Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM. It's
Speaker 1: been a huge year for video games. Small developers are
Speaker 1: leading a renaissance of original ideas breaking through.
Speaker 2: Into the mainstream.
Speaker 1: They're going up against blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty
Speaker 1: and Winning. The seven AM team debated adding games to
Speaker 1: our best of features this year, but the numbers don't lie.
Speaker 1: More than four out of five Australians game and to
Speaker 1: industries at least three times the size of the film industry.
Speaker 2: Games can be so many things, high art, pop art,
Speaker 2: and pure dopamine, sometimes all at once.
Speaker 3: Today, video games.
Speaker 1: Critic and tech journalist at the ABC Rad Yo on
Speaker 1: her top five favorite games of the year. It's Saturday,
Speaker 1: December twenty seven, so Rad welcome to seven AM. It's
Speaker 1: great to have you on the show. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me. So we are here to talk
Speaker 1: about the best games of the year, a topic in
Speaker 1: which you I think are an expert.
Speaker 2: I am not, and I'm looking forward to learning.
Speaker 4: Look, it has been an excellent games years, so if
Speaker 4: there was ever a time to tickle your interest get
Speaker 4: you in on.
Speaker 3: It, it would be this year. Perhaps fantastic.
Speaker 2: Well, tell me what your first pick is.
Speaker 4: It would have to be Hollow Night's Silk Song. This
Speaker 4: is an absolutely incredible game.
Speaker 1: And I read reports that Silk Song when it was released,
Speaker 1: everything crashed because so many people were trying to buy it.
Speaker 1: And this is an independent Australian made game, So how
Speaker 1: did it become that popular?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So Silksong is a sequel to Hollow Night, which came
Speaker 4: out in twenty seventeen, and that game sold more than
Speaker 4: fifteen million copies worldwide, so people have been chomping at
Speaker 4: the bit myself included for Silk Song to finally come out.
Speaker 4: It's one of those that as soon as you pick
Speaker 4: it up, you can feel how lovingly.
Speaker 3: Crafted it is, right, like you feel.
Speaker 4: Pulled into this mysterious, chaotic, interesting dark world.
Speaker 2: And can you describe the actual world of the game
Speaker 2: for me a little like where are you when you
Speaker 2: enter into Silk Song?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you are in like this bug world.
Speaker 4: You're kind of underground, and you play as a little
Speaker 4: creature called Hornet, and there's all these different sort of
Speaker 4: interesting bug creatures around, many of whom seem to have
Speaker 4: like something has gone wrong in the world, right, like
Speaker 4: they they're not quite what they should be but you
Speaker 4: start to really feel for like, I don't know, fleas
Speaker 4: and stuff.
Speaker 2: I didn't think that would ever happen.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: I also love that this game is made by a
Speaker 1: really small team of people in South Australia.
Speaker 2: Team Terry, I believe they're called. Tell me a bit
Speaker 2: about them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when we say small team, we mean some more
Speaker 4: like very very small team. Cherry is in fact three people,
Speaker 4: Aary Gibson, William Pelham and Jack Vine. And as you
Speaker 4: can imagine with such a small team, they are very
Speaker 4: multi talented.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: It just takes such a staggering degree of passion, skill
Speaker 4: obsession to be able to create something as refined as this.
Speaker 1: And can we talk a little bit about the score,
Speaker 1: because I've been told that there were members of the
Speaker 1: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra involved.
Speaker 3: Yes, the score is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 4: It was done by Christopher Larkin, who is an Adelaide composer.
Speaker 4: Absolutely incredible. He did the first game as well, And
Speaker 4: it's quite rare to get a fully orchestrated game score,
Speaker 4: especially in an indie game, which is fair enough that's
Speaker 4: an expensive undertaking. But there really is a magic to
Speaker 4: having a human player a human musician bringing their own
Speaker 4: kind of soul to a piece. The soundtrack creates this
Speaker 4: sense of expansiveness, the sense of wonder, and picks up
Speaker 4: and brings such tension and energy when you do go
Speaker 4: into these boss fights.
