Episode 178 - A Bunch of Band-Aids - Cryptmaster

What did you say? Podcast? We’re not going to drop everything and do that.

Welcome back to the podcast. We’re still playing a bit of catchup this month, and to continue with our Halloween picks, we’re talking about Cryptmaster! This is a dungeon crawler in the typing game subgenre, where you solve puzzles and fight enemies using abilities you type out. To gain the abilities, you need to find letters, which you can come across in a variety of ways, which fill out a series of blanks for each of your four characters, and then guess what the full word is, similar to a Wordle or a crossword puzzle style. This, objectively, is a weird and really cool system. And it feeds into the other elements of the game, encouraging you to engage in combat and explore the world, complete sidequests and play the in-universe card game. On the other hand, many of the things you have to do can become a bit tedious, especially relating to the soul resource you have to manage in order to engage in combat effectively, not to mention the huge number of riddles you have to solve with no artifice really over top of them. That being said, the end product is still extremely cool, builds an effective tone which walks the line between being funny and building the feeling of an underworld in a serious way, and is probably worth looking past the irritants if you’re looking for something novel and interesting. We’re going to be talking about how we responded to the challenge the combat posed, the different mechanical choices that did and did not work for us, and how mastering the combat requires the memorization of an educational curriculum in vocabulary.

Thank you for joining us this week! Cryptmaster generated some light buzz when it came out earlier this year, and it was clear it was a game that fit into our preferred level of weirdness. The overall idea here is so cool and I think it’s still great even with some of its contents working against your ability to have fun with it. Did this game overcome its flaws for you as well, or are you just a huge fan of riddles? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time we’re finally finishing up our October games and preparing to move on to greener, less horror-themed pastures, but we’re closing out the theme with Amnesia: The Bunker, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Episode 177 - Respect Water - Omori

Welcome to cast space.

Welcome back (finally!) to the podcast. Today, we’re going to be talking about Omori, a turn-based RPG with a unique art style and dark themes. Though, as we discuss in the episode, don’t think too much of Omori based on its genre, because it’s really putting its worst foot forward. Omori has rich characters, relatable themes and effective comedy. It’s a silly game in the same vein as Earthbound where you fight cartoon sharks and your happy characters will deal more damage against angry foes, but it’s real strength is in making you learn more and more about your party members and their associated friends before stabbing you right in the heart. The game is billed as having psychological horror elements, and those are there, but the game is also profoundly sad and surprisingly moving. And on top of that, it has a combat system that has some depth to it, but takes a long time to come into its own and adds a level of tedium to a game that otherwise keeps you wanting to move forward. We’re going to be talking about the slow build of the combat and where it shines, the tonal differences and how much of it we think was intentional, and we tell you how not to discuss Chrono Trigger.

We’ve been pretty busy, so we apologize for the extremely long delay between episodes. Omori is at least a bit of a gem, so hopefully you enjoy the episode. We still have two more games for Halloween to cover, so we’ll be staying in the genre over the next couple weeks despite the scheduling issues. Did you participate in the Omori Kickstarter? Is it a game you heard about later and checked out based on the art style or the themes? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Cryptmaster, so we hope you’ll join us then!

Episode 176 - Dissolve Those Bones - Crow Country

We’re old enough.

Welcome back to NOCLIP, and beware, for it is Halloween! To kick off October, we’re talking about Crow Country, a throwback survival horror game that does a lot to stand out in its field. The game is set in an amusement park and has a unique polygonal graphic style that gives an oddly whimsical aesthetic. It makes good use of this with its environments: haunted houses, underwater exhibits and fantasy fairy forests. Each new area feels a little quirky, but always with that chunky, blocky texture that sells the disheveled feel of the park itself. All of this is in service of a short but tightly executed survival horror game with disempowered combat, save rooms without checkpoints, item collection and puzzles to solve. It has the hallmarks of the genre, but each mechanic is implemented in a well thought out way. We’re going to be talking about how the one location setting helps teach the player the layout while hiding surprises, how the simplicity of some mechanics shine light on progression and storytelling, and we make the tough call to shoot everything in sight.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re excited as always to start talking about horror titles, and Crow Country is the perfect first game to play in a month like this. It feels like a nostalgic throwback, but obviously brings with it the lessons learned over decades of innovation in the genre. How did you feel about this relatively short entry into the genre? Let us know over on the Discord server or in the comments! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Omori, which is a more different kind of horror game, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

