Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly video game show
here at Geek. First, I'm your host Till Muss, and I have
with me the clown Prince of Giants, Travis Snell. How are you doing,
my friend? Hello, No, I'm doing good. It's a nice
Monday. It's well, it's somewhat sunny here. Now it was rainy,
but now it's sunny. It's gonna be all over this week. But I
am. I'm doing well. It's fun. We were talking about Smmer Games
Fest is coming up. Yeah, we got stars actlyte for the GV side,
so there's a lot of fun things come up in June. We kept
talking about June, and now it's here. Does not feel like it's June.
Like I'm still in May mode. But now it's here, it's like,
oh yeah, we got lots of fun stuff coming up for video games
and TV shows. More it's more video game TV show this month. So
yeah, no, I'm very excited for this month. Today's episode, we're
talking about hell Blade and the state of play from last week. But yeah,
it's good to kind of look forward a little bit. This weekend is
all the Summer Game Fest to kickoff and all the Xbox Event and all these
things. I'm a little saltic. I feel like the last few years he's
done it on a Thursday, Keeley, and that was kind of what I
always had in my mind, and so going in out put it on the
coverage of it Thursday night. But I'm going camping this weekend. It's on
Friday this year, so we're not gonna cover it until the side quest afterwards.
We're gonna be a little late, but that way we can kind of
gather everything together. Potentially we'll see. We don't even know how we gonna
do it, because I was just looking at the calendar on his website and
he's got June seventh the Kickoff event and Day of the Devs some other random
thing, and then there's June eighth, there's the Future of Play and the
Wholesome Direct and a couple other smaller directs in the Future Games Show, and
then on the ninth is the Xbox Event and the PC Game Show, and
then on the tenth is You Saw Forward. So it's just like a barrage
of stuff. And I don't know. I don't think Nintendo has announced when
their thing is yet. They said they're doing one this summer, but they
have been kind of doing it a bit later than other people recently from what
I can remember in the summer one, so it seems a PlayStation goes early,
Nintendo goes usually like a week or two after, and then and Keeley
and everybody else is still in that E three weekends. So E three's dead,
but people are still kind of keeping that spirit somewhat alive. So yeah,
so we'll probably I'm guessing we'll probably kind of split and have two episodes
like an Xbox focused on and then summer gamefests and other things, and then
if youself's a bit later, then we might even conck back to the week
after. We'll see, we'll see how it goes. But just have anything,
right, like if it's just like an Assassin's screen trailer, well we
can just have Taylor talk about that quickly, Like if it's because sometimes some
some you know, some conferences don't have much to talk about, you know,
they can make it a bat deal, but it doesn't mean there's gonna
be something. So yeah, So so more of the story is subscribe to
the feeds to keep up to date when we because we're gonna drop that as
soon as it's done recording, rather than waiting to the side quest Tuesday and
stuff. I'll put it up as soon as possible, so stay tuned for
that. And then, as Travis alluded to, this is the month of
TV shows. House Dragons is kicking off. One are the other ones.
There's a Star Wars Acolyte, and then what's the third thing, the Boy
the Boys. Yeah, so all all sorts of TV shows this month.
You can check out my games on Steam, Potion Problem during the discord,
and any other shout outs. Traps were doing the retro of Alien right now,
so that's a good thing on the on the Patreon. I think that's
about it. Yeah, I think you'll get your regulars. I think just
with our schedules, I don't think there's gonna be an after nine in June,
but we'll probably do one in July and August, and maybe in the
fall when thing's quiet down it we'll do a makeup and do like a two
in one month. It's just tough with like everybody's either traveling or time all
for families in town stuff, so we will try to do that relatively so,
but no, I think that's that's the biggest stuff happening on the feeds
right now. So mm hmm. Okay, So with that, how wout
we jump right into the latest State of Play, which I think was announced
like even just a couple of days before it drops, so I don't know,
I guess not a whole lot of lead up to it. And I
feel like, even going into PlayStation four this year, they said that like,
oh yeah, we're gonna have any first party games coming out for the
rest of the year, So I feel like, to me, I was
like, I would not have even been shocked if they didn't have a State
of Play all in the classic summer slot. So it's cool that they did
have one. What was your overall take on this State of Play? See,
I'll go the reverse where like, I guess it's cool to have one,
but I don't think so. I think I'm in the foggy realm where
there's a couple like two years ago, they didn't go to Comic Con.
