your house ah is alive and has a personality and you can try to date it.
00:26:20
Speaker
Sold.
00:26:23
Speaker
I mean, that's what I do in my real life. Why would I not want to bring this to to video games? You just walk around your house trying to date your toaster your carpet. No, I would never date a printer.
00:26:37
Speaker
ah Totally unreliable. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So the other game that I played that I was really, really impressed by, it's a very short game. But it was really interesting. it was really good. It was called the Dark Queen of Mortholm.
00:26:55
Speaker
That's one of those titles. Yeah. ah The Dark Queen of Mortholm. Okay. It's pixel art game. It takes place in one room.
00:27:08
Speaker
You start the game and you are a... You're basically 2D Dark Souls boss. You are a a giant armored woman sitting on a throne with a big mace in this really, you know, lavish royal throne room.
00:27:30
Speaker
And a hero walks in and challenges you to a fight. So get down off your throne. He starts coming at you. He starts like and nicking at your armor with his little sword. He's doing barely any damage.
00:27:45
Speaker
You take your mace. You swing it. He's dead. You walk over to him. You snap your fingers and his corpse disappears, leaving just like a blood stain on the floor. And then you walk back over to your throne.
00:27:57
Speaker
And as you arrive at your throne, Hero runs in and challenges you to fight. hmm. you turn around, this is the same person.
00:28:08
Speaker
Okay. So you run over, you walk over, and you swing your mace at him, and he dodges. And you're like, huh. you swing it one or two more times, he's dead.
00:28:20
Speaker
Right? to And that's how the game goes. He just keeps coming back. So, okay, so the next time he comes back, you you're talking to You're like, oh, you picked up a new move. And he was like, yeah, dead.
00:28:32
Speaker
I'm learning your... I'm going to beat you eventually. and you're like, okay, well, I guess I got to use all my moves. And now three you unlock three moves. um You can summon like a damaging magic circle. You can dash across the...
00:28:49
Speaker
field with your mace outstretched or you can swing your mace um and again you hit him one time he's dead and he just keeps he just keeps coming back and the game is about the relationship between you two um that's adorable starts out is it meant to be adorable It is meant to be adorable i and and thoughtful, right? It starts out with this little hero seems really silly and you seem like the adult in the room and he seems like a he or they seem like a ah dumb little child who's like clearly out of their league and you're like, well what are you doing?
00:29:31
Speaker
But the more he comes back, the more that Dynamic starts to shift and you start to seem like the immature one, right? Like you seem to, he starts to seem, they, sorry, start to seem like the person with ah ah a reason to live and a goal and a mature perspective on the world. And you start to seem like a person with no aims and no goals and no, you know, reasons.
00:29:58
Speaker
And that dynamic shifts a couple times as you, as he just keeps coming back and you keep fighting him and you keep killing him and he keeps getting a little bit better. And that's, that's, I think where I'll stop describing it, but yeah, it's about a half an hour to an hour.
00:30:15
Speaker
okay. Short, short game. I played it. Okay. I played it twice to see if there are different endings. And so far I've found three, different endings. Oh, cool. The other endings are sort of gimmicky, right? Like they evolve, but they revolve around doing something unintuitive.
00:30:33
Speaker
Yeah. And it basically just like get an achievement and to see another, ah silly little other kind of ending. Sure. But even those have something both funny and a little thoughtful about them.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that. Every conversation you have with him, conversation, you have You always have two dialogue options. So there's always, you can you can, since it's so short, you can play through and see all the other dialogue. So I would suggest playing through this game once or twice and then sort of experimenting with, you know, just to any little dumb idea you have and see if you can, if if that leads to anything interesting.
00:31:14
Speaker
I love the premise. Yeah, and this even though it's just one room and two characters, it's also beautiful. yeah It's really nice to look at. there's a really There's really... Yeah, I mean, if you can make that work, if you can make a one-room game interesting and ah and ah immersive, yes.
00:31:30
Speaker
Yes, please. Sounds great. There's nice, also just like nice lo-fi video gaming boss fight music that's yeah nice. It's, again, it's cute.
00:31:41
Speaker
It's thoughtful. It's a little funny. It's pretty. It's definitely, i think it's like five bucks or something. is. And also, as of yesterday, there is a Cabernet and Dark Queen of Morthelome bundle.
00:31:57
Speaker
It's bundled with Cabernet. Yeah. Yes. So I think I got it for like $5.50 because I already had Cabernet. um But yeah. Or $4.50, I mean. But yeah, I i think it's something. i think it's really special. I think it's a special little game. Yeah. and you know, the developer Mosu.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yep. I'm kind of interested in ah kind of interested in what else they might do. Yeah, I am too. What what would they do with a full length game and is a question I have. And in order for them to ever make a full length of game, we got to buy the Dark Queen of Mortholm.
00:32:33
Speaker
I love that. I will definitely spend a little bit of time with this game to see what it's about. ah yeah it's it's smart. And again, even though even even though you might be like, ah it's five dollars worth a half hour where I'm pretty sure I know it happens. I think it is. And i think even if it is to support an indie dev with a really good idea, who then will maybe use that money to in five years make your favorite game, perhaps, you know.
00:33:03
Speaker
I would also be open to a lot of vignette games from this dev, as long as they're, you know, unique enough. Yeah, think there's a, I think, like the itch.io community has a lot of these, right? These little bite-sized games.
00:33:19
Speaker
And I think this person started on itch. But these little bite-sized games that are built around an idea. But again, these these are the people who become the future developers of our favorite games.
00:33:31
Speaker
And... That's not to say it's just charity. Like, again, it was worth it. It it really it felt good. It felt good the whole time. So that's awesome. bob Well, thank you for this recommendation. I am definitely definitely going to play it.
00:33:44
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Let me know what you think about it. i Hopefully we can talk about it next episode if you if you spend some time with it. Again, it goes really fast and it's definitely it's worth it.
00:33:55
Speaker
and Play it on my Steam Deck.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it works. On my bed. It works well with the controller. I'm sure it does, yeah. So that's that's the Dark Queen of Mortholm and ah the demo for War of the Western Deep.
00:34:11
Speaker
Now, Roses. Yes. What the fuck? Frick are we talking about today? i forgot. but i did. I'm just very into these games you just showed me I'm just like, ooh, ah.
00:34:25
Speaker
ah We are going to be talking about a very, very much anticipated game from both of us. Yeah. I could not wait to play this.
Strange Antiquities Overview
00:34:35
Speaker
ah Strange Antiquities. the Yes.
00:34:38
Speaker
The sequel. We can call it a sequel. um To Strange Horticulture, which I had found later in life. I should life own life i was telling i was i was almost too old to enjoy it, but I managed.
00:34:54
Speaker
I did it. I named all the plants. No, I found that a little bit later and loved it. And I did a video on it and everything. And I was just like, I need another game like this because it's so unique. I haven't played another game quite like this. And then, you know, saw this trailer for Strange Antiquities. We were so stoked and we finally got to play it.
00:35:16
Speaker
I finished it in in two days and I will tell you why but but but we start talking about it. yeah ah But yeah, I'm stoked. should we should we get into it Should we get into some Lucy Crankerino?
00:35:31
Speaker
did it! I made one up! Oh yeah, let's do it! Yeah,
00:36:04
Speaker
Roses. Yes. i There's a a game ah that just released as we were talking that I'm excited about. Yes. Do tell. It is Dad's Monster House 2 Metal.
00:36:19
Speaker
Like metal, like a metal around your neck. It's another one of these cotton games. You know, these cotton games that I talk about sometimes like Isoland and. We just talked about those on um our last ranking every adventure game ever.
