Video Gamers Podcast - Top Indie Games of 2025 (So Far) – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Gaming hosts Ace, Ryan, and John celebrate the indie video game darlings of 2025 in this episode featuring standout titles, hidden gems, and bold predictions. From headline-makers like Expedition 33 and Blue Prince, to under-the-radar gems like Ender Magnolia, and chaotic fun with Schedule 1 and REPO—this year’s indie gaming scene is stacked. We break down what’s made these video games special, how they compare to AAA offerings, and ask the big question: Is indie officially the future of gaming? All the video game news and discussions you need, every week, right here on the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, and Phelps 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

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Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. I'm your host Ace and today we're going to dive into the Andy Gems of 2025. But before that, some introductions are in order. His body may be here, but his mind is still exploring the world of Expedition 33. It's John. Oh, gosh. I can't wait to talk about my favorite game yet again to the chagrin of everybody.

I am going to whine so much about it. I cannot wait. You are the whiny one, John. I am the whiny guy. You are the whiny one of the podcast. Yeah, we got this fun comment on Spotify and I told my wife about it

and she immediately started calling me a whiny guy, John. Well, I know what you're going into my phone as now. Oh God. Oh no. I think she had a shirt made too. Yeah, there you go. And some say he is still looking for fabled room 46, but others know he gave up on that a long time ago. It's Ryan.

You know, surprisingly, that was a better game than I thought it was going to be. But yeah, I can only get, I'm like Josh with those games. I'm, I'll get close to the end and be done. I'm pretty sure you and him both are just like, I'll look it up. Yeah. After I got to the last room and I didn't have any keys and I was out of steps and I had the door open, I'm like, yeah, that's enough for me.

You guys, I'm currently playing this game, please stop. Hey, there's no spoilers. No spoilers, all right. It's not spoilers, I'm just like really into it at the moment. Oh, you just don't want us to bum you out? You're bumming me out. I have terrible news for you. I have terrible, terrible news.

But before we get into it, just want to say, we're talking about the indies of 2025. 2025 has been an absolute banger of a year for video games. And the indies are no slouch to say the least. Yeah. No, the indies are- They definitely have, they've come on strong for sure. I mean, obviously with what the games

we're going to mention, but each one of them, you're like, dang, that's a really good game. That's really good. That's an Indie? Oh my gosh. So yeah, no shade to the Indies. You know, they've been keeping pace this year. Absolutely.

They absolutely have. I mean, some of the best games this year have been Indies, and that is incredible to see. And I'm so happy to see it personally. I bet you are. Indies are the way of the future, man. It's the- Exactly. That is the way of the future. Yep. See, we're the thinkers.

Small and nimble. We already knew, John. We already knew. But you know, kicking it off, we'll talk about John's favorite game. Probably going to be the Indie that takes game of the year. I'm predicting it now It's it's expedition 33, baby

dude, I think unless there is a really solid critics favorite choice like a New Mario that comes out q4 or something Man, that's the game to beat expedition Expedition 33 is a game to beat. Do you think Donkey Kong will take it away from Expedition 33? I can't, who knows?

Who knows? Probably not, but who knows? It could be amazing. I know it's not your game of the year, Ryan, but you gotta admit, it's touched huge audiences so far. Oh, absolutely. It has a massive impact. Yeah, like I said, you know,

when we kind of covered the game and did our deep dive, it is not my game, but I can recognize the greatness in it and what they created, especially like we say, as an indie developer, small team, you know, they left another large developer and did their own thing and they did it extraordinarily well. So, I mean, all the props to them and what they've created to do that to be probably the front runner so far

on Game of the Year, like that's awesome. Dude, 30 something people, 30 something people made that game, Matt. Yeah. 30 something people from Ubisoft. you know what this does from, this is kind of a hard pivot, but there's a game that Josh turned me onto in one of our previous episodes here called Mind's Eye.

That's kind of like futuristic Grand Theft Auto or whatever. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't understand at the time that guys that were actually on the GTA dev team left to go work on this project and given the absolute success and masterful masterful execution of Expedition 33 I am like I have all kinds of hype now for this Minds Eye game so I don't know man I again I've it several times. The future is indie dude, small and nimble.

I think AI is enabling smaller teams to do bigger and bigger things. I am super stoked, obviously about expedition 33, but I'm stoked at indie in general going forward. Yeah. I ended up picking up expedition 33 because of how much every single person around me, including you guys was hyping it. And then of course seeing, single person around me, including you guys, was hyping it. And then of course seeing Ryan in his little French outfit sold it for me.

That was... That was the seller. That was the seller. My costume was responsible for at least one copy. There we go. You could tell him that in an email. That's true. No, we don't ever want them to see that.

