Triple Click
Hosted by Jason Schreier and Kirk Hamilton
Original podcast
It's time for the best games of the year! Kirk, Maddy, and Jason go through 2024's lineup and talk about their favorites.
18,462 words · 8 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
This year, Christmas and Hanukkah are on the same day, except Christmas is only one day, while Hanukkah is eight. Suck it, Christmas. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. Christmas, I am so sorry. I didn't mean that. Can you please forgive me? Don't cancel me. Anyway, today, we're talking about games of the year, so let's get to it.
I'm Jason Schreier.
I'm Kirk Hamilton.
And I'm Maddy Myers.
Hello. It's our last episode of 2024.
The final episode.
Thank you all for listening this year. If you are a supporter of our show, thank you double. Thank you times two, because you make this show possible. If you are not a supporter of the show, it is not too late. You can join. You can write it off on your taxes by joining in 2024.
That second thank you, it's sitting right there. You could just pick that right up, and it could be yours.
Yeah.
You can grab that thank you.
You've only got one thank you right now, but what if you had a second one?
You have a second one.
All you have to do is go to maximumfun.org/join, and you too can become a member of Maximum Fun, our podcast network, and you can help us make this show possible and get bonus episodes every single month, including one we are about to run a little bit later this week, which is about our, uh, everything else of 2024. As you may have seen from the episode title, this year is, this, this week is our games of the year. And so that bonus episode is our books, shows, movies, podcasts, and albums of the year. So if you want to hear the best of the other things, become a member. But we've also got lots of other stuff in the works. We got a Metaphor Refontazio Spoiler Cast coming up next month,
and a whole backlog full of things. So go and check that out. One more thing before we start today's episode. Uh, we will be off next week. We are taken off for the holidays, so do not expect a new episode from us next week. But we will be running, um, in addition to the bonus episode, which you'll get if you are a member, we will be running a, um, A, uh, the, the paywall free episode of Triple Quest, episode three. That's the word I was looking for. Paywall free, uh, episode of Triple Quest, the finale. So if you are not a member and you haven't had a chance to listen to that, you will get to listen to it next week. All right. Today we are doing our games of the year.
We're going to do things a little bit differently this year. Usually we each just kind of present our list of 10. This time we still all made lists of 10, but instead of going through them, what we're going to do is we're going to go through all of the games, all of the major games that came out this year that may or may not be on the list. And then each of us will say why that game is on our list, if it is, and we'll just kind of talk about it. So I made a big list here of some of the major releases of 2024. I even, uh, added a bonus. We'll see if we get to those of a few of the busts of 2024. We'll see, we'll see if they came up, came up, come up at some point in this conversation, but we want to focus on the good stuff. So I'm going to go through each game and the three of us will each say if it is or is not on our list, and then we'll talk about it.
So let's get started. We're going to go in, in basic chronological order for the most part. I might have missed a day or, uh, might be slightly out of order, but I think it's mostly in chronological order. Starting with Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown. Who's got this one?
I do.
This is on my list as well. How about you, Jason?
All right. So Kirk and Maddie, it's not on mine. So Kirk and Maddie.
Just us. Okay. Well, this is one of my favorite games of the year. I mean, I guess no surprise. Maddy Myers likes a metroidvania, but I really was impressed by this one. I like just about everything about it. Just the, not just the platforming. I like the story, the music, the accessibility features. I like that you could skip puzzles when you're backtracking. I definitely took advantage of that from time to time. Or the platforming sections that are really hard, you can skip over them. Uh, great stuff. Really dug it. Kirk, what'd you think?
Yeah. I mean, this was, this was a great game that I was not expecting to like as much as I did. I think for me, it was the moment when I unlocked the ability where you can freeze a copy of yourself in place.
Yes.
Keep moving and then press a button and then warp back to wherever that frozen version of yourself was. And then they build puzzles around that. I mean, yeah, for me. This game was all about the puzzles. I think the platforming and the combat are fun. And that was really what I loved about Hollow Knight, in addition to the storytelling. Like, that is still my favorite metroidvania of all time. But, man, the puzzles in this Prince of Persia game are so cool, the platforming puzzles. They're so inventive, and the abilities that they give you work so well with them, that I was just, like, blown away by this game. I haven't gone back and finished it, but I will, I think, one of these days. Just because it keeps getting more interesting.
So, okay, it's funny you say that. It's funny you say that, because I really liked this game when I played it. But one of the reasons it did not make my final list of 10 is that I haven't had the urge to, like, go back and finish it. I was just like, okay, I felt like I had enough of this game.
I did, obviously, finish it. And the final boss is so hard, but really worth it and really cool. I mean, I loved it, so I do really think it's worth getting to the end. But I also know a lot of other things come out. You get distracted. But especially for the listeners who are hearing us talk about these now. I mean, that's the fun of a game of the year episode, right? Is what did I miss? This one came out in January? Like, just really randomly came out and just kinda... What's a good connotation word that's overshadowed? Whatever that is. That's what it did for me for the rest of the year, where I played it at the beginning of the year, and it just hit the spot.
Yeah, I mean, the early year games always get swamped. Let's move on to another January game, which is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Who's got this one?
This is on my list. I feel like I'm the only one.
Just you, I bet.
Okay.
I wish I'd played it. I feel like I missed out on this one.
So, this is another game I didn't finish, and I wonder if that's part of why I have so much fondness for it. I played, like, somewhere around 30 hours of this, which is quite a bit, but it is a very, very long game, in the style of most Japanese role-playing games. And I found that because I didn't play it all the way through, it never wore out its welcome with me, which I believe it probably does. I know the first Like a Dragon did. And so I was just so thoroughly charmed by it. I found even the opening, you know, several acts of the game to just be so great. And, I mean, Ichiban Kasuga might be my favorite video game character. Well, I'm not gonna say favorite. But he is one of my favorites. He has really launched up there for me. I just love the guy.
I love everything that he does and, uh, and the way that he is able to forgive people and recruit, uh, these misfits into his group and that guys that you would have thought would have been the villain of the game, actually wind up being your friend. Once you talk to them and I just think that's like a really nice thing about this game. So just a game that keeps on giving and giving.
Charming guy.
I always bounce off these games. Um, all right. Next up on the list, we have Helldivers 2. Who's got this one?
Oh, I mean, I definitely do.
I almost did. Are we allowed to say if it's an honorable mention?
Yeah, sure.
Cause it was one of mine.
If you like, of course. Yeah, this was another one of my favorites, easily another one of my favorites. The most fun I've had playing a multiplayer game in a really long time. Um, I kind of miss playing it now. Uh, I think if I could talk the, the group of guys I was playing with into playing it instead of GTFO, or whatever it is that they're playing right now, I think that I would, uh, especially to try out the new stuff they've added to the game. But yeah, I mean, it had been years since I had sat down with this same group of people that, you know, Jason, you and I used to play Destiny with, and had this much fun. I mean, I hadn't been having that much fun with Destiny for a long time playing with those guys. So playing Helldivers 2, and I just remember several games of just cackling, laughing as, you know,
these unbelievable sequences of events would happen, like things that I, I just wished that I could be capping or I, you know, could be streaming or something just to share with people because they were so hilarious. But I think that was the magic of the game was that you had, everybody had these moments. Everyone had these experiences. It managed to have five or six of them happen every single time you deployed in the game.
Do you think that, uh, one of the reasons that people just have moved on in, in your like kind of gaming group is because it's no longer in the zeitgeist, like people aren't sharing gifts about it anymore?
No, I think they played really hard. I think they maxed out their characters and they got just about everything. And I don't even know that they burnt out. I think that they, they just sort of ran out of stuff to chase. And I know they've added more, but it's not as grindy and as service gamey as something like an MMO or, you know, Destiny. So I think they. They just have kind of moved on to other games. But I, you'd have to ask them, really. I'm not really sure.
The eternal dilemma for developers. Either make, make it so you can actually finish the game or make it so you keep playing and keep paying. The eternal dilemma.
Yeah, yeah. It's not even really a knock, right, that I'm not playing it now. It's actually probably to the game's credit, yeah.
No, no, I'm saying it's a, I'm saying that's a dilemma for developers of these kinds of games. Next up, we have a game that has taken the gaming world by storm this year, Bellatro. This is on my list. Is it on both of yours?
It's on my list.
It's on my list, too. This is our first.
We got a triple, triple.
I would say, so the, my, my, my kind of description of Bellatro is that like, if there are any games that I didn't get a chance to play and include on this list is because instead I was playing Bellatro. Like, over the last few weeks, over the last few weeks, I pulled out my Steam Deck and just kind of browsed through my library and be like, okay, I want to check this out and I put a little more time into Like a Dragon, want to check out this other thing. And instead, I just kind of got sucked into Bellatro. It was just like, all right, I'm just going to play an hour of this, three more runs. That's all I'll do.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just so cleverly designed. I don't feel like it took over my life the same way that it did for you, Jason, and for many other people that I know. But I did really enjoy it in the time period that I was in it. And I've remembered it and really thought about it. And it's kind of like a well-crafted pop song where it seems deceptively simple, but actually designing something that feels that good to play is, and is unique, is almost impossible and unfathomable to me as someone who doesn't design video games or games at all. So I'm really impressed by it and what it does. I still think about just that piece of it, how clever it is as a game.
Yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, I, so I started playing this on my phone and found that.
Oh, boy.