00:36:34
Speaker
Oh, right, because one of them came up, right? Yes. I don't remember. Or a game similar to one of them came up. I can't remember how it worked. But funnily enough, it's their second game this year. Because I just i think I just talked about Pumpkin Town Isoland on a recent episode.
00:36:54
Speaker
And they just released a sequel to another one of their games that I really liked called Dad's Monster House. and they just released it, like, just now. Oh, nice.
00:37:06
Speaker
I bought it, and now I'm playing it. So you do the rest of the podcast. Okay. Well, I'm going to go play that squirrel demo. No. Okay. Anyway, this is Pushing Up Roses, everybody.
00:37:18
Speaker
Hi. It's me. This is Matt Aukamp. Hi, it's me. We talk about video games on the internet. Yes. What are we talking about today? It's Strange Antiquities.
00:37:32
Speaker
I'm so excited. Okay. And and yet so frustrated.
00:37:39
Speaker
um i found, so this is definitely, this is a roses game in aesthetic. yeah And a map game in mechanic. but A little bit for me too, because I do like these kind of like organizational life sim games. I do like those, but I find these kind of puzzles very difficult.
00:37:58
Speaker
ah Yeah, I think this game had real... Because like I think this is a ah type of aesthetic that I like and a type of puzzle that you like, but you're right. it they Each of those things fall further in each other's...
00:38:16
Speaker
yeah Right? Like further in each other's wheelhouse. Yeah, definitely. They're not as hard as like um like a Myst style puzzle to me. Okay. um So they're not quite on that level of logic puzzle. There was just something about them. They're they're not inventory object puzzles. They're not fetch quests. So I did struggle a little. They're riddles, right? there are A lot of them can be, I think, i think compared to a little riddle.
00:38:42
Speaker
Sure. I think that... bed That's fair to say. yeah So do you here before we get started on strange antiquities, what do you want to tell people? We talked about it on a previous episode. I think it's 28.
00:38:58
Speaker
Okay. But do you want to tell people about strange horticulture? The previous they're yeah these people's previous game? Strange Horticulture ah is an amazing little title that went over my radar. And I think I touched on this in in our last episode. But I think the reason it went over is because I found the graphics a little rudimentary. And that's silly.
00:39:22
Speaker
Why would I? That's so stupid. like i That doesn't determine. but And I know that logically. But sometimes, you know, but not perfect. I think these graphics, you could look at this game and it could make you think.
00:39:36
Speaker
it's going to be like a ah casual mobile style game. Yes, it can. It can make you think that. And so I ah initially was like, nah, like it looked witchy. It looked everything that I would like, but i initially set it aside. And then i guess last year I played it and it's this great but I'm going to call it a mystery game because you are kind of unraveling a mystery. It's this game where you are an owner of an, of a witchy plant store and you have all of these amazing, I think they're fictional too. These amazing, like fictional plants that you need to sell to people and you will have to identify them as well. So you've got your book, you know, you got your book, your index of plants and somebody will come in and be like, Oh, my head hurts.
00:40:24
Speaker
I, ah is there like a flower that can help with that? Yes. Like a medicine. And then you'd have to go consult your book and see if you have something like that. And that's kind of the the main mechanic, but what really impressed me with strange horticulture is there's an explore mechanic.
00:40:40
Speaker
So every now and then you'll get a hint or a letter to go somewhere on this map. And the screen doesn't necessarily change. It's more it's more text-based than that.
00:40:52
Speaker
But it is well-written enough that you do feel like you're traveling. And ah you're traveling around the fictional, I guess, city, town of Undermere. yeah And it's sort of this magical place.
00:41:05
Speaker
sort of entranced with darkness almost. Everyone's acting a little strange. I think it's implied that it's always kind of been like that. And I think in the first game, you're traveling around more than just Under Mare. You're traveling around the... And this I only correct you here because this distinction I think is going to be important.
00:41:25
Speaker
um You're traveling around... you your your Your shop is in Undermare, and you are traveling around the like whole area that Undermare is part of. like there's a I don't know if you ever get like a... ah country name but there's like a lot like there's a old medieval map and there's like a lot of towns and castles and I remember that now that the map is a little bit different actually in strange antiquities so I forgot that under mirror is kind of yeah for sure that's why I wanted to bring it up because it is a different yeah okay go ahead yep yep um
00:42:06
Speaker
So yeah, there's a little plot line happening as well. It has to do with the the supernatural. I don't know. i don't quite remember where it goes, but I do remember um something evil is happening or demonic is happening in Undermirror and you need to kind of use your plant powers to, to, um, to resolve it.
00:42:30
Speaker
Uh, I remember the end of that game being very difficult and I'm like, what plants do I use? And man, by the end of that game, I had so many plants. You guys, it was, it was wild.
00:42:41
Speaker
And I really like it. There's a labeling system. I have insane OCD. That's not a joke. I have it. And I like labeling all my things. And it's very cozy, but very, it's beyond a cozy game.
00:42:56
Speaker
Let's just say that. i wouldn't I wouldn't call this a casual cozy. i would call it an atmospherically cozy game that you kind of have to work a little bit at to get these puzzles out. I think that's true. And I think one of the things that, one of the issues I had with the first game was that so much of the, you described a situation where somebody comes in and says, like, my head hurts and you need to find a plant that cures a headache, right?
00:43:24
Speaker
Yes, yes. But 90% cases, of cases even, it is it pops up at the bottom of the, like where the customer is with exactly the type of plant you need.
00:43:40
Speaker
So you're not really doing deduction or investigation about what you are. You're, you're, You just open your book to that exact plant and then you're looking at the plants on your shelf and saying, okay, what plant has these qualities right that I think is wandering view, for example, or elder finium was the name of a plant.
00:44:04
Speaker
So you. andy root Yes, exactly. So I wish that it had two layers to that puzzle, right? First, They just said, i have a headache.
00:44:17
Speaker
Yeah. And then you have to search through the thing and be like, okay, what would be good for a headache? And then had to identify the plant once you found its journal entry. um And there was a little bit of that, but not much. And I wanted more.
00:44:31
Speaker
i In fact, I replayed Strange Horticulture very recently. And the thing that I found most of all was that it was sort of tedious. there A lot of the puzzles would be more like, I need a plant.
00:44:47
Speaker
My grandmother is looking for a plant. She used to call it sweet breath. And you would and flip through just the book and just see when you until you found the word sweet breath in the descriptions of the flowers and be like, oh, that's, this isn't this isn't the right one, but like, ah oh, that's long varicund.
00:45:09
Speaker
Okay. And then you hand them long varicund. And it's like, okay, so the puzzle there was I had to flip through a book until I saw the word sweet breath. like Right. Right. um And granted, there's some sort of, since this has a bit of like a a sim element, there's some sort of aspect of that where it's like, yeah, in this world, that's what this a horticulturist would have to do.
00:45:39
Speaker
Right. So there's some verisimilitude there. but But from a gameplay standpoint, I think I wanted it to be more, to to challenge my brain more.
00:45:52
Speaker
Yeah. And so we come to Strange Antiquities.
Complex Puzzle Mechanics
00:46:00
Speaker
Which does exactly what you wanted it to do. Yes. Exactly. so great It's a great mechanic.
00:46:07
Speaker
um And I'll say the the first story, the story of Strange Horticulture, which I think we talked about this game and its mechanics in episode 28, but I don't think we talked pretty much at all about the story.
00:46:23
Speaker
The story of the first one was that a um there there were there was like a coven of witches in the area who...
00:46:35
Speaker
Found their leader called called the Arda. They found her dead of a mysterious illness. um And you help them to diagnose that illness.
