Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / A Tale of Three Games

Transcript

A Tale of Three Games · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Smantha and welcome to stuff
0:07
Speaker 1: I never told you production of My Heart Radio.
0:18
Speaker 2: And welcome to well this kind of fun episode. I
0:22
Speaker 2: want to say, kind of fun. We've been planning on
0:24
Speaker 2: doing another gaming episode for a minute now and I'm like,
0:28
Speaker 2: you know what, let's do this. So here we are.
0:31
Speaker 2: I am going to put a date on this because
0:32
Speaker 2: we do have so many of these episodes, and I'm
0:35
Speaker 2: sure we're going to continue to talk about it because
0:36
Speaker 2: it's something that we both have interest in as well
0:39
Speaker 2: as it's a growing industry that we want to keep
0:42
Speaker 2: a watch on, especially when it comes to involving marginalized people.
0:46
Speaker 2: So today is as of the recording January twenty seventh,
0:49
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. It'll be released on January twenty eighth,
0:53
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. That turnaround, Yeah, look, she's the best
0:59
Speaker 2: we left. So in this one, we decided to review
1:03
Speaker 2: at least so three. Picked out three games, one that
1:06
Speaker 2: I have played and recommended, one that Aie has played
1:08
Speaker 2: and recommended, and one that is new to both of us,
1:12
Speaker 2: so that we were going to kind of break down
1:13
Speaker 2: what we chose and how we liked them and what
1:16
Speaker 2: we think about these games and then just to have
1:18
Speaker 2: a con of conversation about how these games made us
1:21
Speaker 2: feel or didn't make us feel. I don't know. But
1:26
Speaker 2: before we get into all of that, I wanted to
1:28
Speaker 2: take a minute about the state of cozy games and
1:31
Speaker 2: gaming today and what it looks like if anything's changed again.
1:36
Speaker 2: I think we started really talking about this. Was that
1:37
Speaker 2: pre COVID or post COVID or mid COVID pandemic closed down.
1:41
Speaker 2: I don't know how you say that.
1:43
Speaker 1: I think it was like early COVID. I think that's
1:47
Speaker 1: when we started to do it. Yeah, because I you know,
1:50
Speaker 1: I've always been a gamer, but I feel like that's
1:52
Speaker 1: when you started.
1:52
Speaker 2: I was picking up things because I'm like, I am bored.
1:54
Speaker 2: I think it was a little past COVID for me
1:57
Speaker 2: because Animal Crossing was not on my radar, even though
2:00
Speaker 2: it was huge.
2:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it came out right where like shut down was happening.
2:04
Speaker 2: I remember you were getting like fan requests, like all
2:07
Speaker 2: of our listeners like any you have to play this,
2:09
Speaker 2: you have to play this, and they're like Samantha, you exist,
2:13
Speaker 2: and then I'm like I kind of like it. But
2:15
Speaker 2: all that to say, I think this journey has been
2:17
Speaker 2: coming over a round. So we've been at least we'll
2:19
Speaker 2: say five years for as a smnteezy interest, meaning we're
2:24
Speaker 2: talking about it because you've been talking about that gaming beforehand,
2:29
Speaker 2: because we talked about the doxing and as as such,
2:31
Speaker 2: but specifically to cozy gaming and gaming specifically aimed at
2:35
Speaker 2: women more so than not. Again, cozy games have been
2:40
Speaker 2: marketed towards women more than men, but that doesn't mean
2:45
Speaker 2: much because everybody enjoys animal crossing, am I right?
2:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you can see the episode we did on
2:51
Speaker 1: tech Stuff with Jonathan, Yes, where we talked about cozy gaming,
2:55
Speaker 1: but no, they're just nice and there's a lot a
3:00
Speaker 1: variety within the genre. So yes, even though it has
3:04
Speaker 1: been marketed traditionally towards women, I think that pretty much
3:08
Speaker 1: everybody has a cozy game that they could go to. Well.
3:13
Speaker 2: So since the growing popularity of cozy games, there have been,
3:17
Speaker 2: you know it, some concerns, especially recently and what is
3:21
Speaker 2: happening with the new games being released. One of the
3:24
Speaker 2: conversations we had is the fact that cozy games have
3:27
Speaker 2: really allowed for more diversity in the gaming community. That's
3:31
Speaker 2: not one of the concerns, by the way, that's not
3:33
Speaker 2: a concern, that's yays happening. Maybe things will change, and
3:38
Speaker 2: different reports show an increase of women or non body
3:41
Speaker 2: of folks being involved in the world of gaming, everything
3:43
Speaker 2: from actually creating and developing, to reviewing and critiquing, to
3:48
Speaker 2: playing and competing within these worlds, like there are some
3:51
Speaker 2: big names coming out all of a sudden, like we're
3:54
Speaker 2: excited to see it that are of the marginalized community. Now,
3:57
Speaker 2: the gaming worlds outside of the Cozy games are still
4:00
Speaker 2: mainly made up of men, with a lot of toxic
4:04
Speaker 2: gatekeeping is still happening. It still exists, a lot of
4:07
Speaker 2: dick pics, doxing, a lot of that has happened, but
4:10
Speaker 2: the gozy games have helped change that a bit. So
4:14
Speaker 2: in the GDC survey they report an increase of women
4:17
Speaker 2: within the industry and this is specifically written in Women
4:21
Speaker 2: in Games dot Com, so they write the latest GDC
4:24
Speaker 2: State of the Industry report has revealed that twenty five
4:26
Speaker 2: percent of the game's workforce are women, compared to twenty
4:30
Speaker 2: three percent reported in last year's survey. So, you know,
4:33
Speaker 2: two percent, we'll take it. It's not great, but wins
4:37
Speaker 2: agains gros. So Meanwhile, they say six percent of the
4:41
Speaker 2: three thousand developers who responded to the survey identified as
4:44
Speaker 2: non binary. Men are still dominating the sector at sixty
4:48
Speaker 2: six percent. However, as highlighted by the authors of the report,
4:52
Speaker 2: that figure was seventy five percent in twenty twenty. Again,
4:56
Speaker 2: all right, nice change, meaning that we've seen a nine
4:59
Speaker 2: point change over the past five years. Elsewhere, the research
5:03
Speaker 2: has aveuiled that LGBTQ plus representation has also increased, up
5:07
Speaker 2: from twenty one percent to in twenty twenty four to
5:11
Speaker 2: twenty four percent of this year. So again it's not huge,
5:16
Speaker 2: but it's still progressed. So we're gonna take our wins
5:19
Speaker 2: where we can, y'all. So we're going to and we're
5:21
Speaker 2: gonna cross our fingers. It's gonna go upward, right right.
5:25
Speaker 2: So some numbers that I saw while researching include these
5:30
Speaker 2: from gnmnews dot com. Gender diversity in the game industry
5:35
Speaker 2: has been a notable shift over the past few years.
