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The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants · The Long and Short of It

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Thanks for checking out the Long and Short Fit podcast.
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You can find us on all good podcast platforms.
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Please consider following or subscribing.
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We hope you enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to the Long
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and short of It, the podcast where we discuss each of the
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games on the Metacritic Top 100 list.
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My name is Dan and I'm joined by.
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This is Lawrence. Welcome to the podcast.
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Welcome to the podcast. Looks like it's been a while.
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But it hasn't been a while. It's been a little bit of time.
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Yeah, I think last we last released an episode a couple of
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weeks ago, didn't we? Yeah, what was it?
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Was it Zelda? No, it was the yeah.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. The genre rankings.
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Yes, correct. Quite.
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How are you today? Yes, quite well as per don't
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know what time of the day or month or week it is, but no, I'm
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good. Are you well?
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Yes, I am well, yes. Got a new member of the family
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as well, haven't you? Yeah, I was about to say, oh,
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there goes my phone. I I have, yes, recently got a
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new very young cat. So yes, she is.
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Running us wild at the moment, but yeah.
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I really like the way I set that up.
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As I say, you've got a new member of the family and anyone
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that doesn't really know us, like Dan's had a baby that's
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really a no, Dan's got a cat. Yes, that's Anyone who does know
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us knows that it's probably appropriate.
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And knows that that is completely normal.
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Can you confirm the cat's name? The cat's name is Miley.
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Cat was named before we got her. My previous owner don't know why
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the cat's named Miley, but it kind of suits the cat when you
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will meet her, but not sure if the listeners will ever meet
2:02
her. Yeah, quite.
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I'm gonna call her James. Well, you don't do that because
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that's the cat from Family Guy. That's why I thought about it.
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You don't do that. Animals with human names always
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makes me laugh. Yeah, I know.
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It's really odd, isn't it? I worked with a guy that had a
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duck called Chris once and it really it used to crack me.
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Up Well, we we we bought our cat from a charity.
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From the Miley Cyrus fan club. No, we did not do that.
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And and there are there are so many animals with human names
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and it just it sounds bad but it puts me off.
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Yeah, I mean, when I got Spyro. Steve.
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Steve the Cat. Well, when I got Spiro, she was
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called Caramel, but I changed that quite quickly and she she
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got used to Spiro very fast. But yes, she's a bit older now.
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Spiro's 8. I mean, to be fair, should we
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just start a podcast where we just talk about our cats?
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Yes. That's lovely, that is.
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That'll be a lovely topic about a lot of people would listen to
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that little pod cats. That's there's already a podcast
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called Podcats, unfortunately. I was going to say it sounds
3:18
like it's been taken. Nerd cubed.
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OK. Yeah, well, never mind though,
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we'll think on it. Yes.
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Yes, quite anyway. Today we're here to discuss a
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bit of a different game on the list.
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Game. Yeah, we'll get to that, so.
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The This entry on the list is called The House in Fatima Ghana
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Dreams of the Revenant Edition. The version that's on the
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podcast has a score of Sorry. The version that's on the list
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has a score of 96 and it was released on the Nintendo Switch
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in the year 2021. That's the highest ranking
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version, but this is a game that comes up quite a lot in these.
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In these lists of best video games ever, also on the Open
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Critic list, this doesn't have a ranking according to our
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original rankings in terms of where it places on the list,
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because this was one of the late entries to the list.
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So. Additional edition.
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But it would rank highly if it was, if it was on that sort of
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rank list that we did before, it would be fairly high up okay,
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so. Do you have any history of this
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game? Had you heard of this game
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before? No.
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I when we were talking about doing an episode in February for
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Valentine's Day, we were looking kind of over the list and I said
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that one sounds like it could be a good fit, but you said it's
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probably better to save it. So I I went into this with with
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no knowledge. I've never played it, didn't
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really know anything about it other than that it was very
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different compared to literally everything else that we've
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covered on the on the list. But I didn't play it on Switch,
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I played this on Steam just because I I didn't want to spend
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£30 on. On something off.
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The Steam, I think I paid about £15 for it around that maybe,
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which made sense. So yes, didn't play it on the
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Switch this time, but it gave me an excuse to play something on
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on Steam again, because it's been a while since I've done
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that. So yeah, what's your, what's
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your history? So I don't know where I first
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heard about this game, but I I'm a frequenter of video game
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websites and probably a couple of years ago now.
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Yeah, it would be maybe 2 1/2 years ago maybe when it came
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out. Around that time I started
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seeing this name pop up and there are articles saying.
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At the time. There are articles saying.
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The game that's better than Breath of the Wild obviously a a
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clickbait title because at the time on things like Metacritic
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it had not too many reviewers. I think you need 7 reviews to be
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classed on Metacritic. I think that's right, and I
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think it had not too many reviewers, but it had a very,
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very high Metascore. I think it was sitting at 98 and
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maybe like #2 at one point on the Metacritic top 100.
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And then word of mouth spread and more people played this game
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and and a few more reviews came in.
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And so when I when I first heard about this game, I was quite
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blase, I was thinking the visual novel, that that's not a game.
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And then I started hearing more and more about it and I don't
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know what convinced me to jump. It's just the fact that.
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So many people were saying it was so, so good, and I thought,
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okay, I will give this a go. So I bought it actually on
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Christmas Day a year and a half ago, and I played it, started
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playing on Christmas Day and took some time to get heated up,
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get into kind of what a visual novel is and what it kind of
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expects of you and the fact that it's so different from a
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traditional video game. But.
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I played it for about a month and a half, maybe two months.
