Catching Up With More Fall Games

With Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Grand Theft Auto VI on the way, the Triple Click gang takes a breather to talk about some of the other games they've been checking out, including Echo Weaver, Star Wars Galactic Racer, and Escape Academy 2.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Maddy Myers?

  Daylight savings time should probably be abolished, but one perk of falling back is an extra hour to play video games. Welcome to TripleClick, where we bring the games to you. Today, we've got a cornucopia of fall games. The time loop metroidvania game Echo Weaver, Escape Academy 2, which we're playing and co-op with our partners, and so many more, too many to list.

• 0:30Maddy Myers?

  I'm Maddy Myers.

• 0:31Jason Schreier?

  I'm Jason Schreier.

• 0:33Kirk Hamilton?

  And I'm Kirk Hamilton, and hello.

• 0:35Maddy Myers?

  Hello, hello, you two.

• 0:38Kirk Hamilton?

  It's so nice to see you both.

• 0:39Maddy Myers?

  It's another week.

• 0:41Jason Schreier?

  I hope you guys got lots of candy last weekend.

• 0:43Kirk Hamilton?

  I gave away lots of candy, and I count that as a win.

• 0:46Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, it was a huge, huge win, honestly. I saw so many adorable costumes. Not that many video game costumes this year, though. Only one Minecraft Steve.

• 0:57Kirk Hamilton?

  Really? I saw Hollow Knight.

• 0:58Maddy Myers?

  Oh, that's so great.

• 0:59Kirk Hamilton?

  I saw Mario and Luigi. I saw many video game characters.

• 1:03Jason Schreier?

  A Hollow Knight? Oh, my God, that's awesome.

• 1:05Kirk Hamilton?

  It was, and it wasn't like the vessel. It was the Hollow Knight boss with the huge mask. It was one of my friend's neighbors. I think they 3D printed the like giant, you know, barbed Hollow Knight mask, and they had a nail. It was sick.

• 1:20Jason Schreier?

  That's so cool. Did you get a picture of that?

• 1:22Kirk Hamilton?

  No, I didn't, but it was very cool.

• 1:24Maddy Myers?

  I mean, I assume this was a child. Like, getting a picture is a little, it's a little different. You just give them candy, and you tell them they're amazing.

• 1:31Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it was definitely very cool.

• 1:34Maddy Myers?

  Well, I have no transition, but I guess in the way that children are thankful for candy, one might be thankful for bonus episodes of TripleClick, the candy of the bonus feed. Can we, can we say that? We're giving out candy every single month here at TripleClick.

• 1:49Kirk Hamilton?

  It's always a treat, never a trick.

• 1:51Maddy Myers?

  Always a treat and never a trick. So if you were to go to maximumfun.org/jointripleclick, you would get our monthly bonus episodes. Our most recent one is about the documentary. You can see everything. I guess I'll call it a documentary, but I'm putting a lilt, upward lilt in my voice as I say that, because Nathan Fielder, as a filmmaker, is just a fascinating documentarian. And we talked about that in reporting and bias and the ethics of it all. We really got into it from, from kind of a reporter brain standpoint in that app. It was, it was really fun to talk about. And while I'm talking about the bonus feed, actually, I guested on another Max Fun show's bonus feed.

• 2:36Maddy Myers?

  So if you were to become a Max Fun member, you could sneak over to Jesse Thorne's Bullseye feed and hear me on his bonus episode. It's called Put You On, and he solicits questions from his audience for recommendations of things. So I recommended a bunch of video games to people. He got a bunch of video game themed questions, but we also talked about movies and TV shows and all kinds of other things. So it's kind of like a maxed out, personalized one more thing fest, and it was super fun. So it's kind of like you got an extra TripleClick bonus app. And I don't know if our listeners realize, like, you get access to every single show's, other show's bonus episode that you don't listen to, even if you aren't subscribed to those shows.

• 3:19Maddy Myers?

  So if you're already checking us out at maximumfun.org/jointripleclick, you can just sneak over and hear me on another bonus app.

• 3:26Kirk Hamilton?

  Is that episode out now? I'm gonna go listen to it.

• 3:29Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, I believe it is. I recorded it a couple of weeks ago, so it should be out soon, at the very least. So if it's not out now, it'll be out very soon. So that was really fun. So anyway, maximumfun.org/jointripleclick, check it out. Get a little bonus Maddy Myers in your feed, and also check out our app on You Can See Everything. And Kirk, what are we talking about today?

• 3:51Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, today, we're just kind of gonna talk about video games, about some games that we haven't had a chance to talk about so far.

• 3:59Maddy Myers?

  Let's get to it.

• 4:00Kirk Hamilton?

  Before we get into it, I wanted to mention something just really quickly here at the top. Last week, Jason made a crack about how there are no children in Portland, and I defended Portland, saying, "There are lots of children here." And that was mostly based on my impressions moving here from San Francisco more than 10 years ago. And I am sorry to report that in the time since I moved here, there are a lot fewer children in Portland than there were. And it's really kind of become a problem, like in a lot of cities. There are a lot of reasons for that. A big one is housing costs, as they've skyrocketed over the last decade plus. So it's an issue that many people are working on and trying to fix just to make the city a better place for families to live. But anyways, I just wanted to mention that, just for the sake of accuracy

• 4:44Kirk Hamilton?

  and reflecting Portland accurately.

• 4:46Jason Schreier?

  There are, in fact, no children in Portland. Let's set the record straight.

• 4:50Kirk Hamilton?

  Zero, absolutely none.

• 4:51Maddy Myers?

  Listen, there's one dressed as Hollow Knight, so I feel like there's at least, there's at least a few.

• 4:56Kirk Hamilton?

  All right, let's move into video game discussion. So we're gonna be talking about a few fall games that have been, some of which have been out for a little while, some of which are newer, and all of which we've kind of been playing.

• 5:09Jason Schreier?

  We should mention that Ocarina of Time, the remake, is out now by the time you're listening to this, but we have not actually played it yet, so we will be talking about that next week, rather than as part of today's fall game lineup.

• 5:23Kirk Hamilton?

  Yes, these are games that are out before Ocarina of Time, and of course, before Grand Theft Auto VI. So first up, we have Echo Weaver. Jason, this was your One More Thing a little while ago, and you described it as a 2D metroidvania meets Outer Wilds, which was, of course, a very compelling sales pitch. And Maddie and I have both played it, and Jason, I gather you've played more. Have you finished it?

• 5:50Jason Schreier?

  I have not finished it, but I got to like the golden path of how to finish it. I just haven't gone through the motions of doing it yet. So I'm at the very end of the game. I just haven't executed on it yet. And if you're not familiar, I mean, think of it, think of like the Outer Worlds, or Outer Wilds at the end, when you know how to solve the loop, you just haven't done it yet. It's kind of like that. And yeah, I mean, like, to your point, it's an Outer Wilds 2D action game. So, and I guess if you're not familiar with Outer Wilds, essentially, it's like a time loop, and to break the loop, you have to do a certain series of actions. And I just have figured out what those are, but have not done them yet. So, almost done.

• 6:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Nice. Well, Maddie, I want to know what you think of it, because, you know, we know Jason liked it when he talked about it on his One More Thing, but what do you think of Echo Weaver?

• 6:35Maddy Myers?

  I love it. I love it so much, and I guess that's no huge surprise, since this game is such catnip for me. And I think you probably even said that in our group chat, Jason, when you were sharing it, because it's a 2D metroidvania. It has really cool art and sound design, and I love Outer Wilds and the time loop mechanic. One of my few complaints about Outer Wilds is that the three-dimensional ship flying is kind of a motion sickness journey for me that I need to get through. Not an issue here, obviously. I just enjoy the puzzle solving and time looping. I also think that Echo Weaver, something particularly fascinating and impressive that it does

• 7:16Maddy Myers?

  is that technically, your character, who's kind of like this cyberpunk, quote-unquote, weaver, you're kind of like a robot being that is, has all these magical abilities or preternatural abilities, and you already have all the abilities at the outset of the game. You just don't know how to use them yet. And like, all the shortcuts exist in the game, but you don't know where they are. And just as a conceit for the story, I find that really fun. It's kind of like, you already know who you are, you just have to remember. And as you're kind of like finding these logs and discovering how your abilities work, you get to be like, "Oh, wow, cool, I can actually do this now." And that's, that's really satisfying and cool.

