Episode 145 - Spaghetti and Towels - Shadows Over Loathing

This is a podcast that is actually a podcast. This is a big step for us. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re talking about Shadows Over Loathing, a turn based RPG and a follow up to Kingdom of Loathing and West of Loathing, the latter of which we’ve covered on the podcast before. The Loathing games are all RPGs, but the combat isn’t really the part of the game that should draw you in. It’s pretty unbalanced in the player’s favor, and you shouldn’t have much trouble making it through no matter what mechanical choices you end up making. However, the game’s expressive writing, both in the form of dialog and scenario design, is at the absolute top of the pile when it comes to being consistently funny and imaginative. The game is constantly subverting your expectations, aided by the random encounter system, so you can’t possibly guess what’s going to pop up at any given time. Now while this is unequivocally a good thing and the reason you should be playing the game, Shadows Over Loathing, as compared to its kin, is themed around cosmic horror, which is not historically the funniest genre. And it’s true, the game’s tone clashes with its theme a decent amount and it means that while there is some solid horror writing in here, the game never really becomes scary. The tone remains light even in the most Lovecraftian scenarios and it probably doesn’t help that the game’s aesthetic is “stick figures,” though admittedly the detail in some of the designs can be surprising. We’re going to be talking about what areas were the most (and least) imaginative, how the mechanics can rub against the rest of the game in a lightly uncomfortable way, and shoes. We talk about a classic shoes. Thank you for joining us again this week! I was pretty sold on doing this game from the moment I heard about it, but in the end I think we were a little disappointed at how similar to West of Loathing it ended up being. Still a fantastic game and entirely worth playing if you haven’t played West or just loved it, but it did have the opportunity to be a bit more different and just didn’t quite make there. Did you feel the same? Was this your first Loathing game? Let us know in the comments or over on the Discord. Next time, we’re going to be talking about God of War: Ragnarok, which while a pretty big game for us to be talking about, is still about three months later than everyone else talked about it. So I hope you’ll join us anyway, lol.