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The Middle of Culture is what happens when two siblings with too many opinions and not enough chill dive headfirst into movies, music, video games, and whatever else is rotting our brains this week. It’s part pop culture podcast, part sibling rivalry, and fully unfiltered. Expect passionate arguments, niche references, unsolicited rankings, and the occasional moment of unexpected insight. If you’ve ever wanted to eavesdrop on the kind of argument you’d hear at the family dinner table—only with better audio—this is your show.
Eden
00:00
You know what you didn't need to do guys? Put physics in the testicles of the horses in your stupid cowboy game. Welcome back to the Middle of Culture. I'm one of your hosts, Eden.
Peter
00:23
And I am your other host, Peter. Peter, how are you doing today? I am doing well.
00:30
It is it is Friday afternoon for me, Friday evening for you. I am just kind of kicking it here at home alone because Uh Lis and Gareth are in Boise until Monday morning and then we'll be in California until the following Monday morning. So I'm just hanging out here totally alone.
Eden
00:53
Is this for swimming shenanigans? It is. Yep.
Peter
00:57
Swim meet in Boise over the weekend and then a week-long swim meet in uh California.
Eden
01:01
All right. Well, there you go. I am also alone, um, but I am in lovely Providence, Rhode Island at a conference.
01:10
So dear listeners, the audio might be a little different than usual because I'm having to use kind of a uh an improvised uh recording setup. I'm not I'm not at home. Uh so we're doing we're making it work though.
01:22
I think it'll be fine. Totally. Totally fine.
01:26
So uh so Peter, what you been up to?
Peter
01:28
What's been catching your attention lately? You know, I've gotta be honest, not a whole lot. I've still been reading some uh some of the history books that I picked up when we were in England, just enjoying kind of uh a a low-stakes little series of lessons in history about uh silly things from the world and then the British monarchy.
01:52
Uh so still still cranking away at that Um haven't really played many games other than I did go back on a whim and decide to try and fire up both Forza Horizon 4, which is the one in the UK. And Forza Horizon 5, the one in Mexico, uh played a little bit more of those, but not a ton. Um You know, Lis and I started watching Modern Family.
02:19
We'd never really watched it. I don't know why in my head I had that it was going to be a little bit more sort of edgy and acerbic. Uh it's fun.
02:31
It's it's lighthearted. It's it's a very wholesome show. Yeah, very much so.
02:36
And I don't know where this idea that it wasn't. I don't know where I got that idea. But so we've been enjoying that. You know, plenty of laugh out loud moments.
02:46
We also started Community. We're still a little on the fence when it comes to Community. Uh we're only maybe four or five episodes into the first season.
02:57
Uh we haven't decided to turn it off But it's, you know, we sit down and we're like, uh, what do you want to watch? And most of the time we're like, oh, let's watch an episode of Modern Family. So That's fair.
Eden
03:07
I think of those two, I definitely prefer Community, but you know, different strokes for different folks, right?
Peter
03:14
Well, and like I say, we're both fairly early into both of them. I will say Joel McHale's character really had us turned off after the first one or two episodes. Yeah.
03:23
But he's We've seen enough progress in the next couple episodes that we're still like, okay, we can keep watching it. It's just we may watch one episode of Community and then maybe two episodes of Modern Family if we're gonna sit down for the evening That's fair. But you know, checking out both of those.
03:40
And then I'll just uh some music that I've been checking out. The more recent releases, the last little bit. Nothing today, uh, interestingly.
03:48
It's one of those uh one of those Fridays where there really wasn't much to add except I mean I guess I might as well mention 20th anniversary remaster release of Meshuggah's Catch Thirtythree. But more important, 30th anniversary remaster release of Destroy Erase Improve by Meshuggah, which—every time I listen to Destroy Erase Improve and think about the fact that that album came out in 1996, it blows my freaking mind. I mean It feels so fresh especially in 19—oh my gosh, in 1996, that album is so far ahead of its time. Literally the only thing that would even give you a clue that it was from 96.
04:36
is that the production is a little bit more thin. It doesn't sound as robust as modern production. Yeah.
04:42
But that is literally the only thing. Like I love to throw that album on for people. And just be like, yo, this came out in 96.
04:50
And you get, especially that first song. I mean, come on, Future Breed Machine. You get to that the those good two guitar solos that the kind of the first slow spacey one and then the second one during the middle of the breakdown where it's just the rapid like and people just look at you and you're like yes This is like alien music.
Eden
05:07
Yeah. You're like seven strings and polyrhythmic. Oh yeah.
05:14
Oh yeah. And then you're like sometimes eight strings. Not on destroy erase improve, but sometimes later on, eight strings on the guitar.
05:21
Eight strings. And where do you where do you put the extra strings? Down low.
05:26
Always at the bottom.
Peter
05:28
Always at the bottom.
Eden
05:31
You turn that regular guitar into a bass guitar. What are you doing?
Peter
05:35
It's true. You do. And you know, here's the thing.
05:39
Meshuggah, I think that—I mean, Meshuggah defined multiple genres of heavy metal. Oh, yeah. Like redefined them, I think, in ways.
