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Episode 58 - Clair Obscur and Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
0 Playsin 12 hours
There’s an important moment in every podcast’s life where they finally have to broach that inevitable conversation… The chomping/champing at the bit conversation. And Matt and Roses finally get there as Matt discusses his favorite new French RPG, CLAIR OBSCUR.
Then the gang discuss a hilarious, cozy new detective game DUCK DETECTIVE: THE GHOST OF GLAMPING.
Email us! mattandroses@gmail.com
Games Mentioned:
- Blue Prince
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Chrono Trigger
- Thank Goodness You’re Here
- Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
- Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
- Rosewater
- Expelled!
- Neon Hearts City
- Near-Mage
- Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer
- Rue Valley
- Strange Antiquities
- The Mermaid Mask
- Foolish Mortals
- Perfect Tides: Station to Station
- Greenhearth Necromancer
Recommended
Transcript
Playful Podcast Start
00:00:00
Speaker
that's how we're going to get we are going to get through this i'm glad that's how we i'm glad that's how we feel about the podcast that we just we're you know we we're going to get through this we're going survive this together we can fight through we can survive we can we me and you we're going to limp to the finish line of this one no one's going to stand in our way no i'm going to face plant at the finish line no i'm going to be i'll be there to pick you i'll drag you across the finish line as your bloody face shreds across the gravel.
00:00:29
Speaker
We're gonna get there.
Meet the Hosts
00:00:51
Speaker
everybody and welcome back To save your game, I'm your host, Matt Aucamp. With me is my friend and co-host.
00:01:03
Speaker
The friend first. I like that. I like that I'm your friend first, co-host second. Pushing Up Roses is here. Everybody, give her a round applause. Please, please, no.
00:01:15
Speaker
Don't stop. Keep going, everybody. Clap, clap, clap. ah get we We'll be able to hear it if you don't. There won't be another episode if you guys don't clap there. Part of me dies if you don't clap like Tinkerbell.
00:01:30
Speaker
How are you? um Dead. Yeah. We're both sleepy. We're both really sleepy. I have fucking
Allergy Struggles and Life Disruptions
00:01:40
Speaker
allergies.
00:01:41
Speaker
Yeah. Is allergy season or is it just allergies all the time? Because I feel like I have allergies all the time. It is a very bad allergy season. And that's what i I had that experience that sucks where I went to the doctor finally about my little throat.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah. um And I was like, this throat has been fucked up for over a week now. Yeah. And. They swabbed it. they like You're fine. though Even the lady looked at it.
00:02:13
Speaker
Lady doctor. The lady doctor. The doctor. Don't call a doctor just yeah that that that guy, that lady. not It's not polite.
00:02:27
Speaker
The doctor looked at my throat and was like, oh it looks fine. It's just red. And I was like, you please you don't understand. oh It's been a pain for over a week. and they're like, yeah, it's probably just allergies. Just take an allergy medicine, like allergy pill over the counter. You'll fight you'll be fine.
00:02:44
Speaker
Jeez. And then it's like, I just paid you $50. To say, to be told to take an allergy pill. Yeah. Just be like, yeah, you're fine. Take an allergy pill.
00:02:56
Speaker
That's interesting. The last time i had a sore throat, I was certain that like it wasn't strep. And the doctor looked at looked at it and he's like, I don't think it's strep, but i did I did treat three other cases before you and it didn't look like strep.
00:03:12
Speaker
And then he came back later and he's like, congratulations, you have strep. and i I had that for like two weeks. That is what convinced me to go to the doctor is remembering that that happened to you.
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Because strep doesn't present the way it used to. So mine wasn't even red. Mine was like like a teeny bit, like a teeny, teeny bit red.
00:03:37
Speaker
That's it. Well, pushing up roses. Yes. Yes. You played anything cool this week? Besides we're talking about. No! Hey, want to hear some... This has been your answer for a year.
00:03:49
Speaker
think people are going to be like, I don't think she plays games. yeah What were you going to say? did No, my life has fallen apart.
00:04:00
Speaker
ah Okay. i actually have i actually would love would have loved to play some games. i actually even installed and briefly booted up Rosewater. i started playing a hidden object game you know for mindfulness.
00:04:13
Speaker
ah But then my my life fell apart. it It didn't actually. I'm moving everyone and it wasn't planned. um Yeah. Yeah. It came on very abruptly, and I am moving like hopefully June 1st, which is about two weeks from record date from write from right now.
00:04:35
Speaker
I don't know how this is going to happen. I'm just going to disassociate my way through it. and it's i mean it has to have I got an apartment. it like it is It is approved. It is secured. It is paid for. I have it.
00:04:48
Speaker
That's the thing. you always It always happens. Every time it's time to move, it's like, this is a disaster. I don't know how I'm going to do this. And then you end up in the other place. And you're like, oh, okay. Well, I guess i guess it occurred.
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, it just tends to happen. And does that's just kind of how... I am how my attitude is like, it's going to happen because it has to, you know, so I'm i'm trying not to stress, but because it it did happen so abruptly and it wasn't planned.
00:05:18
Speaker
um I am a little, little overwhelmed, but I have the coolest place now. do you have any overlap? I
Exploring Claire Obscure
00:05:27
Speaker
want to hear about your place, but first I like a moving question. Do you have any overlap?
00:05:31
Speaker
I do have some overlap. Yeah, that's that's great. That's yeah. It's going to be so easy. This is going to be so much easier than you think. I hope so. I'm just in my studio right now.
00:05:42
Speaker
I record this from my studio and I'm literally staring at every art supply I've ever collected. And I say collected because do I use them? No, it's more of a collection. So I'm just like freaking out. Oh, the big box PC games, the adventure games I wanted so badly. Yeah, I got to move those. so Yeah.
00:06:02
Speaker
I mean, this is... ah You offered me one of your box... you should have taken it....PC game because, you know, i love this stuff too. Yeah. But I had been through that not that long ago.
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah. But I guess at this point it's like three, four years. It feels still like it happened just a year ago where I moved. um But ah I...
00:06:29
Speaker
remember just like the more I put in boxes, the more I was thinking, why do I have stuff? I know it sucks to have stuff just as an adult. and Now I understand. Like when I was little and we would have like Christmas at my aunt's house, I would just remember all the adults saying, do not get me anything. Do not get me any anything. i have so much stuff. And as a kid, I'm like, why would you not want stuff?
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah. you're ah And now I understand. You're thinking that they're being ah self, ah I don't know. They're being modest of some kind. Yeah, yeah. They're like, oh, don't get me anything. And then when you get them something, they're like, oh, I can't believe you did it. But no, they they're like, no, please.
00:07:13
Speaker
I have so much stuff. They meant it quite literally. Yeah, absolutely. i give me it And now I understand. Like I yeah but already started the cleaning and, you know, decluttering process and I've already jumped so much stuff. And it's kind of I mean, it's cathartic.
00:07:31
Speaker
I'm not going to jump the adventure games. um I've already kind of culled that collection even before you saw some of it. Yeah, you should be OK. I mean, they're lighter than books. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
They are lighter than books. Well, what they say is when you're moving, put books in other boxes. right put Put a book in the box where you put your clothes.
00:07:53
Speaker
Put a book in the box where you put your... and like i don't know not kitchen stuff because that's already heavy but when you fill boxes full of books those boxes are the heaviest things on the planet i would do that if i were moving myself but i'm getting movers so literally i don't fucking care those guys are insane yoked i i have seen them do crazy stuff like moving like just tossing them in the air to each other Just juggling 100-pound boxes of books.
00:08:25
Speaker
so like When I moved here a few years ago, a guy literally picked up like my treadmill and like just hopped it up the little flight of stairs. I'm like, that's insane. Yeah, that's not how you're supposed to do it, sir. Sir.
00:08:40
Speaker
So yeah, i I'm going to get movers to make it less stressful. um Good news, everyone. I have free motorcycle parking. So just.
00:08:54
Speaker
Hey, i have a question for you. Is it about motorcycle parking? Yeah. Because I have it. Oh, OK. ah Roses, do you have a motorcycle? ah No, I do not. But I yeah but Listen, I do know how to ride one. I did learn how to how to drive a motorcycle. So I could.
00:09:15
Speaker
Two free spots. Do you want to hear what I've been playing? I do. Yeah. you kind of You kind of teased it via text. You're like, I'm going to tell you all about this weird French RPG. So now that you've already said that and people are going to know what it is immediately. really?
00:09:29
Speaker
I didn't. This game has been. ah Everybody's talking about this game. They are. but People are talking about this game left and right. versus I think this is the second highest rated game of the year it um met on Metacritic.
00:09:45
Speaker
Do you know what the first highest game is? Of the year? Yeah. On Metacritic. Oh, gosh. I don't know because Metacritic is kind of um unpredictable. Is it? ah ah No, I don't know. I can't guess. What is it?
00:10:00
Speaker
Blueprints. Oh, of course it is. Oh my gosh. I should have guessed. Um, i and that's not, that's critic scores, not user scores because, you know, blueprints has this weird thing where yeah every critic and person who designs games and smart person, uh,
00:10:18
Speaker
Played blueprints and was like, this is one of the best games ever made. And then a bunch of ah other people of varying intelligences, I'll say, gave it a bunch of negative reviews, which still is baffling to me.