00:46:46
Speaker
And from there on, the the the it kind of branches, right? Sure. From there on there's like there's two factions that are working to stop this creature that seems to be invading the area and yeah wants to destroy this coven of witches and also wants to destroy Undermare.
00:47:09
Speaker
Yeah. And maybe the whole area. You... Choose which faction you want to work with. There's also a woman in a jade mask who keeps appearing.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And you have to discover, yeah maybe you don't have to, but throughout the way, you sort of discover what her role in all of this is. um And occasionally you make some choices about what plants you get. Like, it it'll give you options. Do you want to give them this plant that gives them courage to face their demons? Or do you want to give them this plant that That gives them protection while they hide.
00:47:44
Speaker
Right? yeah um and so now And based on what you give them, either they'll go fight or they will hide. And you don't know what that outcome is going to be. They could fight and they could win and it could move the story. Like it could save somebody else's life, for example.
00:48:03
Speaker
Or... They could hide and the protection doesn't work and they get killed. Right. So you don't you don't know ah what sort of effects your decisions are going to have. those Right. Effects aren't obvious.
00:48:14
Speaker
Right. And i when I went back to Strange Horticulture, there's a mean rich man. Uh-huh. And he comes and he asks you for a very specific plant. You give him the plant and comes back and yells at you.
00:48:27
Speaker
And he's like, I'm going to report you with less to this. This made my skin itchy. I'm going to report you. and He doesn't say, I'm going to import you in less, even. He just says, I'm going to report you. Now, you better give me the thing that I need.
00:48:41
Speaker
And you have the option of giving him the thing that he needs that soothes his itchy skin. got the option to give him something that gives him boils.
00:48:55
Speaker
So I gave him boils. Hell yeah. And then he comes back he tells you he's going to go to the mayor or something and get this whole place shut down. Okay. And it says you can give him a thing that ah wipes his memory.
00:49:08
Speaker
he forgets what you've done to him. Or you could give him a thing that kills him. Oh my God. ah
00:49:18
Speaker
I killed him.
00:49:21
Speaker
and i got I got an achievement for it. So I must not have killed him last time. So I killed him. And then the next day a cop comes and the cop is like, let me have a look around your shop. And he's like, I didn't find anything.
00:49:36
Speaker
then the epilogue to the game, the cop comes and he's like, Hey, I know what you did. I'm here to arrest you. And you could give the cop A plant that offers friendship.
00:49:54
Speaker
If you give him that, you get arrested, by the way. Or you can give him a plant that eats him.
00:50:04
Speaker
not You know, a little shop horrors style. I love that. Very funny. Very funny. It's so good. Anyway.
00:50:15
Speaker
So one of the one of the characters in this, and it's so it's a weird thing, right? The first game, because what the fuck does plants have to do with supernatural horror?
00:50:28
Speaker
Right. I mean, witchy, for sure. Sure. Yeah. But it's like, you have a plant that opens any lock. and Right, yes. And it's like, interesting. Okay. It's extremely fantastical, yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:50:44
Speaker
Also, I'll say one other thing about strange antiquities because there's some characters that carry over, for example. mean horticulture? Yes. ah Well, ah both. ah Yeah, there's some characters that carry over from horticulture to antiquities.
00:50:56
Speaker
Yeah. um The one that has the biggest role. Well, okay. I'll name two. First is the mailman. And he rules. Yeah, he's great. I love him very much. Very diligent with the mail. Yeah. The world will be ending. It'll be like, well, somebody's got to deliver the mail. Someone's got to deliver this letter. It's so good.
00:51:17
Speaker
Also, there's no voices, by the way. Any voices that we do, we will be giving to the characters. I'm just assigning that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because... ah You grow a lot of affection for these characters. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure they all have voices in our heads.
00:51:31
Speaker
Absolutely. But so there's the mailman. And then there is a woman named Verona Green, who's like the town psychic that gets always gets involved in all the supernatural matters.
00:51:45
Speaker
She's an occultist like specialist, like a scholar in the occult. Yes. And she's awesome. Yeah. And she plays a major role. She plays pretty major role in the first game. Well.
00:51:58
Speaker
More major in Antiquities for sure. Yeah. The first game she's around the whole time and she's helping you the whole time. But she does not play the, she's not central to the, you know, the events of the plot as much as she is in Antiquities. Okay. Okay.
00:52:16
Speaker
So what's the premise of Strange Antiquities, Roses? So this is great. I think I like this premise even more. Yes. It makes more sense, too. Yeah. So you are in, is it Under Mare or Under Mirror?
00:52:30
Speaker
I don't know. It doesn't matter. Under rhymes with underwear, so I say Under Mirror. Okay. Yeah, I say Undermere. ah And you are running a store called Strange Antiquities. You don't own it. Somebody else owns it. ah They're off on a quest, and they're leaving you in charge.
00:52:51
Speaker
Yes. And this is a store that deals with... special items so anything from occult items basically and like magical items anything from little totems to maybe amulet style things to ah you know things that are considered dark magic to items that are helpful to people like they help with the disease and and curses and stuff like that so that's the kind of store you're running now And it's sort of, forgot about, actually kind of forgot there is a difference in mechanic ah to strange horticulture because this time people will come in and they ah will say something like, I'm having nightmares and there's got to be an item to help me with the, it's a last, did you notice that all of them were like, it's a last resort. I don't normally resort to this, but there's so many people are like, I don't dabble in magic, but please give me this magic item.
00:53:49
Speaker
um So your store is already a little bit full of magic items. You collect more as you play the play the game. But they'll be like, I got a headache. And they might give you something more about it.
00:54:00
Speaker
Oh, actually, a lot of them will tell you the name of it. yeah you like yeah yeah They'll be like, I would like this specific totem. Yes, just like in strange horticulture.
00:54:11
Speaker
But there's a reason that it doesn't bother me in Antiquities, and we'll get to it. Yeah, so you are actually given a book of strange antiquities, and there's like a little index in it, a little, you know, a little... um You can basically look up what you need, so you would look up, you know... ah Magical totem. That's not one of them. I'm just suffering from creative lapse right now. No, there's an amazing thing here. There's an index, right? like that yeah Is that what you're referring to? Yeah. i right There's two things. There's an index and then there's also like – there's an alphabetical list of all the items. Yes.
00:54:48
Speaker
And there's an index if you need to look up like a word, for example. The word headache, yeah. Yeah, or poison or death or something like that. It's not necessarily going to bring you to your to the thing you need. Right. But it might bring you to something that starts giving you a clue towards the thing you need. and Exactly.
00:55:09
Speaker
I cross-referenced a lot. Exactly. There's a puzzle early on where somebody wants – a mask that involves a mask to do a ritual that involves some kind of God.
00:55:23
Speaker
Right. And so you click on that God's name takes you to that part part of the index. There's two objects under that God's name in the index.
00:55:34
Speaker
You click on the other object and next to it, you see a picture of that God and he is wearing right the item that you need to find.
00:55:45
Speaker
Right. Later, injurries also involved in those. Later, he's also involved in that mask puzzle. but that But that's the first puzzle that really was like, oh, this is so good.
00:55:56
Speaker
Yeah. It's like a step deeper than horticulture. It's a couple steps deeper because you can also, i actually, maybe, maybe I'm not remembering strange horticulture enough, but I was really taken with the, you can, you know, inspect an item and you can touch it to see what it's made out of. You can listen to it to see if it makes a sound. Cause these are like, these are magical items, you know?