05:52
And I I just I think they're great. They're not a band that I can listen to in really long chunks. I can take them little bits here and there, one album, maybe two albums back to back, and then I'm kind of like, okay, let's mix something else in there.
06:09
Because the music is sometimes atonal, it's very angular in nature, and it is it is demanding to listen to. Yeah. And because of that, sometimes it's not great like background music.
06:23
But at the same time, every time I listen to something by Meshuggah, I'm like, oh man, there's nobody who sounds like Meshuggah. There are many bands who have tried to sound like Meshuggah, and nobody really sounds like Meshuggah.
Eden
06:35
No, every time I've ever heard anyone say these guys are inheriting the spirit of Meshuggah, I was like, no, they're not. And then I listen to it and I'm even more disappointed because they—no one ever has. No one does it like those freaks.
Peter
06:48
Nope. They don't. They don't. But three albums that came out last Friday that I've been enjoying and listening to. The British progressive metal band Haken released an EP.
06:59
Uh it's their first album in a couple of years and their first new music since uh guitarist Charlie Griffiths and bassist Conner Green left. They left earlier this year. So it's kind of a lean, stripped down version of Haken.
07:11
I think last time I looked it's only four members now. Very much kind of British prog, um still not quite as weird as some of their first, like their first two albums or so, which are the ones I I know prog purists love them and don't love the Virus and Vector era, but I'm a little bit more of a metal guy and I like the crunchier, heavier feel of Virus, Vector, and stuff.
07:38
And so this is this has been pretty good. I've only listened to it like twice, I think, so I don't have a ton of You know, I don't have a ton that I've listened to, but I'm enjoying it. And then the two others that have gotten a lot more play.
07:52
uh Psycroptic, The Pulse of Annihilation, Australian Technical Death Metal. They are great. I would say that this new album, it's a little bit more tighter, a little bit leaner than their 2023 album, Divine Council.
08:06
That was actually the album that got me into Psycroptic. But it is, it is great. Just intricate drums, intricate guitar.
08:14
It is, it's really good stuff. And then Protest the Hero. Protest the Hero have a new album, Within.
08:20
Love Protest the Hero. Been a big fan. Realistically, it was their album.
08:27
Oh gosh, which was the one I got into? I think it was even before Kezia and Scurrilous. Oh, it was after Kezia, before Scurrilous, and I'm blanking on which album that was.
08:36
But it was Volition was the one that really got me into them. Uh I think that Within is a fantastic album. It is very, very good.
08:44
It is a lot tighter. It's only coming in at about thirty-something minutes, so it's a nice tight album of just wild, kind of crazy, chaotic post-hardcore progressive all-over-the-place stuff. And I think that once again Protest the Hero has pulled it off. And I have to say, if you have never—have you ever seen the Protest the Hero video for the song “Clarity”?
09:12
I think it's the first track off Volition. No. So it is what made me a lifelong Protest the Hero fan. I I will I will give you this short rundown.
09:23
The video for “Clarity” has a group of Star Trek LARPers run into a group of Star Wars LARPers in a field. They get into a brawl until a group of Lord of the Rings LARPers show up and kick all their butts.
Eden
09:41
Okay. Why not?
Peter
09:42
So it's fun. Um, it's fun. Protest the Hero's good.
09:46
That's really about what I've been checking out the last of the while. What about you? What you been checking out?
Eden
09:50
So, um, let's see. Where should I start? So I have uh a couple of things I want to make sure I mention.
09:57
First off, I did it. I finished Long-Awaited Feelings. Clocking in, someone did the math and it is like 2,600 pages of book.
10:07
I finished it. Holy moly. Guess—and guess what?
10:11
They're married. It's great. Well, they're domestic partnered.
10:13
It's great. It got really exciting at the end. We figured out the metaphysical reasons why time was turned back and it was good.
10:22
It was really fun. I liked it a lot. It was too long, but I did enjoy it Um, but it's nice to have that done.
10:29
I've been picking through some other stuff that's just, you know, later books in series I've already read. Um, just to, you know, pick away at things. Been reading some Magical Revolution, rereading some other stuff, but uh I really enjoyed Long-Awaited Feelings.
10:43
I would definitely read other stuff by that same author. I thought it was fun. Yeah, other things to mention.
10:52
I said last time that there is a lot of seasonal anime that I'm actually watching this season. So it's time to recap. What is Eden watching this season in anime?
11:03
Number one, The Ghost in the Shell is here. Okay. Pretty good.
11:11
Here's the thing. It looks incredible. It looks stunning.
11:15
Um, because they did a really—the thing about, and I think we talked about this when we watched Ghost in the Shell together, the thing about the comic, The Ghost in the Shell, is that it looks incredible, but Masamune Shirow is not a good writer. So it's not very well written, but it looks cool as hell. Um, Science Saru is the uh the studio that is animating this.
11:40
And guess what? They just said, why don't we just make it look like the comic looks. So it looks really cool.
11:49
This is a very, very different take on these characters. It's a lot goofier, like the comic is. A lot of people who are kind of anime-only watchers who've maybe watched Ghost in the Shell, the movie, or they watched Stand Alone Complex, and that's kind of been their relationship with Ghost in the Shell, they're all really confused why the Major is like funny and flirty and like kind of a goofball and blushes constantly throughout the first episode.
