In this episode Josh and Bryan have a relatively timely (for them) discussion of 2025’s surprise indie hit Blue Prince! Blue Prince puts you in the shoes of Simon P. Jones, a boy who recently willed the Mt. Holly Estate, a mansion owned by his deceased great uncle Herbert S. Sinclair. There’s one catch: Simon must locate a hidden 46th room within the mansion in order to secure his inheritance. In addition to this challenge the estate’s rooms continually reset and re-arrange each day. What starts as a card drafting puzzle asking the player to connect the right rooms to open the way to the 46th room evolves quickly into a nested and broad ranging puzzle to unravel the mysteries of the Mt. Holly Estate and the family that has occupied it.

Bryan and Josh very much enjoyed their time unravelling the game’s puzzles, but came away with differing opinions on how it made use of its intricate backstory, mind-bending puzzles, and random generation elements. Overall, both agree that this was a game worth experiencing for the novel ways it combined its gameplay focuses and storytelling methods. So grab your magnifying glass and get ready to investigate the Mt. Holly Hill Estate with Josh and Bryan as they discuss Blue Prince!

Three Word Reviews:

Bryan - Roguelike Epistemic Crisis

Josh - Puzzle Versus Roguelike

In this podcast Josh and Bryan hit the road! … And the road hits back! While crisscrossing the fictional countryside in YCJY Games’ Keep Driving both of our hosts recorded their fair share of stories and this podcast was the perfect opportunity to share them with each other, and with all of you! Borrowing inspiration from Oregon Trail and injecting a healthy dose of 2000’s era coming-of-age nostalgia, Keep Driving generates stories that will inevitably resonate players of a certain vintage.

Aside from being a potent ‘interesting-situation’ generator, Keep Driving is also a compelling resource management game as the player strives to keep all the needs of your driver and passengers topped up while battling against the trials and tribulations on the road. Flat Tires, Check Engine Lights, and Low Gas indicators come for us all, but Bryan and Josh did their best to keep moving down the road. So listen in as we recount our stories of life behind the wheel…

Three Word Reviews:

Bryan - Down Memory Lane

Josh - Farewell to Youth

Songs Used:

Westkust - Swirl

Crystal Boys - Gold

Crystal Boys - Nightlife

Zimmer Grandioso - Hometowns

Zimmer Grandioso - Cowboy Pills

Westkust - 0700

Fucking Werewolf Asso - The Tito Beltran Massacre

Westkust - Drown

Westkust - Weekends

Holy Now - Wake Up

Bryan and Josh recently took off the gloves and picked up a katana to play Shogun Showdown, a kinetic turn-based tactics game that has you dispatching waves of enemy warriors through careful positioning and timely deployment of combat skills. Sporting roguelike and deckbuilding elements along with a strong Japanese-inspired pixel art aesthetic, Shogun Showdown is surprisingly deep for operating on a 1-dimentional battlefield. Like most of the guys’ favorite roguelikes, the game allows the player a great deal of choice in how you build out your own ninja and each run is always giving the player a new view into how to best take out your samurai and ninja foes. So dodge that incoming ninja star and tune into Bryan and Josh’s discussion on the finer points of ninja tactics as they discuss Shogun Showdown!

Three Word Reviews:

Bryan - Combat Dancing Poem

Josh - One Dimensional Greatness