00:56:21
Speaker
um You can look at the composition and color of it. you know, it'll say this is, this has a blue stone, maybe it's turquoise or something like that yeah and then there's a perception as well does it make you feel weird or funny right those are really really important clues they come out they come up a lot when you're trying to identify an object and i think i like that the most just like yeah i do want to i do want to put my ear to this object and see if it does if it makes a noise Yes, exactly. In horticulture, there is one descriptor, right? You can look closely-er, closely-er.
00:56:56
Speaker
You can look closely-er, actually. um You can look closely-er at a plant it'll tell you, it'll just be one observation. Like, oh, when I handle the leaves of this plant, it makes my fingers ache. Right, right. Or, oh, the petals are so delicate.
00:57:13
Speaker
And that descriptor may or may not help you identify it with a trait of that plant in the book. Right. But in this, there's four things, like you're saying.
00:57:27
Speaker
So you get four different observations that the character's making, as well as the observations observations you can make with your actual eyeballs. Yeah. um And more gets added to it as the game goes along. Mm-hmm.
00:57:44
Speaker
Which I guess we'll get to. i We're probably not there yet in your... So I'll let you keep going. Okay. I think we can kind of talk about it because like in terms of the plot, right? So here's what i here's kind of what i struggled with, with strange, and strange antiquities.
00:58:00
Speaker
I think I was so taken by the mechanic of this game yeah that I'm not sure if the plot shined for me. There is another mystery going on. I would call it again, a mystery game that you are unraveling. And there is this, this darkness once again,
00:58:16
Speaker
ah People are showing up with black eyes. ah There have been a few deaths. it seems that It seems that some people are kind of losing their mind. um ah Verona is back, as you said, and she's kind of looking into it as well. She kind of like can't help herself. She's also looking into it.
00:58:34
Speaker
And her daughter is there, right? And her daughter's there too, yeah. And meanwhile, you're in the shop...
00:58:43
Speaker
Uh, maybe. And is, is, is she the same librarian as in the first game? don't remember. I'm sure, i'm sure there is crossover. Yeah. if If Verona's in there.
00:58:54
Speaker
um Okay. Anyway. Yeah. But yeah, so there's, there's something strange going on. Um, and people are coming in with, with interesting things to say. So here's how I, here's how I kind of made the plot move for myself by accident.
00:59:10
Speaker
So woman came in. She's she is an artist and she wants to be able to paint again so badly. And I was just like, don't know any artists. Did you know that I'm an artist?
00:59:22
Speaker
well What? yeah I know an artist all this time. All this time. Whoa. Okay. i So like I was – as an artist, you was really – was wanting to help her so badly. Yes, yes.
00:59:35
Speaker
Sometimes in these games, like you kind of mentioned earlier, there's two items you can choose between. And a lot of them are like, eh, good consequence, maybe a little less good consequence.
00:59:47
Speaker
So I had i had ah both of these items, and I was and i was trying to identify ones which. Did you mention Maybe I was focusing too much on my joke, but did you mention that she had gone blind?
00:59:58
Speaker
Yes. Okay. Yeah. she She was blind. She's an artist. ah Maybe I didn't mention that, but yeah, she is blind and she just wants to be able to do art again. And she comes to us for an item that might be able to to help her and benefit her.
01:00:11
Speaker
And i there's two items you can choose between. I identified both of them. And one item is like a synthonesia item, which helps you to like feel and like see, like sense colors and things c sin is of that name. it sinist Synesthesia. Why can't I say that?
01:00:30
Speaker
Synesthesia. The other one. The internet loves to yell at people who pronounce things wrong. I'm so sorry. pronounce things wrong all the time. I'm trying to save you from emails. Yeah.
01:00:42
Speaker
So the other thing is like a kind of an ominous object that gives her the spirit eye and it'll give her visions. Listen, I got a little confused.
01:00:53
Speaker
I very much wanted to give her the synthe in is Synesthesia. Synesthesia one. that I was intent on that. That was my choice. That's what I wanted to give her. Did I accidentally give her the other one?
01:01:05
Speaker
Yes, I did. And she came back to the shop and was like, I should have never came here. But also, i am seeing these vision visions from the spirit eye. And she's telling me all these ominous things that are going on.
01:01:20
Speaker
like under But at the end, I didn't feel so bad. Because at the end, she's like... i'm on I feel like I'm on an adventure I've never had before. Aww. Even though I did give her the more ominous, stressful one to have, because now she's seeing, she's having visions, literally vision dark visions. She's just like, I've never been able to do this before. And I i kind of like this adventure. I kind of like this journey.
01:01:46
Speaker
That's awesome because she came back to me like the next day and said, I've come to thank you for sharing the wonder of the that i object. That is not what happened to me. And it was very much an accident. I had both items. I got confused on maybe how they looked.
01:02:02
Speaker
Um... Because, you know, some of them look dangerous, but most of them are pretty unassuming, just magic, you know, magic things. Like, yeah, there's a withered hand. That's probably not great. But a lot of them are, you know, pendants and totems. And I just got a little confused. I gave her the spirit eye Yeah, yeah.
01:02:21
Speaker
Seeing all these dark things, I'm like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. So unlike in the first game where you just have the one book to reference, in this game you get a bunch. And I'll just talk about the first two. So as not to spoil anything really. yeah But one is your index that has a general description and sometimes maybe ah a, usually not a picture of the object, but a picture of something related to the object, a story that the object was in or, you know, something that'll help you.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yeah. and And that's the one with the the index of terms that is also very helpful. The other book that you get pretty early on is a book of symbols. Yes. Which is really cool. So it'll it it has, for example, you have a bottle.
01:03:10
Speaker
It has a cross on it. And that cross means vinegar. So you know that bottle has vinegar. Right. Or you have another, you have a statue and it has like some runic symbol on it. Right.
01:03:23
Speaker
That means like protection or something. Yes, exactly. And so you can use those to understand the objects you have. There's some other things.
01:03:34
Speaker
there's There's two other books. And again, i don't want to spoil too much because this game just came out. um So maybe we'll just stick to those two. Sure, sure but But yeah, there are a couple other books that are in the same vein that are are that are there to help you identify things and ailments and and totems and strange artifacts and stuff like that. it's it i like I feel like it sounds on paper very intimidating.
01:04:01
Speaker
Yeah. And very overwhelming, but you would actually be surprised at how quickly you get used to the mechanic of the this game. ah The explore option is also back because you still have those type yes of puzzles. But it's really cool this time because you get more than one map this time. And yeah i really liked exploring the other the other maps this time around.
01:04:25
Speaker
Let's talk about some of the differences with the explore function. So in in the first game, your explore function was limited. Yes. You had like a what was called a will to explore, which was like an energy meter.
01:04:40
Speaker
Right. and it fills up when you sometimes when you receive letters, it fills up at the beginning of each day. It fills up when you water your plants, which is very slow.
01:04:54
Speaker
Yes. And it's to dissuade you from just clicking everywhere on the map. Right. And there's a second mechanic to dissuade you from clicking everywhere on the map.
01:05:04
Speaker
And that is your sanity meter. ah Your sanity meter is like, there's multiple ways it can go down. If you pick the wrong plant for somebody, or if you visit a place that you're not supposed to,
01:05:23
Speaker
That is also... That turns out to be dangerous. Yes. This game does away with the will to explore. You can just click everywhere on you want... ah anywhere and Anywhere that you want to on the map. if if If you so desire...
01:05:38
Speaker
And that took me aback a little bit. I was like, oh, i cause you can explore anytime you want. And I was trying, I was trying to get used to the mechanic. I was trying to remember. And I'm like, oh, that's strange. I really thought you had to this was a meter and you had to fill that meter to get the will to explore.