• 7:58Jason Schreier?

  How far are you guys?

• 8:00Maddy Myers?

  I'm like 10 hours in, I think. I, I don't know if you want me to give me a place.

• 8:05Jason Schreier?

  Where are you?

• 8:06Maddy Myers?

  Um, I'm at, I just unlocked a cathedral. I had to do kind of an annoying series of events to like, put down my glade and go pick up a key to get a cathedral unlocked. And now I'm doing some platforming sequences inside of that cathedral.

• 8:23Jason Schreier?

  Okay, so you got to the town, you did, did you do the water pump stuff?

• 8:27Maddy Myers?

  Yes, I did. All done. As far as I know, I'm done with that. Kirk, how about you?

• 8:33Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, I guess I'll say how far I am. I'm past that, so I've kind of unlocked a couple more of the big holy cow, mind blowing revelations, sort of learning about the weavers abilities. I cleared the cathedral, or at least the first part of it, and kind of have uncovered something that has significantly opened up travel and opened up the way that I think about moving through the map. And yeah, I think this game is really neat. I have some critiques of it, I guess, or some things that keep it from really like singing for me, from really just transporting me in the way that actually Outer Wilds does. But a lot of them are sort of aesthetic. And I think in terms of the design of this game,

• 9:17Kirk Hamilton?

  it's just so ingenious and cool that someone would set out explicitly to do something like this, to say, okay, well, Outer Wilds had this time loop, and it had this metroidvania, or whatever you want to call it, where there are shortcuts in the world that if you just know they're there and know where to look, you could just find them on your very first time through the loop. But of course, you don't know, and so your knowledge is part of what's unlocking the map. To take that and then graft it onto a 2D metroidvania, which is so tied to character abilities, of which there are also those in this game. It's just much more about knowledge. And I think that feeling of, oh, I could have done this the whole time, and now I know how to do it, and this changes everything?

• 10:02Kirk Hamilton?

  That's a wonderful feeling. That is such a cool feeling for a game to give you, because it's kind of this risk. It's like a really good mystery where they spell it out for you and all the clues were there. The risk that you, you know, that you're taking when you tell a story like that is that your audience will figure it out, and it will kind of undercut, you know, the, the big reveal, the prestige at the end. I actually just was watching a video about Westworld, season one. It was reminding me of that show, and Jason, you and I doing spoiler casts on it back in the split screen days. And also how fantastic the first season of that show was. I'd kind of, I hadn't thought about it in a long time, but then how that show kind of ran into this problem where

• 10:43Kirk Hamilton?

  because they were showing these hints about the big twists in that season, people figured it out. Anyways, that's totally a tangent, just something I wanted to mention that was cool. With this kind of game design, you do run that risk, right? I could imagine there are players who just see the, there are little hints it gives you, like visual cues. You unlock a kind of a fast travel method very early in the game. And then I noticed very quickly, every time I did it, I was seeing these three figures on the screen. And I was like, well, what are those? And I could imagine a player just kind of treating that as a puzzle to solve, like, well, what possible button inputs could I do? Is there anything I can do to, you know, interact with that? And kind of solving things ahead

• 11:24Kirk Hamilton?

  of when the game tells you how to solve them. But I think so far for me anyways, they've done it beautifully. Every time they've shown me something new, I've felt like, oh, that's what a wonderful thing that I didn't realize that I could do. I'm curious, Jason, since you have played so much more than either of us, how does that hold through the broader experience of the game?

• 11:45Jason Schreier?

  It's still, it remains a highlight until the very end, learning things. And you're still learning things up until the very, very end. And there's some more cool stuff to come that you haven't found yet. Although that revelation that you're talking about, Kirk, is a particularly cool one, when you realize what you can do and how much power you truly have. It's super cool. But there's more, and there's some more good stuff ahead. It would be hard to accidentally stumble upon this stuff. I accidentally, or like, I guess, too early, realized how you could kind of grapple around. Like, I accidentally learned that one. And then I thought to myself, actually, was this an accident? Or like, is it totally fine that I discovered it here? Same with breaking those kind of like goo,

• 12:30Jason Schreier?

  goo wall things. That was also something where I just kind of figured it out, potentially by accident. I think the developers intended for some of this stuff, but and then others, it's just really difficult to stumble upon. What you, what you described, those three statue things, I think that would be really hard to accidentally stumble upon. I don't know, I could be wrong. Maybe some players.

• 12:51Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I wonder. I think a certain kind of gamer who's gonna just robot brain it, I think I could imagine them maybe getting there. But yeah, no, for sure.

• 12:59Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's too bad. Man, I wish more people had played this game. It's unfortunately, it's gone way under the radar. Not a lot of people have played this game, which means there's no real discourse. And so there's no real, like, I don't know, conversation, forum threads, or anything I can read to see how many people are like accidentally stumbling upon some of these really cool mechanics way too early and having a totally different experience. Because that is a really fun thing to read about. It's just like, not something that's happening for this game, because nobody has really noticed it. And I don't know, I do think it has hurt a lot by, to your point, Kirk, some of the aesthetic choices. And more strikingly, the writing choices, and the fact that it's got so much

• 13:40Jason Schreier?

  kind of cringey humor in it. One of the first things you see in the game is this kind of like cat with the pizza, which is one of those kind of random epic bacon Reddit jokes, I guess. And this pizza cat thing just like has a very annoying way of talking, very millennial cringe type of writing. The story never really holds up, which is one of the reasons I just haven't bothered to beat the game, is because I'm just, the story just has nothing going for it. And I think that does it a real disservice. It's hard to be like, play this Outer Wilds like game, but also the story is kind of mediocre and disappointing and won't resonate with you the way that Outer Wilds did. But mechanically, it's so cool that I do wish more people were playing it.

• 14:22Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, that's what I would say about it, too, is that even though typically I would say like, oh, the story's really keeping me going, in this case, that's just not true. But the actual discovery of each of the new abilities is so exciting that that's kept me going. And I actually really like how the game looks. I, even if like the design of the pizza cat I could take or leave, I like the art and the worlds otherwise. And anytime I like reach a new area in classic kind of metroidvania fashion, every area looks visually different and striking. And I like that. And it's kind of like its own reward for unlocking more traversal abilities. I like the kind of environmental puzzles

• 15:03Maddy Myers?

  of, oh, you have a new ability, now you have to figure out how to use it to move forward. All of that stuff is fantastic. So to me, I'm just like, okay, whatever, there's also a story, but it doesn't, it doesn't matter.

• 15:15Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I'm with you on the writing. I mean, when I do compare it to Outer Wilds, the thing that made Outer Wilds so moving and beautiful for me is both the story, but also the way the story could get out of the way, and the way that it kind of worked in abstraction. And then just some of the other aesthetic stuff, for me at least, is not quite there. I think the protagonist design is weak. Like, I just don't think, it's, it's like, you're kind of this kid with a bowl cut. I don't know, like, I look at the character, you know, and it's the title card of the game when you load it up. And I just think, if this character had really pop, popped, if this character design just was super cool, and the way they moved, and they had this like really, you know, intriguing design, like, I would be so much more into it. It just kind of looks like this kid. And I, so

• 16:00Kirk Hamilton?

  there's, there's stuff like that. The music is like, it's nice. I think it's this just nice synth stuff, but it doesn't quite have a distinct identity for me, at least not yet. I certainly don't mind it. It's, it's pleasant. But I think a lot of that aesthetic stuff, there's nothing really deeply wrong or anything like that. But I think when you see this game, and this may explain some of why people aren't just rushing out to check it out, when you see this game, you don't really think, oh, that's something new. You know, when Jason told me to check it out, I looked and I was like, okay, what am I missing here? This just looks kind of like another metroidvania, and there are a lot of those. And then you play it, and you're like, oh, wow, like, this is very cool. This is smart. People made this, and they're really building these neat ideas into it. So I think the aesthetics are kind of letting them down on a surface level, but

• 16:45Kirk Hamilton?

  that does matter when it comes to, you know, making people who are browsing Steam decide to drop however much money to, to play the game.