Then they finally came back and said, we never want to come here if
we don't have anything to show. And that's a little bit different because it's
a show. They pay for it, a stage. This is just an
easy forty minute video you livestream, right, so it's not that big a
deal, but I think it's still like about perception. I think the perception
was it just felt because it's strange. There's this narrative I feel about more
Xbox but just Xbox and PlayStation that man, gaming is really bad right now.
It's really down and they're really not bringing home and you look at what
plays like PS five is selling. It's still selling very well. There's still
the facidly it's the most profitable console they've ever made. Just on an article
of today, there's still this statute of like how many people are just actually
playing and buying stuff on their PS four, Like it doesn't matter if we're
move past it's like so it's I don't think that narrative is a true thing,
but it does feed into that of like, man, we really we
talked about a couple of weeks ago, right those State of Plays or whatever
showcase, think about E three three four years ago, and then to this
it's like the fact an Astra boy looks really cool, but the fact that
that's the only hot astrobot so only sorry, I don't know if he's a
boy. So we'll find that out. But if the fact usually that would
be like oh, the fifth or sixth thing of like that looks really cool
in a sony state of play. The fact that that's number one to me
shows Okay, I don't think it's the drastic part quote. You know,
they no one asked if they should before they could, you know, and
I don't think they. I think they should have just had austrabout bought at
Summer's Games best have really cool short like everything they showed was a port was
a remake, and I think there's a couple other ones that everyone was down
on. Concord to me was not they misfired with that big time, not
because it's not my genre. Just I was happy that a bunch of other
people felt like me, that they got hooped and thinking it was a single
player story game, and then when it transitioned out as like, oh,
oh my goodness, because I hadn't looked at that. So I actually don't
think they should have done it. I think they just should have went with
Summer Games fast and been like, hey, we're gonna sit and wait.
So then when you get that stay of play, a showcase whatever, and
it comes in, it's hot all around than good. But really I just
think it was a bad showing overall, and I think it just made people
just kind of more disappointed with what's going on with PlayStation right now, and
it's and Xbox has enough disappointment to layoffs. So just feels like in general,
it's just like a just kind of down and people are really hoping,
Okay, Nintendo, let's let's see if we get something good. We talk
about all air, even some Keeley's like well just kind of an eight and
ten conference, which is cool, but still it's just like, so,
yeah, I don't think they I don't think it was good showing and it
was easily their worse when I don't think it's bad per se, but I
think just when it's that little of content you have to show, I think
you just skip it and you sprinkle it elsewhere and then you you wait till
you can have those big nachos out there, you know, big nachos.
Yeah. Yeah. I think with PlayStation, like they still have the different
market being I guess importance between like a state of play and their showcases.
I think they just called them the showcases, right, and that's usually what
they do in June. So I think it was purposeful that instead of doing
the PlayStation showcase, which obviously wouldn't have made sense if they didn't have tons
of first party things to show. I think it's it's notable that they did
a state of play here instead of that showcase. And I so I did.
I didn't have a chance to watch this one live because I was out
at a doctor's appointment when it was happening, and so I just saw the
chat in the discord and you and being very negative on it, others like
not sometimes yeah, yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm a negative Nancy.
But everyone felt like this was like a whiff, you know, yeah,
And I mean I don't like I use Twitter just to promote my game,
That's my sole use for it. So I don't see a lot of people's
opinions on these things until like afterwards, and I'm listening to their podcasts and
whatnot. And so I think going into watching it, I had a very
low expectation, seeing this is garbage showcase, nothing here, and I thought
it was fantastic. I thought this was a great showcase that had tons of
cool games that I hadn't heard of before. So I feel like their announcements
or just reminders. Everything had good showings, like tons of gameplay for all
these things. You know, Concord took a while to get to the actual
gameplay, but then they did show a lot of it. There was a
couple of good surprises in there, and honestly, for the first time in
a while, I was like, I would I had a PS five for
a couple of these games. Like usually I'm like, you know what,
I'll wait until Wolverine, I'll wait until Death Stranding two at this point,
but it's like, man, I really want Astrobot Day one and a couple
of the other games I would really love to play as well if they were
maybe on like PlayStation Plus to some extent or or whatnot. But I feel
like they also had a really good mix of genres that they were hitting here.
I mean, it's of course a lot of like third person action games,
but different like subgenres within that to hit different audiences. So yeah,
I guess I'm I'm I'm surprised to hear that. That's kind of the general
opinion from a lot of people is that this was not a good showcase because
just looking at some of these games ballot event. Tara was an interesting announcement.