5:38
Speaker 2: Women and non buying developers now make up thirty two
5:41
Speaker 2: percent of game developers, compared to twenty nine percent last
5:44
Speaker 2: year and twenty four percent and twenty twenty two. Again,
5:47
Speaker 2: men make up two thirds. We saw this and the
5:49
Speaker 2: increase of diversity in gaming is positive as well. Quote
5:54
Speaker 2: the industry has also seen a change in racial and
5:56
Speaker 2: ethnic diversity in the game development community since last year,
6:00
Speaker 2: though it's a little more difficult to quantify as many
6:04
Speaker 2: of these changes are too small to draw conclusions. According
6:08
Speaker 2: to the survey done by GDC, sixteen percent of developers
6:12
Speaker 2: are East, South or Southeast Asian, one tenth are Hispanic,
6:17
Speaker 2: Latino or of Spanish origin, and three percent are Black,
6:20
Speaker 2: African or Caribbean. The combined increases did manifest in a
6:24
Speaker 2: year over year decrease in the number of respondents identifying
6:28
Speaker 2: as white art Caucasian, going from sixty four percent in
6:31
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four to fifty nine percent today. So of
6:36
Speaker 2: course that's a lot of numbers saying that, yes, there's
6:39
Speaker 2: small changes happening, we are seeing better looks. It did
6:44
Speaker 2: talk about EDI or DEI essentially being placed in a
6:48
Speaker 2: lot of these companies, but we know we have regressed,
6:52
Speaker 2: and these numbers come from twenty twenty four, so that
6:55
Speaker 2: was before this awful administration occurred. Women of Silence moving on,
7:03
Speaker 2: but again, so with the continued increase of women in
7:06
Speaker 2: non byfolk in the industry, it is great, but slow,
7:09
Speaker 2: very slow, very very slow. Again, a win is a win,
7:16
Speaker 2: is a win is a win, especially when we see
7:21
Speaker 2: how many games are coming now, So that means that
7:25
Speaker 2: maybe even though we're seeing in percentage, the actual numbers
7:28
Speaker 2: are higher than you would think. So that is good
7:31
Speaker 2: to note because we see new companies popping up, we
7:33
Speaker 2: see new developers popping up, we see new like companies
7:36
Speaker 2: popping up, so you know, we're gon we're gonna be
7:39
Speaker 2: really optimistic with that one. And again, it isn't surprising
7:43
Speaker 2: to know that the cozy gaming industry has grown significantly
7:47
Speaker 2: and not all of that is positive, like we said,
7:50
Speaker 2: uh So, in twenty twenty four, one YouTuber ducky Games
7:53
Speaker 2: states that the industry made around nine hundred and seventy
7:56
Speaker 2: three million dollars, so it's getting close to a billion
8:00
Speaker 2: and cozy games alone, I'm guessing in the next year
8:05
Speaker 2: or so we're gonna hit the They're gonna hit that
8:07
Speaker 2: billion dollar mark for sure. And she has noted that
8:10
Speaker 2: the large quantity does not equate to quality. And again
8:16
Speaker 2: she's not the only one to see this, and if
8:18
Speaker 2: you go watch her videos, she's got a lot of
8:20
Speaker 2: good stuff on gaming she I think, says she's not
8:23
Speaker 2: necessarily a cozy gamer herself, like she loves gaming in general,
8:27
Speaker 2: but this is what she's seen and doesn't love the
8:30
Speaker 2: cozy gaming industry. Again, this goes back to the like
8:32
Speaker 2: back and forth of like who's a gamer or who's not.
8:35
Speaker 2: But she's not necessarily talking about all of that, but
8:38
Speaker 2: is talking about again the quality that is being split
8:41
Speaker 2: out right now and who is profiting off of it.
8:44
Speaker 2: And I think that's always something that we should look at,
8:47
Speaker 2: no matter what industry. Right So, the indie Game Culture
8:52
Speaker 2: site talks a bit about this as well. They say
8:55
Speaker 2: people value authentic and honest content and coverage, something that
8:59
Speaker 2: is becoming harder and harder to find in mainstream gaming media.
9:03
Speaker 2: And they continue, I know firsthand that plenty of the
9:06
Speaker 2: big sites we consume now run on semi and full
9:10
Speaker 2: blown AI rider models, and I know that the content
9:13
Speaker 2: they produce is all about volume rather than quality, as
9:17
Speaker 2: a system where they burn out contributors and cast them
9:19
Speaker 2: aside like the used napkin, replacing them with a new
9:22
Speaker 2: bump in the seat when they are of no further use.
9:25
Speaker 2: But that's not what I want to point the finger
9:27
Speaker 2: at today. I want to point the finger at cozy
9:29
Speaker 2: gaming as a genre and why this niche pocket of
9:31
Speaker 2: gaming is making it so much easier for websites to
9:34
Speaker 2: trick consumers into believing that cute equates to quality. And
9:40
Speaker 2: that's a complaint from many of the cozy game content creators.
9:44
Speaker 2: So it's not just gamers that are talking about this,
9:47
Speaker 2: it's those who would consider themselves in the cozy game niche.
9:51
Speaker 2: They say that too. I've seen several complaints about that
9:55
Speaker 2: big companies are trying to trick consumers with style, but
9:58
Speaker 2: again they have no sub instances. So back to that
10:01
Speaker 2: indiegameculture dot com article, they say, what I'm saying here
10:04
Speaker 2: is that you are being sold marketing. If a game
10:08
Speaker 2: looks cute and cozy is easier to sell, and when
10:10
Speaker 2: you discover it was all style over substance, you will
10:13
Speaker 2: end up feeling cheated. And that's not a mistake, it's
10:16
Speaker 2: a pattern. And some argue that the term is what's
10:21
Speaker 2: causing a bit of chaos within the industry. So from
10:26
Speaker 2: her Cozygaming dot Com they write, the problem with cozy
10:30
Speaker 2: game is the blanket use of the term cozy to
10:32
Speaker 2: sell any game. A developer reached out to me via
10:35
Speaker 2: email before Christmas to ask my opinion on whether or
10:38
Speaker 2: not I felt their new game was cozy enough. I
10:40
Speaker 2: gave my opinion and never heard from them again. I
10:43
Speaker 2: feel like developers are slapping cozy in their titles or
10:46
Speaker 2: descriptions of their game simply debate cozy gamers, and they
10:53
Speaker 2: aren't the only ones arguing this. I think the question
10:56
Speaker 2: is what are we or what are people labeling as
10:59
Speaker 2: cozy games? Is it cozy or is it just that
11:02
Speaker 2: this term is subjective, Like different people have different ways
11:07
Speaker 2: of being cozy, and he likes to be sad eternally
11:09
Speaker 2: that makes her cozy. That makes me want to throw ones.
11:15
Speaker 1: That's why I'm very I'm excited to talk about our
11:18
Speaker 1: uh our Selections service because I think it showcases something
11:23
Speaker 1: it does.
11:23
Speaker 2: It does by the way it does, but also like
11:26
Speaker 2: there's a new genre like cozy horror games, cozy dark games.
11:30
Speaker 2: We had the conversation because I said, I don't think
11:32
Speaker 2: Zelda Breath of the Wild is cozy, and many people do.
11:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and this is also we talked about this
11:40
Speaker 1: in that episode with Jonathan. But there's also cozy games
11:44
Speaker 1: and comfort games. And I would say last of us
11:46
Speaker 1: is a comfort game. Yes, I would never ever ever
11:50
Speaker 1: say it's a cozy game. That's a different thing.
11:54
Speaker 2: That's a different thing. And that's kind of the back
11:56
Speaker 2: and forth, like who's using this term? Why are you
11:59
Speaker 2: using this term? This isn't cozy, this is comfort like
12:02
Speaker 2: this is a different Lyrically later and again Duckie Games.
12:05
Speaker 2: Actually I had talked about that in her videos. She
12:08
Speaker 2: was like, I have comfort games that I know are
12:10
Speaker 2: not cozy like type of conversation. But because of this,
12:14
Speaker 2: they really are putting this as a market. Again, one
12:17
Speaker 2: thing can be certain in the world of capitalism, big
12:21
Speaker 2: companies will try to take advantage of any profit margin,
12:25
Speaker 2: seeking quick content for quick bucks. So again that was
12:30
Speaker 2: my statement. We know this in capitalism point blank. If
12:34
Speaker 2: they can make money off of women and marginalized communities,
12:38
Speaker 2: they're gonna because the people who are buying the most
12:41
Speaker 2: typically are the women of the family. And now that
12:46
Speaker 2: women have hopped on board and be like, oh this
12:48
Speaker 2: is made for me, and not feeling as ostracized as
12:52
Speaker 2: if they were as they were in other games, finding
12:56
Speaker 2: this community has become a new well obviously a big market.
