the word you're looking for is metaphysical/deconstructive. an art piece that talks about the nature of art itself. a game about the nature of games. a book about the nature of books etc. that's what makes postmodern art really interesting
You are a fucking Saint, Ben. I remember having seen like one screenshot of the title on tumblr one day and I knew I had to play it. It's one of my favorite games and definitely a huge inspiration for an RPG Maker game idea I have (alongside OFF) Whenever I try to show anyone this game they just dismiss it because of the shitty visuals when I tell them that it's so good because of them. Everything about it, the pyramid, the King of Crime, the genie that turns you into a fish for the entire fucking duration of the game, it all comes together so nicely into such a great experience.
i looked through the sound files of this game, realized the battle victory theme was from a song by the band Love, listened to them, and found one of my favorite weird bands ever. good game, i am so happy to see it being spoken about 5 years ago
Do you think it's called Space Funeral because he "killed" and twisted the world and both the characters and the player have to experience that? Moreover, even the characters grieve in some sense over the corruption of the world in a sense like it died. Fuck most of the game references blood a LOT, there's even a river of it. And usually when people think of blood they think of death, so yeah there ya go.
The music choice and the character’s designs are definitely what make this game one of my absolute favorites. Phillip and Leg Horse are genuinely my most favorite protagonists ever.
Interesting you criticize murder dog (which I also played after watching this, great game) as being closer to a visual novel than a game when I may argue the very same thing for space funeral itself. in SF he's broken down the gameplay so much and made it so simplistic that it ends up revealing how artificial the level of interactivity a player is given in these types of games actually is. interesting stuff
JC The JRPG formula does give the player a sense of discovering stuff for themselves, like by choosing when to use items and so forth, even if that feeling is basically an illusion. I wonder if thecatemites was deliberately trying to highlight the shallowness of the interactions in the genre, or if it just came through due to a lack of focus on the design of the gameplay as opposed to story and art.
@Linus Continental 22 that has to be the biggest reach to justify crummy gameplay i've ever heard he just focused on nonsense story the gameplay was just arbitrarily there cuz he had to he coulda just made it a comic and it woulda been less painful
I fucking love this game. Weird, surrealist, detached but funny and well written, Earthbound-like dialogue, and fucking great soundtrack. White Waking, for example, is one of the best choices for hub themes I've ever heard. Thecatamites called me a Nazi on Twitter tho :^(
@@ElGuayo Because Trump being elected gave people brain parasites that made them call everyone with less than far-left ideals nazis. This also happened with Dingaling, the creator of LISA The Painful; They had been sheltered from social media most of their lives, until releasing LISA, at which point they were dragged into the mire of Twitter and Tumblr and etc, and almost immediately became a self-loathing SJW who thought whites needed to flog themselves for their sins.
If I have gained anything from your content, it's an appreciation for all the smaller steps that art takes to achieve even being average. I would never even hear about shit like this if it weren't for videos like yours. I'll try it out. Good video man.
This is only the SECOND time I've EVER seen a video about Space Funeral. Good breakdown, good vid. Never heard of catamites other games, I should check those out.