How many awards do you think you'll take? Oh, best soundtrack for sure. Best art direction. Almost certainly game of the year. Best acting. Best indie. Best narrative? I don't know, best narrative.

I mean, it's got so much. I've only gotten through like halfway through act two. So I can't say like everything about it, but what I've played so far, like this is the evolution in turn-based that Final Fantasy should have been when it came back to, you know, the modern age. Totally agree.

I've seen a lot of those comments, people saying like, this is the direction Final Fantasy needs to go. They need to kind of mimic this to get back on track and make that kind of darker style Final Fantasy again, not fun, goofy, campy or anything like that. Yeah, man. And yeah, Expedition is just, they hit all the marks

and they did it. You know, sometimes there's lacking here, lacking there. They did all of the great gameplay, all the great soundtrack. The music was amazing, beautiful world, but it was an amazing story too. It's got that artsy fartsy element to it, you know, that, that the critics love, that there's depth

and design and everything that makes it that kind of critically acclaimed style game. Um, so I think, yeah, it's, it's going to be a runaway for the most part. Speak a little more about the fartsy part of it. It's the artsy fartsy man. That's all there is. We don't talk about

fatulence. French food, you know? Oh, yeah. Bro, bro, French food is underrated in the USA, man. Have you ever had like a proper soufflé? No, no, no, super good. No, I definitely have not. I love French fries.

I think French fries are done as a funnel cake. Did you know French fries were invented in Belgium? Really? I feel like I did know that at one point. No, I definitely have not. I think the Custard Garden is a funnel cake. Did you know French fries were invented in Belgium? Really? I feel like I did know that at one point, and then I deleted that and you've reminded me. Never forget. The more you know.

In all honesty, Ace, what you just said about this game sort of revolutionizing turn-based, I don't take that, I think that is a legit statement in much the same way that Grand Theft Auto redefined open world, that Halo redefined first person shooters, that God of War both kind of redefined beat-em-ups and then third person action games. I think that this is going to be the game to beat

and will serve as sort of the template for turn-based games going forward. I would be very surprised to see it get competitive. I hope so, it was pretty dang good. Yeah. I would love to see that just be like the template for turn-based games. But yeah. Totally.

Moving on from a game that if we didn't tell you it was indie, you wouldn't believe it, let's go to Blueprints, which I feel like we all know how I feel about this game. Some of it, someone actually likes to talk aboutrints, which I feel like we all know how I feel about this game. Some of it, someone who actually likes to talk about it. Ryan. We've all played it, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so I think, Ryan, it's interesting because this seems like the type of game that you wouldn't like. I know. Yeah, I know. I know. For sure, I am not a puzzle game guy. I just tend to get like Bored because either the puzzles are too easy or I just have no desire to like figure out

I'm like so I can go through this next stage. I just have to do all this. There's nothing There's no carrot for me other than just figuring out the puzzle. Okay, whoop-de-doo and And for whatever reason this one really just hit a mark with me. I think it was all the levels of it. There's a lot of layers to what you have to do within this game. You know, you have the different tiles to unlock. It matters how you do it. You have so many steps. You have to get these different gems to unlock things. And then there's puzzles within the puzzles. so there was there were so many layers to it

It always kept me on my toes and I didn't know what was gonna happen next Which I really appreciated this one definitely caught me off guard and I thought it was an awesome puzzle It's definitely one of my favorite puzzle games ever Yeah, I think it it resonated with a lot more people than I expected it to and and then I'm clearly in the minority of saying I don't like it. But are you liking it so far, John? Yeah, so first of all, I blasted this game when I first saw gameplay of it and when Josh was describing. Well, and he was setting it to very high standard.

He was sharing people's comparisons to this and Portal, I'm like, dude, portal is like one of the best games ever. Portal and portal too, are like some of the best games ever, funnest games ever. And, and I'm just looking at this, like, looks like a walking sim and you're like kind of opening doors and locks and stuff. I was like, eh, it, this is one of those games where you

really have to play it to appreciate it or not And I definitely don't think it's for everybody It is so far and I'm Maybe ten hours into it at this point. It is probably one of the most Intelligent games that I've played there are things that when you start out like that I've played, there are things that when you start out, like you go, okay, there's all these like design elements that surely have to have some sort of significance.

Everything in this game is significant. Every little design thing. And you have to like, there's just layers and layers. And so I'm at this point right now where I'm like, oh my gosh, I want to figure everything out You know, this is this is deep The one and also say that every time I start to go like get frustrated Like I unlock like a permanent buff or something like that and I'm like, okay, you got me again

One thing that's that's a little frustrating and I think it's the same frustration that a lot of people had with Disco Elysium, is it's just so much text, man. I mean, it's so much reading. And I missed Kingdom Hearts, which again, that's got my name written all over it, just because it's so text-based. This is a little tough, but right now, I am really enjoying it.