Nine Years of NOCLIP - Baja Throat Blast

Happy NOCLIP day, everyone, and welcome to our celebration of nine years of doing the podcast! Nine years is such a long time to do anything, but I feel like it gets overshadowed sometimes with ten years looming around the corner. Which makes sense, so rather than argue you should be celebrating an odd numbered year like this, I’m going to reframe this as the beginning of year ten. It’s our decade celebration, which will last for one year until the tenth anniversary, so make sure you tune into every episode because it’s a special time for us at NOCLIP. We’ll really wow you by doing exactly the same kind of content we normally do, shock you with opinions that fall in line with what you would expect given our now extensive history, and thrill you by bringing on special tenth-year guests like probably no one, or just one of our friends you’ve already heard from before. And the best part is, once the clock ticks over to October 3rd 2025, we get to reframe it again as a big milestone. You are all eating out of the palms of our hands and we wouldn’t have it any other way, you suckers.

Seriously though, thank you all for listening to us, no matter how long you’ve been here. We actually have been slowly making changes over the last year, with a new theme song, our switch to remote recording and the process that has been getting us to consistent quality, and merging pocket back into the main show to try and streamline our lives and your experience. We’re honestly very happy with where we are as far as content goes at the moment, but let us know if you have any suggestions for things because we take what little feedback we get seriously. We hope you’ve been enjoying the show and we have a bunch of exciting episodes planned on games both big and small, so we hope you’ll play along where you can and we’ll see you again next year!

Episode 175 - Thoughtpocalypse - Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

I would recommend podcasters to rob banks instead because gambling is immoral.

Welcome back to the podcast and to our very important series on games titled after women’s names that begin with the letter L. Today, we’re talking about Lorelei and the Laser Eyes a puzzle game from Simogo, developer of games like Year Walk and Sayonara Wild Hearts. Taking the form of an enormous escape room, where solving number puzzles and unlocking doors is the name of the game, you progress through an ever growing list of goals to uncover the “truth” as it is quantified in the menu. The game has a few consistent motifs that pop up to anchor you into the narratives main themes and provide clues to the puzzles, and combined with a story that has real concrete answers you can figure out yourself with the information provided, it really meshes a mechanical satisfaction with a narrative one. In the same vein, the difficulty of the puzzles really lands in a spot that will likely be satisfying for most people, if a bit easy for people who are diehard fans of the genre. Mostly more simple than you would think at first glance, recognizing patterns and identifying a pool of answers to choose from will serve you better than raw enigmatology in this case. The game isn’t perfect, a bit too long, and if you’re not a fan of puzzle games generally this likely won’t change your mind, but it’s a stylish package put together by a developer that really knows how to nail a tone. We’re going to be talking about the interconnectivity of puzzles, the stylish execution of a visual style and we determine that person we often most agree with is ourselves.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Not know what this game was going into it may have not been the best idea from a scheduling perspective, and maybe had something to do with us thinking it was bit overlong, but in the end it was still a good time. Do you think our devotion to Simogo’s games is unhealthy? Do you just agree and enjoy their output? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re actually interrupting the GTAWNTBWTLL theme as we enter October and will be talking about Crow Country, so we hope you’ll stay tuned for that.

Episode 174 - Gaming Erogenous Zones - Who's Lila?

What’s the definition of imaginary? A Podcast that only exists in your mind.

Welcome back to the podcast! Our second game titled after a woman’s name that begins with the letter L is Who’s Lila, a pretty bizarre adventure game in which you control your character’s face. The object of the game, at the outset, is to sell your responses in conversations by molding your face, Mario 64 stye, into an expression that will go over well. This adds a layer of complication into an already unsure situation which means that any conversation can have a lot of different possible outcomes. This makes more sense when you realize that the game is meant to be played repeatedly, with many short narrative branches that conclude and intend for you to restart after. Beyond that, there are puzzles to solve that step outside the bounds of the conversation mechanics and, in fact, other bounds, and these might be the highlight of the game for some people. As a complete package, this is a strange and experiential game with a surprisingly intriguing narrative that has a lot to grab onto. We’re going to be talking about the hurdles and strengths of having an unprecedented mechanic set, the complicated nature of exploring the different paths in the game, and the benefits of an eyebrows first approach.

