#3 - Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True

In Episode 3 of Arcade Bookshop, Bryce and Caleb reach for story in Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True, a point-and-click crime-noir video game made for a variety of platforms. They discuss the version made for the NES, which was apparently much less graphic than the version released for other platforms. Nevertheless, this was the one Caleb played before, so that's what we agreed to talk about.

As a point-and-click game goes, the only story you get in Deja Vu is in the brief description which trigger upon inspecting objects and entering new rooms. The co-hosts use these bits of text along with the brightly-colored, yet gloomy, visuals of the game to talk about this game's story. They may even get a bit ahead of themselves by elaborating on details and adding character traits and plot elements based on what they know of other crime-noir storytelling to make the given plot more interesting that it actually is. 

In any case, Deja Vu is a sweet little video game with its own set of frustrating gameplay mechanics and awesome music that's worth a few short hours of your time to play, though you'll probably have to emulate, since it's not really available to purchase anywhere.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Arcade Bookshop, when Bryce and Caleb discuss the text they decided is Deja Vu's literary counterpart, Raymond Chandler's short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," arriving Monday, 9/25.

Bryce and Caleb think it would be fun if you played and read along with them. See the show schedule for the next 7 episodes below and send them a letter about your experiences!

 

Show Schedule:

 

9/25: Blackmailers Don't Shoot by Raymond Chandler

10/9: Final Fantasy 9 for Playstation

10/23: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

11/6: Super Metroid for SNES

11/20: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

12/4: Oxenfree (Cross-platform)

12/18: Riverdale Comics Vol. 1

 

Send game and book pairing suggestions or comments to arcadebookshop@gmail.com.

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