It's really great on phones. I mean, that is, it is a fantastic way to play. And I was surprised by how quickly I got back into the groove because when you start on a phone, you know, you don't carry over any of your progress or any of your unlocked jokers. But I already had my knowledge of the game and I very quickly. Did the best runs I've ever done on phone. Like, I had my first, I guess, how many, how many digits is it? I wrote it down. Uh, my first 11-figure hand, where I got 50 billion on a single hand. And then, very shortly after that, I got into the exponential numbers for the first time, which I've now done a few times, uh, through the, through the famous, um, what is it? It's like Mimic and, uh, Baron.
Baron with Silver, with Steel Kings in your hand. And, um, and I just like, I, I so quickly got back into the groove with my phone and just, yeah, I mean, it's a perfect phone game. It's even better on phones because it just can fill any downtime that you want it to fill. And I just think that's a really rare game. And also shout out Louis F., the composer of the theme song. I think the bolletto theme is like, one of the most inimitable video game compositions in a long time. I could listen to it forever and I guess I kind of have. So anyways, definitely like, it should have been nominated for Best Video Game Music at the Game Awards and, uh, one of my favorite pieces of music.
That's just one song?
It's so funny. My wife asked me the other day, like, are you just playing like a solitaire game or like a poker game on your, on your Steam back? I was like, no, this is so much more.
But also, you kind of are.
Well, no, because that's the thing. It has nothing to do with poker. I always have to explain this to people, that it's like, it's really just a score-go-up game. It's a number-go-up game where you're just kind of building these systems and trying to find synergies that break the game in the best way possible. Um, a couple of my favorites recently. One is that I got this card. So they've changed some things since we all were playing in, in February and March.
I mean, I've been playing, I know.
One of the biggest changes is that Yorick, who's this legendary Joker, um, it used to be like, you have to, uh, discard cards to like unlock him and then he would give five times or something. But now it's like, you discard cards and you can cumulatively make him go up, um, in his modifier, in his multiplier modifier. And I like, got him really early and then duplicated him really early and I was able to get him up to like, times 23. Um, which was a monster, a monster joker getting two times 23 to all of your points is pretty wild. And then I had another that was like, um, uh, if you get, there's one card you can get that makes all of your jokers value go up every single turn.
I think it's called gift card. And then there's another joker where like the multiply is based on the value of all your jokers. So it really, those two synergize well. Um, but the fatal flaw of this game and the thing that will always make me bounce off of it is that like, after you pass the first eight antis and you get into the extra rounds, the endless run mode of it. The only way to get past anti 12 is to do the one same strategy, um, which is the one you were talking about Kirk, where you just have a bunch of kings and Baron and mimic and, and steal jokers and stuff. Cause compounding multipliers is the only way to get into the exponential numbers like, so no matter how clever your synergy is and how, what kind of cool machine you've built, there's only really one way to truly win. So I think if this game gets a change,
and I think that the creator, local funk has said he's going to be updating this game and adding new stuff in the years to come. I think the biggest change they need to make is to have some sort of way to keep testing out your build and playing around with your build without the numbers getting so incredibly high that like you can only beat it with one strategy. There needs to be other kind of modes you can play around with. But otherwise, I mean, it's nearly a perfect video game and I think it could become a perfect video game.
High praise.
Yeah, I'm addicted. I have like many, many hours in Velatro to answer your question, Maddy.
I mean, that's fine. This is a judgment free zone.
I think we were also, we were both saying mimic, but we should be clear that it's mime is the card.
Mime, yeah. All right, let's keep moving. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This is on my list. Is it on yours?
It almost made it. So close.
Yeah, no, not on my list, though I really enjoyed my time with the game.
Same. Yeah.
Yeah, I love this game. I did every single side quest for Chadly, so I got really sucked into this one. I got like full, fully all in, all the different activities. Yeah, I love it mostly because of the music. But everything about it really, um, but the music just kind of takes us to the next. Level and makes it so you have a lot of fun, even just doing kind of mindless activities around these big open worlds is because you get to listen to all these remix versions of old Final Fantasy VII themes, still kind of
ambivalent on the ending. I guess we'll see what happens in the third game.
Yeah, same.
But I really enjoyed it.
Part of why I'm still a little mixed on it is because also it's the middle chapter and I feel like we all are waiting to see what happens in the third one. Do they close everything down in a satisfying way? Still feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions.
It's true.
Some of the pacing in this one was a little up and down for me, shall we say, in part because there were just so many side quests and I didn't like all of them. I obviously didn't complete every Chadley bonus, but that's fine. That's just, that's just me and my personal taste. I still totally agree about the music, continued to listen to it for long after defeating the game and still do. Incredible soundtrack and love all the Aerith, Tifa side conversations that happen in the game. I think that's one of the strongest parts of the game is just the party dialogue that happens when you're walking around.
Yeah, this is an interesting one for me because I really liked it while I was playing it and I found that over time it just has faded into a memory hole for me in a way that I'd, it's hard to account for. It's like a number of different things. I think that it's a lot of, a lot of it is that the game is so surface level, like it's all mini games or a lot of the experience is mini games. And, and also, yeah, that it's a middle chapter and also that it makes some interesting narrative choices or some narrative choices that I was sort of less excited about, especially when I consider it against remake, which had such a promise to make such big changes finally. The fact that it like made actually not that many changes and really just sort of
ballooned everything to a much larger size. Like, I don't know, it's hard for me to totally pin down. It's not any one thing. It's something cumulative about the game that has caused it to just sort of gradually fade away for me, like a fast food meal or something where I just don't feel all that nourished by it now that months have passed.
All right. Well, uh, we can agree to disagree. One thing I'll say also is that Queen's Blood, I think, really is another just kind of real highlight of this one.
Yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, I mean, for all the throwaway mini-games that were in this game, it also had like a super deep and interesting one in Queen's Blood. And but yeah, I mean, Maddy, I take your point. I think about the effectiveness of this story. I might feel differently when the third game comes out if they don't stick the landing. So we'll see. Next up, we have Secrets of Grindia. This is a game on my list.
It's gotta be just you.
Yeah, I haven't played it, even though you made it sound really great when you talked about it on the show.
Yeah, this is a really cool game, really tough game. I'm on the final, final boss of this true secret ending, and it's been a real challenge, but really enjoyable, just kind of like Zelda-like, top-down, 2D role-playing game, really fun story and dialogue and skill tree and everything about it. Just it feels great to play, doesn't wear out its welcome, like the whole thing you can beat, even though it took something like 13 years to make, you can beat it all in 30 hours or so. Although there is, true to its name, there is grinding required if you want to see the true secret ending thing, which has been, has been a trek for me. I actually did a bunch of grinding
on my trip to California a couple of weeks ago. Basically, every enemy has a chance at a rare drop of like dropping a card. And if you want to see the true ending, you have to get a card from each enemy. So you have to kind of grind on every single type of enemy to get these cards, which I didn't think I was going to do, but it actually turned out to be a little bit soothing while I was like, watching TV on my trip on my Steam Deck. So hey, it made it work. But anyway, it's a great game. Aside from the grinding. Moving on, Dragon's Dogma 2. Who's got this?
Oh, this is all me. I played a ton of this game. I loved it. I know I loved it more than the two of you did. And yeah, I mean, really, it was just a game that unlocked for me after a certain amount of playing. Not some crazy amount exactly, but just enough that I suddenly just saw how it works, that combat clicked, that the whole experience. Clicked this kind of weird, immersive, mysterious game, full of baffling little systems that occasionally surprise you and often delight you and sometimes really screw you over. There were so many times playing this game that it just did something I didn't know that it could do. I remember, I think this is something I've, a story I've told to other players and then they'll say, oh yeah, that happened to me too. Which
is that I was riding in the gondola system. There's this sort of complex gondola system you use to travel around the southern area. Just riding in it and you kind of just have to sit there while you're riding in the gondola and it takes a little while and I'm sitting there and I kind of, I think I put my controller down and maybe go get some water and I come back and a griffin has attacked and knocked my entire party out of the gondola and we have a total party kill. So there are a lot of things like that that just sort of come out of nowhere and you're like, wait, what? I can be attacked by a griffin while I'm in the gondola? And then there are these Sphinx puzzles as well that were like some of the most fun I had in a game this year. Just these really interesting puzzles where the Sphinx really gives you a riddle and you actually have to figure it out. And the solutions are incredibly creative and fun. And I had a great time working them out, occasionally getting hints from friends, but mostly figuring them out
myself. Myself. And I don't know, this is just like a beguiling, wonderful game. I think about it all the time and loved it.
When you tell that story, it's like the big wonderful moment is that some, an enemy attacked you and you got a total.
I get it though. It's such a Kirk Hamilton story because it's emergent play. It's far cry too. I mean, it's, it's the kind of thing I.
That's not a criticism. It's just funny to hear out loud.
I get it though.
I mean, that is a hundred percent Dragon's Dogma too. And anyone who loves this game will tell you the same thing. Like that is what makes the game great.
Yeah, it's systems that are fun.
And that the systems screw you over in funny ways. Like it isn't just a, it is like, it gets you and you don't see it coming.
Next up, we have Tales of Kenzera Zao. Definitely a candidate for worst title on this list, although there are a couple others, a couple other bad ones.
I completely agree. I can't defend the title and you know, whatever. We don't need to spend time on that. A wonderful metroidvania though.
We'll save it for the titles episode, coming up soon.