12:19
That's who she is in the comic. She's funny and flirty. And so that is what they've really leaned into with this adaptation.
12:26
I'm very curious to see how it goes because I did notice In episode three, it felt like the budget was significantly less. A lot of the action looked a lot kind of sketchier. In fact, there is a scene in this in the opening action sequence of episode three.
12:43
There's a part where it like basically turns into storyboards or like like loose pencils instead of finished animation and like it does that in a stylist like stylistic way like on purpose trying to be like we're doing something cool here But also it probably cost a fifth of what it would have cost to finish the thing. So I gotta imagine that that's a part of it. So I wonder what's gonna happen there.
13:11
I wonder if because that first episode looks like a cajillion bucks So I wonder if they kind of blew a lot of the money on that first episode. Cause that's happened with other shows before. Like the famously, famously, famously the four-episode Uzumaki adaptation.
13:26
The first episode is one of the coolest things you will ever see because it just looks like they've animated Uzumaki with like a bajillion dollars. And then episodes two through four look like dog shit. because they had no money left.
13:41
They spent literally 75% of the budget for the show on the first episode. And then they had to make three episodes with 25% of the budget. So I don't know if that's what's also happening with Ghost in the Shell.
13:54
We'll see. Uh But I'm having fun with it, and that's what counts. It's it's very light, it's very slight, it is not as interesting as any of the other versions of Ghost in the Shell that I have enjoyed.
14:06
Uh it's better than SAC 2045 But I would not say it's better than even the Arise quadrilogy. It's definitely not better than the movie, but it's a different take on things, and I'm having fun with it. Other things to mention.
14:23
There is another one I'm watching called Chainsmoker Cat. You might wonder, what's Chainsmoker Cat about Eden? Well, it's about social deprivation and racism in Japan.
14:36
But how is it telling that story? Big titty cat girl. Sometimes you make choices with an adaptation and that's what they've chosen to do.
14:47
It's a manga I've read the first couple of volumes of, it's very gross. um in funny ways, but also in like, wow, like sometimes a person is desperate. Because functionally this is a this is an anime and a manga about addiction and the ways that it like affects your life.
15:06
Because the titular chainsmoker cat, Yani Neko, is absolutely, like, fully addicted to cigarettes. To such a degree that there is a scene in the first episode where she is walking with her fresh pack of cigs she just bought at the corner store. She's like trying to tap one out, and six of them go flying out of the box.
15:27
three of which land in dog poop on the street. And she's like, ah, three-second rule. I'll leave those dog poop ones there, but the other ones I'll pick up.
15:35
And then she walks away. And then she comes back and picks up the ones out of the dog poop and she's like, well, I'll just cut the poopy parts off. Like, that's the level of addiction that she is dealing with to cigarettes.
15:49
Um but also it's about social deprivation because she can't keep a job. She is like profoundly poor. There is one episode where she has like 168 yen until the next payday.
16:03
Five days later. Do you know how much 168 yen is in American dollars, Peter?
Peter
16:10
Uh I don't. My guess is not very much.
Eden
16:13
It used to be the old rule of thumb for years. was one dollar was a hundred yen and it's worse than that now. Oh a hundred and sixty eight yen is about a buck, a buck oh five. And that is what she has to live on for five days.
Peter
16:31
Yeah, that's that's that's that's right.
Eden
16:34
Profound poverty. And this is a thing that happens in Japan and that they get really uncomfortable talking about in media. There was a very famous movie that came out a few years ago, I can't think of the name of now, that is about the profoundly poor of Japan.
16:48
And outside of Japan, it did really, really well. People were like, this is monumental filmmaking. But inside of Japan, the guy was like pilloried and blacklisted for having like aired the country's dirty laundry to the international uh audience.
17:02
Uh so that is a big so I'm very curious to see what the reception is in Japan to this show. Um but it's also like I said about racism because People are really racist to the beast folks in this show. Like she being a catgirl, people objectify them and are super, super racist to them.
17:24
There's only certain jobs they can have. There's only certain parts of the town they can live in. All these sorts of things.
17:31
So it's a really complicated. underlying thing for what is fundamentally a very gross funny show. Like there is a part very early on where she gets like explosive diarrhea in the very first episode Or she like pukes from her second floor balcony onto her landlord's head and like all this sorts of stuff.
17:53
Like her little sister can't even come into her apartment because her apartment stinks so bad because she's so just disgusting. Um so, but it's also funny. It's very funny, but it's very much an acquired taste.
18:07
It is not a thing I would recommend everyone go and watch. It's weird, it's gross, but it's also very funny. Good to know.
18:14
Other things I'm watching this season. I told you there's a lot. There is a it's it's among us.