01:05:55
Speaker
I wonder if they got some criticisms on that or if they just wanted to change it up a little bit. i do like this mechanic better. I'm less frustrated with this mechanic. Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, because you don't have to just sit there watering plants for five minutes and two to check if you... if you but So you get clues ah random like randomly from customers or the mailman or um From a place that we haven't talked about yet or just at the beginning of the day. You get one clue basically every day.
01:06:31
Speaker
And if you interpret the clue wrong and go to the wrong place, in the first game, you just have to sit there and water your plants. But in this one, you just get to try again as many times as you want.
01:06:42
Speaker
um But your' sent if you go to the if you go to certain places and you don't know which places they are... Your sanity meter will go down.
01:06:53
Speaker
Yeah. And this makes way more sense to me as a mechanic because it's like you go to a place. Yeah. You're wasting time. Right. You're wasting time. You're going around under mirror, which is kind of, again, darkly enchanted.
01:07:07
Speaker
So it makes more sense to me to be not, you know, punished, but that's the consequence of, you know, choosing the wrong thing. I think there needs to be a consequence because, ah again, otherwise you would just click and click and click and click over and over and over and over and click on every. you would just go left to right, top to bottom and click on every location on the map.
01:07:27
Speaker
yeah And, you know, they want you to I think they want you to see the whole game. But they want you to do it over the course. You know, they want you to be making logical decisions yeah and following their clues and discovering things over the course of the entire game, not just all at once.
01:07:49
Speaker
So it it makes sense to have a consequence there. And I don't want to fail it. I was frustrated at the failing last time and I'm frustrated again. Less so. Less so.
01:08:00
Speaker
um So this time when you go, quote, go insane and you feel the darkness, probably from, again, being in this this town and making bad decisions. Yeah, yeah. um you are kind of set up with this Yahtzee game.
01:08:15
Speaker
You have to play Yahtzee to get out of it, um which I wasn't even sure that was what was happening at first. They don't give you the rules. and They might have like a button up top that's like rules. I don't remember, but they don't just like, there's not like a tutorial. Honestly, that's one of my main criticisms of this game across the board.
01:08:39
Speaker
Interesting. Is that I didn't find it... incredibly intuitive for your more casual gamer. I think we're seasoned adventure gamers and we have a lot of ideas about how mechanics and puzzles work.
01:08:52
Speaker
um For example, since you are in a magic shop, you do get like certain special items, just in like just just like in Strange Horticulture, you'll get like special items to help you identify things.
01:09:04
Speaker
I had a special item in my desk the whole time. And I finally unlocked it. And i really did it I really didn't know how to use it until, i don't know, until something struck me when I was looking at my shelf my shellfs of items.
01:09:19
Speaker
It really doesn't hold your hand. and i And I do think that it is easier for your less casual gamer. I'm not saying that to be you know offensive or anything. I'm saying... If this is not your first, if this is your first puzzle game, it might be a little difficult because it is throwing a lot of mechanics at you and they're not, they're not explained well, you know?
01:09:42
Speaker
so you just brought up something that, that I did want to get to and remember might as well get to it now. yeah In both games, you, at your counter, you also have like a desk and And your desk is full of secrets.
01:09:58
Speaker
Yep, the desk is secrets, yeah. You might not realize that at first, but there's a lot of stuff around you that you can pull or move or click or turn.
01:10:09
Speaker
And those things will... often reveal, say, secret compartments that you didn't know about. And in those secret compartments will be either more artifacts,
01:10:25
Speaker
Or tools that will help you as you as you go. or Or even maybe it'll be ah you know a clue as to a location that you can go to find more. This is a thing we didn't talk about, I think, in the last episode about this, about strange horticulture or this one, is your book also isn't complete.
01:10:44
Speaker
You do find additional pages to your book as you go. yeah um Usually when you identify something, you get a page. like another page for your book. um But you could find them other places sometimes. Anyway, so there's a lot of puzzles for you to solve ah more traditional, ah you know, like mist or escape room or the, you know, the room style puzzles um where you're using the information or the objects in front of you
01:11:21
Speaker
To manipulate things in a way you wouldn't first think of doing. Right. So you'll get, say, the entire time you have these three ah but pedestals one of your shelves in front of you. The plinths. Yeah, the plinths.
01:11:38
Speaker
And you can put if you put an object on one of them, it glows. There's like a light that appears. And so you kind of know from the beginning, oh, I'm going to have to do something with this eventually. Yes. That that I think is very apparent.
01:11:52
Speaker
One of the puzzles that's like, yes, this is a thing that's there for a reason. yeah And you definitely have to do something with it. Yeah. Right. And eventually you get a note that that'll say like one and then have some cryptic clue.
01:12:07
Speaker
Two and then have another cryptic clue. And then three and have a third cryptic clue. Right. And... You find objects that meet those criteria.
01:12:20
Speaker
You put them on the plinths in that order and something happens, right? That is the sort of thing we're talking about.
01:12:31
Speaker
right Yes, correct. And the the thing that I was referencing it within the desk, I think is a little harder to access and hard to know what exactly it's used for, in my opinion.
01:12:44
Speaker
Right. There's a thing that you got stumped on. and yeah got stumped on the stupidest thing ever. I'll say it. Do you want me to say ah Is it too much of a spoiler? I mean, okay.
01:12:58
Speaker
Why don't you say exactly what the book says? Okay. So I am playing this game, right? I'm four hours in.
01:13:10
Speaker
I'm tired. It's like 2 a.m., but I'm loving this game. That's what I do. you get You love a game. You start to play it all night, right? And suddenly I am stuck. need to find like a key of some of some kind, what they call like an ethereal key. I don't think that's a spoiler. It's in your book.
01:13:28
Speaker
yeah It's in the Spanish Antiquities book. And it says something akin to like, you need to... spin something around in a circle.
01:13:39
Speaker
And I'm like, what the, I don't, i have no idea what they, I was so mad. Very specifically says move, move it in a circular motion. Yeah. In a circular motion. yeah I sent Matt so many angry texts. To reveal the key.
01:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, so many angry texts. i could just I didn't realize they meant that literally, as in take your mouse and move it in a circle anywhere on the screen. Now, there was a previous puzzle that I had just done where you can manipulate the item in the inspection and the inspection screen.
01:14:12
Speaker
So that kind of set the tone for me. It's like, well, I can't just... I can't just play with it all willy nilly. I need to rotate it on the inspection screen. So I was so, I was so stuck. I had maxed out the hints. They weren't helping. It's so funny that you were just clicking it over. And was, were the hints telling you about what you needed or were they telling you about the key?
01:14:34
Speaker
Because you, you don't need to give anybody the key. You use the key. You use it yeah to basically get to other objects. Yeah. I forgot what the last hint was. It might have been like, like check out the index or read this. or you It might have even said you need to put it in a circular motion. I'm like, the fuck is this talking about?
01:14:56
Speaker
i was so confused. That's very funny. It's not funny. Because because you were just clicking on it over and over and over again and saying, why is it not rotating? Yeah.
01:15:10
Speaker
I
Gameplay Experimentation
01:15:11
Speaker
did that. Listen, I did that for a little while, but I was also like, I had it in head. Maybe have the wrong Yeah, maybe I have a wrong thing. Maybe I should go travel. I'm going to try some some puzzles out.
01:15:21
Speaker
I was trying different items. Which is an amazing thing about these games is there's usually a lot you can do yeah at any time. Yes. I was so mad. was so pissed. This was about i was four hours in.
01:15:35
Speaker
And I was so, I woke up to those and I was so confused. Yeah. like yeah They didn't wake me up. I woke up in the morning, read those texts. To rage. To raging roses.