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I was playing about an hour, a couple of hours every evening,
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and beyond a certain point it just really, really got its
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hooks in me and it was a bit of a difficult time for me as well
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because of a family bereavement. And yeah, it just really hit
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hard and I. I have this thing about
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Christmas. I love Christmas and there are a
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few Christmases that I would describe as being kind of
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legendary for me. And it usually depends on the
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game that I'm playing. And one of those, I think I've
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mentioned before was San Andreas, that the Christmas that
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I got San Andreas and as I was probably, yeah, must have been
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31 at the time as 81 year old. Yeah.
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And and I. I thought, I'm never going to
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have a Christmas like that again because I'm not young anymore.
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Nostalgia is kind of gone, that that magic of Christmas is gone.
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But that Christmas really felt a bit special, Probably a lot to
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do with what was going on at the time, kind of a happy and sad
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time. And because of this game, which
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I was really, really hooked on, so I was blown away.
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Completely by this game. And there's there's as part of
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the dreams of the Revenance edition, there is additional
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story content, which is also great, and I wanted this game to
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go on and on. I didn't want this game to end
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when I was playing it, I just was hooked.
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So that's my history with it. The version I played once again
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was the Switch version. I think it's a game that sits
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there. I say it perfectly on the
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Switch, so. This is the kind of game where
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playing it in hand, held with a with a good set of headphones
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near the end of the night, it's just kind of the perfect way to
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wind down and take your mind off all the other things and the
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work queries and and stuff like that.
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It's just I believe this game is really at home on the Switch.
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So yeah, that's where I played it.
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I played it, I'm playing it again there.
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And I've not finished it. Full disclosure on on this play
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through, I've not finished it yet.
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I'm still playing and I'm going to continue playing.
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But you have finished it before though.
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I have finished it before, yes, completely finished it.
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So yeah, my second play through of this game and I was really
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waiting for the right time to do a second play through of this
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game. I always knew I would, but I
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didn't want to do it too soon, didn't want to leave it too long
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either. So yeah, I think this is kind of
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landed at a good time. So my question for you is, we
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we've described this game as a visual novel.
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We've described this game as being very different from
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traditional video games. You said near the beginning that
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it's not a game. So what is this?
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I mean, if you were to describe this to an outsider, you were to
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describe what the features of this socalled game are.
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What would you, what would you say to someone?
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Imagine all the cutscenes that you have in Persona 4 or Persona
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5. So it's that, but without the
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game play afterwards. It is the way that I look at it.
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It's very Japanese and it is effectively a list, not a list,
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A collection I suppose of stories about like a specific
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place and a specific thing, but it's all linked.
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So there's no real game play in this game.
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You make a few choices here and there and you can interact with
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like a couple of things, but nothing too crazy.
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It is basically a okay. Now we're going to focus in this
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section. Here is here is a load of
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exposition and a story and some characters.
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Here's the end of that story. Okay.
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Now we're going to go to another one.
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So it is effectively. Like reading a book, but with
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visuals, hence the visual novel I suppose.
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Yeah, it's it's like a text adventure that you take away 90%
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of the decision making. Yeah, and and and you've got
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this game and it is, as you say, like reading a book.
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That is the closest thing to it. But it's also a bit different
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from that because alongside you've got these.
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Really quite nice backdrops and nice character drawings and a
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truly phenomenal soundtrack, which we'll get to later.
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So yeah, it's. I would describe this game not
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as a game, not as a story, as an experience.
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It's it certainly tells a story, but it's an experience.
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It plays on more than just your. Reading ability or imagination,
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it, it plays into your senses of hearing, obviously, your your,
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your eyes with its heart style. So yeah, it does quite a few
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things and really taps into that part of your brain, if you like,
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that sort of thing. Now, ordinarily we break down
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the plot. I'm not going to do that today
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because for a few reasons. The plot is everything here and
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because you haven't finished it and because I haven't finished
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it on this play through, though I have finished it before, I
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feel like it wouldn't do the game justice to try and bludgeon
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through the plots, especially if we take it from Wikipedia or
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something like that where it just wouldn't do it justice.
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So. What we're going to do is we're
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going to, as you said, you you described it again as a place
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that connects these these stories.
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And what is that place? May say it's a house, it's it's
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it's a mansion that has been stood for.
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I don't think you find out when this game takes place, but I'm
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assuming the game takes place kind of.
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In the 19 like is in the present day section of the games.
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I'm guessing that it takes place in maybe the 1900s.
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I think it's so it's after yacopose story.
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Yeah, which is in the 1800s, isn't it?
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Yeah, yeah, it might be, Yeah. It's the time of engineering,
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isn't it? And.
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The. Rise of machines.
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So I think it's I think this. The present day is set in the
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1900s, so the story takes place over a period of about 900
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years, maybe 1000 years potentially.
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And the the kind of the the link between it is the house has a
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curse and. Each story you go into will
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focus at a different period of time.
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So the first period of time that you focus on is in the 1600s,
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the second one is in the 1700s, the third is in the 1800s, and
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then the 4th and 5th. So I managed to get a bit
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further from when you and me spoke yesterday.
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So I managed to get through like the fifth door, the 4th and 5th
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door, which take place in 1099. So it's all linked.
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So I'm guessing that a majority. Of the remainder of the game,
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from what I've played, is going to continue in that kind of time
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frame or maybe stay modern? A bit of.
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A snapshot as to what the game does next without revealing too
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much. So one of the things you
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mentioned, a curse, but one of the things you will hear
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frequently from the characters in the game, from anyone who
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refers to this mention. Is that it's cursed and a cursed
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which lives there. And Morgana.
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Yeah. And the curse which is real, The
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curse which is there And there is a story that goes further
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back than the story that you are experiencing at the moment.