18:20
Well, I mean all of these I think, with one exception, are all adaptations of manga that I've read. There's one called A Witch's Life in Mongol, which is a kind of historical fiction set in 12th-century Central Asia and is about this girl who basically uh learns to read in 12th-century Central Asia. And therefore when the Mongols come and like sack her city, she is taken back to Mongolia with them because she can read and she speaks multiple languages, so therefore she can interpret and do like uh a lot of work um uh to kind of help bridge the gaps between this expanding empire in the age of the of of the expanding Khanate. Uh, you know, this is, you know, Genghis Khan-era stuff. Um it's really cool. The thing that they did really well is the manga has a very distinct style.
19:23
Tomato soup is the name of the manga. And she has a very distinct kind of very large faces, very big heads And then lots of detail in the background and very like cartoony like characters in the background. And so I wondered if that was going to make a good transfer to anime or if they were going to change the art style.
19:46
But they did a really good job of kind of maintaining the style, maintaining the look and feel while still bringing it into A color and B uh uh you know moving uh action as opposed to static panels. It's a pretty cool show. I like it so far.
20:02
I think it's—I think it's working really well. Um, another one worth mentioning, I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day, is probably the best-looking show of the season um because the action is just really kinetic, really exciting, and it hasn't had that drop-off in like action quality that I saw in Ghost in the Shell. Otherwise, Ghost in the Shell might take it for the best-looking show.
20:27
But I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day has been, like, consistent. And it is about a bunch of kids who are in a school where they have to learn to become magic soldiers. To go fight baddies?
20:41
It's never clear. I'm eight volumes into this manga. It's never clear who the bad guys are, why they're fighting the bad guys.
20:48
But they send the children off to die, basically, in war. But there's one particular girl who can't seem to die. No matter how badly she's injured, no matter how bad things get for her, she can always heal.
21:04
So she is like their secret weapon, essentially. But she's also just like a young girl. Even though she's been functionally alive for decades, they think, she's just like in this state of like girlhood.
21:17
Um, and so it is about her and her roommate as they like get closer and the roommate doesn't want to have to go to war, but she takes care of Mimi, who is her roommate, who has to keep going out and coming back, you know, dismembered uh or, you know, basically on death's door and it's it's dark, it's very moody, um, it's very serious, but it's got a lot of style to it. And I, you know, it is really a beautiful comic about like finding peace and joy in the face of unstoppable terror. And they're doing a really good job of making that transition to the show.
22:01
So I've been really, really impressed with that one. It might come away as my favorite of the season. We'll see how some of these others shake out.
22:09
And then the other one I would want to mention is the one that I meant—that I said is an anime original. It's not based on a manga or anything. And that is called Goodbye, Lara, which is basically a retelling of The Little Mermaid, except what if things didn't go well back in the 17th, 18th century?
22:27
And then she was reincarnated again in 2020s Japan on this little island. And she's trying to find—she's trying to find her true love, um, and find a place for herself on this island.
22:38
And then there's this other kid who takes her in. And their, you know, their budding friendship is kind of the the nucleus of this uh of this story as this mermaid tries to adjust to life on land. And it's just it's really, you know, kind of quiet and heartfelt and and just sincere in a way I didn't expect it to be.
23:01
And I'm really liking Goodbye, Lara as well. It's quite good. Um, all right.
23:05
The last thing I want to mention. I just, here's the thing. Every time I travel, I like to go to comic shops.
23:15
Because I work at a comic shop, I like comics a lot. And I just like, you know, when you're out and about, you want to try some new places. Downtown Providence has two comic shops in it.
23:28
So I'm like, great, two different comic shops to go to a literal bumper crop. This is great. So I go to the mall the other day.
23:36
I go up to Newbury Comics. Peter, when I tell you this is not actually a comic shop, even though the sign says comics, I was so sad. Um, they had That's terrible They had fewer com they had four times as many Funko Pops as they had comics in the comic shop.
23:58
They had more They had more physical releases of K-pop CDs than they had comics in the comic shop
Peter
24:09
Yeah, that's a tragedy.
Eden
24:11
I was so depressed. There were so many blind boxes. Listen, there's so many blind boxes all over.
24:17
That mall, I walked around that mall, there were five different storefronts with different names. Just selling blind boxes. That's all they do.
24:25
That's the whole business model, is selling blind box toys. Five different stores in the mall. That's buck wild.
24:34
That's buck wild. Um anyway, Newbury Comics was a total bust. I felt like a crazy person walking through that place.
24:41
because I was like, how dare you like and then the comics weren't even all new. There was obviously no back issues, no, no like, you know, backlist stuff. They had one bookshelf of like collected like graphic novels.
24:53
It was Absolute Batman and Invincible. That was like it. Um they had more Dungeon Crawler Carl books than they had comics, for God's sake.
25:04
And then again, no back issues, but of the new comics that they had, they had the ThunderCats Valentine special still out. That's not new, it's from February. Also, why do you have the Valentine—why do you have the ThunderCats Valentine's special?
25:20
Do you know what people buy? Or do you know what people don't buy? The ThunderCats comics, because they suck and look bad. We stopped buying the ThunderCats because we couldn't move 'em.
25:30
Cause who cares about the ThunderCats in twenty twenty-six? I'll tell you who. It's like the two fifty-year-old men who still have it on their pulls at my comic shop. We don't get it for anyone else.
