076 - ibb & obb, Miniatures, & Octodad: Dadliest Catch - Underplayed

Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Thank you for pressing start on episode 76 of Underplayed KZ UMS
Indie Video Game Podcasts. Today we have two secret games,
followed by a review of our featured game Octodad.
Dadliest catch? Here on Underplayed, we review

(00:29):
indie games of all kinds, the games with small budgets but big
hearts, the lesser known experiences with imaginative
ideas. I'm Bo PO, but it's not only me.
There's a guy with a flow who's on a journey.
So won't you put your hands together, please?
For the Zeo Drifter, the indie game Sifter the Curse, Kraken,

(00:49):
Mr. Disco Cola, What is going on?
I'm doing just fine. My left sided completely human
body. Those are references to our
featured game, Octodad Dadliest Catch, which is our season's

(01:09):
Co-op game. Yeah, we starting in like Season
4 or five, we started playing a Co-op game every season.
And so we've played the likes ofCastle Crashers, we've played
Cuphead, we played. Operation Tango.
Yes and separate from the planned Co-op experience, we

(01:29):
also started with a way out and it takes two.
Yes, that was that was separate from that specific plan.
Wow, that that was so long ago. That feels like a generation ago
for our podcast. I had one kid when we did that.
That's wild. That's wild.
Well also this is the last normal episode of season 7, so

(01:53):
we have our Co-op game here in episode 10 of the season.
Do you want to talk a little bitabout what happens the next
episode? Yeah.
So in the next episode, every season we have 10 regular
episodes and that 11th episode we dedicate to looking back at
our season. We recap it, we review it, we
give out awards based on like what our favorite games were,

(02:14):
favorite sound design, favorite narrative, just a lot of
different topics. We have something we call
jealous games. So by the end of today, Bopo and
I will be able to decide what our jealous game is because this
is the last time we do a do a secret game.
And then at the end of the episode, we go back and forth

(02:37):
picking games for the upcoming season.
So the next time you hear us on Episode 77, we will be planning
all of our games for Season 8 ofUnderplayed.
Wow. And Season 8 will take place in
the last half of 2025. That's when we will produce and
release the season it it'll takeplace over about six months,

(03:01):
just like this season has taken place.
Yep, I actually on the I marked on the calendar what all the
release days are. Last week.
Nice. Yeah, that's good to know about
in advance. And then we have something to
talk about with KS, UM, where weproduce this show to.
Yes, this is KS UMS indie video game podcast, but KS U Ms. kind
of a special place. As the name implies, it is a

(03:22):
radio station, but it is a nonprofit radio station.
So think of your your NP Rs and your PBS.
KS UM works on a similar model where we do get some support
from grants and some support from federal funding, but the
largest portion of our support comes from listener donations.
And because listeners have supported KZUM for over 47

(03:47):
years, 48 actually I've, I've lost the math, but KZUM has been
here for a long time and that's a lot due to listener support.
And without KZUM underplayed would very likely not be here.
We would have to have invested in all of the studio equipment
ourselves and I don't know that we have been in the position to

(04:08):
do that. So it's it's with great
gratitude to KZM from us that weget to be here.
And we hope that if you appreciate underplayed that that
by the transitive property extends to KZM and that if you
do have extra funds, I know thatnot everybody does.
I usually don't myself. But if you do have any extra

(04:30):
funds that you could throw KZ UMS away, we'd appreciate it.
You can donate at KZU m.org. If you're listening to this, the
week this episode releases, we will be at the tail end of our
May Fun to drive. We do that three times a year.
We just dedicate that time to asking for donations.
So Under Plate's doing our part as well.

(04:52):
We want to, we want to contribute to that flourishing
of public radio. Yes.
And this is the kind of thing where even just five dollars,
$10 goes a long way. If 100 people did that, that
would be huge. A lot of people assume, oh, I
bet just a handful of really rich people will give the

(05:12):
station money. That's not how it works.
That's usually not what happens.It doesn't happen around here.
We do get. Some, there are some generous
donate donors, but they are pretty few in comparison to the
large pool of donors that we have.
So if you want to be part of that, if you want to show your
support for KZM as a way of thanking KZM for allowing us to

(05:32):
do this show and allowing other podcasters to do shows and for
allowing live programmers to do radio shows all throughout the
week that have all kinds of programming that is entertaining
and educational and beneficial for the community, you can again
go to kzm.org. And are we using the word pledge
still? Do we say?
Pledge. No.
Just say donate. Donate and yeah.

(05:55):
And especially during the month of May, that's the time to do it
because there is a local organization that matches funds
for all of the nonprofits that participate in our city, and
KSUM is among them. So a donation that you make is
actually a little bit bigger than the donation that you make

(06:15):
thanks to that matching funds bull.
That's always so exciting and this is the middle fund drive
week of the year. There's one in February around
KZU Ms. birthday and then there's one later in the fall.
Yeah, in September. In September and so this is
right in the middle of the year so if you want to help give kzu
M some momentum going into the back half of the year now is the
time. There's another thing I wanted

(06:36):
to talk about Disco, and it is that I finally did right by One
Shot World Machine Edition in that I played through the
Solstice playthrough. Finally.
This is the thing that I talked about in the episode as not
realizing was a whole playthrough that was

(06:57):
significantly different than thebase game.
And so I felt completely remiss and embarrassed in that moment
and I felt like people had to take my review with a grain of
salt just because I hadn't seen everything this game had to
offer. I do think the Solstice
playthrough is still technicallyconsidered to be an expansion or

(07:18):
a content updates of some kinds.After looking up on
howlongtobeat.com, which is a great resource and tool for
planning your gaming habit, I believe the Solstice something
or other was a separate entry. It's own on that website, right?
Yeah. And I think the soundtracks for
the base game and the Solstice expansion, they're separates

(07:43):
when you see those on streaming platforms.
So I nonetheless believe that this is very worth your time.
And I think it's it's part of getting that full one shot
experience. I did this in one sitting.
Like you said, it's really short.
I think you said it was an hour or two.
And yeah, it flew by. I largely found the characters

(08:05):
to be more interesting. You know, I remembered everybody
from the base game. They have some really good
moments. And I also enjoyed the
soundtrack, I think a little bitmore in the Solstice
playthrough. Yeah.
So I had overall a pretty good time.
I don't think I would change my score at this point, but I'm

(08:27):
super glad I played this and I feel like it ended on a better
note for me than the base game. So you do have to play through
the base game to get to it. And I wish I had just been more
curious after that first play through, but yeah.
I can't imagine the game withoutit because it did make such a
big difference for me because I I just that first playthrough

(08:51):
was fine. It was fine, but it's that
second playthrough that really like grabbed me that made me
care about more of the characters.
Yeah, I think that's really where it comes home.
And yeah, it definitely becomes a two shot, not a one shot
situation and I'm glad I got to see it.
So just wanted to, you know, putthat on the record that yes, I

(09:11):
now have played it and it was worth my time.
Did that did that play through include a platinum trophy?
No it did not. Are you able to pick up missing
like Wallpapers and character BIOS in the second playthrough
if you miss in the first time because you don't get all of the
same moments happening? Yeah, there.

(09:32):
I mean, there will be some that won't be accessible but.
I I definitely looked out for one that I knew I missed.
It was the Vine girl. Yeah, I missed her bio in the
base game and right in the spot where it should show up.
If you didn't see it, then it probably doesn't happen.
Yeah, it doesn't happen. So I think that's a whole other
playthrough, but I know you got the platinum in in that game.
Did we talk about that on this show?

(09:52):
I think so, yeah. We did OK.
Yeah. So I don't know if I'll do that
anytime soon, but I think it's just all about collection.
So I think that's about all. Anything else you wanted to say
at the start? You know, there's a special DLC
that came out today and I forgotuntil I logged on to Blue Sky

(10:13):
and I was like oh Oh no, it cameout today and I was going to try
and log on and play it before the show.
But this is. Sea of Stars year.
Of crab. Oh, that's already out.
Yeah, it's out today. Oh.
We don't have to keep this. In that's exciting.
No, I kind of want to keep it. That's really cool.
Yeah, that's that was one of those timely things.
Oh, and did we talk about Cortana 0?

(10:37):
No. We we messaged about it.
I don't think so, because that happened after we talked about
Year of the Crowd. Yeah, yeah.
I was so confused. For me, I was like, yeah,
totally. Because we said we manifest, but
that was something else. We manifested something
different. So earlier this season, this is
wild. Earlier this season, we had no
alone, AKA some humble onion on to help us review Cortana 0 and

(10:59):
we talked about this content update, this DLC that's been
years in the making, which was. News to me, I had no idea when
you guys when we started the episode.
It had been announced, you know,years before, but the trail went
cold on any updates on this thing?
And we told Noah, well, look what will happen.
We'll do this episode and then within a few months there will

(11:22):
be it'll get released or we'll see something about it.
We actually did see something about it I think in the Triple I
showcase very recently. And it's just a reconfirmation
that it is being worked on. So it doesn't have a date.
So it's not as exciting, but Hellers, I like to think that we
made that happen. A lot.
They showed a lot. So I mean.

