The 2025 Main Story Awards 03: The Best-Yet Version of a Game That Isn't What I Truly Want Award
Side Story
Welcome to the inaugural Main Story Awards, Side Story's end-of-year sendoff to the games and topics that captivated our attention this year. Look forward to a new short episode Every Day This Week! Today you'll be hearing from Keith, Janine, and Austin who are bringing us The Best-Yet Version of a Game That Isn't What I Truly Want Award! Show Notes Featuring , , and Produced by Austin Walker
info_outline
The 2025 Main Story Awards 02: The Feel the Love Award
Side Story
Welcome to the inaugural Main Story Awards, Side Story's end-of-year sendoff to the games and topics that captivated our attention this year. Look forward to a new short episode Every Day This Week! Today you'll be hearing from Sylvi and Jack, who are bringing us the Feel the Love Award. Show Notes Featuring and Produced by Austin Walker
info_outline
The 2025 Main Story Awards 01: The Clockwork World Award
Side Story
Welcome to the innaguaral Main Story Awards, a week long showcase where we make up awards to give the games and topics that really took center stage for us this year, and which we felt like deserved a little more attention than they already got on the show this year. It's not a traditional game of the year, but we did try to restrain ourselves to a single game or topic each, which means that there are definitely some things that were big that didn't get included. We'll have a short episode every day, normally, but not always, covering one game or topic suggested by a member of the...
info_outline
18: Your Mother's Delightful Bonanza
Side Story
Side Story only exists because of support from listeners like you. Go to to support us! Today we explore a bevvy of different worlds: 2.5D fantasy realms, alien FMV planets, and a land of climate apocalypse and raw nerve paranoia. Wait, that last one is... it's kind of sounding familiar. Oh well, get in, buckle up, and make sure to bring your favorite childhood food, because we've got places to go. Games discussed this episode: The Octopath Traveler series, Blippo+, No, I'm Not a Human, Horses (and the other games of Santa Ragione) Show Notes Chapters 00:00...
info_outline
17: A Buffer Arm and a More Traditional Hammer
Side Story
Mysterious internet occurances abound this week on Side Story. Mysteries like "What is the dark secret of the famed Roottree family, Pittsburghian candy magnates" and "Why did Austin's connection totally fall apart before we could reach the second half of the podcast?" Like all good mysteries, the twists and turns are just as exciting as the answer, as a stunning second segment appears, drawing the listener (you) in closer... closer... ever closer, until it is too late. Show Notes Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:27 The Roottrees Are Dead 21:45 "AI" in Game Development 47:14 Back to The...
info_outline
16: Paradise Honk
Side Story
Between the barter system and the coin, there were other currencies. Cyrus the Great's Achaemenid Empire, which would one day stretchout from the Iranian plateau as far west as Egypt and north as the Aral Sea, used silver bullion when this-for-that wasn't an efficient enough means of trade. Could you decide who's paying for lunch on a flipped silver bar? Unsure. Perhaps, slightly later, the 'knife money' of the Zhou Dynasty or Old Chosŏn would be better suited for such chance game. Perhaps they tossed them straight up, wagering on them as they fell, to see if they'd stick in the ground. Yes,...
info_outline
15: The Mama Button
Side Story
This episode contains an extended conversation about the death of a pet. See the chapters below for time stamps. What makes a city good? Is it walkability? A wide variety of dining options? A good chance that while you're on your way to work, you'll bump into between five and seven little creatures, teaming with elemental power? Well if it's that last one, we've got the city for you. Rent may be high, but so are the Pidgeys. Show Notes Skyehoppers' Pokemon video essays: and Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:50 Pokemon Legends: Z-A 01:16:58 Absolum 01:46:32 Dealing with Pet...
info_outline
14: Melancholic Murder Bug
Side Story
The ocean is draining. Where is it going? Is there a drain down there? Is someone drinking it? Wouldn't they be getting very thirsty? I guess there are lizardly astrologists and coral-covered automatons, so maybe there is someone who can drink the sea. Hard to say. Hard to say. This show wouldn't be possible without your support. Please consider supporting us at . Show Notes Endless Legend 1 Screenshots Endless Legend 2 Screenshots Janine's Comparisons Keith's Edit Skill Trees Additional Notes Chapters 00:00 Introduction 03:28 Endless Legend 2 01:04:10 Break (On the Nature...
info_outline
13: The Validity of the Scorpion
Side Story
Take a deep breath in. Can you smell it? That's right, the summer is finally behind us, and we can turn to the finer things of the autumn: Genetic splicing, cursed relics, and hobby-kit helicopters. Make a warm drink and settle in. The crisp air of the fall is going to take us many places. Show Notes , , and Produced by Austin Walker
info_outline
12: The Succulent Strawberry, or: Make Turnip Grow and Pet Cow
Side Story
This week in a special double-part episode, Ali, Dre, and Janine retun from the windy climes of Zephyr Town to tell us about the highs and lows of running a weekend produce market in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. Then, with the sort of clarity that only comes in the immediate aftermath of COVID recovery, Austin descends into the strange, probabalistic dungeons of Sol Cesto only to find Jack with a mouth full of strange, cursed teeth. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:39 Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar 57:15 Sol Cesto Featuring , , , , and Produced by Austin Walker
info_outlineTake a deep breath in. Can you smell it? That's right, the summer is finally behind us, and we can turn to the finer things of the autumn: Genetic splicing, cursed relics, and hobby-kit helicopters. Make a warm drink and settle in. The crisp air of the fall is going to take us many places.
Show Notes
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
08:30 The Saboteur
11:31 Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion
01:03:23 Strange Antiquities
01:29:44 No Man's Sky: Voyagers
01:39:30 Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
01:49:03 Hollow Knight: Silksong
Featuring Austin Walker, Jack de Quidt, and Sylvi Bullet
Produced by Austin Walker