Thank you for joining us again this week. There are days when I wish that if every game we talk about could be something like this. I love what this game does to innovate even if the complete package has its issues. Did the theming and odd concept sell you on this game? Let us know in the comments or over on the Discord! Next time, we’re talking about the most recent of the games we’re playing this month with Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Episode 173 - Serial Prankster - Lorelai

The Queen of Podcasts is weak to fire.

Welcome back to the podcast, and to the very special “games titled after women's names that start with the letter L” theme! To start us off, we’re going to be talking about Lorelai, a 2D side-scrolling adventure game. Lorelai is the third game in a series that began with Downfall and the Cat Lady, the latter of which is by far the most noted. Not least of which is because we did an episode on it, trendsetters that we are. Lorelai is a not insignificant visual upgrade from Harvester’s previous games, but the themes and narrative beats between the Cat Lady and Lorelai are very similar, just focusing on a different character in the same world. Otherwise the games play about as you’d expect. You collect inventory items to be used in puzzle solving, talk to people and largely just experience the story. The result is two very comparable games and one of them unfortunately comes out on top by most metrics. We’re going to be talking about the narrative and character writing, the big swings taken visually and how they generally made the game more atmospheric and interesting, and we really step up to the plate for step dads for some reason.

Thank you for joining us again this week! I’ve been unreasonably excited about this stupid theme, but with one exception: Lorelai was the only game in it that was a known quantity to me. That being said, as a big fan of the previous games by Harvester Games, maybe my expectations were somewhat too high. What did you guys think about this one? Are you a fan of the series and have thoughts on this game, or are you new and wondering why we care so much? Let us know in the comments or over on our discord. Next time, we’re going to talk about Who’s Lila, a mystery game and a game with a mysteriously weird method of interaction, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

Episode 172 - I Blinked Weird - Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye

Please consider supporting our planned podcast expansion.

Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, in our last episode of our DLC theme, we’re talking about Echoes of the Eye, Outer Wild’s expansion that adds a new explorable area into the base game. Describing it like that, you can maybe see why we had originally planned this for Pocket, but this is Outer Wilds, so the exploration and puzzles in this expansion are dense and complicated. So our decision to end Pocket is already paying dividends, I suppose. Echoes contains one new celestial body to fly to, yes, but within it there are new areas, a clever use of old mechanics to create new interactions and, slight spoiler, many new subareas full of clues and puzzles to uncover. Similarly to the base game, talking about much in specificity would be a bit of a spoiler, but the thing to take away from that is that this feels very much like the base game. If you enjoyed the self-directed gameplay of Outer Wilds this is largely more of the same, but tonally and environmentally it does have enough to make it feel fresh. We’re going to be talking about the difficulty we each had actually getting to the DLC in the first place, the satisfaction and frustration the new puzzles bring, and we talk about which of my actions were free of consequences.

Thank you for joining us again this week! As we discussed on the episode, we may not have come back to play this DLC for a while, or possibly ever, had we not done this theme so it’s exciting to jump back into a game that inspired such strong emotions when we last talked about it. Much like the original, this DLC can be tough to get into and tough to finish, but the journey is really the point in this game and the journey is extremely good. Did you play this right away when it came out or are you just now being reminded it exists? Let us know in the comments or over in our Discord server! Next time, we’re starting the extremely catchy “Games Titled With Women’s Names That Start With the Letter L” theme, which begins with Lorelai, so strap in for that!

