Video Gamers Podcast - Personal Top 5 Indie Games Of All Time | Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Gaming hosts Ace, Ryan, and John each share their top 5 indie games. From emotional story-driven gems to experimental hits that push the medium forward, this episode is a celebration of everything we love about video games. Whether you're looking for your next video game to play or just want to argue with our picks, we've got something for every kind of gamer. Your weekly dose of gaming passion, hidden gems, and indie game glory — from the Video Gamers Podcast. Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, and Gaius Connect with the show:Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspodJoin our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbzFollow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. I'm your host Ace and today we're talking our top indies. But before that, with me is my indie brother in arms, John. Hey, what's up everybody? Super stoked for this episode. Oh, this is gonna be a good one. I'm very excited for this one. And of course, my newest recruit to the indie army,

the one and only Ryan. Listen, I'm slowly accepting that some indie games are good. I'll take that. Yeah, Ace, I would be a little hesitant to name him amongst our ranks just yet. With his very lukewarm response to Claire Obscure, I don't know, I don't know. He might be a defector in the making.

That could have been a triple A game, I would have the same response. So the developer made no difference. Well, clearly, because it didn't make any difference for you how you felt about it. But I mean, Baldur's Gate 3-1 game of the year, it's an indie technically. So I'm thinking we're probably going to see another indie win game of the year. If you ask me. There's two great contenders so far.

I mean, between Claire obscure and kingdom come, do we actually even consider kingdom come to I think technically two isn't, but one is it's yeah, it's just semantics, all sorts of stuff like that. But you know, we got a really exciting episode here where we're going to break down our, uh, personal top five Indies.

And, uh, I'm very excited because I definitely have a lot I really want to talk about I know yeah I definitely do I yeah it was like when uh when you mentioned that this was going to be the topic of this show and we're sort of curating it I started thinking immediately and I was like my top five indies is almost my top five just games in general you know I yeah we've had several conversations about this where indie games tend to feel like they have a lot more heart and they're able to take better risks because the financial risk is not as important. It's probably more important, honestly.

It's probably pretty devastating, honestly. They put a lot on the line. Yeah, exactly. Sink or swim. A bad game will probably tank an independent studio, but it happens with the bigger titles too. Anyway, most of, most of my favorite games are, are Indies. So this is awesome. I'm in the same boat. I know you are too, right? Ryan, most of your favorite games are surely Indie games. Totally.

They are. My name's not Shirley. Thanks for butchering that quote by the way. My name is not Shirley. No, that's, that's uh. Thanks for butchering that quote by the way. I know. My name is not Shirley. I like indie games. I just tend to like the polished depth of AAA titles, but I'm not taking away anything from what these indie developers do.

I think they do some amazing work They're doing the Lord's work man this this stuff they create with like five three ten twenty man teams is a Claire obscure a thirty man like that's Amazing so so you know no no you know things against them, but Yeah, man. I'm excited to see what everybody's game is. Is it safe to say you're also like a Nickelback fan and a Creed fan? Like really over-polished?

Well, you know, we all just wanna be big rock stars. No, gosh, no, Nickelback, bleh, bleh. I just, I can't say the name without bleh. They made a lot of money though, I'll tell you that much. They did. They're doing something right, theyback, uh. Uh. Uh. I just, I can't say the name without, uh. They made a lot of money though. I'll tell you that much. They did. They're doing something right. They're still around.

So. There's a lot of big steamy piles of poop that have made a lot of money out there. So did McDonald's, but here we are. Yeah, at least they're consistently poopy. I love talking about, you know, what's coming out in the indie scene, but I definitely love talking about

what I already love from the indie scene. So this episode is going to be very fun for me. Because like I've said before, I think indies are the, like, purest form of a game. It's the dream straight from the mind of a developer, completely unfiltered, as long as it's, you know, legal. You know what's interesting, Ace? I'm curious about your feedback on this.

I feel, are you familiar with A24 movies that- Yes, yes. Okay, so they ended up rising to prominence and they're releasing a lot of movies now because the AAA movie titles have lost so much money over time. Like they've become stale and sort of repetitive and A24 started investing in these more like esoteric titles that have done really

well on smaller budgets. And, uh, and now a lot of titles, a lot of, uh, bigger movie companies are sort of following suit. I think personally that indie is the future of gaming. What would you say to that? I would say, absolutely. I believe that's where the most promises coming from. That's where we're seeing the most evolution. Cause you have to innovate in the indie scene.

If you want to stand out, you can't just keep doing the same thing with a popular character or else they're just going to throw you away very fast. I agree. I agree. It would be soft. How does it work then if, if indie is the future of gaming, then once you become Indy, then

you also in turn become Triple A. Oh no. Is the serpent eating its own tail? Exactly. That's the Batman thing. You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain. Oh no, you become Ubisoft if you stay around too long. We have too many employees. We better fire them all. Yeah. We're not getting into that. That's a whole nother episodes worth of content there, but you know,

you know, kicking us right off, John, why don't you start with us? Tell us what your top five Indy is. Uh, so my number five, this is a hard list to you, man. I mean, I knew this would be hard for you. I was hoping there. There are so many. There's so many There's so many great smaller impactful games that could have easily been on this top five But right out of the gates one that sticks out to me was the first tales of iron

We had a chance to meet Jack who's one of the developers oddbug such an awesome, such a great interview and, uh, in such a great game and the art style, the sort of souls like mechanics on a 2d, you know, really unique 2d, uh, aesthetic in that game. That game just really knocked it out of the park. The narrative is great. The kind of medieval rats and the thick black outline, everything about it just really clicked with me, man. And, you know, I'm glad to see that they've

had such success with a dev team of what was it? Like five people or six people or something like that. Yeah, it was real small because they don't even have an office, he said. They do everything remote. Yeah. They do everything remote. Yeah, they're audio people, like, live in a different country, you know? It's like crazy, man. So to see the little guy be so successful on such a novel concept was awesome, and I just loved playing that game. It's such a unique game, too. There's not a lot of, sort of,

I don't even know what you would call that, because it's not really a Metroidvania. It's just like an action platformer, almost souls-like in its difficulty. Yeah. Yeah. But there's not a lot of indie games in that genre that I can think of other than like

Tales of Iron I and II and Salt and Sanctuary and its sequel. That's the only other games I could think of that are like that. You didn't play it, Ryan. I know you did. I did not, but you loved looking at the art. You thought the art was stunning. I thought, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was, it was amazing how they kind of layer everything, how,

how the look of the game, um, you know, that, I mean, that's, that's what you see when you play it. So like it has that, that is so impactful. It's so meaningful, you know, meaningful, like you have to have something that looks good and looks intriguing when you're going to play a game or if you're enticed to play something. So for an indie studio to put what they did forth, like it was it was pretty cool to see and then

talk to them with you know, Tales of Iron two and stuff like it's awesome. So it's a, it's a solid pick for sure. Oh yeah, absolutely. Like getting to see the heart of that was so cool, but I guess I'll take the next step here and I want to talk about the messenger. I actually made a little short for the messenger back before we did face cam and anything like that over on our Instagram. That one kind of popped off a little bit, I will say.