I've heard people get frustrated towards the end game. Like they'll get super close and then they'll be short a key or like one step short or something like that and then have to start all over again. And the RNG. You might know someone like that. I think you guys are both like that, right? Oh, I didn't get that far. No, I definitely, I even had the door unlocked in the final room and everything. And then I got there and, uh, I forget what happened exactly, but I

opened like a freezer room and then there's no door into the side I needed. And, uh, and I was just screwed. So I was like, dude, and I forget how many days in, how many days are you in right now? Day 18, 18. Okay. Getting started. That's pretty good. Oh,. 18? Okay. Oh yeah, it's getting started.

That's pretty good. Oh, don't say that, man. Yeah, so like there's like this chamber, the antechamber, which I, you know, don't ruin it for me if that's truly the end of the game or not. Not saying a thing. But I have one of the sides unlocked at this point. And like I got up to that, that's the side that I have unlocked, like probably like five times, but it was like blocked off.

And then I got the part where it's unlocked and now I'm like, I can't get back there. Like it's just, yeah. Yeah. I appreciate this game with its graphical style and what it tries to do and how it tries to throw, you know, the rogue-like genre into the puzzle genre to make something new and unique.

And clearly that resonates with a lot of people because this is one of the highest rated Indies on Metacritic for this year. So it's like, what's the rating right now? It's at 93 currently. Yeah. Yeah. That's a solid, I know people ever liked it really, really liked it. I think it really caught their attention.

They really enjoyed blueprints. And that's one thing like, it is a standout indie for this year to be certain. I think it took the world by storm. The thing about it though, is I feel like it's got a pretty steep learning difficulty. Like, I don't, almost like Elden Ring for instance, like I don't think anybody could make it through Elden Ring like I don't think anybody could make it through Elden Ring.

I don't think anybody could make it through Blueprints. Just, dude, there's like some complexity in some, or at least there seems to be right now in some of the puzzles and stuff. I'm like, bro, this like is taking serious deliberation to get through. Like, you know, I don't know. I can make it through Elden Ring eventually

just through brute force. Blueprints, you actually have to think about what you're doing. Like, and there's some RNG involved too, with your layouts and how certain stuff happens, like, you know, having a closet, closet, closet. Yeah. Not another one. Oh yeah. So there is some weird stuff in there, but I think, yeah, I think this one

definitely, I mean, we've seen it in our discord, um, it just kind of blew up in our discord too, everyone was talking about it that I remember in our discord. Um, it just kind of blew up in our discord to everyone was talking about it That I remember in our chat our general chat. It was just like blocks of censored text. Oh, yeah And it feels like every new game that's happening Yeah, any new game like a clicker all these is like, yeah, we're just gonna set boiler all the text That's kind of cool though. Like for for anybody who's like been listening to us. By the way, I don't know if you guys know this, but I mean like we've had a huge increase in our audience, like 180,000 people listen to this show. Oh goodness. Yeah. Over the last week. It's like

ridiculous. Like we were the number two leisure podcast in the United States, man. But plug for anybody who's listening to this who hasn't signed up for our Discord, man, it is so awesome, dude. We have like a thousand people in there and we're all sharing our game experiences and it always turns into this kind of viral thing where at least 30 or 40 people are all playing

the same game at the same time. You see these big spoiler blocks where it's like, I don't know, man, it's cool. It's cool, it's cool. It's cool. It gives you a sense of community. Yeah. Yep, for sure.

And me being myself, I just type in dumb things and censor it just so people can see. Oh yeah, no. Yeah, I've unfortunately fallen for that a few times. Made you look. It's like, I didn't know you were playing this game, right? Oh, I see. Oh, he's not. It's just Ryan.

Speaking of community, let's talk about the game where you are servant to your community, schedule one. Oh yeah. Ryan, you and I got really into schedule one. I did. I even played after you guys for a while. Dude, it is just like such a fun and addicting game. It is, it has that-

Despite the substance. Yeah, I know, right? Besides what it is. Like we talked about in the deep dive, it's just hilarious to hear coworkers at their job being like, yeah dude, we're gonna be able to make cocaine tonight, or yeah, we're gonna do a bunch of, we can make meth everywhere,

and then we're gonna mix this with that. And it just it Uh, we do not condone these activities at video gamers podcast, by the way That says otherwise Don't do drugs just sell them just make the distribute them but do not do them You can make oodles of money. But yeah, man, I think this one was, again, this is a solo dev that created this. Solo is insane. And this again shows what we've seen with a lot of these indie games is if it's fun,