• 16:52Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, agreed. And there is, there is some interesting story stuff, especially in these kind of flashbacks you'll see of these characters going on their journeys. And you get to see like vignettes of them talking to each other. And one character is trying to do all these very dangerous things, and other people are trying to stop them. And there's some kind of plot involving the weavers, of which you play the main character. And yes, I actually think all that stuff would be better off if the main character looked a little bit more interesting and less like, just kind of like, the bangs don't really work for me. I'll say that. The bangs, the bangs aren't working.

• 17:27Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm a sucker for this kind of storytelling, just for the stuff you can do with time travel, where, you know, this isn't a spoiler really, or anything, but just like moments where a character will speak to you through time. I think that's so cool. That's also in Outer Wilds, that kind of thing. There's a lot of possibilities for storytelling, but I do also think, I really think with this kind of thing, less is more. And certainly, I think that would have been the case with the writing, even leading aside some of the tonal stuff and the humor, just they could have, it could have been less, like, we could have kind of figured it out more ourselves from environmental storytelling, and a little bit less, you know, in terms of the amount of dialogue. Even though I do appreciate that a lot of how you learn about your abilities is just someone saying, you know, it's really wild how weavers can do this thing. And you're like, they can?

• 18:13Jason Schreier?

  You're like, what?

• 18:14Kirk Hamilton?

  I think that's a fun way to deliver that information.

• 18:16Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I agree with that, especially with like the, the pizza cat that's keeping you company in the game, I think would have been better off without that character at all. But yeah, I mean, there is some cool stuff in there. I mean, they are, because of the structure of this game, because it's And a time loop and it's because it's all constrained to 2D. It is able to do these things with time that I think are really cool.

• 18:42Jason Schreier?

  Each, there's like segments of time that pass as you go and there's something like 12 what the game calls bells. And different characters will sometimes be in different places at different bells. And you can take advantage of that to get into areas that you're not supposed to, or to interact with characters in different locations. And it does some cool stuff that is, that, that a 3D game I think would have a much harder time doing, especially a game like Outer Wilds, where you have to be a little more generous with your time limits. But because everything is very precise and you know that you can get from point A to point B in under 20 seconds, or whatever it is, they can play around with that stuff in some cool ways, I think.

• 19:22Jason Schreier?

  And in fact, like you'll start to notice that you can save some characters by helping them out at a certain point in the time. Or like early in the game in the town, you find this house that has been destroyed and you realize that, or like the game will hint to you, if you get here fast enough, you'll be able to save this house.

• 19:38Kirk Hamilton?

  Still trying to figure that one out.

• 19:40Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. So like, that's, that's an interesting thing. And so if you figure that out, then, and then at the end of the game, when you have to do this kind of final time loop to end the time loop, you can choose which characters to save. And there's like an ultimate path that is like, if you do everything precisely and very, very efficiently, you can save as many people as possible. And again, something I would love to like read people's experiences with. And it's always such a shame when a really cool game just doesn't get noticed. And yeah, I do think with maybe some better aesthetic choices, this could have had some word of mouth. But like, look, at the end of the day, launching a game in 2026 is just kind of like, like throwing, rolling dice essentially.

• 20:22Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, especially the fall of 2026. I mean, we're about to talk about them. There's some other games. There's a lot.

• 20:29Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, there are some other games. I guess, yeah, I, I, I do want to say, I want to underline what you just said, Jason, that I think this game is really, really well made. It's not just a cool ideas and you know, whatever with some issues. Like it is really cool, the way they've grafted this onto a 2D game because it allows for such precision. And there's so much clarity in how everything works. A big part of the game is there are these doors that close. And when you come to the door, it will say, this door closes at 10 seconds. And so now you know, you have to get to that door within 10 seconds of the start of the loop. And it's just much more clear about what's going on compared with Outer Wilds, which is much more organic.

• 21:11Kirk Hamilton?

  In Outer Wilds, you're kind of just figuring stuff out by looking at it, which is a very cool way to convey information. But this is also cool because it allows for so much more precise and demanding sequences in the game. There's a feeling of kind of speed running to this game. And video games are so, they're such good fits for a time loop because so many games, especially platformers, you know, old style platformers are built around trying something over and over and over again. So why not build that into the lore and into the story? So as a result, you just go through these sections over and over and over. And I have just like the jumping sequences where I'm supposed to stand. You know, I have all this stuff memorized, just like I would have playing Mario Brothers back in the eighties, but for different reasons.

• 21:56Kirk Hamilton?

  And I think that is just really, really neat, the way it all fits together, how it makes everything so transparent and yet hides things from you. There's always these mechanics that are occluded where you think, okay, I'm supposed to open that in five seconds. Like how on earth am I going to get here? There is no warp point near here. And then you think, well, that must mean there's something I don't know. And then of course there is, and you find that out. I think that stuff is just amazing. Like the people who made this are clearly very, very good at what they're doing. I really hope they're able to keep working, keep making games together because they've done something very, very cool on a lot of, a lot of levels. It's a special game.

• 22:31Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, video games are not just uniquely positioned for time loops. It's also the, that kind of archaeological storytelling where you're just stumbling, like discovering fragments from the past. Whether it's these vignettes that play out as in this game, or just kind of conversation fragments that play out as in Outer Wilds. That also is the best way for video game storytelling to work. So like there are, and I should say again, there are parts of the storytelling in this game that do work. It's just that like a lot of it doesn't, and the overall narrative doesn't really work so well, I would say.

• 23:01Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, still a very cool game.

• 23:02Maddy Myers?

  I still think it's worth it though. Yeah.

• 23:04Kirk Hamilton?

  That is for sure.

• 23:05Jason Schreier?

  It is worth it. And if you're out there and you like Outer Wilds and you like kind of action platforming games, this game is really cool. One other kind of dock, point against it, I suppose, is that the platforming isn't as precise as it could be. Like Mario, this is not. And I think that, I think anyone who tried it out and felt like the platforming was too floaty, might have bounced off of it pretty quickly too.

• 23:25Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I feel, I, I could point that out as well because I agree, even though again, like I really, I don't want to sound too negative on the game because I really think that it's really, really cool. And I hope more people play it because it is neat. And there just aren't many games like Outer Wilds out there. Like I wish more people were doing this. It's, I'm sure incredibly hard and that's why, but it's, it's really neat to see someone so successfully taking a crack at it. All right. So that's Echo Weaver. Let's move on to our next game, which is actually coming out this week, I believe on the fifth. It's coming out the day this episode hits and that is Escape Academy 2: Back to School, which we have all played. Maddie, I don't know. Why don't you go first? What do you think of Escape Academy 2?

• 24:08Maddy Myers?

  I am also really enjoying this game. So I am playing this game in local co-op with my wife. And that is also how we played the first Escape Academy, which I believe was one more thing of mine at the time, or whenever we actually played it, really liked it. And this game is a continuation of that, but much bigger, literally. And then eventually it opens up and there's almost a open world of sorts where you're kind of walking around a massive school campus and kind of entering into puzzle room machinations with the different teachers on campus. And I really like this style of puzzle.

• 24:48Maddy Myers?

  Dina and I both really enjoy solving this kind of puzzle together and we've been having a great time. I'm, I'm trying to think about how to describe the kinds of puzzles this game has. So there are a few different kinds. I would say playing this game solo, I don't think would be as fun as co-op. I'm curious what you two think of that, but I, I think that playing it cooperatively is wonderful. And part of that is because many puzzles will involve kind of finding a piece of paper with a cipher on it. And then elsewhere in a room or nearby to that, you'll see what that cipher might apply to,

• 25:28Maddy Myers?

  or find like a series of colored flags or a series of other objects that you're like, I can tell these are going to matter or do something or help me out here, but I don't see why or how. And then once you read the paper, you're like, oh, maybe this applies. And like having one person have that up on their local co-op half of the TV screen, while the other person is solving the puzzle. And maybe you're both talking aloud to each other like, oh, maybe it's this, maybe it's that, is like the ideal format. Although you could certainly recreate something like that online in Discord, or simply by describing things more effectively out loud. Although I will say, there were also many times where Dina calls this me being Vanna White, where I would just stand up and walk over the TV and be like pointing at stuff on the screen and being like, we have to put this here.

