Wide Flank - Video Game Book Club

Fresh off of the Ocarina of Time it’s time to enter the uncanny, Lynchian, and freaky sister-world of Majora’s Mask.

For this, the first episode in the series, Alon and Dugan played through the Woodfall Temple. For the next episode Alon and Hayden (HAC) are playing through the Great Bay Temple and it’s aftermath.

Play along!

Alon’s joined by Teddy and Madeline talking about two games we’re playing in the saaaaameish genre: Slay the Spire and Balatro. Comparison may be the thief of joy but also it’s really fun to do bad things (like being really greedy in card games). Let’s dive in.

The next episode will be the first in our Majora’s Mask Gameclub! Play along!

The game is over and the credits are rolling! This is the grand finale episode of the Ocarina of Time Gameclub and for this one we played from the Fire Temple through beating the entire game. There are a lot of spoilers in this episode, and this game is kinda unhinged.

Did we get every heart piece? No. Did we get every skulltula? No. But we had a fun time playing through a great journey and a great game.

Not sure yet what’s next, but it might be Majora’s Mask. Stay tuned.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro and how we felt completing the game.

02:16 - What did we remember and game manuals.

05:04 - Fire Temple

11:39 - Volvagia fight and boss fights in general

15:14 - Ice Cavern

19:04 - Water Temple; actually good?

30:25 - Water Temple could have been the first temple

32:20 - Morpha fight

33:48 - Z-targeting and projectile speed

36:43 - Alon got stuck again

38:25 - I’m not supposed to be here yet

40:41 - Coddle me or don’t, time travel paradox, and under the well

44:32 - Iron Boots vs Lens of Truth

47:35 - Shadow Temple

51:20 - Hover boots / worst item in the game

58:06 - Gerudo Valley, Desert Colossus, and Spirit Temple

01:04:32 - Could have been more time travel stuff

01:12:12 - Sheik is Zelda???

01:19:06 - Secrets (unless it’s mandatory) and exploring

01:25:54 - Ganon’s Castle and boss fights

01:39:05 - Outro

Is this game good or stale or dated? No, it turns out this game still rules.

We played all the way through the Forest Temple for this episode and talked about solving the puzzles, the combat, being a kid, the music, time, Navi, technology, and more. Hey, listen!

Next episode we’re recording after beating the whole damn game.

How many episodes will there be? Time will tell. We're going with the flow.

For this episode Dugan and Alon are a couple of hours into Ocarina of Time and we’re talking about our progress so far, Dark Souls, the difficulty, the vibes, the nostalgia, and more.

Next episode we’re recording after the first three dungeons.

Special guest Damon coming in hot off the press for this episode. We basically rediscover books and what is good about reading because that's mostly what Citizen Sleeper is, a good old picture book. There are also some dice rolls and currency management but they don’t mean that much after you get rolling ^_^.

We forgive the lack of difficulty because this game has style, beautiful descriptions of mushrooms, and a critique of capitalism that hits hard.

Next Gameclub we’re doing Hollow Knight.

This game is about Marissa Marcel. You watch raw footage of three of her movies, and some behind the scenes footage associated with those movies. You can rewind and fast forward. But all the clips are hidden from you, and you can only find these clips by clicking an object in the scene that takes you to another clip with a similar item, and you watch all these scenes out of order. Sounds kinda bad? But it totally rules!

We briefly debate whether or not this is a game, and really the answer is immaterial. This “game” is an incredible accomplishment. It was moving, funny, creepy, and dare we say…original? None of us had played anything like it. More games like this please.

Next Gameclub we’re doing Citizen Sleeper followed by Hollow Knight

For this gameclub the Wide Flank gang played “Tunic”. An isometric action game that at first glance looks like The Legend of Zelda, but is really so much more. Spoilers aplenty this episode so if you are considering giving this a go, play it before listening and reading below.

What you thought was a cute little Zelda game turns out to be much deeper and darker as you explore the far reaches of its world. You gradually uncover pages of an in-game manual, written in an alien language, and you struggle (in a good way) to use it to decipher the world and the mechanics. Tunic does a great job of being just accessible enough, where nothing is too out of reach, letting you peel back the layers of mystery at a satisfying and challenging pace.