Episode 171 - Every Time They Do, It Makes Me Laugh - Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

I’m feeling full of beans.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about the DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Future Redeemed. This is an expansion type DLC which gives you a full new party of characters, starts you at level one and makes subtle but meaningful changes to the mechanics and has you set out on an entirely new story set in the same world as the base game. This is probably for the best given how long it’s been since we’ve played the original, so we don’t have to deal with high level enemies while forgetting all of the mechanics, but as is usually true with Xenoblade games, what is probably the most interesting development in the DLC concerns the story. The DLC features characters from far flung parts of Monolith’s trilogy, and the ways and reasons they interact with your party take a focus in the narrative. Because of this the DLC focuses a bit more on the overarching narrative, which is on the more complicated side, but it still puts a decent focus on character stories, just maybe in a less impactful way than the base game. Mechanically, the new classes are largely fun and well designed, with some hitches here and there, and the new systems give you something novel to sink your teeth into if you are so inclined. All that said, the game plays mostly very similar to the base game so if you were a fan of that, you’ll probably enjoy another 20-30 hours of this as well. We’re going to be talking about how the mechanical changes affected our play, the characters and what archetypes they fill both in the story and as narrative devices, and we realize that maybe we’ve been the dumb guy all along.

Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a game that we really liked originally and probably wouldn’t have gone back to for the expansion for a long while if we hadn’t done this DLC theme, so I’m happy we got the chance. If you’ve been through it, how did you feel about the changes from the base game? Did you feel compelled to fill out your affinity goals to level everyone up? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to finish out DLC by talking about Echoes of the Eye, the DLC for Outer Wilds, so we hope you’ll join us then!

NOCLIP Pocket E100 - It Does, in Fact, Please the Lord - Super Mario Land

Oh, podcast.

Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket…for the last time! We’re interrupting our DLC theme because of the episode 100 milestone, and we’re talking about Super Mario Land. If you’ve been following for a while, you know that we started Pocket with an episode on Super Mario Land 2, so we felt it was appropriate to end it with the original Super Mario Land. This is a platformer and one of the earliest games in the Mario series. Released on the Game Boy, the limitations of the platform, and the age of the game, are both apparent in how it affected visuals and design, and impressive in how they were overcome. This feels very quaint to come back to, but compared to how simple the majority of Game Boy games were, this feels like a real accomplishment. With 12 levels over 4 worlds that explore different themes, this feels more like a Mario game than you might expect, and one that has some meat on its bones, even if it isn’t very long. We’re going to be talking about the level design in comparison to Super Mario Bros. and how much we think was hardware versus the state of game design in 1989, how the music carries the presentation despite the simple visuals distracting from some surprisingly detailed sprites, and we call for Mario to be restored to his former vehicle-driving glory.

Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket this week! To be clear, the podcast itself is going to continue on after today, but we think Pocket specifically has outlived its necessity. Moving forward, we’re going to hold on to the same release schedule and cadence of games we talk about, but will be doing away with Pocket as a sub-show and incorporating the shorter, weirder titles into the main show instead. So basically we’re making a big deal out of nothing. Pocket held some of our biggest surprises, so let us know, what was your favorite episode of Pocket? Did you try any games you wouldn’t have otherwise? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! There won’t be a next game in this case, so we’ll catch you on the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC episode next time!

Episode 170 - Gaius, the Lion, the Witch or the Wardrobe - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

I'm weak as a kitten and thick as two planks. I've always been this way. I'm proficient in podcasts. Sorry.

Welcome back to the podcast! As our second episode in our run of DLCs, we’re talking about The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring. And yeah, this is the release that inspired the theme in the first place. Shadow of the Erdtree released over two years after the original game, and the scope of this DLC alone is evidence of that. Advertised as being “about the size of Limgrave,” the map is a sprawling multilayered world with numerous different areas, some of which are pretty well hidden. Being big isn’t necessarily an indication of quality, of course, but it is a good thing to keep in mind when considering this as an expansion to Elden Ring. Being another open world to explore, the challenge in development is making the area interesting to be in and worth exploring. The world looks amazing. Potentially unbound by the setting of the DLC being in a kind of afterlife, each area has such a distinct visual presentation and runs the gamut from somber to chaotic to awe inspiring. The other half of the equation was maybe less successful, with mechanical rewards, like new items, weapons and spells, are spread more thin than in the base game, which makes exploring slightly less rewarding than you might expect. That being said, the novelty of the new items and weapons makes finding them exciting, and they can come in handy engaging in the DLC's many new combat encounters. Designed to be taken on very late game, the fights in Shadow of the Erdtree are difficult, and to combat this, they have introduced a new upgrade system to generally increase damage and defense, and on your first playthrough you’re going to want to search these out for sure. I hesitate to say more, obviously there’s a lot to discuss, and the length of this episode is testament to that. We’re going to be talking about our experiences with most of the major bosses, the design of the world and its visuals, and we give you a great deal on a robe that may or may not contain untold eldritch horrors within.