I definitely agree Space Funeral is great (although I also think a lot of his other games are fantastic because I like impenetrable absurdity, especially Goblet Grotto) but one thing I never ever see in these discussions is any hint of a reference to OFF or Yume Nikki. From Undertale to Lisa to SF etc. all of these games are in an entire subgenre basically defined by those two games, and I think for the specific things you praise SF for most of it falls into shit OFF already did two or three years before SF even released. I'm glad both games exist, but I don't understand why nobody ever gives credit to or examines OFF for it's contribution to weird indie RPG games. It's like if, in a discussion about indie platformer games, nobody bothered to bring up Cave Story as the obvious antecedent to whatever platformer being discussed. >inb4 I also recognize that all of these games, including OFF and Yume Nikki, also trace their roots back to the Mother series (often specifically Mother 2/Earthbound). Earthbound has definitely gotten it's day in the sun though and is recognized as a cult classic. Mother 3, although it's influences has been less since it never got an official legal release, is actually an extremely heartfelt and genuine masterpiece that I think surpasses Mother 2 which, for all it's merit, is still basically just a piss take of JRPGs. On the other hand, OFF never really got any discussion outside a hardcore fanbase and outside the window of when the English translation was finished. Even Yume Nikki has now gotten an updated release that can be purchased to support the developer. This despite the fact that Toby seemingly based a character design and it's music on the ghost designs and battle theme in OFF. To me, Space Funeral is valuable for it's psychedelic aesthetic and for it's twisted portrayal of interpersonal interaction. Because of it's theme of Platonic corruption, it displays a lot of grotesque disfigurements of real world things and leaves you with an exhilarating disgust for most of the playthrough. It is also funny that most of that is in service of doing a piss take of generic RPG games. OFF on the other hand feels like a much more genuine thesis from it's creator Mortis Ghost (Martin Georis). It uses the metagame formula, before it was a formula, to make you- the player -intimately involved with the actions taking place on screen. It also has lore which describes a weird metaphysical world constructed from nonsensical elements. It's isolating, hollow, lonely, and as the reality of what you're doing sinks in you get a knot in your stomach as you realize you don't have any choice but to see this thing out. All endings keep true satisfaction just barely out of reach and force the cognizant player to reflect on the experience they just indulged in.
@@CerealKiller What a weird comment. I have yet to play LISA but there's nothing 'overrated' about Yume Nikki or OFF. Some people just love them, you don't need to make a convoluted theory to explain to yourself why they made an impact on certain people. "I like X more than Y so there's no way people actually like Y, they just convinced themselves they do" makes no sense.
The only thing I really remember about this game besides the visuals is that weird voice at the end of the boat theme that I still don't understand. Guess I'll need to replay it.
Double-checking the soundtrack, it seems like a lot of it, including the voice at the end of the boat theme, are stemming from Ruth White's album "The Flowers of Evil", which is a translation of the poems of the same name.
I'm sorry Ben, but I haven't played Space Funeral but I'm leaving my opinion. No RPG Maker game can live up to the masterpiece that is the Sigmund Corp. series. To the Moon, a Bird Story, and Finding Paradise are worth much more than their Steam price. Especially because they're constantly on sale. This game still looks interesting though and I will play it soon.
eh, it was really more meant to be a statement on generic RPG maker games honestly. Not a super amazing story. It has everything a generic RPG maker game has. Fetch quests, weird minigames, bad combat, that one REALLY funny scene, and the generic areas like ice world and desert. But the game twists it on its head by adding all this random shit to make it seem unique.
I tried playing the game but I had multiple problems first the game wouldn't start because of an issue with it starting in full screen and then I had to find a fix for the font because it was also messed up and then the game kept crashing after I fixed that the game kept soft locking and black screening me out but there was still sound and i couldn't find a fix for that. So in the end I just gave up trying to find fixes. Would it bee worth it to just find a youtube letsplay or is it the kind of game where you have to play it yourself?
TheKingOfApples personally i think there just not any good let's plays of it- recordings of it... But also yea it's better to play it yourself cause one of the things I enjoyed about the game are best enjoyed at your own pace cause of how uncomfortable it is- just let yourself be in the moment sometimes listening to the music- exploring the strange world.
Hearing things about Space Funeral reflecting the medium it was made from kind of makes me think of "Life is Strange." It's entirely full of artificial clueless tragic hipsters, and if the story was a person, that's exactly what it'd be.
You can still find it, but it’s really hard to. I think the Discord has a link. (You can find the invite when you look up Earth Birth’s OST and look through the comments of the Blumburg song.)
Hey Ben do u think that art, in general, is starting to move towards this objective standard of "good" and that people like this creator are pushing the envelope with change and do u think that change can go too far?