00:10:35
Speaker
It's one of the greatest games ever made. You're probably not good at it. When you're not good, it's something you tend to don't like it. I think, yeah. as we As I've talked about on the show,
00:10:47
Speaker
As I think we talked about, we recently appeared. We should say this. Yeah. I think the episode should be out by now. We recently, the two of us, appeared back on the ah ah Escape This Podcast podcast.
00:11:03
Speaker
And it was great. it was great It was so good. like I enjoyed the one we did before. ah Which if you haven't listened to that, maybe we'll link it in in the show notes here. But I had so much fun and I was so happy to go back, even though I felt a little dumb.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, I felt dumb on this one, too. um But they said we weren't. They said we like equally like collabed to figure things out. And they barely they said they barely nudged us.
00:11:32
Speaker
Hey, Rezes. Yes. I think they say that to everybody. But they know, no, no, They're our friends and they like us and they wouldn't gas us up and lie. Right, ah Bill and Danny?
00:11:45
Speaker
So. ah Oh, so that's the game I played. That's what I played. All right. So now i have to I have to walk backwards through this maze of things that I created, much like a ah run of blueprints.
00:12:00
Speaker
So. Like we said on that show, i think it was during recording. and like i And like I've said on the show before, I think the people who gave Blueprints negative reviews are people who ah misunderstood something very core to that game.
00:12:16
Speaker
And yeah ah refused to understand it or later ah revised their reviews when they did understand it. um Okay.
00:12:27
Speaker
Stepping back one step further, the game that I played
00:12:32
Speaker
is Claire Obscure. Okay. Expedition 33. I'm going to look it up so I have it on my screen. Okay. This is a, yeah, this is a RPG by a French studio.
00:12:48
Speaker
Let me look them up. Oh, it's a bit, it's a bit pricey. Is it? I've been playing it on and Game Pass. Okay. Got it. Yeah, $50 on Steam.
00:13:01
Speaker
So, ah yeah, this is by developer Sandfall Interactive, i believe. yeah it's their first game. and And they're a French studio who made this. It's a turn-based RPG.
00:13:15
Speaker
Okay. um ah Supposedly, I haven't played many of these very modern 3D roaming RPGs, but it's apparently it's a lot like the... um
00:13:28
Speaker
in just yeah overall um gameplay, like the more recent Final Fantasies.
Unique Game Mechanics and Storytelling in Claire Obscure
00:13:39
Speaker
That's what it gets just of reminds me of, yeah.
00:13:41
Speaker
ah You know what, I'll say um but they one game that I played that's sort of like it is um ah Dragon Quest, what was that, 11? Okay.
00:13:53
Speaker
God, I'm having to look up so many things that I didn't mean to. This was not what I was expecting, by the way. Like whenever I hear like RPG, especially turn-based, I still, maybe I'm just old. I still think about not these graphics.
00:14:08
Speaker
And what we're looking at is 3D graphics for sure. Yeah. So like Dragon Quest XI is a game I played that's similar to this where, you know, you're, you're, you are, Controlling a party that's running around a big, not sort of open world. but um and there are monsters that you see on the screen and you can.
00:14:29
Speaker
you know, run up to them to attack them, like rather than rather than random encounters, which is what I'm still used to with RPGs. I'm still, you know, 30 years behind the modern turn-based RPG. I mean, that's like Chrono Trigger, though. You run into you you choose to run into monsters, I think. and Sure. um So, yes. Like, yes, that's another good example of that. Yeah.
00:14:55
Speaker
um Visually, this game kind of looks like a little bit like Lies of P, but in like a it also in this like beautiful, i don't know, Dark Souls-y way. You you are...
00:15:09
Speaker
ah facing against these very complex looking monsters that are huge. They dwarf you on the screen. um Their attacks are so powerful.
00:15:20
Speaker
And ah you like the mechanics of this game is you have to get good at parrying or dodging. Because three hits, sometimes one hit from one of these monsters. So not as though it'll take you out.
00:15:35
Speaker
ah You have a party. You go into combat with a party of three people. Uh, when you get more than three, you can have like a backup party, which is kind of fun.
00:15:46
Speaker
ah but I'll talk about the story because the story is while the mechanics I, I really love, uh, the story is, and the, the performances are the main stars here and why I'm talking about it on this show.
00:16:03
Speaker
Uh, ah To be honest, I read the description and it's not giving me much. So I i want to know what you think about this description actually. says, lead the members of Expedition 33 on their quest to destroy the paintress so she can never paint death again. Mm-hmm.
00:16:20
Speaker
I'm not getting much out of that. So you go ahead and explain what's going on here. So this is a game full of twists and turns and surprises. I'm going to give away the first main surprise that happens in the first, you know, five minutes. And you will likely, if you've heard about this game, you would have heard about this before. So I don't think this is much of a spoiler. But if you want to go in blind, this game rules. And it's one of the best written games I've played in years.
00:16:49
Speaker
Wow. ah So, ah also, weirdly, one of the funniest games I've played since maybe, thank goodness you're here. oh okay. Yeah, yeah.
00:16:59
Speaker
ah this game is legitimately super funny, even though it's very dramatic and sad, and it just pulls a lot of different emotions. it's it's It's an impressive feat of writing. So the story of this game, ah you start out as a guy named Gustav, who's played by Charlie Cox, who does the who plays Daredevil in the Netflix and now Disney Daredevils.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah. So you start out as Gustav, and you're... going to this festival that has sort of like this bittersweet sort of feel to it. Uh, and you're meeting your ex-girlfriend who things just really kind of didn't work with, but you still clearly have a lot of affection for.
00:17:44
Speaker
And you guys are, you meet up with her and you're walking around this, uh, this festival. And ah again, a lot of people at this festival are sad. They seem to be saying goodbye.
00:17:55
Speaker
um and, If you don't know what's going on, that could be a little confusing. um The other thing you might notice is everybody is, he at is you like, around your age or way younger thatre like younger than you. There's nobody in this town that's older than you. how old How old is the, is what are we looking at in terms of ages? 33. 33.
00:18:20
Speaker
Whoa, I'm not used to that for an RPG. it's ah It's usually always like teens. I know. Well, there's a reason. So, okay. ah So the as this festival starts coming to a close, you're standing at the edge of a sea of this very weird world. that's It's kind of this island that you're on is together. It kind of has, ah again, a French aesthetic.
00:18:47
Speaker
and But there's all these... like ruins of worlds on islands beyond the sea and kind of floating in the air. It's very surreal. um And well, way beyond the sea is a big rock with a glowing number 34 on it.
00:19:05
Speaker
The festival begins to close as a giant, sad looking woman far off in the distance, picks herself up,
00:19:17
Speaker
And erases the 34 and paints the number 33. Okay. okay And you look over and everybody else in the festival who's surrounded by loved ones.
00:19:31
Speaker
And all the oldest people in the crowd, at that point, 34-year-olds, start disappearing and turning into flowers. And you look at your ex-girlfriend and you say goodbye.
00:19:44
Speaker
And she turns into flowers and blows away. Neat. And now you have one year to venture to this other island and defeat this woman, this giant woman called the paintress, before the year comes up and everybody who's 33 years old or older dies.
00:20:08
Speaker
see. And she changes that number to 32.
00:20:13
Speaker
And apparently, so this has been happening for 67 years at this point. And every single expedition, they call it, that has gone across the sea to fight the paintress, out of every single one of them, only one has returned with any survivors and none have succeeded.
00:20:31
Speaker
um So. um A question? Yes. How do we know they didn't succeed? do they I mean, is there a timetable here? Well, because they never come back and because that then at that time of year, the painter shows up and paints the number again.
00:20:46
Speaker
But how do we know that they just didn't go on to live elsewhere? i That's a good question. Thank you. But as far as you know, everybody in the world who is over the age written on the rock dies.
00:21:03
Speaker
So you can sort of... extrapolate that wherever they are they're probably dead because it's not like she comes to the island and stabs everybody they just disappear yeah okay so you know ah most of everybody's parents and older older siblings have all gone on expeditions and never returned right um this has been going on as i said for 67 years So you and all the other, you know, mostly other 33 year olds, it's like, do you want to wait here for a year to die? And some people do. Some people want to stay and live out the last year of their lives and do the things they love.
00:21:44
Speaker
um Or you want to use your last year to do whatever you can to stop this? um So you as Gustav, of obviously you're cho choosing to join the expedition.
00:21:59
Speaker
um And I think I'll stop my description there. Cause I, there's another big surprise that happens pretty soon, but I don't want to give that away.
00:22:12
Speaker
There's this, this game is again, full of twists and turns, incredibly surprising Every moment of this game is very effective. The dialogue is incredible. um There's a lot of like, you have scenes where you sort of make camp and you can interact with your other team members and those scenes are so well crafted the inter interim diet like the dialogue as you're wandering around the overworld is really good the characters that you end up meeting on this island as you're you know on your way to
00:22:49
Speaker
on your expedition are so interesting. There's this series of characters called gesturals who they'll, it'll be really hard to explain what's funny about these guys, but they're these little puppet guys.