you know, graphics be damned. Like it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be some graphically amazing game. You can have a game that just, you know, plays into the eye, looks okay, looks like an old school cartoon, but it's just so much dang fun and has that element to draw you in with the progression of advancement and upgrading your home to a barn, and then a warehouse, and then upgrading your equipment, and expanding your distribution. Like there's, there's the perfect amount in my opinion of carrots dangled to just get you to

play a couple more days, like within the game. And then you unlock that and then you unlock that and you just keep going and going and going. So I think that this guy did an awesome job. And yeah, dude, I loved it. Major props to him. Major props. I started my own, I started my own world after

we got off, cause I knew Josh was going to log in anymore. No, no, of course not. Yeah, I, I loved it. Major props to him. Major props. I started my own world after we got off because I knew Josh wasn't gonna log in anymore. No, no, of course not. And yeah, I was hooked, man. Are you still playing it? Either of you guys? Occasionally, I play a little bit here and there. I was grinding for a while and then we got into Doom,

and I was hooked on Doom for a while, and then sprinkling some Rivals if I wanna hate my life. Yeah. The hate has only begun. But for sure, you didn't play this, right, John? No, it's, well. It's PC exclusive. Oh, that's right.

Yeah, so there's my excuse right there. So that's already a issue. No streaming to your TV on this one. This wouldn't normally be my type of game, but I gotta tell you, just being associated with the show, it's opened my horizons quite a bit. Like I never would have played Doom Eternal. I had a lot of fun with it.

Never would have played Blueprints, having a lot of fun with it. So I don't know. I don't know, maybe there's some other old dude out there. You are a businessman, dude. Yeah. We'd have John for like, and then like three days in, he's got this empire already, and we're like,

oh, what the heck? No. You would totally overtake us. No comments, guys. Yeah. No comments. It very much felt like this evolution to the survival crafting sort of genre almost in a way.

Also like while throwing in tycoon elements. And I really liked just like how much there was to do, even though, you know, near the end game, it does get kind of repetitive and you're doing the same stuff over and over again. But like, if you enjoy gameplay loops like that schedule, that's fantastic. Like, and then if you get bored, just go to the casino. Yeah. Well, it like, like you, what's the price tag on this one?

Oh, it's like 20 bucks. Yeah. So I mean, like for the, if you get two hours of enjoyment out of this, that's a movie ticket and chances are you're getting quite a bit more out of that and it's more immersive and everything, you know. It seems like a no-brainer to me. That's the cool thing and I know we've talked about it too before is the barrier to entry with these financially is always so low.

It's always a low. You can take so many more risks on these type of games, kind of like the old school days, back when you'd try a game out and there wasn't internet, so you didn't know a lot about these games. You'd read what you could from your Game Informer or what people's told you, and then you try it out, and if it wasn't good, then, oh well,

take it back to wherever, Gamers or GameStopper or whatever they had back then. But yeah, I love the ability with these indie titles to be able to hop in. And if it's not your cup of tea, then, you know, 20, 30 bucks, you know, that's all you're out, not 80. Yeah, even if you didn't like it, you still supported, you know, a small independent developer,

unless you're Josh, and then you refund Bolatro twice. You know. Yeah. Give my money back, Bolatro. Hey. How long is it? Is it two hours or? Two hours.

Two hours? Yeah, he plays it an hour and 55 and then returns. I'm sorry. We have to do a little side quest here. Best gaming magazine ever. Was it EGM, Game Informer, Nintendo Power, or PlayStation Magazine? I liked Nintendo Power. I think they had the best ones when I was getting those.

What about you, Ryan? Oh, Game Informer. I had like hundreds of them. Yeah. I used to get those. And the GameStop just stopped sending me. Yeah, because you get it with your GameStop account pass. If you got the pass or whatever, they'd send you for free.

And so I'd always have Game Informers show up to the house. and I was so excited looking through the pages and stuff back in the day Yeah, those are sweet. It was a They were all good man. I game magazines. RIP man that what a loss man. What a lot It's sad. I like lost a time Now I get boring mail like bills All right, before we get into the next one we're gonna take a little break All right, we are back to talk about a game that we all three played we all three deep dived and we all three have thoughts on the midnight walk

Yeah, so Ryan was just touching on one of the great things about the indie games is the barrier of entry for prices quite low and This is a tough one. Yeah. Yeah, that's uh, I will say I feel better about the Midnight Walk than I did when we deep-dived it It's you know, I've softened upon it. I look back upon it more fondly, except the price. I can't forgive the price. The price is just too high for what you get. And you know, some of our listeners even went, you know, they picked it up and played it in VR,

and they said, this is absolutely a VR game. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I read some of that too. This is absolutely a VR game. Cause that, so I was, you know, kind of on the lines of what you said, Ace, about softening up to it. I did enjoy the game and I enjoyed what I played, but pulling some gameplay clips and stuff today for this episode, I was watching it again and I was just sitting there kind of thinking as I was recording and I just wish I could have experienced it in VR. I get motion sick with any of these movement things, but sitting there looking,

I just really couldn't help but feel like it's purely meant to be a VR game. That would have made your experience from this to way out there, the whole next level of type of game. And I just wish I could have experienced it. Because everyone I've seen that has said it's awesome. As I say, I think that would have justified the price a little bit more because developing VR games is a little more difficult than just, you know, regular games, cause you have to, you know, sync up the body models and all that with your controllers and the, the visor and all that.