• 26:14Maddy Myers?

  Like that is something that you cannot do over Discord, but this game really lends itself well to that kind of thing also. I guess I should say we're on chapter three. We played up to chapter three.

• 26:25Kirk Hamilton?

  Nice.

• 26:25Maddy Myers?

  How about you Kirk? What do you think?

• 26:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I love it. I loved Escape Academy 1. Emily and I played through the whole thing. It was also my one more thing forever ago. This was, you know, like, I don't know, a little bit post pandemic, I suppose, right when it came out in 2022, the first game. And yeah, I've been excited for this just because I loved that experience, specifically the split screen, you know, couch co-op experience. And you know, I mean, to explicitly say this, these are escape rooms. This is the style of puzzle that you're solving are, you are solving escape rooms where you're, there's a timer. You're in an enclosed space. There's a bunch of stuff around and you have to figure out, you know, where do these ropes go? And how do I get that ladder to open? And what does this cipher mean? And what is that thing over there? And what is this color coding? And how do I do this and that?

• 27:11Kirk Hamilton?

  And then you're kind of, the more people you have, in some ways it's helpful because you can actually kind of solve the puzzles faster. But a lot of times it's just like doing an escape room with your friends in real life, where it's just beneficial to have multiple people, multiple brains and multiple perspectives. Because one person will look at a series of ciphers and be like, that doesn't look like anything to me. And somebody else will look at it and say, oh.

• 27:37Jason Schreier?

  Really Westworld mode over here.

• 27:38Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, you really are. You really are. I know exactly what you mean. That's how I feel sometimes. And other times Dina will be like, I don't know what, what the heck we're supposed to do with these. And I'm like, I, I have an idea. I think it's this.

• 27:49Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. And I've mentioned before, one reason I like playing puzzle games, even single player puzzle games with Emily as my co-pilot, is because we think very differently and reason through things differently. And we're very complimentary. And so it's just really nice where she'll be like, oh no, it's totally this. And I'll realize, oh, of course it, it absolutely is, which is nice. And yeah, I, I think, I think this game is really cool. I like what they're doing. It feels very much like a sequel, like a classic video game sequel in that they were able to realize the ambitions that they may have had in the first game. And now they have the, either the people or the time or the knowledge to do it. Where in the first game, it was a series of discreet puzzle rooms or escape rooms. Now in, sorry, in the first, wait, in the first game, it was a series of discreet.

• 28:32Kirk Hamilton?

  Escape rooms in the sequel, it is that and also an open world. So it is an escape world in addition to an escape room. And you gotta walk around this campus and it's fun because, you know, Emily and I typically play at night. An escape room in this game is usually, you know, like a 20 minute timer. It's kind of a chunk of time. You're gonna really be kind of focused and working together. It's a little bit draining. You're solving all these puzzles, you're racing the timer. And then usually you solve it, or at least in our experience so far. And yeah, we're right around where you are, Matty. You solve it and then you can go out onto the campus. And on the campus, the puzzles are more just like two students are talking and they need help organizing their chores. Or a kid can't get the vending machine to work, so you have to figure out some weird puzzle.

• 29:16Kirk Hamilton?

  And because the narrative framework of this, of this game is that the school is a school for people who want to get good at escape rooms. Everything on campus is insane and is designed to be a multi-layered puzzle with ciphers and whatever. So anyhow, it's really nice that there's this kind of, there are these different sizes of, of each puzzle. We did, we did the one last night where you have to feed a chicken and like warm the chicken up. Have you guys done this puzzle yet?

• 29:42Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, of course. Nugget. Good old nugget.

• 29:44Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, nugget.

• 29:44Kirk Hamilton?

  Good old nugget, which we had a dog named Nugget. Anyways, that was a really fun one. And yeah, it took like 10 minutes for us to do it, maybe 15 minutes instead of 20, 25 minutes. So I'm digging it. And yeah, Jason, what are you, what do you think?

• 29:56Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I love it. It's super cool. And yeah, very fun to play in split screen co-op. A little janky. There's some jankiness to it.

• 30:03Kirk Hamilton?

  The first one was janky too, but it is true.

• 30:05Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's, it's a little rough around the edges, be warned. Like I did one of those vending machines, Sudoku puzzles and got a bag of chips before I had started the quest. And then when I found the person who wanted the chips, he was like, so have you brought me my chips? When I hadn't talked to him in the first place to get the quest for him to ask about those chips. So like, there's stuff like that where it is not.

• 30:25Kirk Hamilton?

  It is worth noting that we're playing early builds. Like I've definitely, like, you can press both triggers in my build and access the debug menu. Like it is, it is a little bit more, I've discovered that on my own just by playing.

• 30:37Jason Schreier?

  That's funny.

• 30:38Kirk Hamilton?

  And like I have a lot, we're playing on the TV, but using Steam controllers. And there's a little bit, like they don't always work. There's this like, just, it's very frustrating getting the controller to work. But also we are on like, I think a real dev build of the game, or at least I have been. So it's worth kind of noting, you know, the game is out on, on Thursday. It is possible that some of this rough stuff will be, will be fixed. And hopefully it will be because it is kind of annoying not being able to get our controllers to consistently work.

• 31:01Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I'm playing on the Steam machine. I had to like do some toggling of like what compatibility layer it was using to even get it running on the Steam machine. So yeah, I mean, it's got, it's got some, some jankiness, at least from what we've seen so far. But I really love it. I've been having a blast playing with Amanda also at night, also in split screen co-op. We're both running around, we'll each kind of like take, so like when we did the, the biology lab puzzle, which is the one right after the nugget feeding puzzle, we each like split up and did a part. And then at the same time, we'll do kind of the, the tag teaming stuff on the big escape rooms. What I like about it actually is, so Kirk, you mentioned it's kind of like a series of escape room puzzles. But yeah, I like that it's more than just that, that there's like downtime in between. You could just explore the city and find all this random stuff.

• 31:45Jason Schreier?

  Early in the game, you have this kind of quest you get to find this password by finding these telescopes that are throughout this area of the city. And then you find them and they point you to letters and that lets, gets you the password, which is a fun thing to do, just kind of splitting up and seeing if you, who can find them all or who can find the most and stuff like that. Yeah, it's really fun. It's a really good game. If you're into puzzle solving and escape rooms and who isn't?

• 32:14Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, the feeling of splitting up for that stuff, you know what it makes me think of a little bit is Big Walk.

• 32:20Jason Schreier?

  Big Walk, yeah.

• 32:21Kirk Hamilton?

  It gives me the, a little bit of that feeling.

• 32:23Jason Schreier?

  The big difference of course is that Big Walk has much less pressure and it feels like failure. Failure and this kind of sucks. And like, I had a moment where Amanda and I were like seconds away from solving a puzzle. And then the timer ran out in the escape room. And it was such a, a drag to have to be like, all right, we'll get five more minutes on this. So we have to do that. Another moment, by the way, just speaking to the kind of overall jank unfortunately, is that she accidentally like opened up a laptop that would be like replaying old puzzles. And she accidentally pressed the button to replay the first puzzle in the game. But there's no way to leave it once you start replaying it. So you just have to do it again. So we just had to do the first thing again. Fortunately, we remembered because it's just, you have to fill in these names.

• 33:07Jason Schreier?

  So we remembered what the names were, but still there's just a little bit, it's rough around the edges. Hopefully better by the time it launches, but yeah, still really, really enjoying it, I would say. I think, I highly recommend it if you and your significant other enjoy playing escape rooms together. Like all three of us, remember we passed around that unlock box? We all mailed it to each other so we could all check it out. It's kind of like that. So, which I think all three of us just enjoy playing with our significant others. So really this game was just designed for TripleClick, for the three members of TripleClick specifically. And our significant other is because we all enjoy doing this. If you out there are like us and really enjoy doing escape rooms with your, your SO, check this game out for sure.

• 33:50Maddy Myers?