Infinity Nikki, you know that has an audience, New Dynasty Warriors game
Behemoth where wins meet and then you know we're gonna get all these of course,
but like that stuff as just like kind of interesting new different games.
I didn't know before Concord they said they I was last year. I totally
forgot that that was a thing, but maybe they didn't show anything of it.
So I thought that had a good showing and then yeah, like Astrobot,
it just looks freaking amazing, like what if what if Nintendo was actually
like an next gen or a current gen console, like this is what Mario
would look like. So I just thought it looked like tons of fun.
So yeah, I think I think this is a really really great showcase and
it got me excited about PlayStation, which yeah, does not happen a whole
lot in recent times. For me. I was looking because we usually do
this live or closer too, because you're asked about like the Twitter reactions,
looking at Jeff Keeley's poll whenever he does those how would you grate X,
Y and Z. So it was pretty much one thousand and fifteen or one
hundred and fifteen thousand votes, forty one percent on the D or below,
thirty three percent on C, nineteen percent on B, and then five percent
on A. So I don't know. Also if it's just that I do
legitimately think that Concord was a bad way to start, and I think that
put a lot of bad people's taste because I felt like people were getting excited,
right, oh, this is PlayStation's next big thing and when and it's
just it's not even that because I feel like even the people that like that
genre, is you do really you really have to stand out now because it's
there's so much of this type of game, right. So and maybe it's
also just I think it is a little bit for those people like us and
other people that and I think Twitter users as well, but tons of people
that fall in okay, it's a bit more of a lighter year. If
you don't know that and you're more than a semi casual fan and you know
E three and know this, but you don't know, oh, hey,
it's you're not getting some big exclusives for a while. Maybe they're thinking,
oh, this could be that time, and not everybody knows the difference between
a state of play and showcase, because I know there's differences, but I
always forget like which one is which, So I think it's just maybe that
as well too. It's just they've been quiet for a while, and maybe
if there was this other if I wonder if there's one other big game along
with Astro bought, if that would have been like either a Death Stranding or
a Metal Gear, which the rumors it's delayed until next year because they kept
kind of saying it's this year, and I don't think anyone bought that.
But maybe they had one more big one too that could have helped. But
I think I think those remakes really hurt it, like Until Dawn and Silent
Hill. It's just I think especially when Silent Hill, like people just think
it generally doesn't look good, and that's not good when you have like Evil
Dead or sorry Resident Evil that has just killed these remakes and really brought it
back where I feel like you look at Silent Hill, it's just it's looking
a little rough. So I think the amount of re and like, even
though it's not a remake, just announcing a God of warport to PC,
it's like that's good, but that's something again, I'd like, go put
them the gaming the PC Gaming show, Like I don't. I don't think
the core audience for PS five or PlayStation care that God of War is going
to PC because it's like I have it already, you know, like that's
a different audience. That's where the gaming should be perfect, that's the PC
gaming audience. Yeah, that either leaked door was already announced to it and
this is just kind of the showing of it. So I can see why.
I mean, I understand why they put it in something like this because
they have to announce it, you know, these shareholders, I'm sure and
things like that. But yeah, it's got it. It's got to be
somewhere, I guess. But yeah, I'm curious because I don't know what
Sony tweeted or what their blog post. I didn't see their blog post when
they announced this state of play. And usually that's where they will say like,
oh, there's no first party games going to be at this, or
hey, this is like a very big focus on like VR, like they'll
usually set the expectation a little bit. So I don't know what they said
for this, but it's like, I don't know if people know that Okay,
there's no PlayStation like first party games coming out this year, so we're
not expecting first party studios to show up. And it's like, we comere,
What comere? Could you ask for? Like, these games look amazing.
They showed a ton of gameplay a different kind of genre, so I
am surprised to see that reaction. But let's let's talk about the games.
Let's talk about the specific things here. So first up was Concord. As
you mentioned, this is a game that is pretty much an over Watch,
like with the very Guardians of the Galaxy type of personality, character, charm,
whatever you want to say to it. Yeah, started with like a
really just high quality CGI cutscene introducing the characters and showing their kind of tom
foolery, setting up the kind of different factions I suppose, and then eventually
we do see the actual gameplay and see that it is overwatched, Like they
never say that, and instead they actually said, oh, we were inspired
by fighting games and strategy games, which I found interesting for the wording,
like you know, you don't have to hide that this is like an Overwatch,
this is inspired by Overwatch or something, So I found that interesting.
