NOCLIP Pocket E46 - A Unix System - Oxenfree

In the end we all become podcasts, Welcome back to the podcast!
Today, we’re going to be talking about Oxenfree, the narrative
adventure game about some spooky things that happen on an island at
night. The game is extremely focused on its story, so I hesitate to
give much more of the plot away from that, but its unique elements
come from the way that story is delivered. The primary mechanic of
the game is a conversation system that uses fully voice acted
dialogue in an attempt to more naturally mimic actual conversations
as opposed to more traditional adventure games where you can sit
around for thirty minutes before answering someone’s question. Does
it always work? Well, no, not always, but it gives a sense of
urgency to a system that rarely has one without displaying a hokey
timer on the screen. Beyond that, the game’s appeal comes largely
from the tone and aesthetic, with a cartoony art style and dreamy
synth music all wrapped around a very modern collection of
characters who are all written well enough to be believable in a
Spielbergian kind of way. We’re going to be talking about how this
game fits into the wider genre of adventure games, how the
mechanical elements function and help drive the plot forward as
well as giving you incentive to act in a reasonable way toward the
other characters, and we debate whether the existence of ghosts has
any bearing on this fictional narrative. Thank you for joining us
this week! What did you think about Oxenfree? I know the game
definitely has a following, likely driven by the likeable
characters and deeper mysteries it contains, but on a first
playthrough, how much of this did you actually engage with? Did
this game inspire multiple playthroughs to see what other endings
it offered or were you satisfied with letting the story be what it
was based on your decisions? Let us know in the comments or over on
Discord! Next time, we’re breaking out our fancy dice and player’s
handbooks to play through Sorcery!, a TTRPG simulation game from
Inkle, the developer of Heaven’s Vault, a game we played 8 months
ago but feels like it was more recent than that because time is an
illusion. Anyway, thanks for listening!