Uh, if you haven't checked out our Instagram, go check it out. We have some great content over there. Great plug Ace. There you go. Hey, I'm putting content over there. You best be watching. But The Messenger is a super cool game. So it starts off like an eight bit sort of running, not hacking

slash platformer, I almost said running gun. There's no guns in the messenger, but it's a hack and slash platformer, similar to like Ninja Gaiden or such, but halfway through the game, you get to time travel. And when you time travel, it also upgrades the amount of bits you get. And the graphics change from eight bit into 16 bit. And now it is an open world Metroidvania. It is, it's got great humor. It's got great graphics and an incredible

soundtrack, like I am not kidding. We love good soundtracks around here. And the messenger is second to none, except for maybe one of John's picks later on. Well, and, and one of your, actually several of mine and several years. I mean, like when I'm looking at the remainder of my top five, like, man, that soundtrack stands out in all of them and your list too, dude, that dad is something that seems to be ubiquitous.

And we brought it up before that. We brought it up several times. The music in indie games is just incredible. It's always, it's weird. Like, why is that the case? Like obviously AAA games, they have to. They're willing to invest in it. Yeah.

They got, they have to have a dedication to like the graphics and all these other things, but like, man, the indie games seem like they don't have the money. They don't have the resources to do something like this, but they always seem to pick the right theme and the right music to match their game. And it always just plays out perfectly. Like it's wild how well in indie games the music matches. I'm gonna say it's just because they're willing to take the time and invest into it

because this is their vision. This is their project. They want it to be perfect versus like a AAA studio, which is like, oh, we could cut some budget there. That's my guess, but what do you think, John? Oh, I don't know if John agrees. John doesn't look like he agrees with me. Well, I don't think either of you are really off base.

I think it is more, it is more about the intent when you're making the game. And it also honestly has to do with the budget. I think that when you have a small budget, it requires you to be very creative and selective with it. I think something that I've noticed with indie games, like tales of iron is, is a great representation of this or slay the spire even is that because there's such a limited budget, they have to lean into style, uh, to, to carry itself. And they're not worried about it being the most expansive or

timely or anything that it's just more, is this a good piece of art? Is this a good, is this a good track? Does this resonate with us? Is it, it might not be like the most popular thing or the most current thing, but like it means something to this game. The visual style cares a lot too.

You know, like, yeah, Tales of iron, if you were to pick it up today, the game's several years old. It looks like it's brand new, you know, like of iron, if you were to pick it up today, the game's several years old. It looks like it's brand new. The, you know, like it plays, it looks in, it plays like it's brand new. If you were to pick up like, I don't know, halo three or, or one of the older, like, uh, beat them up, uh, God of Wars or whatever age to all, man, you know, like something, there's something about a small budget. This, this extends itself to movies too, but smaller budget things tend to last a

bit longer. And I think maybe have a bit more of a resonant impact, if not a bigger splash, like, like some of the AAA titles, you tend to focus on the core of something like the heart of something more than the extra risen flair and all that type of stuff. So, you know, it does have some sort of longevity and, you know, something that could be good 30 years ago would be good now because it's, it's got that core and that base to it, you know? Yeah.

It really makes them stand out. All right, Ryan, why don't you give us your number five? It's your turn. So I'm gonna go to the high tech world of virtual reality. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Superhot. Oh, yeah. Superhot is one of my favorite,

absolute favorite VR games of all time. There is nothing like sitting, and I'm gonna, if you guys can watch like VR or in a video, like you go like this and you have your joysticks and you have to dodge and you can look up and down and stuff. That's how you play the game. It is so cool. What they did with this, like, it's The Matrix, it's John Wick, it's like everything you can imagine of all the coolest action movies in a VR video game. That's why it's on my list. It is so much fun.

It is just a cool, hey bud, you're over here, throw on this headset, play this game. And then, you know, anyone can pick it up. Anyone can just like pick up the coffee cup and like throw it at the stick figure, you know, like you do with your VR controller. Like it's, it's so good. So it's, it's gotta be on my top five for sure. I've almost picked up VR solely for super hot. Several times. It's worth it. I can honestly say it's worth it.

Among all the other things, just for super hot, it is such a fun game, dude. You would not be upset after you purchase this game. Nice. I mean, what's it? Time only moves when you move. That was the tagline for that game. They're the thing. You can stand still and you can look around and figure out what you got to do. And then you pick up a coffee cup, throw it, pick up your clip, you know, in magazine and then shoot, shoot, shoot, you know, throw the knife and it's, it's just, there's nothing like it, man. It's, it's such a fun, uh, game that has a lot more depth than you would think.

And especially if you're trying to beat it to certain, uh, you know, prestige levels, like with timelines and other things like that. So it's not just kind of, it doesn't get boring. So there's other achievements you can do. So it's a, it's a pretty cool game. That's a great pick, man. And again, like you're leaning into the indie sort of, uh, the indie part of gaming here

for them to have come up with such a creative new game mechanic. Like I don't, I can't think of any games before that, that had that exact. That I feel like it was one of the first to the VR scene too, like the first big mainstream VR game. I mean, personally, at least I don't play that. Yeah, I know. I know guys.

Thank you. Well, John, it's back to you. What do you got at number four? Uh, well, this is a game that even though it's not my number one, I think this is one of the most broadly appealing games, uh, because it, it is perfect in so many respects, it is a game that you can play for a couple of minutes at a time. It's a game that you can play for a few hours at a time. It's a game that you can take for a couple of minutes at a time. It's a game that you can play for a few hours at a time. It's a game that you can take with you anywhere you want to go.

It's a game with virtually endless replayability and also gets to a point where it can be punishingly brutal. This is a game that many people out there know. It's one of the more successful indie games out there and it is a little game called Hades. Oh, I feel like we bring up Hades a lot around here. I ain't mad about it. Before my wife and I sold our business in 2022, we did a lot of traveling around the US, appearing at conferences and that kind of thing. And Hades was like a constant buddy of mine at airports and train stations and bus stations. It was always on my Switch and always just a couple of clicks away. And they did so much

with so little. If you look at it just, you know, based on its appearance, I mean it's not like a graphically spectacular game or graphically dynamic game, but gosh, do they execute it so well. The combat is so fun and so diverse and the dialogue is so fun and engaging. And tremendous success. I don't have to say that to anybody,

tremendous success. I am so looking forward to the full release of the second one. Hades is such a giant in the indie scene. And like, nobody saw that coming when that was announced. Nobody saw where that was gonna go. If it had came out in a different year, it would have been game of the year for that year,

I'm certain. Oh, totally, yeah. Because it took the world by storm. Even Ryan likes Hades and he doesn't even play that many Indie World games. I'm not an Indie guy and I love Hades. Exactly. It's like,

Yeah, it's a good game. When we got John, when we got those backbones, first thing I was like, I wonder if I can get Hades on this so I can like lay in bed and just play Hades, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, and you can Hades, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, and you can.

