This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Homebody on the So Videogames podcast, episode 341: Whattaya Gonna Do. (The game was also discussed in episode 339: Toilet Talk.)
Brad: [00:11:19] All right, well, let’s kick this off with a look at Homebody. We talked about this briefly last week. This is, I believe, kind of a retro flavored throwback survival horror ish sort of thing coming from Game Grumps, which is somebody that you knew and I’ve heard of them, but I don’t really know anything about them. But they’re like, what? Youtube people who had enough money to make a game? Is that about right?
Carlos: [00:11:42] I guess I don’t know about that last part. But yeah, they’re on YouTube, huge on YouTube and you know, a bunch of YouTubers and content creators are getting into game development and that’s the.
Brad: [00:11:51] Thing, that’s the hotness right now.
Carlos: [00:11:52] So that’s, you know, they’re throwing their hat in the ring. And I think it’s it’s good. I always want like, you know, new talent and new perspective, right? Especially people who like make YouTube videos every single day about games or about, you know, content and stuff and entertainment. They have different perspectives. So it’s cool. And yeah, we talked about a little bit last week. Was it last week?
Brad: [00:12:13] Yeah. Yeah. You had just scratched the surface. You were kind of busy so you didn’t have time to like fully deep dive in. And so we’re, we’re circling back this week. So yeah, I am very curious, especially because I don’t know about you, but just to pause for a second, just to sit on this for a minute, I think it’s kind of a high stakes thing, right, where if you’re I don’t know anything about game Grumps, but like if you’re a YouTuber talking about games or you’re a reviewer talking about games, you know, it’s like a movie critic where you think you know a lot about movies and you do from from like one perspective, right? But you may not make them or you may not. It’s different once you’re doing it right. And so I think a lot of a lot is on the line when you are someone who criticizes games a lot. But then when you have to make one, like if it’s not amazing, that’s kind of like a little bit of pie in the face, right?
Carlos: [00:12:55] Yeah. Well, also a lot of it’s publishing, right? So it’s not the same. Totally true. True. Even like Danny O’Dwyer, who I talked to on Twitter and stuff like that, they’re working on that car game. Oh, yeah. Physics and stuff. Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re publishing. I’m not sure I could double check if they’re jumping into the development ring at all too, but I believe this one as well. If you just look at it for me, I’m pretty sure Game Grumps is publishing okay. I don’t I think they have you know, they’re working with other people who are making it as well. But either way, obviously, they’re going to have some say in it. That’s what publishers do, not just put out stuff. And so what is this game? It’s yeah, like you said, it’s a throwback PS1 era style tank controls, you know, kind of like fixed camera perspective, horror game. But, you know, when I say horror, there’s an asterisks. It’s really about a girl who goes to a party, doesn’t really want to be there dealing with her own kind of emotional issues and, you know, seeing friends she hasn’t seen for a while. So there’s kind of like that mental aspect to the game. Yeah, right. And like personality clashes and things like that. So it’s more about like those little stories as well, as well as the idea that there’s a killer spoiler, it’s in the trailer and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it’s like you’re locked in a house and you got to try to figure out, you know, who this person is and what’s going on. And how to escape and not die. So that’s got your info.
Brad: [00:14:22] If you want to hold on for a second, I found your info. Okay. Number one game grumps needs to update their fucking website because it’s fucking way out of date. They don’t even have this game anywhere listed on their website, which is weird, but I did look it up on steam. So it’s developed by game grumps and it is published by Rogue Games. So they are the people. They made this.
Carlos: [00:14:40] There you go. That’s a good distinction. There you go. Because I believe there’s a couple other, you know, content creators who are just publishing games. So there is a difference.
Brad: [00:14:48] Yes, very true.
Carlos: [00:14:49] Okay. Well, so yeah, so that’ll be interesting. On what I have to say about this, because last time I jumped in and like I said before, the setup is your girl going to a party? You really kind of don’t want to go you having anxiety. I was kind of relating to some of the stuff early on.