00:23:02
Speaker
I think they're part of French mythology who are obsessed, are very dumb, but obsessed with fighting. And even though they're obsessed with fighting, they're kind of sweet ah and bumbling.
00:23:16
Speaker
And they're, they're just so hilarious. Let's see if I can, Okay, ah this one will be, I'll give you one anecdote about the gestrils that'll be hard to translate and one that'll be easy. The hard to translate one is there's a point where you come across a gestural arena where they fight, you know, like practice battles.
00:23:36
Speaker
And you fight a series of gestrals one after the other. And they're named like, I'm going to get these first names wrong, but something like Bertha Big Hands and ah and Bertrand Bigfeet.
00:23:49
Speaker
And they're these ridiculous looking puppets with these big long arms and giant hands or these big long feet. And they're super tall. And as you challenge them, and the person's like, the gestral in charge is like,
00:24:04
Speaker
Oh, you're never going to beat this guy. He's got such big hands or, Oh, you're never going to beat this guy. He's got the biggest feet. And then you fight ah the fourth guy. I forget what he's called, but whatever he's called it is like, it it implies that he's, he doesn't have any sort of remarkable, uh, body, uh, proportions.
00:24:27
Speaker
And, Again, he like when you fight him, that's what he looks like. He just looks like a normal gestural, just like a guy. more Even more humanoid, I'd say, than most of the gesturals.
00:24:38
Speaker
And when you go to fight him, all the gestural says is, this guy looks ridiculous. Ha ha ha ha ha! Made me laugh every time.
00:24:50
Speaker
and So are they like marionettes? Are they like on little puppet um strings? and the They're not on strings. But yeah, they look a little like like fucked up marionettes.
00:25:02
Speaker
um And so the one that will be easy to describe is the anecdote is you need to at some point you meet this god who is great.
00:25:15
Speaker
His name is Esky. And he he's he has godlike powers, and he is basically your airship, like in Final Fantasy. nice! You can ride on him, and he gets you through obstacles in the overworld, and he moves three times faster than you can, right?
00:25:33
Speaker
um And he's, again, godlike, powerful, becomes your best friend, wants you to succeed, but is too lazy to fight for you. fighting these you're fighting for your absolute life and every now and then in a cutscene he'll just absolutely destroy some guy that's in his way yeah but he won't fight for you because he's too lazy but anyway so you're going to meet this guy and there's a gestural standing in front of it you have to go through a gestural village and complete this like challenge for them to give you the password and this guy's standing in front of there and he asks for the password and what they tell you the password is this you yell get out of my way as loud as you can
00:26:11
Speaker
So you get to this gestural. You stand in front of him. ah Charlie Cox's character, Gustav, winds up. as loud as he can, shouts, get out of my way at this guy. And the gestural starts crying.
00:26:28
Speaker
And it's like, you don't have to be so rude. And they're like, you said, they said that was the password. What was the password? he was like, there isn't a password. I was just told to stand here and say that to people. like
00:26:41
Speaker
Everybody knew there wasn't a password. They just thought it'd be funny if you yelled at this man in his face. Oh no. ola That sounds great. I have to play this. This sounds great.
00:26:53
Speaker
Very, very funny. And it's like a thirty supposedly it's like 30-hour I'm about 18 hours in. a short RPG. I don't feel like I'm halfway through. I've been going out of my way to complete all the everything I see.
00:27:10
Speaker
So I imagine for me it's going to be more like 50 or 60. Is there grinding?
00:27:17
Speaker
Huh.
00:27:19
Speaker
Because like i've I love some of the Final Fantasy games, and I love grinding. I don't know why. It's like therapeutic for You could grind, but this is not a game where you stand there and take damage and then deal damage. This is not a game like Final Fantasy where you just you get this massive health bar, and you...
00:27:43
Speaker
just trade damage until one of you drops. This is a game where you are active at all times in battle. You have to get good at parrying their attacks and memorizing and enemy attack patterns.
00:27:56
Speaker
And if you can't parry, dodge. And... and ah using the right skills at the right time. If you just hit attack and you take the day, you're not going to survive.
00:28:11
Speaker
You won't, you won't make it an hour into the game. If you don't learn to parry and dodge. um Okay. So I imagine if you grind that can make it a little easier, but it's really about the skills you develop than the skills your character develops. so Um,
00:28:34
Speaker
Interesting. I still, yeah, i still definitely want to play it. It's got, it seems like it has a lot of elements from RPGs that i really like. Right. I hear it's got some persona.
00:28:45
Speaker
ah It's got some Final Fantasy. But it regardless of how you feel about those, it's just one of the best written games I've played. Not i ever played, but I've played in a long time. Yay, I have no time. Maybe ever played. Who knows? Maybe ever played. Stop it! This game is really good. Oh, man.
00:29:04
Speaker
It's hard, though. I will also say that there is a story mode, so you can make it a little easier. But I've heard even that is a little hard. It is a hard game. Getting these parries exactly right is really hard. And like I said, you can't survive without getting these parries right. I'm good with that. I i general generally like that kind of stuff. I even liked the, you know, the harder combat of Breath of the Wild.
00:29:27
Speaker
Right. ah Yeah, it's ah like I said before, oftentimes you can't take this is where grinding helps. It's like, OK, now maybe I can take two hits from this guy.
00:29:40
Speaker
Before I die. So I have like two opportunities to miss my parry in this fight. Yeah. um
00:29:48
Speaker
But it's really great. i'm I'm really, really digging It's called Claire Obscure Expedition 33. And again, not normally the thing sort of thing we talk about on the show, but ah an incredible narrative that is just at every turn, blowing me away. Like, i this is a game that every time I turn off, I'm saying to myself, like, wow, whoa, I can't believe what I just witnessed.
00:30:21
Speaker
What if I didn't move on time and I just played this game? yeah It could happen. this game This game, can because it's so active, it'll wear you out.
00:30:32
Speaker
It's not a game. i I mean, some people probably could, but it's not a game I can play for, like, I couldn't sit down for an entire day and play it for like eight hours straight. Right. oh i can play it in two to three hour chunks because it wears you out. It's very, it's difficult and it requires a lot of attention. Okay.
00:30:51
Speaker
You're not going to want to skip the cut scenes. And again, like that combat is very active. um The other thing about it, the one complaint I will register is that the maps are frustrating because Oh, ew.
00:31:08
Speaker
i hate I hate a frustrating map. There's no mini map as you run around. There is a no You can pull up an overworld map, but that doesn't always help. um And there's a lot of stuff to see.
00:31:21
Speaker
Yeah. And every now and then, especially when you're in... that's i'm There's a map on the overworld, but in the individual, what I guess you'd call locations or levels or whatever, you...
00:31:34
Speaker
you
00:31:37
Speaker
ah They can look a little samey in places. ah they're They're not. It's just that this is hard to say. um
00:31:48
Speaker
It can just be a little hard to find your way around sometimes. it can You can be running for a couple minutes and be like, ah, I already went this way and then have to turn around. Yeah. I mean, I can't survive without like a mini map.
00:32:01
Speaker
i need I need my mini maps. Yeah. I think this game could have benefited from mini map for sure. ah If I had two monitors, I would probably pull up maps of the area while I was playing.
00:32:15
Speaker
i got lost in the gestural village for literally like 20 minutes because I could not figure out where the exit was. The exit that I came in on. Right? Like, I already wo but went there and I couldn't find it.
00:32:30
Speaker
And I always get the sense, no matter how much i explore an area, that I'm missing something. Because, again, there's just not a a good way to look at the map around you and and and think, like, oh, I know I'm fully situated. Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
that I think it's it's less that they're samey and more that they're very detailed and complex. And there's like a lot of stuff to look at. wonder what the design decision was on that because RPGs have maps in them, you know?
00:33:01
Speaker
so that's that's really interesting that they were like, nah, let's just add to the the difficulty factor here. it's Yeah, and it more adds to the frustration factor. Yeah, I'm sure.
00:33:13
Speaker
My guess is they wanted it to be more immersive. And it is. This game really pulls you in. This is a immersion heavy game. and ah But yeah, i think I think they should have put a mini map.
00:33:32
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I get pretty frustrated that there isn't one. Yeah. No, that's fair. ah So that's that's Claire Obscura. I've been really, really hype on it the past week.
00:33:45
Speaker
And I think this is, you know, an RPG. i'mnna i'm I'm definitely going to play this through to the end because i even if I get sick of the gameplay, which I don't think I will, I absolutely need to know what happens in this story.
00:34:00
Speaker
It's like um it's like the first time you read ah Game of Thrones or something where you're like, even though that that'll never be finished at this point.
00:34:11
Speaker
Never. You get this sense of when you're reading it. Like I, I cannot get through this fast enough. I need to know what happens here. I need to know what happens with these characters. Yeah. I'm champing at the bit here.
00:34:24
Speaker
That's how I feel playing this game. Like I couldn't get through this fast enough. That's the phrase champing. i think it's chomping. Right? It's not. It's not.
00:34:36
Speaker
No, ah it's what a hope it's it's what a horse does. They champ. Really? Yeah. So because... looking at this stuff because I never knew that. Oh my God, you're right.