But yeah, other than the I guess element that you're was hoping this is
maybe more of a single player thing, Like, what did you think of
the actual gameplay that we saw for this? Is this something you would check
it off as a free to play game on PS five? No, just
because it's not my genre. So for me, I have to go from
what do people that like that type of genre think? And I just felt
the reception was pretty lukewarm to it, but there wasn't anything Because to me,
if I was gonna play one of them, i'd be and dropping into
Marvel Rivals. I'd maybe finally do Overwatch because Okay, I've heard X,
Y and Z about it, but for me, it's it's just not a
genre I'm really that interested in. And then this didn't get me aboard anymore
and be like, oh this is really cool. This is really cool.
So I don't know, it's tough. I guess what I can say from
the outside point of view, it didn't look like it had anything that stood
out. I think that's kind of the that's the tough thing. I didn't
see, Oh I don't like this game, but it's doing this, so
that's really cool. They're the things that they're doing are the things I agree
with other people that are like you're gonna get weekly cut scenes and this and
that. It's like, man, you're that's gonna cost so much money.
We just everything we've talked about with these games that are doing these things that
they do do so much before being a big hit. It's like, you,
you should not be making a game that's dependent on this game has to
be doing really really well. Make that later on. So that's where it's
like. The things that I heard that it's doing differently are things that I
go, oh, that's not gonna work. And again, I don't know
what I don't think audience cares that much about is the Overwatch crowd. Those
type of shoes are they needing like a weekly cut scene? Story was like,
I feel like those are different people. I mean, so Overwatching,
you know, being a Blizzard game, like Blizzard goes all out with crazy
CG cut scenes, and there are a lot of great ones in Overwatching.
I don't even know if they're just like on YouTube or on their website or
if they're in game. I've seen a lot of them, but I can't
even remember where I've seen them before. But it wouldn't be like this where
it's like, oh, yeah, every week, I'm gonna log in and
oh it's Monday. Cool, I get new cut scene today. Like I
don't think anyone has that perspective of it. But the Overwatch cutscenes and like
character stuff that they have done, it's really freaking cool. And so I
think it's interesting that they as as well as like kind of stealing that gameplay
style in that format, to take on the story element to it is an
interesting idea and like, if it works well, it actually could be interesting.
But that's not really what grabbed me about this. Yeah, and I
think you're right that that is something that could be very expensive for them to
keep producing that. Like I'm sure they're gonna have like the first few months
kind of all in the bank before the game even launches, but then to
keep making that stuff, it just seems like a bit of a money pit.
So I don't know how long they're gonna do that. Maybe they'll eventually
kick it down to like a monthly character update or whenever a new character comes
into the game, they'll get a new cut scenes to them, Like maybe
that's the way to do it, but yeah, we'll see how that goes.
And I guess for me and where I thought this looked fun, I'd
like to play it is that. Yeah, like Overwatch, I had a
great time with it back in the day, but it's changed a lot.
I don't really like where the game is at these days, and so I
don't really have any interest in playing anymore. But I still like that kind
of gameplay, and it was really fun playing it with friends. And I
like Gardens Galaxy, so like have a game that's kind of like taking that.
I thought the characters looked cool. I got a game for you to
try, Dylan. Yeah, I like the voice acting. I like the
character designs. I think they seem interesting and cool, and you know,
you got to come up with crazy clever ideas for them, and I think
they did a good job of that. And like one of them is like
a huge robot, and they even showed like his perspective and he was looking
down at some character who's like look tiny compared to him, Like it'll just
be like this huge beast character that you can play. I think that seems
really interesting. So and then you had just the gameplay, Like I thought
the maps looked really really great, Like they looked really lived in in very
cool alien settings. I thought the gameplay, like the animations look really really
solid of like reloading or dodging and all these kinds of things. So yeah,
I don't know. I mean, I think this is a game that
I could easily see failing, just because there are so many competitors to it.
Overwatch is still pretty big, Valorie is a big game. There's been
tons of rumors recently of Valve is about to release a game very similar to
this as well. That one's gonna be maybe a bit more like Smite than
Overwatch, but still like in that kind of thing. It's called Deadlock,
and that game is gonna be huge no matter what, at least for a
while, because Valve and Steam are just so huge, way bigger than this.
So I think if this comes out, if Deadlock does come out soon,
and this comes out beta in July, launch in August, if Deadlock
comes out around it, I think that'd be a really bad time for them,
and that would be kind of unfortunate. But yeah, I don't know.