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And it also surprisingly enough and especially in the.
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Additional content takes a trip to modern times, so one of the
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things I think it does well, I think time traveling in games
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can be hit or miss for obvious reasons.
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It's just not easy to do several different time periods
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effectively. One of the games that comes to
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my mind that does it really well is Time Splitters.
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But yeah, lots of games don't do it too well.
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This is a game that does do it well.
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And yeah, so that's the premise you've got.
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What I think we've not touched on yet is you do have these
17:12
stories, but all these stories are linked, every single one of
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them, the characters that you have.
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So who have you seen yet as characters?
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So the the first the first story.
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Focuses on these siblings called Melon Nelly.
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The second story focuses on a an insane man called Yuki Massa who
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thinks he's a beast. The third story focuses on a
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businessman called Jacopo and his maid and his wife.
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And then the fourth story and 5th story focus on you
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discovered that the playable character, the person that you
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are. And throughout all of the
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stories, there is another character known simply as the
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girl with the white Hair, and she is also a link in all of
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these. And I've got my I've got my
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suspicions about who that is and what it is, and it might be
18:23
completely off. I'll be interested to hear them,
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but I don't know if I want to hear them in this podcast
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episode. That's fine, but yeah, and then
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there's also a maid who, it turns out, is also quite
18:39
important, Gisele. So yeah, the the the main story
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focuses on you, the lead character.
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And I'm guessing anyone that's listened this far, as you know,
18:52
we we get into spoilers and we're not talking about the plot
18:56
in depth, not. Going to spoil at all, but
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obviously we're going to touch. Yeah, so the the the playable
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character you find out is a guy called Mikkel who Michelle
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Mikkel who Michael is. That he's called Michelle, but
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yeah. Yeah, that that kind of lends in
19:15
with what my anticipation is for the story goes.
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But yeah, you you you play as. So Michelle is in the French
19:24
version of Michael, not not. Michelle is in.
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Your friend Michelle from down the pub?
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Yeah, So it's a lot of different stories, and I think that
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they're all linked. But like, like I said, there is
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one thread throughout all of them, which is a girl with white
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hair. Besides the fourth story, where
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it turns out maybe it's an unreliable narrator.
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Yeah, so you've also got a few additional characters there.
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You've got you've got Yuki Masters fiancee.
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Paulina who? Yes, who appears in there And as
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you referenced, the other maid, which is Maria, she's and then
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you've got Morgana herself and then you've got some other
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characters, key characters, as you play further into the game.
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Yeah, and you know, like this, this story.
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Take some really like dark turns and I mean I I think you can
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looking at the the box off the game and knowing like a
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basically from looking at what it is before I.
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Played it on Valentine's Day. Yeah it's it's obviously got
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some some horror themes running through it particularly in like
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the the second, like the the first story will focus on.
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I suppose trigger warning I guess.
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But it's discusses incest. Yeah, the first one focuses on
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incest, the third one focuses on murder and madness, the third
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one the. Second one is, yeah, murder and
21:05
madness, and the third one's abuse.
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Yeah, yeah, it is kind of spousal abuse and gaslighting.
21:13
And then the 4th one. What?
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Really? The fifth one?
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Mafia. The what?
21:18
The Mafia. Yeah.
21:21
And the fifth one kind of you find something out and then you
21:27
kind of learn a bit more about one of the characters and like
21:32
the stuff that she's been through and it's got like links
21:35
with, you know, sexual abuse and and rape.
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And it's, yeah, it goes from, yeah, 100% and I imagine.
21:46
I imagine it only gets worse that the further you get into
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the game it wouldn't shock. Me that This is why this
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storyline which you will uncover, I don't know how close
21:59
you are. I can't remember because I do
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remember all the stories quite intricately, but.
22:08
I can't one. One thing that you tend to
22:10
forget when you've had a bit of distance from a game is how long
22:12
each section is. For example, Door 4, as you
22:16
mentioned, with the unreliable narrator.
22:19
Yeah, it it was a lot shorter in my mind.
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Oh no. So it was a lot shorter when I
22:24
played it again than it was in my mind.
22:28
So yeah, I'm not quite sure how far away you are from that
22:32
section, but there there is, well, there's two, There are
22:37
two. Parts you've got coming up the I
22:43
don't, I mean I'm not going to say outdo Giselle's story
22:47
because that's what you were referring to.
22:49
But they are equally traumatic and surprising and shocking.
22:58
So yeah, This is why I didn't want to go down the oh, this is
23:02
what you do in this game. This is.
23:04
This is the story because we just butcher it and I feel like
23:07
this game deserves a bit more than that.
23:10
It deserves more than a butchery.
23:12
It does, as Yukimasa would say. So you mentioned the horror
23:17
themes in Yukimasa's story. It's also got this like horror
23:21
soundscape in that. In that story, yeah.
23:24
Which if you're playing with headphones on, it can be really
23:28
unsettling because the sounds are not pleasant.
23:31
I find the first part of Yuki Master's story quite grotesque
23:36
and I don't like all the squishing.
23:40
And yeah, and then the sound that he makes when he speaks.
23:45
Yeah, it's just unpleasant, is the way I describe it.
23:49
The the second story with Yuki Master, which is what we
23:52
mentioned earlier with Murder and Kind of Madness, is probably
23:57
the weakest part that I've got to so far in my opinion.
24:01
I like the payoff, but yeah, it's a bit grueling.
24:06
The I found it to be very easy to guess what was going to
24:13
happen. You found it quite off putting
24:16
as well for the game, didn't you?
24:18
Yeah, yeah. I mean the The thing is because
24:22
you said it kind of picks up at the third, the third door or the
24:26
third story, which is Jack Poe. And I thought that was OK, but.