Might happen, folks. I think about it a lot. But yeah, really loved this Metroidvania. Other than the title, if I had to have any complaint about it, it's that it's extraordinarily difficult. Like, you know, that game Celeste with all the platforming challenges, like another game I really enjoyed. Tales of Konzerazaw is one where I had many times of being like, I'm just gonna play this over and over until I get it perfectly. And that can be very fun, very rewarding, but extremely punishing. Some occasional thumb pain happening to me while playing this. But yeah, really dug it. Loved the story. Thought the story was actually stronger than Prince of Persia, if I have to directly compare my Metroidvanias of the year. Very,
very haunting story about a guy who is kind of negotiating with death itself, the god of death, in order to bring back his father. But of course, that always has its costs. It always, there's always some downsides to doing something like that. And it kind of plays into the idea of grief being circular, repetitious. You revisit the same places over and over. I thought that symbolism really worked with the Metroidvania structure. And they really did it well. The developers really did it well in terms of making the story fit exactly what you were doing in the game. And I always enjoy when I'm playing a game that just perfectly does that, does that exact thing. Really good.
Speaking of titles, 1,000 times resist, 1,000 X resist, I should say.
Yeah, which is it?
I say times, 1,000 times resist. I have been known to call it 1,000 X resist. This is on my list. I think I'm the only one of the three of us that played this game or that really played it.
I, another one that I'm still probably gonna play in my January holdover of picking up stuff I didn't get to. I would like to check it out.
I was gonna play it, but.
But then Bellatro happened, yeah.
It happens. Yeah, this game is fantastic. I played this just on Steam Deck while I was traveling and loved it. Didn't know anything about it. I just knew Chris Plant was like, dude, you gotta play this game. It's amazing, which is a very common plant move. And he's usually right. So I took him at his word and played it. And yeah, this is a fantastic game. Best narrative games that I played all year. An incredibly memorable one, just overall, a really, really remarkable narrative. And the thing that made this game work for me was partly that I went in knowing nothing, which I think is a good way to play it, because it's exceptionally mysterious at first. There's a big, complex sci-fi layer over this game, and a lot of the actual gameplay takes place within a very mysterious sci-fi world.
It feels somewhat like Nier Automata, something in that kind of Yoko Taro, Hideyokojima, where, like, those types of worlds where you're just like, what in the world? There's a bunch of terminology, there's like, a very confusing space to explore. I just don't know what anything means, but everyone here seems to know what it means, so presumably they'll explain it to me at some point. And that stuff is cool, and then the game begins to also be a much more personal and relatable story of an actual human being.
Kirk, I feel like you've trained yourself by reading all those fantasy novels on getting used to delusion proper nouns.
Yeah, this is a big gear for that for you as well.
Yeah, it's funny, I mean, I could, I could, that's a larger comparison, but it's quite different, like, reading a Brandon Sanderson novel where, you know, you kind of, at least everything makes sense, like, you're in a kingdom, you know, there's like a guy with a sword fighting somebody, you kind of understand that there's like an oppressive ruler or whatever. In this, this is much more like, when you start in Nier Automata, and you're like, what the hell? Like, what, who even are these androids? Like, what is happening? What happened to the world? Like, where are we? And it's more that kind of feeling in 1000 X Resist, 1000 Times Resist. So anyways, what's cool is, it begins to reveal a personal story, and this tells the story of a young woman, and her parents, and her relationship to her family. That feels much more relatable, that's just sort of a story.
Like, there is a global pandemic that takes place as well, but really, it's the story of her and trying to assimilate into Western culture, and her parents doing the same. And like, that stuff is all much more relatable, and like, really well told and really well written. What I really appreciate about this game, and what I think that, I think is the thing that makes it remarkable, is that that high-concept sci-fi layer actually winds up playing a really important role in understanding The flashback personal story layer. It isn't just like a cool, high concept sci fi story where there's also flashbacks with like relatable human story. The whole thing works of a piece. Like the sci fi layer is actually a way of exploring all the different facets of this one person's personality.
And it winds up creating this like totalizing sense of the main character in a way that I think is like really, really cool. And I've very rarely seen executed or on this level in a video game. So I really think it's a special game and I know the name is a little weird. There's some janky stuff in it, like there's platforming sequences that are a little weird. The gameplay is never quite like the thing that's drawing you in. But I really think if you're interested in narrative in video games and you want to play a game with good writing, this is it, man. It's really something special.
Cool. Yeah, it sounds, sounds like something that we might discover or play later on and then appreciate. So.
Yeah, I hope so.
Yeah, for sure.
I really want to check it out.
Yeah, it's on my list.
Next up, we have Animal Well. This is on my list.
This is on my list.
Yours?
Oh, another triple pick.
So we got Bellatro and Animal Well are two unanimous selections.
Not shocked by those two.
Animal Well, I think as I've been talking to people about this game more, I realized that having the unique experience of playing it before it came out and not actually being able to look anything up and having to really deduce it with like friends and colleagues on Discord and stuff. I think that enhances the experience. That said, I still think it's such a good game because the fundamentals are so solid. And even the first two layers of this three layered secret game are so compelling in their own right that, that I think they still make it like a 10 out of 10 game for me. But that third layer, I think is less impactful now that the game's been out and you can just look up all those secrets online.
That said, I mean, this game is delightful, truly phenomenal, metroidvania, secret hunting, puzzle game.
Yeah, I really love just the first layer of the game. I mean, if you're someone who listened to our episode, I think episodes about it, we talked about it a few times, and you were like, oh, I don't love secret hunting and like, you know, having really difficult sequences of trying to look at stuff in a game over and over and figure it out. Even just the first layer of classic Metroidvania stuff is super fun and it's pretty combat light and heavy on environmental puzzles and exploring, which I love. I mean, look, I'll do some super tricky platforming. I was just talking about Tales of Kinsera Zao. I was just talking about the Combat and Prince of Persia. Obviously, I'll enjoy that. Animal World is not that. It's really just emphasizing, just recognizing your surroundings, remembering where you were, scrawling little notes on the
map. You can write on the map. That's something really fun in this game. I just think that stuff really hits the spot. So if you like Metroidvania at all, and just for the exploration part, I still really recommend this. And you don't even have to participate in the whole community-wide aspect if that part turns you off. You'll still have a good time, I think.
Yeah, I want to just explain real quick. So the first, when I say three layers, in case you're not familiar with this game out there, listener, the first layer is that Metroidvania, incredible puzzle platformer. After you beat the game, there's another kind of layer you can delve into, which is more of a traditional secret hunting thing. There's some really tough and fun secrets to find. But you can do it on your own. You don't have to like work with anyone else. You can really just spend a bunch of hours just like diving in, exploring, learning every corner of the map. Which, like, I would say after layer two is really the real ending of the game. Like, as much as most people will play it. The third layer is like ARG stuff. Like, you can't do the third layer without finding 50 other people to help you solve like one of the puzzles. So that's the stuff that you'll never ever figure out and like you'll need to look up online. So think of
the game as really those first two layers, which is essentially flame hunting and egg hunting. And once you do all that, like that's, even that on its own is like
So great, very fun.
Yeah, for me, I mean, I think all of what you both said. And something that I really love about this game is that it does give you new items to use. And then the
New kinds of items, unlike any other Metroidvania.
Oh, yes. No, it's not like you get a double jump. It's not like you get, you know, an air dash. Instead, you get a frisbee and you get a bubble wand. And the wand makes little bubbles that you can jump on. And the magic of this game, for me anyways, was that you learn how to use those items in ways that you didn't realize you could. You have more abilities than you realize when you pick them up. And then there will be these little eureka moments, you know. There's one that'll happen probably to everybody with the frisbee. The one I want to talk about is with the bubble wand. And, you know, a lot of people have played this game, so I'll just mention this little thing. But you put a little bubble out and you can jump on it, and then the bubble starts to sink. But if you time it right and jump right as you're throwing the bubble,
you can jump up and put a bubble right underneath yourself. And I worked out a way to essentially climb any height using the basic bubble wand, which then actually led me to make my way through this super bananas platforming. It was like, you know, a kind of, I don't know, like an up and down, up and down spiked wall room that was incredibly difficult to get through because if you fall, you restart at the very beginning of the room. And I did this whole thing using the bubble wand. And if the bubbles are ill timed, if they touch the spike, you fall. And it wound up being a platforming challenge on par with the hardest stuff I ever did in Hollow Knight. I spent like an hour on it or something. And it was really, really rewarding and super fun. And then, of course, maybe an hour later, I unlocked the multi-bubble wand,
which does multiple bubbles and would have made the whole thing so much easier for me to do. But I did manage to pull it off with the basic bubble wand, which was like a really rewarding thing on its own. It's something that I did that not every player probably did. Some people maybe found the multi-bubble wand way before they even found that room. But the fact that the systems in the game and the abilities are so flexible that they let you discover and come up with these creative ways to use them. It's so cool. And there's all kinds of stuff like that in the game. I mean, I really think, you know, there's a lot that I still probably haven't even discovered, having not found every single egg yet. So, yeah, I mean, I loved this game. I think it's so freaking cool.
It goes even deeper than that, Kirk, in that the only way to get to that multi-bubble wand is to die enough times that you create a staircase for yourself in that little area that gets to the chest where you can find it. And so if you are playing like a no-death run or you're trying, yeah, in order which like you get a collectible thing, if you, if you get to that part without any deaths, or like you want a minimum number of deaths, you won't be able to get that. So it's cool that there's also a way that you can like do it. And I think that's very deliberate that you can
actually create infinite bubbles without the multi-bubble wand.
That makes sense.
But yeah, incredible game. I'm glad that we all picked it and feel, feel that way about it. Next up, we have Nine Souls. Kirk, you mentioned that you, this would be on your list.