It's a solid, yep. You never have to leave bed again. That's why I don't sleep anymore. You know? Yeah. Which by, by anybody watching, watching, uh, there's a little, I just dropped it. Good job, John. There's a product called Backbone.

That's like a controller that you connect to your phone and it allows you to basically play any streaming service games like GeForce Now or or Steam or or Xbox Game Pass and Man, if you don't have one, I think they're like a hundred bucks, dude You can take halo and Hades with you on the go just about anywhere. You just connect it to your phone It's a device that everyone has it's like a hundred bucks, dude. You can take halo and Haiti is with you on the go, just about anywhere. You just connect it to your phone. It's a device that everyone has. It's like a hundred bucks, man. It's like, it's so worth it.

Best portable gaming device I've ever seen. Yeah. My poor phone battery couldn't take it, unfortunately, but that's, I'm glad. I can't help you there. Yeah. I was like, I'm just a little cheap on that. That's all my fault, but it's my turn to hit the number four spot. And I want to talk about blasphemous.

You'll never guess what genre blasphemous is from, guys. Is it avania something? Oh yeah, you know, it might just happen to be my favorite genre in all of indie ever. The Metroidvania. No. I'd say it's my favorite too. I don't know if it's just a nostalgia factor

or something like that, but I love Metroidvanias, man. I love them. It's something so pure about the experience of Metroidvania and just how big and open it is. And how exciting. And I love it. Blasphemous, though, is another kind of pixel

art game. It's got beautiful pixel art, absolutely stunning pixel art, but it takes place in a, uh, I don't really know what you call it. Like, it's not Catholic. I don't want to call it Catholic. It feels bad, but a very heavily Catholic inspired religious world where a grievous miracle is bestowed all these quote unquote gifts upon the land. And, uh, these gifts are nothing but suffering and pain being that the first

miracle was a guy getting twisted around a tree and lifted into the air. So, but blasphemous is like beautifully dark. Yeah. I absolutely love it. Every boss you fight is one of these people who's been bestowed with the quote unquote gifts from the miracle. And you, as you fight them and as you pick up items, you kind of learn more about them and

about the world you're in. And you play as a guy with a big pointy hat called the penitent one and he's taken a vow of silence. So it makes total sense why everyone else talks and you don't. That's pretty, that's pretty cool. That makes sense, there you go.

Exactly, I mean, I don't know if either of you have ever picked up and played Blasphemous at all, but. I haven't, I was raised Catholic and we don't talk about, well, we don't talk about religion or politics or anything on the show. But what I can tell you is, I don't think this religion or politics or anything on the show, but what I can tell you is, I don't think this is crossing any barriers saying this, is that Catholicism has some of the coolest like lore in religions.

Like whether or not you are Catholic or Christian or whatever, I think that you would gain some value going to the Vatican city in Rome and just seeing the grandiosity of it. And it's like so, so brilliantly bright and loving and so dark and grim at the same time. It was like, honestly, it's like the religious warhammer or something like the grim darkness of the far past or something. It's really cool, man. So, uh, the fact that you've made that comparison

with this game, I may have to check it out. It's a really hard game, Jon. I'm gonna warn you now. Blasphemous is not- Well, you lost me there, Ace. Yeah, I was saying, it's not easy. If another crab's treasure wasn't your cup of tea, Blasphemous is just as difficult, if not more. I'll be waiting for you guys in the kiddie pool, I guess.

There you go. There you go. Ryan, you might be able to mess with Blasters. I think you'd like it. It's got super good graphics for pixel art, but it also has the same thing like Doom, where if you do enough damage to an enemy, you can glory kill them and then each enemy has a unique animation. Okay. That entices me quite a bit for sure. Like when you can get kind of, kind of cool bonus kills or things like that, that's, that's pretty sweet for sure. Uh, to put it shortly, Blasphemous is metal AF. Uh, that's how people would describe it. What are you at a number four, Ryan. Oh, all right. So it's me. Um, I'm going to go with one. This is probably high up on a lot of people's list, but I'm going to just take it out early and I'm going to go with risk of rain too. Such a good game.

It's. I, it was, it was one of my first introductions into these roguelike. Just, Hey, load up, see what you get and and just run it you know and and something about that just really hit a chord with me i i love these styles of games i i found myself like i why haven't i been playing these what what what has been holding me back, you know, like I just was waiting for a game like this. So the risk of rain 2 Top-notch it is is amazing game. If you haven't played it, please check it out. It is so so good the build you can do the

Creative nature of trying to pair things up and then everything you can do with your teammates like of trying to pair things up and then everything you can do with your teammates, like there's just nothing like it is one of the best roguelikes in my opinion of all time, let alone indie games. Like just it's amazing. Can you explain the guy? I'm like kind of embarrassed to say, cause you guys have gushed about this game so much, but I, I don't know anything about it. I have a total blind spot to this game.

Can you briefly explain like what it is? So, so you have, you boot up into this world and you have, you know, you can have, uh, your teammates with you and every time you kill stuff and you, and you, you know, work through this area. Well, what is it? Is it like an arena shooter shooter? What is it like? Kind of?

Yeah. You're, you're kind of in like, uh, you have like a base, uh, like a world that you're operating in that that you have to travel through to unlock your upgrades basically. So you're trying to get as much as you can each run before you go to the next one. So you're, you're trying to like upgrade your stuff, you know, get, get to the next one. So you're trying to upgrade your stuff, get to the next level, get to stack up your mushrooms, or stack up this or that. So different things affect your attacks or your defense

or your ability to heal, or all of these things. So there's a lot that goes into the, um, dynamic of it all. So with your teammates, what they have matters a lot too. So there's, there's a lot that goes into this game. So it's, it's, it's really, really cool to, there is some RNG nature. So you can have that perfect, you know, quote unquote, perfect run to where you're getting like, Oh my gosh, this is good. And you get another one and another one, and you're just decimating everything.

And then something bad happens at the end and you know, Pancake by something. You don't get pancaked. And then you're like, Oh, come on. I was on such a good run, you know? So there's, there's such a big, uh, there's statistics and strategy and how you build your setup, but then also, you know, there's RNG kind of into the mix as well. So it's, it's just, it's a crazy madness game that, that, um, I would highly recommend,

you know, we, we will have to get on and play man. Cause it's something that's super, super fun. That sounds good. What I love about it is, uh, you can't spend a ton of time in the levels because you need to gather as much stuff as possible and get out. In and out baby. Because there's a timer at the bottom and the longer you stay in the level, the timer is going to keep moving up and that's increasing the difficulty of the game.