24:30
The highlight of it probably was the first one.
24:34
I thought the first one was good, it was long by the 1st.
24:36
Why do you think? Why do you think that is what?
24:38
What about the first story resonated to you?
24:41
Well, I think the second, the second story and the third story
24:46
were quite easy to guess what was going on, you know, like the
24:52
third one focuses on. Fake infidelity and someone
24:57
being gaslighted, which I thought I I could see it coming
25:01
a mile off. And the second one was about a
25:06
man who thinks he's a monster, who believes he's fighting
25:10
another monster. And it turns out that that isn't
25:12
the case. And I I saw both of those things
25:15
coming a mile away. And usually when we play games
25:19
you like what we did with Persona 4.
25:20
You're usually the person that will call something.
25:24
Way ahead of time, and I will sometimes, but I don't.
25:28
I don't think about it that much, but I thought those two
25:30
were quite obvious. Whereas in the first story where
25:37
the sister Nellie, well, there's two things that you don't see
25:40
coming. The 1st is his full blood sister
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Nellie effectively like mounting Mel who's the the male.
25:49
Pretty dark moment. Yeah, and like, she's she's
25:51
wearing the wig of the girl that he loves.
25:53
And then also finds out that the girl he loves is also somewhat
25:56
related to him. And the curse of that that that
26:01
chapter is that basically any male that lives in that house is
26:06
is bound to to to be in a relationship with a relative,
26:10
which in this case is is his sister.
26:14
And I I didn't see that coming at all.
26:17
See, you're not the. Surprise elements of it.
26:20
Yeah, I suppose so. And you know with with #5 you,
26:26
you know, you kind of relive the the 4th door again.
26:29
But with what you believe, I suppose is is reliable narration
26:35
and you find out some really dark stuff about what happened
26:39
to Giselle. And obviously there's going to
26:41
be a lot more stuff that you find out in terms of Michelle as
26:44
well, but. Yeah, I think big.
26:49
Surprise is coming the way up that way.
26:51
Yeah, like I said, I've got my ideas for where it's probably
26:54
going to go and you know, I might be completely off.
26:59
I've guessed 2 things right so far out of the two things that I
27:02
guess was happening. But you know, I've been wrong
27:06
many songs before as well. Is the surprise.
27:09
I think part of it is that, as with any story, it's nice to be
27:12
surprised. I also think part of this game
27:14
is because. As you say, Door 3.
27:20
And that's the way they they name their chapters, doors,
27:23
doors to these other time periods, doors to these other
27:26
people's lives. So door three, they reveal
27:32
fairly not early, but about halfway through that Maria is
27:39
duplicitous and she's playing them.
27:42
And then you've got a long section afterwards where you.
27:46
The the viewer, the reader have been let in on the secret and
27:52
you're watching it play out and you know the truth, but you're
27:57
watching Yacopo, you're watching the girl with the white hair
28:04
circle around this truth. And I think that's part of the
28:06
satisfaction of it because it's so frustrating in so many ways,
28:12
watching them circling around this truth and then.
28:18
The tragedy with that one is they finally get to the point.
28:24
So a bit of insight into that story.
28:27
This husband and wife who do love each other, there's there's
28:32
he believes she's, she's cheating on him and she.
28:41
Doesn't understand why he is so cruel to her and she's trying to
28:45
just rebuild their relationship, but they won't speak to each
28:48
other. They both have a problem
28:51
speaking to each other and it's kind of delved into why that is.
28:55
And it comes to the point where they're both finally ready to
29:01
speak to each other and they've both both planned it and they've
29:04
both planned it for a certain time period, but it just so
29:08
happens that their timings are off.
29:10
And as is the curse of the house, she goes, we don't know
29:17
where she goes. It's never revealed.
29:19
And he is left with finally unearthing the truth.
29:24
She never, she never even unearthed the truth.
29:26
She doesn't know that Maria is playing her.
29:31
And you get a small moment of satisfaction where spoilers.
29:35
Maria gets shot in the head, and that's delightful.
29:39
But. Then you just get the moment
29:41
afterwards where you hear that Yacopo continues his search for
29:45
the white haired girl and then dies.
29:48
And that's it. And it's just tragic, isn't it?
29:53
Yeah, it's yeah, There are no happy endings with this guy.
29:58
No, there aren't. No, no.
29:59
Well, Well, maybe 1. Yeah, sure.
30:02
Maybe a couple. Yeah, it's.
30:07
Yeah, it's one of, it's one of those experiences.
30:10
And you know, I I watched them, I watched a couple of videos on
30:14
this. I didn't watch them all the way
30:15
through because I'm keeping the the ending relatively
30:21
mysterious. But there was one guy whose
30:24
YouTube video I watched talking about this game where he
30:26
effectively says that this is he.
30:28
He believes that Michelle is probably one of the best written
30:31
characters he's ever come across.
30:33
And he feels that the conclusion to I think The 8th Door is one
30:39
of the best conclusions to a story he's ever read.
30:43
So those are big statements, they.
30:47
Are indeed they are. And when we talk about stories
30:53
in games, we often refer. We talk about games as if
30:59
they're like the younger sibling of other media, so they're the
31:01
younger sibling of films or the younger sibling of going back
31:04
further books. And because of that, you kind of
31:10
think that there's more of an established formula to getting
31:14
films right. There's in terms of story,
31:16
there's more of an established formula to getting books right
31:19
in terms of story. And it's only recently that I
31:22
feel like games have started to catch up.
31:25
And you've got things like The Last of Us Two, which is not the
31:33
which is not the shinter's list of video games, no, But it's a
31:39
really nice step in the right direction, isn't it?
