I want to shout out the GotY Award’s Orchestra for rocking the show. That one dude going ham on the righthand corner of the orchestra was a delight and the GotY mashup was fantastic this year. The piece accompanying the Okami sequel reveal was also beautifully done. Kudos to them!
Epic flute guy! He's the absolute best. The medley is always my favorite part of the show and I went and re-watched that segment several times after it was over. I wish we could buy an album of all ten years of medleys.
"Flute Guy" Pedro Eustache for the win! I thought the adaptation of Balatro's theme into the medley was so excellently done before GotY was awarded. The live performances with and without the orchestra were all fantastic - particularly enjoyed Twenty One Pilots.
Hooooo boy. I think this year is a perfect piece of evidence that there's gotta be a non-bracket format for these next year. Balatro v Metaphor in the first round, come on man! Like, I don't blame you all, with a bracket format these things will happen. And I don't know how else you do this in an engaging and fair way. But damn dawgie, putting two of the top 5 games of the year (that are also WILDLY different games) in the same first round matchup feels unfair and not conducive to a true best of the year conversation.
I don't mean this in a rude way but it's really just not that big of a deal. It's for funsie! In the past they have done other sillier things! E.g. the Chris Grant robot
if the goal is just to find the single best game then a single elim bracket is perfectly reasonable and it doesn't matter when the matchups happens
the actual goal is to make a podcast episode and the bracket serves to structure discussion. there are no real rules. maybe at the end of episode 2 they decide they want goty to be metaphor anyway. maybe they don't. there's no scenario where it makes any sense to say "aw man we all really want it to be #2 but the darn bracket means it isn't. shoot!" so they will not. it's not the bracket's fault. for that matter, there is no fault for anything to possess.
what actually makes less sense is to deliberately avoid brutal matchups r1 by determining a 1-16 power ranking and seeding the bracket that way. "we've ranked these games in the order we prefer them and now we will fight them against each other to see which one we prefer" like no you have already completed the exercise, congrats to the #1 seed.
that said, crow country only advanced because it was against something that is only kind of a game and only kind of of the year.
luckily no partial credit is awarded for winning your r1 matchup. you're either first or you ain't
Ah man part of me is a bit bummed that my personal goty, Tactical Breach Wizards, got eliminated on the first round and by the sound of the discussion it sounds like most of the guys didn't even play that far into the game. Like yeah I get it they're busy and got a lot of stuff to play for the show, but still a bit disappointing to hear when they did seem to enjoy the game when they talked about it in it's episode. 😔
I’m honestly surprised by how much Plante undersold 1000xResist and I have to assume it’s some combination of not wanting to spoil it and thinking that it’s not for everyone - I get that, but a couple of years ago we had both Pentiment and Citizen Sleeper in the discussion and both were elevated pretty high despite being effectively visual novels whose value was their narrative and yet besties didn’t spoil either and still talked about each at length.
I think there is a TON you can say about 1kxR without spoiling it, and I’ll try and do so without going on for pages and pages. First, this game gave me the biggest feelings of any title that released this year, by far. A game has not made me this curious, this sad, this hopeful, this enlightened, this angry, this surprised, this just flat out amazed, struck dumb with awe, in a long time.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think I’ll need to come back and reply here once I’ve organized my thoughts more. There’s a lot to say and I’ve also listened to Into the Aether’s and Dotzip’s episodes on it (and read Polygon’s article about it as an allegory for diaspora that I think everyone should at least know the headline) and i need to both detangle my own original thoughts of and experiences with the game from all the critical coverage, but also because even without walking through its plot there is so much to tell a prospective player to hook them, not the least being the background of the people who made it.
Don’t let anyone say writing game reviews is easy. I’ll bullet some points and come back and tell you why this game was robbed at TGAs, was robbed a little here and better fucking sweep the Indie Game Awards next week (it won’t).
Totally agree, hopefully they play this on a future ep. I think this is the first game story I've played that I can say would never work as a book, movie, etc. The whole concept of "experience" is explored in a way that requires you to actually play the game, and it hits on an emotional impact level on par with the best movies/book etc.