00:34:49
Speaker
Because the phrase has been used misused so much at this point, ah people do say it is technically correct to say chomping at the bit now. I see that, yeah. Like it's made it like it's made it to dictionaries. Like you can say chomping at the bit, but...
00:35:06
Speaker
the phrase is champing at the bit because horses champ they don't chomp okay or maybe maybe they chomp but maybe those mean two different things i don't know now and now they like you might be accustomed to hearing chomping at the bit or a variation so that that's so interesting i'm gonna say champing from now on thanks matt Oh, no problem.
00:35:30
Speaker
No problem. Anytime. If you need something to learn something pretentious, I'm here for you. Thank God.
00:35:40
Speaker
and I think me and you both do occasionally like to learn something very pretentious. I definitely. Yes. i am an artist. You can't get more pretentious than me.
00:35:52
Speaker
Now you can correct people. When you hear somebody say chomping at the bit, you go, ahem, ahem, ahem. actually chomping. Horses don't chomp, they chimp. ah are we Are we also going to be like, it's not forte, it's fort?
00:36:09
Speaker
When you say like that. no, i say forte. Oh, no, I say forte. Well, it's actually fort, so. um
00:36:18
Speaker
It's not... hero or gyro it's hero it's hero that sandwich you're eating is a hero if you call it a gyro in chicago you will be kicked out of this everyone says hero hero they do say hero yeah they say hero yeah um it's one of the most like common foods in chicago too Excuse me, ah i don't know what you said.
00:36:45
Speaker
we don't serve croissants here. We serve croissants here. Croissants.
00:36:55
Speaker
oh Oh, I love it when we're all pretentious. Yeah, me too. is we're We're at least cute. We can get away with it. Do you know what the least pretentious thing in the world is?
00:37:06
Speaker
um Puppies? ah Well, yeah, but I was thinking more thematically. Oh, um, no.
00:37:16
Speaker
It was the game we played this week.
Introducing Duck Detective
00:37:19
Speaker
Oh, nice segue. Thank you. Even though ah that one person emailed us to say that when we mention our segues, it ruins the idea of the segue and it makes them mad.
00:37:31
Speaker
Well, I'm sorry. I'm not. I'm not. um I'm not. ah Yeah. Duck Detective. The Ghost of Glamping is what played week. And it is one of the least pretentious games I've ever played.
00:37:44
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Yes. I I I really had to squeeze this into my ah into my schedule. But I'm like, it's Duck Detective, though.
00:37:54
Speaker
Like I can fit this this one in. It's funny, ah listeners, you might have noticed this episode released a few hours late today. And it's just because the embargo had a timestamp on it for today.
00:38:09
Speaker
we had to wait. We had to wait until 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time to release this episode. How but i dare us. and this This game comes out, if you're listening on the day of release, this game comes out tomorrow, and I can't wait to talk about it with you.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yes! ah Did you play, remind me, did you play the demo, or was that me? It was only You played the demo, I did not. Okay, because we did demos for um one for some episode of a little while back.
00:38:37
Speaker
um I could remember if you played Duck Detective. I think I remember texting you and saying, like, I just, I love it, it's so cute. So do you want to play Freddy Frederino then come back and talk Duck Detective with me?
00:38:51
Speaker
Yes, let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
00:39:22
Speaker
Hey
00:39:26
Speaker
everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. I'm Pushing Up Roses. This is Matt Aukamp. We have allergies.
00:39:34
Speaker
I took allergy medicine, but then um I'm sure that's what made my nap feel like like I was dead. I was so sleepy. The grogginess though. Mm-hmm.
00:39:47
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah Since went on and on about Claire Obscured, do you want to be, you want to take point on Duck Detective? Yeah. ah Yeah. i was so thrilled um that we were able to get codes for this game because I had played the demo a couple months ago and just didn't give me enough because demos usually don't. In fact, I might be anti-demo at this point. Yeah.
00:40:17
Speaker
Because that's how I get. I'm just like, oh, man, i need to wait like yeah to play the rest of this? That's terrible. um So this is Duck Detective, the Ghost of Glamping.
00:40:29
Speaker
And it's got a little bit of a ah a spookier edge. And when I say spooky... I mean, a novel type of spooky. It is not a scary game. It just has, you know, the the aesthetic of spookiness. There's a little bit of a ghost story going on, but it is novel. You know what mean? It's a nighttime game. and It is a nighttime game. I think that's why i'm going to say this.
00:40:52
Speaker
I like this game better than the first one. Oh, interesting. Okay. of those rare times that I've liked a sequel more. I mean, it does happen. It happened for Ghostbusters. So it happens.
00:41:07
Speaker
dude Which one do you like better? Ghostbusters one or two? i think one. I haven't. I haven't watched a lot of those 80s classics as many times as I know you have.
00:41:19
Speaker
Yeah, I've watched them a frankly embarrassing amount of time. Like when Wayne's World or, don't know, Bill and Ted? I don't know. I'm trying to think of some 80s.
00:41:33
Speaker
Definitely Wayne's World. I'm a big Wayne's World fan, but that's a 90s movie. Wayne's World is Okay, so yeah, those 80s into nineteen late 80s, early ninety s yeah I think like I'm thinking back to the future. I've seen a million times, but back to the future, Groundhog's Day, Wayne's World,
00:41:52
Speaker
ah ah Jurassic Park, maybe. yeah um ah what what it what What did we just say? What about, what about like Goonies or Gremlins? Have you seen those? Yeah.
00:42:05
Speaker
All of, all of those. There's, I have a lot of, but ah missing spots in those. Yeah, i know I know what you mean. And a lot of them I've seen once or twice.
00:42:18
Speaker
Okay. um So like Goonies, I think I've seen all the way through once, but little pieces of it, like four or five times. Yeah. um Ghostbusters, I think I've seen maybe twice.
00:42:29
Speaker
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wayne's World, I've seen once. what Once? What are some of those other, I'm just thinking of like VHS movies from when we were kids is like the category that I'm talking about. Like the ones that everybody saw. that Everyone saw. Yeah.
00:42:48
Speaker
Which were a lot. Yeah. well I mean, if you guys know what we're talking about, drop us an email with nostalgic ah movies that everyone has seen, but you don't think that Matt has seen it.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah. And then, oh my God, that'd be great. Yeah. no more than let's say five in email. Yeah. But everybody send us lists and ah next Q and a episode, I'll just go down them and I'll say yes or no.
00:43:16
Speaker
yeah So like, I like, even if I just like pull it up now, like Ferris Bueller, Mighty Ducks, Adam's family. um You haven't seen those. No, I'm just saying these are the sorts of movies that are the first Batman, Pee-wee's big adventure mask, right? Like these,
00:43:32
Speaker
big movies that everybody saw. Yeah. yeah That, you know, we're just constantly out for rental at your local blockbuster. But before even pre blockbuster.
00:43:45
Speaker
What about Clue? Have you seen Clue? I've seen Clue once. Oh my God. That's such a blockbuster ah like movie for me. I would always before I, you know, ended up buying it. um I would always rent Clue.
00:43:59
Speaker
Here's one that I didn't, that I saw a lot as a kid because my sister always made us rent it. um But I don't remember a thing about it. Mr. Mom. With Hulk Hogan?
00:44:11
Speaker
Was Hulk Hogan in Mr. Mom? Is he Mr. No, Arnold. Mr. Mom is Arnold. No, Mr. Mom is Michael Keaton. Oh, there's a lot of like mom based movies with like bulky men Yeah.
00:44:24
Speaker
Mrs. Doubtfire is another one of these. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I actually haven't seen this either, so now I want to see it. We are so far off topic here. I am so sorry. Look, the point was, this is a s sequel.
00:44:38
Speaker
ah Ghostbusters 2 is superior to Ghostbusters 1 because of Vigo and the slime, and I like Ghost of Glamping better than The Secret Salami.
Cultural Nostalgia and Duck Detective's Narrative
00:44:47
Speaker
What? ah No.
00:44:50
Speaker
It's like Sarah's on her nerd shit again. don't know. I think I did too. What you liked the, you liked, oh my God, sorry. Ghost of Bastard is shutting all over me. You liked a Ghost of Glamping more than Secret Salami. I think I did. I think it was more succinct.
00:45:07
Speaker
Yes. I think, yeah, I think it had like, compared compared to this second game, I think the first game was not, like, I look back and think the first game was a little messy maybe.
00:45:21
Speaker
And I think we talked about that. I think we definitely touched on one of the biggest issues with one of our biggest issues, I would say, is that we always felt like we were guessing at stuff.
00:45:32
Speaker
ah Maybe not early on, right? Because, you know, there are multiple kind of these little short mysteries and short little cases that you're solving. I thought this one made so much sense.
00:45:45
Speaker
It was like breezy. i understood the hints and the evidence. I only guessed maybe like once or twice at something because I thought it was maybe a bit of a stretch.
00:45:57
Speaker
But I thought think they fixed some of the stuff that I was not happy with in the last game. I think so, too.
00:46:07
Speaker
um I think this game was harder than the first game. Oh, my God. That's so interesting. I don't. But less less definitely less guessing. Yeah. But some of the clues, I think, were subtler or more buried in the evidence.