(11:43):
They did show a lot, yeah. It looks like it's, you know?
They showed more than Silk Song,which is allegedly coming in
2025 now. I know, I know.
I had a conversation. By the way, we both went to an
event today and I had a conversation with somebody about
Hollow Night for like 20 minutesand we talked about Silk Song
and I was like, it's coming out this year.
Did you hear? And he goes, no, they've been

(12:04):
saying that every year for the and I was like, but it's
different this time. And he didn't believe me.
I don't think it's different this time.
I'm not with you on this one. You know, they're so Dang, I
just feel like 2025 is they've uttered that year.
I feel OK. Well, anyway, those are some
good updates. We're going to keep going.
Everybody, if you want to support us, there are two very

(12:27):
easy ways to do that. One is you could give us a
follow in a five star rating on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
That would ensure that we stay in your feed and always
available to you. If you're on a podcast service
that has a rating system like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you
can give us five stars. We would really appreciate that.

(12:48):
And also, if you have a friend who likes indie games, we always
appreciate people sharing our podcast.
It is time now for our Secret games.

(13:12):
In Secret Games, we each review an indie game we've been playing
in secret since our last episode.
We don't talk about what we're playing and picking.
We keep them a surprise for thisvery moment.
Why are they a surprise? Just to have fun.
It's fun. I'm having fun.
Any indie game can be chosen as long as we haven't reviewed it

(13:33):
before on the show, so it's a pretty wide open field of
options. We'll start with you, Disco
Cola. Let the mystery be no more.
Reveal your secret game for Episode 76 of Underplayed.
Today's secret game is synergizing on the Co-op aspect.
I've, I haven't always talked about it this season, but I've

(13:54):
done a pretty good job with the synergies for the most.
Part Yes, you have. But My Secret Game is also a
game that you name dropped once on Underplayed back in episode
59 when we reviewed Ovivo. My secret game comes from
Sparkweed and it is called Ibn OP.

(14:41):
Amazing, yes. And I actually, I sent you a
really great trailer. I sent you the Nintendo Switch
release trailer. And I want you to pay close
attention to it because it showsplayers playing Ibn and that is
like I relate hardcore to what those faces are doing.
So if you, the listener want to check out what pretty much any

(15:05):
hip and OP player is going through, that trailer does a
great job. Nintendo is known for this.
When they show off a Co-op or multiplayer game, they're going
to show you people's faces. They're going to show people's
reactions with the Switch to they're showing off the new
camera attachment and people's faces composited with the

(15:25):
gameplay, and they're just goingto show that togetherness.
And so, yeah, you got to look upthe IB and OB Switch release
trailer. So when you played this, you
knew this was going to be your secret game for this episode.
Correct. Yes.
Awesome. Yeah, it wasn't necessarily
always going to be IB and OB Kate and I had planned for a
long time that we were going to play a Co-op game together, you

(15:46):
know, in in God, when did we spring break?
I think. But yeah, it just ended up being
IB and OB based on cross-platform preferences,
which actually didn't end up working.
We both had to shout out to Katebecause she bought the game
twice so that we could play it on Switch.
Well, now someone has to play itwith Kate on Steam.

(16:07):
Yeah, is what that means. Yeah, So sorry, Kate.
Give give Emily a call. But there.
You go anyways, like I said, I played this with Kate or Blossom
from No Small Games. Go check out our friends at No
Small Games wherever you get your podcasts.
The plot of IB and AB is pretty nebulous.

(16:27):
It might not even actually exist.
You play as IB and AB. IB is the short green one and AB
is the tall pink one. And you played as.
I played as AB. OK, the tall pink one.
Yes, and you trade places and opposite gravities to overcome
high platforms or to dispel harmful adversaries by popping

(16:49):
their little life orb. All of this in order to reach
the end of the level. Ibn OB is split into something
like 6 worlds, and that's I'm calling them worlds is pretty
generous. Each world is is split into 3
levels. But this is all very loose
though, 'cause there's not really, at least not that I

(17:09):
could notice, like consistent themes or designs that tie the
three levels of a world together.
It's just kind. For me it was more just a useful
tool to calculate the remaining game length.
But anyways, you will notice that there are 18 overall levels
split into 6 worlds so to speak.And then in this game, as far as

(17:33):
controls are concerned, you can move left to right and you can
jump and that's really it. You do have, at least on the
Switch version, have the option to draw either using the touch
screen in handheld mode or usingyour R stick.
And this is useful if you're playing with a stranger or
someone who is not in the same room as you.

(17:53):
I don't recommend playing with it, playing with a stranger.
Just putting that out there right now.
Don't play this with a stranger.I don't think I've ever gone
through a whole Co-op game with a complete rando.
You know that I've met people inonline games and then decided to
squat up with just them before. But yeah, that would be, that
would be a dice roll. I wouldn't want to even.

(18:15):
That would be rough, yeah. And it the option exists, you
can create a party and wait for someone to join you.
Interesting. So you can draw on the screen to
indicate things like, hey, you should go here, and maybe as
you're talking to them over Discord or something, you're
circling something for them to see.
Exactly, yes. And so that is once we
discovered that that was an option about 1/3 of the way

(18:37):
through. That is something that we
utilized a lot. But anyways, using all those
controls, you will encounter theaforementioned adversaries.
These will mostly take the form of spiky ball creatures or half
circles. There's also eventually these
bat like looking enemies. And each of these adversaries

(18:58):
can be defeated by traveling to the opposite side of their
gravity and popping their respective orb.
And once popped, that orb turns into some form of collectible
that will affect your score at the end of the level.
And I guess I should mention that there are opposite
gravities in this game. Yeah, there's always a platform

(19:20):
with two sides going on in this game.
And so when you are on the top part of the platform, you're
obviously like in what we would consider the right side up
world, but you can also jump through, you know, holes in the
platform that are specifically designated.
And like at after you jump through that hole, you are in
the opposite platform, you are upside down from our

(19:42):
perspective. And even the upside down gravity
side of things has a different environment.
It has like an inverted version of the normal gravity's
environment. That is the main mechanic, I
should point that out. But moving on from the harmful
adversaries, there will also be different kinds of platforming
elements that will. That change how you have to

(20:03):
approach puzzles. The most prominent platforming
changes come from like trampoline style pieces of
platform or bubbles that will cause you to float through them
as long as you're holding the jump button.
And when you get to these sections of the game, the game
is more so about solving puzzlesusing momentum.
And so momentum puzzles become abig part of the game eventually.

(20:27):
But that really covers a lot of it.
Unless you think I'm missing something because you have
played this game before. I have played it.
That's that's good context here.I've played this.
I tried playing it with my wife.I think we tried playing it back
before we were married. So it's been years, many years,

(20:47):
and I don't remember how far we got.
I wonder if I could look on Steam and see my achievements
and use that as a clue. But we did not finish.
And we got to a point where it was just like just challenging
enough that we wanted to put thegame down.
And then we never went back to it.
So it's not like we rage quit, but it was like we were in a
play session for a while. It was time to take a break.

(21:09):
And then we never returned on any day after that.
So yeah, I I've not seen the endof this game, but I did get to
see a couple moments of you streaming it.
You happened to stream it when Iwas streaming actually, but I
did manage to see a couple moments.
Right, well, from there, I guessI will move on to what I

(21:30):
consider the highlights of IB and AB.
First, I'll mention that I had ablast playing with Kate.
We were having fun, we were singing, we were swearing, we
were taking failures on the chin.
You were sing, swearing. Oh, did a little bit of that.
But yeah, it's in this case, it's not really hyperbole to say

(21:51):
that I probably could not have finished the game without her.
So great time, great even OB partner and I really appreciate
that. The overall art direction is
incredibly attractive. There's a lot of contrast,
There's a lot of really bold colors, strong and simple
shapes, and it's so streamlined yet so detailed with such

(22:17):
organic looking backgrounds. I just, I really love how this
game looks. Yeah, if I can make a couple
comparisons, this game reminds me of another side scrolling, I
guess kind of puzzle game, but it's single player called
Hohokum. OK, you've mentioned hohokum.
Before Hohokum kind of reminds me of this and then also Pixel

(22:40):
Junk Eden. Kind of, but this definitely has
more colors going on than Pixel Junk Eden.
And when you talk about pixel junk Eden, I think of the game
Euphoria. Oh yeah.
Which also has fewer colors thanthis, but is it does kind of
have that like bold contrast andyeah, but yeah, the overall art

(23:00):
direction just like very, very solid.
And then additionally, the musicand overall sound design is
superb. I think the sound of enemy orbs
popping, the sound of little crystals falling to the ground,
the sound of IB and AB popping, should you die, all awesome.
And then the music is just really great.

(23:22):
It's it's it's very good. The physics feel mostly pretty
good, but especially I really love the jumping arc.
You get this sense of where you're going to land the moment
you jump. It's kind of, it's hard to
explain in words, but have you ever watched those cartoons?
I've watched a ton of them wherethis character is maybe learning

(23:43):
to use a sword or maybe learningto draw.
And their teacher always says like treat it to like an
extension of yourself. And I've always like found that
line to be 1. Annoying because it's so cliche,
but two, I've never really been able to relate to that concept
with anything but this jump in even of is so good.

