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!

NOCLIP Pocket E95 - Become a Slammurai - Mario Hoops 3 on 3

Hold down and swipe up to podcast.

Welcome back to the podcast! For our last episode in Fanbruary, well into March at this point, we’re going to be talking about Mario Hoops 3 on 3. MHTOT (lol) is a bit of an anomaly in the Mario sports game pantheon, as it is a DS game that makes heavy use of the touch screen in its control scheme. This seemed like a pretty innocuous suggestion when we got it, but playing this game is a whole experience. It is without a doubt the most complicated basketball game I’ve ever played, and it is really interesting, but I’m not sure where this would even fall on the good game-bad game scale. The overall content is pretty limited, but that is partly made up for by just how difficult it is to get a handle on the controls. There isn’t too much preamble for this one, honestly, it’s just mad swiping on a DS for a few hours. We’re going to be talking about the insane control scheme, the insanely lengthy tutorial, and how this game is exactly like The World Ends With You.

Thank you for joining us again this week! This episode was requested multiple times and honestly I’m so glad we finally got to it. It’s such a bizarre time capsule for when new hardware brought innovations, some of which were good and others which were Mario Hoops 3 on 3. Was this a game you had heard about, or enjoyed when it came out? Did you actually play it with other people, and if so how was that experience? Let us know in the Discord or down in the comment section. Next time, we’re going to be playing Pseudoregalia as part of our souls-like themed month we’re trying to do, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Episode 164 - Vietnam Pro Skater - Valheim

You could pod another cast.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for our second bite at the Fanbruary apple on the main cast, we’re going to be talking about Valheim. Valheim is a survival game that largely captured the audience for this type of game when it released in early access with it’s Norse theming, boss laddering and robust base building mechanics. Since those halcyon days, the updates to the game have slowed down a bit and the player base has dwindled some, but it still remains one of the most popular survival games. Now, we are not the most avid survival game players. You might say that we all but never play these games. But, we gave this the old college try despite being very unfamiliar with the conventions of the genre, and for the most part managed to get by. Valheim is a game about very slow resource accretion with helpfully well defined goals, those being to build a shelter, improve your equipment, find a way to navigate to each boss, and defeat them for powerups, and then proceed down the line. It is compelling to have an extrinsic goal in a game like this, but there are also myriad decisions that place it squarely within its genre and make it lack some appeal outside that audience. We’re going to be talking about chopping down trees, mining copper, and chopping down trees.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Following our stated objective of playing games we wouldn’t normally during Fanbruary, this is squarely outside of our usual comfort zone. That said, the game has its merits and I hope we were able to identify them successfully. And if not? Why, you can let us know down in the comments or over on the discord, from whence this suggestion came! Next time, we’re taking a look at Lunacid, a King’s Field inspired title, so we hope you’ll join us then!

NOCLIP Pocket E94 - I Don't Mean the KY - Wet

We are not enemies, but we are a podcast.

Welcome back to Fanbruary! For our second game of the month (don’t look at the calendar, please), we’re going to be talking about Wet, a third person shooter that iterates on the mechanical innovations of games like Prince of Persia and Max Payne, and takes its title both from a shortened version of the term “wetwork” and also people who are bad at naming things. Wet is honestly a fascinating game just in the sheer difference between its relative obscurity compared to other games from the era and the amount of effort that was clearly put into it. The mechanics are fleshed out, if not always polished, the visuals hold up pretty well for its period, the soundtrack features over a dozen guest artists and that’s not to mention the insane voice cast (and I mean that literally, we entirely forget to mention it in the episode). And yet, if you’re like anyone I’ve talked to about the game, you’ve probably never heard of it. While we may not know exactly what caused this game to fall into obscurity, we can look at it now and see what it brings to the table. We’re going to be talking about the game’s exploitation film theming and aesthetic, how the mechanics come so close to realizing their potential, and the impossibility of asking your parents for a game called Wet.

Thank you for listening to NOCLIP Pocket! We are slowly getting our wheels spinning again after taking most of January off, but Fanbruary is underway with five whole days left in the month! We like to do games we would most likely not do outside of the fan-suggested month, and while Wet fell more into the “we would have never thought about it” category more than the “we would never play that” one, we still wanted to give it a chance because of cool it looked. Was Wet a game you had played, or even heard about? Let us know down in the comments or over on Discord! We’ll be back next time to talk about Mario Hoops 3-on-3, so we hope you’ll join us then.

Episode 163 - I'll Stop Killing Humans - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

You did not survive the podcast, Raziel.