Thank you for listening this week, and an extra special thanks if you actually listened to the whole thing. This was a DLC that we, and a lot of people, were looking forward to and we wanted to put it on the list as soon as possible after release. Did you have a good time with this one? Did you find the difficulty to be off-putting? Let’s talk about it in the comments or over in our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s expansion Future Redeemed, so hopefully you’ll stop by for that one.

NOCLIP Pocket E99 - A Juicy Double Chip - Splatoon 3: Side Order

You want me to do some podcasting?

Welcome back! Today, for episode 99 of pocket and for our first episode in our DLC theme, we’re going to be talking about the Rogue-lite addition to Splatoon 3, Side Order. Adding roguelike gameplay to Splatoon’s third person shooter mechanics works pretty well, giving you bonuses upon choosing rooms that are mostly similar to the gear abilities you’d get in game but with a higher potency and having a permanent upgrade system in the form of Marina’s hacks, but is let down slightly by the difficulty. Taking on average only a few runs to complete, the game gets into the territory of grinding out wins kind of early in its runtime. Not to say that just playing the game isn’t still fun, it just lacks the bite that make the genre as compelling as it is. The other aspects of the genre like feeling like an unstoppable monster at the end of a run are still there though, though the game notably lacks complicated build synergies, though that isn’t a hallmark of every roguelike. As for everything else, you can see the care that was put into the visual design like all Splatoon games. An effort was made to make everything still seem cool and presenting a wide amount of visual variety despite the game’s washed out themes. The narrative is pushed very slightly forward, with a focus on the development of Pearl and Marina’s characters, which is welcome but not groundbreaking by any means. We’re going to be talking about builds and progression, the incorporation of characters into the mechanics to help strengthen your bond, and this and other Nintendo games’ DLC and expansion releases and why they’re so weird sometimes.

Thank you for joining us this week! It’s always fun to revisit Splatoon every now and again, and especially with how strong the DLC was for the last game, this was one I was excited to try. If you’re a roguelike fan, I’m mostly sorry this is gated behind a fully different game so you aren’t able to just try this on its own. Let us know your thoughts on this one over in the Discord or in the comment section! We’re hitting a big milestone next time as it will be the 100th episode of Pocket, so we hope you’ll join us for that. We’re pausing the DLC theme to celebrate and talking about Super Mario Land to refer back to our first episode on its sequel, so it’s going to be a special one!

Episode 169 - Myst Boys and Myst Men - Obduction

Karffin’ Mofang podcast.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, as the last episode of Mystery May this year, we’re going to be talking about Obduction. This is a game in the style of Myst by Cyan, the developers of Myst, and boy did they ace the assignment. Obduction is more accessible than the originals, yes, but it does get into that same headspace more and more as it goes on. So the game has complicated puzzles (and some less complicated ones), but while the design mechanically hasn’t evolved too significantly since the 90s, visually, they have been able to create a world that looks very good and shows the imaginative otherworldliness these games are known for while using what are completely different techniques than what were used to create the visual elements of Myst or Riven. The visuals alone would probably have been enough reason to play the game at the time it came out, but it’s still a cool experience now to see some of the environments created for the game and to explore them, very slowly, as you scour for clues. We’re going to be talking about the pace of the game, the challenges presented both in and out of game, and we give some unsolicited advice on filmmaking, despite not being filmmakers ourselves.

Thank you for joining us this week! This game did a surprisingly good job at letting us fulfill our “be people who can make any kind of progress in Myst games” fantasy, but still asked a bit too much of us to complete within the time we had. Are you a fiend for this style of adventure game, or did you pass this one by? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! The last few episodes have tested one of our weaker traits, being at all smart, but next week we are going to try and rally and prove we’re good at something difficult, because we’re playing Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC (as part of a theme with other DLCs)! We hope you’ll join us for that.