00:46:22
Speaker
Oh. Dude, I was, like, focused. You know what helped? You know you want to know what helped? What's that? Playing Myst. Interesting. I have like a different perspective now on like figuring out puzzles.
00:46:39
Speaker
Just this idea of like you can do it. Yep. Just pause and think it through. like Yeah. No, I nailed it. I nailed this game. i think that is the biggest hurdle to cross in any puzzle game is trusting the game and saying, it is there.
00:46:56
Speaker
i I'm not... um If I don't know it yet... I just haven't fully examined everything yet. And once you get that in your head, like the the solution is there and knowable, these games sort of unlock for you. So that is interesting that that's how it happened for you.
00:47:16
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I felt so like proud of myself. I was just very, i went into it with like a very determined mind. Like I'm the detective here. I'm good at these games.
00:47:27
Speaker
So gonna nail this game. And I did. And it it it made for a very satisfying ah playthrough. um i I want you to describe the plot, but first there's one thing while we're on the puzzles, I do wanna say, so while ive while I found it a little harder to dig through the evidence and pick up some of the subtle clues,
00:47:45
Speaker
um There was some guessing, even though I knew, like, okay, the final puzzle, you have to figure out where a certain thing is hidden.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yes, yeah. And I knew it immediately, but there's no clues as to that. The only clue is that it's the one place that you can't go. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't connect it.
00:48:08
Speaker
I realized. So I did miss at that one because I didn't connect it because you're right. There really isn't. There are a few times where there really, there either isn't a clue for it and you just have to go off like intuition or it's just vague, you know? Like, for example, where ah Toby went.
00:48:29
Speaker
I got, I actually did get that. I actually did get that. I got it too, but it's not like there's something that definitively lets you know where he is. You do have to take a leap and say, okay, I could see what... But boat is gone. I see probably went.
00:48:48
Speaker
Right.
00:48:51
Speaker
But anybody could be on that boat. But there were only two people missing from the island. That doesn't mean that they were necessarily together. But the box they left behind had Magikorn on the phone.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:49:08
Speaker
This all makes sense. This is going to make no sense to the listener. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anyway. All right. Yeah. i want i I'm just saying it made sense to me. i think it I think I was able to figure it out, but to me, there was a leap there.
00:49:20
Speaker
I think a couple of these things were still leaps, but I don't know. maybe i Maybe I'm thinking about it too hard because again, ah what we've said before, Golden Idol is so tightly designed yeah yeah that maybe i just I'm comparing the two and I just shouldn't.
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that there were times where I was leaping for sure. um Not that one, though. I felt really confident with that one. All right. But yeah, let's talk let's talk plot. So um I love that this game actually picks up kind of where we left off.
00:49:58
Speaker
I wasn't expecting it, but I really, truly love that. um You may even remember freddie frederickson Freddy Freddy Fredrickson, who is a... ah i Is he an alligator or crocodile? They were making making jokes about both.
00:50:13
Speaker
But I think he's an alligator, right? mean, he's a cart he's a cartoon. I don't know. Anything that would let me distinguish between an alligator and a crocodile is not present in his character design.
00:50:27
Speaker
um So you become like, quote... best friends with freddie in the last game and now in this game you start out as roommates who are now freddie's roommate uh in his mind his best friend forever um your uh your ex-wife still hates you you still have a bread addiction and you you hide bread slices under your pillow at night and cry
00:50:53
Speaker
ah And Freddie, at I think we all know by now, that is like my favorite character. That's my boy. That's my sweet summer child. I would date Freddie in real life. His voice voice actor is on point.
00:51:07
Speaker
Oh, he could use it at this point. What? He could use that too. Use what? ah some Somebody that to date him. What, Freddy?
00:51:17
Speaker
Yeah, after this after the ah events of this game, he really could use it. You are correct. we won't spoil We won't spoil it, but... Yeah, no, i did' I'm sure we chose the same the same option then.
00:51:31
Speaker
um so So Freddy being this sweet, sweet summer child, he surprises Duck Detective or Eugene. and Nobody calls him Eugene. I feel like Freddy only addresses him as Eugene when he's being like super earnest.
00:51:46
Speaker
Like, oh, Eugene. i I reviewed the first Duck Detective for Adventure Game Hotspot. And i remember I called him Duck Detective the entire review.
00:51:59
Speaker
ah Which is fair because... That's how that's what I thought. And then my editor was like, hey, um does he have a name? Because in the promo materials, it says his name is Eugene McQuacklin. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I guess he does. is And then I had to add a couple Eugene McQuacklins in there.
00:52:19
Speaker
I think it's even fair to just keep saying, yes, he does have a name because that you you need to have a name associated with your detective character. But I also think it's kind of amazing marketing just to have the Duck Detective in your answers, like deduction list. would call himself the Duck Detective.
00:52:35
Speaker
He does. Yeah. I'm the duck detective. um You can quack. You just need to press the Q button and you can angry quack everywhere you go. It's very cute. yeah And Freddy surprises us one day with um a vacation.
00:52:51
Speaker
He's like, and that's your first, that's the first case, you know, that you have to figure out is where, based on the evidence, where is Freddy taking us? And he's taking us to a haunted sanatorium,
00:53:06
Speaker
And campsite.
00:53:13
Speaker
It's so cute. And we learn that Freddy has a girlfriend, which I think is maybe one of the funniest moments while playing this game was, you know, ah so, you know, Duck Detective hesitantly was like, all right, I'll go. ah I'll go on this vacation. It's already paid for. Let's do it.
00:53:32
Speaker
um And when we get there, Duck Detective is like, don't tell me who your girlfriend is. I will figure it out. Yeah.
00:53:42
Speaker
It was just so... And Freddy's like, oh, let me introduce you to my girlfriend. And Duck Detective's like, no! Right, yeah, it just brings into focus how... like From duck to Duck Detective's perspective, this guy, Freddy Frederson, is the most annoying dude in the world.
00:53:59
Speaker
This brings into focus how... Absolutely annoying it must be to be friends with Duck Detective. Right, yeah. Like, he must be the annoying friend from every other perspective. Yeah, yeah I think this this this game really kind of shows that in its narrative.
00:54:17
Speaker
um Because Freddy always gets along with all the other characters, whereas Duck Detective is just cranky and, you know... a cynical and for so very hard boiled. It's written in a very hard boiled kind of new our way, which I think is fantastic.
00:54:33
Speaker
Every time he enters a new setting, it's just like, uh, I'm being seduced by the wind. And I, but that's not what was on my mind tonight.
00:54:45
Speaker
My mind was finding that Dame. It was, that's not verbatim, but it's written in a very new our style. And, um,
00:54:55
Speaker
but ah What else do I want to say? How much are we spoiling this? I think i would go to... all right All right, why don't we start going until the actual sort of mystery reveals itself, which is pretty, actually kind of far in. So let's go about halfway through.
00:55:13
Speaker
um You get there, you discover who Freddy's girlfriend is. You walk around, you meet the different people of this park. And the very first mystery, the thing that sparks what ends up being this story of like international military intrigue. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:55:33
Speaker
Which already might be too much of a spoiler, but no i is what sparks this massive story is there are chairs missing. Yes, the camp, ah specifically camp chairs. Like it seems that somebody is stealing like camping equipment and um But the the manager ah manager, owner, the the person who is like in charge, she thinks it's a ghost.
00:55:59
Speaker
yeah She's kind of... love... Let's talk a little bit about the characters that we meet in this game, because I think they're great. Yeah. ah There's a pigeon. First of all love pigeons. They're our little friends ah named Amelia.
00:56:14
Speaker
and created Created by humans and abandoned by humans. That is the thing that I don't think a lot of us know about pigeons. Yeah, that's true. The modern pigeon is something that we domesticated like a dog or a cat.
00:56:27
Speaker
ah Didn't look that way. Didn't behave that way before we did it. And if you see a pigeon in the world, It needs, and it and it's not with a bunch of other pigeon friends.
00:56:41
Speaker
It needs rescuing. little pigeon. I love pigeons. It's like finding a puppy. It's like if you found a puppy alone in the world. If you find a pigeon, you should call like somebody to rescue it because and that it's it just a thing. I didn't know about pigeons for the longest time. Pigeons yeah are fully dependent on humans.
00:57:01
Speaker
yes Some have gone feral and join groups. So if you see 70 pigeons together, they're probably fine. But yeah, if you are walking down the street and see a pigeon alone...
00:57:13
Speaker
ah that pigeon's going to die without your help. Anyway, sorry. That's very depressing. My God. I felt like it was a moment to educate the audience. I'm sorry. just be kind to our pigeon friends. They're little souls too, and they're they're very sweet.
00:57:28
Speaker
They really are. they i know they seem annoying, and there's a bunch of signs that say don't feed them, but they're very sweet. Anyway, this pigeon character in the game is kind of new age. you know She's into crystals and... yeah probably Reiki and stuff like that. Nothing against I'm just saying she probably is. have something against it. Okay. She is convinced.
00:57:51
Speaker
oh
00:57:54
Speaker
she is she is convinced That it's actually a ghost that is like moving stuff around and like that took the camping chairs.