Welcome to Fanbruary! As we have for the last three years, this month we’re going to be looking at games suggested by members of our community and we’re starting today with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver! This is an action/adventure Metroidvania title from 1999 and, especially considering the era in which this released, it has a lot going on. The game has full voice acting for all characters, a not insignificant world to explore and a large amount of side content for the player to stumble onto. Over the course of the game you will pick up a few traversal abilities, health and mana upgrades, spells, and an upgrade to your weapon by exploring the world. That said, this game shows its age pretty significantly and has a number of features and design decisions that maybe don’t hold up so well playing them in a modern context. Whether that be controls, enemy design or the mechanics of puzzles and combat, there is always something off about most systems that really put a hinderance on your enjoyment of the game. What are these? Well, tune in to hear us discuss the exploration-focused world that the game presents, the different things the game tries in the Metroidvania genre, and to hear us say what every 90s kid would about water levels and swimming.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We got a lot of great suggestions from you all for this month and it has been genuinely hard to narrow down which games best meet our criteria for great Fanbruary titles, and Soul Reaver felt like a good pick to start us off because it’s fairly well-known, but not one we would likely go back to had it not been suggested. After playing it, it’s fair to say that we understand why the series has the reputation it does, though it’s also a pretty powerful reminder of the effect nostalgia can have on our perception of something. Were we too harsh on the game? Are you a long time fan who is upset we only played this game and skipped Blood Omen? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Valheim, which will be our first episode on a survival game, so we hope you’ll join us then!

Episode 162 - Tingly Brain Feelings - Cocoon

A podcast inside a podcast inside a podcast…

Welcome back to the podcast! For our January episode, which we kind of did so you didn’t forget we exist before Fanbruary begins, we’re going to be talking about Cocoon. Cocoon is a puzzle game developed by Geometric Interactive, a studio formed by members of the developer Playdead, and while this game is something else entirely than Limbo or Inside, the style they bring is definitely present. Cocoon is not a horror game, yet it creates a sense of eerie foreboding all while being saturated with color and without the threat of death to the player hanging over their head. It’s an intriguing world to exist in, and that’s not even getting into the actual puzzle mechanics. These involve ducking in and out of different playable areas which you can physically carry with you and eventually imbue you with additional abilities. It’s almost hard to explain in a way that impresses upon you what makes it interesting, but it’s a great set of mechanics to center the puzzles on, which get progressively more complicated in the ways you might expect and in some ways that you definitely won’t. It’s a very satisfying, but not overly difficult experience and one that is well worth giving a shot. We’re going to be talking about the puzzles that really had an effect on us and the way we see the game, how the sound and visuals work together to create an incredible atmosphere, and we use the word Kafkaesque in what seems like a safe scenario but probably still use it wrong.

Thank you for joining us! Cocoon was a game that we were both excited for given its pedigree and one that feels thematically appropriate as the first of a new year. What was your experience with Cocoon? Did you find the puzzles as satisfying as we did? Were you able to create a more satisfying interpretation of the themes? Let us know in the comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re heading into Fanbruary, the month where you the listener chooses what games we play. We’ve gotten some great suggestions so far, but it’s still open for the next couple weeks if you want to give us any further games to consider. Our first full episode is going to be on The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

The NOCLIP Awards 2023 - Like, Comment and Scribe

The awards show least likely to be compared to Dark Souls

What a year it has been! We played some comical old PC games, overrepresented horror, had some unnecessary and frankly inscrutable themed months and most of the good games we played came as suggestions from you guys. Okay, so maybe it was exactly the same as every other year, but it’s all about the content variety, really. This year had a good amount of that, at least. And of course, as has been said for untold past millennia, variety in games played means excellent choices for the NOCLIP Awards. Today, we’re bringing back some old favorites as well as new categories. From Best Soundtrack and Smashiest Balls to Coolest Ancient Artefact and the Another Man’s Treasure award (in which we find the most worthless collectibles), we’re recapping the truly standout moments of the year and reflecting upon the games we played and talked about. We hope you can use this opportunity to join us in celebration, or at least get drunk and yell at our bad decisions.

Thank you for listening this week, and for your continued support over the last year! Contrary to the joke in the beginning of this description, things have changed a decent amount for us. We crossed 100 YouTube subscribers this year, which is funny, but still a milestone. The podcast is also being recorded mostly fully remote at this point, which was a learning curve (that we’re still climbing, so thank you for bearing with us). All that in addition to the usual time spent and decision making we do to try to make the show as entertaining as possible means that we put forth some effort to make this thing. That said, we as always had a great amount of fun even with the worst games we played, and continue to love doing it. Thank you to everyone who listens and we hope we continue to be, at minimum, satisfactory in 2024.