Like if, if it's anything like syncing up like a Vtuber rig, I know everything about that. Like if it's anything like syncing up like a VTuber rig, I know everything about that. So I know like it would be a pain in the butt to make a video game for it. But yeah, I had some time to think about it after the episode. And you know, as anybody listening, who listened to that episode knows, I had quite an unfavorable opinion on it. And after careful consideration, I am doubling down.

I hate that stupid game. How dare you $40 for four hours worth of game. And there's just the worst writing, the worst like, oh, ham fisted design. Oh my gosh. It is an insult to my gothic teenager self how dare you I'm saying mostly preemptively I'd like to apologize to moon hood studios if this gets made into a short and put on our they already know John they already hopped in and they commented on one of the posts already so they know John.

I am honestly mostly saying this because I want them to invite me to their studio so I can see all the cool little claymation guys. All the cool little claymation guys you think were a waste of time. I bet they look really cool in person. I think they I think it it seems like absolute unnecessary work for the game but I bet they look awesome in person. Mooned I I'm telling you right now I know nothing about game development whatsoever but I do know about business if you want me to help you fix your next game I bet I can help. Oh man ain't no way. Shots fired. That's crazy. This is crazy Verifiable to if you want to share bank accounts we can absolutely That's crazy

Midnight walk, you know, it's the pop boy, you know, we love him He was cool, man. I thought he was neat. Do you think it? Yeah VR game of year? Like is that even a thing? Is that a possibility? Against what? Against Beat Saber, Pash 930 or super hot. I'm sure there's other VR games. We just don't know about Maybe It'll get some kind of award just based off the the artistic visuals and things like that I'm certain of that just because it got nines and tens across the board from pretty much everyone else who reviewed it

Did you did you see or play out of sight? There's a there's there's an another indie game that was released not too long. It's funny It's like one of these things like a deep impact and Armageddon or volcano and Dante's Peak There's another game called Out of Sight that is another sort of like whimsical horror game that was released recently where there's also a sort of like sightless kind of game mechanic or whatever. I haven't had a chance to play it and it didn't get the most favorable reviews right out of the gate. And again, I I had such a we'll say average experience with Midnight Walk that that I wasn't like you know chomping at the bit to go

down this lane but one of these days I'm gonna have to pick it up and give it a comparison. Let me let me ask you guys this then so with with the games exactly the same, everything's all equal, but it's $20. 1999, would that change your opinion on this at all? Yes. I feel like it would. Yeah, totally. I think the $40 is the only issue I really have with it.

I don't have any issue with the artistic direction. I don't have any issue with the voice acting or the story. It's all fine. But $40 is just an egregious price to pay for a four hour game. Especially when we got Helldivers 2 for 40 bucks. Oh, did we? Oh my God.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. We're getting Night Rean for 40 bucks. Yeah, Night Rean's going to be 40 bucks. Yeah, and then yeah. I got Expedition 33, I got Halo, I got Blueprints. Oh, here he goes again. I got Game Pass. Game Oh, here he goes again. I got Game Pass.

Game Pass. Game Pass, baby, 25 bucks, 25 bucks. I got all those games, I got Tetris Effect, I got Slay the Spire, I got South of Midnight for 25 bucks. All those for 25 bucks. You put Midnight Walk as a cool little experience on Game Pass, totally different story. You put midnight walk as a cool little experience on on game pass Totally different story, but like seriously like Ryan

You know like let's see you're in the market for like a new car or something, right? And you're you're gonna go buy a Honda Civic and that Honda Civic is like a hundred thousand dollars It changes your opinion on the vehicle. You know, like, Oh, for sure. I, you know, like it might be okay. Like if we're talking like $30,000 car, that's a great car. You know, nothing wrong with it. A hundred thousand, like the, the value

just doesn't match the price tag for me. And I know we are honestly collectively kind of in the minority here. It's getting fantastic reviews. Um, you know, I'm not saying don't play it. I'm saying wait till a sale. That's all I'm saying. I'm not sure no one should play this.

Like if you can find out on the sale, absolutely pick it up. It's a cool experience. And it's just when you hit that price point, you know, people are going to expect more and you know, it's just, you know that price point, you know, people are going to expect more. And you know, it's just, you know, four or five hours of a gameplay that is just not all there if you're not in VR. Like that's hard to stomach for 40 bucks, you know?