They're harder to kill over and over and over and over and over again. And it, at the end it gets to the last bar and it's just, that's the hardest difficult. Yeah. But it's a, it's an absolute blast, man. Like we will definitely get you in on it. It's a, it's a 3D roguelike too. So it's very interesting to see like roguelikes

within 3D environments like that. Cause that's not a very common thing within the indie. Yeah, I would agree with you on that. Yeah. Yeah. But you want to go ahead and give us your third one, John? Yeah. So I had a tough time with this one

because there's kind of like a sort of a sub genre in indie games that really speaks to me and it's the smaller sort of like action platformer horror games like the whimsical horror games. And so there's like kind of like a couple of honorable mentions here, but like limbo, I loved limbo. Um, inside, I loved inside. Either of those could have taken this, but this game, this game is so impactful for me, especially on a soundtrack level that it just, I mean, the whole game is just brilliant to me I love it this could have easily been like a number one game of all time contender for

me and it made it even cooler that we got to talk to not only the narrative director of this game but also the composer of this game and it is a game called little nightmares 2 I've talked about it quite a bit on our discord where we kind of give each other game recommendations. The game only takes maybe five to six hours to be maybe a little longer if you want to really string it out or whatever but the story basically you take the role of a nameless character who is running through these perfectly crafted little horror sequences and you're kind of unraveling the story as it goes. It builds on the lore that was established in the first one.

And I love it because there's not a lot of exposition. You like are discovering what the story is, what the game is all about as you're playing it with basically no dialogue. Uh, but the ending of this game is one of the most impact, like I get chills just like thinking about the ending. There's it is so good guys. I mean, like you can, you can find it on like a Nintendo East or, or steam pretty cheap.

Now it's been out for a while. And, uh, for the price of a movie ticket, basically you're going to get one of the most, if not the most finely crafted horror experiences that I've ever played. I cannot recommend it enough. And it helps that the people who made the game are freaking awesome people too. That always helps.

I'm getting to know that the people who made your game are pretty rad. I have not played the second game. I bought it. I haven't played it yet, but I got through, I played the first game and it's DLC as well as a mobile game that no longer exists. But.

Yeah, see, and this is tough, I think. I really liked the first game quite a bit. The first game was really good. And a lot of it's funny because my next game kind of falls into the same trap. So we'll get to that in a second, but the first game was good, but I think that if you didn't like really like it, you might not have been so compelled to play the second one.

But the second one is like leaps leaps and bounds better than the first one. ACE bro, you've got, it's worth, I'm going to get to, I was just curious. What makes it makes it like the step above for you. Ryan, I don't know if you're into this, but like it would be very well worth your time too. Yeah, I haven't checked this one out, but you know, from what you guys say, maybe it's something I should, you know?

Yeah. Did you ever play the first one, Ryan? I did not, no. I'm not going to say I'm embarrassed, because I don't care. But I'm not a big indie guy. But I'm learning to be. I'm learning the power of the indie. I'm learning what they have, what they have to offer,

and kind of the untapped world from a lot of the mainstream stuff. It's like, you know all the people that are like, oh, I've been listening to them forever with music. It's like, you have that kind of underground of music. That's indie games. Like this is the underground. This is cool stuff that people are overlooking.

You want to be cool, man? This is what you listen to if you're cool. You want to be cool, man? This is what you listen to if you're cool. You wanna be cool, man? Check out this game, you know? So like, but then once it's cool, then is it cool, you know? Yeah, I get that.

I also get like breaking, kind of breaking in your palette for indie games too with what's popular versus what's actually fun. Yeah, true, true. What about you, Ace? What's your number three? For me, number three, I have Death's Door. Oh, great game. I was hoping to get that reaction.

Oh, great game. Yeah, that's another one of these. Would you call that kind of like a horror game, vaguely? I wouldn't maybe call it a horror game. It's not, I wouldn't call it a horror game. It's more like a dark fantasy maybe. It's more of an existential crisis kind of game. Yeah. This is like basically like playing through

your own Ghibli film is what it is for me. Oh, okay. You play as a little crow who is a servant of death going around collecting souls when suddenly during one of your missions, you're interrupted and the soul is stolen and sent through death's door and you have to retrieve it. Otherwise you can never go home and you, and while you're in the real world, you're not immortal.

So now the clock is ticking for you to get enough souls to open up death's door and get that thing back. No, but it's a, it's a super fun game. And especially if you take the challenge like I did to beat the entire thing with just the umbrella, which was the worst. Oh, wow. You beat the game with an umbrella?

Yeah. You have to pick up the umbrella at the beginning of the game and never unequip it. That's the, it's a trophy on PlayStation to get the platinum. Yep. It's, it is the weakest, weakest weapon in the weakest weapon, but you still can use the spells

and stuff. So I upgraded the fireball and I just used that as my, but that game, that game will hit you in spots you're not expecting with how it talks about mortality and the importance of death. And I'm not going to spoil what the twist is with the whole game because it's so freaking good. But if you like deep stories like that,

as well as just a fun action adventure, very Zelda-esque, honestly, if I had to compare it to something, then DeathStore is definitely for you. You would, I think, like it, right? I think you could get down with it. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a game that would have brought up,

there's a lot of indie games, there's a lot of indie games that fall into, so it's like, man, if anyone just gave this a chance, they would love it. Like this would appeal to so many people. But again, sort of double-edged blade of being indie is that they don't have the marketing money to put a little title like Death's Door

out in front of everybody's face. I talk with like other indie devs, uh, in other servers, cause you know, I, I helped them on Kickstarter and not like the main help just my name to them. But I talked to them and, uh, we bring up death store all the time. We're like, whatever happened to those developers. And it's just like, I get, it didn't take, take off. So they didn't get anywhere, but it's a beautiful game with stunning graphics that look just like a 3d studio Ghibli as well as just a great story

and honestly a really fun protagonist design if you ask me. Oh all the character designs are great. Oh yeah yeah anything studio Ghibli like is like okay I'll give it a shot or I'll take a look you know. Yeah see like I think that's enough to entice people to bring them in is if I tell them it's like playing a studio Ghibli film, it's even got the dark parts that you don't talk about to your friends. We're just going to start comparing every movie or every game to a studio Ghibli

movie. Well, we'll have that. We'll have that market cornered. We'll have the indie, the indie scene is like, boom, it's blowing up. All right, Ryan. So is it me? Yeah. Hit us have the indie scene is like, boom, it's blowing up. All right, Ryan. So is it me? Yeah, hit us with your third buddy. Oh man.

So I'm going to go with a game that Ace and I played quite a bit together. Oh. Um, it is, it is one of, probably one of my favorite games that I've ever played, especially with the person. Uh, it is, it is something that you just, every time you log in, you never know what's gonna happen, what to expect, where you're gonna go. And I'm going with Lethal Company.

Yeah, it's the game where you dance like this. Yeah. So it's hard to say, like from such a simple concept, such a simple game, I think it spawned, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm sure people will, there's so many other repo, headliners, all these other games that spawned in suit, but Lethal Company was one of those that just, it was, it was spooky. It was, it was high risk, high reward. You were scared. The, the, the chat, you know, like the casino, like all of it, everything about it, and I know ACE and I had good times at the casino.

