Describing The Skybox

Is “Describing the Skybox Day” too wordy of a name? Do we have to give up before being declared a national holiday, despite ten very successful years? Maybe, just maybe, we could keep the old name? The annual celebration of one’s self, or in this case one’s niche video game podcast enterprise, is core to what makes us human, or podcast. The bloopers episode went away last year, and I’m sure to som...

Soul of the host, withdrawn from its podcast. Welcome back to Describing the Skybox! Today, and honestly, a bit on a whim, we’re going to be talking about Demon’s Souls! Demon’s Souls has been out for a very long time, and the impact it has made on modern games is obvious, but there is still something fascinating about a game that went from the lesser-talked about older brother of Dark Souls to th...

Does a podcast have a soul? Welcome back to Describing the Skybox! Today, we’re going to be talking about Indika, a (mostly) 3D adventure game in which you play as a nun with the devil on her shoulder. Describing Indika in typical genre terms is maybe not extremely descriptive, suffice to say that if you like experimental narrative-focused games, you will likely get along with Indika pretty well....

A Podcast is a friend who will welcome you home. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, after an admittedly long wait, we’re finally talking about Expedition 33, the turn based RPG from an Ubisoft ex-pat that took the world by storm at its release. A game with both a narrative focus, and the mechanical hook of being able to dodge and parry in a turn based game, it manages to reach across the aisle, p...

It’s a sacred podcasting ritual, like pissing in the same spot. Welcome back to the Describing the Skybox podcast! Today, we’re looking at a sequel to one of our most surprisingly liked games from a few years ago. Perfect Tides: Station to Station is a narrative adventure game and direct sequel to Perfect Tides which focuses on the same protagonist, Mara Whitefish, just a few years older as she en...

Can’t blame a Kong for podcasting. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Donkey Kong Bananza, the first 3D Donkey Kong game in almost 30 years and a launch title for the Switch 2. The main thrust behind Bananza is that it’s a collectathon platformer not dissimilar to Mario Odyssey, but with the ability to heavily interact with the terrain. This means punching through...

You little podcasts are going to have your bodies ripped in half. Welcome to our last episode of Mystery May this year, where the game we play is decided by dice roll. This time around, fate has deemed it necessary for us to play the Earthbound Halloween Hack, which is notorious for a few reasons, most notably being that it was created by Toby Fox who would later go on to develop Undertale. Howeve...

You may say I’m a podcast, but I’m not the only one. Welcome back to Describing the Skybox! This week for our second episode of Mystery May this year, the die has decided we play Dreams, the game development software slash game on the Playstation 4 (and 5). Dreams is an odd one to talk about in our format to some degree, as a lot of what defines what this game is is tied up in the tools it provide...

A great podcast has been revealed to you. Welcome back to Describing the Skybox! Today, as our first episode in Mystery May, we’re going to be talking about Fez, a now shockingly 14 year old game. Fez is a puzzle platformer, emphasis on the puzzle, but not a complete dis-emphasis on the platformer, in which you move around on a 2D plane, but have the ability to rotate the play area, adding a bit o...

Mario must be ready to face the podcast ahead of him. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Super Mario World. Undeniably one of the most iconic games on the Super Nintendo, if you are involved in the platformer space at all, you will see Super Mario World come up pretty much every day. This more than any other game defined what 2D platformers could be throughout the 90s, and it’...

The silent treatment, I hope. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline Resident Evil game and one that mechanically resembles the RE Engine games. Like, all of them, because this game is both a first person survival horror title as well as a third person action game at different points, and the balance between them and how you ap...

The black orb podcasts ominously… Welcome back to the podcast where today we’re going to be looking at the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy. The first in what is probably the series of games most synonymous with the JRPG genre, the original Final Fantasy showcases all the hallmarks of the genre in a simple but still very functional way. The player is allowed to choose the makeup of their p...