31:42
And games in their normal form, in their traditional form, have
31:50
a bit of a disadvantage when it compared to visual novels, which
31:54
are more like a book. And this game rests on its
31:58
writing. This game rests on that plot.
32:01
Without those things, it wouldn't be.
32:04
And I've actually since played a few more visual novels and
32:08
hoping to reclaim the magic that is this game, but they haven't
32:13
done it and not even close so far.
32:16
And I think that's down to the writing.
32:17
I think that's down to the characters.
32:19
I think that's down to the the layers that this game has.
32:25
And it does have a lot of layers and you'll constantly uncover
32:28
them. So if I said to you it's not the
32:32
last time you'll see Yacopo, but not in probably the way that you
32:39
might think. So Okay, let's move on.
32:47
How would you describe the atmosphere of this game
32:52
foreboding? Is the word.
32:56
I think that there's always an atmosphere in the background,
33:01
that there's something bad going on that you don't really
33:03
understand. And I think a lot of that comes
33:05
from the music as well. Even in the first story, the
33:07
music is quite light and playful, but it's also got a
33:11
sinister element to it as well. So it always feels like there's
33:15
something there that you're not entirely sure what it is, and
33:21
I'm guessing that's to do with the witch.
33:24
And and the curse, But yeah, it's it's got quite a quite a
33:28
sinister atmosphere even if it is in the background.
33:32
Yeah, I completely agree with that.
33:34
Did you by chance do the thing that I mentioned yesterday,
33:38
which is which I only found out yesterday in Door 4, which is
33:45
the the tale from an Unreliable source.
33:49
Basically, it's a lie. It's not the truth.
33:51
And. Because of that, you can access
33:55
the background, you can access all the text from the chunk that
34:00
you're in at any time. You can read back through it.
34:04
But if you do that in this chapter, the text is distorted.
34:08
And if you do that, at a certain point in the chapter there's a
34:14
dialogue going on in the background of the scene between
34:19
the which and your character and.
34:22
That is a perfect example of that.
34:23
I didn't know that was there. And so that happened across it.
34:27
And yeah, again, it's that dark force at work behind everything.
34:35
Yeah, I think that's a good way to describe it.
34:38
Yeah, there are. Strings being pulled that you
34:39
can't see. Yeah, and that's the way I've
34:42
described the storytelling in this game.
34:44
There are strings being pulled that you can't see.
34:47
Always Okay, so. What do you think of the art
34:52
star of this game? Well, the game itself is.
34:59
It's 11 years old, isn't it? The original originally came out
35:02
in 2012 and it effectively looks like.
35:10
A. Japanese anime I'd say, but
35:14
probably with a few more details here and there.
35:16
Not an anime, maybe? But like I said at the start of
35:20
the podcast, it's very clear that this is a Japanese piece of
35:22
work. And you know that the character
35:26
designs are very well done. As with a lot of Japanese media,
35:31
the women are a little bit overly sexualized and not
35:35
particularly pertaining to the clothing they would probably
35:38
wear within the time frames. That they agree with that, but I
35:41
would also say that I I agree about the clothing, but I'd say
35:46
that the the sexualized aspect of them.
35:49
If it's there, it's deliberate because.
35:51
There's important. Characters that don't have it,
35:56
like, yeah, the Whitehead girl. Yeah, maybe.
36:01
But yeah, the look of this game is it's Japanese art, you know?
36:08
It's what you would expect from look at.
36:12
I don't even know how to explain it, but it's very obviously.
36:16
A Japanese anime esque game, if that makes sense.
36:21
Yeah, I I really like the the character designs.
36:25
I think they all look like you'd imagine the characters to look
36:29
like and they're very nicely done and they're quite
36:32
expressive and it works and they lend themselves to the story and
36:38
they lend themselves to the music and it works.
36:42
I also think the backdrops work they.
36:45
Give you a sense of the area without revealing too much,
36:49
without seeing. And there aren't too many of
36:51
them either, per story. No.
36:54
And you fill in the blanks with your imagination, which is,
36:57
again, what books do. Yes.
37:01
So yeah, I feel like it's what it needs to be.
37:04
And I like the character designs.
37:06
And yeah, they just work. OK, what about the soundtrack,
37:13
which I've kind of. Gushed over.
37:14
But I will go into a bit more detail on it.
37:17
But what do you think of it? Yeah, you like the soundtrack to
37:20
this game. I know that.
37:22
I think it's good. I like the music in the first
37:27
section. Like I said, it feels very
37:29
playful and very light, but at the same time, it feels like
37:33
there's something sinister in the background that's always
37:35
keeping you slightly on edge. And that theme kind of goes
37:39
through a majority of the game. You know obviously in the in the
37:43
second story which is about a lot of murder, it's a bit it's
37:47
you know it's not as light and it goes down the avenues that
37:52
you would expect it to. But the the music in this game
37:56
fits very well with what you see going on on the screen is what
38:01
I'd say. It probably isn't music that I'd
38:03
go away and listen to. Rarely we find soundtracks that
38:06
I I would do that with whereas sometimes we'll come across them
38:10
and and you would. Go away and listen to them.
38:13
But I I think this is a pretty good soundtrack.
38:15
I've not experienced all of it yet, obviously, but I think it
38:19
does what it's trying to do well and it leaves you with a bit of
38:24
a sense of foreboding. Yeah, one of the things about
38:28
the soundtrack is, is huge. Yeah.
38:33
So if you if you were to go on YouTube and you were to put in
38:36
house in Fatima, Ghana, OST. I've seen there's four discs,
38:40
aren't there? Of the music.