25:42
Like we don't order it to hang it up in the store for people to browse and buy. We order it for the two fools who still buy ThunderCats. It's fine.
25:49
But then I'm like, okay, there's another one. It's fine. There's another one.
25:53
It's called East Bay Comics. So another day I walk on over there and I walk in and I realize. Disappointment from the exact opposite end of things.
26:07
All they have is back issues. And they are not organized. Oh my.
26:15
Here's the many, many long boxes that say Marvel on them. Here is the many, many long boxes that say DC on them. Here is the many many long boxes that say Independent On them They're not organized.
26:30
I yeah, I felt like a crazy person trying to just find stuff. Um and then again, it was mostly just like vintage chatarra, vintage garbage. Like there was not a whole lot there still wasn't that many comics in a store called East Bay Comics.
26:45
It was mostly like old toys and like vintage Like it felt like I was in a vintage shop that just had more comics than most vintage shops do. And then again, they were not organized, they were not a easily like navigable And so I picked through a few boxes just trying to find anything that I was interested in. It's not like I'm that well, I mean I'm sorta picky.
27:05
I have most of the Most everything by DC and Marvel I would ever want I already own. So most of what I look for is like weirder indie stuff. I really like the 80s, like black and white indie explosion comics.
27:18
I really like some of the early 90s like you know, again, uh that the tail end of the indie explosion when they tried to go color and then it kind of failed and every single one of those companies went bankrupt. That's my sweet spot. I wanna buy those kinds of comics.
27:31
I have nine hundred comics on my wish list uh that I can like scroll through and look for stuff. Like I have a lot of stuff that I would like. I didn't find a single thing.
27:42
I didn't find a single thing. So what it did, and and this is what happens almost every time I go to a comic shop. 95% of the time, 5% of the time, I walk in and I say, oh, that's a really good idea.
27:56
We should try doing that at our shop. 95% of the time I walk in and then I go, we're better than everyone else. We just are.
28:09
We're just better. We're just better at this than everyone. Um, which is both good and sad because I want other shops to also be good.
28:19
If you wanted if you if you wanted to buy comics in this town, you gotta go somewhere else. Neither of these two are actually serving you if you wanna like become a regular comics reader and that's kind of a bummer.
Peter
28:30
It is. It is. But what are you gonna do?
Eden
28:33
Anyway, should we move on to the main event, Peter?
Peter
28:36
Let's do it. Let's talk about this.
Eden
28:37
Alright, I'm very curious to see what you have to say about it. This time, dear listeners, is the thing that we delayed on last time. We played episode zero of a video game called Of the Devil.
28:51
Um before we get into our impressions on it, and especially before we get into a spoiler zone, because we're gonna have to talk about spoilers. Just to give a little bit of background on what this is, this is kind of a cyberpunk uh noir-y uh kind of detective-y game. If you listeners have ever played an Ace Attorney game, um that's kind of what it is.
29:16
It's a Phoenix Wright game. where you are this one you didn't end up in the the courtroom. You did the the verbal sparring in the police station, but I know in further episodes you are in the courtroom.
29:29
um like just like Phoenix Wright. But you are basically, you know, objecting to what your opponents are saying. You are interjecting your own ideas, using the clues that you have gathered as you have looked at the crime scene recordings, talked to the police officers, talked to the suspect.
29:49
and just kind of, you know, have picked your way through this material, then you are given the opportunity to prove that you paid attention. Prove that you were able to solve why this person didn't do this. Because you are a defense attorney.
30:04
You are trying to get your client off uh for this murder because they believe your client is the Heartbreak Killer uh who has killed six women. Um And that is kind of the premise of the game.
30:16
So before we get into like a breakdown of what it is in the spoiler section, I wanted to just ask Peter. I know that you've played one other kind of visual novel-y game at my behest when we played Heaven Will Be Mine a couple of years ago at this point. This is kind of a different take on the visual novel-style game.
30:35
It's a little more interactive on your part because you've got to be paying attention. You gotta be looking for clues. How did you uh how'd you find this?
30:42
What did you think?
Peter
30:43
I thought it was really fun. I liked it quite a bit. Uh it took a little bit for me to get into playing it, not because of it though, just because Just things have been busy, lots going on lately.
30:54
Um, but once I finally sat down and just really started playing, I I thought it was really interesting. Um, I like the First of all, it just it oozes style. I mean it's very stylish.
31:07
The visuals, the music, it's extremely stylish. So it pulls you in with that. But I appreciated that it wasn't too hard by any stretch of the imagination, but you did have to be paying attention or or be willing to go back.
31:24
and look again at some of the items, the evidence, the reports, and and think a little bit. Like again, it wasn't hard. I'm I mean, I'm not like some expert at any of these kinds of games, but I managed to get it.
31:37
When I finished it was like, oh, congratulations, you got whatever 33, you got the highest score possible. You can use it. Blah blah blah.
31:45
So So, but it but it does make you think a little bit. Again, challenging enough to engage you, make sure that you're paying attention and that you've gone back and thought about things and then that you're looking at each time you have that opportunity to present some piece of evidence or to refute something that the cops are saying. You do have to think about, okay, they're saying this and this and this, and then looking at what your options are.