  I think a lot of people feel this way, especially people who play something like It Takes Two or Split Fiction and are like, this was a little too difficult for one half or the other of our significant other pairing. I don't feel like Escape Academy is that kind of co-op game. You don't have to like, like, yes, there's a timer, but you can actually turn the timer off if you want to do that. We, we may all be too competitive to do that, but you certainly can turn off the timer and just solve the puzzles at your own pace. And also you don't need like really quick reaction times or like all the other things that some other co-op games that might be recommended for couples typically require. You can just walk around and look at stuff. Like you don't have to like shoot a guy. Do you know what I'm saying?

• 34:35Maddy Myers?

  Like it's not that kind of game.

• 34:36Jason Schreier?

  You do need double joystick capabilities.

• 34:39Maddy Myers?

  That's true.

• 34:39Jason Schreier?

  You need to be able to walk and use the camera, which like a lot of people found difficult. My wife still finds it a little tricky as she's like trying to maneuver around the environment. So you do need that and you need to be able to do first person. First person is tough for some people out there too.

• 34:54Maddy Myers?

  It, it is tough and for Dina, it has historically been tough. But this is the game that she finds to be okay in part because it's so slow. Like you don't have to like jerk your head around to like quickly like meet an enemy or whatever, because there isn't something like coming at you in 3D as well. You're just carefully looking around at puzzles and pieces of paper. So I think especially if you're okay with playing with the timer off, just because your SO needs to like learn how to use the camera. I actually think this game is a pretty good way to learn those skills in a much more low pressure environment where you're still working together to do something that's like a fun date night activity.

• 35:33Kirk Hamilton?

  Yes, I would add to that even that the, one of the keys to that being true is that these puzzles are all technically solvable by one person. So unlike a Split Fiction or an It Takes Two, it is not designed to be like you're throwing something back and forth. You each have your individual roles and that's the only way through the puzzle. One person can be the primary driver of everything. And the other person can just be providing brain power, which is, you know, the same as in most escape rooms. Now it's fun to have everybody get to go do something if they want to. But it's not like a co-op game in that every, you know, it's a puzzle is designed to be solved by two people simultaneously. It's really just a puzzle that everyone gets to look at, like, like an escape room.

• 36:18Kirk Hamilton?

  And yeah, I really think that escape rooms lend themselves to video game design. Because, I mean, I've done a lot of escape rooms in real life. Whenever my nieces are up in Portland, we go and do them. And there are a lot of great escape rooms in Portland. They can be much more elaborate than a real escape room. Though however elaborate a real escape room is, there's something cool about what they have made. In a video game, they can be unbelievable, you know, like that clock tower puzzle where you're, it's this whole incredible.

• 36:43Maddy Myers?

  Oh my God, that puzzle is so cool.

• 36:45Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, multi-layer clock tower that you're solving, which is, which is also very neat. So yeah, Escape Academy 2: Back to School, it is out, I think today. I think a lot of people will check it out because I know the first game has its fans, but it's totally worth checking out. It's a very fun thing to do on the couch with a friend. All right, and now we've got a little bit of time left, so let's just move through a few other things because there have just been so many games over the last like month and a half. I've certainly played a lot of things, but you know, we've been returning to things, playing things a little bit more. Maybe have some further thoughts. First of all though, Matty, you have met a little guy named Biddy Blaz in Star Wars Galactic Racer. You've played some of this game and I am dying to know what you think of it.

• 37:27Maddy Myers?

  I think this game is fantastic. I love all the characters in this game, actually. I don't just love Biddy Blaz, I like Darius Pax, I like my, my racing rival Castar Bulli. He's such a dick and he's like a wonderfully written rival for your character. He's like the Gary to your Ash Ketchum or whatever, except the Star Wars equivalent of that. And I, I like that you have a backstory. I mean, really, that's what's driving me through this game. I would not say that I'm super excellent at the racing. I think it's just hard enough that it's really stressful in a fun way, like Kirk was describing. I'm like white knuckling my controller sometimes being like, oh my God, I only like have so many boosts left

• 38:11Maddy Myers?

  and I'm so close to the finish line and I, I really want to get first place.

• 38:15Jason Schreier?

  Lose all your progress if you die here.

• 38:17Maddy Myers?

  Well, yeah, I mean, there is like the rogue-like aspect that Kirk was describing, which I think is also a really fun part of the game. And also it's got a little bit of Mario Kart flavor in that you can soup up your ride, but also there's multiple kinds of racers. In the way that in Mario Kart, you can ride on like a bike or like all these other kind of crazily shaped vehicles. It's not just cars anymore in there. And like this is similar where there's like kind of three different main types of speeders. And they're all pretty different feeling. And like in the tutorial, you get to try them all and be like, okay, what's my vibe? What do I want to fly? And that I thought was also really cool.

• 38:58Maddy Myers?

  And that plus like getting to upgrade it is just an aspect of a racer that I find really fun and Mario Kart-esque. Cause actually I really enjoy Mario Kart. I've talked about that on the show before. So that was just an unexpected perk for me is like the ability to make your ride different as you go along through the game, I found to be just an added layer of fun. So yeah. Great game. Really, really cool. I want to keep playing it despite that I'm clearly playing multiple games at the same time right now, which is a recipe for destruction.

• 39:30Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it fits in well, I find. I've kept playing it as well, and it just fits with other games because it's easy to just kind of do a run or, you know, play a few races, even if you don't finish a whole card. And I've been really liking it, too. I'm up, I'm in act two, doing pretty well. And it really, it's like any Rogue like in that it opens up, once you get past a certain point, because you kind of upgrade your ride to the point where you're really pretty flexible in what you're doing. And I now have the knife edge, which is that third kind of vehicle, which is super cool. I'm totally into that one.

• 40:01Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, I loved that in the tutorial. I was like, this is sick. Like, I really want to get to this.

• 40:06Kirk Hamilton?

  I did it in the tutorial, and it was like, I cannot wait till I unlock this. And now I've got it unlocked, and I'm really digging it. And yeah, I continue to just love the game, all the little stories that play out. I've gotten to know all the racers, not just Biddy Blast, but all the, you know, various jerks, and occasionally helpful, cool people, but they're all on their radio. I feel like the amount of shit talking in the game is really fantastic. Like, that's something that's not really in Mario Kart, obviously, or in most racing games that I play.

• 40:30Maddy Myers?

  That's a good point. I think that's really great. It's really characterful, that like, when you pass people, or they pass you, they have the ability to shit talk you, or like, express disappointment and frustration with you.

• 40:41Kirk Hamilton?

  And they do.

• 40:41Maddy Myers?

  And they do, and they do so in their, like, Star Wars slang way, or in their alien language as applicable.

• 40:48Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it's fun. And it, I don't know, I saw someone, I think it may be in our Discord, comparing this game with Forza Horizon, which those games are just kind of always glazing you. Like, everyone is on the radio, just being like, you're so cool, you're so great, oh, man, I can't wait for you to come do my race. And like, in this game, everyone's like, fuck you, get out of my way, you suck. Like, they pass you, and they're just like, ha, eat my shorts. And you're like, I hate you. And it, I find that actually much more enjoyable and motivating in this game, and a really fun part of it.

• 41:16Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, it's great. It also just has this really grounded feel that I love in a certain kind of Star Wars experience. Like, we talk about this a lot with, like, a really big universe, where it's like, these are truly just regular guys. And like, what they're doing is not going to matter to, like, the larger fight. It's not, it has nothing to do with anything at all. But it's still in that universe of Star Wars, and there are all these, like, little rivalries, and fascinations, and quirks of each of these characters. And they're so well-written and funny. Like, I just find the dialogue really snappy and charming. And that is also just a delightful thing to have in a racing game.

• 41:55Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. Yeah, a real sleeper hit for me, a real surprise fave, for considering all the other games that I knew were coming out this year. I just did not see it coming, that I would like it this much.

• 42:06Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, I'm glad you recommended it. I wouldn't have checked it out, and I'm really glad I did.

• 42:10Kirk Hamilton?

  Cool. Well, we got a little bit more time. I don't know, are there any games that we have never talked about on the show that either of you have played that you want to mention?

• 42:18Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I mean, I've like, dabbled with a couple. So I have one that's going to be my one more thing. So I'll talk about that after the break. I've dabbled with a couple of other games that I think might be worth mentioning.