01:15:47
Speaker
was like, how is she not getting there? I was so confused. And my texts back were like, just do exactly what it says. I'm like, how? I can't rotate it.
01:16:01
Speaker
It didn't occur to me that it could be meta, that it could be literally on the screen. So I was, I don't know, man. It's interesting. Here's the thing that gave me the the clue there that you could do something like that is earlier on there is a ah There's an object. This will be a little bit of a spoiler because I think this is a cool. So you could just pop ahead 15 seconds.
01:16:27
Speaker
But there's an object where it says when exposed to a flame, the flame turns blue. And you have to grab a candle in your shop, wave it near the thing, and the thing turns blue.
01:16:38
Speaker
All right. If you jumped forward, we're not going to talk about it. but we're We're done with that one. But and I just didn't. I just didn't. I just didn't. I just didn't think about it. That taught me that you can manipulate things in the shop, you know, with your... in in You know, again, in a way like Myst or The Room or something. Like, you your your actions as a player have an effect, is what it taught me.
01:17:06
Speaker
um And so... when it came to that, that is actually when I texted, when I, I solved that puzzle that you're talking about, the one that ah frustrated you so much.
01:17:17
Speaker
That is the moment that I texted you. I think but something like this game fucking rules. Cause to me, yes man, right.
01:17:28
Speaker
Cause to me, I was like, This game has this hidden layer of debt of depth that you don't see at first. Yeah. um Is that that you can you have objects that are sitting here that you can do more with than just give to people as solutions to things. Then you can just put in a slot that says insert...
01:17:51
Speaker
Insert a ah ah artifact here. There was nothing like that in the first game. ah Even when you used, say, the one plant to unlock a door, yeah you were putting it in a slot that said, put a plant here.
01:18:05
Speaker
Yes. um There's definitely way more to do. in, in this game. And it really makes the, don't know, it makes the items very interesting, doesn't it? yes It makes you, it makes you really want to know. And these are, again, these are fictional items in the way that, um, maybe based on some real things, but much like the plants, you know, these are not real things that you can look up or Google, but you know, the way you use them, it makes you intrigued by these items and what they were used for and what the, what the story is and what the culture It's really great. Yeah. It's really great. Yeah.
01:18:39
Speaker
Absolutely. Also, the fact that, yeah, again, the fact that you can use them on your environment is fun because then you can, then you just get ideas. And yeah like what if I do that? What if I put, again, what if I put this near this other object that seems innocuous, that seems like part of the background?
01:18:59
Speaker
And most of the time, nothing happens. But sometimes something will happen and it's like, oh, that's so cool. All right, for example, This doesn't solve a puzzle. So it's it's a spoiler, but it's not really.
01:19:12
Speaker
Okay. Did you put the mask on the cat? No. You can put the mask on the cat. Oh, my God. And he sits there for a second and gets annoyed. Okay. In both of these games, there's a cat.
01:19:24
Speaker
And in both games, the cat rules. Yeah. love the the first game, at so it was a black cat named... Hellebore. Hellebore. And in this one, it is a little...
01:19:36
Speaker
The orange tabby. Orange tabby with ah dichromatic eyes. So cute. So cute. So good. so okay. We've talked about all of the mechanics.
01:19:51
Speaker
Now let's talk a little bit about the story. And we can give some, like, final thoughts. Sure, sure. Also, you can pet the cat. Did we mention that? You can pet it.
01:20:02
Speaker
Yeah, and the cat is Jupiter is its name. And every single time you ring, you ring a little like ah service bell.
01:20:13
Speaker
Yeah. like ah Like a... For like the next customer, yeah. Yeah, what what are those things called? They have a name, but you can... You ring one of those bells and that's how the next customer... It's like the opposite of how it would work. That signals the next customer. It just signals them, yeah.
01:20:28
Speaker
um And you... you Every single time you do, spooks the cat. It's so cute. So every single time I rang the bell, I also pet the cat because I felt bad for spooking it.
01:20:42
Speaker
achievement for petting helleorre like a batcillion yeah think this i got i also got an achieve I got an achievement for also got an achievement for petting juniper or Jupiter that many times. Yeah, yeah which i'm which I got because I pet that cat so many times. Yeah, same, same.
01:20:59
Speaker
um I do want to go over a little bit just regarding Jupiter and kind of the randomness of our of our gameplays. um And we'll talk about this with the endings, too, is in my gameplay, Jupiter was involved in your gameplay. It doesn't sound like Jupiter was involved. There wasn't a little quest involving the cat.
01:21:18
Speaker
Correct. Which I think is I really thought that. Yeah, i I think that's really cool. I think that randomization is really cool. But then I remembered there's like a million endings to this game.
01:21:31
Speaker
i I do think they're all similar, though. Yeah, I think so. And they might be hard to get. ah Go on with the go on with the um plot, though. if I already mentioned, like, you're in Undermare or something weird is happening. People are they're getting these black eyes.
01:21:46
Speaker
Yeah, you did mention a lot of it, I guess. Yeah, I did. People are losing it. So I guess the the important thing to know is like as youre as you're going through just like the first game, there are decisions.
01:21:59
Speaker
There's like decision trees that you don't know. sort of so Like invisible decisions. or Like you know you're making a decision, but you don't know what the outcome is going to be. There's kind of a little hint, but it's it's vague. you know You're at the storekeepers just like, I should think about this.
01:22:15
Speaker
And right I think what you're supposed to do is you know kind of look through your books and determine what your decisions could be capable of doing. Like, are you using an item that's dabbling in dark arts or are you using ah medically helpful item, you know?
01:22:32
Speaker
Yeah. But I don't think it's always, I think just like the first game, it's not always that
Narrative and Storytelling
01:22:37
Speaker
clear. I think sometimes you give somebody something that seems... wrong That's true.
01:22:44
Speaker
And they end up doing something unexpectedly helpful towards the plot. Yes. You know, so true again, you have you have like Verona there and the witches are still around, only they don't play as big of a role.
01:23:01
Speaker
No, it's it's really not about a coven this time. It's more about it's almost HP Lovecraft. It's like Lovecraftian a little bit. Yeah, things in the in the town are, again, like you said, things specifically in Undermare.
01:23:15
Speaker
So even the you said that you get some other maps. Yeah, yeah. And those other maps are also locations in Undermare, right? Like yeah one is the layout of a building, for example. and like um Yeah, yeah.
01:23:29
Speaker
We won't spoil the third one. I like the third one. thought the third one was fun. Yeah. but And especially there's a part of the third one you can't explore until you solve a puzzle about it.
01:23:42
Speaker
Yeah. Which is also fantastic. It is. The puzzles are very well, very well thought out, very well designed and structured. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And the way that they sort of cascade, you can't solve this one until you solve this one, but this one won't come up until you've encountered all the things you need to solve the one prior to it.
01:24:02
Speaker
Like that's so, it's just so well designed, so thoughtfully designed. So yeah, this, this time the mystery, the danger takes place i ah entirely in under mayor.
01:24:12
Speaker
And you you talked about people showing up with black eyes, uh, And being gripped by some sort of madness, a character that you get to know and love in this game shows up at the shop with black eyes at one point. it's so It It is such like a legitimate jump scare.
01:24:32
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, oh no. You're used to seeing her and they they kind of, character characters slowly sort of fade in from the blackness. oh Well, there's a window, but they fade in from silhouettes to.
