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In 2025, so many video games helped us laugh, helped us escape, and helped us connect. Join us for our annual discussion and celebration of the games that made our year. 00:00:46 - Some bittersweet news 00:09:56 - 2025 year of gaming overviews 00:26:47 - Spencer and Jamie's Top 5 Games of the Year 01:31:30 - Honorable Mentions 01:43:52 - Favorite characters of the year 01:47:36 - Favorite games journalists/content creators of the year 01:52:15 - Most hype for in 2026 Watch the live stream recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/SE2sNC_uE3Q Side Quest https://transasylumsupport.github.io/ The Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network is an interdependent, solidarity-based network of queer and trans asylum seekers, loved ones, collective members, and volunteers dedicated to the abolition of all cages and borders, revolutionary compassion and trans liberation. Our goal is to free transgender asylum seekers languishing in detention centers and help them relocate to and create thriving lives in Western Massachusetts. Learn more by visiting their website or @transasylumsupport on Instagram! About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

As the temperatures drop, the coziness factor turns up, and the impending arrival of a new year looms ominously on the horizon inviting us to dissociate from reality for just a little bit (just us?), it's just the perfect time to escape the stress and excitement of the holidays with a lengthy RPG you can sink your teeth into. At least, that's our tradition. Enter Demonschool (Necrosoft Games, published by Ysbryd Games), a campy, queer, isometric tactics RPG set at the cusp of Y2K with a delightful cast of college students banding together to save the world from monsters and gangsters while finding time for karaoke dates, fishing, petting dogs, and maybe kissing. WHAT ELSE COULD YOU WANT? 00:07:34 - Plate Up! 00:16:00 - s.p.l.i.t 00:20:28 - Demonschool Watch the live stream recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/vdzIo5MlaYU Side Quest https://transasylumsupport.github.io/ The Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network is an interdependent, solidarity-based network of queer and trans asylum seekers, loved ones, collective members, and volunteers dedicated to the abolition of all cages and borders, revolutionary compassion and trans liberation. Our goal is to free transgender asylum seekers languishing in detention centers and help them relocate to and create thriving lives in Western Massachusetts. Learn more by visiting their website or @transasylumsupport on Instagram! About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

This week we're chatting about Hades II, the long-in-early-access follow up to 2020's Hades from Supergiant Games. Like its predecessor, Hades II is an action RPG roguelike chock full of eye-popping art, callous-forming combat, and a steady supply of sexual tension set in the deep lore of Greek myth while telling the all-too-relatable story of confronting toxic family dynamics and breaking intergenerational cycles of trauma. So grab a bottle of ambrosia and activate God Mode with us as we unpack all our thoughts and feelings about this game of the year contender. 1:57 - Dispatch final thoughts 11:29 - Hades II 53:30 - **SPOILERS for Hades II** 1:32:32 - Outro Watch the live stream recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/XZ-HrL-XNNQ Side Quest https://transasylumsupport.github.io/ The Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network is an interdependent, solidarity-based network of queer and trans asylum seekers, loved ones, collective members, and volunteers dedicated to the abolition of all cages and borders, revolutionary compassion and trans liberation. Our goal is to free transgender asylum seekers languishing in detention centers and help them relocate to and create thriving lives in Western Massachusetts. Learn more by visiting their website or @transasylumsupport on Instagram! About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

Idk, but let us know in the comments! We continue our scattershot indie game revue reviews this week with Dispatch (AdHoc Studio, Critical Role), a superhero workplace comedy where choices matter, Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson), a WarioWare-esque slice-of-life RPG about that time when your parents, your friends, and society at large all conspired to make you feel ugly, lazy, stupid, and unloved despite the brilliant human spirit contained within you (aka high school), and BALLxPIT (Kenny Sun and Friends), a brick-breaking, ball-fusing, base-building survival roguelite!!!!111 02:10 - Halloweens Past & Present 12:16 - Adventures in Multiplayer with Phasmophobia and Power Wash Simulator 2 23:33 - Dispatch 58:42 - BALLxPIT 01:16:07 - Consume Me Referenced article: "Coming-of-age horrors cut deep in Consume Me", by Giovanni Colantonio, https://www.polygon.com/consume-me-review/ Watch the live stream recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/live/VfDPY5IK1Hk?si=l6Ji_QAHVBftQo8U Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

Bricks and sticks, pixels and lines. This week we cover a crop of endearing and surprisingly emotional indie games that have carried us through some tumultuous past few weeks. Also, Spencer draws an unhinged connection between Zach Cregger's summer thriller Weapons and Okomotive's atmospheric alpine expedition game Herdling. I feel like you guys will get it. Games discussed this episode: 01:36 - Phasmophobia - Kinetic Games 10:19 - Herdling - Okomotive 29:29 - Is This Seat Taken? - Poti Poti Studio 36:05 - Time Flies - Playables, Raphaël Munoz 46:56 - LEGO Voyagers - Light Brick Studios Watch the live stream recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/m8Ijpui2RCY Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