Hi Ben, @thecatamites released a new series of games under the name @garmentdistric. Do you plan on doing a review of those as well? There are a total of 6 right now, it's the 'of the killer' series.
It is today, but this game is made like a decade ago, it most likely gives a creative sense than gameplay wise. Nothing special about but just it’s weird/funny symbolic cues and the devs experiment of jrpg maker
Space Funeral is an awesome game and doesn't get enough credit. This is a good video and I really enjoyed it.
Make more videos, reeeeeeeeee!
lmao
damn I didn't know you had TASTE
It's an extremely popular rpgmaker game
the word you're looking for is metaphysical/deconstructive. an art piece that talks about the nature of art itself. a game about the nature of games. a book about the nature of books etc. that's what makes postmodern art really interesting
You are a fucking Saint, Ben.
I remember having seen like one screenshot of the title on tumblr one day and I knew I had to play it. It's one of my favorite games and definitely a huge inspiration for an RPG Maker game idea I have (alongside OFF)
Whenever I try to show anyone this game they just dismiss it because of the shitty visuals when I tell them that it's so good because of them. Everything about it, the pyramid, the King of Crime, the genie that turns you into a fish for the entire fucking duration of the game, it all comes together so nicely into such a great experience.
you know the wizard Yorm can restore your form when you become a fish, right?
Excuse me, I dismissed it because I was too lazy to install it on a Mac. I thought the visuals looked cool as shit.
i looked through the sound files of this game, realized the battle victory theme was from a song by the band Love, listened to them, and found one of my favorite weird bands ever. good game, i am so happy to see it being spoken about 5 years ago
This game and OFF have -BOPPIN- soundtracks.
So what, is your "thing" making some mug noises and sipping a drink before you start talking? I fucking love it
Do you think it's called Space Funeral because he "killed" and twisted the world and both the characters and the player have to experience that? Moreover, even the characters grieve in some sense over the corruption of the world in a sense like it died. Fuck most of the game references blood a LOT, there's even a river of it. And usually when people think of blood they think of death, so yeah there ya go.
The music choice and the character’s designs are definitely what make this game one of my absolute favorites. Phillip and Leg Horse are genuinely my most favorite protagonists ever.
Definitely
Space Funeral is one of my favorite games
I love this game. I can still remember when I first fought moon. I just killed her with one hit. Fucking incredible
Ben is going to overtake digi confirmed
An analysis of Space Funeral wasn't what I was expecting but it's a good thing it's here.
Interesting you criticize murder dog (which I also played after watching this, great game) as being closer to a visual novel than a game when I may argue the very same thing for space funeral itself. in SF he's broken down the gameplay so much and made it so simplistic that it ends up revealing how artificial the level of interactivity a player is given in these types of games actually is. interesting stuff
JC The JRPG formula does give the player a sense of discovering stuff for themselves, like by choosing when to use items and so forth, even if that feeling is basically an illusion. I wonder if thecatemites was deliberately trying to highlight the shallowness of the interactions in the genre, or if it just came through due to a lack of focus on the design of the gameplay as opposed to story and art.
@Linus Continental 22 that has to be the biggest reach to justify crummy gameplay i've ever heard
he just focused on nonsense story the gameplay was just arbitrarily there cuz he had to
he coulda just made it a comic and it woulda been less painful
@@flaco3462 if it was a comic, the ending reveal with the RPGMaker assets wouldn't work. At all.
I fucking love this game. Weird, surrealist, detached but funny and well written, Earthbound-like dialogue, and fucking great soundtrack. White Waking, for example, is one of the best choices for hub themes I've ever heard.
Thecatamites called me a Nazi on Twitter tho :^(
huge yuj why?
@@ElGuayo Because Trump being elected gave people brain parasites that made them call everyone with less than far-left ideals nazis. This also happened with Dingaling, the creator of LISA The Painful; They had been sheltered from social media most of their lives, until releasing LISA, at which point they were dragged into the mire of Twitter and Tumblr and etc, and almost immediately became a self-loathing SJW who thought whites needed to flog themselves for their sins.