What words describe Bloodborne? Gothic? Victorian? Lovecraftian? Scary? Impossible? Funny? Bloodborne is an enigmatic, genre-defining game. Chat GPT described it best in a haiku:

“Bloodborne’s Depths

Hidetaka’s Twisted World

Challenge Accepted”

Its gameplay loop and mechanics are polarizing inside and outside of the Soulsborne fandom; too fast for lovers of Dark Souls, but too slow for high-octane gamers like Alon. We played it to varying levels of success. Is a game that is most fun after 30+ hours of playing a good game? Why do we love facing and defeating impossibility? How can we be friends when we feel so differently about this game?

Few games have matched the immersion and setting of Bloodborne. The further your character dives into the world of beasthood and paleblood, the more you depart from the waking world outside of your Playstation. Jump in.

18 months later, Danny, Alon and Teddy sit down and reflect on the glory of the Wide Flank catalog. Jump in and listen as we discuss our favorite and least favorite Gameclub games, talk about what has aged well, and where we are thinking of going next.

It’s been a blast playing games and hanging with you all in discord, and we hope that you’ll stick with us as we keep this train moving in 2023.

This is a spoiler-free relaxed episode, and we’ll be back next week to release Bloodborne!

It’s time to take your first journey into space, little Hearthian. Blast off into an alien solar system to uncover the strange physics and mechanics of planets you’ve only dreamed of.

Many spoilers in this episode. But if that doesn’t bother you, read on.

Awaiting your arrival are the Hourglass Twins, a “double planet” (this is a real term), where two celestial bodies are locked together in their orbit around the sun. One is slowly spraying away the sands on its surface to reveal mysteries buried deep. Ember Twin receives all this sand, and you must explore it quickly before its secrets are buried forever, until of course the sun supernovas and you die….

It’s time to take your first journey into space, little Hearthian. Blast off into an alien solar system to uncover the strange physics and mechanics of planets you’ve only dreamed of….Wait didn’t we say this already? Yep –  it’s a time loop.

So maybe this time you’ll explore Brittle Hollow with a black hole at it’s center. Or maybe it's volcanic moon? You have 22 minutes before the sun goes bang and we start this all over again.

Outer Wilds (the game) believes in you. It knows you will figure out it’s mysteries, even if it takes you a few loops. There is almost no point in beating the game – every little puzzle or planetary quirk is the best victory you could hope for. Outer Wilds' story, on the other hand, doesn't believe in you. It treats you like a kid, and indeed, it seems like all the characters in this game are themselves children. Yet while that’s a miss, nothing could drag down the awe, wonder, and majesty of this solar system.

Don’t rush it, enjoy the ride, and roast a marshmallow. Everything will be alright.

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Our next game for Gameclub is Bloodborne. We would link it, but you know the one.

Join our discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

Everywhere that you can find us: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

Timestamps:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:43 - Development and game background
• 7:15 - Blastoff!
• 10:30 - The loop
• 15:35 - Roguelike? Story based mastery
• 21:25 - The first planet
• 25:48 - The goal of the game
• 34:35 - Story vs gameplay
• 39:26 - Resetting the loop - Live Die Repeat
• 44:22 Story/writing
• 50:25 Trust in players
• 1:02:00 Subnautica’s pillars of game design
• 1:05:00sh The ending
• 1:26:45 Two idiots talk about science
• 1:33:00 Ratings
• 1:41:17 Goodbye

Show notes

Hades is the latest release from Supergiant Games, a studio that consistently releases some of the slickest and most stylish games of the generation. This is the best yet.

You are Zagreus, a son of Hades, determined to break free from the Stygian realm of your birth.

A roguelike (roguelite?) that will test your twitch skills with weapons and power ups that make each run unique. Maybe most remarkably it has a nearly endless trough of voice lines and story beats that punctuate each run and unfold over the many deaths that await you.

The game can be a little daunting at first, but we loved this game and bet you will to. Check it out.

A listener asked us if we prefer the perfect brevity of Portal, or the focused improvements of Portal 2. But that gives it away – perfection wins every time.

We often described Portal as a proof of concept, but that isn’t a criticism. What else could you ask of a three hour game? It says everything it needed to say. After Portal was released, the thoughts of a generation of gamers were changed, maybe forever, about what games were and could be.

Portal 2 really wrung the rag of what we loved so much about Portal. It tried to be more, and it was in some ways. It was bigger, longer, funnier (or at least tried to be). But it wasn’t more novel or special. That might be too big of an ask to make. Yet with co op Valve proved it had a stone left unturned. That could have been the novelty that the game explored – the proof of concept that was enough to carry us through, but instead they went for…comedy? The moon was cool though.

Our next game for Gameclub is Hades. Play it with a controller. Happy gaming.

Alon is joined by Neil and Chris to talk about the fast, hyper, and hardcore game that is Neon White. We love it and it kicks ass, check it out.

Another classic that really held up. Released in 1995 for the SNES, Chrono Trigger continues to top “Best Of” video game lists. None of us had played it, so we played it!

The combat sort of sucked but there was so much that made up for that. It looked great, the world was compelling, some weird good NPC dialogue and a soundtrack that rocked.

Play the game, then come back and listen to this podcast.

How to talk about one of the more peculiar games of the last decade… Inscryption is a lot and it’s hard to describe it without spoiling it. It’s a deck-builder, it’s an escape room, it’s a roller coaster of a roguelike (sort of).

You can approximate this game’s vibe by combining the strategy of Slay the Spire, the wonder of Myst, the adventure of Jumanji, and the weirdness of Adaptation.

Perhaps it’s best to say Inscryption could not be experienced any other way than as a video game. It is a testament to what the medium is capable of. Play it! The great transcendence awaits.

This is the story of a man, John-117, the Master Chief. This is the story of America. Of Bungie. This is the story of developer crunch, of sleeping in the office, of grandiose expectations, and of delivering on them (albeit imperfectly).

The name itself “Halo: Combat Evolved” is a corporate compromise between Bungie artists and Microsoft marketing shills.

This is the story of multiplayer so good that it made mothers across America weep. It’s the story of staying up all night at your friend's house because nothing besides this moment matters.

We present this podcast to you as incomplete as any analysis of a seminal game is bound to be.

“Halo – it’s finished”

“No. I think we’re just getting started”

For this gameclub the Wide Flank gang played “Prey” (2017).

The Typhon have broken containment and are running amok on the space station Talos 1. But this is an immersive sim so as much as it is your job to blast these aliens to bits, you also need to read a lot of emails between HR and disgruntled office workers.

The game is a little messy, but that's kind of the point. Unfortunately Prey doesn’t communicate the broadness or possibility of its systems early on so your mileage may vary. Space, however, has never looked this good.

This month the gang played Mega Man X. Was it good? Yes. Could it have been better? Yes.

It's a blast from the past with a killer soundtrack and a half-assed attempt at a Blade Runner plot line. What's not to love? How about enemies respawning immediately after killing them just because the camera moved.

We spend a lot of time comparing MMX to other games trying to pinpoint what about the mechanics feel so good. We also try to nail down what makes boss fights fun -- if they are ever fun.

The Last of Us. Yep, we decided to play it one more time (or in Alon’s case, the first time). Teddy and Danny have played this many times since its release, and to no one's surprise, still loved it.

It’s a game that gets its storytelling so right. The voice acting is 2nd to none. The plot is familiar, and even has its fair share of tropes, but its characters are so well developed that we didn’t mind. The level traversing and combat leaves something to be desired, but hey, nobody is perfect.

While this game might not have GOAT status, it was a great ride and a lot of fun to talk about. This may be one of the best pods yet, but that’s for you to decide.

Next game for Gameclub is Mega Man X. Happy gaming.

Before Wide Flank, there was a podcast called Zero One Why. It was a show where Teddy, Danny and Aleah reviewed movies and gave them a One (watch it) or a Zero (don’t watch it) and talked about why. We reunited to review and react to Bo Burnham’s Netflix special “Inside”. We had an amazing time recording together again and did our best to add some unique takes on the widely lauded and over-reviewed comedy special.

Zero One Why is making a return on the Wide Flank channel. Expect to see one of these coming out a month! If you love movies and TV, this is a great series for you. If not, we’ll see you for the next Gameclub!

For this month’s Gameclub, Alon, Danny and Teddy talk about Metal Gear Solid (1998).

This was our hardest episode yet. What can you add to the pile of think pieces and criticism of one of the most beloved games of a generation? We do our best to use terms like postmodern and the 4th wall to describe our experience but not sure if we say them correctly.

There are some misses here: Why is it in 3D? Why can’t you aim in first person? But some of its flaws are its greatest strength, like why does Snake repeat back nouns to other characters as a question — “2nd floor basement?”.

This is a game with heart. It takes risks and may stumble more often than it succeeds, but Kojima won us over for life (at least Teddy and Danny -- Alon is still a work in progress).

For this month’s Gameclub, Alon, Danny and Teddy talk a lot about Subnautica.

You are a lone survivor after an interstellar spaceship crashes down on an ocean planet. What do you do? Scuba dive and mine minerals until you can blast back off into space, of course. The game isn’t perfect, but the ambiance? Flawless.

We spend a lot of time talking about the early access release schedule and how that likely influenced the final product. Subnautica isn’t quite sure what it wants to be and as a result doesn’t really nail anything. That’s okay because we love that people are trying big bold things.

Alon is joined by friends and fighting game freaks Chris and Hayden to talk about the newest hype fighter called Guilty Gear Strive. We try to focus on the appeal of the game and what the designers nailed about the game but also we drift into some more macro game design concepts.

Now Playing is a new series from Wide Flank (as opposed to Gameclub) where we’ll bring on friends/gamers/whomever to talk about what game they’re currently playing and why they’re playing it and what’s good about it and what’s bad about it and if we should play it or not and so on and so forth.

Let’s rock.

• 00:00 - Intro and background of Guilty Gear.
• 01:08 - Accessibility and barrier to entry.
• 06:54 - Playing “off book” but not playing optimally.
• 08:03 - Different types of players and playstyles.
• 11:34 - Guilty Gear’s “off book” feeling.
• 12:26 - Playing optimally, skill ceiling, and a strong meta game.
• 14:15 - What is “canceling” in fighting games and specifically Roman canceling in the Guilty Gear series?
• 14:51 - Canceling in other fighting games vs. Roman canceling in Guilty Gear Strive.
• 19:40 - The importance and role of graphics, aesthetics, and storylines in games.
• 29:48 - Guilty Gear’s graphics, aesthetics, and storyline.
• 31:08 - Busy visuals and screen real estate.
• 35:20 - What’s especially fun or compelling about anime fighters and Arc System Works’ games?
• 38:48 - The diversity of fighters / characters.
• 41:17 - Balance in games.
• 48:17 - Netcode and rollback.
• 54:32 - And finally the worst part of the game: The matchmaking system.

Alon, Danny and Teddy play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was like running a marathon and then running the same course in reverse. Was it fun? Sort of. We’re glad we did it.

SotN is definitely smarter than it looks at first blush. It’s dripping with style and the soundtrack is bananas. There was a lot that didn’t age well, but that's okay. Your racist grandma still has some redeeming qualities. What we really loved was the mastery of the space and navigation of Dracula’s castle -- and it’s our castle now...father.

Some chapters to help you navigate this monster ep:

• 00:00 - Get your mind read
• 01:00 - Background
• 03:46 - Is this is a good game
• 06:55 - Game(r) age
• 09:04 - Other games at the time
• 12:00 - Saving/Dying is bad
• 16:47 - Combat loop is bad
• 19:55 - Favorite boss fight
• 24:03 - Favorite subweapons (spells)
• 29:59 - Game doesn’t incentivize experimentation
• 30:45 - How to eat a peanut
• 31:58 - Inventory and item management
• 36:58 - Danny freaks out
• 40:50 - Forgettable design elements
• 42:15 - Remake differences
• 46:10 - The game has style
• 50:55 - Mob design
• 52:09 - Music
• 58:22 - Depth of design
• 01:04:34 - More music
• 01:11:32 - Broken mechanics
• 01:14:14 - Replayability and difficulty
• 01:19:30 - Getting the castle wired
• 01:24:50 - Best moments
• 01:27:20 - Best lines
• 01:29:00 - Development team principles for SotN
• 01:31:22 - Sunglasses
• 01:33:00 - Great game, but…
• 01:36:47 - Goodbyes
• 01:38:12 - On next month's episode we will be playing Doom (the 2016 reboot)

Show notes:

Alon, Danny and Teddy played through Half Life 2 and had a freaking BLAST. Do we say anything original here? Probably not, but it was great to play and shoot the shit, so to speak. We wanted to keep our very first ep short and sweet, but we cover:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:34 - Is this still a good game
• 06:35 - What aged the best
• 10:00 - What aged the worst
• 18:00 - Pathing, level design
• 20:30 - Game difficulty
• 22:02 - Quicksaving
• 34:49 - What's the best gun
• 36:50 - What's the best gravity object
• 40:02 - Hitscan vs projectiles
• 43:33 - What's the best quote
• 46:55 - G-Man love
• 51:00 - Silent protagonists
• 56:00 - What's the most replayable moment/chapter
• 1:00:19 - Music
• 1:04:18 - Player agency vs game narrative
• 1:06:35 - The ending
• 1:08:21 - On next month's episode we will be playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Show notes: