Episode 186 - Where Sailors Hang Out - Shenmue

You like the podcast that much? Let me invite you to hell.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re doing another community requested episode (calling it Fanbruary at this point seems a bit silly) on Shenmue. An absolute classic action/adventure game that happened to be a blind spot for both of us. Shenmue centers on Ryo Hazuki, whose father is killed in the opening cutscene in a pretty rad martial arts fight. This sets up the events for you to uncover the reason behind the murder, which you do by talking to characters, learning schedules, driving forklifts and doing a little bit of fighting yourself. The variety of activities to do in this game are what made it so unique at the time and the fact that all of your verbs aren’t based solely in combat still makes it stand out against most triple A titles released even now. That being said, it’s an older game and the number of different control schemes and things to do may feel a bit unintuitive and clunky to you now. What hasn’t aged as badly, surprisingly, are the visuals, which contain a lot more detail than you would expect from the early days of the 3D games. From character models to buildings to interior spaces, the level of fidelity on display is really impressive for the time, even if it did mean the game had to be spread out across three discs on release. Overall this game is a piece of history for good reason, even if the experience isn’t as groundbreaking if you’ve been keeping up with modern games. We’re going to be talking about the more positive aspects of schlocky elements of the game’s story and dialogue, the good and bad ways in which the game’s time-based mechanics impact the play experience, and we lament the necessity in our society to just go get a job sometimes.

Thank you for listening to the podcast this week! Shenmue is a game that really works best if you are able to dedicate the time to immerse yourself in it, and as a result this episode is coming a bit late and also we maybe didn’t get the premier experience it could offer. That being said, there is a lot to like here and even more to respect for the period this game came out, so all in all I think it was worth it. Are you a diehard Shenmue fan? What did you think of our speculation on further games in the series? Let us know over on the Discord or in the comments! Next time, we’re wrapping up our suggested games for the year with Wanted: Dead, which should be a significant departure from everything else we’ve played this year, so much like Shenmue fans, I hope you’re in it for the variety, and that you join us then!

Episode 185 - Roast Beef, Some Chicken, A Pizza - Castlevania 64

This is not the anger of a vampire killer. This is the podcast of all humanity!

Welcome back to Fanbruary! Today, we’re going to be talking about Castlevania 64, an oft maligned entry in the Castlevania series and the first to be in 3D. In classic Castlevania fashion, your goal is to infiltrate a castle and kill Dracula to restore peace to the world, so it doesn’t have a ton of innovation in that respect, but porting that formula to 3D means reworking the design of the platforming and combat, which it does surprisingly well…at times. Being on the N64, this game definitely has some amount of jank, but outside of some specifically problematic areas and letting the sometimes uncooperative camera slide, it feels better than you might imagine. Combat is very punchy, at least playing as Reinhardt, with his whip feeling satisfying to use and enemy effects like parts of skeletons falling off or heavy flinch animations giving meaningful feedback. The platforming is more hit and miss, but it’s serviceable enough that much of the early and midgame challenges feel fair and fun to get through. It hits some weird difficulty levels at points where the systems just aren’t prepared to keep up with the design, and it seems like a symptom of early 3D growing pains mixed with a team unsure how to work within the new limitations. Throw in the fact that the game hits that Castlevania cheesiness in its atmosphere and writing and the resulting game is much better than you may have been led to believe, which is to say, worth checking out, even if it isn’t the most exemplary entry in the series. We’re going to be talking about the importance of a game’s first level, the differences between playing this at the time and in the present, and we wonder if this game’s protagonist might also be a form of transportation.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’ve still got more Fanbruary coming up even though it’s technically March now, so stay tuned. This was significantly more competent than we expected given its reputation, and overall had a pretty good time with it. Are you a big fan of the series and have opinions on this entry? Did you play this (or it’s weird expanded version) on the N64 or is this the first you’ve really considered it? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Shenmue, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

Episode 184 - Bring Me the Cellos - Darkest Dungeon

In time, you will know the tragic extent of my podcast,

Welcome to Fanbruary! For our first listener suggested title this year, we’re talking about Darkest Dungeon, an RPG with Lovecraftian themes and light roguelike elements. Darkest Dungeon is known to be a difficult game, and it sticks to this design ethos with a commendable level of commitment. Depending on who you are, maybe too much commitment. With a large number of random factors affecting everything from what characters you get offered, the results of looting and in-combat effects, playing through the game’s dungeons feels like a Rube Goldberg machine of quirks, diseases, attacks and more triggering in a sequence that is almost always bad for you. This makes the climb for upgrades and ever-higher-leveled characters slow, but (I imagine) rewarding for dedicated players. And if you’re looking to become one of those dedicated players, don’t despair, or do despair, I guess, because the game’s non-gameplay elements do a great job of selling an atmosphere of hopelessness and fear, underscored by a charismatic and slightly shmaltzy narrator. This game has a lot going for it, but your enjoyment is ultimately going to be decided by your level of patience and how much you like turn based combat. We talk about the game’s difficulty and what parts of it we felt we could adequately prepare for, our biggest tribulations, and we discuss how part of the game could have been better if it was more like a pretzel.