13:02
Speaker 2: They're butt hit billion dollars in profits.
13:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and we have talked about this a lot,
13:11
Speaker 1: and it's one of the things that frustrates me is
13:14
Speaker 1: that women have been left out of the what we
13:19
Speaker 1: call console gaming market for a long time and or
13:23
Speaker 1: just been kicked out or been harassed out or whatever
13:27
Speaker 1: it is, and it's not been a safe space. And
13:30
Speaker 1: so it it frustrates me and it makes me sad
13:33
Speaker 1: because cozy games are usually kind of relaxing, nice pretty
13:44
Speaker 1: like music. The music is nice, the graphics are nice
13:49
Speaker 1: and kind of simple with the controls, and they're they're
13:54
Speaker 1: really lovely and I don't want to like make them
13:56
Speaker 1: sound lesser at all. But it makes me mad because
13:58
Speaker 1: it's clear that women do like games, right, and so
14:03
Speaker 1: we've kind of put them in this will have your
14:06
Speaker 1: cozy game then, right, Which if that's all you want,
14:09
Speaker 1: that's that's perfectly fine, there's nothing wrong with that. But
14:14
Speaker 1: I do think like it's clear that we've kind of
14:17
Speaker 1: been like, okay, they.
14:19
Speaker 2: Can relegate it to the space, yes.
14:22
Speaker 1: And now that they're like, oh, we can make money.
14:24
Speaker 2: Right, And that's a bigger conversation is also, are you
14:30
Speaker 2: trying to segregate women from other games essentially by creating
14:35
Speaker 2: this category and not understanding the bigger picture of what
14:39
Speaker 2: this could be again, like introducing Breath of the Wild
14:43
Speaker 2: as a game option. Because you like this game, you
14:46
Speaker 2: like these things, so why don't you try this type
14:48
Speaker 2: of conversation? And I think it's a bigger point of
14:52
Speaker 2: seeing that, like, oh, is that just cashing in on
14:54
Speaker 2: bad games that are similar to other games? Again, like
14:57
Speaker 2: you can get inspirations from other game and if it's good, great,
15:03
Speaker 2: you know, like more power to you. You've made a
15:05
Speaker 2: better version or just as good version. And people have
15:08
Speaker 2: been wanting that, like I'm still waiting for some update
15:12
Speaker 2: to Snuffkins. Why won't give me that? And is that's
15:15
Speaker 2: one of the most simple games that you're ever gonna have.
15:18
Speaker 2: But I loved the simplicity of it. I love the
15:21
Speaker 2: tale of it, and I love the legend behind it.
15:23
Speaker 2: It goes way back in the storytelling. So stuff like
15:28
Speaker 2: that like made me very happy. It's very simplistic. There
15:31
Speaker 2: are these levels of conversations that could be had of
15:35
Speaker 2: like good games versus And I will say so each
15:39
Speaker 2: of the sites that I quoted or used, they have
15:44
Speaker 2: a lot of reviews and they do talk about make
15:46
Speaker 2: sure you go to reputable people who do good reviews
15:50
Speaker 2: so that you don't waste your money and they can
15:52
Speaker 2: tell you first hand, because even they are saying, and
15:55
Speaker 2: many people have said, even the headlines that we see
15:57
Speaker 2: like the big grabs and like, oh you need to
16:00
Speaker 2: these games are coming up, we're so excited can be
16:02
Speaker 2: bought and are oftentimes bought, and so not all of
16:06
Speaker 2: them are great. Just because they're on a list does
16:08
Speaker 2: not make them an actual quality game. And to make
16:13
Speaker 2: sure to wait it out unless it's something that you
16:16
Speaker 2: already invested in, because I love kickstarters for that, because
16:19
Speaker 2: oftentimes that does hopefully mean the likelihood of it being
16:23
Speaker 2: better because people see the interests so they want to
16:26
Speaker 2: grow on that. But allowing for reviewers to come in
16:31
Speaker 2: and have talk to give you true, honest reviews and
16:34
Speaker 2: be able to investigate and invest in a good game,
16:38
Speaker 2: or do like me and wait till Anie plays it
16:40
Speaker 2: and she tells you to pay play that game.
16:44
Speaker 1: I try, I mean I try to think of what
16:47
Speaker 1: you would like.
16:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you do the job with that. So
17:00
Speaker 2: with all of that, the one thing that has uppealed
17:02
Speaker 2: to consumers like us are the indie creators and the
17:06
Speaker 2: studios who are doing good quality work for better experiences.
17:11
Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about a few of them.
17:13
Speaker 2: I think we picked out some good ones. I don't
17:17
Speaker 2: know that. I don't know if you think this any
17:18
Speaker 2: but I think we did a good job. And we're
17:20
Speaker 2: going to take some time to review three and let
17:23
Speaker 2: you know our experiences thus far. Yes, and we're going
17:28
Speaker 2: to start off with the one that was new to
17:29
Speaker 2: us game like I just kind of reviewed it. It
17:32
Speaker 2: is supposedly from an indie creator, women led or at
17:36
Speaker 2: least women involved game called tavern Talk, So go ahead
17:42
Speaker 2: and we put this in caveat. It is like Coffee Talk,
17:44
Speaker 2: which we loved. You know this we did part one
17:46
Speaker 2: and two because we really really enjoyed this level of
17:49
Speaker 2: storytelling making simple coffees, which, by the way, in the
17:52
Speaker 2: second one, I got stumped. I was like, I don't
17:54
Speaker 2: know what you want. I don't know what you want.
17:56
Speaker 2: I'm doing this wrong. So I did pause on that one,
17:59
Speaker 2: but we'll get back to it. But tavern Talk is
18:02
Speaker 2: very similar to that. And sometimes these games don't have
18:07
Speaker 2: their own sites or don't update their sites well, so
18:10
Speaker 2: we have to go to other people and back to
18:12
Speaker 2: the game the indie game reviewer dot com. They wrote
18:15
Speaker 2: this about Tavern Talk. Tavern Talk a self described a
18:18
Speaker 2: cozy visual novel about running a tavern in a D
18:21
Speaker 2: and D inspired fantasy where you serve drinks to high
18:25
Speaker 2: fantasy adventures. It goes on as a seemingly nameless innkeeper
18:30
Speaker 2: in the land of Hysteria. Your job is anything but simple.
18:34
Speaker 2: Between posting up quests on the local board and trying
18:38
Speaker 2: to pry drink orders out of chatty adventurers, everyone comes
18:41
Speaker 2: to talk about their problems. Thankfully you are the patient
18:45
Speaker 2: sort I hope. Okay, any I'm gonna tell you honestly,
18:50
Speaker 2: it took me thirty minutes with the break in between
18:55
Speaker 2: because I got frustrated. Oh no, trying to figure out
18:58
Speaker 2: how to do the drinks is like, what the hell
19:00
Speaker 2: is this? I even looked it up on like one
19:04
Speaker 2: of those like how do you make drinks?
19:07
Speaker 1: Oh no?