(24:04):
I kind of get it now. It's like as soon as I jump, I
know exactly where I'm going to go.
I know exactly how it's going tofeel when I get there and I kind
of know exactly the momentum I'mgoing to get if I jump through
the little gravity well. So it's it's a really great jump
with some pretty good physics. I think the game design is
classic. This is just the video game ass

(24:26):
puzzle platforming video game. That's that's that simple.
I think everything is cute. IB and AB, the enemies, the
little ball dudes that you encounter, the guys that are
dancing at the end of the level.Everyone just rules.
And again, the designs for everything are so simple, but so
effective at at being cute. And then lastly, one of my

(24:50):
favorite things about this game is the relief of finishing the
game. And the reason for that is in my
next section. 1 of the things that I don't love so much about
this game is how hard it gets. It gets so hard.
It gets crazy stinking hard. It's a pretty distant memory for
me by now, because this was maybe approaching A decade ago

(25:13):
that I played right. But the thing that I remember,
the thing that I will never forget, is that it gets hard.
It gets super hard. You know, like we mentioned
earlier, you played this game and I was looking for a Co-op
game to play with Kate and I remembered that you name dropped
this and I also had learned thatyou played it.
But when I started I didn't knowthat you hadn't finished it.

(25:35):
I just assumed that you had and you told me.
Oh yeah, we it it got hard. We kind of quit and so I, I
might, I might not have started if I, if I had that piece of
information at the start. But yeah, heck and finished it.
We finished it but I almost quita couple times.
I'm going to try to look up the game on Steam and see if if it

(25:58):
has achievements, maybe it'll tell me where what chapter I
finished that. OK, while you continue to talk,
I'll try to figure this out. While I said that I do love the
art direction because of its simplicity, there would be times
where background or foreground elements would appear as if they
were intended to be part of the puzzle.
Or conversely, certain puzzle elements would seem as if they

(26:21):
were background dressing. And this is especially true with
like the little floaty bubbles that I mentioned earlier that
that will pull you up and up as long as you hold jump.
Sometimes those just look like clouds in the background and you
can't actually jump up to them. But no, they are a crucial part
of the puzzle. Some puzzle solutions rely on

(26:42):
luck a little bit. There's something we mentioned
in the Super Meat Boy episode ofUnderplayed most of the puzzles
are built around an incredible flow.
If you just run and jump at all the right times, all of the
moving pieces will time out justright.
But some of the puzzles, that just isn't the case.

(27:02):
And so when those elements behave different between
attempts, it stands out even more.
And then it's hard to get the practice you need to pass.
Yeah, and the puzzles that have those more random elements tend
to also have just a higher difficulty anyways.
So these two things can make certain situations feel super
impossible. And like I said, there were

(27:25):
probably two or three times where I legitimately would have
embraced quitting. But luckily Kate kept us on the
on the road to persistence and we did reach the end of the
game, but not without looking upfour or five solutions.
OK, confirming in a few cases that we just needed better luck
or skill. And I also want to add here that

(27:47):
Kate and I got stuck on basically all of the same parts
as the people in the walkthroughI was following, so that was a
bit comforting as well. That's validating for sure.
Also, as I was looking up these walkthroughs, I've noticed that
there are differences between the Switch version and previous
versions. So there would be puzzles in the
video guide that we never encountered.

(28:09):
Some puzzles were different in different spots I think.
But some puzzles were easier on the Switch version, some
sections were harder. Specifically, I think the last
stretch of the game looks a lot harder on the Switch than it
does in previous versions. But Switch versions is the only
one I've played. I just know that there are
differences. Interesting.

(28:30):
And then my last critique is just kind of a lack of
substance. Like I, I still believe very
strongly that a game can just bea game.
Most of my favorite games don't need a complicated or
straightforward narrative. But because of what I mentioned
earlier about everyone being so cute, I'm rooting for IB and OB,
but I just, I don't know why I am.

(28:51):
I just think they're cute. So I just, I want to know a
little bit more. Not much, but a little bit fair.
So at the end of the day, Ibn OBis a bit of a novel puzzle
platformer experience with strong classic game design
elements. The art direction and sound
design are incredible efficient and streamlined.

(29:11):
I never got tired of looking at the game.
I was stoked to have a chance toplay this with Kate and I had a
great time doing so and I think without that set up I may have
quit well before the end of the game because this game gets
challenging. So in the end, largely due to
difficulty, I placed this as an 8 point O out of 10.

(29:32):
Nice, awesome. I think back in the day, if I
had to give it a score, I might not give it quite that high of a
score, but it'd be up there in like maybe the seven or 7.5 for
me. And I, I just looked, I have
almost five hours logged in thisgame, so I think we made it
decently far. And then it doesn't give you an
achievement for finishing every level or every group of levels.

(29:57):
You get achievements for more miscellaneous things.
So I only have two achievements.They're for finding a hidden
crystal and then for finishing alevel without dying, which I
think are pretty common. So yeah, I don't, I don't know
how far we got. They have worlds with a very
lowercase W It's, yeah, very, very much just a very arbitrary
distinction. And my wife doesn't play these

(30:18):
games, you know, she doesn't play platforming puzzle games
when in the rare time that she does play a game, it's going to
be something like Animal Crossing New Horizons, maybe a
narrative, a shorter narrative based game on the Switch.
So this was new territory back when we we when we played it.
And she did give it a very good shot and we both just decided to

(30:43):
put it down at the same time. We're like, this is good.
And then we never went back to it.
So. So now I'm curious, what did
Kate think of Ibn OB? Well I'm glad you asked because
she actually sent me some notes,so I'm going to read this
verbatim. Pretend I am Kate for just a few
moments. Quote.

(31:03):
I think my big take away is thatit was probably one of the most
challenging games I've ever played and I actually wouldn't
recommend that just any two people play the game together.
I feel like being an amazing team and both people having some
gaming experience is pretty muchrequired in order to have a fun
time with the game and also necessary if you want to
progress. I actually thought about what it

(31:24):
would be like to play this game with other people in my life and
I'm not sure I could have completed it with them.
I'm impressed at how smooth the Co-op play was on the Switch.
The features baked in like drawing to communicate or
explain how an idea could be executed was fun and helpful.
But again, only if you're already vibing and playing next
to each other IRL or on a voice call.
I like how at first you think the IB and OB have the exact

(31:47):
same abilities, but as you go deeper you realize that only one
of them can do XYZ while the other has to do this other
thing. Ibn AB managed to convey quite a
bit of personality despite only being 2 little guys with eyes,
but it's fun to think about how much of yourself and the other
person you're playing has an impact on how you're perceiving
the characters. After a while I was like that's

(32:09):
not AB, that's a digital manifestation of my best friend
Disco Cola. Not much to say about the music
since I couldn't hear it, but completing a level together
feels amazing and like a huge win.
I like how one person can't really carry the other.
The game is designed in a way where you both have to use
brains but also quick reaction time and gamer TM abilities.
Visually it's pretty delightful.Who doesn't love pink and green

(32:32):
together? End Quote.
That's so, yeah, all of that is so accurate and valid.
And that's a good observation that one person can't carry the
other person. So both people have to be on,
they have to be ready to play a heck in video game.
That's kind of hard, and if justone person isn't quite in the
mood, then it's not quite Ibn OBtime isn't.

(32:53):
It yeah, Yep, yeah. There will be like Doorway is
the only OB can go through and so maybe that puzzle will have
IB giving you like a boost and OB's doing like a lot of the
work, but just a couple puzzles down the road if the roles going
to be reversed. Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, I don't have any questionsabout that, but I did want to
say good job to IB and OB. Thank you IB and OB for getting

(33:18):
to the end. No that that the last like 2
levels specifically were just like very rough.
Yeah, I think I, I, I pulled up to your VOD, I think and I saw
you kind of grind it a. Little bit it was it, it got it
got rough at the end, but we didit.
And where can you play IB and OB?
You can play IB and OB from Sparkweed Games on Linux, PC,

(33:42):
PlayStation 3, Nintendo Switch and some of the versions are
cross compatible but the Switch version I don't think is.
OK, wonderful. It's time for my secret game.
My secret game also has a littlebit of synergy with today's
featured game, but not in that it's a Co-op game in that it's a
short game. OK, And it's one that you're

(34:04):
familiar with. It's one that you've seen.
I thought you're in action. Tell me that it was about an
octopus. Oh that would be cool.
I can't think of an octopus being in this game, but my
secret game is miniatures. Oh, I do know this one, kind of

(34:40):
I, I saw moments of it. So I played it last year.
I have now replayed it for this episode, so I played it just the
other night. So it's fresh in my mind.
So Miniatures is a 2024 adventure anthology of short
stories, I guess is how I would really quickly pitch it.

(35:01):
It was developed and published by other Tales Interactive.
The game synopsis from the Steamstorefront reads quote.
Miniatures is a collection of strange tales where childhood
imagination and reality merge with darker undercurrents of
mystery and magic. Explore a vast seascape, build
odd furniture, feed a lizard andplay with sandcastles and quote.