00:58:05
Speaker
um We also meet a ah beaver named Matilda. She's a brigadier. um is that how you pronounce that?
00:58:16
Speaker
A brigadier? Yes. Okay. Okay. ah Which is a rank in the military. ah She's very hard, ah very strict, no nonsense type of character. And she has a little boy named Toby. He's very cute. What a very an adorable little baby beaver.
00:58:31
Speaker
character and he likes to play ah Magic Horn, which is, ah I think, a Pokemon ah type of a type of a parody. like They're playing like Magic Horn Go their phones. Very cute.
00:58:46
Speaker
There is Katya and that is Freddy's girlfriend. She's a deer. I really like her. And she's an assistant to an influencer. Yes, an influencer is on this little vacation named Arnaud.
00:59:01
Speaker
And he's a bunny. And he sucks. kind of sucks. He's cute. His character design is cute. um He's cute, but he sucks, yeah. Yeah, he sucks. No, he's very very vain and annoying. And he has a bubble bath in his glamping tent. Not a bubble, a jacuzzi. Whatever, same difference. um that ah Actually, that you should get in, because it's funny.
00:59:23
Speaker
ah Definitely go take a jacuzzi. Well, there's all sorts of stuff in this game that is...
00:59:31
Speaker
There's all sorts of stuff in this game that's funny. Yes. That you should just, if if there's something available to try, do it. Like there's a dedicated quack button. um You can knock over basically every trash can. Which I do.
00:59:44
Speaker
Every cup of pencils you see. And there's bottles of water everywhere. You could just yeah walk right through them and knock them over. It's always funny. And the the details are all are all very funny, too. yeah um Like, in Duck Detective's room, there's a poster that says, hang in there, and it's a parakeet, like, hanging by a string.
01:00:04
Speaker
It's all very... very um intentional and thorough and i and i really like the design and and details in this game they're very funny um there's one there's one more character i think i didn't name and that is a copybara love copybars uh his name is theodore and he's kind of fallen on hard times but he reminds me of um Roseanne's husband in the sitcom Roseanne.
01:00:34
Speaker
I would say that, but mixed with somebody who's like hyper competent, right? Like, sure. He seems he's the one guy here who seems to know how to camp and know what he's doing in the wilderness.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah. If I doubt. Anybody in this group of people could build a fire besides Theodore. Yeah. Well, um maybe Amelia. A pigeon. Because she, you know, she probably lights incense and candles.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. All right. Amelia. It's Amelia and Theodore, the only two who could survive in the wilderness at this campsite. Because the thing about this campsite is it's called this game's called the Ghost of g Glamping because everybody's campsites are ridiculous.
01:01:16
Speaker
Yeah. ah Our nose is basically a mansion. Yeah. And it's so funny anytime he calls it a tent because it's clearly a little house. Yeah, it's a little house. And like, I think ours is the only one that semi resembles a tent.
01:01:33
Speaker
Like ours is kind of like a tent shape. But yeah, um Theodore has a little trailer and it's really cool. One of the cases is figuring out who is staying in which home. I thought that was fun. I'm like, that's a fun little case. Yeah.
01:01:46
Speaker
um It's very much like, you know, the the Golden Idol games and that you have to figure out character names because, again, you don't introduce yourself. Duck Detective's whole world.
01:01:57
Speaker
This is his life. This is his whole world. And everything is a mystery and a case to be solved. um So you figure out people's names. You figure out ah which, ten you know, quote, tent is theirs.
01:02:10
Speaker
um You find items that belong to the characters that give you evidence and clues.
01:02:17
Speaker
it's just so fun. And I got to say, each character seems to have their own little, just like in the first game, they have their own kind of little plot going on. I liked Theodore, the copy bar is plot the best.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. I liked Theodore's plot a lot. I was, I'll say this, just surprised by it. There, there's a surprising twist.
01:02:44
Speaker
And yeah that's all I'll say. Yeah. I had clocked it. And you know, when I did, you know, when it got to be is you find a picture in one of the characters belongings. And I got it. I hadn't looked close enough at that picture until the very end when you need it to solve a puzzle.
01:03:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. No, I was like, oh I see. I see where this is going. i Gets around, huh? Yeah, and I just, I love... Yeah, and ah I really love these characters. I'm trying to remember the the previous characters from the game. You know, there was the...
01:03:23
Speaker
I think it's just a different setting. And that's why I liked these characters more. I liked this nighttime camp setting. I don't know why. Did you feel it was like easy to navigate and, ah and like understand?
01:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I thought this was, i thought the setting was very sweet. Um, I was for a moment because now that I know what this game is going for, I like that it's bite sized.
01:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, me too. So there was a moment where I was afraid that they were going to like double the size of the game. a there's There's just a moment where the map kind of opens up and
01:04:13
Speaker
it It sort of implies other other locations that end up not being nearly as big as I thought they were. I know what exactly what you're, yeah, I know what you're talking about.
01:04:25
Speaker
But i I was really happy that it that I was mistaken and that it was a, much like the first one, a very small, contained a little setting.
01:04:36
Speaker
And yeah I think that works really well for this game. Yeah, and now I'm attached to Freddy and Duck Detective. and Yeah. i i Even though Freddy's sprite got in the way like way too much. right Right. I would be talking to a character and his sprite would be just standing over another sprite and I'd be like, Freddy, I'm to say out of here.
01:05:01
Speaker
I could have done with a little less Freddy. I think in the first game, Freddy was clearly the breakout character, yeah which is why they make him your sidekick in this game.
01:05:13
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think I needed him following me around everywhere. I think I could have done with like, you know, some, some with Freddy scenes and some without Freddy scenes. Like, I like, you know, yeah leave them wanting more.
01:05:25
Speaker
Uh, uh, what's, what's the happy broccoli? Leave them wanting more. Leave me wanting more Freddy, please. Yeah, I mean, I guess they kind of turned it into a little bit of like um like a buddy cop, you know, so situation.
01:05:39
Speaker
i really like Freddy, so. Which is cute. I hope they don't do that in the next one, right? that's fair. hope Freddy's in the next game, but I hope he's not with you all the time. If this is just the flavor of Ghost of Glamping is, oh, that's the one where Freddy follows you around? Yeah, yeah.
01:05:55
Speaker
then I'm going to be more okay with it. But if that's the new normal, then I think it'll bump me out. wonder. I wonder something. Because I am thinking about another game where you have a sidekick.
01:06:07
Speaker
And we liked it. And that was Tangled House. You're right. But she is much... she is Freddie's intentionally annoying. Right. And she is... you're You're talking about um Sally.
01:06:20
Speaker
Sally in Detective Grimoire. And you're right. But Sally is ah specifically very cool. Yeah. And Freddy is specifically an annoying little nerd.
01:06:35
Speaker
But I love him so much. Yeah, no, I love him. I love Freddie. um So, yeah, I don't know if there is much more to say about this plot. I mean, the basic gist of it is um we got to figure out smaller cases to get to the bigger case, the over overarching case.
01:06:53
Speaker
um And I just I really liked it. So it's only about two hours long. And that might frustrate some people. i get that. i don't I don't think it's fair to judge a game or any piece of art based on duration.
01:07:10
Speaker
I just think that's a little strange. I'm more based on quality. um Don't get me wrong. Having a short game can be frustrating, especially if you want more or if you paid like an exorbitant amount of money for it. yeah Am I willing to pay 20 bucks for a two hour game of this quality?
01:07:29
Speaker
Yes, I am. ah The voice acting was incredible. The writing is funny. It's detailed. It looks nice. It looks almost timeless. You know, I feel like doing this kind of cartoon style is going to age very, very well.
01:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, we've said that on the show a lot before. When you do cartoony, it tends to live longer. Yeah. Than trying to do ah cutting edge graphics. or Yeah. And I mean, in this, every all the characters look like stickers.
01:08:00
Speaker
I know, it's so cute. They just like toddle around the screen. It's very cute. Are they selling stickers? Because if not, missed opportunity. And I will buy one. I will buy them. Happy Broccoli.
01:08:11
Speaker
You're absolutely correct. They should be selling stickers. Oh, my God. How cute would that be? Oh, my God. Happy Broccoli, are you listening to me? i would love to buy Duck Detective sticker for anything because I'm in into detective shit.
01:08:25
Speaker
So please. So I think that wraps up our discussion of Duck Detective. We both really loved it. Yeah, very cute. I think there will be more. i hope there will be more. i look forward to more.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, I liked the cliffhanger and I liked the foreshadowing to there being a cliffhanger. I thought it was funny. And I liked the way that that plot built at various moments throughout this game, you knew something was coming.
01:08:55
Speaker
Yeah. Because you see it and then Freddy comments on it and then it happens. What did you think real quick? What did you think about the big twist?
01:09:06
Speaker
Because something, something changes and it's kind of ah a twist. and ah It's an unhappy ending for some people. um What do you think about that? Do you think it was effective? Did you even see it coming?
01:09:19
Speaker
I did not see it coming. Yeah. i When certain words started to fall into the inventory... Because that's how this game works. You walk around, you collect words as you talk to people and interview people, and then you use them to make sentences.
