Into the Aether - A Low Key Video Game Podcast · Stephen Hilger + Brendon Bigley

100% (feat. Kiss/OFF, Voices of the Void, The Seance of Blake Manor, and Danganronpa)

·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

Blake Manor opens with a ghostly old woman who fades into nothing.

1. Into the Aether uses its 100% episode to cover Halloween-themed video games, including Kiss Off, Voices of the Void, and The Seance of Blake Manor. 2. Brendan Bigley and Stephen Hilger host the episode, and Brendan presents the games while Stephen reacts to the pitches and mechanics. 3. The episode’s core question is what makes these games work as low-key horror, dating sim, and detective experiences. 4. Kiss Off comes from Shark and Pelican Games, the team partly behind Road Trip to the End of the World. 5. Kiss Off casts Vic, a human athlete, into a sci-fi game show with three dates and a kiss-or-die premise. 6. The game gives each of the three romance options five endings, ranging from true love to hate. 7. One route involves a character whose religion treats time like Dr. Manhattan and frames romance as cyclical fate. 8. Voices of the Void is a pre-alpha itch.io game that has been updated since August 2020. 9. The player works alone at a Swiss research base with satellite dishes pointed at the sky. 10. The job loop involves scanning signals, downloading data, cleaning files, and sending hard drives out by drone. 11. Brendan says the game looks and sounds like Source engine hardware, even though it was built in Unreal Engine 4. 12. The horror in Voices of the Void arrives late, after hours of routine maintenance and cleaning. 13. Brendan describes seeing red eyes at a window after five or six hours of play. 14. He also says the sun can damage the character, which makes the world feel hostile even before major threats appear. 15. The Seance of Blake Manor takes place in Ireland in 1897 and stars detective Declan. 16. The case begins with a missing woman named Evelyn Dean and a letter asking for an investigation at Blake Manor. 17. Time in Blake Manor only advances when the player investigates objects or asks questions. 18. Brendan compares the time system to other deduction games, but says Blake Manor leans into ghosts and supernatural events immediately. 19. Listeners who like visual novels, satellite-surveillance horror, or detective deduction games will get the most out of this episode. 20. Listeners who want a tight single-game discussion or dislike slow-burn mechanics may skip it.

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