(35:22):
So yeah, I I played this back when it came out last year, late
last year, I got a key to this from Neon Hive.
So thank you Neon Hive for the key to miniatures.
I streamed the whole thing. It was very short, you know, I
was not streaming it for very long because this is a series of
four short adventures that add up to less than an hour of

(35:44):
playtime. Less than an hour.
In fact, it might be closer to 4550 minutes, and that might
even be if you're taking your time a little bit.
So this is a brief game and it has a hand illustrated visual
style like you'd see in storybooks.
When you start it, you open thisbox on a table that contains 4

(36:05):
objects. There's a lizard, there's a
shell, a moth, and a screwdriver, and clicking on any
of them begins its respective story.
So you can choose to play these stories in any order you want,
and these stories mostly involveclicking and dragging on the
part of the player. And each story has to do with
childhood perspectives, and they're told with a bit of a

(36:28):
supernatural style. They can tend to feel like
fables, they can be quite abstract, but they're about
everyday things in everyday situations too, and they convey
emotions and intangible qualities of thoughts,
especially from the perspective of a kid.
So I'll quickly pitch the four stories.
There's Palliderium, which is the lizard in this one.

(36:51):
A child is left alone in their home to care for a lizard.
There's the last sandcastle, which is the shell, and this is
where small creatures of a sandcastle village create music
together. There's the House of the Moon,
which is the moth. This is where a child goes
searching for their mother who ran off with the moon.

(37:12):
And then there's familiar, whichis the screwdriver.
And this is where a family builds a cabinet and unleashes
something dark. So that's the setup for the
game. Very simple.
I don't want to say more than that because I feel like this is
an experience sort of game. Like this game's an experience.
You got to play it to really understand what's going on, I

(37:32):
think. But the trailer does a good job
at showing you the vibe. And what I liked about
Miniatures is that it feels likean exhibition.
It feels sort of like this showpiece of unfettered
creativity, and there are these nuanced concepts that are
brought to life so carefully. This game captured my attention

(37:55):
through the way that it contemplates, and I feel like it
made me contemplate about what its stories might mean.
And it's contemplation that alsodoesn't always seemingly arrive
at a destination. It sort of feels like a vibe, a
mood piece at times. I think there are takeaways, I

(38:17):
think there are messages in thisgame, but sometimes it's a
little mysterious and I kind of respect that, that it has the
balance. I I watched a good amount of it
when you streamed it and there were messages that I could tell
were there, but I couldn't graspthem.
Yeah. And I think replaying the game
as I have now done, I think you can maybe grasp new takeaways

(38:39):
sometimes. But more than anything, I think
this is a solemn and slow and introspective series of
storytelling, and these vignettes invite me to think
about topics that are unspoken. And so I think some of the game
is evoking feelings of loss, some of it is about conflict,

(39:02):
some of it might be about neglects.
And depending on what you've observed in the world or
experienced yourself, you might come away with different
takeaways. I love the sound design in this
game. This is not a soundtrack that
you'll come away wanting to blast in your car as you're
driving around. It's ambient.
It's very mildly haunting. This game gets under your skin,

(39:25):
and I think it does a lot of that through the sound design
and the way the sound design corresponds with what happens on
screen. As an example, in the short
story Familiar, that story uses hard cuts to black a lot before
cutting back to a new scene. And there will be a little

(39:46):
musical cue that accompanies that cut to black.
And I think that just those two together, the sound and visuals
do a lot. Each vignette has a particular
style. To The House of the Moon feels
like you're scrolling along a children's storybook that's been
removed from its binding. Like it feels like all these
pages have been removed from a book and spread out and you're

(40:09):
scrolling along them. Caledarium uses color to convey
the passage of time. It uses these really cool
colors, but then for another moment, it uses warmer colors to
show that you're in a different time period.
And I think that's just so clever.
I love the iconic imagery in this game.
There are images from this game where when I think of

(40:33):
miniatures, I think of some of these pictures in my mind.
I think of a child holding up a snail and that same child
looking at their reflection in the water.
I think of the hands and feet ofa family that tell us a lot
about who they are without ever speaking words to us.
I think about something in this game that is ravaged in an

(40:57):
instant. There's a moment in this game
where something gets completely destroyed, and I remember the
first time I experienced that, my jaw hit the floor and again,
it was completely wordless. And I think that's so powerful
that this game makes me feel that way, given that it's not
even speaking to me a lot of thetime.
There is a little bit of video in some of the stories, but a

(41:22):
lot of the time it's completely wordless.
I did have some things that I didn't like as much about this
game. One of them is just that it's
really Dang short and I want more.
And that's a backdoor compliment, right?
Because I just, I want to stay in this world and it really it,
it does kind of get its hooks inme after a few stories and I
just want to keep experiencing these stories.

(41:43):
But then it's over and I feel like I just want more.
And then also there's not a ton of interactivity.
So while I'm drawn in, sometimesit can feel like it's a bit more
passive than I would have liked in moments.
But overall, Miniatures is a game that contemplates, and for
45 minutes or so it asks you to contemplate. 2 It's about

(42:07):
children's stories without beingstories for children.
Rather, because everyone who plays it has been a child
themselves. I think each person will take
away different things from each story, so I do recommend this to
everyone. For me, just because this is so
well done, so artful, so memorable, but also because I'm

(42:30):
not sure how replayable it is. I don't know when something is
less than an hour, there's only so much it can do to be to make
a profound impression on you. But I'm going to give this an
8.5 out of 10. That's what I guessed.
And it's playable on PC, which is the version I played Mac,
Linux, Switch and iOS. So looking at this trailer

(42:51):
again, reminding myself of what I saw, I'm seeing so many
different art styles in the different stories.
So you have the The last Sandcastle, right?
And when I watched that, all I could think of was an Amanita
game. Oh yes, it has a bunch of little
guys A. Bunch of little guys and they

(43:12):
kind of do their little loop when you click on them and then
you have to figure out the rightthing to do to make them, you
know, do something new. And that's actually the only one
I can think of where we don't see a child.
We are possibly seeing somethingfrom a child's point of view or
through their imagination more likely.

(43:33):
And I think that's a powerful contrast between the other
stories where we actually see physically a kid involved in the
story. Here we're looking through the
gaze of a kid, I think. OK, and then the the one about
the lizard, that one not as muchin the art style but kind of

(43:54):
reminds me of how I felt playingKentucky Root 0 at times.
Yes, definitely. And I, I had a comparison for
the, the one about the cabinet building the cabinet.
But that one for me was the mostaffecting because that I had a
similar kind of experience as a child and arguably something

(44:17):
dark opened, you know? For me, what I take away from
that one is that all of us mighthave darkness within us and
sometimes we can't keep that inside.
Yeah, well, and, and it's easy for those things to come to the
surface in frustrating situations.
Yeah, which is what I experienced as a child.
We were in a situation that became frustrating and I

(44:40):
observed conflict in my family. I think it's also how we can
associate memories with objects in a way where let's say you're
building something with somebodyand you have a fight about it.
You might have a perfectly pleasant time for most of the
time you're building that thing.But when The thing is built and

(45:03):
you look at it, you might think about the happiness and the the
joy, the ease of doing it with them.
You might also remember the conflicts that you had.
Those memories will always be attached to that thing when you
look at it. At least it's for me.
I I think about that. Stuff I, it's, I'm reliving it
in my head right now. So I it's it can be powerful
when you see something you don'texpect like that.

(45:25):
And then especially as a kid where you're so impressionable
and you're forming these a lot of your earliest memories in
real time, and it happens in themundane moment sometimes.
So yeah, another thing about theLizard 1 going back to that one,
that one ends kind of suddenly and I had to go back and watch

(45:47):
just the ending of that story totry to figure out what was going
on. I mean, that one might be the
most open to interpretation for me, and I think that one is
super thought provoking. It's hard to pick a favorite
one, but I think The Lizard and the House of the Moon might be

(46:08):
tied for my favorites. They're all great though.
They're all great. I don't have a question.
The game ends when you do all four, is that right?
It does end, yeah. Yeah.
And there's even something with the level selection that happens
that really closes the book on everything, that lets you know
that you're done with this. And credits do scroll and

(46:28):
everything, but there's a nice conclusion to the package that I
appreciate. Cool.
Yeah, I like you said, when the the game's so short, it's so
hard to expound on it to a certain degree.
That's why I didn't have a ton. To say.
Exactly, Yeah. So pretty straightforward, but I
do recommend this. I I had talked about this maybe

(46:50):
a couple seasons ago as a game that I was really looking
forward to, I think. And so this was one of my most
anticipated games of last year and now I'm replaying it had a
great time and I recommend it toall of y'all out there.
O those are our secret games, IBand OB and miniatures.
Let's move on to our review of Octodad.

(47:12):
Dadliest catch. It is our featured game.
O Octodad Deadliest Catch is an adventure game first released in

(47:33):
2014. It was developed and published
by Young Horses. The game synopsis from the Steam
storefront reads quote Octodad. Deadliest Catch is a game about
destruction, deception, and fatherhood.
The player controls Octodad, A dapper octopus masquerading as a
human, as he goes about his life.
Octodad's existence is a constant struggle as he must

(47:56):
master mundane tasks with his unwieldy, boneless tentacles.
I have a surprise. For the whole family.
A. Free trip to the aquarium.
What's that man with the three pieces?

(48:17):
Maze games are for children to the car kids.
Yay. Who's that man?
With the ain't strong legs, whatare you doing trying to make
your breakfast bird that. Broke Maze.
Rock Octodad Nobody. How did you be from October?