01:09:37
Speaker
When... Certain words started to fall into the inventory. I got worried that this was going they were going for something even bigger than they were. Again, same thing as I thought about the setting.
01:09:49
Speaker
I was worried it was going to be even bigger. Yeah. um But I think that they go for some major world building but still keep it small.
01:10:00
Speaker
I like that. Yeah. ah yeah It just becomes um it could be something very complex, but they keep it like yeah one.
01:10:12
Speaker
I'll say I'll say it like this is hopefully this won't make sense to anybody that hasn't played it. It becomes East versus West. And that's it. That is the full totality of what we know.
01:10:23
Speaker
And I think that's fine. How about you? How do you feel about it? I did not see it coming until very late. yeah um They definitely did a good job of like kind of containing that surprise.
01:10:35
Speaker
Yeah. Until later, you're kind of focused on other cases, um some being, you know, trivial and others being like a little more serious in nature. Yeah.
01:10:47
Speaker
But yeah, I think by the end, you can kind of deduce it because there aren't many characters in these games. They're kind of a cozy mystery. You know, there's just a few characters. and it is very character driven. That's what makes it cozy.
01:11:00
Speaker
um Also, I want to say this is this is very funny. I like the emphasis on like everybody using their version of YouTube, which is MooTube. And I like that the influencer, Arnaud, is a chess influencer.
01:11:18
Speaker
Yes. He's like a professional chess player and also like an influencer. I'm like, that's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. I love it.
01:11:30
Speaker
So I was thinking... Rather than wrap up this... ah We have some time still. Rather than wrap up with a ranking segment, do you want to go through... We are about to get another stacked month of adventure games.
01:11:50
Speaker
Okay. Do you want to go through some of what's coming out? Yeah. ah And just talk about like what we're looking forward to and things that...
01:12:02
Speaker
We hope to cover on the show. We might not get around to all of them because there's a lot this year. Sure. You got a list on you? ah Yeah. Yeah. I have enough of a list here. Okay.
01:12:13
Speaker
Okay. So do we want to play one more um hunky Submarino?
01:12:21
Speaker
weirdly i feel like we've done that one before i feel like we've done hunky before are you trying to say are you trying to say we've definitely done hunky but anyway please play some hunky submarino and we'll be back to talk about some games we're looking forward to in 2025
01:13:02
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody. is the Savior Game. Matt. That's Rose's. Hi. I thought because, especially because this month is going to be so stacked with releases, um and because there's a a bunch of games we've talked to you guys ah about that we like we've said we were going to talk about and we haven't gotten to yet.
01:13:23
Speaker
It would be worth touching on some of these games just because, again, there's just so many. if We have so much on our plates here. And it's it's all worth talking about, even if some of them we might never actually get around to doing an episode on.
01:13:37
Speaker
Yeah. um Because every time we we start coming close, another incredible game comes out. It's a good problem to have. Or my life like crumbles before my eyes and I have to move.
01:13:49
Speaker
like I can't play that 10 hour game right now. That too. So first let's talk about some games that have already come out that we have played a little of or um have or or own and haven't haven't quite gotten around to playing yet, but that we want to or that we we we plan to.
01:14:09
Speaker
Yeah. First off, I think we should talk about Rosewater. I was going to say that. Let's maybe start with ah with Rosewater, which is, you know, developer, friend of the show, Grundislav, shout out.
01:14:22
Speaker
Hope you're doing well. I haven't played your game yet. I'm sorry. I'm about two hours into that game. I'm really, really enjoying it. ah We hope to do an episode on it soon. ah You guys are, if you like the games we talk about in the show, you're going to love Rosewater. Yeah. um It is absolutely worth your time checking out. If you have played it, leave him a review on Steam.
01:14:44
Speaker
um Share the game. Not just because Karunaslav is our friend and a past guest. this game is This game deserves the attention. i am I'm really enjoying it.
01:14:57
Speaker
It's a, so far, super fun adventure. The art is beautiful. The setting is incredible. Yeah. um It's just like you're a team of people in the wild, wild west going on a little adventure.
01:15:10
Speaker
It's great. Nice. um Next up, from the people who made... ah ah From Inkle, Inkle Limited, who made um Heaven's Vault, which we've talked about recently.
01:15:26
Speaker
And more importantly, who made Overboard. This is a game that sort of ties into Overboard in an unexpected way. It's called Expelled. And starts out very much like Overboard. At the beginning of the game, a school prefect has been pushed out of the window.
01:15:46
Speaker
You have to push the blame off of yourself.
01:15:51
Speaker
It looks fantastic, honestly. It looks fantastic. I love this style of art. I think it is so ah like welcoming and, I guess, accessible. i can't i actually can't wait to play this. that is This had been on my list to play, and then I didn't.
01:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got codes for it. Again, and we do intend to play it and talk about it on the show. It's just... then everything in on earth came out.
01:16:19
Speaker
Yeah. Next up, another game that you actually just came out ah three days ago as of recording this. Oh, it is out. Okay.
01:16:31
Speaker
It's by cosmic void, which we have talked about on the show before. We love cosmic void. ah It's called neon heart city. Yes. Man, they put out some bangers.
01:16:43
Speaker
Like, they know what they're doing when it comes to adventure games. ah Neon Heart City looks fantastic. It's giving... It's giving a... it's It looks more interesting than Beneath a Steel Sky, but it's kind of giving that a little bit, maybe a little bit of Blade Runner. Yeah, it's still got that really, like, technicolor... I don't even know if that's the right word. like um Neon. ah A lot of the colors are unexpected tones. Yeah, I like that.
01:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, that all the other ah Cosmic Void games have. Yeah. And yeah, ah pixel art. Very cool looking. Yeah, very cool looking.
01:17:27
Speaker
Definitely need to check that out soon. So these are the games that are already out. um Games that are coming out very soon. Oh, okay. So coming out next week as of the release of this podcast ah is a point and click adventure game by Stuck in the Attic called Near Mage.
01:17:46
Speaker
I'm not familiar. I don't think you've brought this up to me. This does not seem familiar to me. We have not brought it up on the show. um It's by the people who made Gibbous. I'm not familiar that either.
Upcoming Game Highlights
01:18:00
Speaker
It is a very cartoony game. ah Looking point and click, you this takes place in Transylvania. Nice! um And I think, yeah, I think it's like, it it seems like a wizard school, like you've joined a wizard school ah in Transylvania. So there's like vampires and stuff. I don't know much about it besides it looks really neat just from yeah the artwork.
01:18:26
Speaker
It looks very witchy. Like a lot of the screen caps are like, imagine a witch and a plant store. You know what I mean? Like it looks very witchy. See, there's a little, ah black cat.
01:18:38
Speaker
God, there's a lot of plants in these screenshots. it looks really cute. It looks great. um Next, this game, I think, just came out this week.
01:18:50
Speaker
It is already out. Oh. Not the week of recording, the week of release. ah Interestingly, as I booted this up, um I thought I was still on the page for neon hearts because the first thing I see is like a neon sign. But yeah, this is Kathy Rain 2 Soothsayer.
01:19:09
Speaker
I loved this demo when I played it. i I think I even texted you immediately after being like, I need more of this game like immediately. ah Yeah.
01:19:21
Speaker
yeah Because of how engaged I was. This game, in its demo, it brings you in right away. It's quick paced, which i I appreciate. I really like that. I like getting right down to it.
01:19:33
Speaker
Graphics are beautiful. It's very inspired by Gabriel Knight in in many ways, not just in aesthetic, but in interrogation and things like that. And who doesn't like a badass character? Who doesn't like a badass female character?
01:19:48
Speaker
i and absolutely no one Absolutely no one in the world doesn't like one. Correct. ah Everybody loves women. but We all know this. Whenever you release a game with a strong female character, everybody is like, yes.
01:20:03
Speaker
Yes. Yes. This is exactly what I wanted. But yeah, this is very um a very like traditional mystery. You know what I mean? um i feel like I'm on a murder mystery when I play Kathy Rain games.
01:20:19
Speaker
I assume it's going to have a little bit of a piner ah paranormal edge. I haven't encountered that yet. But just based on the description and based on what I know about the last game, there's probably going to be something along those lines.
01:20:31
Speaker
kind of like, again, kind of like Gabriel Knight. There's almost... a non-realistic uh thing that that starts to happen yes uh i'm i'm i'm really looking forward to playing this one i'm hoping we can cover it on the you know i'm hoping we can cover it on the show soon and yeah just depends on time depends on what time we have ah i'm i it's i am certain it's going to be a great game ah Yes, i am I am very confident about that based on the demo.
01:21:06
Speaker
um So this next one, i don't know where I got somewhere. i got the impression somewhere that this was coming out very soon. But it ah looks like now that I'm looking at it closer, it does not have a release date.
01:21:21
Speaker
No, it does not. But this is a game that is very self-consciously. taking inspiration from ah Disco Elysium.
01:21:34
Speaker
Yeah. You can see that in any of the screenshots. And it is something that the um creators are not shy about. They'll talk about it in interviews and such as if they are, their their goal sort of is to turn Disco Elysium into a genre, they say, which is an interview I saw recently.