NOCLIP Pocket E98 - Pay the Fun Tax - Ecco the Dolphin

Podcast to the shelled ones.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re talking about Ecco the Dolphin, a side scrolling adventure game and a real classic of the Genesis era. Ecco is a weird game in a lot of ways, the most obvious of which is the fact that it’s a game in which you play as a dolphin and all the surprisingly fluid movement that comes with that. Moving around in this game is surprisingly cool for the time, with the ability to swim very quickly around the map and jump out of water. This theme also serves well for other mechanics, including a breath mechanic to add some time pressure to levels and sonar which creates maps on the fly, both of which are really unique and play into the unique aspects of the game. The other reason the game is weird is that, without spoiling it, it does go to places you might not expect from a game about a dolphin. The fact that there is a narrative twist and a bunch of these cool and flavorful mechanics almost makes up for the fact that this game is an extremely unintuitive maze game. Maybe one of the best examples of a game that is fun to play but not fun to beat, completing levels in Ecco requires you to dodge randomly placed phasing-through-walls enemies while moving at high speed and trying to find nooks and/or crannies that contain crystals, which are just keycards. So it’s a bit hit and miss but it is one of those retro games that is definitely worth at least looking into if you’re interested in some of the bigger swings. We’re going to be talking about how and why the difficulty of the game is what it is, how unexpected the twist was, and we fit in a mention of Blackfish because why not.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Ecco got put on the list almost as a joke, but we’re glad to have actually played it. Such is the whim of the dice. Were you aware of what this game actually was? Did you play this when it was a new game? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! This is our last randomly selected game for Pocket, so we’re moving on to our next theme, a thing no one cares about but we have no shortage of anyway. Next time, we’re starting a series of episodes dedicated to DLC and expansions and we’re beginning with Splatoon 3’s Side Order, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Episode 168 - Should the Chip Face North? - Infinifactory

There is surprisingly little use for the podcast block.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, the dice have ordained we talk about Infinifactory. This is a game that has been on our list for many years at this point and the main reason we ended up putting it on the (now comical misnomer) Mystery May table was mostly out of fear. Fear of exposing our deep inability to play puzzle games with any kind of ability. Infinifactory is a game by Zachtronics, who are known for creating this sort of puzzle game in which you create machines to accomplish a task. This happens to be one of their most literal. Tasked with creating factories that create specific outputs from a never ending conveyor of inputs in the form of blocks. Using a litany of different tools including welders, rotators and pushers, you orient blocks and combine them together. This ramps up in complexity shockingly quickly and it’s both impressive and intimidating, as the objects you create become less abstract and more like actual things. This plays into the game’s thematic elements as you are creating these products for an alien race under duress. This plays into the visual and interstitial elements of the game, but also into a surprising narrative. Less surprising because of its content, more due to its existence at all. We’re going to be talking about our struggles with the game as it progressed, the relaxed atmosphere of the game, and how difficult it sometimes is to buy burritos.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We may have been slightly out of our depth in the second half of this game, but we wanted to play it because it is, at first glance, the most approachable of Zachtronics’ games. And this largely bore out. Are you a long-time Zachtronics fan, or do you find these games kind of unapproachable? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we do not get to rest our brains, as we are playing Obduction, from the creators of Myst and following very much in its footsteps, so if you aren’t as mentally exhausted as we are, we hope you’ll join us for that.