Thank you for joining us again this week, and thank you for all your submissions for Fanbruary! I’m sure this is starting to sound like a thing I just say every episode, but as usual, we are running a bit behind this month, but we will get four episodes out for Fanbruary that just might bleed a bit into March. This game tried and successfully defeated us, unfortunately, but I’d be curious to hear from more long-term players if they’ve found consistent strategies or what high level play actually looks like, given that I only exhibited low level play. Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Castlevania 64, another game with a bit of a dismal atmosphere, but perhaps lightened by the jank of early 3D games, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Episode 183 - Drive-By Nap - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

So this is the podcast energy. I’m overflowing with power!

Welcome back to the podcast and to the first full episode this year! We’re back from our now-traditional January break and talking about The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. This is the first full game in the series where you play as Zelda herself since the CD-i, which really did need to happen so we could finally stop pointing to The Wand of Gamelon as a standout of anything. This means that while the game hits a lot of the usual Zelda game beats, you interact with the world in a slightly different way. Link’s tools are still available to you in the form of sword, bombs, arrows, but it is tied to a resource meter so you can’t play the whole game in that way. Instead, you have the ability to spawn objects and enemies for a more open-ended approach to combat and puzzle solving. This is objectively cool, allowing you to use clever use of resources to bypass obstacles and come up with clever solutions and makes combat feel differently to other games in the series. However, this does also impact design in a major way with puzzles needing to be more open-ended and generic in order for you to have multiple ways of solving them, and it can get a little samey. How the game strikes the balance between novel, emergent gameplay and satisfying puzzle design is largely going to come down to taste, but it’s at least an interesting thing to have tackled by Nintendo. We’re going to be talking about the similarities between this and other Zelda games (and whether there are too many of them), how the more freeform design impacts dungeons, which are the meat and potatoes of the gameplay, and we test out a few new game design mantras about substituting Bigfoot in for content you couldn’t finish.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re back and extremely ready to tackle Fanbruary in the coming weeks, with this game being one of those that came out last year that we just sort of missed. We have taken the longest hiatus from talking about Zelda games we ever have, which is maybe too much of a dedication to the series because it’s only been a bit over a year, but it’s always interesting to see what this particular pillar of the industry is trying to do. Do you agree this game feels like it might be more of a cult hit? Did you find it too similar to other Zelda games and wish they had done more to change it up? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we begin Fanbruary by talking about Darkest Dungeon, the turn based RPG roguelike, but don’t worry if you haven’t gotten a submission in and would like to. We still have a couple slots undecided, so let us know what you’d like to see us play!

The NOCLIP Awards 2024 - Public Intellectuals

The Smashiest balls were the friends we made along the way.

The NOCLIP Awards are back again this year with all their usual prestige. I know you are all waiting with baited breath to see what games are getting the nod, while knowing full well that the games that released this year are of no object when you compare them to the games that we chose to play this year, which are the real contenders. When it is finally realized that we should be the true arbiters of taste, these awards will defeat all others in the public consciousness and weird new Elden Ring games will be announced on our podcast. This is the world I truly want to live in.

One thing you will learn after listening this year though, is that this was quite a varied year. Which admittedly, we do try to do, but it comes out in the variety of games represented. It’s a thing that always makes me feel good looking back through all the episodes we did and seeing the different experiences we had this year and both how the medium is changing as well as the wealth of games from the past that are still unique and worth revisiting. I hope we’ve influenced you to check out something out of your usual comfort zone, and that this show can make you reflect on the experiences that you had.

Thank you, as always for joining us for another year of NOCLIP and our dumb awards thing. We’re taking a short break, but will be back mid-to-late January with an episode on The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. And please don’t forget to get submissions in, through whatever channel you want (Discord, comments, email, twitter, whatever), for Fanbruary!

Episode 182 - Starring Adam Sandler - Slay the Princess

I need to see how handsome I am.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Slay the Princess, a narrative focused “collect the endings” game that has a truly impressive amount of writing to account for all of a player’s possible choices. The numerous endings, scenes and dialogue choices within those scenes, all voice acted by two people no less, are the player’s primary motivation to try new things and follow new paths. Fortunately for the game, though, the quality of that writing is also surprisingly good. The tone runs the gamut between horror, comedy and romance, in part reactive to the player’s decisions but also in service of a greater narrative, that is largely up to the player to interpret. The fact that the game ends coherently at all, let alone with the possibility of something with real emotional resonance is a testament to just how well put together the game is. We’re going to be talking about the special something the game’s visuals possess that gives it a familiar, appealing quality, the way your initial experience will shape the way you progress through the game, and we misinterpret the game as getting a little…steamy.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We wanted something short and simple to end the year, and while this kind of filled that role, I don’t think we were prepared for the surprising amount of depth on display here. We’re also surprised the game came out as long ago as it did. Did you play it back then? How literally did you interpret the title? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re coming back with The NOCLIP Awards, so we hope you’ll break out the champaign for us next time, and don’t forget to get your suggestions in for Fanbruary!