32:14
And I had to think about it a little bit and go, okay. I think this fits here because of X, Y, or Z. Sure. So I did, I thought it was really cool.
32:21
I've already bought episodes one and two. So what did you think?
Eden
32:24
I did the same thing. I bought the whole thing all in uh uh at once um because I was just really impressed with it. Um, I kind of knew I was gonna like it going in. Phoenix Wright games are one of those like kind of holes in my video game knowledge that I've been meaning to fill for years, but for years and years they were just on Nintendo systems, so I couldn't really play them as a person who wasn't a Nintendo person, but they're all on Steam now.
32:46
I see them every time they're on sale. Every time Capcom has a sale, I think, is it time to buy the Great Ace Attorney? And then I don't do it.
32:55
But I might after this. I might finally take the plunge because I had a really good time. Like you said, I liked that the mechanics were uh you know—the mechanics were there and they worked.
33:08
I thought that it was interesting the way that it frames it all as sort of like a betting sort of thing. Like you have your cards, your opponent has their cards, you're earning credits or you're losing credits. And then I really liked the mechanic where sometimes you had to decide, did you want to hold or did you want to raise?
33:26
aka, did you want to acquiesce to what the police officer was saying, or did you want to kind of push back Because you had to make like there were times when it was appropriate to maybe push back, and there were times where it might not have been, and it might have actually hurt your case. if you pushed at that moment. And there might have been times when you wanted to say, okay, well, I'm just, I'm going to sit back.
33:46
I'm going to let her say what she needs to say and just be like, oh, interesting, interesting. Even though intellectually I understand why she's wrong, this is not the time to do it. There is another time later where it's time to punch through with my evidence and prove her wrong.
Peter
34:02
Yep, I agree.
Eden
34:05
And I think that you're exactly right in that you can tell that this is not a big budget thing. You can tell this is made by a few very passionate people doing very cool work. You know, the character design is kind of grungy and weird, with the exception of Morgan, the main character, who is very put together, very cool looking.
34:25
Everyone else just kind of looks gross. And I think that's on purpose because Morgan Morgan truly sets herself apart from the others. And we'll talk about why when we get to the spoiler section.
34:35
Um But, you know, I I think they do a lot with very little here. And I'm really impressed with how well they did that. You know, even up to include like just changing the hues on the sprites when they're feeling certain emotions or when they want to really highlight certain things.
34:52
Um it just was a really effective use of very limited toolsets to really be evocative. I felt like the game's evocative as hell.
35:02
I think you're exactly right that the uh the soundtrack's very cool, very just kind of grungy, cyberpunky, kind of industrial feeling. Um and I I think it really sells a a feel. Like, sometimes, especially I feel like recently, a lot of the cyberpunk stuff that I see doesn't feel very cyberpunky because it feels a little too clean and a little too like buttoned up. Which, like, parts of it are—Arasaka Tower is clean and buttoned up.
35:33
When you go to meet Hanako at Embers in Cyberpunk 2077, she's clean. She's buttoned up. But you aren't Uh, and this kind of felt like the inversion of that, where the only person who's clean and buttoned up is your protagonist, Morgan, and everyone else feels like they're in the cyberpunk slums, except for this extremely stylish defense attorney.
35:55
Uh so should we get into the spoiler section, Peter?
Peter
35:59
I think we should. Let's get into the spoiler section.
Eden
36:06
Alright, so again, these are only gonna be spoilers for episode zero because that's the only part we've played. Episodes one and two are out. Episode three is supposed to be out later this fall Um and I think the plan is five episodes total, if I remember correctly, um to tell the whole story.
Peter
36:20
That's what I had seen as well.
Eden
36:22
But anyway, episode zero opens on Morgan, the protagonist, getting a call at like 3 or 4 a.m. to go uh—she's been summoned. She's a defense attorney, there's a call out for potential defense attorneys uh for the public defenders, she takes it. She goes, she finds out that the uh—there's this guy, his name is Carlos.
36:45
They believe that he has killed his girlfriend, but also his girlfriend was killed with an untagged antique revolver that has also been used in five other murders Every single one of them was a young brunette woman shot through the heart. And this was the sixth young brunette woman shot through the heart. So they have started calling this serial killer the Heartbreak Killer because it is one shot, one kill, with this untraceable gun.
37:19
And Morgan very quickly realizes that Carlos is not the killer. There's no way Carlos could have done this Um, for a lot of different reasons. Number one, he has a prosthetic arm that's been broken, so he's been using a replacement prosthetic arm.
37:34
Number two, he's far too, you know, worked up emotionally about this Whereas, you know, that doesn't have the level of precision and clinical detachment that it would take to do what the heartbreak killer has done. All of the evidence is just very circumstantial and flimsy You know, she works, uh Morgan works her way through all of the evidence and then presents her case to the detectives and is able to basically show See, it's not Carlos.
Peter
38:03
Here's all the reasons why your evidence you thought you had an ironclad case.
Eden
38:07
You got the wrong guy. And then you realize why Morgan is so sure they got the wrong guy. Peter, why is Morgan so sure they got the wrong guy?
