Describing The Skybox

I’m literally a podcast, what’s your excuse?

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Balatro, the hit poker roguelike from last year. Balatro is, in my opinion, the best kind of roguelike, with very synergy focused modifiers in the form of Jokers and card enhancements, as well as very permissive deck building options. You can, with proper management, cut large swathes of cards from your deck and really enable playing specific hands that synergize with the jokers you’re offered, meaning you can really set concrete goals for each run depending on what you are given early, so that strategic element is always at the forefront. A lot of this can be a little difficult to understand from the start though, and bouncing off is a real danger. To help ease that, the game has a really novel video-poker style aesthetic, with screen shaking effects and a dynamic, though single-track, score, which help draw you in and keep you invested. In the end, it’s a deep system that is still accessible and gives the player a lot of control over their runs, which does an especially great job of making higher difficulties feel challenging but not unfair. We’re going to be talking about joker designs from both a visual and mechanical standpoint, how strategies can differ depending on your goals in any given run, and how great twenty dollars actually is.

Thank you for listening this week! This was a necessary episode to put a period on the addiction this game caused in me over the last year, but even so I definitely recommend giving this a try if you haven’t already. Did you get sucked into this game at all since it came out and generated a lot of hype? Is it really worth the time to go for Completionist++? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Astrobot, so I hope you’ll join us for that!

NOCLIP finishes the URA Finale and stands above all other podcasts.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about… a currently popular gacha game about horse racing anime girls. Uma Musume (or Umamusume depending on who you ask) is a sort of sports management roguelike game where you build stats on characters and then, in combination with a small six-card deck of support cards, use them to run races in hopes they can better build another character in the future. Add to that one of the most duplicate intensive gacha systems I’ve ever seen attached, and you have the bones of what makes up this game. The roguelike mode of this game, the career, is honestly pretty lenient, which is good given the amount of cards and characters you would have to pull to make a top-tier team. However, it is interesting where the game chooses to spend its resources. Runs are bogged down with enormous amounts of text, every race has an optional “concert” you can watch afterward (which will repeat often, understandably as each contains a bespoke song and animation to accompany it), and character costumes, while unique for each horse girl, are locked for the lower tier rarity characters until you either pull enough duplicates or buy one the games many currencies one at a time from limited shops. The result is a game that you can sink a lot of time into without spending a lot of money, but with limited growth unless you start “swiping” or become friends with someone who does. These kinds of things are expected to an extent within the genre, and it isn’t one with which we have a ton of familiarity, so prepare for a bit of an exploration of our interpretations of the model as we go through it. We’re going to be talking about the time commitment required of you to make the most of your time with this game, what parts of the game could be appealing to what kinds of people, and which of our favorite real life horse stories make an appearance in this game.

Thank you for joining us again this week! I want to use this paragraph to note that there is a bit of a companion video to go along with this episode over on our YouTube channel exploring the actual length of the dialogue, so check out like maybe 10 minutes of that if you’re interested. Are you a dedicated gacha player with an understanding of banners and when and how to pull on them, or are you tourists like us coming in with various, but mostly low, levels of understanding of the model? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about last year’s most popular roguelike, Balatro, so I hope you’ll join us then.

There is only you, and the spark of the podcast that is your mind.

Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be looking at The Talos Principle 2, a first person puzzle game developed by Croteam. The game builds on, and stays pretty close to, the mechanics of the first game, using connecting lasers with various tools as the primary method of puzzle solving. Despite this, it does a good job of feeling familiar while also adding novelty with each new area. There are many new puzzle solving tools and they make you approach the puzzle rooms in different ways, with some of my personal favorites being the ones that allow the player to move around in different ways, which really changes your relationship with the space. Narratively, the game picks up where the previous left off, just very far in the future. The plot focuses on the society that has built up around the designs of the characters from the first game, but the philosophical focus has shifted from questions of personhood common in the first game to questions of humanity’s impact on environments and societal responsibility. This feels like a natural evolution and one that is more reactive to current social issues. We’re going to be talking about the pacing of the game and how it’s unusual difficulty curve is actually a boon, what makes the puzzles of this series as enjoyable as they are, and how we like colors and shapes, y’know, like newborn babies.

Thank you for listening to NOCLIP this week! This was a game we knew we wanted to play but took a while to find its spot. I’m glad we did get around to it, because it ended up being a really good time, but also because it provides a complete tonal contrast to the games surrounding it in the schedule. Were you a fan of the original game and waiting for the sequel? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, so we sort of hope you’ll join us then.

Do you know why we’re here? It’s because I have a small podcast.

Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about Spiritfarer, an incremental, management sim, narrative game. Which is a lot of ways to describe what is really a pretty simple game. The core of Spiritfarer is in its characters, spirits who you pick up from various islands and tend to while they come to grips with their own demise and prepare to go to the “Everdoor.” The storylines presented by each are genuinely heartfelt, the characters are expressive and the art used to depict them is beautiful. Some of their dialog might just be meaningful enough to provoke a strong emotional reaction from you. Many different tragedies play out with these characters, but also successes. Some just need a little more time to finish what they barely missed out on in life, while others fall into a state beyond repair and have to move on by their own will or not. And all of these great character moments and fantastic artwork is stapled onto what I would describe as a fairly slow paced farming sim game. Whether the gameplay of Spiritfarer speaks to you is going to be personal preference, but the game may be worth checking out for the other elements alone. We’re going to be talking about the value of spending more time in the game to building character relationships, the lack of value in spending more time in the game just getting from place to place, and, frankly, the value of our own time.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’ve been on a bit of slow pace with releasing episodes, so I’m sorry if you’re someone who does listen week to week and we haven’t been there, but life unfortunately has been fairly busy and our games have been fairly long, this one being no exception. The pacing of this game may have been a little better before expansions were added, but it’s hard to say playing it in its current state. If you were an early adopter, let us know what you thought in comments, or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about The Talos Principle II, so I hope you’ll join us for that.

Don’t tell anyone, but I always thought they were podcasts.

Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about To the Moon, a narrative game focused around learning about characters through one’s memory. I imagine this description will be quite short, because there isn’t a lot I can cover without spoiling the plot. While technically a sci-fi story, the game revolves around one character’s past, so those elements fall more into the background during the meat of the gameplay. The result is that despite the fantastical premise, the majority of the game feels very mundane which has the effect of making it easier for the player to relate to the characters in the story, and it’s very effective because the game operates on a personal level. As you learn more about each of the primary characters, you can start to see the depth they have and that characterization and what you think about their actions and motivations will influence the way you perceive the overall story. It kind of sounds like I’m just describing how to read a story, but engaging with this game the way you would a book or a movie will probably do you better than coming into it like it was Chrono Trigger. This is an extremely well written story with very little interactivity, and it’s well worth checking out if you’re in the mood for something simple. We’re going to be talking about what being a game brings to the table for this experience, how the game goes handles its characters, and we speak ill (and not so ill) of the dead.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’re on the last of our Mystery May games after this, and it’s so far been a year for actually covering the games that have been on our list for a long time. The tragedy of this game, aside from Johnny’s story itself, is that we waited so long to play it that it feels to me almost obsolete as a game, though not as a narrative, which still feels very well written. Did you feel similarly to me, or were you more engaged due to the interactivity? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we ended up rolling a game that is has been on the list for less time than the other games this year, but one we’re excited for anyway, Spiritfarer, so we hope you’ll join us then!

Forget about Freeman, we’re abandoning the podcast.

Welcome back to the podcast! We may be into June, but we’re in the ides of Mystery May right now, and the fates have deigned we play Half-Life, and I am not one to argue with the fates. Half-Life is one of the most influential FPS games of all time, and part of that comes down to the way the game builds a really impressive world for you to play through. Black Mesa feels as vast in some places and stifling in others as it needs to in order to create a tone that is full of anxiety as you conserve ammunition while fighting enemies with genuinely great creature design. It’s part FPS, part horror title, like Doom was, but with this added environmental element that really pushes it to the next level. The other part of its influence is really just about how good the game was when it came out. Levels are mostly well paced, even from a modern perspective, movement through them feels fluid and like you’re using all the parts of your toolbox, and the aforementioned ammo conservation feels well thought out. This one is an easy game to go back to despite it’s age, and it’s still just as moody while still having that over-the-top 90s sci-fi edge to it. We’re going to be talking about Source Engine movement, the pros and cons of Xen, and whether we were or were not excited to turn on pumps.

Thank you for joining us again this week! We’ve been consistently hitting the games that have been on our list for the longest this year, and Half-Life is one we’ve been dancing around for a little too long. This game still rules, particularly if you are a fan of its descendants, so if you haven’t given it a shot yet, I recommend doing so. And then let us know what it was like over on our Discord, or in the comment section! Next time, we’re going to be talking about To The Moon, which is not about the stock exchange, so we hope you’ll join us then!

No, I’m Pod. He’s Cast.