19:10
Speaker 2: Because I was Yes, you have simple, simple simpletons like
19:16
Speaker 2: myself who are like what this doesn't make sense? Am
19:19
Speaker 2: I supposed to memorize what these are? You are not
19:24
Speaker 2: you do like I had troubles? Okay, it it took
19:27
Speaker 2: me a minute. It took me a minute. Once I
19:31
Speaker 2: figured it out. Oh okay, okay, I got it. I'm there,
19:36
Speaker 2: I get it. I get it. I finally jumped in,
19:39
Speaker 2: and I have not gone far because I will say
19:42
Speaker 2: your game distracted me pretty hardcore. So but I've gotten
19:46
Speaker 2: into a few days. I'm like, okay, and thus far
19:49
Speaker 2: I do like it. What what are your thoughts on
19:51
Speaker 2: this game? Did you struggle? I know you didn't, but
19:53
Speaker 2: you know whatever, I did a little.
19:55
Speaker 1: I So what I really like about this game obviously
20:00
Speaker 1: the D and D yees component.
20:03
Speaker 2: This is where you and I go differentcause I have
20:04
Speaker 2: no idea. I know the just of it, but I'm like,
20:08
Speaker 2: I don't know if any of these significants. I feel
20:10
Speaker 2: like they have all these significance because they've already had
20:12
Speaker 2: inside Jos and I'm like, I don't know what that means.
20:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is why I think I was able
20:17
Speaker 1: to probably get over my struggles more quickly, is that
20:20
Speaker 1: it has the drinks are like charisma based or dexterity
20:24
Speaker 1: based or constitution based, which is all that's all D
20:27
Speaker 1: and D those are your stats?
20:30
Speaker 2: Is that the diceing?
20:31
Speaker 1: Okay? Yeah, so like basically your character has high charisma,
20:36
Speaker 1: which means you have a much better likelihood of charming
20:41
Speaker 1: someone into doing something, or you have high dexterity, which
20:44
Speaker 1: means you're much stealthier things like that, So they usually
20:48
Speaker 1: ask for like I want to drink with high dexterity
20:51
Speaker 1: or something, or they'll even let you choose. Sometimes they're
20:54
Speaker 1: like either this or this. So I think because of that,
20:58
Speaker 1: the way you make the drinks, it has all of
21:01
Speaker 1: the traits kind of around a circle and you're trying
21:05
Speaker 1: to make sort of a shape. And I was able
21:08
Speaker 1: to be like, they want some dexterity here, this is here,
21:11
Speaker 1: this is ever here. So I think my Dungeons and
21:13
Speaker 1: Dragons knowledge really came in came in clutch. Also, I
21:19
Speaker 1: did really like I've been nostalgic and missing Dungeons and
21:23
Speaker 1: Dragons lately. My group, all of us are busy, we've played,
21:30
Speaker 1: we haven't played in years, but I got asked to
21:32
Speaker 1: DM a new campaign, so I'm feeling like all of
21:36
Speaker 1: these memories are coming back. And I was also coaching
21:39
Speaker 1: a new DM recently and DM being Dungeon Master, and
21:44
Speaker 1: so it was nice playing this. But it's a very
21:48
Speaker 1: common Dungeons and Dragons trope to have the bulletin board
21:53
Speaker 1: to have the like quest on a bulletin board and
21:57
Speaker 1: people can look at them. But they were the first
21:59
Speaker 1: time I was a DM, I had this, I had
22:03
Speaker 1: I made like all of these flyers, and of course
22:07
Speaker 1: the one they picked up was the silliest one I made,
22:10
Speaker 1: which was about Old Blumpy who was a fortune teller.
22:13
Speaker 1: And they were like, you know, the wolves are killing
22:15
Speaker 1: everybody over here and all of these other more important things.
22:18
Speaker 1: They're like, let's go see the fortune teller. But so
22:21
Speaker 1: I really appreciated that because there's an element of sort
22:24
Speaker 1: of a bulletin board of as signing quest and trying
22:29
Speaker 1: to figure out these characters and what they need as
22:32
Speaker 1: being the innkeeper.
22:34
Speaker 2: So the innkeeper's the DM. Is that what we're saying, okay, okay, okay.
22:38
Speaker 1: I would say that there at least you're trying to
22:40
Speaker 1: figure out, Oh I should give them this quest and
22:44
Speaker 1: then they should do it with charisma, which is what
22:47
Speaker 1: I did for the first one.
22:48
Speaker 2: Oh okay. So yeah, so obviously those went over my head.
22:52
Speaker 2: I was just trying to figure out what I was
22:54
Speaker 2: doing because I did not understand what these were. I
23:00
Speaker 2: understood they were potions that I got, so my navigating
23:04
Speaker 2: it was a little more difficult because I'm also coming
23:07
Speaker 2: from like Coffee Talk, which was very like these are ingredients,
23:10
Speaker 2: I know, macha, sugar, honey great, So like this was
23:15
Speaker 2: a little bit of a term. But I did like
23:17
Speaker 2: the storytelling, the art, and the reminiscence to Coffee Talk
23:21
Speaker 2: was really nice. That's why all the characters are fun. Yeah,
23:26
Speaker 2: I'm enjoying that. Rearranging the boards, putting them in files.
23:30
Speaker 2: That was fun. That's a new thing to add.
23:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very beautiful and it is funny because you
23:37
Speaker 1: do have these characters in usually in Dungeons and Dragons,
23:41
Speaker 1: and I always am embarrassed. The first one I played
23:44
Speaker 1: was such a stereotype of like the person who never
23:46
Speaker 1: talks to anybody, and they're so frustrating, Like how do
23:50
Speaker 1: you play with a character that never talks to anybody?
23:54
Speaker 1: And there's a character like that in this game? And
23:56
Speaker 1: I was like, I know you, I knew you.
24:00
Speaker 2: I was you. Oh that's funny. Well how far did
24:05
Speaker 2: you get into the game?
24:06
Speaker 1: Are you? I got to the second I've assigned two quests.
24:14
Speaker 2: Okay, yes, I'm not. I've gotten all some several quests together,
24:19
Speaker 2: like the I have like four quests up there, but
24:20
Speaker 2: I've only assigned one and that was a whole back
24:23
Speaker 2: and forth.
24:24
Speaker 1: That was the whole back. Yeah, that was well.
24:26
Speaker 2: Did you not have this back and forth? It was like, yes,
24:29
Speaker 2: are you going to? Do you want to? You sure
24:31
Speaker 2: you want to? You kind of want to? What do
24:33
Speaker 2: you what type of conversation.
24:36
Speaker 1: Well, that's the one where you choose between charisma and dexterity, right,
24:40
Speaker 1: And I said charisma. I think she's going to be
24:43
Speaker 1: better with charisma for thinking of the same.
24:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did too. We'll see what happens. But yeah,
24:49
Speaker 2: so I'm I'm about the same. I think you're a
24:51
Speaker 2: little farther ahead of me. Like I said, the frustrated
24:53
Speaker 2: should have had me and I was like, no, that's
24:55
Speaker 2: what's happening. No, but I do enjoy it thus far.
24:59
Speaker 2: Now that I've got gained, I was like, okay, okay,
25:01
Speaker 2: now gain knowledge. So I'm guessing I'm going to learn
25:04
Speaker 2: some things about D and D maybe through this game.
25:07
Speaker 1: Yeah. Honestly, I think that a lot of stuff as
25:12
Speaker 1: complicated as D and D is, I think a lot
25:15
Speaker 1: of it is pretty like oh yeah, if you have
25:18
Speaker 1: a high dexterity, you can sneak around more. I don't know,
25:23
Speaker 1: but yes, I think you will learn.
25:25
Speaker 2: More well, and this game has already expanded. There is
25:30
Speaker 2: downloadable content. I did buy the package, and I think
25:32
Speaker 2: there's a secondary one coming through. So it's it's building,
25:35
Speaker 2: like it has become successful enough that it is building
25:39
Speaker 2: is entirety, and I think there's a lot more as
25:41
Speaker 2: we know when D and D can go forever. So yes,
25:44
Speaker 2: we'll see, I guess with that, mm hmmm, we'll see.