• 42:30Kirk Hamilton?

  Go for it. Do like, a sentence or two on them.

• 42:32Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, so I was dabbling with this game called Curse of Rest Haven, which is another kind of time loop game, where you play as this, this governor of this island. And it's kind of a mix of, like, trade simulating, where you have to buy and sell goods, and also narrative stuff, where you have to interrogate people and figure out what happened to your niece who was lost on this island. I haven't really played enough to be able to offer a proper judgment, but it seems interesting. And then I also started dabbling, literally this morning, with a game called Death at Fleming Manor, which just came out. And that is a kind of Golden Idol-style deductive game, where you go through a series of murders and trying to figure out what happened. But unlike Golden Idol, where you're filling in

• 43:16Jason Schreier?

  blanks and piecing together identities and trying to figure out what happened through these Mad Libs-style interfaces, this also has kind of, in Phoenix Wright-style forensic games, where you're like, matching blood analysis and using luminol.

• 43:32Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I'm watching the trailer. This looks cool.

• 43:34Jason Schreier?

  You play as a coroner. Yeah, I haven't been super impressed with it yet, but I have to play more. It feels a little-

• 43:41Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm seeing it has mixed reviews on Steam, which is never a promising sign.

• 43:44Jason Schreier?

  It feels a little tedious, from what I've seen so far. So I'm not super into it yet. I'm way more into the game that I'm going to talk about as my one more thing. So I'll hold on to that for a sec. But yeah, just kind of a couple of quick thoughts on two other games.

• 44:01Kirk Hamilton?

  Nice. Matty, any, any quick thoughts on anything else?

• 44:04Maddy Myers?

  Nah, much like Jason, I have a game I play that I'm going to save for my one more thing, too, because I liked it. And so I guess that's just a teaser. We never do this. We're teasing. The one more things are going to be good this week, guys.

• 44:16Kirk Hamilton?

  This is good. My one more thing is in the game, but I'm excited for it, too. I guess then, just to round us out, I will just mention a couple of things very quickly. One is The Witcher 3 Remastered, which I have played a bit of. I started a new game, even though I've had, I think, a new game plus game going forever in that. And it's pretty impressive. It is still very much The Witcher 3.

• 44:36Jason Schreier?

  How's the new combat? Does it feel different?

• 44:38Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I know you were wondering, Jason. The combat is better, for sure, but it's still The Witcher 3 combat. It still has that same kind of flippy, twirly feeling that I think, you know, especially so fresh off of Blood of Dawnwalker, which has a combat system that I at least really enjoyed. It doesn't have that weightiness and kind of pacing. It's still The Witcher 3. But it does play better, and there are a ton of quality of life improvements. It looks fantastic, you know, and it is one of my favorite role playing games ever made. So I kind of, you know, I don't have time now, but I think it would be really fun to play through it. I think you two should give it a shot and see how you feel about the first few hours, and we can look at if we wanted to maybe

• 45:19Kirk Hamilton?

  do some kind of ongoing thing and play through that game. Because it is, it is a really impressive thing that they did. It's very cool that they updated it that way.

• 45:28Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I mean, I've been waiting until the DLC, until closer to when the DLC comes out. And then I figure we'll kind of do a revisit, if we can.

• 45:34Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I have a feeling that I'm going to want to play up to the DLC, but I guess it'll be possible to play the DLC freestanding. I just, the other expansions are so freaking good. Hearts of Stone, and Blood and Wine, that I want to play them again. They're just, they're still really good. So, you know, one of these days. And then, last thing I will say before our break is just, it's been very fun seeing all the positive response to me gushing about Ace Combat 8 last week. And I've seen-

• 46:04Jason Schreier?

  Keep going. Give us another 20 minutes.

• 46:06Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I'll go. Now, I'm going to keep myself really to just a couple of sentences.

• 46:10Jason Schreier?

  You should start a YouTube channel where you just talk about Ace Combat 8.

• 46:13Kirk Hamilton?

  They're out there. I could do that.

• 46:14Maddy Myers?

  Ace Kirkbat?

• 46:16Jason Schreier?

  You could call it One Ace Kirk.

• 46:18Kirk Hamilton?

  Right, right. Wings of Portland. I would call it Wings of Portland.

• 46:22Maddy Myers?

  Oh, that's right.

• 46:22Kirk Hamilton?

  It's a, it's a great game. It's been very fun to see, you know, to see people responding positively to that. And I'll add, one thing that I didn't mention is just, it is a war game. Like, it's a game about being at war. But I think an important and worth mentioning aspect of the game is how hopeful it is, and how fundamentally anti-war it is. I think it does a very good job, actually, of both being like, fighter jets are awesome, and it's super cool when you fight a guy and shoot his plane down, which is, of course, in the game. But that, I think, a recurring narrative theme is, it would be much better if we could all just go fly planes for fun, and not have to shoot at each other. And that actually is, I think, a really lovely thing about it. I saw someone describing

• 47:04Kirk Hamilton?

  it as hope core. It has that kind of really hopeful, positive vibe. That's a big part of why I loved it so much. So anyhow, still love that game. I started a new one. I'm like, replaying it on a higher difficulty with the sick endgame jet.

• 47:17Jason Schreier?

  Jesus, Kirk, how do you have the time to be playing another-

• 47:20Kirk Hamilton?

  You always say this, you like, marvel at it, but I don't know. I just like, play an hour of a video game. It's not like, it's not that hard to like, play video games every night.

• 47:29Jason Schreier?

  No, playing an hour of a video game is one thing. You finish all these games that are now on second playthroughs of them somehow. My goodness.

• 47:36Kirk Hamilton?

  I just like, play an hour each night, and then there are a lot of nights. I don't know really what to tell you. Well, at any rate, let's take a break, and then we will come back for one more thing.

• 47:48Speaker 03

  Who's ready for some science?

• 47:52Speaker 03

  With sources and nuance?

• 47:56Speaker 04

  And some funny jokes from me.

• 48:00Speaker 04

  And some funny jokes from me.

• 48:02Speaker 05

  On Let's Learn Everything, we learn about science and a bit of everything else, too.

• 48:05Speaker 03

  From super heavy elements to super heavy pumpkins.

• 48:08Speaker 04

  From quantum physics to the history of swearing.

• 48:11Speaker 05

  As well as special guests like Tom Scott and Hank Green.

• 48:13Speaker 04

  And some funny jokes from me.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  Me, Caroline Roper.

• 48:17Speaker 05

  Dr. Ella Hubber.

• 48:18Speaker 04

  And Tom Lum.

• 48:19Speaker 03

  So join us next time, where we will learn about- Everything.

• 48:27Maddy Myers?

  Hey, are you playing a video game right now?

• 48:30Jason Schreier?

  Maybe you put on a podcast while grinding in an RPG.

• 48:33Kirk Hamilton?

  Or maybe you just don't want to hear that boss fight music one more time.

• 48:36Maddy Myers?

  Been there. I'm Maddy Myers.

• 48:38Jason Schreier?

  I'm Jason Schreier.

• 48:39Kirk Hamilton?

  And I'm Kirk Hamilton. We're the hosts of Triple Click, a video game podcast.

• 48:43Maddy Myers?

  A podcast you can listen to while you do other things.

• 48:46Jason Schreier?

  Like driving, or cooking, or playing video games.

• 48:51Maddy Myers?

  On Triple Click, we share our thoughts on the latest games.

• 48:54Jason Schreier?

  And breaking news out of the video game industry.

• 48:57Kirk Hamilton?

  And we also talk about other stuff besides games.

• 49:00Jason Schreier?

  So while you're doing something else, make sure to check out Triple Click.

• 49:04Kirk Hamilton?

  Listen on MaximumFun.org or wherever you find your podcasts.

• 49:09Kirk Hamilton?

  All right, and we are back for a much hyped one more thing. We're both playing games that we really want to hear about. Maddie, how about you kick us off?

• 49:16Maddy Myers?