NOCLIP Pocket E97 - Future Retroism - Quadrilateral Cowboy

Podcast.Mystery(1); wait(31)

Welcome back to the podcast, and to, shamefully, our first episode of Mystery May! Quadrilateral Cowboy is a part heist, part desktop simulation game in which you use a portable “deck” to hack into security systems and use gadgets to get into locations in a cyberpunk dystopia. And the thing that really sets this game apart from most other games in this genre is that you actually have to do all the hacking yourself. It’s not quite complicated on the level of something like Hacker Evolution, but the act of creating code yourself and then needing to execute actions in sync with it creates a really creatively expressive environment in which to solve puzzles. The game may add a few more things than were strictly necessary to be a satisfying collection of systems, but each of them is fun to play around with and get a hang of. On top of the strictly mechanical elements of the game, the game builds its world, one of skyscrapers and autoturrets, bombastically while setting up its characters in an exceedingly subtle way. The minimalist art style and lack of any dialogue betray how well the narrative elements are communicated by way of environments, character behaviors and gameplay setup. This is one of those games that, while definitely not being for everyone, shows how games can be used to communicate weirder concepts in ways few other mediums can. We’re going to be talking about how the crunchy mechanics are used to design novel puzzle concepts, issues we had both technical and skill, and we set you up with a DC 17 vibe check.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We know it’s been a long time coming on Mystery May, so much so that it is now June (“Mystery Summer Theater” as Andy has taken to calling it), but appropriately, this game has been on our list to play for seven years so it’s been a long time coming as well. Are you a fan of really finnicky mechanic sets like this, or did you look once at this game and say “maybe I’ll play the next one”? Let us know in the comments section or over on our Discord! Next time, Mystery May gives us one of the most “thing that’s not like the others” games on the list with Ecco the Dolphin, so we hope you’ll join us then, or the suffering will almost definitely not have been worth it.

Episode 167 - Narrative Nancy - Pentiment

Pod bless you, Andreas.

Welcome back to the podcast and somehow, despite it being the middle of the month, not our first game of Mystery May! Today, we’re going to be talking about Pentiment, an adventure game in which you play as an artist as he is thrust into the middle of murder mysteries, however unlikely that might be. In each act you collect evidence and talk to the people of the town to gather information and do so in a way that changes the narrative of the game and the other options available to you. One of the most impressive elements is just this, the number of different paths available to you and the often very minor things that can affect a playthrough and flesh out your version of Andreas, as well as the world in which he lives. Given the historical setting of the game, this world building is a major part communicating the themes and helps ease the player in the politics and other messages the game is trying to engage with. And it is really successful at this. You may not learn anything specifically new about the era in which the game takes place, but you will come out with thoughts about the peasants’ complaints against their governance, the relationship between a religious institution and the power of the state, and other pretty heady topics the game broaches surprisingly seamlessly. We’re going to be talking about how the game’s art style attempts to mimic the art that was created during that time period, the game’s surprisingly solid writing and also the length of time we can listen to chickens before we just give up and turn the sound off.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’ll be slowly rolling through our next few episodes due to things happening in our lives outside of the podcast, but we will be moving through four Mystery May games before anything else, and the first of those is coming next week on Pocket. Next main episode, however, will be on Infinifactory, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

NOCLIP Pocket E96 - Dice on the Desk - Pseudoregalia

I can’t just hide here forever and podcast.

Welcome back to the podcast where this week we’re going to be talking about Pseudoregalia! This is a metroidvania platformer that was originally developed as part of a game jam. The game is set in a castle and tasks you with navigating around to discover new abilities and, eventually, keys to end the game. The method by which you do this is some absolutely badass movement tech. I think it’s safe to say that for the majority of people, this movement is the major selling point of the game. You are very fluid, being able to chain different moves together to cover huge distances and scale walls, turning most rooms into something of a puzzle, but one with many interesting solutions. You can string together wall jumps and slides and kicks and et cetera in a number of different ways to traverse the world and it is pretty much always engaging to do. There are certainly ways in which the game doesn’t excel, but it is nonetheless a really fun way to spend a few hours, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to master these kinds of mechanics. We’re going to be talking about the necessity of the map, an addition in an update, to navigate without going completely insane, the game’s interest curve as you progress toward the end, and we codify the misty castle aesthetic.

Thank you for joining us again today as we close out our time doing soulslike games with the least soulslike of all. Still a fun time and one that did become strangely popular. How did you hear about this game, if you had at all? Let us know in the comments below or over in our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Pentament in our constant struggle to make every non-themed game as different as possible from the one we played before. We hope you’ll be back for that!

Episode 166 - Doctor, I Am Pagliacci - Lies of P

Grand Covenant’s Fourth Law: A podcast cannot lie.