25:49
Speaker 1: There's a twist with thee.
25:51
Speaker 2: The way it sounds to me that there is. Yes,
25:55
Speaker 2: the way they're setting this up, especially with like the
25:57
Speaker 2: clues and the previews and like the details of like
26:00
Speaker 2: seemingly simple.
26:02
Speaker 1: But this could be another instance where we've just watched
26:04
Speaker 1: too many Yeah, too many.
26:06
Speaker 2: Horror figured out the murder mystery was not that complicated. Yeah,
26:10
Speaker 2: moving on, So we'll see, we'll see, we'll come back
26:13
Speaker 2: and report, But thus far, I do recommend. I think
26:15
Speaker 2: I should have put this at the very beginning. None
26:17
Speaker 2: of these are sponsors. Yeah, I want if you want
26:20
Speaker 2: to talk to us about sponsors, just here. We enjoyed
26:22
Speaker 2: these things, so come at us bro. And then the
26:25
Speaker 2: second game was my recommendation and actually a Jonathan recommendation.
26:29
Speaker 2: We did talk about this earlier, and that is Unpacking,
26:34
Speaker 2: which is a big game. This has won all of
26:36
Speaker 2: the awards. It is on top of every list that
26:38
Speaker 2: could be created. It is women created, women created. It
26:41
Speaker 2: is very fun, nostalgic.
26:43
Speaker 1: Uh.
26:43
Speaker 2: And this is from unpackinggame dot com. They write Unpacking
26:49
Speaker 2: is a game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions
26:51
Speaker 2: out of boxes and fitting them into a new home.
26:54
Speaker 2: Part block fitting, puzzle, part home decoration. You're invited to
26:58
Speaker 2: create a satisfying living space while learning clues about the
27:02
Speaker 2: life you're unpacking. Over the course of eight house moves,
27:06
Speaker 2: you're given a chance to experience a sense of intimacy
27:09
Speaker 2: with a character you never see in a story you're
27:12
Speaker 2: never told. And that took me a minute to figure
27:15
Speaker 2: it out. I'm like, oh, this is her childhood home.
27:17
Speaker 2: Oh this is our high school. Oh this is our
27:20
Speaker 2: college times. Oh this is our first relationship. Like there
27:23
Speaker 2: are so many things that you see that you slowly unpack,
27:27
Speaker 2: and you slowly see I will say I did not finish.
27:31
Speaker 2: I have not finished this game. I'm slowly working on it.
27:34
Speaker 2: My partner's sister, like we sent this this game up,
27:40
Speaker 2: specifically like this switch up and for him and his
27:43
Speaker 2: family when I wasn't with them, and she played it
27:45
Speaker 2: and loved it, and I was like, yeah, she went
27:47
Speaker 2: through it very quickly apparently, and she finished it and
27:50
Speaker 2: she was like, oh my god, this is so great.
27:51
Speaker 2: So I'm like, okay, okay, I love it. But I
27:55
Speaker 2: think it was very It is when I first started
27:57
Speaker 2: playing it. It is very satisfying, and there's thing very like.
28:02
Speaker 2: This is to me, the epitome of cozy. It's kind
28:05
Speaker 2: of like how Animal Crossing became a beginning cozy as well.
28:08
Speaker 2: It was part of the epitome of the packaging of
28:11
Speaker 2: cozy gaming because it is puzzle solving but simple, and
28:14
Speaker 2: the music is like appeasing and relaxing. That's my opinion though.
28:21
Speaker 2: But Annie, this was your first time play through. What
28:23
Speaker 2: was your thoughts? How far did you get through it?
28:25
Speaker 2: Tell me everything?
28:26
Speaker 1: Okay. First of all, I have to say we dodged
28:31
Speaker 1: a bullet, Samantha, because I almost downloaded the game called
28:36
Speaker 1: Unboxing Oh No, and it was very poorly reviewed, and
28:41
Speaker 1: I was like, surely this is not the games that
28:44
Speaker 1: was talking about. So I found I was like, this
28:51
Speaker 1: one must be the one. Yeah, yeah, you played the
28:53
Speaker 1: right one. But it was a close call. You know before,
28:57
Speaker 1: I've made this mistake on this podcast. Uh No, I
29:01
Speaker 1: really enjoyed it. It was It's very funny to me
29:06
Speaker 1: because I think this brings us to the crux of
29:09
Speaker 1: our different games. We like. I really enjoyed it, But
29:13
Speaker 1: it made me feel like I needed to clean up,
29:15
Speaker 1: clean up my apartment.
29:19
Speaker 2: I was satisfied with that. I'm like, I'm done, I clean.
29:22
Speaker 1: I felt like I needed I was like, well, I
29:24
Speaker 1: should go, and.
29:26
Speaker 2: It was judging you for not doing it to your
29:28
Speaker 2: own place.
29:29
Speaker 1: I liked that you were figuring out this life of
29:32
Speaker 1: this character through what you were unpacking. I was a
29:35
Speaker 1: bit specific about where I would put things. Again, I
29:39
Speaker 1: think I wasn't relaxing as much as I should. I
29:43
Speaker 1: was like, well, space wise, you.
29:48
Speaker 2: Said no, we should go here. Why are you not
29:50
Speaker 2: let me? I did do that a couple of times,
29:52
Speaker 2: like why is it? Why can't I put it here?
29:54
Speaker 1: I want to hear Yeah, like if you have a
29:57
Speaker 1: desk and I can't fit all of the computers stuff
30:00
Speaker 1: on the desk, you need a bigger desk. But yeah, No,
30:07
Speaker 1: I really did enjoy it. I thought it was fun
30:09
Speaker 1: and it was really easy, like it was a very
30:11
Speaker 1: simple thing to pick up, and it was soothing and
30:17
Speaker 1: it was satisfying when the blocks would close up, like you.
30:21
Speaker 2: Did this, nicely done, nicely done. I feel like now.
30:24
Speaker 2: And then they would throw things in there. They're like, yeah,
30:30
Speaker 2: where'd that come from?
30:31
Speaker 1: There were some things I couldn't even tell what they were.
30:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it's definitely like so we know,
30:37
Speaker 2: like the like almost pixelated animations is kind of associated
30:44
Speaker 2: with cozy gaming as well. It's the throwback level of
30:47
Speaker 2: gaming that we know. But like it is it was like, uh,
30:51
Speaker 2: what is that?
30:53
Speaker 1: Is that a toy?
30:54
Speaker 2: Or is that a what is it?
30:56
Speaker 1: Is that a toilet bush? There are a bunch of
31:01
Speaker 1: like small, little like spiral looking things.
31:04
Speaker 2: I was like, where does this go? It's very tiny.
31:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just put them all on the shelf and
31:10
Speaker 1: it's like it seemed to belong together, so that's where
31:15
Speaker 1: they go.
31:15
Speaker 2: I did really like when you figured out what something was,
31:18
Speaker 2: like a stuffed animal, but it went to different places
31:20
Speaker 2: as you grew up.
31:21
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, it does have a lot
31:24
Speaker 1: of moments like that where you feel kind of almost
31:28
Speaker 1: somehow nostalgic for yourself. I have the animal that's gone
31:32
Speaker 1: here or whatever it.
31:33
Speaker 2: Is, like it saved with me, but it's no longer
31:35
Speaker 2: in this prime spot. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Everything's fine, everything. Yeah, overall,
31:42
Speaker 2: how far did you get? How long did you get
31:43
Speaker 2: this one?
31:45
Speaker 1: Four rooms? Okay, I've done.
