Today on games and news, Matt's got a little bit of games, a tiny bit of news, and a lot of Final Fantasy 7 stuff at the request of Jim (I'm so sorry)

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Matt Murray on Blue Sky - @mattmurray.bsky.social

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Blue Sky - @couchmochi.bsky.social

The Critical Diversions intro and outro music was composed by Mic Fox. Check out his entire plate of projects over at

Costa del Sol was composed by Nobuo Uematsu for "Final Fantasy VII"

Matt's doing another one of these. This time, he gives an update on the state of the games club, talks about The Messenger, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and some games that are much better than those two! A lot of news to cover this week too, with plenty of layoffs and shitty CEOs. There's some Final Fantasy talk at the tail end as well.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Matt Murray on Blue Sky - @mattmurray.bsky.social

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Blue Sky - @couchmochi.bsky.social

The Critical Diversions intro and outro music was composed by Mic Fox. Check out his entire plate of projects over at

Cali, Wilkins, Boogs, Jim, Seth, and Matt cover What Remains of Edith Finch in this episode. Besides the game itself, they also talk about family histories, stories, and tall tales, what it's like to live in an Edith Finch-ian house, and plenty of their own haunted family traumas. Lotta crystals and tragically dead kids in this one.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Seth Sturgill on Twitter - @twodollarhero

Garrett Bugay on Twitter - @garrettbugay

Boogs's Podcast on Twitter - @dunkindynasty

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Matt Murray on Blue Sky - @mattmurray.bsky.social

Our podcast art is by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Blue Sky - @couchmochi.bsky.social

The Critical Diversions opening was composed by Mic Fox. Check out his entire plate of projects over at

"Milton's Tower" was composed by Jeff Russo & Joel Corelitz for What Remains of Edith Finch

Seth Sturgill, Andrew Wilkins, and Matt Murray air some grievances over the recently released turn-based RPG, Sea of Stars. But don't fret, there's some positivity sprinkled in there somewhere, we swear.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Seth Sturgill on Twitter - @twodollarhero

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Matt Murray on Blue Sky - @mattmurray.bsky.social

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Blue Sky - @couchmochi.bsky.social

The Critical Diversions opening was composed by Mic Fox. Check out his entire plate of projects over at

"Town of Mirth" and "Coral Cascades" were both composed by Yasunori Mitsuda for Sea of Stars

Matt Murray's doing a solo podcast, talking about video games, both ones he's played and ones he's seen in the news, and gulping water uncomfortably loud. This go around we're talking about goodies like 30XX, F-Zero 99, Baldur's Gate 3, the recent Nintendo Direct and Playstation State of Play, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth!

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Matt Murray on Blue Sky - @mattmurray.bsky.social

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Blue Sky - @couchmochi.bsky.social

The Critical Diversions opening was composed by Mic Fox. Check out his entire plate of projects over at

Collin Williams, Seth Sturgill, Jim Masi, Andrew Wilkins, and Matt Murray link up (sans passcodes) to talk about the Zelda Oracle games for the GameBoy Color, recently re-released on Switch. Along the way, they talk about trying to appreciate art from the perspective of the time in which it was made, our general thoughts on Zelda as a series, milk mouth, and horny tree.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Seth Sturgill on Twiter - @twodollarhero

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Matt Murray on Blue Sky - @mattmurray.bsky.social

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Blue Sky - @couchmochi.bsky.social

The Critical Diversions opening was composed by Mic Fox. Check out his entire plate of projects over at https://www.fortfamly.com/

"Dancing Dragon Dungeon" was composed by Pure Sound Inc. for the video game "The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons"

Jim Masi, Andrew Wilkins, Seth Sturgill, and Matt Murray meetup to talk about the latest game in the Pikmin franchise, its evolution towards a cozy game, the state of Nintendo's output over the last decade or so, and Oatchi.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Seth Sturgill on Twitter - @twodollarhero

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Deviantart

Our intro song this episode is "Mysterious Caves", and our outro is "Final Results", both from the video game "Pikmin 4". Pikmin 4 was composed by Kenta Nagata, Asuka Hayazaki, and Soshi Abe

Andrew Wilkins, Seth Sturgill, Hunter, and Matt Murray link up to talk about Sephonie, the latest game from Analgesic Productions. The conversation gets as heady and in the weeds as you'd expect from this group of folk talking about an existential 3D platformer/puzzle game/visual novel from one of the best game development studios on the planet.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Seth Sturgill on Twitter - @twodollarhero

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Deviantart

Please support Analgesic Productions, their games are a breath of fresh air, and worth geeking out this much over. As of the time of this posting, all of their games are on sale on Steam, including a bundle of them all.

Analgesic Productions on Twitter - @analgesicprod

Melos Han-Tani on Twitter - @han_tani

Marina Kittaka on Twitter - @even_kei

If you are interested in watching a playthrough of Sephonie, Matt's full recorded, uncommentated initial playthrough is available on Youtube, with a bonus speedrun attempt as the last video here!

Our intro song this episode is "flowing golden highway" by Melos Han-Tani from the game "Sephonie."

Our outro song this episode is "imagined intimacy" by Melos Han-Tani from the game "Sephonie."

You can purchase the entire Sephonie OST on Melos's Bandcamp

Seth Sturgill, Andrew Wilkins, and Matt Murray enter the Critical Diversions branded cage to fight about Alan Wake. Turns out, there wasn't as much to fight about as we thought. The combat ain't great though.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Seth Sturgill on Twitter - @twodollarhero

Andrew Wilkins on Twitter - Redacted

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Deviantart

Our intro song this episode was "How Can I Be Sure" by Anomie Belle from the video game "Alan Wake"

If you're interested in joining our games club discord, please just reach out to Matt Murray on Twitter!

Collin Williams, Andrew Wilkins, Hunter, Ian, Seth Sturgill, and Matt Murray throw the format of the show out the window on only the third episode to talk about their favorite games of 2023 so far, all while trying to not embarrass themselves while Jim silently judges.

Critical Diversions on Twitter - @crit_diversions

Collin Williams on Twitter - @crocomire

Andrew Wilkins on Twitter - @bigdawgsonly

Hunter on the internet - Please don't look him up

Ian - Critical Diversions is the exclusive place to find Ian online

Seth Sturgill on Twitter - @twodollarhero

Matt Murray on Twitter - @shyguycity

Jim on Twitter - @pork_boyz

Podcast art by Natascha Murray

Natascha Murray on Twitter - @couchmochi

Natascha Murray on Deviantart

Our intro song this episode was "Magdal Woods Power Plant" from "Even the Ocean", composed by Melos Han-Tani

Our outro song this episode was "Bluffing Damacy" from "We Love Katamari". Music by Asuka Sakai. Arrangement by Asuka Sakai, Horigome Takaki, and Yuu Miyake. Lyrics by Keita Takahashi

Games talked about this episode:

The Bookwalker: The Thief of Tales

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Signalis

Resident Evil 4 Remake

Splosion Man

Resident Evil 8

Final Fantasy 5 Pixel Remaster

HiFi Rush

Diablo 4

Final Fantasy 16

Dredge

Even the Ocean

Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

Dead CElls

Lunark

Blanc

Storyteller

We Love Katamari

Mr. Sun's Hatbox

Gato Roboto

Post Void