  Sure. So I didn't put this in the fall game section, although I was hoping to. This is a multi-chapter Phoenix Wright-inspired visual novel with a case per chapter. And there's supposed to be a new case this fall. The other cases came out in 2025. And I was like, oh, maybe, maybe the new case will be out and I can play in time for the app. It's still not out. It is much anticipated by me now because I have played the first three. And I really want to know what happens. The game is called Of the Devil. And I, I don't know, that's a tough name to remember. So good luck. It's called Of the Devil. And like I said, it's similar to Phoenix Wright, except that you are playing as a female character,

• 49:59Maddy Myers?

  a public defender, a defense attorney like Phoenix Wright is, except she's in a cyberpunk futuristic world. And so when she is looking over a crime scene and doing the point and click adventure style Phoenix Wright thing, it is a recreated crime scene using futuristic VR technology. So you know, you're like clicking on stuff in VR.

• 50:20Kirk Hamilton?

  This looks sick. I'm watching the trailer for this and this looks awesome.

• 50:23Maddy Myers?

  It's so good. And the world, the cyberpunk world of this game is really, really detailed and fleshed out. I like can't say enough good about it. I genuinely enjoy reading the like extraneous newspapers lying around, which I can't say for most games, just in, in general. In this game, I'm like actually reading, reading them all. And that's a rewarding thing to do in the game because if you read extra documents that you find lying around that aren't to do with the case that you're evaluating for your job, for your work, then the game will reward you by like doing a little quiz at the end and be like, did you remember everything in what you just read? And if you did, then it will give you some tokens that you can use as part of this kind of poker-inspired gameplay mechanic

• 51:08Maddy Myers?

  that you use in the interrogation room when you're talking to people and like grilling them or just trying to learn more about the case from people. And this game, much like Phoenix Wright, your character is defending people who really need help. There's like the quirk of gameplay that Phoenix Wright has where like he never actually has to defend a murderer who did the crime somehow. Like he's the luckiest defense attorney in the world and he just, he's always getting people off.

• 51:36Jason Schreier?

  Except in one case.

• 51:37Maddy Myers?

  Well, that's fair. But, but this is a similar conceit where like you, the people really need your help. And if they confessed, perhaps it was under duress and like you learn what happened and why they're being put up under these murder charges and what you have to do. Except unlike Phoenix Wright, you are a character who, she's really fascinating. I'll just put it that way. And I, she's really nothing like Phoenix Wright in terms of her tone vibe or anything else about her. She's kind of like a goth baddie. And like more about her backstory and personality is revealed at the end of episode zero, which you can play for free and which I just, I don't want to spoil because it's so fun.

• 52:19Maddy Myers?

  I just, I recommend that people play it for free because come on, it's free. And I played it and immediately bought the other two episodes because I was like, I have to know what happens next. And that is like the best case scenario for a kind of mystery game and a game that has a series of mysteries. So yeah, I'm really excited about this one. I think it's really cool. And I, I love playing like a kind of Phoenix Wright, like in a cyberpunk world. I think that's a great setting and the twist at the end of episode zero, I think would hook most people. So yeah, really recommend it. Of the Devil. Cool game.

• 52:52Kirk Hamilton?

  This looks great. Aesthetically, it looks kind of like Danganronpa.

• 52:55Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, a little bit. It kind of has like a Skullgirls look as well. It has that like really heavy line art, kind of stylized character look that I don't, I wouldn't say is the strongest part of the game. I think the writing is what's really strong.

• 53:09Jason Schreier?

  So you said before that the third episode was supposed to be out this fall, but is not yet? Do you know when it's coming out?

• 53:16Maddy Myers?

  TBD. So I, I don't know. This is a really small team. It's like just a few people. So I think it's like, it'll be out when it's out.

• 53:24Kirk Hamilton?

  Got it. Cool. Jason, tell us about your one more thing.

• 53:27Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. So my game that I recently finished is called Funeral for the Sun. And it is heavily inspired by Root Trees Are Dead and Case of Golden Idol, Curse of Golden Idol, and Oberdin and other deductive games that I am a fiend for. But this one has some interesting twists. So this is developed by a solo developer named Nicolas Sid Delgado. He's based in Puerto Rico and he made this game, which is about,

• 54:05Jason Schreier?

  it's about this family of people in this, I don't know if it's a real country, but it's a Latin American-inspired country that has had to deal with colonialist invaders, European colonialist invaders. And it tells the saga of this cursed family over the course of many generations. And you play as this detective, or not detective, this person who has come to this island, very curious to know what happened here and learn the history behind it. And she has the power to kind of see into the past by finding these blue flowers

• 54:47Jason Schreier?

  that are sprinkled throughout the island and let her see snippets of things that happened in the past. And so as a result, she can see of kind of these vignettes, sort of like in Golden Idol, of different incidents that are happening through the island. And so to, by, by going around and comparing past and present and seeing these different scenes, she can figure out what is the deal with this island? What is the deal with the people who were here and all of their connections? And to progress in the game, you fill out what is essentially like a family tree that has all these different portraits on it and you have to fill in their names. And then you also have to connect them to one another. Are these people a couple? Is this person a parent of this person? Did this person kill this person?

• 55:32Jason Schreier?

  Is this person actually secretly this other person? And then you can combine their portraits together to show that they're, they're together, that they're actually the same person. And the mystery starts off pretty low state or small and low stakes. And then just kind of gradually expands as you discover different parts of the island and different parts of the past. And then some parts of the island will take you deeper in the past where you will see the parents of people who you had already know and you were already bad and you're already familiar with. And it unfolds very much like Golden Idol in that you're just learning more about the overall story. And then eventually you piece it all together at the end. This game is really, really good. I finished the whole thing. Really enjoyed it.

• 56:15Jason Schreier?

  It's a little janky, just like Escape Academy 2, made by one guy. I would have been emailing, he emailed me a code, so I've been emailing back and forth with him, actually reporting like game crashing bugs, which hopefully are all fixed by the, they were fixed on my playthrough. So hopefully everything is fixed and feels good by the time the game comes out. It comes out this Tuesday, I believe, Monday or Tuesday, November 9th, I believe. But I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to fellow deductive fiends. It scratches that Root Trees slash Golden Idol itch. It does the Oberdin thing of having your answers get locked in when you do three correct ones.

• 56:55Jason Schreier?

  So you get that constant making progress satisfaction of watching the results unfold. And the story and the writing are really, really good and really interesting and engaging. And you really want to know more about these characters, the more you play, and see how this cursed family is all linked together and what their origins truly are. And it's just really a blast to watch unfold. It's very addictive to want to keep, you want, the more you play, the more you want to know what's happening and what is up with these people. So yeah, I have really enjoyed it. There's also a supernatural element, which is very fun, fun to watch unfold.

• 57:37Jason Schreier?

  And I highly recommend it. Once again, it's called Funeral for the Sun. I very much recommend checking it out because it's really cool.

• 57:45Kirk Hamilton?

  Beautiful looking. So the, the solo dev did all this art? The art is fantastic.

• 57:51Jason Schreier?

  I believe so. I don't recall the credits, if it's just like.

• 57:58Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, well, it's not that important. More just to say, it's really gorgeous looking. I'm watching, you know, footage of it and it looks.

• 58:03Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's really gorgeous looking. I believe it was all this one guy, but yes.

• 58:05Kirk Hamilton?

  It looks really cool.

• 58:06Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, really cool.

• 58:07Kirk Hamilton?

  Cool. Well, that sounds great and I will totally check it out. All right. Well, I am last. My one more thing is Avatar: Seven Havens, the new Avatar show, the third, I guess, proper Avatar show. There's, there was also a movie kind of recently that I didn't actually watch because I heard it wasn't that good.

• 58:26Jason Schreier?

  So this is Avatar: Airbender, not Avatar: James Cameron?

• 58:29Kirk Hamilton?

