Eden and Peter talk about what they've been consuming lately — Peter is deep on Meshuggah's newly remastered catalog while Eden is watching way too much seasonal anime. The main event is a deep dive into Of the Devil, a stylish cyberpunk visual novel where you play a defense attorney who is also the serial killer. They also wrestle with the state of the games industry, why they're buying indie games over AAA behemoths, and why "shorter games with worse graphics" is a genuine consumer philosophy.

Show Notes

• Of the Devil is a cyberpunk visual novel / Ace Attorney-style game where you play Morgan, a defense attorney who may be more than she first appears. Episodes 0, 1, and 2 are out now.
• Eden finished Long Awaited Feelings, a ~2,600-page web novel from the Feelings series — time loop, yuri romance, creatively titled author.
• Peter is playing Forza Horizon 4 and 5, catching up on Modern Family and cautiously warming to Community.
• Meshuggah released 30th and 20th anniversary remasters of Destroy Erase Improve and Catch Thirtythree — the former sounds so ahead of its time that the thin production is the only tell it came out in 1996.
• Haken released their first music since guitar/bass departures earlier this year — leaner, stripped-down British prog.
• Psycroptic dropped The Pulse of Annihilation, a tighter, leaner technical death metal follow-up to Divine Council.
• Protest the Hero released Within — a 30-minute tight blast of chaotic post-hardcore/prog.
• Science Saru's Ghost in the Shell (2026) adaptation leans into the manga's goofier, flirty tone — first episode looks like a bajillion dollars, episode three already showing budget strain (reminiscent of the Uzumaki adaptation's notorious one-episode budget collapse).
• Eden is also watching: Chainsmoker Cat (a gross-out comedy about addiction and poverty in Japan wrapped in a big-titty catgirl body), A Witch's Life in Mongol (historical fiction set in 12th-century Central Asia, animated by Science Saru), I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day (dark fantasy about child soldiers who can't die), and original anime Goodbye, Lara (a Little Mermaid reincarnation story by Kinema Citrus).
• Eden visited Newbury Comics in Providence and was devastated to find it's no longer a real comic shop — four times as many Funko Pops as comics, no back issues, and a still-priced Thundercats Valentine Special from February.
• East Bay Comics was the opposite problem: all back issues, none of them organized, mostly vintage junk.
• The conversation on indie vs AAA gaming: Peter and Eden both bought Of the Devil episodes 1 and 2 sight-unseen to support small teams, echoing their broader philosophy that consumers should put money behind the kind of games they want to see made.
• PowerWash Simulator 2 Star Wars DLC dropped — Eden is currently cleaning an AT-AT on Hoth.

Peter and Eden catch up after the UK trip — The Rest Is History Festival at Hampton Court Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hadestown, and why walking London at night feels safer than any US city. Then the pop culture blitz: Peter power-watched Fast 8–10 and Tron: Ares on the plane (he has Opinions). Eden brings new music (Rebecca Black, Blackpink with Chris Martin), K-pop supergroup collabs, two weird indie games, and a defense of the new Masters of the Universe movie.

Show Notes

• Rest is History Festival: Peter attended the inaugural festival at Hampton Court Palace with historians Mary Beard, Tracy Borman, and medieval combat demonstrations.
• London at night feels safer: Walking a mile from the theater district at 10:30 PM felt natural — dramatically different from any major US city Peter's experienced.
• America's shallow history: Westminster Abbey (Darwin, Handel, coronation chair used for a millennium) drove home how new the US is. Eden clarifies: referring to the dominant white culture, not the land itself.
• Renaissance babies are terrifying: Painters used adult proportions shrunk down instead of babies' actual big-head, short-limb proportions.
• Hadestown and La Bohème: Peter saw Hadestown ("good gut punch of a tragedy") and La Bohème at the Royal Opera House — the Mimi performer had the most stunning voice he's ever heard in person.
• Warning — Rituals of Shame: First album in 20 years from the British doom band. Classic mournful doom metal.
• Junius — Sotera: Boston post-metal band's first album in 9 years. "Depeche Mode if they wanted to be a post-metal band." Link
• Prince of Failure: Daniel Tompkins (TesseracT) and Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner) collab via Kscope. Didn't stick past the first listen.
• Eden's K-pop: Blackpink's "Go" (co-written by Chris Martin, "way better than anything Coldplay ever did"), Meovv's "Hit Em," and a three-group collab (Illit, Le Sserafim, Katseye) on "Iconic by Mistake."
• How Do We Relationship?: Eden's favorite romance manga is getting a live-action series — filming this fall, cast announced.
• Fast & Furious 8–10 (plane ranking): F8 best of the three, F9 saved by Roman and Tej going to space in a Pontiac Fiero, Fast X just bad. Shared gripes: too many resurrections, the secret brother, Jason Momoa's inconsistent villain, zero stakes.
• Tron: Ares: Peter hated it — Jared Leto is a charisma void, Nine Inch Nails soundtrack forgettable, visuals nowhere near Tron: Legacy's light cycle sequence. Eden agrees.
• Masters of the Universe: Eden defends it — understood the assignment, leaned into the corny sincerity. Jared Leto's Skeletor is "the campy gay bitch we all know he is." Link
• Supergirl bombs: Eden confirms the needle drop of a lo-fi "The Middle" cover in the climax burned through every ounce of goodwill.
• Peter's reading: Finished The Color of Magic, reading Willie, Willie, Harry and Stee and Rest is History books.