31:47
Speaker 2: Four so as opposed to like open world like, this
31:51
Speaker 2: does have like a fine finality to it. So I'm
31:54
Speaker 2: sure for you that's but nice.
31:56
Speaker 1: Yes for listeners who don't know, open world games stress out.
32:02
Speaker 1: The cozy games can stress me out, but open world
32:05
Speaker 1: games are like homework to me, and I'm freaking.
32:08
Speaker 2: Out finish at all?
32:10
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I never I got it. Tomorrow's the
32:12
Speaker 1: school day and I haven't finished all of these things.
32:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we know this one has I'm surprised, and
32:20
Speaker 2: I could be wrong because I haven't looked it up
32:22
Speaker 2: because we know things like Animal Crossing actually just supposedly
32:27
Speaker 2: got free content for a new version. I couldn't find it.
32:31
Speaker 2: I only saw that for Nintendo's switch too, which is
32:34
Speaker 2: gonna make me very sad because I'm not buying a
32:36
Speaker 2: new switch. I ain't got money like that. No, we're
32:38
Speaker 2: not buying new things anymore people. But I wonder if Unpacking,
32:45
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie I didn't research this bart has
32:50
Speaker 2: new updates to it because it was such a successful game. Yeah,
32:56
Speaker 2: I feel that's when I imagine they're not going to
32:58
Speaker 2: grow it.
33:00
Speaker 1: Again for it nothing on here is a sponsor.
33:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:05
Speaker 1: I played Unpacking on my Steam deck, and I feel
33:09
Speaker 1: like when when I was downloading it, there was another
33:12
Speaker 1: version or something else as long. I just don't get
33:17
Speaker 1: the basic the basic one.
33:21
Speaker 2: Okay. The newest thing I see is they have merch.
33:25
Speaker 2: They have merch, which we didn't talk about that earlier,
33:28
Speaker 2: but yeah, that's a big conversation too, like as a
33:30
Speaker 2: money maker as well, that they use merch, knowing that
33:33
Speaker 2: if it's cute enough and it can be merchandised, you
33:36
Speaker 2: might have a great concept. Especially you have McDonald's deals
33:41
Speaker 2: because like Animal Crossing got huge in March World and
33:45
Speaker 2: crossovers and collaboration. So uh. But I don't see anything
33:52
Speaker 2: new for them outside of the being on phone games.
34:00
Speaker 1: Just been patches sometimes Steamjeck does that.
34:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting, interesting, interesting. Well I'm glad you enjoyed it.
34:07
Speaker 2: You have to let me know we'll come back when
34:09
Speaker 2: we both finish it. I feel like I got to
34:10
Speaker 2: finish it too, so we will come back. I think
34:12
Speaker 2: I'm in a room like six or seven. I'm kind
34:14
Speaker 2: of sad about it ending, so I kind of paused. Yeah,
34:18
Speaker 2: I did that with like TV series too, like it's
34:20
Speaker 2: gonna be ending. I can't I can't watch the end.
34:22
Speaker 2: That means it's so over. So that's just my own thing.
34:37
Speaker 2: So coming to our final game, it is Anie's choice.
34:40
Speaker 2: You want to talk about that, Anie, Yes.
34:43
Speaker 1: This is a game that I absolutely love. I have
34:46
Speaker 1: talked about it before on this show, back when I
34:49
Speaker 1: had a brief lived idea that I would do like
34:53
Speaker 1: game reviews during the pandemic. It was the first one
34:55
Speaker 1: I reviewed. It is oxen Free. I love this game.
35:03
Speaker 1: It was a recommendation from my brother, my little brother,
35:07
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad that I took him up on
35:09
Speaker 1: it because a lot of times people are like, you
35:10
Speaker 1: should play this, and I'm like, I will, and then
35:12
Speaker 1: I downloaded it and I never do, but I'm very
35:15
Speaker 1: glad I did. So. This is from Night School Studio
35:20
Speaker 1: dot com about it. Oxen Free is a supernatural thriller
35:24
Speaker 1: about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift.
35:28
Speaker 1: Play as Alex, a bright, rebellious teenager who brings her
35:31
Speaker 1: new stepbrother Jonas, to an overnight party on an old
35:35
Speaker 1: military island. The night takes a terrifying turn when you
35:39
Speaker 1: unwittingly open a ghostly gatespond from the island's cryptic past.
35:44
Speaker 1: How you deal with these events, your peers, and the
35:47
Speaker 1: ominous creatures you've unleashed is up to you. You determine
35:51
Speaker 1: every aspect of Alex's story while exploring Edward's Island, uncovering
35:55
Speaker 1: the bass dark secret, and changing the course of your
35:59
Speaker 1: friends lives. So, first of all, this is what I'm
36:07
Speaker 1: talking about when I think it's very funny, the differences
36:10
Speaker 1: in our Because I would call this a cozy game.
36:12
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people would not.
36:14
Speaker 2: Oh, I would definitely call it a cozy game.
36:16
Speaker 1: I think it is. I think this is the closest
36:19
Speaker 1: of a game that I absolutely adore. That is a
36:22
Speaker 1: cozy game, But I think some people might not think so.
36:26
Speaker 1: But it is a very like atmospheric, kind of eighties
36:34
Speaker 1: the Goonies, Stranger Things type vibe. But it's mostly just
36:41
Speaker 1: there are these very brightly colored text bubbles that you
36:47
Speaker 1: can choose for your character Alex to say to her friends,
36:53
Speaker 1: and through that you get points with certain characters. It's
36:57
Speaker 1: very kind of like way Haven almost where.
37:00
Speaker 2: You're you're change your adventure type of game.
37:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and you mostly outside of that, you just
37:08
Speaker 1: kind of walk around and explore, and it does. It's
37:11
Speaker 1: very It does have its creepy moments. It's got time travel,
37:16
Speaker 1: which I love, and when you based on what happens
37:20
Speaker 1: when you get to the end, the story can change
37:23
Speaker 1: the second time you play it, and there is a
37:25
Speaker 1: sequel and the story can change in that based on
37:28
Speaker 1: what you did in the first one. So I love it.
37:31
Speaker 1: I have played it. I was looking at it when
37:35
Speaker 1: I suggested it to you because I was like, Okay,
37:36
Speaker 1: this one is one I can just talk about. I
37:39
Speaker 1: don't need to replay it, even though I desperately want
37:42
Speaker 1: to now, and I've played it for fifteen hours. It's
37:45
Speaker 1: not that long of a game.
37:47
Speaker 2: Noh. So I was when I first started this game, Annie,
37:53
Speaker 2: So it was like, hey, heads up. The dialogue boxes
37:56
Speaker 2: go quickly, and you're right like I thought at first.
37:58
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm pretty fast reader, Like I'm pretty
38:00
Speaker 2: quick to make decisions that I'm but sometimes it would
38:02
Speaker 2: just disappear, like you look away for a second, it
38:04
Speaker 2: is gone. I was like, oh, something was done. I
38:06
Speaker 2: don't know what just happened. But I loved this game, Nnie,
38:11
Speaker 2: like you you got who knows? Because I was like,
38:13
Speaker 2: what is this? I actually jumped a few times in
38:17
Speaker 2: the game, and I was playing it on the switch
38:19
Speaker 2: when I first played, so instead of because you can
38:21
Speaker 2: connect this to your TV, and I have a very
38:22
Speaker 2: giant TV all with surround zund so you could get
38:26
Speaker 2: all the effects if you want it, which I did.
38:29
Speaker 2: As I'm going through my second run through, I haven't
38:31
Speaker 2: finished it, but I'm going through my second run through.