Welcome back to the podcast! Lies of P is definitely a game that turned some heads when it was announced, given that it’s based around Pinnochio. Set in a city overrun by automatons, stylized as puppets, who have broken their safeguards and begun attacking people, Lies of P takes its themes and ideas from Pinnochio, along with some of its characters, but not necessarily its plot. In fact, the way it manages to weave this inspiration into the rest of the game is probably its most impressive narrative feat. This is particularly notable that the thing it’s weaving these elements into is just a Dark Souls game. More so than any other game we’ve played, on- or off-air, this really feels like a FROM designed Souls game, or at least very close to it. The combat takes heavy cues from Sekiro and Bloodborne with the healing mechanics and stats from Dark Souls, you can tell the developers have been taking notes. And this can be both good and bad, because the game feels familiar and also very good to play most of the time, but it does also call attention to elements from the games (upgrade materials, consumable items, a prosthetic) that feel more or less necessary for this game specifically. It’s a strange experience to some extent, but still a very good one if this style of game is something you already enjoyed. Is this game derivative? A little, for sure, but there is still some novelty to be found, particularly in its aesthetics. This and the combat mechanics that combine the weapon variety of Dark Souls (as well as a unique weapon recombination mechanic) with the satisfying defensive options of Sekiro, mean that as much as this makes you think about where its inspirations came from, as weird as the theme of the game is on its face, and as difficult as the game can be at times, it’s still a very good time. We’re going to be talking about the integration of the source material into the mechanical identity of the game, how auxiliary mechanics complicate the game both for good and for bad, and how they really should have just called the game Pinnochio.

Thank you for listening this week! As you can probably tell, we’ve been doing a bit of a Soulslike run recently, which we’ll be finishing up on pocket next time, but I think it’s shown just how diverse this subgenre can be. Lies of P stands out less for its own identity but more for its devotion to the identity of the games that inspired it, and it’s a complicated topic to discuss. Do you think this impressive adherence to FROM’s catalog will be a positive change for these types of games going forward, normalizing the base gameplay and allowing for more diversity in how those mechanics are utilized and twisted to fit the game at hand, or do you think this is just one direction for the genre to go, with the other elements taking center stage as in games like Lunacid? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be sprinting as far as we possibly can in the other direction and talking about Pentiment, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Episode 165 - Sex Henderson and the Boys - Lunacid

Banished into the depths of the Great Podcast.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Lunacid, a game that is in its own words, inspired by old FROMSOFTWARE titles like King’s Field and Shadow Tower. And while you can definitely feel the influence, the game does enough to stand out on its own that it’s definitely worth playing. You play as someone cast into the Great Well, essentially an enormous dungeon, with escape being your only goal. This goal is pretty emblematic of the game, as well, as it is extremely vague and leaves the player mostly just exploring each area in hopes of finding clues to help them progress. This is a massive strength in that it preserves the mystery inherent to a lot of FROM’s catalogue while forcing the game’s exploration elements to the forefront, which the design is obviously very focused around. It also results in the game being a bit aimless, which depending on who you are can be a little frustrating, but with enough meaningful rewards to find to keep you playing. Weapons and spells are extremely plentiful, offering a lot of ways to interact with both combat and the world itself, with some specific interactions like unlocking paths as well as more player-driven things like being able to skip some obstacles and reach strange locations. Lunacid is nostalgic, thanks to its aesthetic design, but it is also a captivating world to explore that folds in more recent design trends to make something more transcendent than just a copy of its inspirations. We’re going to be talking about the games by which Lunacid’s design is influenced, the presentational choices from character designs to the music’s genre and style, and we discuss whether we were or were not in “the know.”

Thank you for joining us again this week! This was a game I knew I wanted to do pretty much as soon as I’d heard about it, so while we aren’t exactly day and date with its release, it was one we scheduled as soon as possible. Did you play this game in early access or since it’s been out in full? Did you find it to be more or less similar to Dark Souls? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Discord! We’re sort of continuing on a trend for the next episode and we’re going to be talking about Lies of P, the Soulslike that features Pinocchio for some reason, so we hope you’ll join us for that!