@@Antiformed bro go outside I promise it's ok
Did you go to the steak farm? I picked a surly steak...ain't nobody got time for elderly meat.
I'd avoid old steak if it were up to me, but the lions demand it aged to perfection
I want to learn more about Les Rallizes Denudes (the band that did "white waking")...a whole video could be done on just them I am sure.
HE SAID THE TITLE OF THE VIDEO IN THE VIDEO
If I have gained anything from your content, it's an appreciation for all the smaller steps that art takes to achieve even being average. I would never even hear about shit like this if it weren't for videos like yours. I'll try it out. Good video man.
remember when ben did a nuzlocke
This is only the SECOND time I've EVER seen a video about Space Funeral. Good breakdown, good vid. Never heard of catamites other games, I should check those out.
I definitely agree Space Funeral is great (although I also think a lot of his other games are fantastic because I like impenetrable absurdity, especially Goblet Grotto) but one thing I never ever see in these discussions is any hint of a reference to OFF or Yume Nikki. From Undertale to Lisa to SF etc. all of these games are in an entire subgenre basically defined by those two games, and I think for the specific things you praise SF for most of it falls into shit OFF already did two or three years before SF even released. I'm glad both games exist, but I don't understand why nobody ever gives credit to or examines OFF for it's contribution to weird indie RPG games. It's like if, in a discussion about indie platformer games, nobody bothered to bring up Cave Story as the obvious antecedent to whatever platformer being discussed.
>inb4 I also recognize that all of these games, including OFF and Yume Nikki, also trace their roots back to the Mother series (often specifically Mother 2/Earthbound). Earthbound has definitely gotten it's day in the sun though and is recognized as a cult classic. Mother 3, although it's influences has been less since it never got an official legal release, is actually an extremely heartfelt and genuine masterpiece that I think surpasses Mother 2 which, for all it's merit, is still basically just a piss take of JRPGs. On the other hand, OFF never really got any discussion outside a hardcore fanbase and outside the window of when the English translation was finished. Even Yume Nikki has now gotten an updated release that can be purchased to support the developer. This despite the fact that Toby seemingly based a character design and it's music on the ghost designs and battle theme in OFF.
To me, Space Funeral is valuable for it's psychedelic aesthetic and for it's twisted portrayal of interpersonal interaction. Because of it's theme of Platonic corruption, it displays a lot of grotesque disfigurements of real world things and leaves you with an exhilarating disgust for most of the playthrough. It is also funny that most of that is in service of doing a piss take of generic RPG games. OFF on the other hand feels like a much more genuine thesis from it's creator Mortis Ghost (Martin Georis). It uses the metagame formula, before it was a formula, to make you- the player -intimately involved with the actions taking place on screen. It also has lore which describes a weird metaphysical world constructed from nonsensical elements. It's isolating, hollow, lonely, and as the reality of what you're doing sinks in you get a knot in your stomach as you realize you don't have any choice but to see this thing out. All endings keep true satisfaction just barely out of reach and force the cognizant player to reflect on the experience they just indulged in.
@@CerealKiller What a weird comment. I have yet to play LISA but there's nothing 'overrated' about Yume Nikki or OFF. Some people just love them, you don't need to make a convoluted theory to explain to yourself why they made an impact on certain people. "I like X more than Y so there's no way people actually like Y, they just convinced themselves they do" makes no sense.
4:47 Ben does a Street Fighter move
Do a lecture on thecatemites. It sounds like that could be interesting.
Or a video about the guy who made Middens / Gingiva.
release the ranting and raving cut
The only thing I really remember about this game besides the visuals is that weird voice at the end of the boat theme that I still don't understand. Guess I'll need to replay it.
Double-checking the soundtrack, it seems like a lot of it, including the voice at the end of the boat theme, are stemming from Ruth White's album "The Flowers of Evil", which is a translation of the poems of the same name.
Rewatching this gem of a video after a year, seems I'm gonna binge watch all your shit now once again. Happy times
I'm sorry Ben, but I haven't played Space Funeral but I'm leaving my opinion. No RPG Maker game can live up to the masterpiece that is the Sigmund Corp. series. To the Moon, a Bird Story, and Finding Paradise are worth much more than their Steam price. Especially because they're constantly on sale.
This game still looks interesting though and I will play it soon.
eh, it was really more meant to be a statement on generic RPG maker games honestly. Not a super amazing story. It has everything a generic RPG maker game has. Fetch quests, weird minigames, bad combat, that one REALLY funny scene, and the generic areas like ice world and desert. But the game twists it on its head by adding all this random shit to make it seem unique.
Wait ben saint pcp makes videos? About space funeral? Hubabaloo !
Glad to see you back!
He needs to do a video on hylics
You, good sir, truly know how to appreciate art.
This game lives in my head rent-free. Short and perfect.
Really awesome video. Great job!!!
Goblet Grotto > Space Funeral
nice comment, saint
thanks
I tried playing the game but I had multiple problems first the game wouldn't start because of an issue with it starting in full screen and then I had to find a fix for the font because it was also messed up and then the game kept crashing after I fixed that the game kept soft locking and black screening me out but there was still sound and i couldn't find a fix for that. So in the end I just gave up trying to find fixes. Would it bee worth it to just find a youtube letsplay or is it the kind of game where you have to play it yourself?
TheKingOfApples personally i think there just not any good let's plays of it- recordings of it... But also yea it's better to play it yourself cause one of the things I enjoyed about the game are best enjoyed at your own pace cause of how uncomfortable it is- just let yourself be in the moment sometimes listening to the music- exploring the strange world.
give us the original 35 minutes
this game is amazing.
Its 1.am, I'm tripping balls on insomnia and sleeping medicine and I have no idea what this video is. But its very mesmerizing.
No talk of Earth Birth?
Smerg the Dargon or the furry edition
So what's up with PCP University? I love those vids and I hope we get more.
You need to check out CLASSIC GAME and HOME GAME. Crazy shit too.
THANK YOU, this game doesn't get nearly enough CREDIT
Hearing things about Space Funeral reflecting the medium it was made from kind of makes me think of "Life is Strange." It's entirely full of artificial clueless tragic hipsters, and if the story was a person, that's exactly what it'd be.
@stareatthesunman You speak the truth, my good man.
are you goblet?
I always wondered about making my own rpg. Anyone one know if it's more or less easy to do, or even worth giving a shot?
Yep.
I can't play the game cause my computer broke AAAHHHHH!!!
I would love to play earth birth. To bad the game was erased
You can still find it, but it’s really hard to. I think the Discord has a link. (You can find the invite when you look up Earth Birth’s OST and look through the comments of the Blumburg song.)
Space Funeral is the "Man with a Movie Camera" of video games
watched it 2x
Hey Ben do u think that art, in general, is starting to move towards this objective standard of "good" and that people like this creator are pushing the envelope with change and do u think that change can go too far?
Hahaha! I am Dracula
nice vid, but get a script next time
meta
i remember playing space funeral expecting something interesting
i beat the whole thing and it fucking sucked and i hate it
Me when I play Kirby (it smells weird)
Depression hitting hard huh?
Hi Ben, @thecatamites released a new series of games under the name @garmentdistric. Do you plan on doing a review of those as well? There are a total of 6 right now, it's the 'of the killer' series.
Looks lame.
Ratio + skill issue
It is today, but this game is made like a decade ago, it most likely gives a creative sense than gameplay wise. Nothing special about but just it’s weird/funny symbolic cues and the devs experiment of jrpg maker
i liked dracula.