01:24:44
Speaker
Yeah. so you see her outline and like oh it's her and then she gets closer and you're like wait so holy shit it was like it takes you back and it's effective yeah yeah um and she revisits you a couple times or maybe once i think not too many times i think maybe one once or twice yeah once or afterwards yeah And man and there's some like action sequences in this game. Now, yeah there's no like real animation. a lot of this besides like, you know, the trinkets sway and move and the cat moves and people again yeah walk up to the counter. But the and largely, if you visit a place, you're just seeing a card.
01:25:32
Speaker
that describes what happens when you go there. um But there are some action sequences where it's like, and this thing is happening. You need to react to it.
01:25:43
Speaker
And then you use some sort of trinket to say, freeze somebody who's about to attack you or something like that. Yeah. Which is cool.
01:25:53
Speaker
i don't know why what else I want to say about this plot. There's not really too much to say. i think the plot is good, but it is simple because it's so rich in and the mechanic. And when i when I say that, I mean like you're constantly reading about things. You're constantly going to places and meeting characters and having these little action sequences. And yeah, you get attached to the characters that come to you.
01:26:19
Speaker
as well, which is why when a well-known character gets afflicted by whatever's taking over the town, it's very jarring. But I was way more, the plot is fine. I'll just say that the plot is fine. It is a plot I've heard before. And that is totally okay because it's really being driven by the setting, by this, by such a cool mechanic, by the characters that come into your shop, by the the artifacts that you're dealing with. That's what really drives it.
01:26:46
Speaker
You know, it's the details that drive it. It's not the main plot. It's everything that's kind of bolstering it. I think that's entirely right. It's the it's you're right. It's the details. The the overarching plot isn't.
01:27:00
Speaker
but Yeah, it's not breaking any new ground. it's It's doing it very well. It's a very competently told story. Yes, it is competently told. It fully hangs together. And the exciting moments are exciting. And the um mysterious moments are mysterious. Like every every element of it is working. But this game is really hung on its, like you said, its mechanics.
01:27:25
Speaker
And I think interactions with the characters. I got to really know and love these characters. characters through their visits to the shop. Yeah. And I would tie that to the mechanic as well, because they're usually serving some kind of purpose, but it's so woven together.
01:27:39
Speaker
You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, this is a mechanic, but you're also getting to know ah character. You're also getting a little exposition, a little story. And it's really good. It's really smooth. And I think it this sounds like it must be overwhelming, but...
01:27:52
Speaker
No, it's it's very smooth. you you yeah i think yeah I think it's a good idea that you say that because it is not overwhelming. It is really not an overwhelming game. it is very It is just like the first game.
01:28:06
Speaker
this This one requires a lot more thought. like This will strain strain your your brain a little more than the first game. But um it is ah it is a cozy game.
01:28:18
Speaker
Yes. I will concede that I did play this kind of speedily. Me too. Because I wanted to play it and i wanted to talk about Same. And ah probably used the hint. it There is a great hint system. So you hopefully you're not going to get stuck like my dumb ass to like...
01:28:36
Speaker
do a circular movement. It's very helpful. I think that maybe i wouldn't have gotten stuck if I had treated it, you know, like an original Colossal Cave Adventure, right? as So I treated it like this is a game to be played and thought out over, you know, weeks, months, years, whatever. hope not years. that I think we're beyond that now. yeah i think I think this is a game that I think the pace
01:29:01
Speaker
is like you play one, maybe one to three days ah day. That's not what i did. Me neither. And then you put it down yeah en until tomorrow.
01:29:12
Speaker
I think that that's like the ideal pace for this game. And, you know, and if you get stuck, rather than bashing your head against it, yeah maybe just step away for a minute.
01:29:24
Speaker
Yeah. and let yourself digest everything that you've seen. Yeah.
01:29:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's there's we we did tease one other mechanic that we didn't talk about that is hidden at first and reveals itself later, i think is kind of important. Each of these ah at some point you unveil a machine that detects basically what do we want to call it?
01:29:57
Speaker
Like energy fields. That's the thing I was referencing in my desk that I struggled with. ok I didn't quite know what that did at first. It took a little bit. They're called thawmic fields, and you can you can set your device to show you what a specific branch of thaumaturgy discipline is.
01:30:23
Speaker
yeah um and yeah like set its symbols to that branch of dis of thaumaturgy and you see what the field is supposed to look like so then when you hold an object up to the field you can say oh it's displaying this energy pattern.
01:30:41
Speaker
yeah It must belong to this branch. And that just gives you more information about. I had a lot of notes about that, about the fields. Cause that I found maybe the most, it's not overwhelming, but that took the most work to really get into my head for some reason is keeping, ah keeping these patterns and what the artifacts, like which branch they, they relate to.
01:31:03
Speaker
That was a little tough. I say so many mechanics in this game. I felt i felt the same way. And again, I think if we were playing it at the pace it's probably intended to play at, when you say there's so many mechanics, I think they would have they they're paced gently.
Gameplay Features and Enhancements
01:31:21
Speaker
They arrive to you slowly at a smooth pace throughout the game. yeah But I think, yeah, but the pace we played it at is...
01:31:34
Speaker
yeah like I think did it a disservice on that front. Though I so fucking loved this game. um Yeah, and I'll replay it probably. Me too, me too and
01:31:49
Speaker
So, yeah, you're you're right. I did keep forgetting which... Thaumic discipline meant what? was celenni Is Selenic of the moon or is Diurnic of the moon? Yeah, Celestials of the moon, right? Wixic of the... Selenic is of the moon, yeah. great and So, like, they do make sense.
01:32:13
Speaker
It's just a lot. Think about them. But yes you have got so much. Like Diurnal is Diurnic is of the day and Salenic is of the moon. But I kept thinking Diurnal. Like I kept getting that confused with like Dionysian.
01:32:25
Speaker
And that made me think, oh, Diurnic, like the moon. Because like Dionysus is. li So ah that's. And plus there are like planetary and like elements and runes for like things like Jupiter. It can get a little confusing is what I'm saying. Yeah, again, it's it's it's doled out slowly,
01:32:46
Speaker
yeah but it but it ends up being, there ends up being a lot of different factors to identifying things by the end. and yeah, so I kept getting confused which one meant what thing, which field went to which branch.
01:33:01
Speaker
yeah Eventually, I just paused and I put all, i since there is six rows of shelves, like three on either side. Mm-hmm.
01:33:13
Speaker
I arranged all my artifacts with... Like, I put all the Diurnic on one shelf, and I put... That's a good idea. Like, on one row.
01:33:24
Speaker
don't want to say one shelf, because there's dividers, but on one row, and then all my... Selenic on one row. um got so frustrated with a the sheer amount of items that I was getting in the end. Like, I didn't do quite that, but at some point...
01:33:41
Speaker
i At some point, I was identifying things I hadn't labeled yet. And everything was like in it everything was just put randomly in place. So eventually, I had a customer come in. She's like, I really like this thing. I'm like, hang on a minute.
01:33:55
Speaker
I'm going to organize my shelves. yeah So i did that I did that. And I put all the unlabeled ones in one section and then everything that was labeled. Thought about doing alphabetical, but who has the time?
01:34:06
Speaker
Right. Well, so alphabetical. Wow. That would be so much. Yeah. yeah I know. You went above me. You did did it by like the the thematic fields, but I was thinking, I was thinking about it.
01:34:17
Speaker
was thinking about doing in alphabetical. Yeah. But then they're in any order, right? Alphabetical is, I think even crazy. Well, I think, well, I guess it depends. So yeah I think, yeah okay. Both games, right?
01:34:34
Speaker
have a setting that I didn't use. And that is the auto labeler. There's an auto labeler?
01:34:46
Speaker
Yes. when you've correctly identified something, it automatically puts a label on it. and Oh no, I should have done that. I didn't use it because it felt like easy mode. And i was like, well, no, I don't.