I'll have to see what I would pick between the two, because I
haven't actually seen dead Lock yet there's no game play for it. But yeah,
I think this is gonna be really hard one for it to take off
and be huge. But honestly, what I saw like was all good signs,
like the character arc, things like hey, maybe it's not getting you
in the door, but it's like, hey, if the gameplay is sold
and that's just like a cherry on top, then people are some people are
gonna be into that. So I would like to play it, I do.
Do you think this game is gonna be free to play with micro transactions
or is it gonna be a full price game because Overwatch is now free,
Valerie I believe is also free to play. Yeah, I'll say they kind
of. I think you kind of have to be your kind of da unfortunately,
so yeah, I think so too. So whenever I do get be
As five, I will definitely jump in and check it out. But it's
not quite a console seller, but I don't know. I would. I
would be happy to play this, So I'm curious to hear people's opinions on
it when it comes out in beta. I was gonna say, isn't that
Have they not brought that Guardians game to game Pass yet? Has that not
been? It was and then it left. Okay, I was thinking about
it like kind of before I saw that, oh it's gonna be gone in
a few weeks, and I thought about booting it up, and I guess
I was. I forget what came out that month, but I was busy
playing something else unfortunately, so I'll get to it. H m hmmmm.
Okay. After that was the God of War Ragnrock thing coming to PC.
Cool way you know about that, and then then Dynasty war Warriors Origins,
which is I very much associated as like a PlayStation series. These have been
all I remember going over my friend's house as a little kid and playing Dynasty
Warriors and were just watching him playing. It was just like the craziest game.
I'd never seen so many enemies on screen at the same time. And
then honestly, anytime I've tried to play these games, I just hate the
gameplay. It is not for me. I picked up Hyro Warriors and then
Age of Calamity as well as the other is Elda one and I just I
just can't get into it, So it's not for me. But honestly,
seeing this on on the PS five where it's like, Wow, they can
render even more enemies than they could before, and like the frame rate actually
looks good. It looked pretty insane, and I know there's an audience for
this kind of thing. Have you ever played a Dynasty Warriors game before traveling?
I think I'm in the same camp as you where I feel like I
have a friend named Jeff that was really into like this and like Ninja guid
In right, and I feel like it's on those where it's like you're over
at the friend's place and you're playing like you're having a good enough time.
It's just like I only play this at his house. It's not anything I
own, but I recall, like your story sounds of mind and even just
seeing him on this because I'm getting a refresher. He's riding the horse zone
point and he's hitting enemies. There's a bunch of red around him like that
like anime type. Feels like very familiar to this. So yeah, like
I don't like I'd like to maybe get in my hands again, but nothing
to that I'm reaching out to. But hey, I don't mind. I
want I want a game like this, but I want to Lord of the
Rings version. I want that would get me in because I used to love
We've talked about this before doing the Waves. Yeah, it does look a
lot like Conquest in terms of the gameplay of it, I would say,
but on the PS two games, when you could do Lord of the Rings
two Towers or Return the King and you just do the Waves of Enemies,
Yeah, I'd love to just be air Gorn. Yeah. I'm almost surprised
they haven't, because they've done a lot of crossovers. Now, I mentioned
the Zelda one. They had one for I think even two of them for
fire Emblem. Now, I mean I was obviously there are more like Nintendo
we things, But yeah, I wonder if there's other crossover ones out there
that they've done. Yeah, just got talked to Embracer Group, you know,
with those Rings video games coming up? True? Yeah yeah, also
random thought. But with Embracer Group being now the owner of the Lord of
the Rings IP and probably just selling it out to everyone to make any penny
they can, why why is Lord of the Rings not calmed to multiverses now
that Embracer Group is like, I really don't know owning that IP. It's
really frustrating, Like, I don't I don't even understand. How do we
get a thumb nail having air Gorn and Gandalf somewhere and then they've never been
in and it still doesn't happen. Maybe my like hope is that they're like
holding it for like the Battle of or hear them and they're gonna like tyme
it, like that's much money on that. Yeah, I hope is that
they're being smart, but I don't. I don't think that's the case.
Thing. There's just something funky going on with it. So yeah, yeah.
And next up was this a game called Infinity Nikki, which, you
know, not a mere Travis game by any means. It looked I don't
even know what the game like. Some of the gameplay looked kind of like
souls like type of combat, and then like maybe open world exploration. This
is a weeb game like through and through, so it's not for Meier Travis.