Brad: [00:15:04] And again, this is like third person kind of resident evil throwback, fixed camera sort of thing. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Carlos: [00:15:09] But again, with like certain scenes that are just played out, right? They’re not it’s not always you controlling it. Sometimes you’re just watching these cut scenes. Okay. And so when you finally get there, you know, the idea is you walk around and talk to everybody. And this is the part that I am allergic to, which everybody knows on the show. If it’s a puzzle adventure game and I got to like talk to a lot of people and click a lot of things, I just freak out, especially if there’s like puzzles, like lots of them, which is funny because that’s how I get anxiety. I get anxiety from being at a party that I don’t want to be at, but also puzzles and a lot of like, you know, tons of dialogue in the beginning. So I kind of noped out because I was not feeling it. Slow start.
Brad: [00:15:51] Sounds like a very slow start.
Carlos: [00:15:52] It’s a very slow start. It’s a very slow start. And the fact that it’s such a cool setup and I like a lot of the cutscenes in the beginning and actually like the throwback art and PS1 graphics, but it really does throw you into like talk to everybody, go check out all the puzzles that are already available. Like you could see them all in the room. You know, like there’s the power cord. You’re going to have to do something with that later. Go check out the security code. Oh, you can’t get in there now. So it’s all those tropes are just like there. And you’re kind of like for someone like me who doesn’t like that, I kind of freak out. Now, if you like that, you’re probably just like, all in, you know, you’re like, Sure, there’s all the puzzles, you know? So, okay, so I gave it a harder shake. And the fact that I did things my own way and I wanted to see if the game would let me. What I mean by that is there’s a little areas where you can hide, which of course, in these kind of games is where you do. So you don’t get killed by whoever’s trying to stalk you. So what I did is I got tired of talking to everybody and I got tired of looking at puzzles.
Brad: [00:16:52] It sounds like a real party to me. I’ve been there. Yeah, right, right.
Carlos: [00:16:54] And I didn’t want to do anything anymore. So I went upstairs to a bedroom and I just.
Brad: [00:17:00] Wait, wait. We need to focus on that for a second. I That right there, that is a back of the box motherfucking quote. I didn’t want to do anything in this game anymore.
Carlos: [00:17:09] But it was. It’s also like I was role playing. I didn’t want to as the character, as the girl. I didn’t want to be a part of this party anymore. Like I didn’t like what was I was hearing and stuff. By the way, I forgot to mention this last time. There was like an imaginary person that I was talking to downstairs.
Brad: [00:17:26] Because you’re an introvert.
Carlos: [00:17:28] No, I don’t know. They didn’t explain it and I didn’t get far enough. But I was like talking to somebody and someone was like, Who are you talking to? So that was kind of creepy. That’s weird. And then I went upstairs and I was like, okay, fuck this party. I’m going upstairs and I’m just going to hide in the closet and I’m not going to do anything. And now this game has a clock. So a real time clock, a real time clock. So I was like, okay, I can just stay in the closet. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the game just like, gave me another ending, like.
Brad: [00:17:53] The whole game, like, just passes you by while you’re in the closet? Yeah, that would be pretty brilliant.
Carlos: [00:17:57] Yeah, well, okay, so that didn’t fully happen, but it almost did. So what I did is I went in the closet and I put down the controller and I did other stuff on my computer.
Brad: [00:18:06] I went to go make a sandwich. Yeah, okay.
Carlos: [00:18:07] And then after finish eating, I checked on my PlayStation and it the, the little clock had went to 12 a.m. and then it was just blinking, meaning that like something was happening and I couldn’t, like, just finish the game that way. So I had to leave the closet, you know. But I did spend like, I don’t know, many, many hours in that closet. And you saw like the lights go off and stuff and people are like, you know, had moved on.
Brad: [00:18:34] When you came out of the closet, were there like dead bodies and stuff? Like was the story like, here we go. Okay, okay.
Carlos: [00:18:39] This is part of my review, all right? Because this is how Carlos played it. Okay? So I. I came out of the closet and there’s a dead body, and. And I investigated the body, and I go around the corner, and there’s the killer, and I die. So what’s interesting and this is the positive. Here’s a positive.
Brad: [00:18:54] All right?
Carlos: [00:18:55] This game wants you to do that. It wants you to die, right? It’s that Groundhog Day kind of vibe.