You almost feel a little like just gut punch, like, oh man, that was a lot of money. Yeah. But I'm not sure it was expensive as heck to develop, man. And again- Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah gosh Oh, I can't imagine how much this cost to make no especially for a small indie studio like this like and VR you know Yeah, I yeah, I feel terrible. You know I feel terrible

Moonhood took a big jump to develop this game. I'm sure it came at no small sacrifice, but to develop this game, I'm sure it came at no small sacrifice, but to me this feels like there were business decisions that were made that could have been caught far earlier in the development path to either cut their losses or change the direction of this game and improve it. That's my opinion. You know the $40 too wasn't the top that they had discussed price-wise. They probably were like, well, what's our range? They probably were like, we could do $50, $60. Could you imagine that?

And then they kind of, there was some reason in the room that I was like, well, let's go down to $40. And I don't know why they stopped there, but gosh, could you imagine if it was even more? Well, yeah, typically they will go through customer surveys where they test price points before they arrive on something. And they go like, well, we need to make blah to be able to offset our loss.

Because again, the way they produce this had to be astronomically expensive for what we got out of it. Well, before we move on to it, I wanna say one more thing that I know is gonna upset John, that the Midnight Walk has a 1% more positive score than Clear Obscure Expedition 33. What? Out of how many though?

Oh, who knows? That's the question. Who knows? I don't have time for that. 14. What are you talking about? 14 people. I just like to look at the percentages. That's the question. Who knows? I don't have time for that. 14 people. What are you talking about? 14 people. I just like to look at the percentages.

That's funnier. Yeah, I think that it is aesthetically pandering to the right crowd to get that kind of support. It's paid off for them, I'll say. Yeah. Well, we don't know if it's paid off on paper. This is true, but at least publicly, it looks like it's doing fairly well.

I don't see people. Yeah, and good for them. Again, not every game is gonna be for everybody. It just so happens that we are jerks on a show. What? Uh, so we are acknowledging that our ability to critique this game publicly is a much easier task and far less valuable than making the game. I don't want to make your games.

Yeah. Well, I want to, I want to help guys. I, I, man, I I'm saying that semi seriously. I, I feel like I could have provided input to fix this game man I love it not I but I have a great track track record of success here I you know guys I love what you tried for here a for effort yeah okay before we destroy moon Walk anymore. I say let me move on to the next one, which is Repo, which I know neither of you played it. John didn't play it because it's PC exclusive.

Ryan didn't play it because he doesn't like to play games with me. But the amount of lethal company we've played, it's basically the same thing. What are you talking about? It is, but you know, it's got some unique things to it. Like for one thing, it's six players instead of four. So that's cool That's very nice I love the ability to get in like a six pack is is a good group because a lot of people you know Force tough because you usually got like one guy out on the The outskirts like oh man, come on, you know, I want to get in but uh, that is cool. What else what else is on there?

That's a little different like the six players or what else? I mean, you've got the you know, of course you have the six players, but also like I've talked about for with repo It's the it's the not lethal company clone We'll just say like lethal company inspired game who plays the robots collecting items to pay off your debts and Every item has a different weight and value and when you bang items against walls players or enemies It loses value or it just flat-out breaks Which is really funny when you're carrying an item around a corner and your friend is screaming

And he just slams into it and smashes it into a million pieces and now you're out like a thousand dollars I do it does have that um that fun group kind of chaos element to it that you know again pulling pulling gameplay today And I've seen a ton of streamers that are streaming it and stuff. This game is still massive, yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. The ability to not only mess with your friends in the match, but also kill them with like mines

or different things. Oh yeah. Or just knock them over or screw up them with what they're carrying, you know. It just, it lends itself to fun and enjoyment. And whenever you can do that, like a party game, these are like the new party games, in my opinion. These are the ones where you all hop on, but you're not all in the same room, but you can still have that awesome fun experience together and just laugh the whole time.

It's such a great time with friends. You could barely know someone in a friend group, log in, bring everyone into a game like this and get to know someone like instantly. Like, is that, these are the best ways I think to meet and greet people. Honestly. Yeah. It's like, all right, you guys go off on your own. We're going to go over here. If you hear any screaming, run the other way. Exactly. Have you, uh, have you ever played one of these types of games, John? Yeah, I was curious about that as well. If you'd played any of them. No, no. No? No, this is, again, this is not usually my type of game.

Even multiplayer stuff like this that is right up my alley, I've been a huge Marvel fan my whole life, I still have a hard time with Rivals. I'll play it during community gaming nights, but there's just something about that chaotic gameplay where everyone's just screaming over each other that's not, it's off putting to me. Oh, I love that part.