(48:47):
I like that boneless was a necessary adjective.
There, I know they're boneless dentals just to be clear,
because we know you had the question so we know about
Octodad. He's the main character of this
game. He's who you play as.
He doesn't speak English. He does the.
Can you give a demonstration? It's very, very good.

(49:09):
Thank you. It's very good.
It's. In my vocal range.
I know, but it's also like you went back to the game and you
listen to it just to be able to do that better.
I have a suspicion that you did that.
I actually didn't. You didn't.
You're just that good. Disco Coal is that good at it?
Well, there's some other characters.
We have Octodad's wife Scarlett,we have their daughter Stacey,

(49:31):
and we have their son Tommy. I believe Tommy is the older
kid, Stacey's the younger one. There's also Chef Fujimoto, who
is in pursuit of Octodad and knows his secrets.
That he's an octopus. He's the only one who knows
this, that he's an octopus. I don't know if he know like he

(49:52):
is confident, but I don't think it's it's like.
It's kind of like the the chef or the the guy in Ratatouille.
Yeah, who he's like on to it butdoesn't know 100% which.
One exists in a lot. There's one in Sonic in the
first Sonic. But yeah, you got those guys all
over the place. Chef Fujimoto is very suspicious

(50:14):
of Octodad's true nature and is chasing him around trying to
track him down. And we have to sometimes avoid
Chef Fujimoto. And how this game opens is
actually with a wedding. It's with Octodad getting
married to Scarlett. He is not suspected as being an
octopus. Someone walks in and gasps, and

(50:37):
they're not gasping because theysee an octopus, they're gasping
because they see someone who isn't dressed for the ceremony
yet. And so we go through getting
dressed for the wedding. We have the wedding ceremony as
a first chapter. Then we live a life in the
suburban home of this family. Domestic bliss while domestic

(50:59):
contentment. Yeah, that's probably a good
term for it. And and everyday scenario with
this family, maybe sans the the chef coming into the scene at
the end there. But then after that we go to a
grocery store. We also have an extensive series

(51:19):
of levels where we go to an aquarium.
That's where most of the game takes place.
And along the way, we are hanging out with our family and
then we're also being pursued bythe chef.
So that's what I would say to set up the story and the
setting. Yeah.
As for controls, each arm and each leg are controlled
separately, which is basically the brand of the game.

(51:42):
Our arms additionally will be able to hold onto suction onto
certain interactable items, and you use the same principle to
throw objects as well. As I recall, both arms can be
controlled at the same time, though I don't know exactly how
that works with single player, because arms when playing on a

(52:03):
controller are controlled with one of the sticks and a leg is
controlled with the other stick.Yeah, so I was going to talk
about this in a moment. Do you want me to jump ahead to
where I OK, so I did try this insingle player because I wanted
to be able to compare it a little bit.
There are two bonus scenario episodes.
I don't know if you know about these, but you can select them

(52:23):
from the main menu of the game. And I played the first one where
it is Scarlett and Octodad on their first fancy dates.
And it's actually a pretty long level.
Like it took me about 20 minutesto play.
You go on a date at a fancy restaurant.
You get roped into doing some ofthe cooking and some of the
dishes and things you have to serve other customers, but you

(52:45):
also have to revisit your table with Scarlet and eats a several
course meal with her. So there's a lot to balance and
juggle in this level. And dad sitcom.
Yes, and the chef is in this level.
He works at the restaurant, so it's perfect.
Yeah. And so playing this, what I
could tell is that you can move both legs.

(53:07):
You can only move one arm in single player.
That's all I could figure out. I don't think there are two arms
you can control, at least in this bonus episode.
So that's how it worked. You know that that does kind of
track. I seem to remember when we were
deciding which arm and which legto be Co-op that there would be
times when one option was grayedout and that might be what was

(53:29):
going. On there, that might be, yeah.
So there are on average more limbs to control when you're
playing the single player, but one less arm then yeah then
between both players, if that makes sense.
So both arms can be controlled in Co-op at the same time?
In Co-op mode though, And I imagine in single player mode

(53:51):
you can only control one leg simultaneously.
And at the time when we were playing the game I didn't really
understand why it was different.But then I was thinking about
it. I'm like, oh, you're on land,
you have to stand up somehow. So that is why only one leg at a
time, right? So if you're smarter than me,

(54:12):
you were quick to the jump on that, but it took.
It took me a while, a while to it took me a while too, and
that's definitely also how the single player works.
OK, As for other mechanics, you have what probably has a name,
but I call it the suspicion meter.
Basically, if you behave inhumanor if you fumble too much, your
suspicion meter will fill up andyou will be found out.

(54:36):
This suspicion meter also fills up if you become damaged.
There are levels where you can get hurt and it will.
That's basically double S as your health so.
The goal of the game is to do all your tasks, control your
limbs, but also, you know. Because humans never get hurt,
right? That's how the suspicion meter

(54:57):
works, I guess. So so avoid being found out.
And then you complete the game by completing a series of tasks
on a checklist in each level. And that's that's Octodad
Dadly's catch, baby. And it is the follow up to
Octodad, which is a 2010 game developed by students at DePaul
University. Did you know that this is

(55:18):
actually a sequel? I did know that our friend
Emily, also from No Small Games,did an episode of the Fun and
Games podcast Side Quests, whichis another great podcast.
It's a great podcast. So you can check out a specific
eggs podcast. Episode.

(55:38):
On the Fun and Games podcast about Octodad, Deadliest Catch
where she also talks about Octodad.
Yes. Did you follow all that
listener? I think all that made sense.
I grabbed all of the different pieces with all the tentacles,
the boneless tentacles, we. Got it.
The Boneless. We got the pieces in the right
order. And so these students from
DePaul University who made Octodad, some of them would go

(56:00):
on to form Young Horses and creates Deadliest Catch, the
sequel, which is really cool. I, I love that Basically four
years or so before Dadliest Catch came out, they created
this proof of concept maybe. I mean it was its own game, but
it feels pretty prototype ish and experimental.

(56:21):
I did give this a try the other night.
Wanted to also have this under my belt as something to compare
it to. It was kind of rough when it
comes to controlling. I will say the heart is there,
the ideas are there. You even see the same living
room from Deadliest Catch. It's in here.

(56:43):
You interact with Stacy and Tommy.
I didn't finish it. It's only like an hour long.
I had to give it up because it was just kind of driving me a
little insane with its controls.But you got.
The gist of it? But I think the chef is in it.
I I did get the gist of it and it is only controlled with your
mouse and how it works. I'm going to try to explain this

(57:06):
now. How it works is you click and
drag with your left mouse buttonto move your left leg.
You click and drag with your right mouse button to move your
right leg. If you want to use your arm, you
have to middle Click to switch to ARM mode.
How do you middle click if you don't have a middle clicker?
I think there's a button on the keyboard that also works, like

(57:29):
space or something. Or and O you you ress a button
essentially to switch to arm mode.
Then moving your mouse left and right strafes your arm, moving
it U and down moves it in the space like forward and back and
then I believe left clicking anddragging moves it on the Y axis

(57:51):
up and down. Good God.
It is very frustrating and I I could not hang with it I.
Could not hang play games doing WASD like I can't even handle
that like. And we haven't mentioned this
yet, but this is intentionally awkward controls, which is.
That's the point. That's the point, and that's

(58:12):
actually A tag on Steam intentionally frustrating
controls or something like that.Here, let me look this up Steam.
Your Bennett getting over it, your quops, your games like that
exactly. I am bread.
Intentionally Awkward controls is A tag on Steam.
Exactly. I am bread fish hero, Penguin
heist. A lot of these games I haven't

(58:33):
even heard of. Surgeon Simulator is one I've
played. And so this this came out sort
of earlier in the indie game timeline, right?
So this is this was a very novelidea back in the day.
I had never played it. I don't think he would ever
played it before. Here we are in 2025 playing it
for the first time. We played Co-op on twitch.

(58:55):
We played it all in one sitting and Disco Cola.
After playing through. What are your thoughts on
Octodad Dadliest Catch? Well, overall I had a pretty
good time, so I'm going to tell you what contributed to that and
what maybe took me out of the experience.
Up first, like Ibn AB, the simplicity is its strong suit.

(59:16):
The game knows what it is, and it's a complicated movement
simulator, and it remains disciplined in its tasks and
design to kind of keep that front and center.
You're never going through too many miscellaneous extra things
to get from point A to point B. Point A to point B is the task.

(59:37):
You know, that's the goal, that's the challenge.
Progression, I think feels pretty natural as you finish a
small set of tasks, particularlyin the aquarium.
You're then spit out of an exit near the next location for your
next set of tasks. And I don't think it necessarily
says which order you have to do these things in.

(59:59):
I've I didn't test that but. It's pretty open-ended, and
yeah, this game's constantly pushing you along, shoving you
along, ready to show you the next thing, time to do the next
thing, the next thing. Right.
But it's like a guided tour and it isn't.
It doesn't hand hold to the extent that like the Gen. 7
Pokémon games do, because that'spretty like dialogue heavy and

(01:00:19):
automatically points your character in a certain
direction. This like it respects your
intelligence. It spits you out and you can see
the door to the next place. So you have a pretty clear idea
of where to go. I like how silly some of the
tasks are, like climbing on the playground to get our sun is a
bit of a laugh. I also like how mundane some of

(01:00:40):
these tasks are. Like we have to get a frozen
pizza but the doors are frozen shut.
It's like, Oh yeah, it's this mundane task, but it's made
silly by circumstances of environment or by
cephalopodiness by just being anoctopus.
So even the mundane things get kind of fun and silly.