It's more common than you think. Join us this week as we load up our top-heavy backpacks, strap our tiny sentient dolls to our hips, and unpack DEATH STRANDING 2: On the Beach, Kojima Productions' and Sony Interactive Entertainment's much-anticipated sequel to 2019's polarizing Death Stranding. While we likely could have spent 6+ hours unpacking this genre-defying experience of a game, what we can promise is this: Opposing viewpoints! Can something be somehow super trans AND super not queer? Norman Reedus MPREG fantasies! Gender essentialism?! AND MORE! **Heads up! We unfortunately were having some significant internet connection issues while recording, some of which did carry through to the final podcast. Apologies! 02:12 - Pixel Therapy is looking for a third 09:55 - Twisted Metal Season 2 14:53 - Main Topic: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach 01:14:04 - SPOILERS BEGIN for Death Stranding 2 01:57:59 - END OF SPOILERS, Outro Referenced article - "The Women of Death Stranding 2 Are Stuck in a Sad Cycle" by Maddy Myers, https://www.endlessmode.com/video-games/death-stranding-2/the-women-of-death-stranding-2-are-stuck-in-a-sad-cycle Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

In the midst of an ongoing apocalyptic meteor shower that has forced the world's population of adorable pixelated animals underground, a kitten named Shell awakens to discover her mother missing. Join us as we dig into Nautilus Games' Everdeep Aurora, published by Ysbryd Games, which we had the pleasure of demo-ing at PAX West 2024! 01:38 - Death Stranding 2 impressions 08:24 - Quick film/TV talk (The Bear S4, Superman, Yuri on Ice) 16:06 - Everdeep Aurora discussion Referenced in this episode: "Everdeep Aurora review: Searching for a home at the end of the world", Will Borger, Shacknews - https://www.shacknews.com/article/145053/everdeep-aurora-review-searching-for-a-home-at-the-end-of-the-world Watch the live recording of this episode on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/qjH3LH3kMS4 Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

This Pride Month, we played three iconic LGBTQ+ visual novels that are each a little spooky, a little spicy, and have a whole lot of heart: Midnight Scenes: From the Woods (White Blanket Games), Mediterranea Inferno (Lorenzo Redaelli, Santa Ragione), and We Know the Devil (pillowfight)! Plus: Is the Babdook a queer icon? Are trans people actual biblically accurate angels on earth? Does kink belong at Pride? (yes) All this and more await you!! 05:18 - Why does the horror genre pair so well with stories that explore LGBTQ+ themes? 12:59 - Midnight Scenes: From the Woods discussion 30:03 - We Know the Devil discussion 45:35 - Mediterranea Inferno discussion 01:16:00 - Some final thoughts Watch the live recording of this episode at https://youtube.com/live/RWv4zXg0YIE Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

Could it really be a contender for Game of the Year 2025? Join us as we break down Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG...or maybe...J'RPG (with MANY a twist) from French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. This episode includes a heated debate on the game's endings if you wanna stick around for our spoiler discussion (and don't worry, we'll warn you when it's coming!). 00:58 - Patreon shoutouts 03:10 - Game Informer's back! 05:25 - Summer Game Fest 25:34- Herdling preview 33:36 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 discussion 01:44:28 - SPOILERS for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 02:19:51 - END OF SPOILERS & Episode Outro Check out the articles referenced in this episode: "We're Really Just Going Through With All This, Aren't We," Luke Plunkett, Aftermath - https://aftermath.site/summer-game-fest-2025-switch-2-launch-geoff-keighley "The 'deprofessionalization of video games' was on full display at PAX East," Bryant Francis, Game Developer - https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-deprofessionalization-is-bad-for-video-games "No, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wasn't made by 30 people," Nic Reuben, Rock Paper Shotgun - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/no-clair-obscur-expedition-33-wasnt-made-by-30-people Watch the live recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/TmpmX1_Vfak Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

We didn't mean to record a 2 hour, 42 min podcast, but sometimes these things just happen. Join us as we dissect the second season of the show the internet loves to hate: HBO's The Last of Us. Episode contains full spoilers for both the games and the show. No time stamps for this one because we pretty much jump right in! Watch the live recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/tCfOAWyECX0 Side Quest https://gazafunds.com/ Gaza Funds is a project that connects people to crowdfunding campaigns for individuals and families from Gaza, surfacing different campaigns each time the page is reloaded. Please visit, share, and donate if you can. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