Brad: [00:19:00] Oh, so you’re doing the day over and over.
Carlos: [00:19:02] You’re doing the day over. And here’s the other positive that I can say. I was just expecting to restart and then have to do some puzzle that I didn’t want to do. Instead, it gave me a cutscene and it was very good. It was like a Twilight Zone episode, okay? And it was short, but it was her at the gas station before she went to the party and she, like, saw some strange guy and he was like talking to her about emotions and stuff and the past. And I was like, Oh, that’s cool. That’s like giving me more information to take with me back to the party that’s really super smart. And then I died again, you know, because I kept doing this thing where I hide and then come back out and the killer’s always there. By the way, in Carlos’s playthrough, if you go hide for hours, still there? Yeah, there’s people dead and there’s the killer. And so I couldn’t outrun it the second time and then it gave me another cutscene. So with.
Brad: [00:19:54] More information.
Carlos: [00:19:54] Yeah. But like totally different, like about it’s just a totally.
Brad: [00:19:57] You know what this reminds me of? I don’t know if we talked about this, but have you seen the movie Happy Death Day? Have you seen that?
Carlos: [00:20:02] Yeah, yeah, love that.
Brad: [00:20:03] Yeah, that what you’re saying totally reminds me of that, where it’s, like the same thing. This lady gets killed by a killer, but every time she dies, she comes back, and they don’t quite explain why, but she comes back, and every time she comes back, she learns something new. Like she does something different. And she learns about where. Somebody was or what happened or what led to this. And then, you know, by the 37th time that she’s going to get killed, she has the whole thing figured out so she can escape death. Yeah. Is that kind of what they’re going for here?
Carlos: [00:20:25] It really feels like that. Although more old school and more like, you know, I always bring a maniac mansion, but, like, definitely kind of like you’re getting to know your friends. You’re trying to figure out the situation on a on a relationship level, too, right? So it’s not just like, how do I just survive? Happy Death Day, by the way, is awesome. That’s a great underrated and there’s a second one coming out or already out.
Brad: [00:20:47] I think second one is already out. Second one is also very good.
Carlos: [00:20:50] Wait, maybe I saw it then. Yeah.
Brad: [00:20:52] I love both of those. Like those movies seem like they’re going to be such like cheap schlock from the like, the cover art and from the description. But when you watch them, they are so good. They’re so good. And honestly, this sounds weird. Those are great family films we watch with my kid and there were so many life lessons in those movies that were like, good. And it kind of ends on a positive note. And it.
Carlos: [00:21:09] Does.
Brad: [00:21:09] Yeah, Yeah. I love those movies, so good.
Carlos: [00:21:11] Well, so, you know, I guess here’s the box quote. If you like Happy Death Day, check out Homebody.
Brad: [00:21:16] Okay, well, that’s a pretty good box quote then.
Carlos: [00:21:18] There you go. You can use that one, by the way, because that’s totally true. That’s how it feels. The only problem is and this is an asterisks, Carlos problem, because I don’t want to do the puzzles and I know they want me to still. And you have to do you have to there’s like so many of them and so I’m just allergic to that part of the game. Now, if it was just coming back over and over again and then figuring something out, you know, like mentally, like I figured out who I need to talk to. And then if I talk to one person, we just escape. Like, that’d be cool. And that still might be the case, right? Like I will give it more chances and keep dying a bunch of times and see if they let me not do the puzzles. And by the way, devs, if you’re listening, if you could have that be an option, that would be amazing for people like me because there’s a lot of people like me that don’t like puzzles. If you did it where like you die and over and over again, but you find a different way out of the house or something.
Brad: [00:22:13] Let me let me ask you then. So just for my own mental because I have not played this game at all. All I know about this game is what you’ve told me. And from like the trailer that I watched or whatever. So like when you’re going through the puzzles, I mean, are we talking about resident evil chess piece shaped like, you know, like a hand and there’s a a crest, a coat of arms and stuff like, oh, this is it like super esoteric because it seems like what you’re describing in my head is more about talking to people and finding out sequence of events, which is kind of more narrative based. So like, what are you getting from these puzzles? Is it like locked doors? Are you getting some kind of you need to get the key to the garage and in order to get the key, you got to solve the chess puzzle or like what’s like how does it function?
