KissMammal wrote: June 6th, 2019, 10:20 pm
I so wanted to like Night in the Woods - the music, art and writing are all incredible. I just wish it had more in the way of actual, you know, gameplay. Some platforming, some point and click styles puzzles... anything to get my teeth into. I know there are those that disagree, but I'm firmly of the opinion that unless a game has some level of of challenge or element of interactivity beyond simply navigating an environment, I just don't see the point and I'd honestly rather you had just made a short animation instead.
That never bothered me at all with this game, I think the (mostly) laid back gameplay of hanging out with your friends and choosing dialogue choices was honestly enough to pull me in. The writing was so good that I would replay certain sections just to see what characters would say. Building a robot, shoplifting pretzels to feed a family of rats, looking for constellations through your neighbour's telescope, it was these mundane little things that made this town feel alive to me. Not to mention during the more awkward social moments, trying to choose something that would not put your foot too far into your mouth was almost like this game's boss battles! Whenever I messed up, I would feel like an idiot and would want to patch things up with my friends or family asap. It is these moments of social anxiety that made this suited to be a game, just reading or watching it would not feel the same way to me.
Also, when you unlock Demontower that could be a fun little time waster if you wanted a break from life in Possum Springs. However, a game with this kind of visuals and writing that had point and click elements/platforming? I definitely would be all up for that! Hope Scott Benson is working on something like that currently or in the future.
Fair enough, each to their own. For me it's the same reason I could never get on with any of the Telltale games. For me they were like playing an old point and click game with all the puzzles (ie the actual meat of the game) taken out.
Noticed that JRPGs get quite a bit of air time on the podcast! (Not that I'm complaining!) Josh and Leah seem particularly big fans of the genre. Was wondering whether any of the staff have tried The Legend of Heroes series, by Falcom? Specifically, the Trails in the Sky trilogy and Trails of Cold Steel I and II (III is coming out this September in the West). Jason Schreier from Kotaku has sung its praises many times and wrote about it here back in 2016: https://kotaku.com/how-to-get-into-trai ... 1786275078
Would love to see it covered on C&R at some point, if it's not already on the list, since it's somewhat of a niche series (with a very small but passionate following) and doesn't get much mention in the mainstream media!
The Trails of Cold Steel games are already on the list. Leah has played them but she’s the only one from the team as far as we can tell, though Charlotte and I have expressed interest in them.
ratsoalbion wrote: July 9th, 2019, 2:33 pm
The Trails of Cold Steel games are already on the list. Leah has played them but she’s the only one from the team as far as we can tell, though Charlotte and I have expressed interest in them.
That's great! Really hope to see it on the list of episodes some day. If it ever comes up for serious consideration though, I would suggest starting with the Sky trilogy first, because it comes first timeline-wise. Also because its graphics and gameplay mechanics are a bit more dated.
The games generally take a while to get going, but it's a joy to see how the plot deepens from game to game. Can't think of any other RPG off the top of my head which has done such extensive worldbuilding across multiple games!
Just to manage expectations as usual though, please bear in mind that there are over two thousand games on the list, and we can only make 50 shows per year..!
Everything on that list does get properly considered however.
They're very reminiscent of Tim Schaeffer's games in the style of humour.
Sometimes it's quite dry, sometimes it's quite silly. Light puzzles/platforming.
If you haven't checked them out, I recommend them.
ThirdDrawing wrote: August 17th, 2019, 9:02 am
Two suggestions:
Stick it to the Man
Flipping Death
Same publisher. Both on PS4 and on Steam.
They're very reminiscent of Tim Schaeffer's games in the style of humour.
Sometimes it's quite dry, sometimes it's quite silly. Light puzzles/platforming.
If you haven't checked them out, I recommend them.
Haven’t played the latter game but Stick it to the man is great. Was on ps plus 5 years ago also so probably lurking on a few hard drives.
I guess it's a bit of a too recent release for inclusion in the the podcast any time soon, but have just finished A Plague Tale: Innocence and though it had its flaws really enjoyed it - feels like the kind of thing Victor Hugo would have come up with if he'd worked at Naughty Dog.
(Though mon Dieu - play it with the French audio because the English-language actors were tasked with putting on some questionable French accents which damages an otherwise pretty immersive story)
In its defence, Angry Birds did a huge amount to popularise mobile gaming and really was a breakthrough game in terms of bringing gaming in to the mainstream I think. I thought it could be interesting.
In some ways it would be an interesting series to cover as alex suggests, however, I can’t realistically imagine enough of us want to play the game(s) to completion to make a podcast about it/them...