38:33
Speaker 2: That's which I liked it. I've got very into this
38:36
Speaker 2: game of like what is happening? What is this game?
38:39
Speaker 2: They're in this because you did tell me, hey, you
38:41
Speaker 2: also your choices will affect everything, and I'm like, okay, cool, cool,
38:45
Speaker 2: cool cool cool. So in that first run I was like,
38:50
Speaker 2: all right, I figured out I am still scared to
38:53
Speaker 2: be judged even in games, like I can't make mean
38:57
Speaker 2: comments or mean decisions even in games.
39:02
Speaker 1: I'm the same Samantha. It's very hard for me to
39:05
Speaker 1: do it.
39:07
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't like this, to the point
39:10
Speaker 2: that when I was trying to do the second one,
39:11
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm want to do the opposite. I
39:13
Speaker 2: still couldn't do the opposite. I didn't realize I was
39:15
Speaker 2: picking some of the same choices.
39:17
Speaker 1: Yes, no, I am absolutely the same. But I don't
39:20
Speaker 1: know if this ever happened to you. But if you don't,
39:24
Speaker 1: I should have said this when I warned you. But
39:26
Speaker 1: if you don't choose a text bubble, then it just
39:28
Speaker 1: gives you the negative, the most negative response. So it's
39:32
Speaker 1: not like, I guess it is bad, but you don't
39:36
Speaker 1: have to choose a text bubble. Not choosing a text
39:40
Speaker 1: bubble actually is a choice.
39:42
Speaker 2: Is a choice.
39:43
Speaker 1: Okay, that's unfair.
39:45
Speaker 2: Well, I've also discovered that you can't go like in
39:49
Speaker 2: the second run through, because again you open a gate
39:52
Speaker 2: and you don't realize. I try to see if I
39:54
Speaker 2: can refuse to do it. I just wanted to see
39:56
Speaker 2: if you cannot. There's several they kill you out because
39:59
Speaker 2: I try to go to the wrong way. They're like, you
40:00
Speaker 2: can't go that way. We have to do this thing first.
40:03
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, okay. My partner came in while I
40:06
Speaker 2: was part playing it. He's like, oh, there's dialogue, there's
40:09
Speaker 2: actual texts, because like you you see that and like
40:12
Speaker 2: gave the Last of Us and all that, but not
40:15
Speaker 2: in many cozy games, like you don't see that level
40:18
Speaker 2: of acting voice acting. So he was actually kind of shocked.
40:22
Speaker 2: I will say, this is a Netflix studio, which threw
40:27
Speaker 2: me off.
40:28
Speaker 1: It was when it was okay, I didn't think.
40:31
Speaker 2: So, I didn't think I doubt it. It was it
40:32
Speaker 2: was too.
40:33
Speaker 1: Quick, like it was an indie game first, but then
40:38
Speaker 1: it was very successful and then Netflix now yeah, now
40:42
Speaker 1: you can see it on Netflix, and it always blows
40:44
Speaker 1: my mind.
40:44
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, shrew me off. I was like, she
40:46
Speaker 2: puts a Netflix game. That's interesting. But I assumed in
40:50
Speaker 2: my head. I was like, I bet they bought it
40:51
Speaker 2: out because that's what Netflix does. Uh not that whatever,
40:55
Speaker 2: whatever it is, what it is. But as you heard
40:57
Speaker 2: in the beginning of our episodes, there are some eyebrow
41:01
Speaker 2: raising when it comes to corporation. Yeah, anyways with that,
41:05
Speaker 2: but this game was thoroughly enjoyable, very kind of sad
41:08
Speaker 2: that I was like, oh God, this subtext is really
41:11
Speaker 2: like kind of heartbreaking. I don't I'm I'm also very
41:17
Speaker 2: as you can tell when we were talking about simplistic
41:19
Speaker 2: things and plots and then we go bigger and lay no,
41:23
Speaker 2: there is conspiracy theories. This isn't even worse in my mind,
41:26
Speaker 2: this is worse. Like when I left, it seemed like
41:28
Speaker 2: a happy ending and I was like, I don't know,
41:31
Speaker 2: I don't think it was. There's so many questions to this,
41:37
Speaker 2: but it was very enjoyable. The mystery was interesting. It
41:39
Speaker 2: was easy play, like I was able to catch onto
41:42
Speaker 2: this way faster than Tavern talk.
41:46
Speaker 1: I'm so glad because I haven't played this in like
41:48
Speaker 1: I think six years. Yeah, I love it. But when
41:53
Speaker 1: we were discussing this, I kept running into I do
41:56
Speaker 1: not want to fake a game. Samantha will late. I
41:59
Speaker 1: want to she might enjoy it. No, it's fine, but
42:04
Speaker 1: I was like, I remember being pretty easy to pick up.
42:10
Speaker 3: Yeah.
42:10
Speaker 2: Easy. It's an easy, simple gameplay, but very intriguing storyline.
42:16
Speaker 2: You get to make choices, you have to figure things out.
42:19
Speaker 2: It was easy on my easy year with my switch
42:23
Speaker 2: because I was able to do touch screen first, because
42:25
Speaker 2: some of them remote stuff, even though they are very
42:28
Speaker 2: good and giving you specific instructions to do this use
42:31
Speaker 2: this if you're if it looks like you're stalling, like
42:33
Speaker 2: if you're confused, it knowes that. So when I played
42:36
Speaker 2: it on the TV, which I am now in my
42:38
Speaker 2: second run through, which is really fascinating to do now
42:43
Speaker 2: because now I know what's going on a little bit,
42:46
Speaker 2: so but doing it on the bigger screen, I very
42:48
Speaker 2: much enjoy this, just like Unpacking. Actually, the composers for
42:52
Speaker 2: this are award winning composers, the same as it was
42:55
Speaker 2: for Unpacking. They were award winning BAFTA winning composers, so
43:00
Speaker 2: they made sure they did this purposely. They put quality
43:04
Speaker 2: content and everything in music and dialogue and acting, so
43:08
Speaker 2: in artwork like they were purposeful both Oxen Free and Unpacking,
43:12
Speaker 2: So we love when that happens. Uh tavern talk too.
43:16
Speaker 2: I don't see much about their music, but I know
43:19
Speaker 2: they really worked on their artwork, but these two specifically
43:23
Speaker 2: award winning level, so I did find that interesting. I
43:27
Speaker 2: loved the cartoonishness, but not the cartoonishness, the ability to
43:32
Speaker 2: like it was very clearly marked that what you can
43:34
Speaker 2: interact with even though you might miss it. I figured
43:37
Speaker 2: that out after I was like, oh I missed that
43:38
Speaker 2: the first time round or stuff like that, things that
43:41
Speaker 2: you absolutely have to do, you have to do the
43:44
Speaker 2: way they market for you. You realize what you're supposed
43:46
Speaker 2: to do because there's a radio involved and you got
43:49
Speaker 2: to play on that. So all of those things were
43:51
Speaker 2: very interesting. I didn't have to jump do these type
43:55
Speaker 2: of things, like it was really easier to figure out
43:58
Speaker 2: both on the controls and on the switch. So being
44:00
Speaker 2: able to do all of that really made it easy. Again,
44:03
Speaker 2: the touchdown level helped me, like the touchscreen level helped
44:08
Speaker 2: me navigate it first and then realizing what I needed
44:11
Speaker 2: to do with the controls after the fact. I'm like, okay, this,
44:14
Speaker 2: I get it. I get where I'm at. I'm not
44:17
Speaker 2: gonna use The storytelling was really good. The choice is
44:21
Speaker 2: very interesting. Again. The animation was it looks like a
44:26
Speaker 2: flipping TV show, Like literally the static level like this
44:31
Speaker 2: is like this is a game. This is what you
44:34
Speaker 2: do for a like a movie level.
44:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's cool. The contrast because the characters are
44:40
Speaker 1: kind of animation y yeah uh, kind of cartoony, but
44:45
Speaker 1: then the setting is not. The setting is very much
44:49
Speaker 1: like you're creepy, the something is off here. So I
44:55
Speaker 1: love that contrast of it. I do. I love the
44:58
Speaker 1: music of it. Something else that I was trying to
45:01
Speaker 1: take into account when I was picking a game for you,
45:04
Speaker 1: and so I knew for you you had said previously
45:08
Speaker 1: that you didn't like like combat necessarily and you didn't
45:11
Speaker 1: like games where you die necessarily, and so I was like,
45:14
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure an oxyd for you, like you never die,
45:17
Speaker 1: you don't have to release.
45:18
Speaker 3: I can't fall off a cliff. I actually walked off
45:22
Speaker 3: of this. I didn't glad, And it is nice.
45:29
Speaker 1: It's nice to play a game like that where you
45:31
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about that, where it's just you're
45:32
Speaker 1: trying to solve this mystery and you're seeing these like
45:36
Speaker 1: character relationships and deciding like do I want to be
45:39
Speaker 1: with this guy? And maybe I don't do I hate
45:41
Speaker 1: my step Yeah, I like.
45:44
Speaker 2: Who you just met, which were like how do you
45:47
Speaker 2: do this? But interesting we do? I was like. The
45:49
Speaker 2: only hiccup I really had. There's a portion in here
45:52
Speaker 2: where they ask you some questions and at one point
45:54
Speaker 2: the screen flips and I was so confused. I kept
45:58
Speaker 2: pressing the wrong button even though though I knew the answer,
46:01
Speaker 2: and that ticked me off because I hate being wrong
46:06
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know that answer. It just flipped the
46:09
Speaker 2: screen and I can't. I can't forgeret which button to use.
46:11
Speaker 2: Now I'll see that did that? Did that? Was the
46:15
Speaker 2: time of was like oh but I mean again, now,
46:18
Speaker 2: if you heard me talk about flipping experience, you're like, what
46:20
Speaker 2: that's the level of fascination in these optics, Like they
46:24
Speaker 2: use every way to kind of discombobulate you without doing
46:28
Speaker 2: too much, but it does it in such a way
46:30
Speaker 2: that it does feel like is this alien's is this ghosts?
46:34
Speaker 2: Is this a possession? Is this a dream? Like? There's
46:37
Speaker 2: so many points to this in this that they I
46:41
Speaker 2: feel like they put a lot of genre, yeah into
46:45
Speaker 2: the into a game. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Again. I'm
46:48
Speaker 2: now on my second replay because I liked it so much.
46:50
Speaker 2: I will be purchasing the second one, uh soon after
46:54
Speaker 2: because I want to see what the second run through
46:55
Speaker 2: looks like. And I again I will say, I think
47:00
Speaker 2: we need to give content warning if you do play
47:02
Speaker 2: this game. It does involve death and loss of a sibling,
47:06
Speaker 2: which comes like oh okay, which you find out pretty
47:09
Speaker 2: early on, Yeah, what has happened? But like I was like, oh,
47:14
Speaker 2: that's kind of dark. Oh, this is real dark. Like
47:16
Speaker 2: it kind of was one of those moments of like, yeah,
47:19
Speaker 2: and he just likes to be sad. I don't like
47:25
Speaker 2: to be numb, and he likes to be sad or
47:28
Speaker 2: scared like those two things.
47:30
Speaker 1: Yes, and they do have. That's another thing in it
47:33
Speaker 1: is that it's like oh, and then you will hear
47:36
Speaker 1: like a scream.
47:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
47:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like from out of nowhere.
47:41
Speaker 2: I jumped a couple of times. I was like, what
47:44
Speaker 2: where did that come from?
47:46
Speaker 1: Definitely my type of game, It wasn't your.
47:49
Speaker 2: Type of game. But I also surprisingly love this game
47:53
Speaker 2: to me, And if we have another run through, I'm
47:55
Speaker 2: gonna make you play the Snuffkin games. It's that same
47:59
Speaker 2: level of like simplicity and like narration and you can't die,
48:05
Speaker 2: you can't really you can lose, and you have a
48:07
Speaker 2: few little things, but like it's just the storyline that
48:11
Speaker 2: just goes through, like you just have to walk it
48:13
Speaker 2: through to find the ending. But like, but it's a
48:17
Speaker 2: lot more childish and animation is obviously a lot but
48:21
Speaker 2: more bubbly. In Snuffkins. They have like spots that you
48:25
Speaker 2: can go to that they'll let you do that and
48:26
Speaker 2: just see views like you can put it on a
48:28
Speaker 2: screen where you see stars. Because he's laying down to
48:32
Speaker 2: look up at the gorgeous stars.
48:34
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah.
48:38
Speaker 2: Like I think I see you a picture of me
48:40
Speaker 2: playing huge TV. Yeah. I was like, this is amazing.
48:45
Speaker 2: It's a lot shorter game than any other games I
48:47
Speaker 2: think you play in any form, but instead of venturing
48:52
Speaker 2: like it shows you where you need to go, it
48:54
Speaker 2: kind of tells. It tells you a story. It's not
48:56
Speaker 2: so difficult that I have to be in combat all
48:58
Speaker 2: the time. They're surprise is here and there. There's a
49:01
Speaker 2: few things that wake you up to make sure that
49:03
Speaker 2: you remind you you were playing a video game. I
49:05
Speaker 2: enjoyed that very much, and this one really did have
49:08
Speaker 2: me wanting to know the next part, make the next choice,
49:11
Speaker 2: make the next move, see what can happen to this?
49:14
Speaker 2: Oh it's over all right, We're coming back to this
49:17
Speaker 2: and want to relive some of these things to really
49:20
Speaker 2: do these choices. So really great game. Ten out of
49:23
Speaker 2: ten recommend to anyone any gaming person I think would
49:27
Speaker 2: love this aspect in this game also feels like it
49:30
Speaker 2: as a personality desk. I told my partner I wanted
49:33
Speaker 2: him to play so I can see what he chooses.
49:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does for sure.
49:44
Speaker 2: So yeah, I know again, some of these games that
49:46
Speaker 2: we've talked about past, we've been listener recommendations as well.
49:52
Speaker 2: I think that might be our next episode. We'll pick
49:53
Speaker 2: a few games out that we've not played from listener
49:56
Speaker 2: recommendations and we'll talk about those.
49:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yes, and you all thank you so much for
50:03
Speaker 1: sending in your recommendations. If we have not responded to you,
50:08
Speaker 1: I promise we've gotten it just behind on the listenermil
50:12
Speaker 1: but we really appreciate it, so thank you, thank you,
50:15
Speaker 1: thank you, and we would love to do that would
50:18
Speaker 1: be really fun. I'll look at what you all like
50:21
Speaker 1: in our plane. So if you would like to contact us,
50:25
Speaker 1: you can or email us Hello at stuff Wenever Told
50:27
Speaker 1: You dot com. We're also on Blue Sky at mom
50:31
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast, and on Instagram and TikTok at stuff We
50:34
Speaker 1: Never told You. We're also on YouTube. We have some
50:36
Speaker 1: merchandise at comp Bureau and we have a book you
50:38
Speaker 1: can get where you get your books. Thanks as always too,
50:40
Speaker 1: our super producer, Christeam, our executive producer, and your contributor Joey,
50:43
Speaker 1: thank you and thanks to you for listening stuff I
50:46
Speaker 1: never told you. Production by heart Radio. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: favorite shows,