38:42
It's massive and I'd say where you are in the game you've
38:46
probably heard not including the additional content.
38:53
You've probably heard 40% of it, 3040%, so you've got a lot left
38:59
to hear and. Some of the stuff I mean, So I
39:07
don't enjoy listening to it all because some of it I find a bit
39:09
unnerving. There's one particular track
39:12
that is played a lot later on, which you probably haven't got
39:16
to yet, that I really don't like.
39:20
Not that I don't like it. I appreciate it as a piece of
39:22
music, but I find it really unnerving and I'll point it out
39:26
when you get there. But I have listened to this
39:31
track, this soundtrack, outside of the game.
39:35
But I don't want to listen to it too much, Yeah, because one
39:40
thing that the game does well is it fits, as you say, the music
39:44
to the scene. And yeah, I don't want, I don't
39:49
want that music. It's become separate from the
39:51
scene because it lends so nicely to it.
39:53
So I will occasionally listen to it or the odd track when it
39:58
comes into my mind, but I'll also steer clear because I don't
40:02
want to kind of ruin what this game is to me.
40:04
And there's some wonderful music in there and there's it's quite,
40:09
there's quite a variety as well. Some of it is relaxed and you
40:12
get kind of Far East influences in there.
40:16
Some of it is very French and has some French voice work in
40:23
there and some of it is just piano music with nothing else
40:29
going on and it's just varied. Quite beautiful.
40:34
And I said to you leading into this episode, it is one of my
40:40
favorite, if not my favorite soundtrack in a game.
40:43
Because I think I came to that realization because it is so
40:47
beautiful. But it's also the amount of it
40:53
and how there are certain games that have tracks that nail it.
40:58
But it's consistently good, and that's what I like about it.
41:02
It's the consistency of the quality of it.
41:06
Okay. Answer my question of the week.
41:10
Here is a here's a quote for you.
41:13
It's not really a quote, it's a it's a statement.
41:15
So around 70% of PC games in Japan that are sold or made, I
41:22
guess are visual novels and they're becoming more and more.
41:27
They're becoming more and more popular in the West.
41:31
What do you think has led to this surge in popularity?
41:34
What is it about visual novels that people are just realizing?
41:39
People embracing Japanese culture for one.
41:43
I think in the last 10 years, particularly in North America,
41:51
you find that a lot of people have this curiosity and this
41:57
fixation with Japan and. So that's not just, you know,
42:01
North America. You know, you could say that of
42:03
Europe as well. And particularly for myself, I
42:05
find Japan fascinating. And I've said a few times that,
42:08
you know, going to Japan is my #1 destination.
42:12
I think visual novels, You saying that 70% of their best
42:17
sold games are visual novels? And maybe me saying that doesn't
42:20
surprise me at 70% is being a bit.
42:22
Bold, but it doesn't surprise me that a lot of their their market
42:27
is visual. Is visual novelization.
42:30
Sorry. So I think some of it comes from
42:33
the fact that the West just loves export from Japan and the
42:39
East. But as well as that, I find that
42:44
people would prefer to, well, they wouldn't prefer it, but
42:49
you've seen in the last 10 years and it's something that you and
42:51
me used to do as well. A lot people will watch game
42:55
play and they'll watch. Lets plays and walkthroughs of
42:58
games rather than play them themselves.
43:01
Whereas a visual novel is a good way to take in a story without
43:08
actually having to have too much input on it.
43:10
And you could say that the West has got our own version of
43:14
visual novels, but it's just a little bit more hands on in
43:18
walking simulators. I'd say that although there are
43:21
gaming elements to it. What remains of either Finch
43:24
could be classed as in that kind of bracket, you know, or
43:32
everyone's gone to the Rapture or Gone Home.
43:35
And like I say, there are gameplay elements in there and
43:37
there are parts of it that are more involved than just reading
43:42
a visual story. But that feels like that's our
43:46
version of what the Japanese have done with visual novels, if
43:49
that makes sense. Yeah, there are no fail states
43:52
there. It's no.
43:53
Relaxing, it's, I mean, we're playing, we're playing a perfect
43:58
partner piece to this game right now, which is I don't think it's
44:04
going to be any surprise to anyone considering we've
44:06
mentioned it before is Eldon Ring.
44:09
Eldon Ring is a gamer's game and what I like to do after
44:15
aggravating myself for a good few hours on Eldon Ring is.
44:20
What I find really relaxing is going to play this game and
44:24
switching off my reflexes and being able to just dive into
44:29
this world which doesn't demand me to press buttons quickly or
44:34
to dodge or. Or or get good.
44:37
Yeah, exactly. It's it's kind of the antithesis
44:41
to what many video games are and I think it's that relaxing
44:47
nature and I think. A lot more people are playing
44:50
games now that maybe didn't grow up on super hard video games or
44:55
gamers video games, and they own consoles.
44:59
It started with the PS Vita and it's definitely kind of moved
45:03
onto the Switch. People buy those consoles to
45:08
play these relaxing games that add that extra element to just
45:14
reading a book. So yeah.
45:18
I think that's partly why at least.
45:21
Potentially. I think it's a few reasons, but
45:25
yeah, I think we've got our own versions over here, but we're
45:28
just kind of embracing the Japanese star more and more.
45:32
Yeah. OK, so before we start to wrap
45:38
up our episode, I'm going to leave you with a quote that I
45:42
love from this game that it uses every single time.
45:48
It introduces the mansion. Is it the house party?
45:51
Is it through the house party door?
45:56
I just tweaked what you were saying that is, yeah, that is I
46:03
talked about the additional content and I said it was in the
46:05
modern day. It's not strictly speaking in
46:07
the it's the 90s. Oh yeah.