01:34:59
Speaker
what if What if it thinks I've discovered something? And I didn't yet. So I don't want it. But yeah then I replayed... have Strange Horticulture with the auto-labeler on.
01:35:13
Speaker
And that literally never happens. it ah like If you've put something in a slot, that that that proves that you've identified it. yeah So it's never going to auto-label something that that right that you don't already know. So it it really is not easy mode. So I would really suggest...
01:35:35
Speaker
people use the auto-labeler. There were a couple times I forgot to label something, and I'm pretty intense about that. I kind of liked doing the labeling. It gave it a sense of...
01:35:47
Speaker
realism to me you know i'm the proprietor of the shop i've identified i'm you know but if i were to replay it which i will yes i will do auto because it's hard enough to identify it that's right right no and to to yeah then to have to remember another just like little sort sort of tedious mechanic and especially if you are i played it on pc but if you're playing it on like a steam deck or i'm sure this will eventually come to mobile if it's not already uh Don't put yourself through that.
01:36:17
Speaker
like so just so Like a virtual keyboard and stuff. No, just, just use the auto labeler. Yeah, man. I think, okay. I think we've talked a lot about this game's mechanics, about its ah so story, about its in the changes that it has made on and the its formulas in strange horticulture. So now I think let's talk about just like any opinions we have that we didn't cover elsewhere.
01:36:46
Speaker
Honestly, I think we covered the majority of of what I felt as we were talking about it. Yeah, I do. I do really find some things unintuitive. But like I said, this is not my type of mechanic that I usually play at all.
01:37:00
Speaker
It's just not. ah And some of the you know, there's some riddle mechanics that I was like, I don't know. There's there's still some left in my game that I'm like, I don't know what oh you never you didn't identify everything.
01:37:11
Speaker
Not every single thing. I did the majority and I was pretty proud. It's very rewarding when you figure out when you figure out a riddle. i'll off Off recording, i'll I'll tell you the ones I didn't get and maybe you can send me in the right direction. Okay, all right. um For like you know a seasoned puzzle player, I think this is a great game.
01:37:29
Speaker
It's a little hard, I think, for beginning puzzle players. But that being said, there is a great hint system. You can get you can get through this game. You can do it. There's no unwinnables.
01:37:42
Speaker
There aren't things that simply don't make sense unless you're like me and you're in brain. You just have a brain fart. um And so i do I do recommend it to a variety of of gamers because it's just so good. It's very good. It's very good.
01:37:57
Speaker
um Another thing, I'll say this also.
Artistic and Emotional Impact
01:38:00
Speaker
there's a They really leveled up the music. Mm-hmm. I think they leveled up the art and the animation.
01:38:09
Speaker
Yes. it's the The game is largely, you know, the UI is woven into the actual gameplay. um But like I saw the counter in Strange Antiquities and how the shelves were laid out and everything. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's pretty much exactly like Strange Horticulture. And i went back to Strange Horticulture and i was like, oh oh, it's really not.
01:38:28
Speaker
These are very, very different. Oh, here's a fun thing. Easter egg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can visit strange horticulture. You can visit strange horticulture.
01:38:38
Speaker
I was wondering about that, too. i'm like I got really into the game to where I didn't want to just randomly go there. But then I thought, I bet you do. I bet that's what it wants you to do, is just randomly stop. You do. and You don't have a reason to.
01:38:51
Speaker
yeah No, there's no reason to, but it's there. So graphics leveled up this this counter. This is like the whole... like isn The way the game's late set up is leveled up and the music is so leveled up and it it increases in intensity and complexity as you go along and as the story gets more intense.
01:39:13
Speaker
So as you get towards the very end, there's like there's these like vocals that start to seep in. vos And I was like... That freaked me out, man. I was like, is something happening? and then like Is one of my items possessed?
01:39:29
Speaker
I don't know. Right, exactly. But it sounds so good. The the music in this game is so incredible. I had a thought about one of the tracks, actually.
01:39:40
Speaker
There is a track, a very common track in this game that plays throughout game.
01:40:00
Speaker
that reminds me so heavily of a track in Quest for Glory 5. The track is called Silmarian Meanderings. And yeah, if you listen to it, you're going to hear it.
01:40:31
Speaker
and And that's a good thing to me. It just gave me that same sense of like adventure and like intrigue. Yeah, I don't know. It it made me happy. That's awesome.
01:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. I was also, again, like you said, there's a lot of endings, but i was very happy with the ending I got. I'm not. That's fucked up.
01:40:52
Speaker
ah This game was really great. I loved it. i Again, like you said, i i agree. I would recommend this game to most people. Yeah, I would too. Hardcore adventure game fans to casual gamers.
01:41:05
Speaker
ah Like people that love games like Stardew Valley even because there's this simi cozy and sim
Podcast Wrap-up and Future Content
01:41:13
Speaker
aspect. Yeah. Or kind of like Papers, Please, which I'm sure we mentioned.
01:41:17
Speaker
And it's cute You got a cute little cat. I love my little kitty cat. It's kind of like cute spooky. it's like Yeah, spooky cute. And horrifying, but also kind of cute.
01:41:28
Speaker
That's me! This game was made for me, which I'm pretty sure I said about Strange Horticulture as well. It was made for me! Man, and again, I just can't get over stuff like that you have multiple books that you cross-reference. Alright, I'm going to start repeating myself if we don't end this here. That's true, he will.
01:41:47
Speaker
So...
01:41:50
Speaker
Man, okay, we've talked for a while, so I think, Roses. Yes. I think we're just going to wrap up the podcast. What do you think?
01:42:01
Speaker
Yeah, let's wrap it up. You do it. For me? Okay. ah So thank you guys so much for listening to us talk about strange antiquities. If you want to talk to us, ah send us a suggestion, a question, um a pet peeve, a game recommendation, please do email us at mattandroses at gmail.com.
01:42:23
Speaker
If you want even more content from us, we do update our Instagram pretty regularly, especially when we update the podcast. And that is Save Your Game Podcast on Instagram. We also have some cute illustrations. And we just posted, you just posted an outtake today that I thought was kind of funny.
01:42:39
Speaker
so if you want behind the scenes stuff, we should post more of that. I think we just did one. Today, yeah. I think just 10 seconds ago, i think I just cut something.
01:42:50
Speaker
But I'm also going to post it as an outtake.
01:42:55
Speaker
Do it. Okay. It'd be hilarious. And yeah, I guess that's that's all I really have to say. If you want more of Matt, ah check out his podcast, Buton Menace. If you want more of me. want more roses, go check out her YouTube channel, Pushing Up Roses.
01:43:10
Speaker
Yeah. We're all over the place. You find us everywhere. Yeah. So what does that leave us with? and Well, I think this is the most apt thing we're about to say. Wait, before you say it. Uh-huh.
01:43:22
Speaker
Rose is, we didn't, I don't know if either of us quite realized this because of the time that we're recording this. Okay. Next week begins spooky month.
01:43:37
Speaker
Oh my God. Spooky month. Oh my God. Go grab your pumpkins. Go get your little plastic masks from Kmart. Go what get your little candy.
01:43:49
Speaker
Go get your little candy pails and get ready for spice lattes and your ghost cake pops. ah Get ready for, so for spooky month coming up. We got some spooky games to talk about, but all right now. like So stoked now.
01:44:05
Speaker
Okay. What's, what's next? Well, I was going to say, again, this is the most apt thing that we could say in such ah an artistic podcast is because podcasts is art.
01:44:17
Speaker
Yeah, but we're talking about gothic spooky horror. So it's clear that also artists suffer. It is. I'm always suffering.