I want to at least mention this just because enough people that I trust and friends that I have who really love games and also who know me and know the kinds of games that I like, read Hollow Knight, said to me, dude, why have you not played Nine Souls yet?
Well, guess what? I'm one of them because it's on my list, baby.
I had a feeling that was going to be something you were gonna, you were gonna throw at me.
I played it, I played it over the last week, like the last three days. I like have played a dozen hours of this game. It's so good.
Nice. Okay, so be one of those people now. Now we have one of those people on the show, so please, Jason, carry on.
Proselytize.
Surprise, surprise. This is the one that really, you can tell that it's good because it took me away from Volatro and I actually wanted to keep playing it. So Nine Souls, I think Hollow Knight is kind of the surface level comparison, but it's really more like Sekiro. Because you can't play it the way you play Hollow Knight. And when I play the way I play Hollow Knight, I die. You need to be parrying. It's like 2D Sekiro. So it looks like Hollow Knight. It's got an art style that's kind of reminiscent of Hollow Knight and definitely inspired by Hollow Knight. It's got a lot of those same ideas as Hollow Knight, Soulsy ideas, I guess Sekiro ideas too, but more deliberately from Hollow Knight. Like you find a guy in every new area who will sell you a map and it's kind of got those, those kind of staples.
It's got the, the dash and it's got at some point the double jump and the air dash and so on and so forth. So it's got the trappings of a Hollow Knight style metroidvania, but the actual fight. And especially the bosses are all about parrying and countering and kind of finding different ways to navigate their cues and react to them. So it's a lot more like a 2D version of Sekiro than Hollow Knight. And yeah, it's friggin awesome. Really, really tough, but really, really awesome. You definitely need to be able to parry. And if you found Sekiro just insurmountable, then you will not enjoy this game. But as a package, it's really incredible. It's got this awesome story and lore and these characters who are really intriguing. I won't
get super in-depth, but basic story is that like you are this alien trying to essentially like kill these nine souls. You're one of these 10 souls who are these kind of ruling force of this alien race and you're trying to, or this, this alien area and you're trying to find the other nine and kill them and, and get their kind of insignias. And there are humans involved and humans are kind of hinted to be enslaved creatures in this world. And there's a lot of lore that gets into just kind of how this science fiction lore, how the science fiction world works and, and what the, what the deal is with the whole premise of it. And it's really cool. It's got a lot of metroidvania aspects that you would like,
Maddy, including seeing something and being able to come back to it once you've got the ability to unlock it. But yeah, really tough. And I'm enjoying that a lot. The bosses like having to fight a boss 20 times, but then really nailing it is really cool. And then I will say one anecdote real quick is that the very first boss of the game or the very first like real boss of the game, you might spend like a dozen tries trying to beat it, like trying to figure out the parry timings, trying to recognize its attack patterns, getting it just right. And then you do it and then it'll jump to the background for a second and be like, yeah, I got this shit. And then it comes back out at full health. And it's like, oh, second phase time. So it is truly, it is truly a From Software inspired
game. And yeah, I love it. It's on my list. I haven't beaten it yet, but I've gotten far enough that I feel comfortable saying it's one of my 10 favorite games of the year.
To throw a couple of things out there. There since yeah, I've played like three or four hours of this game. Two things that I found that made it much more doable for me. One is that I actually didn't like playing this on Steam Deck. Like I found playing it with a regular controller instead of the Steam Deck controller just worked better for me. And it kind of was easier to scan on a larger screen. So I think maybe once I got more used to it, it'd be fine on Steam Deck like it's.
Yeah, I'm playing on Steam Deck for what it's worth.
I know a lot of people like it, but that's just me, but just throwing that out there. And the other is that this game actually does have a variable difficulty setting. That's pretty cool. You can change it.
I didn't even know that.
You can like adjust how much damage you take and how much damage you do. You can make it a lot easier.
Oh, I love that.
You kind of just want to mess around and learn the attack timing, but not be just pounded into the ground by enemies. If you do make a mistake, you can make it easier for yourself. And I think you can't undo that once you've changed it to that difficulty setting. But that's not the end of the world. And like, I'm sure the intended difficulty is really cool. If you're into that kind of difficulty, like that kind of challenge. But it is very nice that they make it possible for you to adjust the game.
Got it. Yeah, I didn't even know that. But yeah, cool game, Nine Souls. If you're on the fence, I recommend it. Next up, we have Fields of Mistrya. This is you.
This has got to be me.
Oh, no, right. This is Maddie.
It's me. It's me. So I feel like this is a nice counterpoint.
Sounds like a Jason game.
No, I just forgot. Yeah, I forgot that it wasn't some classics JRPG style game. But no, of course, Maddie, I remember you talking about.
This sounds like JRPG-esque, doesn't it? It's not. It's not. It's, it's actually a Stardew Valley like that builds on, builds on that structure. But it does, it did also really hit the spot for me in between super difficult and also emotionally challenging games that I played this year. Like this is like a perfect, I'm just going to make my little farm. It's, it's actually pretty hard to do Stardew and kind of iterate on it. But I actually think Fields of Mistrya pulls it off, and that's why I recommend it. I really dig all the townspeople in this game and I dig the story. There's some supernatural elements that emerge, much like in Stardew, that I enjoy a lot and found very rewarding to discover and unlock as I went along. And there were also just straight up townspeople I super liked talking to every day. And that's the kind of thing.
You want out of a game like this is a slow emergent gentle story, really, really cute pixel art as well. So yeah, just enjoying it. It's actually still in early access and all the more impressive because of it. And it's, it's gotten updated a couple of times and I've really liked the updates. So yeah, Fields of Mysteria, strongly recommend if any of that genre wise is your style, you will enjoy it.
Nice.
Yeah, it's funny, Kirk. I feel like X of like something that ends with a Y.
It sounds like one of those classic SNES style games that has like really great music that I'm sure I'd like.
But yes, but Maddy, it sounds cool.
I will be curious to check it out when it's out of early access. I can't wait to see what their final like 1.0 version is.
For sure.
Next up, we have Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.
It's on my list. Maybe just me? I don't know.
Not me.
Didn't make my list either, but I can talk about why, but, um, but Maddy, maybe you start.
Oh, I really loved it. I mean, I.
Don't get me wrong.
Not unlike my two co-hosts. I actually liked Shadow of the Erdtree. No, I get it though. There were actually a lot of really good video games this year, as this episode is proving. But I enjoyed this a lot. I really liked just the verticality of the environmental exploration this time around. That ended up being something that I super enjoyed and wasn't a part of the base game Elden Ring, where I enjoyed exploring and unlocking the map and just going boss by boss. This was like, I felt, felt way more like a Metroid game and I'm, I am being perfectly myself here, but I.
Everything on your list is either a farm, farm game or a Metroid game.
Yeah, it's either a Metroid game or something that I played to take a break from all the difficult Metroid-esque games I was playing. Um, yeah, but I, I did really enjoy that aspect of it. I liked getting to like fight the bosses in different orders and just explore in a weird way.
Yeah, I love it too. It just like didn't make the cut because like DLC, I think at least for me, has a much higher bar to clear if it's going to make my top 10 list compared to, just because like it's more Elden Ring, which is great, but Elden Ring was on my list in 2022.
Yeah, I get it.
Yeah, kinda similar for me. Like, I didn't finish it, which I gather was not a bad thing, since the final boss I know is a huge pain in the ass.
They left him.
I'm not gonna deny it.
It's kinda like, unique to my experience. Or it's something that I did where I was playing with Milady, that really cool, uh, whatever it's called, Light Longsword or whatever, Light Greatsword, and the stance stuff, and I was getting into that, and it was pretty fun. And then I switched builds to this kinda broken, like, bleed club build that you can get, just cuz I read some guide or something. Cuz I was already feeling a little listless, and like, some of the bosses were really hard. So I switched to this just totally other kinda build and respect. And then, I just sorta lost steam. Like, I should really just go and respect back to how I was, just because I didn't like playing with a big, like, Ungabunga club, and I didn't like doing, like, broken levels of damage to bosses, and it sort of,
I dunno, like, I kinda like messed it up for myself or something. And then I just lost steam and was like, eh, it's just more Elden Ring, yeah, I dunno, like, I sorta lost steam on it, despite it being really amazing.
So you're saying you gotta respect my lady?
Yes, that's what I'm saying.
That's what it's all about.
Um, alright, moving on, after that one. Tactical Breach Wizards.
Definitely on my list.
Alright, you two have it. Not on mine, but you two.
It's a double, double pick.
Yeah. Jason, did you ever circle back and beat it? Or no?
I didn't beat it, uh, but I did, I made a good amount of progress.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it didn't quite make the, make the list for me.
Yeah, I mean, I just, I loved this. I mean, it's kind of the, the one that's a little bit out of step with some of my other genres here, but given how much I talked about Midnight Suns in, in years previous, I think it's no surprise I really enjoyed the, the strategy aspects of this, plus the story being excellent. I, I mean, I wish we had more games like this, that I could be recommending year over year. I feel like, we don't get that many, where I'm like, oh, the story's really strong, amazing ensemble cast of characters that you get to know, and there's fun turn-based strategy on top of that? That rules. I, I would just love to have more games. Like this in general.