46:10
You walk through a door onto a Noel's house party.
46:14
Yeah, of course, greeted. By the man himself.
46:18
Who is that? Man, yeah, Would that would that
46:21
man be Noel Edmonds or would that be another man that?
46:24
Would be another. Man formal name?
46:29
I believe so, Mr. Blobby. I'm a certain Mr. Blobby.
46:35
Yes, of course. I thought it might be.
46:38
Yeah, he he is the key character in this game.
46:41
Yes, he binds everything together.
46:43
He is the girl with the white character.
46:45
You said it. Yeah, that's right.
46:47
That's right. And he's a witch.
46:52
Yeah. So you'll quote.
46:53
Sorry. Every time that that the game,
46:57
every time that character stumbles upon to the mansion,
47:01
sorry, that was terribly English.
47:03
Every every time a character stumbles upon the mansion and
47:07
that's the way that they find it, they stumble upon it.
47:09
Many characters, they're not really looking for it.
47:11
And there's the thing about the mansion, whether it really.
47:16
Has a physical place in the world, and certainly when our
47:19
main character finds it, and the kind of bookending story, it's
47:24
not in the real world as we know it, but the line that they use
47:30
every single time to the letter is this.
47:36
The mansion comes into view like the world fading in after a
47:39
dream. I love that.
47:43
Just. It's very vivid.
47:45
And yeah, just vivid. Yeah, that every single person
47:53
that comes across this mansion experiences it.
47:56
Coming into being in the same way.
48:00
Gives it a ghost like quality. But onto our wrap up, Does the
48:06
house in Fatah Morgana dreams of the Revenants edition deserve to
48:11
be on the list? I don't know because like I
48:17
said, I don't really see this as a game.
48:19
It's a story and it's an experience, and it's not
48:23
something that you're going to read on your Kindle.
48:28
It is made for game consoles, but I'm at odds to call it a
48:32
game. So therefore I don't know if I
48:34
could say that it deserves to be in the top 100 list.
48:38
It did take a while to grip me and I'm not fully gripped yet.
48:42
I will, I will go back and I will finish it, but.
48:46
You sufficiently intrigued. I'm yeah, I'm I'm intrigued to
48:50
find out what happens. But I don't know if I could say
48:54
it deserves to be in the top 100 just because I'm questioning
48:57
with myself as to whether or not I think this counts as a game.
49:01
So I'm going to make a decision and say no, I don't think so,
49:09
whereas I feel that you might might say different.
49:13
I so I I in a way, I don't think it matters whether it's a game
49:19
or not. I know we have game Players
49:23
King, which is obviously a section that I've skipped for
49:26
the first time this week. Although there are times when
49:29
we've done the podcast where we've we've looked at the Game
49:32
Players King section and we've said Oh well there's not much to
49:34
say here. We've said it with other games
49:36
and we're saying it again here, so.
49:42
It's hard to define what it means to be a game, and I think
49:46
walking simulators have this problem where you push the
49:50
analog stick forward to move. And visual novels, interactive
49:55
novels have the same problem. They don't neatly fit into this
50:00
thing that we call games, but as the way we consume visual
50:08
novels. Is similar to the way that we
50:11
that we consume games. They take up time, they're
50:16
longer than films, and you do have some level of
50:19
interactivity, some level of advancing the story.
50:25
And you could, you might not be able to describe this as a game,
50:32
and I'm with you. It's hard to describe this as a
50:34
game. But you can describe anything on
50:38
that top 100 list as an experience and this as an
50:43
experience compared to those other experiences has a place in
50:49
that. It's different.
50:51
It does something different. It's yeah, it just as an
50:59
experience. I think it absolutely deserves
51:01
to be there and. I think we have to ask ourselves
51:05
what we consider a game or not and and if it if it matters.
51:09
And from the podcast that has the game players king section,
51:14
it's a bit of an epiphany I suppose.
51:15
But yeah, to me it doesn't matter.
51:17
I don't really care whether it's a game or not.
51:19
It's an experience that blew me away and I'm, I'm enjoying it
51:26
just as much this time through and I think I'll enjoy it
51:30
countless more times within my lifetime.
51:32
I do think it's it's a very special thing and I think that's
51:41
down to the writing and all the elements coming together and
51:46
it's not guaranteed. What I mean by that is, like I
51:48
said, I've played other visual novels.
51:50
I would say that I'm now a fan of visual novels and I, like
51:54
probably many other people dismiss this game.
51:57
As I said before, I played it as being a visual novel.
51:59
That's not a game and. Therefore, I don't care about
52:02
it, but I'd say I'm a bit of a convert and they have their
52:07
place as that kind of relaxing, downtime, diffusing before you
52:11
go to bed thing. And not all of them are made
52:16
equal, and it would probably be easier to rate this in a list of
52:23
visual novels. We're not doing that list.
52:26
So. I'm going to just.
52:29
Cheat and say yeah, I think it deserves to be here and as an
52:32
experience, it's one of the best experiences on this list that I
52:37
think we've had so far. I'm not going to say it's the
52:39
best, but it's one of them and therefore for me it deserves to
52:44
be there. So it's far enough.
52:48
As a final final thought, we introduced this little feature
52:53
in the last episode. Describe the game in one word.
53:04
Sinister, I think. Interesting or Blake?
53:10
Blake. Yeah, Blake.
53:11
Bleaks of it. We'll go with Blake.
53:14
Yes. What about you?
53:17
I'd put this. I'd written this into my into my
53:20
plan for the episode, but I'd not actually thought of a word.
53:23
But the word that just came to my mind then.