(01:01:01):
Yeah, none of the levels. I mean, there are wild things
that happened in the levels, butthey're all set in very logical
places, in many cases everyday places.
But what you're doing just be byhaving tentacles.
It is ridiculous. Yeah, absolutely.
It's a fish out of water sort ofthing.
I can't believe you. I think playing with a friend is

(01:01:25):
definitely the optimal way to play.
I think the comedic aspects are only amplified by playing with
someone else and all the strange, funny and odd moments
were better with you, so I appreciate that I got to play
with you. I also one of the funnest points
of the game was like pinpointingreferences to other indie games

(01:01:46):
with my indie game podcast Co hosts.
Yeah, we had our fun part of thegame.
We had our magnifying glasses upand we we were looking and
there's some fun stuff. There's we saw Commander video.
Oh gosh, I feel like there were some others.
There was a reference to Quap. There was a reference to the
Stanley Parable that's. Right, all within kind of the.

(01:02:07):
Same area. Yeah.
So that was really fun to just like pay a little bit closer
attention to the posters. It's like what are the what are
the indie experts question mark TM notice in here and.
This is over a decade ago, like they were doing this really fun
thing that we're still seeing today.
Yeah, I love it. The writing in the game is

(01:02:29):
pretty minimal, but it is comedywriting, and as comedy media
gets older, it often risks agingvery poorly.
But I don't think this one aged too poorly, in part because
there is so little of it. But also most of the jokes kind
of come from just like hiding parts of yourself from family,

(01:02:51):
you know? Maybe not everyone relates to
that, but it is a timeless concept and it will remain
timeless for a long time to come.
A lot of the comedy also happensin the side conversations with
NPCS. You know, you'll just hear
people say things, make little side comments about what you're
doing. And I was chuckling a lot of
that stuff. Yeah, like the marine biologist

(01:03:11):
just talking to each other too, like Co worker, you know, spats.
And I think my absolute favoritething, and it's a very super
small thing, but it really softened the most difficult
point of the game for me. My favorite thing from Octodad,
Dadliest Catch is the line run like a pony Dad.

(01:03:32):
I love that moment. That is the only part I did go
back to just to make sure I got the I wasn't sure if it was run
like a pony or jump like a pony.Yeah, but I went back to it and
my kids were crawling on my lap and and watching octopus again.
So amazing. I got to watch that part with my
kids over and over. As far as things that I don't

(01:03:52):
love about Octodad, I don't likethe escalator sections.
They felt really hard in a way that was totally different from
every other challenge in the game.
So I just, I really disliked theescalators.
Yeah. This is when we're in part of
the aquarium, we're with Stacy and we have to get up a series
of escalators that get more challenging and we're having to

(01:04:16):
go in a rhythm. But I feel like even when we
were in a rhythm, it wasn't working out, was it?
Yeah, it was rough because you know, you're because you can
only control 1 foot at a time. Your controlled foot has to
land, plant, you know, solid before the next one can even
move. So not only is your Co-op

(01:04:37):
partner trying to input that move, just trying to get it
ready to go prime the pump, but you're not necessarily planting
when you think you're planting your foot because it's a moving
staircase. So I think that has a lot to do
with it. And I was spamming my button
because I was, I was just spamming it in the hope that I
hit it in the right window afteryou were done moving your leg.

(01:04:58):
Exactly. Yeah, it's just a hard thing
that is so much harder than anything else in the game, in my
opinion. And I'm only pressing one
trigger and moving one stick. If I was playing single player,
I imagine if I don't get the rhythm right my both my fingers
might get tired. Yeah, yeah, could that could be
the case, man. Another thing and maybe maybe my

(01:05:20):
least favorite thing is that by default, in the default
settings, I don't think the audio mixing is very good at
all. The focus of the game is on
controls. Like that's the point, but I
lost a lot of the dad part of Octodad because I couldn't hear
what a lot of people were sayingand all of the subtitles of what

(01:05:43):
people were saying were at the top of the screen, which is not
where my intention is. That is odd that sometimes it's
up there because we're so used to reading down on the bottom
third. Right.
And so like, I missed so, so much of what was going on and I
didn't really get to pick up on it until I watched Octopus on
YouTube with my kids. Yeah, I've and I, Inversely, I

(01:06:05):
feel like there were times whereside audio cues were way too
loud for what they were. Like we were standing in line
for something and someone at thefront of the line was saying
something, but it's like they were yelling, you know, and we
shouldn't hear them that loudly,probably.
So I guess that did help us hearit, but it didn't seem very
mixed. Well, yeah.

(01:06:25):
And then just kind of going off of that a little bit more, I, I
just wish more of the story was like mandatory because I found
that the most impactful moment moments, potentially dialogue
pieces were in the aquarium withScarlett.
But again, I'm missing most of it because I can't hear it and I

(01:06:46):
can't read what she's saying. But it's also like providing the
most depth for our characters, in my opinion, in those in those
moments. Yeah, she wants to have some
real talk for a moment, and you can easily walk away and miss
it. And yeah, she'll just keep going
on while you're moving away. And I'm miss, I'm missing it.

(01:07:07):
So I don't know, like I can tellfrom level one that our marriage
is, you know, not perfect. But when those moments come up
later in the game, I just did, like I said, I missed it and I
needed a little bit more of that.
And a lot of that could have been, you know, mandatory
cutscenes that could have. Yeah, sure.

(01:07:29):
Even just even just 10 or 15 seconds sometimes can go a long
way, yeah. So mostly though, I just, I
don't, I don't know how long this game will stick with me.
I don't necessarily wish the game was longer, but I just, I
wish there was a little bit moreto chew on and maybe you get
more in those other stories thatyou were talking about.
Yeah, I I got more in that firstdate level than a lot of the

(01:07:54):
base game levels. OK, Yeah, I think that's worth
playing actually. Because as it stands for me,
it's, it's, it's like I, it's like I went to go get a fast
food burger, right? And I can smell it through the
drive through and the picture onthe menu, it looks incredible.
But then when I get it, it's like flatter than a hockey puck.

(01:08:14):
It still smells good and it still tastes good, but I'm like
done with it in four overly ketchup bites.
And that's kind of how I feel with Octodad.
I just want a little bit more, alittle a thicker bun please.
I hear you on that. But in the end, I don't have
many complaints really. But I don't know, I kind of wish

(01:08:38):
I did have more complaints because as it stands, it was a
fun game that I played with somegood laughs and with a great
friend. But I didn't, I didn't have too
much of a hard time with the hard controls game.
Octodad. Dadliest Catch?
And I don't necessarily know that I want it to be harder
either, but that lack of a certain challenge kind of makes

(01:09:02):
this a breezier experience, potentially to a detriment.
Though again, I did, I did stillhave fun all the same.
So for me and all those reasons,this is and again, we're going
to bring in the, the scale of, of of numbers here.
This is a high 7.5 for me. What?

(01:09:23):
Nice. Cool.
That's about where I expected you to land on it.
Yeah, I'm of two minds with it too, because you could see it as
well. It could be harder, which would
make it maybe more rewarding to surmount the challenge.
But also I'm super glad that we were able to finish this in one
sitting. We had we had a hard.

(01:09:43):
Time planning that one sitting. I know, I know.
So I'm thankful we finished it in one sitting and I still had
fun in that setting. And so as I go into my thoughts,
I just want to say I love the slick and clean presentation in
this game. I love the intro cut scene with
the Octodad song. I think immediately this game
has personality. You see Octodad falling in the

(01:10:05):
air. He's colliding with the words of
the credits in really fun ways. You can actually control him.
We love an interactive credits at the end of the game.
We also, it turns out we love and interactive credits at the
beginning of the game. Let's go.
Yeah, let's throw it back to like old movies.
Credits at the beginning, baby. Yeah, so that sort of felt like
a throwback. It almost, you know, you talked

(01:10:27):
about the, the idyllic suburban day or whatever you said the
the. I I said contentment.
Contentment. This almost feels like an homage
to the quiet suburban life of the, you know, 19, fifties,
1960s or something like that. And with the hairstyles of of

(01:10:48):
our. Characters.
And so there's something classicabout it.
And I think that maybe that timeperiod specifically isn't
intentional all the way through.Maybe it does end up being a
little bit more modern in the technology they use and the
places they go, but there's something a little classic, a
little timeless that's preservedthroughout.

(01:11:08):
I love the clear cut instructions and the objectives.
They make sense. They're very easy to understand.
I did catch myself not reading them a few times and that's on
me. But they update and it's very
clear about what you're supposedto do.
This game is never vague. I love the experience of playing
two player in Octodad. After playing single player and

(01:11:32):
Co-op, I can very safely say that I think the two player
experience is superior and that was not on my bingo card.
I I fully expected Co-op octodadto be so unintuitive, so chaotic
and unintuitive that I would prefer playing at single player.

