Video Gamers Podcast - The Midnight Walk – Deep Dive into a Creepy Cozy Walking Sim | Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Gaming hosts Ace, Ryan, and John lace up for The Midnight Walk—a surreal new indie videogame that’s stirring up buzz (and some confusion). With its haunting atmosphere, claymation modeling, and unapologetically strange design, this one’s dividing the team...for reasons you might not expecrt. Is The Midnight Walk a bold work of indie genius? Or is it just weird for weird’s sake? Your weekly hit of gaming news, deep dives, and everything video games—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/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow 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

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver.

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. Tonight we take a walk down the trail of the Midnight Walk and I am your host Ace. And of course, joining me are my two lovely and wonderful co-hosts, maybe not one today though, as he likes to walk in the path of darkness and betray the light. It's Jon. Hey, I resent that man. I know what is happening, but I don't know, man. I w we'll, we'll see how this episode on, on Vilt. I am going to try and convince you to be on my side.

Oh, that's so. And I can only hope that he walks the path of light and justice with me in this beautiful work of art. It's Ryan. Give me all the matches, baby. Let's light them up. Oh, clearly today we have mixed opinions on what's going to be coming forward. But we've talked about the midnight walk before we were all relatively excited for it I want to say John were you excited?

Oh, I was super stoked this this this genre of game is usually like I can't miss for me indie Charming horror is like if you had to distill my preferred genre down into three words indie You know indie charming horror would be like it I mean it's a cozy narrative charming horror game with a clay craft aesthetic like come on so that's what sets me in for sure like I am not one to like oh a horror game let me go check it out you know but um the the claymation look to it, I'm just, Nightmare Before Christmas is instant Halloween and instant Christmas movie every year for my family. And I was like, oh, I can play a game like that?

Count me in. I can experience that? What do you mean? Say less, homie, I'm in. Exactly. For those who are unaware, I'll go ahead and give the lowdown right here. The Midnight Walk released May 8th, 2025. And I was very excited for it is an indie dark fantasy adventure built using real clay assets scanned into the game and animated in a stop motion style.

That's just super freaking cool to me. I don't know about you guys. It sounds cool. Look, I want I need to preface this episode, okay? So I am a huge fan of this genre and I am a huge fan of indie producers in general. And I feel so terrible that I'm about to poop all over this game for the next 40 minutes or however long. I feel terrible about it, man. But you know, yeah, I couldn't win you over with this, John. I couldn't win you over in the first impressions and you know, somehow I got

you to finish the game for this deep dive, but it's a professional man. I think it just hurts you more. But the, uh, the story of the midnight Wonga is that you are the burnt one, and you're going to take your pot boy companion, who is like the last light in the end of the world, up to the mountain and hopefully reignite the sun and bring light back to the world. It's a very simple narrative driven game, but the style is what's going to carry it forward for a lot of people. I'd say, uh, what, what really did anything hook you at all, Ryan, when you

started playing the game or was it, um, other than, uh, just like the, the kind of the scenery and the atmosphere, I love the look of this right away off the bat. And I, and I knew I would, I mean, knowing, you know, what I know about the other kind of this style, um, I knew I was going to like this right away off the bat and I knew I would I mean knowing you know what I know about the other kind of this style I knew I was gonna like it right away but I did not expect to like pot boy as much as I did like he is a great little guy most amazing cutest coolest little dude ever and I immediately fell in love and I am NOT kidding I looked uh to try to find like figurines I'm like pot boy blah blah blah and I am not kidding. I looked, uh, to try to find like figurines. I'm like pot boy, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, I got some questionable search results immediately. So I'm like, I need to refine my search a little bit. So, but, uh, yeah, that, that was, um, right away I thought it, it, it looked beautiful. The world was cool. Uh, and, and I loved, I loved a little pot boy. I thought this soon as I loaded up the game I thought it nailed the atmosphere because I don't know if you guys remember the opening but the opening is you rise from the dead and your vision is blurry and your your hearing is all screwed up and you just start walking forward down this corridor until a statue with two eyes pops up and it's just like, take your eyes.

Yeah. You're like, what? And you put one eye in, it's a little clearer, you put the other eye in, now you can see, but your ears are still all screwy. So you keep walking and you find two more statues like, take your ears. And then from there you put your ears on and then that becomes part of the entire game's thing with the like the binaural hearing where the I guess that's by neural audio where you it passes from one headphone to the other and you can kind of use that to find things.