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for the second episode of Mystery May, we’re going to be talking about The Wolf Among Us, a narrative adventure game from Telltale. Telltale’s style of design really exploded with the Walking Dead, and has since led to a number of choice-based adventure games that would cite it as inspiration, but The Wolf Among Us sits in a unique position in their catalogue as the last indie property they would make a game out of following the studio’s previous success. Because Fables, the series that the game is based on, is relatively niche, many of the players for this game were fans of Telltale’s games specifically. This has led to the game having a particularly outspoken following, and a very positive reputation. And one it’s earned, we think. The game centers around a murder mystery, placing you in the shoes and paws of Sheriff Bigby Wolf trying to identify the killer. And this mystery is very well written, with pacing that makes the game’s five episode structure flow surprisingly well even when playing through the game all at once and characters that are deep enough to make sense of their motivations and, importantly, predict their reactions to your choices. Some of the mechanics show their age, with Telltale’s usual reliance on QTEs and truncated dialogue choices introducing a little bit of friction, but if these are things you can deal with, this may be the best example of what Telltale can do out there. We’re going to talk about the audience expectation that comes with writing a story using preexisting characters from two different mediums, managing tone with a mature premise but a silly pretense, and we revel in our success as podcasting magnates.

Thank you for joining us again this week! As we’ve mentioned on the last two episodes, it’s kind of crazy we hadn’t talked about a Telltale game up to this point. We have different histories with the studio, but we both like the games inspired by them and have played multiple games from them in the past, so it was honestly a matter of time. Do you think The Wolf Among Us is The Wolf Among the best games Telltale has released? Do you jive with the general structure and mechanics of this now twelve year old game still? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, the fates have deigned we talk about Half-Life, so be sure to join us for that!

The guild authorizes you to hunt this podcast.

Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest mainline entry in the series and the game that turned many peoples’ computers into puddles of acid. Wilds is a follow up to Monster Hunter World both in that it was made by the same team and that it mechanically doesn’t stray too far from the systems that World established. This is a good and a bad thing, because it means that the combat in Wilds is much more straightforward than it was in Rise, allowing you to establish a flow with each weapon and understand the basics fairly quickly. On the other hand, it also doesn’t feel like it has innovated much, particularly in the ways the game seemed to advertise itself on. Focusing on the larger environments, Wilds seems to have overstepped its own capabilities a bit, making the new areas harder to traverse, and without your mount, taking a long time to do. Additionally, much of the tracking mechanics have been stripped out, meaning you generally know what you’re hunting and exactly where it is when you set off, making the more-open world basically a nonfactor in gameplay. If you’re a fan of the series mostly because of the combat mechanics, none of these things will be deal breakers, and the new focus mode and wound system changes the texture of fights enough to make them feel fresh again, but there is a lot of truly unnecessary artifice surrounding the game that can detract. We’re going to be talking about what the story does(n’t) bring to the table, the wonderful new monster designs, and the horror that is palicos talking.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Monster Hunter Wilds was one of my most anticipated games this year, and despite what we talk about in the episode, I think it still holds up as a fun entry in the series, even if it isn’t substantially close to some of the previous games for me. How did you feel about the game? Did you manage to muscle through the first 10 or so hours to get to where the game opens up for you, or did you bounce off of it? If you were a new player, did you find this an accessible game? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord server! Next time, we begin Mystery May, where we roll a die to determine our next episode based on our tables (which you can view on our website if curious!). We’re starting with a “short” game (formerly “Pocket”), The Wolf Among Us, so we hope you’ll join us for that!

Artists create, podcast, and destroy.

Welcome back to the podcast where today we’re going to be talking about Immortality. Immortality is a game from Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story and Telling Lies and it follows in the same tradition as those games. Largely player-directed, the game involves watching clips of three films and footage associated with them in order to gain an understanding of what happened to the people involved. There is a set point at which the game shows you its credits, but whether you feel done at that point is largely up to you. Differing from the previous games, rather than inputting text to find clips, you click on elements in scenes to cut between them, following actors or props or other elements to see new things, and you can control the speed of playback and even play in reverse. Your understanding of these mechanics and how the internal logic of the match cuts works really determine what kind of agency you can exercise in solving the mysteries, so your milage may vary depending on how much you liked the core loop of Her Story in comparison to this one. Even so, the technical prowess on display here is still incredible, with a surprising dedication to capturing the feel of the eras of film each of the game’s three movies represent and performances that don’t feel like an imitation so much as part of film canon themselves. We’re going to be talking about the feeling of playing Immortality as compared to other games, the surprising directions the narrative takes and how it differed from our own interpretations, and in a spiritual successor to Haunting Those ROMs, we discuss what may be haunting THIS footage.

Thank you for joining us again this week! Immortality has been on the list for a while because we have a particular soft spot for Her Story and how different that game felt to anything else, and while this is more refinement than innovation, it’s still a really impressive title and would probably give you a similar feeling to us if it is the first of Sam Barlow’s games you’ve played. Did you pick up on the game’s secrets? Did you struggle to rewind because you were playing with a mouse? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about Monster Hunter Wilds, so I hope you join us then and that you have some free time in the coming weeks.