53:26
The word I'm going to go with is haunting.
53:29
Yeah, everything about this game is haunting.
53:32
That the art style, the music, the characters, the fact that
53:36
there's this haunting thing in the background, the fact that
53:38
the house itself is haunting. So yeah, I'm going to go for the
53:42
word haunting. It's a very evocative word.
53:45
Okay, that's a fair choice. Let's wrap up, yes.
53:51
That was a very smooth transition into the wrap up.
53:54
It's probably the smoothest one I've done.
53:57
If we are known for our smoothocity, that's right.
54:01
Well, correct. So, I mean, I've already
54:04
revealed it, but let's reiterate what's coming up next.
54:07
Yeah, so. We we're pretty much there now.
54:11
We we're pretty much done with the original plan.
54:15
There are a couple of games that we need to get to that have been
54:19
added on to the Metacritic list, but they're also on the open
54:22
critic list. So we thinking of pushing them
54:24
back a bit. So next week we are going to
54:27
release the last game that we're going to be covering in the
54:32
Metacritic top 100. Which is, as Dan mentioned
54:36
earlier, Eldon Ring, which I think is.
54:39
Game as part of the Metacritic Top 100.
54:42
Halflife, Alex. Yes.
54:44
Yes, we're going to do that a bit later because technology,
54:48
correct. So we're kind of after next
54:52
week. We're done with the Metacritic
54:54
top 100. We will obviously at some point
54:57
do halflife, Alex, but it's just finding a way to do that without
55:00
spending several £1000. On a VR machine.
55:08
I would like to get a VR headset this year and I've already got
55:13
very, very good gaming laptops. So what we're thinking is that
55:17
towards the end we usually have an annual meet up.
55:19
So what we might do is if you can join me up here, we can play
55:24
a bit of that together. The annual conference.
55:27
Yes, yes, meeting of shareholders.
55:30
Yes, quite where we discussed the shares of which there are
55:35
none. So yeah, next week we'll be able
55:39
to ring. And then after that we're
55:40
probably going to take 2-3, maybe 4 weeks off.
55:44
We'll see just to have four weeks, Yeah, just to have a
55:47
little break so we can kind of start fresh because when we come
55:52
back, we're then going to be focusing on the thing that we've
55:55
been talking about for about a year where we are.
55:58
Three years. Well, yeah, since we started, I
56:01
suppose, But we're going to start on the list of 15 games
56:05
each that either we think should be in the top 100 or hold a
56:11
special place to us. So that list will be interesting
56:15
because it's all all our own selection and all games that we
56:19
either have played before or we want the other to play, or we
56:23
both just like. Or we just want to talk about,
56:25
yeah. So we're we're kind of
56:30
finalizing that list now and we're we're coming to a point
56:33
where we're trying to order them and I know Dan's got an issue in
56:37
the fact that we have 15 games and he's got about 17,000 on his
56:42
so. Produced it now to about 23 I
56:46
think. 23,000. Yes.
56:49
Yeah, good. Good for you.
56:53
So, yeah, it will be out and ring next week.
56:56
And then the podcast format will change a little bit when we come
56:59
back after a three to four week break.
57:00
And then we are. Going to suggest something which
57:04
I've never suggested before and I was thinking about this.
57:07
One of the things that said about the house in Fatsum or
57:09
Ghana was I'd like us to both compete it.
57:13
So there is that. There would be no time frame on
57:16
this I suppose just when you when you get a chance to get to
57:18
the end of the main game I'd like to do a follow up episode.
57:24
Where we can go into a few of the details a bit more.
57:27
Obviously we won't be ranking it again, but just a discussion
57:30
episode is a follow up. Yeah, that's fine.
57:34
I probably won't complete it for a bit because I need to.
57:37
I need to put time into ordinary.
57:40
Because that game is killing me. But yeah, I'm open to that.
57:45
Sounds like a good idea. So yes, that is the coming.
57:52
House in Fatima Garner, Dream of the Evidence Edition Debrief.
57:56
Dream of the Evidence Edition to Electric Boogaloo.
58:01
So yeah, that is that is the format for the next for next
58:05
week and then moving forward. So it's it's weird to kind of
58:10
say that we're we're pretty much there now for something that we
58:13
started before the pandemic happened really.
58:18
Or before our lives were affected by the pandemic as
58:20
such. Although it doesn't feel like
58:22
we're coming to an end because we've no, we've literally got an
58:25
absolute shed, loads of games coming up, even after we've done
58:28
our own game. And it's probably no surprise to
58:31
anyone, though, at some point where we're going to be talking
58:33
about Final Fantasy 7, you know, which I imagine that nobody
58:38
anticipated would would happen, because it's not a game I've
58:41
ever mentioned on this podcast. Even once, I don't think.
58:46
Can you think of a time where I've mentioned it?
58:49
I'm just looking forward to that that famous character dying, Mr.
58:53
Blobby. Yes Mr. Blobby, fantastic.
58:57
But yes, we're we're meandering now.
59:00
As always, yes. As always, you can find us on
59:04
social media along the Short of It Podcast.
59:06
You can e-mail us at the Long Short of It podcast@hotmail.com.
59:10
If you're able to, please give us a rating on Spotify or Apple
59:14
podcast or follow us or. All of that good stuff because
59:17
it makes it easier for the people to find us and enjoy our
59:20
dulcet tones and meanderings of talking absolutely smack.
59:27
But yeah, that was the house in Fatima, Ghana.
59:30
We'll see you next week for Eldon Ring.
59:32
Is there anything else from you? No.
59:35
Lovely. We'll see you next week then.
59:38
And in the meantime, take care. Cheerio.
59:39
See you on the next one.