Speaker 1: And a lot of the kind of talk around this
Speaker 1: game has been around how difficult it is, So I mean,
Speaker 1: how challenging did you find it?
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say very challenging. I haven't finished it, but
Speaker 4: that's sort of the beauty of it. I don't think
Speaker 4: that the enjoyment of these games is about finishing them.
Speaker 4: It's about spending time in them. And this is gonna
Speaker 4: sound a bit woo maybe, but I'm a bit woo.
Speaker 3: So what are you gonna do? It's about what the
Speaker 3: game teaches you about yourself.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what is it taught you? It teaches you.
Speaker 4: Resilience in what I think is a really visceral way.
Speaker 4: Doing some thing that requires so much persistence and the
Speaker 4: decision to kind of step back in and try again
Speaker 4: allows us to experience failure and persistence and success in
Speaker 4: a way that is hard to replicate elsewhere in life.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's move on, and what is your next pick?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say Hades two.
Speaker 4: Few tales are told of Hades, whose reign has grim
Speaker 4: Lord of the Dead, came to a sudden end when
Speaker 4: all at once his past caught up with him. So
Speaker 4: Hades two is a much bigger game than the original.
Speaker 4: Hades one had just like one gauntlet that you could
Speaker 4: run over and over again, whereas Hades two gives you
Speaker 4: a little bit more choice. So you can either go
Speaker 4: down into the underworld and fight the big bad Chronos,
Speaker 4: or you can go up to the surface and defend
Speaker 4: Mount Olympus.
Speaker 3: Death to Chronos, vengeance for my family.
Speaker 4: But most importantly, you can bring a p along in
Speaker 4: this game.
Speaker 3: Who did you bring? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, the cat gives you extra life and yeah, I
Speaker 4: think that's cute.
Speaker 1: And tell me a bit more about the storytelling, because
Speaker 1: my understanding is that in order to learn how to
Speaker 1: play the game, you have to kind of die over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, which to me maybe sounds
Speaker 1: a little frustrating, But what's it like to actually supply it.
Speaker 4: You're so right, It is something that you need to
Speaker 4: kind of balance really carefully as a developer if you're.
Speaker 3: Going to make a game like this, because.
Speaker 4: It can be really frustrating, especially in Hades, where if
Speaker 4: you die you go right back to the actual full beginning.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So, building failure in as a part of the game,
Speaker 4: you need to make it not feel like failure because
Speaker 4: there's always something new to unlock, and there's always different
Speaker 4: abilities to try and things that you can test out
Speaker 4: to see like if the synergy is better and if
Speaker 4: it works better. And in that way, I think they
Speaker 4: strike the balance quite well.
Speaker 1: And so tell me a bit about the visual style
Speaker 1: of the game. What does it look like to be
Speaker 1: in this world?
Speaker 4: It is stunning, I mean, super giant. The developers are
Speaker 4: known for the art in their games, and I think
Speaker 4: that is in huge part due to their incredible art director.
Speaker 3: Her name's gen Z.
Speaker 4: The original Hades was already praised for its art style.
Speaker 4: It's got this like inked in cell shaded look to
Speaker 4: it that feels quite.
Speaker 3: Bold and hand drawn.
Speaker 4: And I think that that's something I really like in
Speaker 4: games as well, that we're seeing more of this sense
Speaker 4: of a human touch to it, it not being you know,
Speaker 4: completely computery or digital. And because Hades is also based
Speaker 4: on Greek mythology, there's like such a rich culture and
Speaker 4: history for them to draw from, and when Hades two
Speaker 4: was revealed, the Internet had a field day because everyone
Speaker 4: was like, man, these characters are also hot.
Speaker 3: That's like what it's known for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's an ongoing joke that Hades makes people realize
Speaker 4: they're bisexual.
Speaker 3: Coming up monsters on a train.