I agree so much! I think with a show or movie they could change the camera perspective to mimic what this game does, but you being the active participant and being able to take it all in at your own pace means a lot, and be able to look around. The time skips, too, and even being able to jump back and see how some scenes compare, when you have the option to jump back and forth.
I don’t think it should be, like, required reading, but certainly anyone who gives it a chance will have their horizons broadened, not just with gaming but with their understanding of other people, families, cultures. I’m honestly so grateful for having played it and think it might be one of those games I replay every so often and get even more out of it, if I can ever get the hang of the hub area layout lmao
So I get that its hard to sell this game for a number a reasons, but a big part of it is that there isn’t much “game,” in it. There are no fail states, very light puzzle challenges, and it’s basically an exploration game where you run around and talk to people. But the first Alan Wake, for example, was one of my favourite games for a long time *in spite* of its gameplay. It was the story it told that hooked me, and how it told it, and that’s exactly the case with 1kxR for me too.
Its in a chapter format set in a far future dystopian sci fi world that gradually reveals to you how things came to be that way through the story of Iris, the lone human immune to a deadly pandemic that accompanied an alien invasion. That is… a lot to unpack, but really that’s only the half of it.
Like I said, it’s important to know the background of the people who made this game. Sunset Visitor is a studio formed by theater performers and workers from Vancouver, British Columbia, that couldn’t work because of the pandemic lockdowns back in 2020 and decided to make a game instead. They also are part of the Asian diaspora, and you might remember those Hong Kong protests that took place in 2019. Well, both of those details matter a LOT in 1000xResist, and in some ways the game is an allegory for parts of those experiences. Iris is Asian and her parents immigrated to Canada fleeing an authoritarian regime.
The game reminds me of Citizen Sleeper in that it’s very human, and isn’t overly preoccupied with judging its characters. They’re presented as they are and there is room for you to see almost anyone’s side. It also has just a lot of characters, at least side-missiony types, that don’t have to matter at all but if you choose to pay attention and talk to everyone, you’ll see other peoples’ stories evolve alongside your own.
The game itself, the story and how it tells it to you, is one of the best examples of video games as art I’ve ever experienced. I have taken notes while playing this game, have stayed up hours later than I meant to and woken up tired and miserable, but excited, the next day, because I was so hooked. And what hooked me most was the sense of discovery the game gave me, where I didn’t just learn things as the plot revealed them, but actually got excited figuring something out before it was explained explicitly. The game starts out with some pretty opaque stuff, and I think it would benefit from replaying the way a show with a twist at the end would be a totally different watch the second time once you know what’s going on the whole time.
Really, I get that it’s visual-novel territory in that it doesn’t require skill, just time and attention, to advance in it, but your time and attention are rewarded. I honestly had my mind opened by some of the realizations I had playing this game, where I figured that X was an analogue for Y in the real world, and what does that say about how we are as a society when I realize that’s the comparison the author is trying to make.
It made me think and it made me feel. I’ll miss the characters, and I want to talk about the story to anyone who will listen. Maybe Plante didn’t go on about it at too much length because he knew how insufferable he would become once he indulged himself. I’m doing that to an extent here. But really, it’s a game that deserves to be recognized as a true piece of art, not just in gaming but media in general, anyone with an open mind and 10-12 hours should play it, and I’m sure they’ll get more out of it than almost any other game that came out this year (except Astro bot which is pure joy straight in the veins)!
Following up on last week's recommendation of Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop, I have just discovered that it is also a game with capital 'S' Secrets and it is tickling me more than Animal Well did.
Great episode, gents. My GOTY was Rebirth, but mostly because it's the one I played this year. I'm still feeling hungover by it and I kinda wish I had saved my time and energy for Metaphor or Like a Dragon, but I want to play those games sequentially because I love what I've experienced through 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2.
I'm going to just own up to being a curmudgeon here, but even hearing people talk about Balatro makes me not want to play it. And the more I hear it, the less I want to play it. At this point, it's like listening to other people talk about their fantasy football teams. I just don't care because it's about taking a principled stand to narrow-mindedness now.
Probably but digging in my heels has become a game in itself.