All of it was just amazing. Um, it is one of my favorite games, let alone one of my favorite indie games. So it is, uh, it is way, way up there for me, but headliner or not. Headliners lethal company is, is way up there for me. I agree, dude. Lethal is such a great game and it's such a good game to like introduce people to, if you're like bringing them into gaming, for sure there's a little there's like a cushion a wiggle room you know yeah it's like this is something we can do together and it's not super you know mind-boggling hard to

know all the buttons and things like that just like you pick up stuff you put stuff down run for your life uh the bees the bees are coming oh yeah yeah. All right. You go grab that hive. I'm going to lead the bees that way. That plan didn't work. That plan never works, Ryan. We tried every time. But we tried it and it was close. And then we just had to execute. And then the fact that that game has open mod support and it gets mods all the freaking time. Like you mentioned the casino. The casino is a massive mod where you can gather all the scrap you need to meet quota

and then maybe you want to go risk it all for no reason. Ain't no risk and no biscuit, baby. Let's go. Like when you took my body and bet it all on black. Well, can't win if you don't play ACE. You know, that's all there is to it. Yeah, fair enough. John, do you know anything about Lethal Company?

Are you familiar with it? No. I'll be honest. Most of my gaming preferences are in sort of single player narratives. So this type of game generally doesn't like have a lot of appeal. It's becoming, you

know, frankly, before, before any of us started working together on this podcast, I was a fan of this podcast for a long time. And, uh, and, uh, you know, there's a lot of talk, a lot of talk about, a lot of talk about, uh, gaming nights and, uh, in the community, uh, that, you know, was so strong that I'd heard about, but like, you know, I just never, that never appeal. I like games, all that games for basically like being able to play a scenario through somebody else's lens and multiplayer gaming was never really a thing for me. And honestly, it's because of the exposure to you find gentlemen and the discord community, uh, which is the

very best that exists in gaming that I I'm starting to have a budding interest, man. Like it's, it's playing rivals and halo with everybody has like kind of opened things up. So I might be more open to a game like this in the future, as long as I have some time between the absolute banger titles that are coming out over and over and over again this year. Yeah, you're not gonna break this year. Yeah, man, maybe next year, I don't know. But yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's fair. You're also a console gamer, right? So Lethal's only on PC right now, because it's in early access. So you wouldn't have... Ah, I have an excuse. Yeah, you wouldn't have had much time with it

that's why oh yeah no to where I get like I got my my niece like oh you played lethal company I'm like yeah I play all the time you know and so I hopped on with her and then like her friends got on and they had all these kinds of mods that I'd never seen. And I thought I saw all the mods under the sun, you know? And it's just, it's, it's so cool. And you have a game that, that has that ability to reach everybody, but then also be like able to fit everybody, you know?

So it was, it was cool. So was cool. It's a neat game. It was a lot of fun. Not game of the year, but it was top, top, top for indie for me. Yeah, and it's definitely made its mark on the gaming landscape, I'd say. Oh, for sure. It's in history, for sure. All right, John, here's with number two. So, for sure. It's, it's in history for sure. All right, John, here's with number two. So number two, um, again, this could have easily been one of my favorite games of all time. And

this one out of all the games that are on my list, for some reason seems to be the one that is most missed, even though there was a great initial game, although the initial game is nothing compared to the sequel. Um, you know, there surely was a great audience, but I'm surprised there hasn't been like a whole franchise that was built around this. It is a game called Ori and the Will of the Wisps. And so this, this is a, this is a Metroidvania game. Again, one of my very, ah, I'm listening. This is a Metroidvania with some of the most fun and dynamic platforming I've ever seen.

Fantastic combat, uh, mechanics. The controls are so responsive. It is absolutely punishingly clear that if you are messing up, it is your fault and not some glitch in the game. And it looks something like if Pixar and perhaps like a Tim Burton movie or something had a love baby and sprinkled in some really great score, you know, outside right?

It is such a gorgeous game through and through, like when I think of beautiful games, it is probably the most beautiful game I've ever played. And again, it's a game that should have a lot of broad appeal. The character design is fantastic. It would appeal to you whether you are somebody who is younger or older, very, very little in the way of exposition. It's another game that you're sort of discovering as it comes. And man, the character design for the primary antagonist of this game. And then the reveal about the intentions behind it is so good. World-class storytelling.

Beautiful game. Should be on everyone's list. It's been out for several years now. You can pick it up cheap. You could probably blitz through this game in 10 to 12 hours. Oh, wow. Very short. But that's like if you wanted to blitz through it, it's probably 12 hours. Oh wow, very short. But that's like if you wanted to blitz through it, it's probably more of a 20 hour game. Yeah, that sounds about right. But I would absolutely recommend it.

Like anybody would enjoy playing this game. If for nothing else than like Ace, what you and I were talking about, there's something just so pure about that Metroidvania dynamic, where you, you know, you... Anybody can figure out the core mechanics of how to play these things pretty easily, and it is one of the very best ones.

Yeah, it's very easy to grasp, and I also do really appreciate a game that can tell a story without words. I think that's something very impressive to be able to do that, that you don't have to have it all exposition dumped on you all the freaking time. And that's coming from someone who said last time on the Blueprints episode, I need the yellow paint.

Yeah, that's funny. Not to segue a little bit, but Elden Ring is another great example of this. Where if I'm being honest, man, I hate souls like games. I hate them. I hate games that you have to grind and grit your teeth through. Like I don't want to be, I don't want to feel sweaty when I'm getting through like a boss battle. I don't want to let it die. Like those things make me want to throw my console across there and I hate it. But the story was so good and unique where you're like, again, you're kind of discovering it as you're playing

without a whole ton of exposition, without a whole ton of dialogue. And the dialogue that is there is open to interpretation. Man, that really makes a game for me, man. I love that games have the immersive capacity to be able to allow you to transport yourself into other universes and take a break from your reality, man. And Ori is absolute, both games,

but especially the second one is such a great representative example of being able to do that. It's like, did you ever see Neverending Story by any chance? Yes. Oh, yes. Neverending story.

Greg timestamp this. Yes. Oh, yes. Neverending story. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Greg timestamped this. Um. Yeah, but like when I was playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps, I felt like, I felt like Sebastian, Bastion, whatever his name is, in Neverending Story, like reading a book where he's like, oh man, I'm in this dude.

I am in this with these guys. I love it, man. So, highly recommend. Ori is kind of like a... What would you describe the world of Ori like? Is it sad and somber? Is it more alive? It is a... It's a little bit of both. Aesthetically, it is very dark,

and you are, in contrast, a very bright character, which was done intentionally. It was an intentional style choice. But if you were going through, a good example would be if you've ever been on a Disney Dark Ride, like the slow moving Dark Rides where it's dark on the inside because they don't want you to see the scaffolding and the light and the apparatus and stuff.

Yeah, you can't see where the magic is. Oh, yeah, yeah. But it's dark intentionally, but gorgeous at the same time. Like the darkness, oh my God, this is such a good metaphor for life, honestly, but the darkness makes you appreciate the light. You sound like a Kingdom Hearts character. Ha ha ha ha ha.