Speaker 2: So right, we're talking about your favorite games of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five. What is next on the list?
Speaker 4: Ah, it's gotta be Monster Trained to another sequel.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, sometimes I have mixed feelings about sequels. I think
Speaker 4: generally I do prefer like fresh ideas rather than people
Speaker 4: making the same games over and over again.
Speaker 3: But at the.
Speaker 4: Same time, it's hard to turn down a well made
Speaker 4: sequel of an excellent game, and it's simply not my
Speaker 4: fault if they made these sequels and did a.
Speaker 3: Really good job of it.
Speaker 2: So where does this one take over from the original?
Speaker 4: The original is basically you're on a train full of monsters,
Speaker 4: a monster train if you will, head into the frozen
Speaker 4: heart of Hell to reignite its flame. But the angels
Speaker 4: of Heaven are trying to stop you, and that's why
Speaker 4: you're fighting.
Speaker 3: It's not really a story, but.
Speaker 4: The second game has tried to introduce more story by
Speaker 4: like having little cutscenes.
Speaker 3: Where characters talk to each other.
Speaker 4: But the real magic of Monster Train two is the
Speaker 4: fact that they've gone in and just expanded what is possible.
Speaker 4: They've introduced all of these new mechanics, new clans, and
Speaker 4: it feels like somehow there is always more and I
Speaker 4: love it so much, And the soundtrack is absolutely ripper,
Speaker 4: especially if you're into metal.
Speaker 1: And my understanding is that this is a deck builder,
Speaker 1: but I think I need you to explain to me what.
Speaker 3: That meant happen.
Speaker 4: So some people like think of deck builders as being
Speaker 4: card games, which I guess they technically are, but I
Speaker 4: promise if you look at it, it doesn't feel like
Speaker 4: you're playing cards like in real life. Think of the
Speaker 4: card as basically like the button that you press in
Speaker 4: order to deploy something. And in doing that, you kind
Speaker 4: of also have this like meta game of which cards
Speaker 4: do you pick and what do you already have and
Speaker 4: what do you add to kind of have them all
Speaker 4: work together.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like this is another game that would
Speaker 1: benefit from a lot of different times playing through, which
Speaker 1: is similar to the other two that we've already spoken about.
Speaker 4: Look, what can I say I know what I like,
Speaker 4: all right, I'm a simple girl. I like the comfort
Speaker 4: in exploring something new within something that's familiar. But I think,
Speaker 4: I think that it really allows you to settle into
Speaker 4: comfort while also like having the excitement and novelty of newness.
Speaker 4: It gives the opportunity to learn and practice and get better,
Speaker 4: which is super satisfying, but it's not, you know, using
Speaker 4: that cognitive load of having to process something entirely new
Speaker 4: all the time. Plus, if you're buying a game that
Speaker 4: you can just keep playing, that's great value. That's being
Speaker 4: smart with your money. Cosey Lives, Babe, You've got to
Speaker 4: be thinking about this kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, what do you have next?
Speaker 4: Next up is Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three. Now, this
Speaker 4: is an incredible game with an incredible story of not
Speaker 4: just like its story within the game, but how it
Speaker 4: came to be all. It's the debut release from French
Speaker 4: developer Sandfall Interactive, and they made this incredibly detailed, very
Speaker 4: expansive game that is of a caliber and polish that
Speaker 4: you would expect to see from a team of like
Speaker 4: upwards of two thousand people with a core team of
Speaker 4: thirty people.
Speaker 3: Wow, it should not exist. It's wild that it does.
Speaker 4: But I absolutely am so glad that they are basically
Speaker 4: standing up and showing the industry and the world what
Speaker 4: can happen when you believe in people who believe in themselves.
Speaker 1: Well, if you're going to give someone flowers, you should
Speaker 1: probably do it.
Speaker 2: Before they wither and die.
Speaker 3: What the flower or so far.