But also I'm not the kind of person that once were as interested in games to play on their phone or games to inhabit 15 minute chunks of my day. It's just a polar opposite of what I do look to get out of it games.
On the topic of comparing very dissimilar games (Balatro vs Metaphor) maybe yall could try a conferences bracket where you group the games into two conferences. Depends on what games release in a year but maybe you could try and find some invisible thread that holds half of the games together like "story-heavy" vs "action-heavy".
Hey Plante! i agree that 1000xResist is the best narrative game of the year, but you know what’s the best narrative game of the last five years, or maybe more? Slay the Princess! you NEED to check it out! i don’t know if anyone else on the show would be into it, but if you don’t like it, i’ll buy a hat just to eat it.
Hey dude, I just binged StP in three days last week and I agree it’s an amazing narrative game, but personally I got more out of 1000xResist! But why rank them against each other when they seem to like each other enough to be sold in a bundle together lol
I never play "twine type" visual novels but I really like the artist's old webcomic (The Last Halloween) so I gave it a shot. It's full on weird but it develops a really interesting perspective the more you go through it. Definitely worth trying.
I played some of the demo a few months ago. It seemed cool but didn’t stick with me terribly much. I likely didn’t give it a chance. I’ll dice back in once I’m done with Golden Idol.
I want to shout out the GotY Award’s Orchestra for rocking the show. That one dude going ham on the righthand corner of the orchestra was a delight and the GotY mashup was fantastic this year. The piece accompanying the Okami sequel reveal was also beautifully done. Kudos to them!
Epic flute guy! He's the absolute best. The medley is always my favorite part of the show and I went and re-watched that segment several times after it was over. I wish we could buy an album of all ten years of medleys.
He had a bass flute AND a contrabass flute amongst others.
there's so much to like there! Keytar man! Dude with Glass Trumpet! Dude beating the shit out of that drum for Okami! Love the Game Awards Orchestra
"Flute Guy" Pedro Eustache for the win! I thought the adaptation of Balatro's theme into the medley was so excellently done before GotY was awarded. The live performances with and without the orchestra were all fantastic - particularly enjoyed Twenty One Pilots.
Who's going to tell them that Hunter X Hunter is also just called Hunter Hunter?
Someone compiled all the Statler and Waldorf bits from the Game Awards on tiktok. Please enjoy: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTY9Gb6Ka/
Hooooo boy. I think this year is a perfect piece of evidence that there's gotta be a non-bracket format for these next year. Balatro v Metaphor in the first round, come on man! Like, I don't blame you all, with a bracket format these things will happen. And I don't know how else you do this in an engaging and fair way. But damn dawgie, putting two of the top 5 games of the year (that are also WILDLY different games) in the same first round matchup feels unfair and not conducive to a true best of the year conversation.
I don't mean this in a rude way but it's really just not that big of a deal. It's for funsie! In the past they have done other sillier things! E.g. the Chris Grant robot
if the goal is just to find the single best game then a single elim bracket is perfectly reasonable and it doesn't matter when the matchups happens
the actual goal is to make a podcast episode and the bracket serves to structure discussion. there are no real rules. maybe at the end of episode 2 they decide they want goty to be metaphor anyway. maybe they don't. there's no scenario where it makes any sense to say "aw man we all really want it to be #2 but the darn bracket means it isn't. shoot!" so they will not. it's not the bracket's fault. for that matter, there is no fault for anything to possess.
what actually makes less sense is to deliberately avoid brutal matchups r1 by determining a 1-16 power ranking and seeding the bracket that way. "we've ranked these games in the order we prefer them and now we will fight them against each other to see which one we prefer" like no you have already completed the exercise, congrats to the #1 seed.
that said, crow country only advanced because it was against something that is only kind of a game and only kind of of the year.
luckily no partial credit is awarded for winning your r1 matchup. you're either first or you ain't
I think they were going to have a discussion like that with Balatro eventually, so might as well be now.