That's why we do community games. That's my favorite part, John. Yeah, we all stay in the same voice channel so that it's just chaos, which I love. Yeah, we just got like 25 people in one voice chat. What's wrong with that? No, people scream out of, my friend Jeremiah actually recommended this strategy

where he was like, he'll play the games with his friends but he turns the sound completely off and then just listens to an audio book. So even if he's just getting like destroyed, he was like, well, I'm still learning something, this is okay. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a good way to do it. Oh, man, that's good But yeah, like you're saying is this thing is still super super still kicking some serious But and it had it peaked it over like 266 yeah 266,000 players whoa Wow Current that's pretty big. that's massive for an indie dev There's just working on like this horror multiplayer genre like this

It feels like it couldn't you know thrive with the way lethal company is and so many people you know they see another lethal company like game, they're just like played it this one somehow took off and I am for one I'm here for that kind of thing man. I do I look like to like the characters They look like the Canadians on South Park. Yeah, I've seen heads when they talk their heads are like All right, we're running out of time here quickly, but we'll hit the last one here which yeah, that's a little game I've never heard it before you know you know no one here game. I've never heard it before. You know, no one here.

Probably not very good. It's probably not. No, don't go that far. You've gone too far now. But Ender Magnolia, Bloom in the Mist is possibly the best game I've ever played in my life. I freaking love this game.

The way clear obscura is a evolution to turn based combat. Ender Magnolia is the evolution to the Metroidvania, in my opinion. Wow. It takes everything that could, good about Metroidvanias, good level design, good combat, good, you know, progression,

and just really amps it up into this massive experience with a wonderful narrative and absolutely stunning visuals. And the music's no slouch either, for anyone who's wondering. It's freaking fantastic. Okay, I'd like to ask you a question on this. I love your recommendations typically, Ace, and this is very high on my list. The one thing that is a little...

It's a slight barrier of entry for me, is this has kind of a very heavy anime aesthetic. And I love that look. I absolutely love that look. But I've never actually been able to get into anime because I find that oftentimes the narrative becomes either way too heavy on the exposition or it's kind of like nonsensical. Does this have like a clear storyline or is this like kind of like rather

cut dry clear? Like you'll find you could, you know, expand upon it by knowing more about the previous game as well. But like it's pretty well told to you if you're reading the text as the people are saying, I'm just thinking of the anime like things. Oh, sure. Oh no, she looked at me. Oh gosh. What should I do? Should I go talk to her?

Oh, I don't know. Well help me form a spirit ball. Hey, you leave Dragon Ball Z out of this. Oh, that's funny. So I did, I recently, I'm doing some videos about my top tens. My number 10 is Castlevania, Symphony of the Night. The beginning. That's where it started for me. I love Metroidvanias, but recently I have, the last few years, I

haven't been able to find one that really clicked with me or that I liked. And when I'd play it, other than like Hollow Knight or Castlevania, I'd just be like, I could just be playing one of those that I really enjoy. I'm not a big fan of the anime look on the Metroidvania, but I think I may have to give this one a shot with how much you've been preaching it from the rooftops, man. You've just got to.

So sell me on it. What is it, other than the level design and stuff, what's the gameplay like that is going to entice me to play this type of Metroidvania play this well first and foremost It does have difficulty options if you find the game too easy or too hard, which is oh cool. Awesome It lacks enemy collision, which I freaking love cuz I hate enemy collision It is my like number one pet peeve in any video game is if I walk into an enemy and I take damage I'm annoyed

Why didn't this hurt them? Yeah, exactly. It's like, why didn't he take it? What the heck? But it's got a very nice system where you collect these humunculi robots. Because the thing with the Ender series is you play as usually a smaller character,

a little girl so far, because I don't know if there's gonna be a third game or not. So I'll just say you play as a little girl who's defended by these giant robots Or these human sized robots some of them are big some of them are small it depends and you can you collect them by you know going throughout the world completing quests or Beating bosses unlocks them as playable weapons, basically. Oh, okay, and that'll unlock new movement options

That'll unlock new combos. You could string in some melee as well as some ranged attacks. It's a very varied weapon system, similar to like spirits and bloodstains, if you've ever played that. Oh, bloodstains sweet. Yeah, it's very similar to that, where you have like multiple options to attack in one fight

and you don't have to pause the game and equip everything and all that. Yeah. Well, that's cool that's cool man I mean I'll have to check it out I think. Is it the same protagonist in both? No. No. Okay gotcha so they are these different protagonists. Ender Lilies actually takes place in the past and then Ender Magnolia is in the future and while they are loosely connected they are not directly like influenced by one another. Okay. If you don't know anything are loosely connected, they are not directly influenced by one another. OK.