(01:11:53):
Not because I don't like playingwith you, but just because with
this game and this Co-op mode inthis game, it just doesn't work
out as well. And wow, that's a huge surprise
is that it actually ended up being quite easy.
And so I feel like we do this unspoken cooperation where I
noticed that you move your legs,so I move my leg and we get into

(01:12:15):
a rhythm with the movement. And after we do it enough times
and enough levels, we know what that feels like.
And so when I feel you starting to get into that, that rhythm of
movement, I know what you're doing and I start doing it too.
And I think in some ways that iseasier than pulling both
triggers yourself with a controller.

(01:12:37):
I love that there's a balance ofjank and snappiness, right?
Because the movement is chaotic at a certain point, but
interacting with objects is snappy.
You will pick up a key item, you'll bring it to its spot.
Like let's say the the burgers that you grill at home, you just

(01:13:00):
set them on the grill. You don't have to Orient them a
certain way. When you pick them up after
they're cooked, you just place them on the bun and they
magnetize to the bun. That happens all over.
There is a comfy, you know, window of of error there.
And I'm so thankful for that. I love that.
I love that we don't have to like precisely pixel by pixel

(01:13:22):
arrange it so that it's just right.
It just knows and it snaps. And that's, that's really all
the game needs to be. It doesn't need to be this
precision. It's more about the idea of did
you pick up the burger and did you grill it?
Yes, you did. Then you picked it up and put it
towards the bun. We'll do the rest.
Walk from point A to point B while holding the thing.

(01:13:42):
Yeah, exactly. I love the heartfelt themes and
the story too. I think this is another surprise
of the game. Octodad represents this
uneasiness that we might feel like we don't belong.
I, like Octodad, have so many days where I feel like I'm
speaking a different language than everyone else.
It feels like I can't say the right thing or people aren't

(01:14:05):
listening to me, or I just don'tknow how to communicate in a way
that is synonymous with how other people are communicating
that day. And I think that's kind of what
he's going through. I think this could also
represent the immigrant experience.
I can't speak from my own experience, but Octodad is an
immigrant in a way, and I think some people might see that side

(01:14:26):
of a story. There's also the parental
experience, and I'll be curious to hear about, you know, more of
those moments like run like a pony dad, you know, like, what
other moments stood out to you as things that reminded you of
your kids, for instance? And I just think it's whatever
Octodad might mean to you as theplayer.
Everyone will get something out of this story, I think.

(01:14:47):
And for a really goofy game about wacky physics, I think
that's pretty extraordinary and probably above and beyond for
something like this. I didn't really like that The
level distribution felt a bit uneven with so much of it
focused on the aquarium. So on the first few levels, we
have our wedding, we have the day at home, and then we go to

(01:15:11):
the grocery store, and all of those are pretty short.
And then we spend so much time at the aquarium.
And I get that that's where a lot of the most important
moments happen, but it just feels like this game leans so
far on the aquarium side that I would have wanted more everyday
situations. So I'm thinking of Tommy's level
in the aquarium that could have just as easily been literally

(01:15:36):
any playground ever and not an aquarium.
Like you could have gone to the park with the kids.
We could have been at the park and then we could have seen
other kids. We could have had a street with
traffic going on. We could have had, oh honey,
could you go get the kids ice cream across the street?
You know, stuff like. That maybe sand complicates your
movement. Yeah, by walking in sand.
Totally. And that's an opportunity to

(01:15:57):
just see more outdoor exterior locations.
Also, there were a few times where limbs got stuck inside of
surfaces. Oh yeah, that was rough.
That that was unfortunate. It was not frequent, but we did
have to quit to menu one time I think.
Just a couple times where this happened and sometimes you can
get yourself unstuck, but on that playground on the jungle

(01:16:21):
gym thing my leg got stuck in the bridge and we couldn't get
it unstuck. Also, there are a few sections
that are disproportionately frustrating.
I'm thinking of times like the escalators.
Overall though, Octodad was moretouching than I expected and
perhaps more than it had any right to be.

(01:16:42):
It is a Co-op experience where the Co-op was superior to the
single player for me in this case.
I don't think this is a game that is terribly deep or
profound, but there are some heartwarming moments.
There are some themes that go a little bit deeper than you might
expect. So I'm going to rate this an 8

(01:17:05):
out of 10 that's. What?
I guess Really. Yeah, I'm on top.
You're. On top of it, yeah.
I am reading you like a book, bopo.
I thought about maybe a 7.5, butI'm going up to an 8.
I'm going up to an 8 because I had a great time with you and I
think this is just a pleasant time.
It's it's not one that I'll think back to a ton.
I think that's part of what's informing my 8 out of 10 and not

(01:17:27):
like a nine out of 10. That's kind of where mine is
too. Yeah.
So I wanted to touch on how we actually got the Co-op working
because this required homework, this required some testing.
You did, you did all that homework.
I helped with some testing, but you've you knocked it out.
So that's all you. I really just did a search on
the Internet of how do you how do you get this up and running?

(01:17:49):
And I found a forum somewhere. That's more than I usually do.
I'm usually just like, I'll justbuy the game and I'll we'll,
we'll both figure it out. Yeah, well, I knew that this
didn't have the traditional online Co-op option on
PlayStation. You know, you can't own the game
and have someone else own the game and just join an online

(01:18:10):
session. You have to do PlayStation share
play, you have to join a party. And we did this.
We, we did a test before our stream where we made a
PlayStation party and then we had to, I had to start up the
game and then I used PlayStationShare play, I think is what it's
called inside of the party's menu.

(01:18:32):
You have to be in my party. I choose you, cast my game to
you and allow you control. And then we have the ability to
assign legs and arms to each other.
And so we went with you were theleft side, I was the right side
of the body. Yeah, so we hadn't mentioned
that until now, but I was the entire left half.

(01:18:53):
Yeah, and there's an option to randomize the assignments
between levels and that was on by.
Default that was on by default and that was so confusing and
annoying. We thought it wasn't working.
Yeah, We thought it was glitching because I was like
also experiencing some like really low resolution because of
my Internet settings. It was.

(01:19:15):
It was a confusing start, but wegot there.
And so whenever we reach a new safe point, it would randomly
assign the arms and legs. We'd be like, what happened?
Are you disconnecting there? Would be times where it would
just be all bopo, yeah. And like, OK, and I thought I
lost you. I thought you just disconnected
from the Internet. And then we go back into that
menu for the 4th time and we notice, oh, there's an option

(01:19:38):
that says randomize limbs after each.
Level. That's a fun concept, but that's
more of a like. I would only do that if you were
in the same room. Totally.
And maybe on a second playthrough, I don't know about
the first playthrough. So I if we wanted a harder time,
that's definitely the way to go because I would totally forget

(01:19:59):
which limbs I had every level. So I think about the timeline of
indie games, right? And I often throw it to Limbo,
Meat Boy, Castle Crash, just allof those PS3 ones that we have
played relatively recently here on underplayed.
But for me, Octodad deadliest catch is kind of like one of the

(01:20:21):
first in the the second era. And indie games have been around
forever. You know, my first era, second
era is not accurate, but this islike the first one in the second
era. You know, big air quotes for me.
And so I'm just curious, like inyour opinion, after looking at
Limbo and Meat Boy and Castle Crashers talking about what

(01:20:42):
holds up, what doesn't, what do you think holds up with Octodad
by today's standards and what doesn't?
Well, this is definitely a more light hearted comedic game with
some real themes sprinkled throughout.
But I'd call this, you know, more of a comedy game than
Limbo. So if we're comparing it to
those earlier games, I think of Castle Crashers, which is a

(01:21:03):
goofy game too. I think the comedy, the humor in
this is a more timeless like youpointed out.
And then the presentation I think holds up the the
introduction of the game, the introduction of the levels is
again, really smooth. And I, I think that's something
that won't go away with with time.

(01:21:23):
I think that will always be something that holds up with
this game because they just wanted to make it clean and it's
just it works. When I think of other
intentionally awkward controls games I've played, I think of,
you know, I've tried, I am bred.Wow, I gave up on that pretty

(01:21:44):
fast. I've also tried getting over it
with Bennett Fadi. And I think what is nice about
Octodad is that it is much more approachable than I would have
expected. I had never played it before.
Neither of us had. So I I just didn't know what it
what to expect and it was not too bad.
I think you can get into a groove with it.

(01:22:07):
For me I think controlling it gameplay wise it does feel more
if the awkward control games hada classic, it feels more like a
classic. It feels more natural to control
because of the approachability like you mentioned.
I can't imagine something like Getting Over It with Bennett

(01:22:27):
Fadi coming out quite as or it's.
I think they're pretty close together in age, but I don't
think it came out quite as earlyas Octodad.
Oh yeah. Getting over it.
Let's let's Fact Check me real quick. 2017 OK, so a few years
after. Yeah, For me though, I things
that don't really feel like theyhold up is and part of this is

(01:22:50):
because of the hairstyles and perceived time period.
There's a lot about this game that reminds me of Destroy All
Humans, but part of that is alsobecause of kind of how some of
the levels are feel a little bitmore naked than they need to be.
Like I could go with more junk in the grocery store.

(01:23:12):
Totally. Like there is a lot of stuff to
trip over in there, but. But let's have a pyramid of soda
boxes that make a collage. Yeah?
And maybe we can knock those over.
It's just like 2 aisles and a small little produce.
Almost like a closet. Basically, I could have the
place feel a little bit more lived in.