Did anything hook you at all John with this one like well okay was it impossible to set the hook for a game you just didn't know. Yeah I mean clearly the the art is you know I was a goth kid growing up, man. I grew up on nightmare before Christmas and Tim Burton movies. Coraline in my opinion, is this the most superior claymation movie? I love that movie. I'm just thinking of John with eyeliner and like, yeah, yeah, you and I've got the same vision. Like I was pale of John with eyeliner and like... Yeah, yeah, you and I have got the same vision. I was like...

Pale makeup, black hair and eyeliner. 313 pounds with pale makeup and eyeliner and black lipstick. Nobody understands me. Listen to Marilyn Manson. Yeah, exactly. The whole bit. I am embarrassed for my 15, 16 year old from you. But if you were to like, take most of the concept art and just put it on, you know, matte paintings or something like that, I would be like, Oh, I'm drawn to this art.

Absolutely. In the game, the way that it was put together, man, it just didn't resonate with me, dude. Like, I wanted it would have been so easy for me to like this game too it just right right out of the gate never felt to me like it had a heart it looked like somebody was painting by numbers and was like how do we make a creepy game you know like like when Tim Burton for instance makes a movie or any property, I think that those things end up coming out the way they do because Tim Burton's just kind of like a weird guy and he sees things through a certain lens. This movie felt to me like it was created by somebody who like listens to a lot of Creed and Nickelback and like, nah, let's make a dark game guys.

Like, how do we make a dark game? Okay. Well, what, what kinds of things are in dark games? Oh, well, we gotta, we gotta have an edgy name. Like let's call them, uh, the burnt one. Yeah, that sounds cool. Okay. Like, so what's going to be our hook? Well, uh, he doesn't have any eyes or ears and we'll have to like build that into the game and you know, like It just felt like so formula it never felt like it at a heart even pot just even pot boy dude like I'm sorry. Like again if you were to just like put him on a painting without any of the context, I'd be like, oh, that's a cool, that's cool art, right?

But as he fits into the game, it felt to me like, oh, well, we're going to need like a cute character. That's also kind of creepy to fall around like, uh, okay. Well, it's like, let's like kind of make them like a little burnt up, but like with a big Jack Lannan smile. Oh, that's kind of cool. Right guys. Right. You know, like it, it just doesn't, it doesn't ring true to me, man. Like even some of the most clear examples of that in media. Grogu, terrible name still, Baby Yoda, better name. Clearly was designed to sell merchandise. But even that, like when he is in there, I'm like, that's adorable. Like there's something, it feels genuine. Nothing about this game felt

genuine to me, man. Even the fact that it was clay mated or clay mated clay mation clay mation. It's a, it's some nation and clay. Yeah. Even the fact that they made this with clay mation techniques and then scan it in felt totally unnecessary. Like I've played plenty of games where they have had a similar aesthetic where they just, that's just how they program it. I felt like, well, how do we get the Tim Burton? Oh, I get it. Let's let's make this out of claymation and then we'll scan it. Oh, yeah. And then we'll be able to sell that guy. Like, just a little.

Did you know, speaking of Tim Burton, though, we almost got a Superman Tim Burton film with Nick Cage as Superman. Yeah. You guys know that? You don't have to tell me any weird goth thing. I'm just telling you all about what could have been. I'm just so surprised. I mean, I, I kind of get what you're saying. It definitely felt like it was very lost from the get-go and it didn't really have that heart.

I don't know if you felt that Ryan, if you felt like there wasn't much to go with. Um, I, I felt, I guess the long or the short is for me, uh, with, with, uh, design is I loved the characters. I did not really care about the world. Like I thought it was cool and it kind of looked good, but I wasn't drawn into the world as a whole. I did not like the fuzzy effect they tried to give like, you know, yeah, it's foggy, whatever, but like you can still see stuff. I think that was kind of maybe just so that they didn't have to develop as much of the game. So there wasn't. I agree with John,