Is there a rat? If you don't know anything about, there's probably rats. Yeah, there is rats, actually. Because they had to nerf the rats. I knew it. Because the rats did too much damage and were killing players in the air.

Ace just has a rat agenda. Ates and the rats. Don't call it a rat agenda. Oh, love it. That's my band, Ace and the Rat Agenda. Oh my god. Dude, I love it, bro. So you think that's an indie game of the year?

That's my indie game of the year. That's my game of the year, man. I freaking love to enter Magnolia, and it doesn't get near enough love and praise. And yeah, people, it doesn't get the clicks like everything else does, but man, people are missing out and they're really sleeping on it Just cuz they're like, you know Hollow Knight and silk song are the only two Metroid veins they care about

I feel like people really write off the Metroidvania genre because they play Hollow Knight like well Nothing's gonna beat this even big ones. You're wrong big like like Prince of Persia at the lost crown. That was a fantastic Fantastic Metroidvania and people completely overlooked it. Because it wasn't Hollow Knight. People totally overlooked it because it wasn't Hollow Knight, yeah. Because it's a Metroidvania.

I wonder if that's going to change once Silksong comes out. Because everyone's always just waiting for that Hollow Knight kind of sequel. And once that comes out, and then they can have that checked off the list, then they will be more open to other Metroidvania. That's kind of my hope that we'll see like more people be open to the idea of a Metroidvania or I'm worried that silk song is going to

outshadow Overshadow everything. I hope so man. We've been waiting long enough. Nobody's gonna want to play any other Metroidvania even Hollow Knight People are like why would I play? Hollow Knight when I could play sook's Exactly. That's what I'm that's my worry, but That would also be pretty dang great. I'll be honest. Yeah, what do they say a rising tide? Raises all shit raises all yeah, if you say so Allegedly allegedly I've never heard that one, but I'll go with it.

But yeah. Well, sweet. Those are some good games. Those are our games. Those are indie gems of 2025. I'd say that we have got quite a nice bit of games here and, you know, the year's not over yet. We might still see some more come forward.

I doubt we'll see anything overtake Expedition 33 in this short time, but I wouldn't you know, be opposed to seeing something like that. I would be opposed. It'd be a good problem to have if something better came out, you know. Yeah, I'm too. Probably the game I had the most fun was schedule one, but can't look past Expedition 33. It's just so dang good. It's so dang good. And people who are, you know, putting it off because they don't like turn-based or they don't, you know. Like John. Yeah, yeah, people like John

who don't like turn-based games. Yeah, if that was you, remember, me and Josh liked it too, so. Yeah, yeah, so don't write it off just because John didn't. John liked it, it's okay. But I'm so whiny. You are, but it's fine.

Yeah, it's okay. But I'm so whiny. You are, but it's fine. Ha ha ha ha. Yeah, it's funny. Whoever that is, I was so bitter when I read it. And I like, I like, clap back at him a little bit. But I was like, John, you are kind of a whiny little wuss sometimes, man. So whoever you are, whoever you are, I, I, I hear you. Touche.

I hear you, exactly, touche. Touche. I hear you. Whoever you are, I hear you. Touche. Exactly, touche. Touche. I hear you. Whoever you are, you win. Maybe you can help me, man. I love it. That's all for this episode. John, you wanna tell them how they can support the show?

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The Video Gamers pod, Discord. Be a part of the show, be a part of the story. All of the hosts are on there literally every single day We chat things up with with everybody talking about games of course, but movies fitness food travel Just our life stuff man. If you want like the world's biggest Friend slash support group we are here and it is like so fun and positive If you're looking for a light in the shadows, this is it and it is not a midnight walk. Oh.

Oh. I love you, movement. Dang, all right. And those of you who are interested in Elden Ring Night Rain, if you join the Discord, we will be streaming it on Friday. Me, Ryan, and Josh. So come on down, say hi.

Watch Ryan get his butt absolutely kicked. And until- It'll be my first dabble in Elden Ring ever. And so we thought why not broadcast it for some dumb reason. I think that's gonna be great. Ryan, I- I don't really see how much an idiot I am.

I am predicting, Ryan, that this is gonna be a barrier breaker for you, man. I was looking at gameplay for this. Probably so, it's gonna change the world. And I, again, have a love-hate relationship with Elden Ring, but I was looking at gameplay for this, and I was like, dude, that actually looks pretty fun, man. I think this is gonna do it for you.

I've been getting ready. I've been bumping some Limp Bizkit, rolling. Yeah, keep rolling, rolling. Yeah, yeah. Don't say too much or we'll have to pay him something. Yeah, there rolling rolling. Yeah, don't think too much or we'll have to pay him something. Yeah But until next time play under Magnolia and happy gaming See ya toodly-doodly