Peter
38:16
Morgan instantly knew that they had the wrong guy the second she walked through the door because Morgan was waiting up to get the call. for this because Morgan is the murderer.
Eden
38:28
Morgan is the serial killer. And so she knows he didn't do it.
Peter
38:33
Because he didn't.
Eden
38:35
And she did it. And so that is a very interesting wrinkle that you don't get in the Phoenix Wright games. You know who I don't think is a serial killer? Phoenix Wright.
Peter
38:46
I don't think Phoenix Wright is the killer. I don't think he's the serial killer.
Eden
38:49
Well, Morgan is—she's the serial killer, and she's done a lot more than just those six people with this one gun. She's like, I change my MO every so often. You gotta—you gotta keep it fresh.
39:02
You gotta keep it real. You gotta keep it fun. And so then it ends very like we find out Morgan is the heartbreak killer.
39:11
And I'm like, okay, this must be done. But then there was another five or ten minutes where you meet the DA. who's a little too smart and a little too good at her job.
39:21
And suddenly Morgan is like, oh shit. If anyone's gonna be able to catch me, it's this district attorney.
Peter
39:30
It's it's this assistant DA. Because she's smart and she it gives you this. No, go ahead.
39:38
It gives you a really nice kind of setup where basically this assistant DA lays all this out and she's like, basically, I know a lot about her—or about this, the killer—but I'm not gonna be able to catch the killer until I get more kills. And more evidence and more opportunity to look into it. So basically sets up this thing where it kind of looks like Morgan is in a position where the only way she doesn't get caught is if she stops.
40:13
At least that's kind of how it sets it up at the end of episode zero. But will she be able to stop? Oh, I don't believe so.
Eden
40:21
Absolutely not. This is a cold-hearted, like psychopathic serial killer. uh that's who she is and that's who she'll stay.
40:30
So I'm sure that that is going to get very complicated. Um Yeah, I thought this game was really fun. I thought that, you know, the way I I knew that that twist was coming.
40:40
Did you have any inkling that that twist might be coming?
Peter
40:44
Uh I felt like there was something weird, but I didn't know anything. I hadn't looked into it, so I didn't know anything about this being.
Eden
40:51
There's every so often, especially when Morgan is doing her interviews with Carlos. There are these scenes where like this terrible rumbling sound will occur and like it changes where the words are on the screen. They're not in a normal text box.
41:07
It like zooms in on Morgan's eyes or things like or Morgan's hair. And it was always a little disconcerting. And so that's you're like something's off here And it's because those are all these premonitions of like, well, of course Morgan knows what's actually going on here because she's the one who did these killings But yeah, I knew it was coming, so that was spoiled for me, but I don't feel like it ruined my experience with the game at all.
Peter
41:35
But even though I knew that twist was—
Eden
41:39
Um because I still had the fun of being like, well how do you get yourself out of this? Like how do you—how do you get away again, Mr. So-and-so? Like, you know, what—how? You gotta figure out how to weave your way, you know, rhetorically past these police officers who wouldn't have brought a case if they didn't feel like they could sink it.
41:56
Because that's a big thing that they established. um is that, you know, they only bring cases. They it's very like kind of Japanese uh justice system coded.
42:08
You only bring a case if you are like ninety-nine point nine percent sure you can sink it. Unlike the American justice system, the American legal system where there are a lot of times where they just bring spurious charges or really flimsy charges. Um Because there's not that cultural expectation that well if you brought charges, it has to be a hundred percent true.
42:27
It has to be a hundred percent ironclad. But in this cyberpunk dystopia, that seems to be where they're at. Um, which is why it's so interesting that Morgan is able to get off, but also why as you're playing the game, when the DA comes in and she's like, Oh, I already figured it out, but as soon as they sent me the file, I was like, of course this guy didn't do it. Because boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
42:46
And then she lists off everything that you had used to refute the police ten minutes earlier.
Peter
42:52
And even a few things that you hadn't.
Eden
42:54
Yeah, a couple of things you didn't even think about. Like she is clearly a step or two ahead of you even. You just haven't made a big enough mistake that she can catch you yet.
43:05
So I'm very curious to see where this goes in episodes one and two. I am really eager to play more of it. Um because I just I I I felt really sucked into it.
Peter
43:16
Yeah. No, I agree. Like I say, I I got episodes one and two, and uh I look forward to checking them out because it was very interesting.
43:26
super stylish and and I thought really well done and at the same time look I have no problem playing the great big games from big studios, but I love to find something from a small team and and support it. Like just you know, encourage this kind of stuff. That's one of, and I think we kind of talked about this a while like uh probably a couple years ago.
43:53
But things like the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally, honestly, even the Switch—things like these smaller, more affordable, portable, handheld gaming devices that make gaming more accessible to more people have allowed this type of game to be feasible again. And I love that.
44:16
I love that we can get interesting, unique, very stylish, polished, well-made—but not, you know, a 60-hour AAA thing that costs, you know, three billion dollars or however the fuck much GTA 6 is gonna end up being when they finally release it. You know, like, I love that we have these kinds of games and that we can support them, we can encourage it, we can enjoy that.