Yeah, I agree. This is probably like pound for pound, my favorite game of the year. I like absolutely loved it. I can't believe how good it is. It's so good, so strong all the way through. Yeah, I mean, like, it's incredible. I totally agree, Maddy, that I just wish more. I know it's not easy to make a game this good, obviously. But so many games expand their scope beyond their capacity. So many teams try to do too much. Watching, looking at this game, it's just this like immaculately designed thing. And then, yeah, the writing is just so, so good. I mean, when Desa, the medic, goes into like the nether realm and suddenly is doing a series of missions with a copy of herself
and talking to herself about like Jen and the other party members and what, how she's feeling. And then, you know, the game does that again and again. And they're, you know, the fact that
I was gonna say, that happened to me with Jen playing with a copy of herself. So it's funny that that's
Oh, every, it happens to every single character.
Everybody gets it?
Everybody has a dream sequence and they're all exceptional. There are real twists that were surprising and delightful. It really just the story, it's kind of this really clever inversion and commentary on the Tom Clancy style military thriller. It manages to be like a military thriller for justice, but also not in a way that feels really preachy.
Yeah, plus it's doing it with wizards. So it's like, it kind of has this thing that seems like it's gonna be a joke at first, but then it's like dead serious, which is also fun.
Yeah, the world building is so good. It has such a light touch with everything that it's doing. It just doesn't set a foot wrong from start to finish. And that is a very rare thing for any video game, let alone one with this much writing. So, yeah, I mean, it's just like, it's an incredible game. I just think everybody should play it.
Next up, we have Ace Attorney Investigations 2. This is on my list.
Yeah, gotta be, right?
Don't think it's on either of yours. So this is part of the Ace Attorney Investigations collection, which includes the first game, which did come out in English like years ago, whenever it was released. But the second one is really transcendent. The second one is like a top three, maybe top two Ace Attorney game, period. For me, and so I have to include it on this list because it's just like a complete package, just like one of those games that doesn't have a bad case. Usually Ace Attorney games, you kind of, you have a filler case in the middle somewhere and it's always, it always drags on a little bit too long, always has a mystery or a sequence of events that is just a little too preposterous. And this one does not. This one has just like five bangers that are all tied together and all matter to the overarching plot, which I think
really, really makes it stand out. And yeah, I just really love this, this one. The only downside to these games is that even though you play as Edworth, you're just doing the same gameplay that you do in the Phoenix Wright games. But I mean, I could take a new Phoenix Wright game every year. So it's fine with me to just keep doing that same gameplay. But yeah, this, this one was top notch for me.
I liked what I played of it. Yeah, I'll play more. I mean, it seemed, it seemed great. I played like one of the first chapter.
You should. I think you'll, I think you'll really enjoy it. Next up, we have Astro Bot. This is also on my list. What about you?
Same. I put it on.
This didn't make my list.
Alright, didn't make the cut for sure.
So I'll maybe talk a little bit about why. I mean, I thought it was great.
Why do you hate joy?
I thought, I actually thought this would be like the, the third triple pick, but it is not. It's just me and Maddy.
I, I mean, I get it. I almost didn't pick it because it kind of feels like picking like a slice of chocolate cake with like a bunch of frosting on it. Like it's just, it's so joyful that I, I just was like, ah, I don't know. There's like nothing wrong with it. It's too fun, but it's not challenging in a way. It's not like advancing.
You have to, if you play the challenging levels.
I mean, none of these are why I didn't pick it, but go ahead and tell me why you like it.
I don't know. I mean, I do love it, but it just, there's something about it that I'm just like, oh, it's so cute. It's almost cloying in certain ways, but I, I do love it. I'm not going to deny it. I'm just going to let myself have it. Why, why not?
I mean, there's nothing. So I've been playing it while my kids watch and like pretend to play and sometimes jab the buttons. And that cuteness that you mentioned can be cloying. I mean, kids love it, I will say. It's like having a rubber ducky to play around with in that one bath, bathhouse level is just a blast. It is challenging if you get Into some of the challenging levels and it also I think is a perfect balance of challenge because you die at one hit unlike Mario games three of hearts but at the same time you recover so quickly and the loading times are non-existent so it doesn't really feel like it's a drag it's got that really it's it's able to create tension without feeling frustrating which I think is a real real coup for this game. The other thing I'll say is that I was
just playing this today and I was also playing Mario Odyssey with my kids because they both they wanted to see both of those games and playing Astro Bot feels a lot better than playing Mario Odyssey.
Oh, interesting.
There's something about having that extra floaty like being able to float with your laser beams that as we established in our Astro Bot episode shoot out of your butt. There's something about about those those extra that extra floatiness that just makes it feel really good and makes it feel better than Odyssey does to play in 2024 at least for me. I don't know if this is gonna get me hate mail for criticizing a Nintendo game but
I don't know.
We'll get into that a little bit more later.
You're probably right. I should just embrace it. I mean it's it's super cute and it's got a bunch of PlayStation mascot characters but I I don't I shouldn't be ashamed of it.
That's the part that can be cloying. That's that's the thing where it's like alright, this is like really just kind of like a soulless brand parade but I don't know.
But it's not soulless.
It's clearly made by people. Yeah, that's the thing. It's made by people who like are doing it because they really love a lot of these franchises and not because they want to advertise for PlayStation. So it feels genuine to me. Kirk, you want to say a sentence or two about why it didn't make the cut for you?
Yeah, it was very close. I mean, I found this to be a really joyful and fun game. For me, it's partly that I'm just not like a huge 3D platformer guy like that's just never been my favorite genre of game. And also, it's yeah, it's a little bit just there's something missing like it's a little bit shallow. It's some of it is the brand exercise that it's all Sony nostalgia. It's like a lot of meta jokes with God of War and Uncharted and whatever. And just like I don't you know, I didn't really latch on to that. And then there's just kind of a level, a layer of mystery that I really appreciate. About games, actually Mario Odyssey comes to mind. There's just sort of a layer of mystery to those Nintendo games where in the world, there are these strange things there, all kinds of, you know, I don't know, secrets
hidden around. And I, I just didn't feel that from Astro Bot, like I didn't feel drawn in to explore or discover that kind of stuff. So in the end, it was like a really fun game every moment that I was playing it. It was really great. It almost made my list, but then it just kind of floats away when I compare it to the other games that did wind up making my list.
There are definitely secrets. There are like alternate like exits for some of the levels.
It's not to say that there aren't secrets.
Yeah, I get what you mean though.
It's more that the design of the game does not draw me into discovering.
It's subjective. It's a vibe. Yeah.
Next up, we have UFO 50. I don't think this is on our list, but Kirk, this is a runner up for you. You wanted to bring up real quick?
I did want to bring it up because I kind of like, when we talked about this the first time, I, I only just, I was just like, well, I kind of tried a little bit of it and then it just sort of bounced off of it. And I just wanted to say, I played a lot more of this game and it almost made my list now. Cause I've gotten into a few of the games. I wrote them down. Ninpeck is great. Mortal is incredibly great. Party House is so much fun. I got really into that one. Ping Golf, also really great. Night Manor, I played almost all the way through. I haven't quite figured out like the final couple of puzzles, but Night Manor is really cool and feels almost like traveling through time. Attack Tricks is super good. Basically I went back and I took the time to actually learn some of these games. And I just like really want to underline how special and cool this game
is, that it deserves to be mentioned in any best games of the year list. And I personally, like, I don't feel a strong emotional attachment to games of this era and to this style of like very, often very difficult 2D gameplay, but I still am very like, I find this game pretty enchanting and I can't believe that they put it together. And so I wanted to mention it. And then to say that, that I've really like, I love it. Like I've played a lot of it now and I really think that it's something special.
Yeah, I have also played a bunch of it and I think it would be pretty close to making my list, but I just like, other than Attack Tricks, um, which is the kind of the chess-ish strategy game.
Attack Tricks.
Attack Tricks, yeah. Other than that, I didn't really feel that like compelled and compelled enough to keep playing many of them. Night Manor is cool.
There are a few others that stood out to me also.
Night Manor is awesome.
It's also, for me, it's a matter of time. Like, the time commitment for UFO 50 is just, like, unreal. Because as we discussed when we were talking about that game, like, it's not just the time commitment of like, oh, all right, I have to find a few hours to play this game. You also have to spend a few hours trying to figure out what you like and, like, learning rules and stuff, which is, which can be real, a real barrier for entry for a game like this.
Yeah, I think that, I think one thing that helped me was that I played it a little later and now there are lists. Like, I think Polygon, even, like, Maddy and you guys, this list of the top games of the year
The best ones.
In your UFO 50 entry, like, whoever was who wrote it, like, listed five or six of their favorite games. And I was like, all right, I'll just start with those. And three or four of them, like, really worked. I think Party House was in there and I just, it would have taken me forever to get to Party House if I'd just gone chronologically, like, in the game. But Party House is really, really fun and, like, you know, a great one to start with.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I'm with you. I think that this is one that I think could, like, in another, if not for Bellaccio, if I spent more time with it, I think it might have had a chance of making the list. But it's close there for me, too. Next up, we have Mouthwashing.
I think I'm still the only one of us who played this one, yeah.
Yeah, I really want to check it out, though. And you should remind the listeners as to why.
I will, yeah.
Yeah, most people will not have heard of this. If you want to just explain what it is real quick.