And so I think the visuals look great, and I think it's just
cool to see a game like this that looked like so high budget because I
feel like normally games like this are like smaller budget things or look like double
A kind of things, but like this looks like a triple A as games.
So I know there's gonna be a big audience for this, and I'm
happy for them this game exists. I don't know anything about the developer or
this character of these characters come from elsewhere, but yeah, this is a
I think you can track in the Discord. This is where I knew we
were in trouble because we had had Discord Or, we had Concord, we
had the Gotta War Report, we had Dinas story, and then we had
this and I was like, oh man, we're we're in for I was
like, I don't think it's gonna go the way I wanted to, and
it and it didn't. So but I'm happy for the the weaves out there,
so mm hmm. And then ballad Evanara, which is coming out next
year. This very much like like the Elden Ring, like a Soul's like
type of game, like another kind of very Japanese sort of themed here.
My question about this was we saw kind of multiple shots of like different characters
doing calmed. They looked at them very distinct, and I don't know,
like, do you think those are just like different classes and stuff or is
this a game where you're like actually switching between characters for like different points in
the story. Like it doesn't look like you've a party necessarily, but like
very distinct different types of characters. But it seemed more than just like them
showing like different builds that you can do in this game. Yeah, it's
weird because like even I'm looking at like the title screen, it's like the
guy and he has a little growl in the back and goes, yeah,
that seems like a protagonist. But then yeah, there's other playable characters.
I could say maybe there's some multi characters going on, because I just feel
like if you could do a different build of a character, let's just say
it's some guy named Steve and there's there's these four models, I don't think
you'd show that in this trailer per se, you know, or you'd show
less about a main character. So I feel like it's him and made these
characters are flashes forward back to other things. So and I'm so curious now
that you've jumped in and you love elden Ring, Like, where's the interest
level on this one? No? Not there, not there. I still
my interest is you know, DLC coming up completing that and then is maybe
going to try some of the older games. I think like Dark Souls,
yeah, until I see or even Bloodborne, I think that's the other one
that I always hear about, like until I hear see another one where Elden
Ring again, I had no intention until that world just grab me until I
see one in this world. It looks good enough, but I think it's
more still kind of like it feels like it's boring a bit on the anime
type of side, and it's never you know, never in my uh my
expertise per se. So I think I'm more still inclined to go back to
a couple or what's that other one. It's not completely souls like, but
it's like second or something like that is there, like a from software?
Yeah, yeah, so that's another one. Yeah. So I think there's
a few other ones in the past that when I'm ready after Ring to dive
into something else very challenging, it'd be it'd be one of the older ones
that makes sense. Yeah, And then we got two VR games, which
is something I've been curious to see, like, Okay, what is what
is PlayStation can do with VR because I feel like they had they had PSVR
two come out last year, and I'm like, there hasn't been a ton
of releases, but I thought this one behemoth that they showed off here looked
great, Like if I was to get a VR and play game like,
this is what it would be because it just looks like Skyrim, which I
know you can play in VR as well, but it looks very Skyrim like
in terms of the visuals, but all the combat in it, and like
the grappling hook we're using, like do puzzles and like you know, throw
your weapon across the room and then like grab it with the grappling hook or
throw enemies around. H kicking guys into spikes like Dark Messiah was like very
much inspiring or looked a lot like that game, one of my favorites from
Arcane there. So uh yeah, I thought this just looked like a ton
of fun. I love I love the vibe of this one. If I
had VR, this would be it would be a day one for me.
But I don't have VR. I don't even have a PS five, so
it's a little expensive for me to go pick this one up. No,
I agree it because most of the R games they usually tune out. I
still think we'll talk about because you said the only show too, I still
think that's just that's a clear sign of the this things is not where they
want to be, or if it's they're just not putting the harden, like
they're not putting the finances, the promotion, everything that needs to go.
It just feels like it's just even more so like if you're one, like
it came out big push and then they kind of leaned off. This has
not been out that long, it already feels like it's kind of like it's
kind of a round. But no, this looked really cool. It remind
me of like a way higher budget to like some of the games you'd see
in Arcade, which is like I'm saying that like a positive way. So
yeah, no, I liked it. It's same thing I would never I'm
never gonna own PSVR two unless I like win that like a Christmas raffle or
something, so that's not my bag. But this, I agree. This
looked one of the better ones, where some of the VR games look pretty
rough or just kind of forgettable. So yeah, this is the first one
that I've seen one like wow, visually that game is like standing up with
other Triple A games, which is rare. The one that did not those
Alien Rogue Incursion coming out this holiday, and yeah, we didn't like there
wasn't a whole lot shown here, and I don't know why if the game's
coming out later this year, I feel like they could have had a larger
about a game play. I mean, it looks like Alien Isolation or something,
but just in VR, which is really all you need to say.