44:46
And and that they're not the microtransaction-y bullshit that you get on a phone.
Eden
44:53
I 100% agree. Um, I think that this is a well and it's Gaming is in such dire straits right now. You know, if you look at the state of the industry You can't afford RAM anymore, which means you can't afford to build your own PC, which means you know they're having to raise the price on all of the uh the consoles.
45:16
So people are getting priced out of the consoles Um, it costs too much to develop games, as you said. You know, GTA is gonna be three billion dollars. You know, I recently uh uh saw a thing talking about how expensive Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was, and it was like hundreds of millions of dollars.
45:35
And then they're like, and that's one-third of Final Fantasy VII, which they made in 14 months for a seven-digit amount. Yeah.
45:46
And it's just a and honestly, it's a better game. Like, I played Final Fantasy VII. I've played Final Fantasy VII Remake.
45:53
I haven't played Rebirth, but like Final Fantasy VII was a great game. You didn't need to remake it for a cajillion dollars. And you know, they make money on it.
46:02
I know what they're doing, but you know, the game existed back when games didn't have to be so big and didn't have to be so expensive and didn't have to focus so much on, you know, visual fidelity and making sure that Tifa's boobs bounce with correct, you know, physics engines. Like, that's not okay. You know, I hear about Red Dead Redemption 2, and they're like the horse ball technology and I was like, you know what you didn't need to do, guys? Put physics in the testicles of the horses in your stupid cowboy game. Uh and it just it it feels so wasteful.
46:40
And then nothing sells as much as they want it to because all of these companies are owned by these vulture capitalists who then turn around and rip everything apart as soon as they don't make $10 bajillion dollars in the first two days of sales, you know? Like So many layoffs. Yeah.
46:57
You know, uh Bungie has been gutted to the bone. Uh, you know, so many of the Microsoft studios have fallen apart. Like for a while there, Microsoft was buying all so many cool indie studios and being like, here's some money, you know, make some cool games.
47:15
And then as soon as the rubber met the road They were all out. Everyone was laid off. Or they were they were closing entire companies and shuttering entire games in like two weeks.
47:27
And, you know, it's just. . .
47:29
The bigger, larger industry of video gaming is in real dire straits right now. Which is why it is so important to find things like this and support them. Because that way stuff still gets made.
47:44
You know, I we have joked about it before, but it remains true. The meme of Sonic the Hedgehog saying, I want Shorter games with worse graphics made by people getting paid more money to work less is true. That's how I feel.
48:00
I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people getting paid more to work less And the only way that happens is if I don't spend $100 on GTA 6 and I spend that $100 on five to ten indie games You know?
Peter
48:21
Yeah, and and I will I will fully admit that I I do still like Those big games, sometimes.
Eden
48:32
I mean, we both talked about how fucking good Cyberpunk 2077 is, and that game cost eight kajillion dollars and took four years after it came out before it was good
Peter
48:42
But but that's the thing, is that there now exists this space for these smaller games and these smaller teams that the games are hopefully being made in a more humane setting. Yeah. And they're allowing people to to tell stories that otherwise wouldn't get made.
49:04
And that's something to be celebrated. And we as the consumers need to say, if this matters to us, we need to support it. And so again, that's why I was like Yeah, no question.
49:16
I'm buying episodes one and two. Just get them both. I don't I'm not I'm not waiting to play episode one to see episode two.
49:23
Let's just get them both. It was honestly the same reason I bought Subnautica 2 It's because there was that whole kerfuffle about, you know, it selling enough and all this kind of stuff. And I was like, hey, if more people buy Subnautica 2, does that somehow stick a fork in the quasi like you said vulture capital that bought the yes it did so great I'm gonna buy it and yeah see it's just we Yeah, it was cool.
49:51
I really enjoyed it. I'm glad you suggested it. And this is the kind of stuff where this is the stuff I want to be supporting more than the really big thing.
49:59
things. Hell yeah.
Eden
50:00
No, I'm a hundred percent with you. You know, and sometimes even just a little, even a little bigger than this. Like PowerWash Simulator is bigger, more involved than this.
50:11
But you know, I bought both those games, I bought all their DLC. You know I'm midway through cleaning an AT-AT right now, baby, because the Star Wars—the Star Wars uh DLC for PowerWash Simulator 2 came out last week. So I cleaned Owen and Beru's house.
50:28
I cleaned the Mos Eisley Cantina. I was captured by the Empire and now I'm cleaning an AT-AT on the frozen tundra of Hoth. It's great.
50:39
But you know, I yeah, you gotta support these people. If you like the game, you gotta buy the game. Um, and that's just kind of what it is.
50:47
And I'd much rather that money go to a small team doing cool stuff Yep, I agree. Well, I think we should wrap there. It's a little shorter than usual, but with between travel and everything, I think that's okay
Peter
50:59
Thank you all for listening. Absolutely fine.
Eden
51:02
As always, you can leave us reviews, you can leave us stars, helps people find us, it helps get us higher in the algorithm. If you have any questions or comments, you can always leave us a message at feedback at the middle of culture. com. And otherwise, we'll be back in a couple of weeks with a new episode. Bye.