I will, yeah. And Maddy, I think, I think you'll like it when you do play it. This is a game that's currently just on Steam. It's a three or four hour narrative horror sci-fi game, like, psychological horror more than anything else. It's a pretty, I think I described it as a feel-bad hit in my one more thing when I talked about it. It's a game where you're, you play a couple of different members of a crew, I believe it's five people, working for, basically, futuristic Amazon on a shipping vessel in space that crashes, collides with something in space and becomes sort of inoperable and floating in space. And for me, I mean, It's on my list because I can't stop thinking about it. I still think about it all the
time. It has such a strong sense of place. It has such a haunting and genuinely chilling story. It's pretty upsetting at times, but in ways that I found really thought provoking and interesting. I've seen more discussions and debates in like the Steam reviews and, you know, on Reset Era or wherever, on like different forums about what this game means than a lot of other games that I've played recently. And it just has such a good look and an interesting sense of place. The image that I'll evoke for people is on this ship, you know, this whole game looks kind of like a PS1, PS2 era game. So it's like pretty low poly. The ship has collided with something in space and as a result, the like a foam,
a countermeasure has been deployed across the ship. So everywhere you go, there are like hallways that are just full of this kind of increasingly dirty white foam that has just filled up every single space in order to keep the vacuum of space from sucking all the air out and killing you pretty much instantly. So everywhere you go, there's this like foam everywhere. And it actually took me a second to even realize why that was the case. I was playing and I was like, what is going on? Why is there foam everywhere? And then I kind of figured it out. And of course, the foam factors into the story. But like that detail alone that winds up being such a pervasive part of the set design, it's so kind of gross and creepy and oppressive. And it just, there are a bunch of things like that, that the game returns to these kind of visual motifs that are so well done.
It's, it's an exceptional game. Really, really amazing.
How many mouths do you have to wash?
Well, you do, I mean, your ship is carrying a lot of mouthwash and everyone starts drinking the mouthwash because you don't have any food. So I guess at least five.
So everybody's.
Their mouths are pretty washed, I would assume, by the time they've.
I was gonna say, it sounds, it sounds like it would be a good sequel to Power Wash Simulator.
Mouthwash Simulator.
You just have a hose.
It's not at all. It's not a cozy, relaxing game at all.
You know how these indie games, like these indie games do the tie-ins? I could see them releasing Power Wash Simulator with a mouthwashing tie-in where you're in a giant mouth with the power washer and you're washing your teeth.
And you're just washing teeth?
Next up, we have a game that I think is is one of the three worst titles on this list. So the three worst, I would say are Tales of Konzer's Out, A Thousand Times Resist, and then this next one, Metaphor Refentazio.
Absurd title. Still don't know what it means. Beat it? Couldn't tell you.
This is one of my favorites of the year. What about you guys?
It's on my list as well.
Okay, Maddie.
Didn't make my list.
That's what I figured.
Did not make Kirk's. Okay, so very few triple click unanimous picks this year.
I know. It's interesting.
Yeah, metaphor for me. I love this game. I've talked about it quite a lot. We've got a spoiler cast coming in January about it, but short version is it feels like a successor to Persona that really just continues iterating and adding like much welcome evolutions to the formula. And plus, it just has a lot of interesting things to say. And I just love the vibe, just like the Persona games, like everything about it just combines to create such a unique and interesting vibe. The music is so weird and cool and the art direction is so awesome. And the characters are so like neat, interesting to hang out with, fun to hang out with. I really loved it. What about you, Maddie?
Yeah, I loved the combat in this game. I was willing and ready to play just dozens and dozens of hours of turn-based RPG combat. And if that doesn't tell you something, what does? I just really enjoyed it. And I love the art design, as Jason said, and the characters had a couple of quibbles about the overall story. Definitely recommend becoming a Max Fun member so you can hear that Beans cast where we really just dive deep into every every plot beat that we didn't enjoy. That was really fun conversation. But yeah, just mostly found myself missing playing the game after it was over, which is truly not something I could say for many RPGs I've played for 90 hours. It's a good hang, and I just dug it. I dug a lot of the, even the boss fights. I was
like, these are kind of fun puzzles for me. I'm enjoying figuring out how to deal with these. And yeah, I just, I so rarely say that about games in this genre, and I was really impressed by that.
Yeah, I liked this game a lot. And it is something that we, some of the narrative stuff, the complaints. That I have, we did talk about in the Beans Cast, which was a lot of fun that we've, we've already recorded, but it'll be out in like a month. For me, really, it's just that there were enough sections of the game, like chunks of it where I felt a little like I wasn't being pulled along and I was kind of just going along out of a kind of compulsion because these games get these compulsive loops going. And then ultimately, I, I just felt like the narrative lost the thread and didn't follow through. Like it didn't have the courage of its convictions or it was a bit of a failure of imagination in the final act. Based on how it started and that just left me feeling kind of disappointed. I kind of wish it had, I wish it had followed through and like really delivered in terms of the narrative, but it's still a cool game that I was, I was happy to have played.
Next up, we have The Rise of the Golden Idol. This is on my list. Is it on yours?
It's on my honorable mentions. I, I still haven't actually beaten it, so it didn't feel quite fair to include it, but I did, I am enjoying it. But I, I think it says a thing that unlike Case of the Golden Idol, where I just devoured it in like a 48 hour time span. This one, I'm like, oh, this is hard.
I'm gonna have to come back to this.
Okay. Well, I did devour it in the 48 hour time span and I loved it. I mean, this game to me is like a fantastic sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol. And really just, um, uh, I loved it. I mean, it's more of the same in many ways, but it also feels a little bit more advanced. It feels like it's got more ideas and the overall story I think is a lot more coherent and, uh, fun to unravel, uh, than Case was. I don't know if I like it better necessarily, but I think it's just a worthy sequel and, uh, I, I will never get sick. You could put me in front of, you could give me a new Golden Idol style puzzle deductive mystery every single day.
And I would never get sick of them. So I'm just wired that way to love these types of logic puzzles.
I thought I was, and then it turns out maybe I'm not, maybe I can get sick of them. I don't know.
So I am, I mean, honestly, Jason, I agree with every single thing you just said. For me, it's literally just that there were 10 other games that I put next to it. And I was like, I like this a little bit more, or this like left a little more of an impression on me, but I loved it. I thought it was.
Did you finish it?
Yeah. Great game.
Oh, you did. Okay, good.
I'll circle back. There were just other games, you know?
You might, yeah, you might feel differently when you finish it, Maddy. You might like it more.
Yeah, maybe I'll, I'll let you two know if I finish it and I'm like, actually, it was really great.
Stop the presses.
Next up, we have Dragon Quest III HD2D Remake, which is on my list.
Obviously on my list. It's my only, it's my top 10. I leave all the other nine. I was just, sorry, Jason, go ahead.
Thank you, Maddie. Which is on my list. I didn't expect this one to make it, but as I was kind of reviewing the year's games, it actually stood out to me as something that I really enjoyed playing. It's very much an old school, traditional grindy JRPG, because this is a remake of a game from, what was it, 1989 or something like that? So this is an old school game. It's got invisible random encounters. You have to be in the vibe, in the mood for that kind of vibe, for that kind of, hey, encounters are gonna come out of nowhere and interrupt my exploring of this cool dungeon every five seconds. So get used to that. But no, I really enjoyed it. I mean, it was just, it's just one of those games where you can just have a good time
playing it while doing something else and enjoying the resource management and character building and watching levels go up and all those other great things about JRPGs. And then also on top of that, it has this really cool system in the second part of the game, which is where you get this ship and then it turns into this open world where you have to go around and kind of piece together what you have to do next based on conversations with townspeople and stuff like that, which for me was really enjoyable. It is cool. Yeah. And I think this remake comes with quest markers, which I recommend turning off during that portion of the game, because it's a lot more fun to just try to figure out what you have to do on your own and it turns into an open world game.
I think this was the first game, it definitely wasn't the first like open world RPG, but it was the first game, I think, to like present that kind of non-linearity, linearity in like a JRPG like this. I think the Ultimate Games had that feeling too. I don't know if they came, what the sequence of events was, but it was certainly one of the earliest to present like a big open world and be like, you've got to figure out the mysteries. You've got to figure out what to do. It was much harder during the NES days when the translations were all gobbledygook, but in the remake, it's really cool.
So yeah, really enjoyed this one. Uh, next up, we have Dragon Age The Veil Guard.
This made my list, possibly only mine.
Yeah, didn't.
Wasn't, yeah, wasn't on mine. Though I did enjoy it.
I really dug this in the end. I don't know the, I don't know if you beat it, Kirk, but I, I thought just the whole story ended up being really cool. And some twists at the end surprised me and I really, really ended up digging it a lot more than I expected to going in. I'm not like a big Dragon Age person per se, but I really enjoyed it. I, I went in disliking Solus, left still disliking Solus, but enjoying all of the Solus debates that I got to have over the course of Dragon Age The Veil Guard. And just overall really, really liked the story in the end. Uh, and I recommend it from just that vantage point.
Nice. I'll finish it. Yeah. I actually am a big Dragon Age person as, as we have discussed many times.
Yeah, you kind of are. Yeah.
I enjoy this game. I find it to be a pretty breezy play. For me, it's that it's kind of too long. I, I like played a lot of this freaking game. And thought, I was like 50 something hours in, had done a ton, a lot had happened. And then just, I got exclamation points over everybody. And then they're all like, a ton more side quests. And I was like, dude, how long is this game? It turns out, I think the game is, can be like, if you do everything like 90, 100 hours, it's really, really long. And I'm, so I was kind of looking down another 40 hours of the game. And I have run into a kind of a plateau in terms of power scaling and my character build, where I just shred everything. I had mentioned on our triple play that I've like boosted up enemy health just to make the fights last longer.