  Correct. Avatar, The Last Airbender, being the way that it began, a show that I deeply love. I'm sure many people know that. My dog is named Appa. I have loved the original Avatar, The Last Airbender for a long time. And it's a, it's a great initial series that has never quite had an amazing follow-up. The Legend of Korra was the first sequel series, The Tale of a New Avatar, which is a pretty mixed bag. I'm, you know, I have plenty of criticisms of it that are shared by a lot of people, even though it has, it has its good moments. So there was a lot of sort of trepidation and excitement around this new series, Avatar: Seven Havens,

• 59:09Kirk Hamilton?

  which is part of a push, I think, at Nickelodeon, which is now on the Paramount streaming platform. I think they're kind of, they want Avatar to be more, you know? There's this live-action Avatar show that's an adaptation of the original series on Netflix that I really don't care for. It's, it had a not-great first season, and apparently I didn't even watch the second season, but it was just a disaster. They seem to have just really missed what made that show great, which is super disappointing. And the, the show creators, Michael Dante de Martino and Brian Konitsko, who are the two, sort of, the people who created the show to begin with, they departed that live-action adaptation. There was a period where they were working on it. So they kind of went off to make their own new

• 59:52Kirk Hamilton?

  animated stuff. And this show is one of those new projects. They're executive producing, though I think they're not writing it. There are some other old hands, though, from the original series, working on this show. And I gotta say, it's good, it's not great. I'll explain a little bit of the plot setup. The season just ended, there are 13 episodes, and I just watched the finale last night. So I'm still kind of chewing on it, but I would say, overall, it's got some good stuff going for it, but also I have a lot of complaints, and I wish that it had been better overall than it was. So that's my kind of big-picture thought. And I won't say any major spoilers, except I do want to say, there's like one thing that's just fundamental to the setup of the show that you learn in the first episode

• 1:00:34Kirk Hamilton?

  that I will talk about. So just to give people a heads up. And I really won't get too in detail, because it's just a show you can watch. They're half-hour episodes. No, they're not even, they're like 20-minute episodes. It's very easy to just go watch it. And if you're an Avatar fan, you probably already have. The premise is intriguing. It's like 200 and something years after The Legend of Korra, and the world has fallen into this, like, environmental cataclysm, where now, like, there's like horrible storms all around the planet, and the sort of previous four nations, you know, the Earth Nation, the Fire Nation, et cetera, have like disbanded, and there are seven cities. That's the Seven Havens in the title. There are these kind of, like, protected enclaves to, like, they

• 1:01:18Kirk Hamilton?

  have walls and stuff to keep the storms out. But something horrible happened, and everybody blames Korra, the last Avatar. So Korra is, like, reviled across the world, which in the show sometimes feels a little bit like they're kind of riffing on the fact that a lot of people didn't like the show of The Legend of Korra. And so people will be complaining about Korra, and it's a little bit funny, even though it seems pretty likely that people don't actually know what happened. And that Korra is, is not to blame for this. So the new Avatar is a young girl, and she's much younger, actually, than Aang was in The Last Airbender. She's like, I think, eight years old. Her name is Pavi. And she's like a survivor kind of out in the desert, but she's from this town that's called Elora,

• 1:01:59Kirk Hamilton?

  where she lives. And then it's revealed at the end of the first episode that actually she has a twin named Nisha. So there are two identical twin avatars. And that's actually the premise of the show, is like, what if there wasn't one Avatar, there were two? Because in the lore of this show, like, the Avatar is a being that is, like, reincarnated every generation, like, a new Avatar is born. And this time, the Avatar was born as a twin. So now suddenly, there are two avatars, which is a huge change. And then, really, all of this is a change. Like, everything is different. The world is different, the vibe is different, the backdrop is completely different, and there's twin avatars. And I think one of my complaints with the show, or my concerns, is that everything is so

• 1:02:41Kirk Hamilton?

  different, that it's almost like there's too many new things. There are a ton of side characters on this show, but I didn't really feel like I got to know very many of them very well. And it's cool that, like, every single really minor, you know, just airbender or waterbender who turns up in the city, like, has a whole look and a name, and they're clearly a character. That's neat. But when you only have 13, 20-minute episodes, it's just there's not enough time to flush them all out. Another kind of thought I have about this is I think this season just would have been better at 22 episodes. The original show had 22-episode seasons. That's enough time to really do the thing that Avatar did so well, which was this, like, organic, really sturdy storytelling and world-building.

• 1:03:24Kirk Hamilton?

  Korra had this problem as well, where the seasons were just really short, and you kind of felt like it was getting going, and then it was time for the finale. And I think this show runs into that as well. And by having such a broad cast, it's just really hard to feel like you've really got a handle on anybody. They're all kind of like archetypes or quips. You know, the character designs are great, but you're like, I want to know you a little better. And unfortunately, I kind of felt that way about the protagonists, too, because there are two of them. Like, we're not even really focusing on one Avatar. I would say that Pavi, the first Avatar you meet, is kind of the protagonist, but then it's really cool that she has a sister, but also there's just a lot going on. So, you know, those are kind of my gripes with the story. Like, we'll see where it goes. I think it ended pretty strong, like, it had an okay finale. I think there were some cool revelations.

• 1:04:09Kirk Hamilton?

  They set up the structure for the show going forward. It's already been renewed for another season. I'll certainly keep watching. It's very easy to watch. But I do have some reservations, and I wish I liked it a little more.

• 1:04:19Jason Schreier?

  Do you think the reason they haven't been able to recreate the success of the original Avatar is because shows are now fewer episodes? Is that the main reason?

• 1:04:27Kirk Hamilton?

  I don't know if it's the main reason, but it's not helping them. I really do think that part of what Avatar had going for it was just, there were a lot of, not exactly Monster of the Week episodes, but there was a lot of time just hanging out with this team of kids as they went and, like, met people and solved problems, and you got to know them over this long period of time. And then-

• 1:04:45Jason Schreier?

  Modern TV, man. They don't want to pay the writers, so.

• 1:04:48Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it's too bad. I really wish they had the budget, or whatever it is, that would allow them to make longer, a longer season. I will say, it's beautiful-looking. I think the art is gorgeous. It has a lot of the artists from the original show, and they're doing something new. And especially, I want to shout out Jeremy Zuckerman, who is the composer for the original series. The music on this show is completely different. It's this synthesizer-based, like, really gorgeous, kind of atmospheric soundscape, you know? Occasionally, you know, the old Avatar theme will come in, or they'll have a fight, and it's kind of the taiko drums and the percussion that you're used to from the show. But a lot of it is these just big walls of synths.

• 1:05:34Kirk Hamilton?

  These beautiful synthscares that he's creating, which is just a totally different sound. And I think it's super cool that the same composer from the original show went in a completely different direction and made something that fits so beautifully with the show. So really aesthetically, I think that it's really wonderful. And, and that's a big part of what I liked about watching it. So yeah, some thoughts from me, an Avatar superfan, on the new Avatar show. I wish I liked it more than I did, but I didn't hate it or anything. It was cool. And I'll be watching the next season. So we'll see where they take it from here. And that's it. That's another episode of Triple Click. We did it. We recorded it. We recorded a show, guys.

• 1:06:11Maddy Myers?

  We did it again.

• 1:06:12Jason Schreier?

  Congratulations.

• 1:06:13Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, we'll do it again next week.

• 1:06:14Maddy Myers?

  Yeah, I think so.

• 1:06:16Kirk Hamilton?

  As this, as this exciting video game fall continues.

• 1:06:18Jason Schreier?

  Next week, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is so funny that this is coming out a year after we all played the game extensively. So I personally am not, probably not going to spend much time with this streaming, but I'm looking forward to talking about it with you two next week.

• 1:06:34Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm so, I'm so happy to play it, now that I am so much more knowledgeable about the game. I feel like we played it at the exact perfect time. We played the original.

• 1:06:42Jason Schreier?

  You think so? Do you really want to play through it all again, though? Like, it's so fresh in my head. I feel like I don't. But I'm, we'll see how it goes next week.

• 1:06:49Kirk Hamilton?

  No, I mean, I feel like I've said this on this show before. It's not, I don't, it's, I think we played it at the perfect time, because what better time for my expertise in Ocarina of Time to be at its peak than this moment when the game is being re-released?

• 1:07:00Jason Schreier?

  I guess that's the glass half-full version.

• 1:07:02Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, that's just how I see things, I guess. All right. Well, we will talk about that game next week. Until then, I will, yeah, I'll see both of you next week.

• 1:07:11Jason Schreier?

  See ya next week.

• 1:07:12Maddy Myers?

  Bye.

• 1:07:15Kirk Hamilton?

  Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddy Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join. Email us at [email protected] and find links to our merch store and our Discord server in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.