01:21:56
Speaker
Yeah. So, oh, it's right there on their Steam page too. but Nice. So this game I think looks really cool. ah Did I say it out loud? Rue Valley.
01:22:07
Speaker
Yeah, Rue Valley. It does look very cool. I actually, I'm not the biggest fan of... Isometric. ah Yes, isometric. Unless it's Disco Elysium or Sanitarium. They're the only ones that I've ever been like, those are my games.
01:22:24
Speaker
um But this, I actually, I do like how this looks. It's got very interesting 3D play. Yeah, like Disco Elysium. We've got some 3D and then portraits that are painterly, you know?
01:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, it looks like it's a brand new um looks like it's a brand new studio. Publishers Owlcat Games, which has not done games like this before it doesn't look like. Okay, interesting.
01:22:50
Speaker
but the yeah But the studio looks brand new. So i'm i'm interested I'm really interested to see what this one is going to be like. Yeah, me too. Me too. Um, and we'll just touch, we don't know when any of these other games are going to come out we've mentioned them on the show. So we'll touch on them quickly. Do you want to, do you want to take these?
01:23:10
Speaker
Yeah, ah we don't again, we don't know when this is coming out, but we're very excited for Strange Antiquities. I am dying. I even't dying for it.
01:23:20
Speaker
Every time I see it on my Steam page, I'm like, dang, when's that game coming out? I don't really need that. Again, that's the ah not a sequel, but it's the next game from the people who did Strange Horticulture, which I found that late i later in life. I found that game and I loved it.
01:23:37
Speaker
um strange antiquities looks even more intriguing to me uh and i you're looking forward to that too right so absolutely yeah we need we need some updates on this game i know i i want to know i need i need an estimate tell me i have ocd i need to know ah but that's strange antiquities what's what's next Uh, next is the mermaid mask. I thought we did have a release date for that, but...
01:24:09
Speaker
We do not. Okay. Okay. So that is going to be the third installment of the ah Detective Grimoire games. We just talked about, I mean, I guess it was a while ago. We talked about Tangled Tower a while ago.
01:24:22
Speaker
i was a fan of the quote first game because technically there was like a flash game, but in terms of these like newer games, I'm going to call it like a trilogy. I really liked the first like official Detective Grimoire game.
01:24:35
Speaker
And we loved Tangle Tower. That was just so many so many steps above what I even expected. And I adored Crow Country, too, which is not in this series, but it was by the same developers.
01:24:49
Speaker
yeah and Yeah, yeah, yeah. And released last year. It was really great. So I'm i'm really, really looking forward to Mermaid Mask. Yeah. You want to take the next one? Sure. The next one is called Foolish Mortals.
01:25:01
Speaker
Yeah. we've Again, we've talked about it on the show before. ah We don't have a release date for it, but it is... um It's by also a brand new studio called Inklingwood.
01:25:13
Speaker
i Where are these studios coming from? There's like so many adventure game indie devs. And it'll never stop. And our job will become increasingly more impossible as time goes on. Matt, we're not getting paid for this. You know that, right? yeah At this point, I hope.
01:25:30
Speaker
Hey, if anyone wants to pay us. but If you want to pay We are willing to sell out. um So it takes place in Louisiana. It's like ah it's like a haunted mystery. It looks kind of Gabriel Knight-esque, but with a ah broken sword sort of art style.
01:25:49
Speaker
Yeah. um Just like a point-and-click adventure. Looks really nice. looks really It looks really nice. You know I love me some like... Some like Monkey Island inspired, Gabriel Knight inspired things.
01:26:03
Speaker
ah The map actually reminds me of Monkey Island. Really hardcore. um And I love ghosts. So there you go. Speaking of stuff we love, we're just going to touch on this because we've talked about it so many times. But yeah what's next?
01:26:16
Speaker
Rose's. Uh, next, uh, we are looking forward to perfect tides again, uh, the dove friend of the show, Meredith grand. She's amazing. So talented. If you haven't played the first perfect tides, I urge you to do so.
01:26:30
Speaker
I think this game looks even better. She's a cool person. Great artist. Her first game is just a, like a utter triumph. Yes. If you have not played perfect tides one,
01:26:42
Speaker
it It'll blow you away. Get your priorities straight. You're going to cry. um but but And laugh. Yes. You did?
01:26:53
Speaker
I cried at the end of... Are you shaming me? No, I'm just surprised. Because I didn't. And I'm an emotional artist. so Yeah, I cried and during this song at the end. Oh, um that's so sweet.
01:27:08
Speaker
did we not Did I not say that on the show? Dude, that was our first episode. do You think I remember everything we talked about?
01:27:17
Speaker
Matt, you're my friend, but I don't like remember every tiny thing we've said. That's Perfect Tide Station to Station. ah i believe the game... i believe in my heart that game will get a release date soon and that it'll be coming out this year.
01:27:33
Speaker
Yeah, I do too. So... This last one, I don't know if we've talked about this on the show before. honestly don't know. It does not familiar to me. But this is a game that looks like both of us are going to dig it.
01:27:49
Speaker
I am bringing it up. It is called Green Hearth Necromancer. Oh my god, it's a cozy! It's a cozy game about bringing back plants from the dead. So, well as I looked at this...
01:28:04
Speaker
um As I watched the trailer for this, you know I had thoughts of Botany Manor. I had thoughts of Strange Horticulture.
01:28:15
Speaker
Definitely. And it looks like it may be smaller in scope than either of those games. But it looks like a game where you just try to figure out how to cast spells and bring little plants back from the dead.
01:28:28
Speaker
That's sweet. Oh, I really like that. It's very cool. you think about To think about being a necromancer who deals with plants is very, it's a very cute and fun idea.
01:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, I wish I could do that in real life.
Content Creation Challenges and Personal Updates
01:28:45
Speaker
ah So I thought we would just touch on that because again, some of those games we have some of those games that are already out, we've told you guys are coming and they just haven't. Like we've said, oh, we're going to do an episode on this and then just haven't yet.
01:28:59
Speaker
and We still intend to. I just want to say welcome to being a content creator, Matt, where you're like, I'm going to cover this. And then you never do. yeah I mean, I, I mean, at my listeners to my folk music podcast, every folk song have felt that pain for me for, what the five years it's been since I did my last episode.
01:29:25
Speaker
Yeah. No, I hear you. So, Hey,
01:29:30
Speaker
All right, Roses. Well, I think that kind of wraps it up for us today. I think so. we covered a lot of ground today. i am impressed. Yeah. Look, we might still be behind, but at least we said the names of all the games.
01:29:48
Speaker
I think we did good. I'm proud of me. I'm proud of i'm proud of you, too. And I'm proud of me. Yeah, I'm proud of you, too, Matt. Oh, thank you. We're proud of each other. And we're proud of you listeners for making it to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening.
01:30:01
Speaker
go check us out. Save your game podcast at Instagram. Email us mattandroses at gmail.com. Leave us for reviews and ratings everywhere you possibly can. it honestly helps.
01:30:14
Speaker
So like you don't know how much it helps. ah Yes, it is. It actually is massively helpful. you might You might hear us say that and think like, oh, yeah, I'll get to that.
01:30:26
Speaker
Oh, yeah, maybe I should probably do that someday. Just take a minute now. Just do it now. if fucking It helps so much. Yeah. It'll help my morale. It'll help me move. Don't you want me to have a good move?
01:30:42
Speaker
Don't you to have move? Sorry, just guilting our audience. Are you guys trying to ruin Rose's move? How could you? Anything else you want to promote? You're working on a video.
01:30:54
Speaker
I am. i'm And I've got a good chunk of it done. I am working on a review ah slash comedy riff of the worst episode of Columbo, which I'm not going which one it is, but you're you'll know soon enough.
01:31:09
Speaker
Because otherwise, if you say it and it's not out yet, people will rush and make a video about it and get ahead of you. I sent you an illustration that I made earlier that will be in that video. Oh, that'll be in that video. All right. I'm excited for that video then. Yeah.
01:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be great. Other than that, that's all I got going on right now, you guys, because i will be moving hopefully June 1st. I do have some overlap, ah so but that's my plan.
01:31:37
Speaker
um And then I'll be back to selling art, but as of right now, everything's got to go in a box. ah So, ah and I think we're going to keep putting out episodes during Rose's move. It depends how much time um she ends up having to play games yeah um but we're we we have a plan to split the work in a way that we probably can keep releasing episodes just depending on what game time um you have right yeah yeah pretty much okay so I also if you get a chance to check out mutant menace it's my x-men podcast um we are
01:32:16
Speaker
I think we're on episode nine now. so Nice. Nice going. Thank you. It's hard to keep up a podcast. It really is. I'm not even being snarky. It's tough. It really is. Yeah, no, absolutely.
01:32:28
Speaker
So i think that leaves us with one last thing to say, and I can't remember for the freaking life of me what it is. I got you. I got you, Matt.
01:32:38
Speaker
I got you. Okay. It is moving as suffer. Did I get it? But moving's also art. Well, art is definitely supper.
01:32:52
Speaker
But are we also going to mention the podcast? And podcast also art. ah Podcast is art. And art is supper.