Yeah, but I just feel like visually it was a bit lackluster something about
it. It seemed a little off to me. But it's cool that it's
happening. I guess it's a nice it's a it's a very it makes sense
for that to be a VR game. Yeah, Visually, I think you're
right. This feels almost more like the PSVR one era, like kind of
a couple of years back there. Oh you know. And again I could
say this kind of feels like Arcade, but now this in the in the
bad way where it's like you'd get to those games like, oh, this
is a little less to them, but it's a smart game, I think
as long. To me, if they could have reached like a even like
a meta critic like six D five at a hundred, like that's fine,
Like that's what you're looking for. I think with the Alien game, and
I think people already talk about Alien Isolation being a very scary, kind of
intense, uncut gems anxiety driven sort of feeling. So if they can capture
that and then get in VR, I think you're winning an obviously good timing.
They're about to do a bunch of promotion for the movies and stuff,
so m yep, yep. They confirmed that Marvel Rival is coming to PS
five. Not a huge shock. I didn't know it wasn't. I thought
that was just a I think it was already mentioned or once again, it
could have been a leak, like so like in public? Was it just
PC? Is that what the word was at some point the beta? You
mean it was in general the whole game. I I don't recall. Yeah,
I was probably just announced for PC. I don't even know if yeah,
if the initial trailer had consoles tied to it. Oh, maybe it
didn't. Yeah, I must have missed that because I didn't even know.
I thought it was just I was already going to consoles other than Switch,
so yeah, I would I would assume so too. And is there a
reason why I'd be going to PlayStation and Xbox or do you think Xbox is
just it's probably also got an Xbox. Okay, well, i'd imagine if
they if they're working on one at a time, PS five would make more
sense to the player base. But I'm sure it'll come to Xbox down the
line as well'll probably see that at the Xbox Showcase and they Yeah, I
don't know, not much to say about this trailer. Then it was fun
to see more team ups like Scarlet Witch and Magneto have one, which is
cool of course, and then seeing other characters. It seems like they're triple
team attacks with certain character trios, so that I don't think we've seen that
before. That was pretty sweet. And then I think the highlight for me
was at one point they were crumbling some buildings and they like knocked the foundation
out of one and it was about to fall over, but then there was
like spider web attached to the roof, so the roof stayed in place while
the rest of the building crumbled out. And it's like that's the kind of
thing that gets me really excited about this game and just see like what kind
of crazy tactics can you do by just blasting certain balls, bridges, roofs
down, and like, yeah, using these Spider characters, of which there's
a few to like keep some of these things intact and make platforms that are
beneficial to your team. Like that seems really freaking cool. So I thought
that was really impressive, and yeah, I'm really excited to play this game.
It was unfortunately too powerful for my laptop or PC. I did apply
for that beta and I did get that invite, but then I just couldn't
couldn't play it. So when it comes to a console that I have,
I will definitely be jumping in and share my thoughts on it. But any
thoughts from you on this one, Uh, this is still again not my
gramre jury's out. I think I said I would try, and I don't
know. July, we'll see, like I might give it a go.
I just still feel I haven't felt the poll to this game yet. I
think some of the character designs are very cool, and I think I've seen
some of the beta stuff. There's been some really cool things, Like I
saw this attack that Doctor Strange does where he can put a portal and make
people jump through it and then go on the other side. So he just
made the portal be off the map, so just a bunch of people yes
try to jump, so I'm like, oh, that's very clever, very
fun. So yeah, I think I think there's some very cool stuff.
So maybe it'll be a game that will surprise me and Buda, because I
think I'll try it at least once. But it's still nothing that i'm It's
not the Marvel game I'm asked and for, but if other people are great.
But again, lots of those type of games out there, right,
and we've seen that combook games aren't like a guaranteed to get a download player
base. Just because you it's a big franchise doesn't mean they're going to cross
over, so mm hmmm. And then next up where Wins meet. This
is another souls like game, very kind of traditional Japanese style, a little
more anime influence. Once again, I think it looks great. Not really
my cup of tea necessarily, but I thought it looked like solid, like
the one fish boss that you were fighting against, Uh, looked pretty cool.