Metaphor vs Balatro is tooouuugh
Ah man part of me is a bit bummed that my personal goty, Tactical Breach Wizards, got eliminated on the first round and by the sound of the discussion it sounds like most of the guys didn't even play that far into the game. Like yeah I get it they're busy and got a lot of stuff to play for the show, but still a bit disappointing to hear when they did seem to enjoy the game when they talked about it in it's episode. 😔
Yeah I thought it would win round 1 but I guess Steamworld nailed the fun factor/progression hooks a bit better
I’m honestly surprised by how much Plante undersold 1000xResist and I have to assume it’s some combination of not wanting to spoil it and thinking that it’s not for everyone - I get that, but a couple of years ago we had both Pentiment and Citizen Sleeper in the discussion and both were elevated pretty high despite being effectively visual novels whose value was their narrative and yet besties didn’t spoil either and still talked about each at length.
I think there is a TON you can say about 1kxR without spoiling it, and I’ll try and do so without going on for pages and pages. First, this game gave me the biggest feelings of any title that released this year, by far. A game has not made me this curious, this sad, this hopeful, this enlightened, this angry, this surprised, this just flat out amazed, struck dumb with awe, in a long time.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think I’ll need to come back and reply here once I’ve organized my thoughts more. There’s a lot to say and I’ve also listened to Into the Aether’s and Dotzip’s episodes on it (and read Polygon’s article about it as an allegory for diaspora that I think everyone should at least know the headline) and i need to both detangle my own original thoughts of and experiences with the game from all the critical coverage, but also because even without walking through its plot there is so much to tell a prospective player to hook them, not the least being the background of the people who made it.
Don’t let anyone say writing game reviews is easy. I’ll bullet some points and come back and tell you why this game was robbed at TGAs, was robbed a little here and better fucking sweep the Indie Game Awards next week (it won’t).
Thanks for selling this to me! I loved Pentiment and liked Citizen Sleeper, but this game wasn't really on my radar. I'll put it on my to play list!
Totally agree, hopefully they play this on a future ep. I think this is the first game story I've played that I can say would never work as a book, movie, etc. The whole concept of "experience" is explored in a way that requires you to actually play the game, and it hits on an emotional impact level on par with the best movies/book etc.
I agree so much! I think with a show or movie they could change the camera perspective to mimic what this game does, but you being the active participant and being able to take it all in at your own pace means a lot, and be able to look around. The time skips, too, and even being able to jump back and see how some scenes compare, when you have the option to jump back and forth.
I don’t think it should be, like, required reading, but certainly anyone who gives it a chance will have their horizons broadened, not just with gaming but with their understanding of other people, families, cultures. I’m honestly so grateful for having played it and think it might be one of those games I replay every so often and get even more out of it, if I can ever get the hang of the hub area layout lmao
So I get that its hard to sell this game for a number a reasons, but a big part of it is that there isn’t much “game,” in it. There are no fail states, very light puzzle challenges, and it’s basically an exploration game where you run around and talk to people. But the first Alan Wake, for example, was one of my favourite games for a long time *in spite* of its gameplay. It was the story it told that hooked me, and how it told it, and that’s exactly the case with 1kxR for me too.
Its in a chapter format set in a far future dystopian sci fi world that gradually reveals to you how things came to be that way through the story of Iris, the lone human immune to a deadly pandemic that accompanied an alien invasion. That is… a lot to unpack, but really that’s only the half of it.
Like I said, it’s important to know the background of the people who made this game. Sunset Visitor is a studio formed by theater performers and workers from Vancouver, British Columbia, that couldn’t work because of the pandemic lockdowns back in 2020 and decided to make a game instead. They also are part of the Asian diaspora, and you might remember those Hong Kong protests that took place in 2019. Well, both of those details matter a LOT in 1000xResist, and in some ways the game is an allegory for parts of those experiences. Iris is Asian and her parents immigrated to Canada fleeing an authoritarian regime.
The game reminds me of Citizen Sleeper in that it’s very human, and isn’t overly preoccupied with judging its characters. They’re presented as they are and there is room for you to see almost anyone’s side. It also has just a lot of characters, at least side-missiony types, that don’t have to matter at all but if you choose to pay attention and talk to everyone, you’ll see other peoples’ stories evolve alongside your own.