(01:23:34):
Adding to that, which might contribute to the classic feel,
did you also notice that the game feels like it's a little
bit desaturated, or like maybe just doesn't have as much
brightness in its color? Yeah, there there is something
with color. I'm not good at recognizing
color or color theory or things like that.

(01:23:54):
So I'm going to lean a little bit more on you for that.
But there, there is something, there's like outlines in some
places and other places things kind of just blend in with the
background. Does that make sense?
Yeah, yeah. I just think that there could be
more contrast, there could be more saturation to the world.
I think it could be a little bitlivelier through colors that

(01:24:17):
pop, but maybe that's trying to evoke more of a classic feel
too. So yeah, it's not like it's an
ugly game. I think it's actually a nice
looking game. Yeah.
I as far as what doesn't hold up, I mean, you pointed out some
things with the sound mixing. You know, I, I, I feel like good
sound mixing is something we might take for granted in a lot

(01:24:37):
of games because that's, that seems like it would be hard,
especially in a 3D game. We've got side characters, many
of whom utter things as you're walking by.
There's a lot of measurements you need to do to get that
right. Yeah, for me, I didn't like
think of that as something that didn't hold up because I still
experience bad sound mixing in games even even in our modern

(01:25:01):
era. But but it is something that
stood out to me for sure. Now, do you want to go area by
area and talk about moments fromthe different chapters or do you
want to just highlight a few favorites?
What what do you want to do here?
When we look at the whole list of areas.

(01:25:21):
Well, I appreciated the game themost in the grocery store just
because they were environmental challenges, they were climbing
challenges, and it was the only time in the game where I felt
challenged by the suspicion meter because through a large
amount of the game I didn't feellike we were struggling with

(01:25:43):
that except for the marine biologist, which can basically
one shot you. Yeah, it does feel like a
mysterious mechanic. It makes me think of the
insanity meter in Amnesia The Dark Descent, where it's this
entire mechanic presented to youand always in front of you, but
you never have a grasp of how close are you to danger, how

(01:26:07):
close are you to failure? And so it's just this thing you
live with. And it wasn't a problem most of
the time. And so that was another way the
game was a little bit more approachable for us.
As far as like moments that stand out, there were a couple
of times where jank really worked in our favor.
I think in the playground we managed to like accidentally

(01:26:29):
climb up two ladders and then there was 1 moment in the final
section of the aquarium where there is a fire.
I'll say we like bugged out intoa second checkpoint even though
we didn't actually reach it, which I was not opposed.

(01:26:49):
I was pretty pleased with that. I actually have a theory about
this because I went back to get the trophy where Scarlett plugs
the three things herself. Oh, there's a trophy for that.
Yeah. Oh, nice.
So we almost got it ourselves the first time and I had to play
that section to get there and playing in single player I was
falling a lot and then it respawned me in that spot.

(01:27:10):
So I think it is intentional. Intentional, like after you
fail. After you fail maybe four or
five times, I think it's going to put you on that other side to
give you an easier time. I wondered about that.
Yeah. I was hoping that it was more of
a like, oh, we found the secret spot, but.
Yeah. I did.
I did wonder about. That I did appreciate that,
though, that I didn't have to doall that careful stepping above

(01:27:32):
the fire, because that was. Add band name.
Careful stepping. Stepping, careful, fire
stepping. Yeah, I also really like the
arcade area where we're just playing a couple of many games
really quickly to get all the toys that we need.
I love a mini game room. Dragon Shores Inspiro 2 was like
a great reward for completing a game.

(01:27:54):
And we were taking turns with those two, like, you know, I
would mainly control 1, you would mainly control one.
And then we end up using the animals we get to plug the
holes, I think, which, you know,that it pays off.
That's a really fun idea. When you were talking about
Gurvison's Grocery, that reminded me that I think that
level is just firing on all cylinders.
Probably my single favorite areaof the game.

(01:28:17):
But you were talking about wanting it to be more full of
objects. And I actually think the Wedding
Bells segment, the opening segment has lots of stuff.
Maybe that's why I think becauseit's it's not the next level,
but it's the one after that. And it's just like, I was like
digging around in this, you know, chest full of crap to find

(01:28:37):
my wedding ring. Right, and there were present
boxes stacked in front of the doors, and we're knocking those
over. We're destroying the stained
glass window to get our bow tie.There's the room right next to
where we get our tux, and there are lots of tables and objects
in there. We can knock over tons of stuff
down the aisle leading to Scarlets.

(01:29:00):
So yeah, really fun stuff. I didn't look for them always,
but I appreciated that there were the ties that we can find
in the game. There's a collectible in here
and I did manage to find an extra 1 as I was going back to
get the trophy with Scarlets. I think it if we hadn't been so

(01:29:21):
pressed for time and scheduling conflicts, I would not have
minded looking for those. That would have been if we had
to make it into two streams, that would have been the focus
of the second one for sure. And now I want to hear from you
about any relatable moments withyou being a dad.
Since this is about an Octo dad,we do have two kids in this game

(01:29:45):
and you have two kids yourself. So what?
What moments stood out to you from a parental perspective?
So there there are a lot of parallels between Stacy and
Tommy and my children. I'm thinking specifically of
like 3 moments. One is in the playground where
we're trying to get to Tommy andthen we're like almost to the

(01:30:08):
top but not quite. And Tommy just bolts to the next
thing. He's just like see you dad,
you're almost there. You know, he's just like off.
I'm just like, can you just? Like I'll never catch that down
for a. Minute Another moment is with
Tommy again and he has to be tied down and I can relate to

(01:30:32):
that in a lot of ways because one of my children will run off,
escape, avoid you when you obviously need them to sit
still, while the other child is always just like pleasant and
relaxed and will come when you call.

(01:30:53):
You know that kind of thing. They compliment each other very
well, don't they? I sure I I could deal with just
like 2 of the same, that would be fine.
But but then also with Stacy, there's moments where she is
just like really observant. She understands things that not
everyone else is picking up on every once in a while.

(01:31:15):
It's like I didn't know that youwere you were paying attention.
Yeah, there's a great moment with Stacy in the aquarium, just
where she holds up her hand. You know, there, there, there
are moments that kind of got to me.
And again, I just think it's a really kind of surprising game
when it comes to some of its emotions.

(01:31:35):
And this was my pick for our Co-op game for the season.
And I just want to thank you forbeing open minded about it.
I wanted to play it. It is, yeah, I did too.
It's one of those classic Indiesthat I feel like was good to
check off the list and have thatfeather in our cap and a

(01:31:55):
different kind of Co-op experience than one we've had
before I think too. Well, we will end it there
unless you have anything else toshare.
I don't think so. Cool all.
Right. Well, that is our review of
Octodad Deadliest Catch, the last featured game of Season 7.
Have you been taking a look? Do you know what you're picking
next episode? I think I have one.

(01:32:17):
I have one that I'm ready. Well, we're going to have
several guests and they will pick.
I'm kind of waiting for them to pick their games before I.
I don't think this one's going to be picked from a guest.
But. I've got, I've got one.
I was thinking about it. I think yesterday in the car or
something. I was like, I think that one.
I think that's the one. Interesting.

(01:32:38):
OK. I'm curious about that one.
I do have one that there's a chance a guest would want to
play. It's kind of a a big one that
I've wanted us to play for a while.
O We'll see if that one gets picked.
Otherwise, I'm kind of playing the waiting game.
I'll see what I'll see what the guests pick.
We're going to have a few more guests than we've had before, so

(01:32:59):
we've got to figure that. Stuff out I I haven't.
I've barely looked at the list. I don't think about it until
it's actually time. I barely look at the list.
That's so interesting. I I look at the list all the
time. Yeah, I see that there's like
two more on here since I last looked, which was not that long
ago, right? Yeah, well, yeah, I'm.
I'm adding ideas to it, but alsoI just browse the lists that are

(01:33:20):
already because I'm like, oh, what's on here again?
Oh, yeah. And I just like imagining
playing them, I guess. Yeah.
But yeah, you can play. Anyway, back to Doctor Dad.
You can play it on. Get ready for this list.
PC, Mac, Linux, Wii U, Switch, PS4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One,

(01:33:42):
iOS and Android. Disco Cola rated it a 7.5.
I rated it an 8. That's the end of this episode
of Underplayed. You can find more of our
episodes at kzum.org/underplayedand on common podcast platforms
such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Our music was composed by Jack Rodenberg.
Our art comes from Oni Mochi. Check out our show notes where

(01:34:04):
you can find and follow us across social media.
Underplayed is on Blue Sky, Instagram and Threads.
You can also find my links down there, and I stream a variety of
indie games on Twitch. And you can find me in a lot of
those same places, mostly Blue Sky and you can find Underlayed
also on Twitch, where we played this game in one sitting.

(01:34:26):
And we do early premieres of allof our episodes on the Monday
nights before they premiere. But after that, we'll be dormant
for about a month while we get ready for Season 8.
Yes, and next time we'll be reflecting on all the games of
Season 7 and we'll be planning our featured game roster for
Season 8. It'll be a great time.
Until then, everyone keep on playing.

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076 - ibb & obb, Miniatures, & Octodad: Dadliest Catch

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}076 - ibb & obb, Miniatures, & Octodad: Dadliest Catch