Episode 181 - It's Jar Jarring - Star Wars Episode 1 Racer

Do goola podcast sa bantha poodoo.

Welcome back to the podcast! As we near the end of the year, we like to look back on a game or two that are more nostalgic for us, and Racer somehow got overlooked until now. Racer is maybe the first of our nostalgia picks that really holds up, at least in our opinion. This is a very straightforward video game, all the things considered, but the focus makes for a surprisingly solid racing experience. True to the movie, podracing in the game is extremely fast and almost 100% guaranteed to end with a lethal explosion. The tracks lose a bit of their focus as the game goes on, but the core mechanics are skill testing in an enjoyable way and the game is short enough that you can get to the point where you’re playing it to improve very quickly. It’s very mechanics first, but it being Lucasarts, due is paid to making sure that the world, characters and sound design fits with the movies. The presentation suffers in some ways, but the worlds of the game are well realized for the time and also Watto is there, which is great. We’re going to talk about the feeling of playing the game for the first time and once you get used to it, the mechanics we did and did not remember using as children, and we spend a decent amount of time just complaining about the prequel trilogy.

Thank you for joining us again this week! This is a great palette cleansing game after what has a been a heady year and one that I was really surprised by. I’ve come to expect the games we liked as kids to pretty much always be worse than you remembered, so for this to hold up as well as it does was pleasant, at worst. If you haven’t played this game in a while, or god forbid, not at all, it’s surprisingly accessible with a recent remaster and the original PC version on Steam, so maybe give it a look. Post your fond recollections of the N64 in the comments or over on our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Slay the Princess, so we hope you’ll join us for that.

Episode 180 - Your Murderous Urges - Loretta

I won’t reach the truth with podcasts. They can’t give it shape.

Welcome back to the podcast, and as we finally finish the theme (and catch up on episodes in general after a hectic October) of Games Titled After Women’s Names That Begin With “L.” Loretta is an adventure game in the technical sense; it leans heavily on narrative and player choice, with your actions dictating the events of your playthrough. Most of these choices revolve around how many people you do or do not murder. The story revolves around Loretta, the player character, having killed her husband and the fallout of that action. Whether that is justified or even a positive action is determined by your choices going forward, and Loretta has a personality that stays pretty consistent throughout. The game does feature a few gameplay elements outside of this, but they are honestly barely worth mentioning in a format like this. You’re playing this game for its narrative and everything else is just around for the sake of variety. We’re going to be talking about the fact the game needs to put you effectively in the shoes of a killer before being able to explore its narrative branches, the unusualness of the setting adding to the uncanny atmosphere and being a point of interest in and of itself, and murder. We say “murder” more on this episode than we ever have and probably ever will.

Thank you for joining us! Loretta falls pretty comfortably in the realm of those games we specifically like, so we were fortunate it fell into this narrow theme and one that we’re glad we could end it on. Was this game on your radar or was this the first time you’re hearing about it? Did you choose to murder every person you saw in the game? Let us know in the comments or in our Discord server! We’ve pretty much caught up with our outstanding episodes at this point and will be hopefully bringing in some more variety in the upcoming months (though Fanbruary is on you guys). Next time, we’re going to be talking about Star Wars Episode I: Racer, following the vague tradition we have of playing more nostalgic games around the holidays, so we hope you’ll join us then, which you probably will if we’ve narrowcasted enough to pretty much only appeal to people our own age.

Episode 179 - A Rusty Crux - Amnesia: The Bunker

I’m on the podcast tonight? C’est la vie.

Welcome back to the podcast! We’re finally finishing our Halloween games this week with Amnesia: The Bunker. This is the fourth game in the Amnesia series and introduce some light combat elements as well as reframes the series’ physics system to create an immersive sim type experience with several options to overcome obstacles. And of course, it’s still an Amnesia game, so you’ll be evading an ever present monster who wants to maul you. Set in World War I, the game makes good use of its setting with the intermittent sounds of combat keeping you on your toes and the crank flashlight and crude tools playing with the game’s sound mechanics to ensure you never feel fully safe. The game also has a weird relationship with its own mechanics sometimes. With a single save room and the high lethality of the monster, you’ll find yourself back in administration from time to time with more resources than you died with and new information of where and where not to go. This can sometimes encourage dying to reset and save precious generator fuel and to reroute, giving the game a bit of a fragmented feeling. However, if you don’t mind these things or just do a good job of surviving, it has enough interesting things to be worth giving a go. We’re going to be talking about the relative difficulty (and difficulty settings), how the options you have vary and where we think it could have been a bit more varied, and we connect the game to the first game in only ways that are wrong.

Thank you for joining us again this week! I realize this has been a long October, but we did want to get through the games we set aside for the spooky time of year. And we ended strong as far as the actual fear went. Would have been nice to actually have landed on Halloween, but here we are. Did you struggle with this game at all? Did you find a use for the flare? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re finishing yet another theme by playing Loretta, a final game named after a woman that begins with the letter L, so we hope you’ll join us then!

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.