So I'm kind of looking down a lot of hours of pure narrative with the gameplay, just kind of reduced to like, all right, now I'm going to murder this guy in five seconds. And like, I will finish it only because like, I've played every other Dragon Age game. I'll definitely finish it.
I think you'll find this story is worth it, but I get what you're saying. Yeah.
So it's mostly that I was like, it, it almost made my, like, I considered it certainly. Like, I, I, I don't have any ill feeling toward the game. I like it, fine. It's just like, yeah, it was mostly that feeling of like, oh my gosh, 40 more hours. And then if I feel that way about a game, does it really belong on my top 10 list? Maybe not. So that's kind of where I'm at.
Yep. Plus it came out right after Metaphor, which for just my emotional state personally, was tough. Just for, just for me. I don't know if that's true.
But it made your list.
It did. In the end. In the end, I like them both. Two RPGs on my list. Who am I?
Last up, and then we'll each read our lists. We have Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Oh, man. Well, I mean, this is on my list. This is.
Wasn't on mine.
It wasn't on mine, but I haven't, I feel like I haven't played enough of it yet to have, to have a take.
If I, when, when I finish it, it might, might make a cut, but right now it is not.
Yeah. I mean, I love this game. We just talked about why.
But you also finished it too, right?
I have not finished. I am up to the final act and Emily's folks are in town and she and I, as I mentioned, have played through the whole game together. So we, that's been, I don't want to finish it without her. Like that would suck. Like she's kind of watched the whole story. So I'll wait until either. I mean, we could play it with them around, but we'll probably just finish it in the new year. But I love this game. I mean, what a surprise. What a like wonderful type of game. I had never played a AAA game that was this puzzle focused, that was this zany and that totally captured the vibe it was going for so confidently and thoroughly. Like I really think it's the biggest surprise for me of the year. I thought it would be pretty cool. I didn't realize that I would love it as much as I do.
It super easily made it onto my list. I mean, it's some of the most fun I've had all year. So yeah, I think this is a really special game. I hope a lot of people play it, especially because it's on Game Pass. It just seems like it deserves all the success that it gets. So yeah, loved it.
Cool. All right. So before we take a break, let's each read our lists and then we're going to get into a little bit of bust talk.
I'm going to rewind first and then we'll go through yours, Kirk's and then yours, Maddy's. So my list is Animal Well, Bellatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor Refentazio, Secrets of Grindia, Astro Bot, Rise of the Golden Idol, Ace Attorney Investigations 2, Dragon Quest III HD 2D Remake and nine. Souls as a surprise last contender Kirk.
Nice. Here's my list, and this of course is in order of name length as always, the best order for any list, because it looks so nice. So imagine in your head, if you will, a little ski slope. And the ski slope is built out of these words: Balatro, Animal Well, Helldivers 2, 1,000 Times Resist, Mouthwashing, Dragon's Dogma 2, Tactical Breach Wizards, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Great.
Annie?
Mine is in the order that I remembered them in. Make of that what you will. And it is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Metaphor: Refentazio, Fields of Mysteria, Tactical Breach Wizards, Balatro, Dragon Age: The Veil Guard, Tales of Kinzerazao, Animal Well, and Astro Bot.
Cool. All right. So before we take a break, let's get into some bus talk, because there were a few high-profile bus and also one for me personally. I just want to shout out, I mean, we could, we could go on and on about like Concord and Suicide Squad, which we could. I mean Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League, of course, one of the year's biggest bus. I think worth noting, because it isn't just some random company that tried to make a service game and failed, it is Rocksteady, which before this game had been considered one of the most elite developers on the planet. So worth noting the end of us this year. Concord, of course, is one of the craziest stories in, in recent gaming
history. This game flopped and was pulled from release after two weeks and the studio behind it was shut down just a couple of months later. But the one I want to talk about personally is Aiden Chronicle: 100 Heroes, which is just so disappointing. I really, it was supposed to be the successor to Sweet Eden, made by some of the original team, and I was so expecting it to be just like such a, capturing that glory. It had all the right people involved, it had time, it had money, but like it just was so, such a failure for me. So disappointing for me. And then of course, we should mention that The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom did not- Not made this list, and in fact, no Nintendo games made this list, which might be a first for all.
None of us have a Nintendo game on this list, which I don't know what that says about Nintendo's year, but it's certainly worth noting.
I mean, it just tells us where Nintendo is at right now, right? Which is this kind of, what do you, what do you want to call it? Like this in-between.
Expecting a new console to be.
Switch 2 holding pattern?
Yeah, holding pattern where they just, they're holding a bunch of stuff. Clearly, they're kind of waiting for the Switch 2 and it just kind of was reflected in the games that came out this year. There were plenty of games that were fine. I mean, I have stuff installed on my Switch that was pretty fun, but like, yeah, none of it really made a huge impression. And then right, Echoes of Wisdom, at least for me, was pretty cool. I think I actually maybe, at least on our episode, I was the most positive on it. But then, you know, it just kind of didn't quite, didn't quite knock anything off the list for me. It wasn't in my top 10.
Same. I mean, it almost made it. At early drafts of my list, it was on there, but just didn't make it into the 10. And it clearly didn't even make it into the honorable mentions for me. But what can I say? I thought it was pretty good, but.
I don't know. I'm shocked to say that about the first game where I could play a Zelda.
Well, and surprising for a Zelda game, like Nintendo has such a high bar that for that to be true of a Zelda game kind of registers as a disappointment, even though the game is like.
I know.
Good to very good.
Yeah, it's like a good game, but it feels like a huge letdown to me because my personal bar is so high, especially what I expected from the experience, which I then had to be like, I might be being a little unfair. Like, what did I think this?
It just, it feels like it's kind of a B team that is making these games as opposed to like their, their best of the best are on the massive 3D open world Zelda games. And in another six years, when we see one of those, it'll be like, oh, okay. And maybe you'll get to play a Zelda in that one. That would be cool, but I don't know, not holding out hope for that one. But yeah, just a strange, a strange year. Any other thoughts before we go to one more, take a break and go to one more thing? Any other thoughts on like Suicide Squad or Concord? Or I don't think you two care about Aiden Chronicle the way I do.
I mean, no, I feel sorry for you. I'm sorry that.
I appreciate that. Appreciate the empathy.
No, I mean, I can totally imagine if like the team that made No One Lives Forever came together to make a new one and I was like, holy shit, they're gonna do it. And then it came out and it was kind of whack. I would be really bummed out because I would have been very excited.
If like Metroid Prime 4 is bad, I'll be bereft. I'll be bereft for months.
I don't even, I don't even know what it'll do.
It would be sad. Yeah, it would be sad. Yeah. And shout out to all the people who worked really hard on some of these games and it just didn't come together.
Feel for you too.
Especially Concord people.
On top of, on top of making a bad game, you also just like spent years of your life on something that will never be seen or played again. And your studio shut down, so just everything sucks.
And like, and it wasn't even like to call Concord a bad game. I don't even know. I didn't play it, but my sense is that it wasn't like bad in the sense of not working well, right?
Yeah, I guess that's true too. I, I, yeah, bad game was the wrong word choice there.
An unsuccessful game.
Like a flop game.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, ugh.
Yeah, that was, that was a tough story.
Even Suicide Squad, similar deal where I didn't, I didn't really like Suicide Squad, but I can see what they were trying to do and the live service baggage hanging around at Senac, just awful. I, I hope we're done with that, but, but we're clearly not. Clearly that trend is gonna continue.
Yeah, we'll see. I mean, this year I definitely, definitely struck a blow for the trend chasing, but there are still, I don't know if you guys noticed this, but 2K announced a game. It was called Project Ethos from a studio called 31st Union, which is run by Michael Contry, who's a long time Call of Duty guy. And he started this new studio to make this game. And this game, from what I've heard, has huge investments from 2K. And it was just kind of announced and nobody noticed by the fact that you two.
What's it called? Project Ethos, that's why.
It's called Project Ethos. It's like, it's a live service shooter.
Oh, really?
Oh, no.
I think that we probably can guess what's going to happen.
Best of luck to them with that.
We can hope for the best.
We shall see.
And it's like a lot of money from what I've heard. A lot of money has gotten into that one.
That seems like an ethos of a project that I'm worried about.
All right. Let's take a break.
Hey Sidney, you're a physician and the co-host of Saw Bones, a marital tour of misguided medicine, right?
That's true, Justin.
Is it true that our medical history podcast is just as good as a visit to your primary care physician?
No, Justin, that is absolutely not true. However, our podcast is funny and interesting and a great way to learn about the medical misdeeds of the past, as well as some current not so legit healthcare fads.
So you're saying that by listening to our podcast, people will feel better?
Sure.
And isn't that the same reason that you go to the doctor?
Well, you could say that, but...
And our podcast is free?
Yes, it is free.
You heard it here first, folks. Saw Bones, marital tour of misguided medicine, right here on Maximum Fun. Just as good as going to the doctor.
No, no, no, still not just as good as going to the doctor, but, but pretty good.
It's up there.
Who guests on Jordan Jesse Go?
I mean, we could just list Patton Oswalt, Kumail Nanjiani, Maria Bamford, whatever.
We couldn't remember all of them.
So we asked my kids.
Famous people? How famous? I don't know, pretty famous.
Really tiny celebrities who would go on this train wreck instead of like a big talk show. There's just a bunch of people on your show.
Jordan Jesse Go, a comedy show for grownups.
And we are back, trying to figure out what Maddy just said before the break. Let's, let's do one more thing.
Why, it was so good and easy to parse. I don't know what you mean.