The game itself, the story and how it tells it to you, is one of the best examples of video games as art I’ve ever experienced. I have taken notes while playing this game, have stayed up hours later than I meant to and woken up tired and miserable, but excited, the next day, because I was so hooked. And what hooked me most was the sense of discovery the game gave me, where I didn’t just learn things as the plot revealed them, but actually got excited figuring something out before it was explained explicitly. The game starts out with some pretty opaque stuff, and I think it would benefit from replaying the way a show with a twist at the end would be a totally different watch the second time once you know what’s going on the whole time.
Really, I get that it’s visual-novel territory in that it doesn’t require skill, just time and attention, to advance in it, but your time and attention are rewarded. I honestly had my mind opened by some of the realizations I had playing this game, where I figured that X was an analogue for Y in the real world, and what does that say about how we are as a society when I realize that’s the comparison the author is trying to make.
It made me think and it made me feel. I’ll miss the characters, and I want to talk about the story to anyone who will listen. Maybe Plante didn’t go on about it at too much length because he knew how insufferable he would become once he indulged himself. I’m doing that to an extent here. But really, it’s a game that deserves to be recognized as a true piece of art, not just in gaming but media in general, anyone with an open mind and 10-12 hours should play it, and I’m sure they’ll get more out of it than almost any other game that came out this year (except Astro bot which is pure joy straight in the veins)!
Huge thanks to Kyler Starr! Haven’t been financially able to become a Patreon supporter yet, but hopefully will soon!
Following up on last week's recommendation of Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop, I have just discovered that it is also a game with capital 'S' Secrets and it is tickling me more than Animal Well did.
Whoa this looks great! thanks for the rec!
Great episode, gents. My GOTY was Rebirth, but mostly because it's the one I played this year. I'm still feeling hungover by it and I kinda wish I had saved my time and energy for Metaphor or Like a Dragon, but I want to play those games sequentially because I love what I've experienced through 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2.
I'm going to just own up to being a curmudgeon here, but even hearing people talk about Balatro makes me not want to play it. And the more I hear it, the less I want to play it. At this point, it's like listening to other people talk about their fantasy football teams. I just don't care because it's about taking a principled stand to narrow-mindedness now.
That's a shame. I think you should be less of a curmudgeon
Probably but digging in my heels has become a game in itself.
But also I'm not the kind of person that once were as interested in games to play on their phone or games to inhabit 15 minute chunks of my day. It's just a polar opposite of what I do look to get out of it games.
I’m curious why. Did you hate Slay the Spire? Love it?
I did not play it. I see cards and I just don't care, LOL
On the topic of comparing very dissimilar games (Balatro vs Metaphor) maybe yall could try a conferences bracket where you group the games into two conferences. Depends on what games release in a year but maybe you could try and find some invisible thread that holds half of the games together like "story-heavy" vs "action-heavy".
Haven’t listened yet, but I’m throwing the same prediction that I did for last night’s Game Awards. FF7 Rebirth GOTY 🤞🏼
Some of these matchups in round one alone are just merciless. Ugh.
Balatro vs. Metaphor right off the jump is SO MEAN.
Hey Plante! i agree that 1000xResist is the best narrative game of the year, but you know what’s the best narrative game of the last five years, or maybe more? Slay the Princess! you NEED to check it out! i don’t know if anyone else on the show would be into it, but if you don’t like it, i’ll buy a hat just to eat it.
Hey dude, I just binged StP in three days last week and I agree it’s an amazing narrative game, but personally I got more out of 1000xResist! But why rank them against each other when they seem to like each other enough to be sold in a bundle together lol
https://isthereanydeal.com/game/reflections-in-reflections/info/
I never play "twine type" visual novels but I really like the artist's old webcomic (The Last Halloween) so I gave it a shot. It's full on weird but it develops a really interesting perspective the more you go through it. Definitely worth trying.
I played some of the demo a few months ago. It seemed cool but didn’t stick with me terribly much. I likely didn’t give it a chance. I’ll dice back in once I’m done with Golden Idol.
Shout out to PM:TTYD! Dear Nintendo/Santa, please bring back the GOAT Mario RPG format!