Speaker 1: Dark Sophie would approve. Yeah, it sounds like there is
Speaker 1: a bit of a theme of that here, of these
Speaker 1: kind of smaller developers making these pretty incredible games, and
Speaker 1: they're competing against these, you know, huge prolific studios.
Speaker 2: That have been around for a long time. So is
Speaker 2: that a sign I suppose to you that the industry
Speaker 2: is changing.
Speaker 4: I think that the game development industry is in a very,
Speaker 4: very tough spot where games have sort of been pushed
Speaker 4: too far into being a commodity and have lost kind
Speaker 4: of their grounding in being art because at their core
Speaker 4: games are art. Obviously, you are also battling with the
Speaker 4: reality of commercial viability.
Speaker 3: But Claire Obscure.
Speaker 4: Has come in so strong and said, when we go
Speaker 4: back to the heart of it all, which is making
Speaker 4: something good that we believe in, that's actually the magic source.
Speaker 4: It's not about trying to make something that optimizes getting
Speaker 4: a dollar out of a player.
Speaker 2: And what is it actually about, Claire Obscure.
Speaker 4: The basic premise is there is a giant, unknown spirit
Speaker 4: creature thing that's like kind of far off on an
Speaker 4: island in the water that you can see, and each
Speaker 4: year it disappears everyone who's over a certain age, and
Speaker 4: each year that age gets lower, so they keep sending
Speaker 4: expeditions out to try and like defeat it. And this
Speaker 4: is Expedition thirty three. So it's just ticked over that
Speaker 4: everyone over thirty three gets disappeared and they're like trying
Speaker 4: to figure it out.
Speaker 2: That's cool.
Speaker 3: It is cool.
Speaker 2: Coming up a pure hint of dopamine. And so what
Speaker 2: is your final pick of the uh?
Speaker 4: My final pick is something that is kind of like
Speaker 4: pure cotton candy.
Speaker 3: It's called Ballpit.
Speaker 4: It's written like ball x pit.
Speaker 2: Tell me about it? What's the wat to play?
Speaker 3: To me? Bullpit is like a games game.
Speaker 4: It is basically just if you distilled everything fun and
Speaker 4: silly about a game and put it in a ball
Speaker 4: in front of you, like mac and.
Speaker 3: Cheese or like roast potatoes.
Speaker 4: Right, it's maybe a little bit unrefined, but not in
Speaker 4: a bad way.
Speaker 5: You see, while any two balls can be fused together
Speaker 5: for an additive combination of their powers and effects, certain
Speaker 5: pairs can be evolved together, becoming a completely new ball
Speaker 5: with its own unique powers and effects.
Speaker 4: And I think that it's funny that I've just described
Speaker 4: games as art and gone on like this this brant
Speaker 4: about how like they should be valued as a cultural product.
Speaker 3: And now I'm gonna hard.
Speaker 4: Pivot and talk about just like a pure dopamine delivery.
Speaker 6: System, and this new ball can also be fused to
Speaker 6: another ball, or possibly evolved again if you a newer
Speaker 6: new ball with its own newer new powers and effect
Speaker 6: and applications.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've got five contenders for a game of
Speaker 1: the year here, Which game are you going to be
Speaker 1: spending the most time with over the holidays?
Speaker 4: I think over just the holidays, it's probably gonna be
Speaker 4: clear obscure, because it's the kind of thing that like,
Speaker 4: I've sort of been saving for a big break where
Speaker 4: I can just lock in and play a huge block
Speaker 4: of it. But if we're talking over like the next year,
Speaker 4: two years, three years, one hundred percent, I promise you
Speaker 4: it will be monster trained too.
Speaker 3: You're hooked. I am hooked.
Speaker 4: I'm absolutely hooked. I think now it's all I can
Speaker 4: think about.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for coming on the show
Speaker 1: and for talking to me about all of this.
Speaker 2: It's been a great time.
Speaker 4: Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you
Speaker 4: after you get out of your own monster train to hole.
Speaker 2: I'm scared I'll lose much of my life.
Speaker 3: I can tell