Carlos: [00:22:47] This is such a again, an Asterix Carlos issue. I really can’t explain it to you. Hopefully someone listening has the same feeling. But if it’s a if it’s a lot of like going through narrative and going through to find out what I’m supposed to do next puzzle wise, I just don’t want to do it. Like I freak out. Like I don’t. I get anxious. But to answer your question, there’s like a safe there’s like a secret door you have to have a code for. There’s it’s not horse like keys like in Resident Evil.
Brad: [00:23:16] Okay, So not that.
Carlos: [00:23:17] Goofy, but it’s like, you know, it’s very, like, complex things. There’s like a bunch of squares with buttons and there’s no numbers on it at all. It’s just like a sequence you have to find gotcha. And so there are all things I have to find within it, and even the power thing to turn the power back on, it’s like a cord going to another room. But then I went to that room and it was this thing I couldn’t do. So I was like, Oh, I know I can find it probably, but it’s going to take a while and I just don’t want to.
Brad: [00:23:44] Are there clues or are you just like blind searching the whole house or how does that work?
Carlos: [00:23:47] It’s hard for me to say this like the fourth time. I don’t want to do it. I don’t care if there is. It makes me uncomfortable. I’m telling you the truth.
Brad: [00:23:56] Gotcha. Okay.
Carlos: [00:23:57] Like my character, I want to be able to just do a couple things and then move on. I don’t know. I just. I don’t want to do too many things. But short answer is, if people like puzzles, it’s probably fine. I just I can’t deal with it. But I also I’m going to try it again to see if I can dialogue option myself, you know, and answer. And then lastly, like I said, I think it’s pretty cool. I like the graphics and I like the style of dying and coming back and getting new information that’s like really smart.
Brad: [00:24:26] Well, you’ve you’ve named off a bunch of different elements here. And it sounds like I mean, I love Happy Death Day. And I think probably I don’t have as big an issue with puzzle. I don’t love them. I mean, I don’t love puzzles, but I think probably I don’t mind them as much as you do. So for people listening, like if you had to give this game a score, like what do you feel like? Where would you put this game?
Carlos: [00:24:44] Yeah, okay. It’s almost like there’s two scores. There’s Carlos anxiety score.
Brad: [00:24:49] Okay, what is that then? How many, How many?
Carlos: [00:24:51] Carlos is anxiety version. Score is like. 5 or 6, probably because I don’t want to go back. I’m afraid to go back to figure out puzzles because you’re not.
Brad: [00:25:03] Liking the puzzles. That’s the part you don’t care. So yeah, so for you 5 or 6 Personally.
Carlos: [00:25:07] I think in general this game is like a good seven. Okay. So for somebody who didn’t.
Brad: [00:25:12] Have with no puzzle anxiety, you’re thinking like seven, 7.5, something like that.
Carlos: [00:25:16] I think 7.5 is a good solid number for this. It’s a good first foray into old-school game design with the cool idea of resetting time. And then also, I think the narrative not bad. It’s just I don’t want to deal with it. Right. And the killer thing feels like, you know, clock tower. Remember Clock tower.
Brad: [00:25:36] Clock tower is great.
Carlos: [00:25:37] It feels like that, like, you know, and to play to pay homage and do it right, you know, it’s not the killer is not too fast, but it’s not too slow. So I think it’s a good 7.5 for that style of game.
Brad: [00:25:50] Okay. I think that is fair. All right. There we go. That is Homebody from Game Grumps. And just as an FYI, they also made Dream Daddy, which was the, uh, everybody date a hot dad dating simulator, which came out a couple of years ago, which was pretty well received. So there you go.
So Videogames Official Score: 7.5/10
Developer: Game Grumps
Publisher: Rogue Games
Code Source: Publisher
Platform Reviewed: PS5
ESRB Rating: M – Blood, Strong Language, Violence
Colorblind Modes: None
Subtitles: Subtitles are present, but they cannot be modified.
Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist.
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