It was a joke on par with the name of that, of that game.
Kirk, what's your one more thing?
My one more thing is a show that I've been watching on Netflix that I hope everybody watches. It's called Detroiters and it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. Have either of the two of you watched Detroiters yet?
I have.
No, but I do know what it is and I should watch it. And it is absurd that someone who has seen, I think you should leave as many times over and over again, as I have, hasn't seen Detroiters, but... I should.
Yeah, so Detroiters is a sitcom starring Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson, of course, both, well, Tim Robinson, the star of I Think You Should Leave, and Sam Richardson, a recurring character. And one of the producers is one of the, is the other co-creator of I Think You Should Leave, Zach Kanan. So it is very much like the I Think You Should Leave before I Think You Should Leave. And it's so, so funny. I think it was on Comedy Central, like, 2017, 2018, around then. So before I, certainly before I was aware of the style of humor, really aware of Tim Robinson. And it's been a little lost to time, like, it was kind of hard to stream it. And then Netflix got, I guess, got the rights to stream it a little while ago. And now you can watch both seasons. And I have
been doing that. And it's so funny. It's funny in a very similar way to I Think You Should Leave. But what I really like about it is that it's a different format of a show. So I Think You Should Leave is sketch comedy, and Detroiters is a sitcom. And it really makes for a very different show, because on Detroiters, so, Tim and Sam play characters named Tim and Sam. What are their names? Their names are Sam Duvay and Tim Cramblin. And they work for Cramblin Advertising, and they're located in Detroit. And they basically make really low-budget, kind of, you know, direct-access cable commercials for local companies around Detroit. And I gather, I actually watched a couple of episodes of
this with my friend Dan, who grew up in Michigan and knows Detroit really well, lived there for a long time. And like, so many of the jokes that were happening on the show, he was explaining to me how that's this, like, very particular Detroit reference. So part of the joy of the show is that it's very specific to the Detroit area. Like, each ad that they do is a reference to some actual company. People talk a lot about, like, different regions of the area around Detroit. It's, like, very specific to the area, in a way that I really enjoy. That show, South Side, actually, that's set in the South Side of Chicago, has a kind of similar feeling, where there's, there are jokes that I can tell I'm not getting, because I'm not from there, but I sort of like that. But really, this show just feels like I Think You Should Leave. It feels like, so many of the jokes feel similar. And Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson have such great chemistry.
Sam Richardson is honestly one of the funniest people working right now.
He's amazing.
He's so funny, especially when, when he tries to be sexy or do a sexy dance, when he tries to seduce someone. Like, I just laugh and laugh and laugh. And, I mean, yeah, if anyone has, has loved, I think you should leave and hasn't watched this show yet, you're in for a treat. It's like a great thing to just sort of marathon over the holidays. I love it so much.
I love that both of their names, their first names end in M's and their second names are just other first names ending with sun.
Oh, yeah, that's true. That's true.
Good serendipity there. And yeah, it's a good show. I love the part, I mean, there's so many good gags, but, and so many random, random physical moments in a little bit, but when that episode ends with Sam Richardson's character just writing on his, like, board, like, woman on top.
Incredible.
That's a good one. The one, I recently watched the one where they like to go poop on the third floor, but then they can't because a tech company moves in and they're so upset. And of course, there are many jokes and a lot of rituals built around this that are then disrupted. And, yeah, it's
Extremely good.
Yeah, very, very good.
My wife, for some reason, does not appreciate this humor. I turned it on at one point and she was like, is that the guy who did the thing with the wet steaks? And I was like, come on.
Yeah, you're a real piece of shit.
Yeah, right. She doesn't, she does not enjoy it.
It's not for everybody.
It's, it's, it's very specific and hard to explain.
Very.
You either like it or you don't.
Yes. You start doing like this and saying lines to people and you're like, this is making it worse. They're understanding it less the more I do this.
But I will say, I'll, I'll go next, because my one more thing is a show that she really does enjoy, that both of us do, which is a show called Happy Endings. I've talked about this before on the show. I think it's been my one more thing in the past. We've both been rewatching it, because it is incredible. It might be the best sitcom ever made. It's also the most underrated sitcom ever made, because most people have not even heard of it. But this is a show, it ran for three seasons, I forgot what network, but it was incredible. It is truly an incredible show. It is just so packed with jokes and some of them are just so good. God, I just Crack of thinking about him. There's one amazing joke in the episode we saw last night as we were rewatching it. Where it's like this one character is this kind of like hippie, kind of like douchey dude.
Who just has the most ridiculous analogies and comments. He's talking about like, um, how he really wished he had saw like, he really missed out on something and he's like, oh yeah. He's my Bin Laden, Jessica Bin Laden. She was a super hot Arab girl.
But anyway, it's just like so good and so few people appreciate it. Maybe because it never, it didn't really have a hook. It doesn't really have a gimmick. The original hook like in the pilot is that, um, two of the characters are set to be married and then one of them leaves the other one at the altar. Cause this guy in roller skates comes in and is like, uh, come, come like leave him for me and, and she just runs away. She's played by Eliza, Alicia Kufberg, um, uh, who is the only person who's like known on the show. I think also Damon Wayans Jr. In it, uh, is in it. But his dad, I think is more famous Damon Wayans Jr. Is in it. Um, but, um, uh, so maybe that's the other thing is that like it, it didn't have any recognizable stars.
But anyway, that premise from the beginning is that like, uh, then the group of friends has to figure out how to navigate this broken up couple and like choose who to go with. But they give up on that premise after like three episodes and then it just becomes a sitcom about like friends living in Chicago who like do absurd things and go to like, extremely ridiculous scenarios. Um, and then it just gets incredible from there. Uh, and it's three seasons and yeah, I just wish more people, uh, watch it. I think the closest comparison as far as humor goes might be the league. It reminds me of the league in a lot of ways, which is a show that got a lot more attention. And which I also love to death. Um, a lot of, uh, kind of, a lot of the guest characters on happy endings.
You have probably seen on the league like, uh, Paul Scheer and like Rob Hubel, uh, that kind of like, uh, comedy nerd crowd. People who I think comedy nerds will really appreciate. Um, but yeah, it's such a good show that I think you would both love it immediately. And want to rewatch it like 10 times. Just like, I think you should leave. So I highly recommend it. Happy endings. People should go watch that show. Go check it out. It's on Hulu, so it's very easy to watch right now. So go watch it.
I love sitcoms.
It's amazing.
So it's wild that I haven't seen it.
It is one of the best sitcoms you will ever watch.
And I've watched terrible sitcoms, so I have no excuse.
You could be watching Happy Endings or Detroiters right now, Maddie. What are you doing?
I know, and maybe I will right after this. Who's to say?
Maddie, what's your one more thing?
It's not a sitcom. It's like the complete opposite of what a sitcom could ever be, which is a book I'm reading called Battle Royale by Koshin Takami. So I have been meaning to read Battle Royale for a very long time. We actually did a bonus episode on this show where we talked about the movie Battle Royale and Fortnite and PUBG and just Battle Royales and pop culture generally. It was a really fun episode and I really liked that movie and thought it was fascinating. And I had meant to read the book beforehand, but I just never got to it. So it's like been on my personal wishlist for a long time. And I don't know why I was in the mood for it this week. This book rocks. Like, it's amazing. It's, it's like-
So the movie is based on the book?
Yes, the book came first.
And there's a manga too, right? Or am I right about that?
Yes, but the book is, the book precedes that as well.
Yeah, the book is like the original version of the story. And I think, I mean, it's, it's kind of hard to say. It's like, yeah, the idea of very young teenagers being set by society to battle to the death is kind of mythical. So it's sort of hard to say what the first iteration of it was, but it's certainly one of the most famous first iterations of this. And there's, there's a specific change from the movie that I think is more effective, that I think I talked about in the episode, but I didn't know as much about because I hadn't read the book yet, which is in the movie, the characters all don't know that they're going to be enlisted in this Battle Royale against one another. All the, all the teenagers at this high school, this one grade is, is chosen at random
to be forced to battle to the death on an island. Just in case you somehow didn't know the plot of Battle Royale. You made it this far, you didn't know. Uh, the, in the book- They live in a totalitarian regime where they're very aware of it, similar to Hunger Games or any other kind of version of this premise. Like, the kids grow up knowing about it and hoping they won't be picked. And also, you get to know all the kids in a different way, in the way that only a book can do, because you get all their innermost thoughts. Again, I have to compare it to Hunger Games. Part of why I think those books are better is because you get to hear what Katniss is thinking the whole time. And like, it's for all that the movies can do with, you know,
showing you Jennifer Lawrence's wonderful facial expressions. There's just a difference with a book. You get to actually kind of follow along with each of the characters as they're internally debating what to do next. And it's just, it's really effective. Just smart, sharp horror. It's, it's brief in the moments that you'd want it to be, goes long in the moments where you'd want it to. I just, I just think it really works and there's a reason why it's extremely famous. So yeah, the book, Battle Royale, I recommend it.
Cool.
I might read that. That would, I would love to read that.
Can read it, read it between Fortnite rounds.
Yeah. Yeah, it's good.
How far we've come.
All right, that is it for 2024.
It is.
Yep.
See you both next year. I hope you have an awesome holiday celebration and whatnot. And Happy New Year to all of the listeners.
Yeah, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone out there. And I will see the two of you in 2025.
Yeah. Bye.
Bye.
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 G. J. 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. Find us on Twitter at TripleClickPod, send email to [email protected], and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.
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Page updated November 5, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated