Describing The Skybox

It won’t end nicely. Not this time. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, on a special epilogue episode, we’re going to be taking another look at Bloodborne. This is a FromSoftware action RPG, tragically confined to the Sony ecosystem, but still containing a lot of the genre trappings of the games related to Dark Souls. However, the combat has ben retooled to be faster and more aggressive and the se...

Caked up podcast, goated with the sauce. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be looking at the most recent Life is Strange title, Double Exposure. This picks up roughly ten years after the first game in the series and returns to the point of view of Max Caulfield who has not been using her powers. The game largely follows the same trajectory of the more recent games in the series, l...

Live in your world, podcast in ours. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Astro Bot, a 3D platformer and a PS5 exclusive. When it comes to console exclusivity, I would usually argue against it, as it restricts people’s access to games and tend to only benefit established developers and publishers who already have a lot of clout in the industry. This game, however, re...

I’m literally a podcast, what’s your excuse? Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Balatro, the hit poker roguelike from last year. Balatro is, in my opinion, the best kind of roguelike, with very synergy focused modifiers in the form of Jokers and card enhancements, as well as very permissive deck building options. You can, with proper management, cut large swathes o...

NOCLIP finishes the URA Finale and stands above all other podcasts. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about… a currently popular gacha game about horse racing anime girls. Uma Musume (or Umamusume depending on who you ask) is a sort of sports management roguelike game where you build stats on characters and then, in combination with a small six-card deck of support card...

There is only you, and the spark of the podcast that is your mind. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be looking at The Talos Principle 2, a first person puzzle game developed by Croteam. The game builds on, and stays pretty close to, the mechanics of the first game, using connecting lasers with various tools as the primary method of puzzle solving. Despite this, it does a good job of f...

Do you know why we’re here? It’s because I have a small podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about Spiritfarer, an incremental, management sim, narrative game. Which is a lot of ways to describe what is really a pretty simple game. The core of Spiritfarer is in its characters, spirits who you pick up from various islands and tend to while they come to grips with their...

Don’t tell anyone, but I always thought they were podcasts. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about To the Moon, a narrative game focused around learning about characters through one’s memory. I imagine this description will be quite short, because there isn’t a lot I can cover without spoiling the plot. While technically a sci-fi story, the game revolves around one characte...

Forget about Freeman, we’re abandoning the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast! We may be into June, but we’re in the ides of Mystery May right now, and the fates have deigned we play Half-Life, and I am not one to argue with the fates. Half-Life is one of the most influential FPS games of all time, and part of that comes down to the way the game builds a really impressive world for you to play t...

No, I’m Pod. He’s Cast. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, for the second episode of Mystery May, we’re going to be talking about The Wolf Among Us, a narrative adventure game from Telltale. Telltale’s style of design really exploded with the Walking Dead, and has since led to a number of choice-based adventure games that would cite it as inspiration, but The Wolf Among Us sits in a unique positi...

The guild authorizes you to hunt this podcast. Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today, we’re going to be talking about Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest mainline entry in the series and the game that turned many peoples’ computers into puddles of acid. Wilds is a follow up to Monster Hunter World both in that it was made by the same team and that it mechanically doesn’t stray too far from the systems that W...

Artists create, podcast, and destroy. Welcome back to the podcast where today we’re going to be talking about Immortality. Immortality is a game from Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story and Telling Lies and it follows in the same tradition as those games. Largely player-directed, the game involves watching clips of three films and footage associated with them in order to gain an understanding of what...

You like the podcast that much? Let me invite you to hell. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re doing another community requested episode (calling it Fanbruary at this point seems a bit silly) on Shenmue. An absolute classic action/adventure game that happened to be a blind spot for both of us. Shenmue centers on Ryo Hazuki, whose father is killed in the opening cutscene in a pretty rad marti...

This is not the anger of a vampire killer. This is the podcast of all humanity! Welcome back to Fanbruary! Today, we’re going to be talking about Castlevania 64, an oft maligned entry in the Castlevania series and the first to be in 3D. In classic Castlevania fashion, your goal is to infiltrate a castle and kill Dracula to restore peace to the world, so it doesn’t have a ton of innovation in that...

In time, you will know the tragic extent of my podcast, Welcome to Fanbruary! For our first listener suggested title this year, we’re talking about Darkest Dungeon, an RPG with Lovecraftian themes and light roguelike elements. Darkest Dungeon is known to be a difficult game, and it sticks to this design ethos with a commendable level of commitment. Depending on who you are, maybe too much commitme...

So this is the podcast energy. I’m overflowing with power! Welcome back to the podcast and to the first full episode this year! We’re back from our now-traditional January break and talking about The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. This is the first full game in the series where you play as Zelda herself since the CD-i, which really did need to happen so we could finally stop pointing to The Wa...

The Smashiest balls were the friends we made along the way. The NOCLIP Awards are back again this year with all their usual prestige. I know you are all waiting with baited breath to see what games are getting the nod, while knowing full well that the games that released this year are of no object when you compare them to the games that we chose to play this year, which are the true contenders. Wh...

I need to see how handsome I am. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Slay the Princess, a narrative focused “collect the endings” game that has a truly impressive amount of writing to account for all of a player’s possible choices. The numerous endings, scenes and dialogue choices within those scenes, all voice acted by two people no less, are the player’s primary motivation to...

Do goola podcast sa bantha poodoo. Welcome back to the podcast! As we near the end of the year, we like to look back on a game or two that are more nostalgic for us, and Racer somehow got overlooked until now. Racer is maybe the first of our nostalgia picks that really holds up, at least in our opinion. This is a very straightforward video game, all the things considered, but the focus makes for a...

I won’t reach the truth with podcasts. They can’t give it shape. Welcome back to the podcast, and as we finally finish the theme (and catch up on episodes in general after a hectic October) of Games Titled After Women’s Names That Begin With “L.” Loretta is an adventure game in the technical sense; it leans heavily on narrative and player choice, with your actions dictating the events of your play...

I’m on the podcast tonight? C’est la vie. Welcome back to the podcast! We’re finally finishing our Halloween games this week with Amnesia: The Bunker. This is the fourth game in the Amnesia series and introduce some light combat elements as well as reframes the series’ physics system to create an immersive sim type experience with several options to overcome obstacles. And of course, it’s still an...

What did you say? Podcast? We’re not going to drop everything and do that. Welcome back to the podcast. We’re still playing a bit of catchup this month, and to continue with our Halloween picks, we’re talking about Cryptmaster! This is a dungeon crawler in the typing game subgenre, where you solve puzzles and fight enemies using abilities you type out. To gain the abilities, you need to find lette...

Welcome to cast space. Welcome back (finally!) to the podcast. Today, we’re going to be talking about Omori, a turn-based RPG with a unique art style and dark themes. Though, as we discuss in the episode, don’t think too much of Omori based on its genre, because it’s really putting its worst foot forward. Omori has rich characters, relatable themes and effective comedy. It’s a silly game in the sa...

We’re old enough. Welcome back to NOCLIP, and beware, for it is Halloween! To kick off October, we’re talking about Crow Country, a throwback survival horror game that does a lot to stand out in its field. The game is set in an amusement park and has a unique polygonal graphic style that gives an oddly whimsical aesthetic. It makes good use of this with its environments: haunted houses, underwater...