Spencer is freshly back from Tokyo and the jet lag is strong, but they're pushing through it for this month's double hitter of an episode that has the Pixel Therapy pals discussing a pair of recently released games about mysterious, abandoned houses: the visual novel/point-and-click puzzle adventure Your House, from quirky Spanish studio PATRONES & ESCONDITES, and the smash hit, first-person, genre-defying Blue Prince from Dogubomb and publisher Raw Fury. Put your thinking caps on and get curious with us as we unpack these two unique experiences with similar themes and marvel at the innate human desire to rifle through other people's shit. 0:57 - Patreon shoutouts 3:59 - Spencer went to Japan! 22:25 - Your House discussion 46:57 - Blue Prince discussion Watch the live recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/3VLsIlPjpsc Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

Join us as we chat about Wanderstop, a "cozy" tea shop management game about "change and tea" from the new indie developer Ivy Road, co-founded by the creator of The Stanley Parable and folks who've worked on games like Gone Home and Minecraft. In Wanderstop we play as the young fighter, Alta, once the greatest in the world, who suddenly can't pick up her sword. And she's tired. Super tired. But it's nothing. She just needs to keep going, keep pushing, like she always has. But when Alta passes out in the forest and is saved by the affable tea shop owner, Boro, he suggests she stay and take on a role at his woodland tea shop. Just until she can pick up her sword again, of course. Maybe Alta just needs a break? 1:07 - Patreon shoutouts 4:12 - Steven Universe (the show) 21:54 - Wanderstop conversation begins Watch the live recording of the episode on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/1XBngY4OmH4 Side Quest https://chuffed.org/project/justice-for-mahmoud-khalil Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia University grad student and Palestinian activist who, despite being a lawful green card holder and lawful resident of the US, was abducted from his home by ICE without being shown a warrant or any charges, and is now in a detention center in Louisiana facing deportation. This chuffed fund is raising money to support Mahmoud’s legal fees and support his wife and unborn child during this time, in return for his lifelong dedication to advocating for justice himself. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free or unlock monthly bonus episodes for $2/mo at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

Jump Over the Age and Fellow Traveller's Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a dice-driven RPG focused on choice, risk, and survival in a hostile interstellar world. A game that is inherently queer and earnestly hopeful, it explores themes of collective care, bodily autonomy, and capitalistic greed within a compelling tabletop-inspired framework. In this episode we explore its many layers, and where it hits and misses. 0:47 - Patreon shoutouts 6:22 - crafting talk 14:30 - Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector conversation begins 35:38 - ** CONTENT WARNING ** for discussion of abuse and sexual assault 37:39 - End of ** CONTENT WARNING ** Watch the live recording of the episode on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/8FKXJkolD28 Side Quest transdefensefundla.org Trans Defense Fund LA is a mutual aid resource and network collecting info about ways to help community members as well as distributing safety kits and funds to trans folks across the city. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free or unlock monthly bonus episodes for $2/mo at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

In light of a slew of layoffs at BioWare, the future of the Dragon Age series is unclear. But at a time when storytelling like this -- of building community across differences to fight back against impossible odds, and of finding spots of joy along the way -- feels more important than ever, we kind of surprised ourselves with how much we had to talk about. It's Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the fourth installment in BioWare and Electronic Arts' long-running fantasy RPG saga full of side quests and flirting!!!! 0:46 - Patreon shoutouts 11:24 - Dragon Age: The Veilguard conversation begins 1:09:13 - *SPOILER WARNING* for a detailed conversation about a specific companion romance moment 1:16:49 - *END SPOILERS Watch the live recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/live/-FCVout3irU?si=Ae4gE2yepvciaAo7 Side Quest transdefensefundla.org Trans Defense Fund LA is a mutual aid resource and network collecting info about ways to help community members as well as distributing safety kits and funds to trans folks across the city. About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free or unlock monthly bonus episodes for $2/mo at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod

It's time for our fourth annual totally unserious end of year roundup! Let's revisit the games that got us through the trash fire that was 2024, and get excited for a new year of gaming ahead of us. 1:24 - Patreon shoutouts 3:56 - Holiday catch-up 9:17 - 2024 year of gaming overviews 20:22 - Spencer and Jamie's Top 5 Games of 2024 1:26:05 - Favorite characters of the year **SPOILERS** 1:30:20 - 1:33:23 for some mid-game narrative stuff in Metaphor: ReFantazio 1:35:57 - Honorable mentions Side Quest tinyurl.com/opolivebranch Operation Olive Branch is a grassroots collective effort to amplify Palestinian voices and their GoFundMes – visit the link to learn more or visit their Instagram page at @operationolivebranch. Watch the live recording of this episode on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/n7UB2y6-ph8 About Pixel Therapy We're a podcast queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers and those who love them--get cozy with us! If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) and subscribe! Want more? Join for free or unlock monthly bonus episodes for $2/mo at patreon.com/pixeltherapypod