There's one, yeah, there's one I really gotta get into. There's no darkness without the light. Yeah, okay. And now just throw in some stuff about hearts and happiness and you'll be all good to go. But what I was gonna say is it's very interesting how we can find comfort in the immersion of worlds like that. Where like, maybe the character is not having a great time,

but like you being in their world instead of them being in their world makes you feel better. There you go. Elden Ring is not a happy setting to say. You're a tarnished, which is someone who's trapped in this loop of existence. But I can't think of a more miserable. Unhappy.

Yeah. Yeah. Plain and Elden Ring man. In every respect. I was digging being trapped in the world of Elden Ring. I loved it. But moving on to my number two, I'm going to be a little, I'm going to get a little bit real with y'all.

Uh, we're moving onto your number two. Yeah. Toy, Toyley. Ah, I see how, yeah. Am I, am I that much more immature than you guys? You might be, just a little bit. I'm twice your age, Ace. I can't help, I can't fault you.

I'm the oldest here, all right. So says the TikTok community. So says everyone on Instagram, TikTok, and unfortunately our own Discord server. Wow, boo. But I'm gonna get a little real. My number two is Shovel, the treasure trove and shovel night is a, another pixel art kind of game.

It's a 2d action platformer, very similar to mega man or duck tales. If you ever played those, shovel night kind of came to me in a time when I really needed something to bring me out of a dark spot. And it was this perfectly bright and happy game with a good amount of, uh, humor and difficulty. And I just loved it to death being able to play through it, learn all about the characters in the world. And it's a short game. I would say it's a short game if you're good at video games, uh, if you're not,

and you break all the checkpoints like Paul did, you're going to have a real bad time. But Shovel Knight brought me really back from a dark spot in my life where I could enjoy this happy world and this bright, colorful world where you get to take on all these enemies and free the world of darkness and the beat the enchantress and find out what happened to the, the girlfriend or whatever she is to you. It's unclear because there's not a lot of dialogue in Shovel Knight.

But that's why it stands out to me. And it has another killer soundtrack, absolutely killer soundtrack. And I know neither of you play Shovel Knight, but it's an absolutely outstanding game. No, I am excited. I think they're in mid development of a- Mean of the Hollower.

Yeah, and we've been talking to the devs and we are going to have them on our show soon here. So it's awesome that- I'm very excited for that. And I'm very excited to tell them all about it. Profound success of their property that they're still willing to... This is another thing I love about indie titles, man, is that it is not some corporate, slow-moving structure.

These guys, Shovel Knight, man, they've had several games and they've all popped off and been popular by any measure of success, and they're still stoked to talk about it. There's still so much passion in it. Well, something to point out is Shovel Knight has a very much an icon of the indie, uh, indie world.

I'm almost at serious. It's not a thing. Indie world. Uh, because he's become like the grandfather of the indie. He gets referenced in everything. He's in a bloodstained. He's in, what was the weirdest one? Uh, Blazblue, Azure Striker.

That was a weird one. Oh, no way. Yeah, yeah. He's in Yooka-Laylee. He's in everything. He is sort of, when people think of an indie game, they think of Shovel Knight, but there's so many people who don't remember him

because of this. Yeah. But he's got an absolutely iconic design with that blue armor and that big ol of this. Yeah. But he's got an absolutely iconic design with that blue armor and that big old horns. Yeah. That's interesting. I love him to death, man.

I think some of the most, it's, there's something about nights, but yeah, like it's either shovel night or hollow night. Shovel nights, hollow nights. Oh, oh yeah. It's just all the nights. All kinds of nights. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan, do you have any interest in Shovel Knight? Me? Any at all. Dude, if you say it's good, I'll check it out. You know what? That's good enough for me. Just don't break the checkpoints, all right? Just don't do it.

You'll make your life horrible. Yeah, no. Now we'll move on to you. I won't pull a fall for sure. Okay, so I'm going to go with one. This is one Josh made me play. And this was, he forced me to do this. And I was, it was a game that I never, ever, ever would have played on my own, but I am

so happy I did it. And I am so happy for more of it. And I'm going to go with some Nautica. Hey, there we go. I'm very, very, very, I never ever would have thought just like survival crafter underwater, like let's go baby. You know, it's, it's, it's a game that you, you wouldn't think would bring you some weird sort of comfort of just being underwater,

but it does. Until you see the big monsters that are coming to kill you. But other than that, when you're just harvesting and you're cruising around and you're building and expanding on your base and doing what you need to do to pass through the levels. Like it is a really, really solid game that just for whatever reason, and it's hard to, I can't put an exact point on why, but it just draws you in so well and makes you just want to play. And the story, I mean, in my opinion, it's not that good, but it still draws you in for whatever reason. Like you're like, Oh, well I still, I want to know what happens to that guy.

You know, it's like, it's not some amazing thing, but you're like, Oh, I'm invested now. You know, like I want to know. And you, you keep going cause you keep climbing the depths, you know, of the ocean to, to see what else you can find. So it's just, it's, it's a really, really cool game. I think they did an awesome job and I'm, I can't wait to see what they do can find. So it's just, it's a really, really cool game. I think they did an awesome job and I can't wait to see what they do with, you know, any more of the IP. Yeah.

Subnautica 2 looks very promising with these. Especially with the multiplayer. Like that's a very enticing thing for me. Being able to play together. Yeah. Maybe I'll be less scared when I go to the depths of the abyss. It's scary, dude. Man, it's nuts.

As someone who's terrified of like the depths of the ocean, Subnautica was, uh, it hit all the right spots for me to become a horror game instead of survival game. But I absolutely get what you're saying. It is a fantastic survival game. Are you much into survival games, John? Uh, yeah. Yeah.

I like them. Uh, but this is honestly like I love the ocean man I've surfed for a while now and I wanted in another life would have been a marine biologist slash SeaWorld employee So jealous I got to yeah, I got to swim with dolphins under very dubious circumstances I got to swim with dolphins under very dubious circumstances in Mexico. Oh, okay. Me too. But man, it was awesome, dude.

They're like water dogs, bro. But yeah, I love the ocean. Missed this game completely. Honestly, I would have never even heard of this game if it wasn't for this podcast. That's crazy to me. Well right, it is crazy. And that is just representative of how many amazing games there are out there, man. And it's like, how do you even keep up?

Yeah. Oh, it's what I'm struggling with right now. I understand that. Oh, so am I the only one here has a swan with dolphins? I feel left out. Like, Brian, I think you are. Oh yeah. All right.

Well, we'll go to Mexico. You to the dolphins. 13, 13 bucks and a couple of tall boys. There you go. That's all you need. Oh, Subnautica is an all-timer. And if you haven't played it, you definitely should. All right, Johnny.

You ready to take her home? I am ready to take her home. You know, I feel a bit weird talking about this one because I don't think we've talked about it enough. But it's a little game I'm going to not bury the lead here called Clare Obscura Expedition 33, we've talked about it enough, but it's a little game, I'm going to not bury the lead here called Claire Obscure Expedition 33, which guys, I want to tell you, I did a little bit of reflection on this. As I was playing it, I was probably, it took me 60 hours to get through the game and I still want to go back and play some more but

About 20 hours into the game. I was like This might be the best game I've ever played and I was really hyped for it so it was it would have been very easy to let me down and Then I was like, you know, is this just recency bias, you know Like there's a lot of really good games out there and maybe this is just a nostalgic thing for you. And I was like, no, man, I just played ghosts of Tsushima, which is, you know, a lot of people would say that's among one of the better games out there. And, uh, you know, I really try to be pragmatic about this and like, I'm playing it right now and I'm really emotionally invested in it right now, but is this really

the best game that I've ever played? And 60 hours in, my wife was out of town, I was literally playing this game for 18 to 20 hours a day. You guys know I sleep two to three hours a night. You don't sleep, so that doesn't surprise me at all. I was playing this game 18 to 20 hours a day. Wow. And I was upset at anything that I had to divert my attention.

I was, I was, I was upset at this podcast. I was upset at my own biology. Like when I had to go pee, cause I drink a ridiculous amount of coffee, when I, when I, when I had to go pee, I was like upset at my biologist, I was like, maybe I can justol and I was like maybe I can just like uh like Maybe I can't Create some sort of apparatus I'll happen maybe I'll get a catheter like maybe those like maybe those are things that I could get I was like dude

Obsessed with this game. I beat it and I'm like, oh Like I can I can't think of it is all consuming this game guys. It is in every respect of the word. It is a work of art. The, the, the over the top nature of this, uh, from a, from a visual and audio style while maintaining such a firm grip on human emotions is unbelievable. I have never experienced it in another game before and I've got a high mark. We play a lot of games here guys.

This is a gaming podcast. We play a lot of games. It's very easy for us to get jaded. And I'm a 43 year old man at the time of this recording and I have a lot of interests. I got a lot of things that I could be doing with my time. And I can't think of anything in my life more valuable short of marrying my wife, which I have to throw in here

in the odd chance that she listens to this, that has been a better use of my time than playing that freaking game, guys. I cannot give it a higher recommendation. That is some crazy high praise. Yeah. give it a higher recommendation. Crazy high praise. Which it's really hard for me to grasp the idea that there is a turn-based game that's better than Persona 5, because that is my peak of a turn-based game.

Man, I love Persona 5. And I really love the story of Persona 5 and how it's all about the little guy taking on the world, fighting injustice in your own way. But you guys have really been selling me on, uh, clear obscure, uh, exhibition 33. And I know I missed out on it because I just don't have time for it right now, but I really want to get to it.

Yeah. And it's tough, man. Like I almost, I, I, I fear overselling it, uh, like John seems to really like this game and I, I feel like I'm setting a really high standard for people to be disappointed. So what I'll say is just, you know, it's everyone in our discord, like every single day I can go in there and there's someone with like a million spoiler tags talking about the game. Oh my God. I've never seen so much redacted text in my life, man. It's like, uh, this is like our, our, um, our indie channel is like straight

out of Roswell, New Mexico. Like it's just completely redacted redacted redacted with all these spoiler things. But yeah, it's, it's a game that like, I don't want to share too much about the story like we did in the deep dive. Uh, it is a game that is best going into it knowing as little as possible. I will say that like Ryan, there's the you know, I don't like souls like games. If you don't like turn based combat, it's probably not going to it's probably not going to be your cup of tea. But if you have any tolerance at all for turn based combat combat is the best turn-based combat that I've ever played in a game and the story is the best it is my favorite story that I've ever I've ever played in a game man. So like I I I

Almost I don't cry very often like I cried when my dog died and I cried at the end of Edward scissorhands And I think that's it But I came very close to tears and I cried at the end of Edward Scissorhands and I think that's it. But I came very close to tears. Oh, that's a good one too. That got me. I came close to tears several times and man, dude, like the ending of this game. Oh, bro, like it would have,

there's so many opportunities for them to have dropped the ball on this game. And dude, up until the very last frame, it kept, it kept you engaged and, oh, what a, what a, gah, what a gut dropping reveal at the end, man. It's so good. It is so good. What did you feel about the ending, Ryan?

I, uh, I'll let you know when I get there for sure. Uh, I, hopefully you got a couple of hundred years to, you know, wait, but I will say to see what the reaction between John and then honestly, like Josh, who's never finished a game in his life, who played 40 to 45 hours to finish this thing at like 11 or 12 a night. He's an old man. He doesn't stay up past nine.

Like he stayed up late and he finished this game to beat it. And like there's something to be said about that. There is depth to this game. It didn't sit with me. It's not my type, but I can still recognize a good game, even if it's not for me. I can recognize an amazing culinary dish. Like, wow, this is beautiful. It is presented well. Everything about it is awesome, the flavor palette is just not what I like. And that's what this game was for me. I thought it was awesome. For a turn-based combat game, it is the best I've ever played. And that means a lot from

all the games I've played. So, yeah, that's all I can say about it. But man, like this thing is hitting the peaks for a lot of people, especially being an indie game with like 30 man dev team. Like that's wild. Yeah, I can't believe 32. Dude, so I beat Prince of Persia, Prince of Persia Lost Crown recently,

it's an Ubisoft title. And when it was going through the credits, it was like, I don't know, 30 minutes worth of credits. Like it's just person after person after person after person that was involved in this, in the production of this game. And I was like, that's a lot of people for like a Metroidvania, man.

And to compare that to a game that is, I don't know, man, more epic in scale than just about any other game that I've played. I mean, it's huge. Ryan, you mentioned this, but like, there's a lot of opportunities for them, like in the background, in the environments and stuff where they could have whiffed it, they could have like fogged it out or something. Like right again, right. Every little like side environment is just so perfectly realized in like multiple layers of depth and scale too. It is, it's just amazing, man. Nothing in this game is phoned in at all. I'm very glad this game has found its audience and people really are showing appreciation

for it. Yeah, I got it. But like Ryan said, you know, my wife and I, I eat a ridiculous, I drink a lot of coffee and I eat a ridiculous amount of cake. Cause my wife is a wonderful baker. Um, we watched this show called the British Bake Off. Most people have heard about it. And, um, they often times will have like, uh, guests on the show who will make something with peanut butter. And, um, the British folk don't eat peanut butter like we do in the United States. What? I love peanut butter. Who doesn't like peanut butter?

It's hard for me to imagine. Unless you're allergic to it. I don't see why you wouldn't like it. Yeah. Like, but there are people that don't and they're not wrong. That's just their taste. So, you know, if, if you, if turn-based

fl- uh, combat turns you off, that is a pretty big part of this game and it may not be for you, but if you have any tolerance for it whatsoever, it is the most shining example of a 10 out of 10 game that I've ever played. Man. You could not have said any higher praise than that, I don't think. I think that's...

I think if people have been... TLDR, it's really good, guys. Yeah, I mean, that's what you could have just said. Like, yeah think if people TLDR, it's really good guys. Yeah. I mean, that's what you could have just said. Like, yeah, I really like it. It's really good. Sweet. Well, my number one isn't quite as a fancy and

pretty as that game, unfortunately, but it is pretty in its own way and fancy in my way. It's a, I know no one could have guessed this, but it's Ender Magnolia, Bloom in the Mist. What? I know, me picking a Metroidvania, let alone an Ender game as my number one indie. What can I say?

Ace, you've talked about this a lot and like it's gonna be really hard for me me to like I tried to play a couple of games This more I played slay the spire Which is low lift like I've been a magic the gathering player for a long time and it's like basically like virtual magic the gathering Slay the spire underrated and cheap by the way great great mobile game great game play if you're yeah, I can't wait man but I Tried to play a couple other AAA titles this morning, and it's just like, ugh, nothing is filling that same,

nothing's satisfying me after playing Expedition 33. So I might have to do Ender Lilies. Dive into the world of Ender Lilies or Ender Magnolia. I highly recommend starting with Ender Lilies, but just because I like both, and the music in both is really good. So sell me on it. Why should I play this game? Well, Ryan, I've got great news for you.

There's a podcast episode all about it. You could find it on our feed. Oh. You don't say. Can you tell me the name of this podcast? Oh, it just happens to be the exact same name as the podcast you're listening to. Is it very on the nose? I love it.

Is it the video gamers podcast? But Intermagnolia is a absolutely stunning game that I've talked, I've sung its praises so many times where it's another one of those instances of being where the immersion is a really big part of it for me. Even though the world you're immersing yourself in is basically on the verge of collapse, and it's not a great place to be. She your protagonist may be alone, but because you're there with her, maybe she doesn't feel so alone because you're there. That's kind of how I felt about it. And that's a little bit sappy and stupid, but that's how I felt.

No, man, your connection, that's the thing is, especially with these Indies, I almost feel like, you know, you develop a little bit of a closer connection to the game, to the characters. Absolutely. Like, cause it doesn't feel so hollow. Like you have that depth. This game is close to you and it's meaningful to you.

So, you know, I understand like where you're coming from. So that's, I mean, I know we all know anyone that knows you knows these games and knows what you love about them. So like, I get it, But it's cool to see like you explain it. And I'm hopeful that other people kind of look into this, and maybe kind of get the same feeling that you do. I mean, the first game you're the last surviving descendant of a white priestess traveling through a blighted kingdom of

lands and all by your lonesome only companions you have are the dead spirits that you have control over because you are a white priestess. And you're just trying to defeat this blight and get rid of this sickness that's killing everything. Sort of break the cycle of what's going on. And then the second game you play as a totally different person who's related to the bloodline of the white priestess, but you're still just another girl named Lilac all on your, all alone in this land of fumes, traveling with Humunculi robots as your only companions. There are more living people to talk to in Bloom in the Mist where you'll make connections with them and it's a lot

bigger of a world and bigger story and it all kind of clicks together. I'm not going to spoil any of the story for you because it's, it's really good. But it's got beautiful artwork. It's got beautiful music. It's all just absolutely stunning. And I think anyone who's anyone should be playing Ender Lilies or ender Magnolia. All right, right. There you go. You heard it here first. Play, play that game, but listen to our episode first Yeah, so is it me yeah go ahead and wrap it up for us buddy man, I'm going with I'm gonna keep it short and sweet

You ready? Uh-huh Rocking style Come on, John. Yeah, there is Nothing about this game. You know words you can say it just do it slowly. Come on, John. Yeah, there is nothing about this game. You can still say the words. You can say it. Just do it. Slowly. Come on. Say it. Say it. Say rock and stone. Say it. Rock and stone. Rock and stone. Oh, I love it. There's, there's a, not too much like this game. This is a, a community game. This is a, a, a feel part of the crowd game.

You are, um, just one of the, you know, the divers. That one of many, you know, you're, you're diving down and that's why you yell rock and stone. This game is awesome Deep Rock Galactic The Deep Rock Rock Galactic survivor was also equally cool. There's a lot of cool little spin-offs awesome game awesome developers Very attentive to their clientele They they are really really amazing and I And I think this game is amazing.

And it's done nothing but bring smiles to my face and everyone else's that I've been playing with. So that's going to be my last pick for sure. That's a great last pick. I think everyone should play Deep Rock Galactic. Everyone should check it out. We will definitely get you in on a session of Deep Rock, John, because we could just pick it up on the next box store.

We've said that several times today, man. It's going to be a marathon. Hey, OK, this isn't like a story game. You just can play one session. He's done with Claire Obscurus, so now we can pull him away. Yeah. Oh, maybe. We'll see.

Yeah, we'll see. I think I'm going back in, man. Plug me into the machine. I'm glad you're not. We're just going to lose, John, to one game forever. I just want to lose one game forever. One game. Oh, dude.

Well, I am Gustav. Fellas, I've rambled on about Indies for a little too long, it seems, because our time is up. But thank you so much, everyone, for listening. We truly appreciate it. John, how can people help the show? Well, you're going gonna find all of this information in the episode description on your player of choice,

whether that's YouTube, Spotify, or Apple, or whatever third party janky thing you're using. No offense to the janky providers out there. But if you'd like to support us, one of the best ways you can do that is to rate us five stars and leave us a review on your platform. As an independent podcast, you have no idea how much that goes towards keeping us

going and helping us find new audience. If you'd like to be a part of the story, please sign up for our discord. We've got almost 1000 gamers on that. It's the best, most positive, engaging community in gaming. I say that, we all say that and hold firm to it. It's a wonderful environment. I've made like real friends through this and you will too. It's a great welcoming community. If you want to take your step, your support a step further, you can find information on our Patreon there.

You get lots of fun perks. And that's again, a great real way to support the show and enhance your depth of involvement with the community. And also go play Clare Obscura. I thought you were saying something cool. Yeah, I thought it was going to be about the fact that we have social media and a YouTube video you could watch or Spotify. We're asking a lot of people. What I really want for people, honestly, is I want an excuse to go to France. Oh, okay.

I reached out to Sandfall, who's the developer of Clare Obscura and needless to say, they're getting lots and lots and lots of money. I'd say they're probably pretty busy, John. But I want to go. I asked them if we could go. We've had great luck with big devs like Bungee and other big larger- Do you show them my costume? Do you show them what I was wearing? No, I actually wanted them to like us. Yeah, I don't think they are. Maybe don't do that. Oh, come on. Definitely don't show them the edit with the cigar and the big hat.

Tags, tag Sandfall in this episode on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube. Tag them in this. I wanna go to France. Give me a reason to go to France. I wanna go to France. I wanna go so bad. Well, thank you, everyone for listening.

And if you have your own top five, why don't you drop them down there too? Tell us what your top five Indies are or come to our discord and tell us why our top five Indies are terrible. But John will definitely fight you over his. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you will. If someone says something negative about Claire Obscura, I'm sure I'm going to see some fire. I die on that hill.

Well, that's all for this episode. Happy gaming, everyone. See ya. Toodle-oo.