Their shouts are like spells, and will make you sick. Welcome to the final episode of Fanbruary this year! We’re going to be talking about Roadwarden, a largely text-based RPG that seemingly takes some inspiration from modern rules-light TTRPG design with a lot of richness to its text and a simple, obfuscated approach to combat and other randomness-based encounters. Set in a type of post-apocalypt...

I may leave this world, but we’ll always be a podcast. Welcome back to the podcast, and to the third episode of Fanbruary, in which we play games suggested by you the listener. For this installment, we’re going to be talking about Klonoa 2, a 2-or-2.5D platformer on the Playstation 2. This is a game that thrives on novelty, with the interesting ways it uses its enemies as items and creative foregr...

Every problem cannot be solved with a podcast. Welcome back to the podcast and, of course, to our second episode of Fanbruary this year! Today, we’re talking about Far Cry 5, which is, obviously, an installment in the Far Cry franchise and, obviously, not the fifth one because of all the weird spinoffs. Still the thing that most stands out, or at least the thing that was advertised the most, that...

What would motivate someone to turn into a podcast? Welcome to the first episode for Fanbruary this year! We’re starting off with a classic adventure game in Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor, part of an extremely prolific series which we haven’t played before. Given that the character of Nancy Drew is a detective, the object of the game centers around solving a mystery, in this case the myster...

A podcast for the senses we can’t take from them. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, on what is an appropriately wintery day, we’re going to be talking about That Which Gave Chase, a game where you sled through the arctic. Largely a narrative game, That Which Gave Chase takes you through several different points in time in a shaky, disconnected way as you learn about the reason you are where you...

With time, any game could be the coolest ancient artefact. Welcome to the first ever Scribies, an award show and definitely not an itchy reaction to a species of mite: that would be Scabies. In the Scribies, we choose winners for myriad categories from the pool of games that we have played and talked about for the podcast this year. We’ve brought back some fan favorite categories like Least Likely...

There are no podcast truths. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Everhood, an indie bullet hell/adventure/rhythm game. Everhood has several notable factors that could be considered a main point of conversation about it. It is surprisingly difficult on its standard difficulty setting and requires some mastery to actually get through it, giving it a similar feel to more arcade st...

My podcast’s come alive. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Hades II, the sequel to one of the most popular roguelikes of all time and the first sequel that Supergiant Games has ever made. And I for one am happy about that because I needed an excuse to play hundreds more hours of Hades. Hades II is very much a game that can be described as “the first game, but more...

To listen to this podcast is to walk in a world of impurities. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Silent Hill f, an action survival horror game and the latest entry in the Silent Hill series. This game takes a more combat-focused approach with stamina management and dodges, making it feel different from the majority of games in its genre. Beyond that, it separates...

Listen to this podcast. I’ll show you what this mouth can do. Happy Halloween oooooooooooooooh! and welcome back to the podcast. Today, we’re going to be talking about Slitterhead, an action horror title, and the first game from developer Bokeh Game Studio, founded by one of the creators of Silent Hill. In Slitterhead, you play as a kind of spirit entity with the ability to possess regular people....

Even if you don’t understand, your mitochondria will. Welcome back to the podcast! For our second game for the Halloween season, we’re talking about Parasite Eve, a survival horror action RPG from PlayStation era. And for being from that era, Parasite Eve honestly looks incredible and is, for me, the biggest draw. Mechanically, the game is a little clunky, with some extremely crunchy systems and a...

I can podcast it. I’ll take responsibility. Welcome to the very first episode of Describing the Skybox and the first horror game episode for October! Today, we’re talking about Mouthwashing, a narrative adventure game set on a freighter in space. There isn’t too much in the way of interaction in this game, a few light puzzles and traversal challenges, so the story takes the spotlight for the major...

Did you know you can hold a podcast in your off hand? Welcome to the 200th and (kind of) final episode of NOCLIP! With it being both the 200th episode and our tenth anniversary, we figured now would be as good a time as any to finally play Minecraft, one of the most popular and the best selling game of all time, which neither of us had actually played before. Minecraft popularized the previously n...