that there wasn't really a heart in the world. I didn't feel like I was where I was. I had no notion. I'm just like, okay, I'm cruising through this area. But I did have a connection to the characters and the character design. I did love Pop boy and I loved the other the other characters throughout the game, but just the world itself was just kind of lacking for me. For me, that's exactly for me until I met pot boy. I didn't have a connection to this world. This world is very empty and barren, which it's supposed to be. It's the end of the world. Yeah, this takes place at the end of this claymation world. And you're basically surviving in the aftermath, which makes sense

why it's so empty and sad and terrible music was good, though. The music got me that was really good music. It was pretty solid. Yeah, I did. I gotta give the music that I did grow to like the music. Quite a bit. I mean, that one. What do they call that? They don't call it a sting. I can't think of the word. The one cue that plays whenever pot boy is setting a fire for the end of a chapter. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where it pulses up three times and you're activated.

Yeah. That one got me. I love that one. It was so good. Yeah. It's a good, such a good. I'm going to remember the name of what that's called one day. At some point. But you know, the game is split into five unique tales that each tell a story of fire or darkness, or how they would, you know, combine within this world. Because as we mentioned, Potboy is our companion, but he is also the last light at the end of the world. There's no fire in this world anymore. it's all been taken over by shadow. The sun is gone, the moon is gone, everything is just dark. Which is why you need to take Potboy to the mountain and reignite the sun and bring light

back to the world. Which you told that pretty straight up by this creepiest NPC I think I've ever met in my life. He's got like two heads and he's almost snake sounding when he talks. You're told that pretty straight up by this creepiest NPC I think I've ever met in my life. He's got like two heads and he's almost snake sounding when he talks. Yeah, it's a weird setting when you jump into off the bat, but I mean that's kind of what they're trying to set up. I think they want you to be a little off put in trying to figure out some things and figure

out where you are and what you are, and I do think they did a good job on that, is unsettling you before you kind of dive into this world. ALICE Yeah, I think so too. I think it's very, they do a very good job of letting you know that this is a bad world. It's something that we talked about with the first impressions, John, was like, at least what I had experienced by then, because I hadn't met anyone yet, was like, I felt very alone in this world, and Potvoy was the only companion I had. And that kind of stays true through the whole thing, even if you do make friends, they don't really stay around. And I think that really does actually add to the world

building, even if the world isn't that great. Sorry, the midnight walk. Yeah, I was, again, I, um, man, I feel like on paper I could find so many fault- Dude, I'll be honest, I don't even know what the story was, man. I felt like I was just like- You didn't follow the story? I couldn't get interested in it. I could not. It just felt like this paint by numbers sort of thing. Um, I w when you and I did our initial impressions, I stopped playing it because I was, I got stuck in a part and honestly it ended up being operator error. Totally my fault.

I was, I, do you know those big gas valve things? Like a little bit of a spoiler, but there's a certain way that you're supposed to activate them and I was doing it the wrong way. I was trying to, that's where you were stuck. I was curious. I was trying to throw a. So, oh yeah. Instead of the way you're supposed to do it now, but, but the same way, like you find these little like cue cart or a clue cards and it showed that being thrown. And I was like, why can't I get the, and I just totally forgot that I had the right way to it. Anyway, I got past that part.

But I could just never find I could never find like love for this game. When I stopped playing it, when we did our initial impressions, I hadn't looked up any reviews for this because I was like, like to go into games that I'm really excited about like with no No preparation, but I was confident that that I was gonna be seeing like six out of sevens three out of fives, you know But I'm shocked at what it what is it at? It's like no it said a 92% on Steam. Yeah, really 92 92% on Steam. Yeah. Really? 92. Overwhelmingly positive. So yeah, you know, clearly. Yeah, clearly. How many reviews is that? That is 378, I believe.

Oh, wow. Okay. I don't even know. It's still kind of early, but- It's still in its infancy, but it's still incredible that it's only been out for that long and it's already gotten this positive a reception. I was looking up some stuff before we recorded on, you know, and on Reddit and you know, did there just nothing but glowing reviews, you know,

Yeah. But are going to, I think every, every goth person who has a Jack Skellington tattoo somewhere on their body, who, who is, uh, you know, 20 years old that is wearing a cure t-shirt is totally going to buy this. You don't understand, man. You don't understand this world. Well, which I, that was me.

Yeah, it clearly you thought it was going to be for you, but since you're very familiar with this genre and what it does and what it you know doesn't do What makes the Midnight Walk stand out gameplay wise is there any mechanics or anything that stood out? Yeah, what what made it stand out for me gameplay wise was that it was the most boring gameplay of probably So here's the thing though like I was expecting it though like I was expecting it to not be reliant heavily on the gameplay Because it is along the lines of like what remains of Edith Finch or a fire watch or something. Yes It's it's a walking simulator. It's a walking simulator, which is fine, which is fine. I I love Frankly, I love easy narrative driven games. Like I don't want to die a bazillion times when I play a difficult game and I'm dying over and over again.

It makes me hate the game. I don't want to like breeze through a game but like Ghost of Tsushima was like an appropriate level of difficulty for me. Expedition 33 unless you ended up in someplace where you're over level under leveled. I should say that was a good level of game for me. Souls like man can't do them. Even the, even the innocent ones, like another crab's treasure. This game was startlingly simple and easy, which would be fine. If for not the fact that I didn't find any story there to be attached to.

I will say though, that I didn't find any story there to be attached to. I will say though that I didn't do this in VR. I, as I was playing it, I was recognizing like, if this was VR and I actually had that element of feeling like I was in this world, I think that might probably change my opinion on this. You know, I felt that way as well, that if I'd been like in the hot seat, you know, as the burnt one doing all this stuff, you could see your hands move when you move them and things like that. Maybe I would have felt more immersed and scared. But I do have to agree. It's a very simple game.

I was I was honestly on the same vein as you guys. Like I thought like, man, I wonder if this is, and it's regrettably, I just, I can't do VR with motion. But I wondered if this would hit so much harder in VR, like that, that just diving into this world to where you're, you know, lighting the matches and you're doing all the stuff and, and looking around and then getting attacked and, and whatever happens within the game, like the ability to see it in a virtual world might be that extra jump to take it over from a meh game to like something that is standalone, you know, something that really kind of is warranting those, those reviews, you know, a 90 whatever percent.

Yeah. Yeah. I, I have to like like there's lots of other games. Like if you're to play uh Vader Immortal, for instance, the the Star Wars VR game, if you were to play that on just like a regular console or regular PC or whatever with the flat screen, it just takes something away. You know, there's, there's an element of that game where like you are confronted by Vader, no matter how tall you are in real life, you're like shocked by the scale of Vader. Like you just don't get that with, you know,

when you're playing on a TV or something. I definitely think that if there was, if I was playing in VR, there would be that level of immersion. Cause dude, if I'm being honest, man, like the little goth kid in me, like that, that style of world is like the world I want to live in. You know, I like the dark, spooky, you know, like haunting lights and kind of charred people and ghosties and stuff. I love all that stuff, but it's just the way I played this game. It just didn't didn't work for me. Yeah, I guess that's fair. Well, if we're not, if you didn't see anything

in the gameplay, I guess I'll talk about it. Let's hear it. It is a walking simulator, but it's also a stealth game. You do need to, you know, creep around and hide from enemies or, you know, you know, outsmart them by sneaking around them without being seen. But you can also, there's also puzzles involved. Very simple puzzles. Oh my gosh. Like the easiest puzzles you can match. How many candles do I have to light? All right, there they are.

Exactly. Where do I take my giant match cannon? Yeah, yeah. Choo-chunk. There it is. When you are getting snuck up on by something in that game Yeah, yeah. Choo-chunk, there it is. When you are getting snuck up on by something in that game and you hear the, watch out! Who is saying that? Watch out.

Oh, it's like the voices of the dead or something, because it's not Potboy. He doesn't speak. Yeah, I never got that. You don't speak either. The burnt one doesn't get a mouth. Yeah, but you know what I'm talking about? Like there were scenes where there were a couple, I wanna give the game credit. There were a couple of like creature designs

that I was like, okay, that's pretty cool. Like the Grinners, I think they're called. The Grinners. I was like, that's pretty cool. But yeah, when you're like sneaking around from trying, doing the stealth elements of this game, Pretty cool. But yeah, when you're sneaking around from doing the stealth elements of this game, you would once in a while hear this, watch out!

And I'm like, who the heck is saying that? Who's telling me? Thank you, but who? Who is that? Exactly. Potboy, you can speak? I didn't think you were intelligent enough to breathe. And it's the only time in the game that that happened.

Like if it is in fact the voices of the dead or what, like I think that's the only time in the game you hear that. And again, that just to me feels like bad. It feels like play by numbers design. I think somebody when they were creating this game, they go, well, this is a VR game and things are going to sneak up on you and that's going to frustrate people. How do we warn people? Oh, uh, just have like a voice. Say you look out. Yeah. Okay.

How do we explain that? I prefer the big stomps like Oh my gosh something's coming then you're like, oh you like look back and you're like, yeah you gotta run Yeah, you see right that would have been far more effective for me man, dude. Sign me up put me in coach Yeah, I'll design it. Which again, is like the audio design, I think was the shining thing in this game. I would say, I think the audio is the best thing I've experienced is just cause it's the binaural audio,

which you know, is, you know, from whatever side you're hearing things is where it's coming from. But also it's part of the mechanic of closing your eyes and listening for invisible objects. Yes. Right. But even that the way that like I thought that that was a cool idea, but they made it

easy. Well, it's not utilized. It's not even that it's too easy. It was irrelevant in the game guys. There is this scene. I know this this a big spoiler because it's towards the end of the game for anybody listening or at least that's skip ahead a few. I guess go ahead and yeah I will I will say end spoiler at the end of this. There's a scene where

you're like collecting these bones to put in a grave so that you can advance beyond this level and you are going basically the gimmick of the game is is that you can advance beyond this level. And you are going. Basically, the gimmick of the game is that you have your characters close its eyes so you can hear things that are invisible. And by doing so in this one part, you are able to hear the bones rattling in this the specific coffins that they're in. But there's like not a lot of coffins to begin with. You could just like go around and open them and the bones will be there. And it's like, why do I even need this? Like I, I, it would have taken less effort for me to just go, okay, it's not

in that one, not in that, oh, there it is. You know, rather than like use, use this gimmick. It's just, man. I wonder if I w I will say, I wonder if like, and I know we didn't, none of us played it in VR. I wonder if the VR would have changed that view on those types of sections to where you have a headset on you're in VR and you're walking and you hear the rumble of, of the bones and you're looking around and you're like, what the heck, you know? So I just, I know like, cause you talked about games made in VR,

people playing games like super hot. I've heard people that love super hot that didn't play it in VR. I'm like, what? Like it's one of the best VR games ever. Like, how can you play to not VR? You know, to me, like, the ability to, like, dodge and move and move around all that stuff, that's what makes the game. So I'm wondering if we are missing a little bit of that magic, not playing it in virtual reality, as opposed to, like, just on a screen, you know, we're not getting that extra layer of depth, you know, that we otherwise would have had, you know, if we played it with, you know, a headset on.

Yeah, it could be the difference between watching or recording of a roller coaster and being on a roller coaster. Yeah, maybe so, that's a pretty good analogy. Listen, I'm trying to make a show here, John, what are you doing? I just said, Josh just schooled me in my storytelling in the previous episodes.

Well, I'm curious to know, do you think the VR integration has hurt this game's development or do you think it has made it better? Do you know if they had planned to make this a non-VR game from the beginning? I do not, but it feels like it was meant to be VR

across the board. It feels very good. I'm wondering if they started development in this game several years ago, and then at some point they had a member of the dev team go like, hey guys, VR isn't selling at all. If we want to make some of our money back, we're going to have to push this out to consoles. And then they go, okay, well, how do we make that work? It feels very clearly designed for VR. And so, I feel kind

of dirty even passing all this negative judgment on it, not playing it the way it's intended. But at the same time, this is how they released it, guys. This is how they released it. And you can tell with the lack of depth in the world. You can only see so far. It looks all foggy and hazy. Part of it's by design, but also a part of it, I think, is lack of development. And I think it was meant to be like, okay, we can't over-design this world

because virtual reality is going to be what people okay, we can't overdesign this world because virtual reality is going to be what people are using this for. So I mean, maybe that was the case. Like they were just, it was meant to be that they're like, eh, let's, let's try to release it on normal systems. I mean, the very first time I ever talked about it, I think I just said PS VR, cause that's all I thought it was for. Cause when I saw the trailer, it looked like a VR game.

It did not look like a game. And I was very confused when I found out it is not just a VR game. You're you're your instincts were correct. I think my instincts were definitely correct. Well, but so overall, though, I mean, what was your experience with the game? My experience with the game was. I was okay. It was incredibly short for what I paid for it. That is my biggest takeaway.

Yeah, let's talk about that. We're gonna bring that up for sure. We'll bring that up. But my personal experience with it is, I really liked it after I sat with it for a little bit and I thought about what the narrative meant and what it what the endings meant and what it all could mean but I can't really say I liked it if I don't have any intention to ever play it again. I yeah I gotta say the game has like there's no right there's no replayability yeah it is a narrative game that maybe you replay once you've forgotten about it. Maybe. Yeah. And only if you really like the VR component. Yeah. I would totally give it another shot in VR. Yes, I would absolutely play it again in VR because that's a whole new experience for

me. First is, you know, sitting here at my desk, you know, using a controller, because of course I was and playing it here where it was just like, Oh, I'm just playing a horror game. It's a narrative driven horror game that so, so, so hold on. I want to, I want to, I want to clear something up. Would you classify this as a horror game? It is definitely a horror game to me. It did not feel as a horror game? It is definitely a horror game. To me it did not feel like a horror game.

Like at all. Never? Outlast trials, you know, a lot of these. That's like horror. Well, okay, that's horror. It's horror! You know, that's what horror is. Like horror is not like, oh, look, you know, this guy's going to get you.

Like that's what it felt like. I mean this guy's so top eyes he's gonna get you I'm gonna go I'm gonna go jump in this cabinet right in front of him and then he won't know where to go like okay oh yeah okay like how is that a horror game like this is not the I was not more of a spooky game well that's and that's fine and that's fine and that's you know that that's fine. And that's, you know, that's why I asked. Thriller and horror. To me, to me, it felt like just like a, like, cause I mean, it's the same exact aesthetic and look

of Nightmare Before Christmas. That's not a horror movie. That's, that's like a, I, I'd let my little kids watch that cause it's just like a, it's a good movie with cool look to it. Yeah, it's creepy, some of the stuff they do, but like this to me did not feel like a horror game. So I personally would not ever classify this under the horror genre of games.

It's like, you know, spooky light. Yeah, it's spooky light. I like that. Spooky light. Yeah, spooky light. Well, we'll get into a few more of our other personal opinions just after this little break. All right, we're back.

Let's see. Uh, let's talk about the elephant room, the price. Who, who else feels slightly ripped off by this game? Well, hold on. Let's all, let's all pick a number. OK. And then and then we'll say the number in turn like you or whatever order is fine, but like, let's pick a number.

All right. Everyone remember a number in your head right now. OK, do it with the audience. Do it with. I'm going to say. Nineteen ninety nine. I was going to say twenty five. Twenty five. I was thinking twenty four 1999. 2525. I was thinking 2499.

Yeah. 2499. That was what. And that's only because I understand why they are charging $40 for this game. It's $40 for a five hour game, by the way. It's kind of crazy. I understand why they think they can charge $40 for it because of how much work they put into it. How much unnecessary work that went into this. That's the problem is it's bloat. They're like,

again, it just feels like bloat, man. They made everything that's in the game, John, like they have. They didn't need to. They didn't need to. It's almost like when you have this, I love how it's made. I love to watch large machinery mass produced product. You have this one where they're just mass producing it and this other guys are like, they're producing it by hand and they're like, oh, well we need to charge this price.

It's like, you didn't need to do this. You don't have to do that. You can use this device. So they're over engineering something that didn't need to do this. Like you don't have to do that. You can use this device. Like, so they're over engineering something that didn't need to be done. They're, they're putting things in that doesn't need to be there. And they're charging a premium price tag. 40 bucks is a lot for a game. It is a lot.

I mean, I got it for 35 because it was on sale on steam, but that's still $10 more than I want to pay for this. Yeah. Especially after finding out how long it is. Yeah, exactly. Again, like I, I am absolutely like, dude, I used to run a company that was like, definitely the high end price wise company, but we provided value that was that exceeded the price. I will absolutely pay a higher price for an even higher value. And if I was playing this game and really felt like, wow, this is this all looks like claymation to me, I would have been in

for it. But there's something about the translation from whatever they made in reality to scanning it and what was in the game that just felt like like much odd world. Did you either you guys play any of the odd world games? Yeah, I played a little bit. Yeah, several. OK. Yeah. So like when I was playing the those games, like I felt, oh, this is a similar kind of like aesthetic. It's a little chunky, a little blocky.

And, you know, like I felt like this game totally could have done that. They could have achieved the same look with probably a fraction of the labor that went into it. And so It's probably labor and budget and Yeah, diminishing returns, man. Dude, filming claymation is unbelievably burdensome. Stop motion is a dying medium. Yeah, for a reason. I understand. That's why. It's because it's expensive,

but it's also because people are not willing to pay stop motion prices. I'll pay to see Wallace and Gromit. What are you talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Oh no, no love for Wallace and Gromit over there, fam. I actually just haven't seen them,

but I've heard they're really good movies, yeah. I actually just haven't seen them, but I've heard they're really good movies. Yeah. I, I understand them, but I don't. And it did anyone else. I know you didn't get to the end, Ryan, but did anyone else feel like those last two chapters they'd run out of budget or ideas? Why? Cause they went.

Yeah. Yeah. They went so fast. Honestly, this was a three chapter game. Dude, the last chapter when you're going up the mountain was like. I don't know, like it was like a 10 minute chapter or something. So like I got up, I got up the mountain. I was like, oh, this is the end of the game right now.

Like, OK, this is Moon Mountain. Yeah, I've I've made it to Moon Mountain. Yeah, there's no one to stop me. I is moon mountain. Yeah. I've, I've made it to moon mountain. Yeah. There's no one to stop me. I mean, we looked at this, we looked at this game and then I was like, yeah, I'll play with you guys. I'll hop in. And I did, I hopped in yesterday and then I played it a little bit and I played today.

So I'm like, I guess 10 minutes from the end then, cause like, I'm supposed to go up moon mountain and that's, I mean, to me, that seems wild because I feel like there's so much more untapped world, but also there's really not that much world there. So it's a weird feeling. It's a, it's, it's. It's clinging to. Yeah, it's like, it's like, what are we here for?

I get it, but like, why? Why am I driven to go up this mountain? Why am I wanting to do all this? So yeah, man, it's, it's a, it's an interesting game. So what do you think the community, why do you think they like it so much? I think because there's not a lot of games like that. I definitely think it's novel, you know, like there's, there's not a lot of things like this out there.

And, and so anybody who's like. Waiting for reanimal to come out, basically is like clinging to anything like that, that they can find off. Yeah, I don't know. And right, right. These games from best to worst limbo inside Little Nightmares and the Midnight Walk. I hate to say it, but the Midnight Walk is definitely on the bottom.

Right. It is. All of those games, it's on the bottom. It is. Here's the thing, though. It's not a bad game. Like if it's not like a noticeably bad game, it is just what we've talked about before a seven out of 10 or a six out of 10. Like it's just like, I think I don't want to say it's bad.

I think if this had been a, it may, the more I think about it, the more I feel it was like, I just didn't play it right. Like if they, if this had been a VR exclusive and you're like actually in there feeling it, seeing it, moving around and appreciating all the work that went into it, it may have been an altogether different experience, but I don't know. People are rejecting VR for a reason. That's all I can say. Yeah. Cause it gets sick and throw up like me.

Yeah. Yeah. They take one step and I can play super hot, but if you're moving around like, uh, like, uh, you know, anything else like, right? Yeah, they take one step and I can play super hot But if you're moving around like like, you know anything else like Yeah, I haven't played limbo or inside but I've played little nightmares I need to get to limbo and inside Oh, they're great. I've heard and they're like a decade old man, and they're still so good I feel like I watched the youtubers play them ages ago, and then I was like I've experienced this That's not how it works in the real world Each of those have like stories with like plot twists and like you know

Narrative and characters you care about Don't you better put some respect on pop boys name right now You can't talk bad about the one thing we liked about only good thing about this game. He is sack boy in Maryland Manson cosplay. He could be. Oh, well, okay. One second. Uh, we're going to go ahead and talk about spoilers real quick. Cause I want to get a quick spoiler segment out there.

Uh, go ahead and skip to whatever Ryan writes down. But he does get his emo haircut at the end there when the shadows give him his head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What ending did you get? John? I do. I chose sacrifice him. I recreated the sun. You brought the sun back. All right. Right. Yeah. What did you have? The guy he wants the world to see, get their vitamin D.

I did not. I was not going to let my little buddy die. I was not going to let these people tell me what my purpose was. So what was that? So I didn't, I was headed up the mountain. What's the difference between the two? So when you bring the sun back, all three of die how's he dies you die and pot boy pot boy Well, how's he dies the Sun healthy dies way before that though?

How's he comes back though to lift up pot boy so he's true the Sun. Yeah, he comes back as a carcass Yeah, cuz you know pot boy accidentally set him on fire and killed him. Yeah, you know He kind of learned why fire isass. Yeah, because you know, a pot boy accidentally set him on fire and killed him. Yeah. You know, he kind of learned why fire is dangerous. Yeah. But, you know, that happens and the sun comes back and it shows you like all the residents looking at the sun and they're not really moved or changed by any of it. Like you see the craftsman and his daughter walking away and they keep walking away. You see all these people turn to look at the sun and then they go back to what they're doing because it does not matter. It's futile. It's futile to try to help the people of this world basically versus the ending I have where I told Spot, uh, pot boy to stop trying to

light the sun and he tries anyway and he fails. He fails miserably. And then you and what remains of Howzie and Potboy continue walking down the midnight walk. That you've brought the moon back instead. And it's the same. Nobody cares. Nobody noticed your efforts were for nothing, no matter what to this world. You need people to want to help themselves in order to help them. And that's kind of the day. This game is nothing and I played it for nothing and John played it for nothing. Ryan in the, in the 40 minutes that we've been talking about it, we have explained every single detail and every single story that is in this game.

Like if we haven we talked about the matches The girl who stole matches and got burned alive. Oh well now now you did now you There you go It's all done, and you can shoot matches, and then they're like you can light matches And then that's the extent of the game. Yeah, if you are if you are somebody who's like itching for a kind of darker spooky game Please check these off your list first inside little nightmares little nightmares to especially and limbo Those are fantastic games

This one another first-person one. That's actually pretty good. I'd also recommend my friendly neighborhood. It's a pretty good Oh, it's Resident Evil, but, but with muppets. Oh, that sounds awesome. It's pretty good. I do like that one a lot. Uh, we're not talking about my friendly neighborhood though. We're talking about the midnight walk, unfortunately. But yeah, no, that that's the only reason I think I really care about the Midnight Walk is because you kind of start to look at the stories and all the things that you've done. And even though they were for nothing for your main quest, you helped those people with their problem.

But your main quest just meant nothing to anyone. They didn't care. They weren't there to help you. You were just in the way. We reconstructed the skeleton, we laid the person to rest, like really? None of it mattered. We brought the cauldron back for whatever that thing was so it could mourn its dead friend. Well, speaking of put to rest, let's put this game to rest.

Yeah, let's put this one to rest. Let's go ahead and end the spoiler segment right here. It was half the episode. It was not half the episode. I think it was two minutes. Let's go ahead and end our journey on the midnight walk. And Ryan, why don't you tell people where they can support the podcast? Well, if if you like what we're doing here and you're not in the virtual world that you have to light matches and

Run from little scary monsters. You can come over to multiplayer squad comm our links in all our bios as well Podcasting ain't cheap. We love to put on what we can for everyone and Any support that anyone can offer even a like and a share, all our socials, all that stuff's out there, so please, anything anyone can do, it really genuinely, from the bottom of our hearts, helps us out and we appreciate it, so whatever you can do, we love you for it. And also, I gotta hear, like, am I just way off base on this? Like, if you have, if I miss miss something please mention it in the comments I have to like I want to like

this so bad we all are right there where we want to be able to say play the midnight walk it's a great game but yes that I'm going to say wait for a sale yeah save your money man wait for money If the devs are listening, invite us to your studio. I'm sorry. Invite us, I wanna see the effort that went into this. Make me appreciate it. You're gonna get us so much hate, John. We're gonna get shot.

It's like in the hood. You're so mad about you being hate-hating on the puppets. That's fine. On all the effort that went into the puppets. I bet they look awesome in real life. But that's all for this time, everyone. Until then, happy gaming. See you tootly doodly.