So it was into that. I'll skip to these next ones until Dawn
remake was in there, passed Baxol two, a Silent Hill remake. Saw
it again. I actually thought it looked better here than previous showing. But
still I'm on the edge with it, it seems like maybe more combat focus
than I am into for these kinds of games. And then Monster Hunter Wilds,
which we I'm trying to remember where that was announced. It was announced
earlier this year. I want to say, it could have been even been
last year at this point. But seeing Moore this game, I thought it
looked really great in terms of like the visuals and the combat of it.
I always someday I think I'll get into a Monster Hunter game and it'll be
my favorite thing ever. But in the demos or a little bit I have
played, it's like it's just a little slow, a little sluggish. It
takes too long, Like these enemies are obviously like bullet sponges and whatnot,
so it just takes a bit too long. But I felt like the enemy
design here, and like the physics of the monsters. The one guy had
like this huge tongue he's slopping on the screen that I thought looked like a
really fun attack. The sands storm at one point, like not like really
really great. So I just think visually this game looks got great. Other
than the fact that it looked like maybe thirty fps, which I hope it's
not. I hope it is that sixty. It could have been just YouTube,
of course, but yeah, I think like the story looks super cheesy,
which kind of surprised me. I thought these games were more serious,
so maybe they're switching it up, or maybe I just don't know what the
heck I'm talking about. But once again, I think this game looks great.
It's just, uh, I don't know. I find Monster Hunter to
be a really overwhelming series for some reason. Yeah. No, I'm not
sure when I'm gonna pop my chair on that one day. I've never booted
one up or play one or anything, so I'm not sure. But uh,
I think the audience was happy enough with this. There's some things about
it, like you said, that look like they could be fun. But
I guess it's just I don't know. I don't know why I haven't jumped
in. I think maybe because there's similar things in other games that I'm like,
oh, I'm already kind of playing that, but uh, i'd like
to at least just to say that I've done it. So but I don't
think it'll be this one. So yeah, yeah. Next up is Astrobots,
is coming out September sixth this year, so pretty a short time between
announcement and I don't even think this has been leaked. I haven't heard anything
about this. There were some rumors about it going in yet Okay, yeah,
I miss those. Then does this because I haven't I don't have a
p spot, so I haven't played Astro's Playroom. Does this look like an
exact sequel to that? Obviously it's Astrobots as a continuation, But terms of
like the gameplay, would you say this is pretty similar to what Playroom looks
like? Maybe you never played Playroom. I thought you played it because you've
talked about like the controller ship and how cool that is. Maybe I played
like a level of rain on your hand. Yeah, maybe I played a
level or two and then I was I moved on. So but from what
I gat I think like three hours long or something. From what I gather,
it does, I think they've captured the spirit pretty well. But I
just I got stuff to do. There's other game. I have a backlog
of games, and it's like three hours to be No, I'll play hell
bla twenty hour No, That's what I'll do. But uh yeah, no,
never never spent much time with Astro Boy or Astrobot, but uh,
from what I hear to me, I think people are pretty happy with like
looking at like the equivalent of it. So yeah, no, I mean
this this looked like Mario Odyssey to me, but with Astrobot instead, and
you know, better looking graphics and like a nice frame right now, very
bright colors too, just like not saying that Mario doesn't, but I think
they're just going with a very different like. It just feels like there's character
designs looked like Mario characters in like an alternate universe. Yes, yeah,
it's just like a it aesthetic and that's what I'm enjoying about it. So
yeah, I think this hit a home run because I think it was very
because I think there was some statu it's like one of thoset like YouTube trailers
for a video game or something like that, and I am surprised. So
I'm curious in two ways, where with September, I don't think I'm gonna
get that, because it's this is one that I think I'll wait and I
have to see because I'm very curious what they're gonna price it as because I
think if this is a seventy dollars game I think I don't know if that's
gonna perform well in that state. I could see it seeing it be a
bit lower potentially if they're going after the younger audience too, so maybe they
want to price it. A kid could buy it with their birthday money,
you know, just the dev one of them. There's some interview going around
that they made like this is a big game, not in the big way
of like an elder room, but you know what I mean, Like to
this, it's not a playroom. It's like a full it's a full game.
Yeah, So that's something where I'll wait and see. But this could
be tons of fun, especially now it's like the girls are starting to experiment
and do different games and everything like that. So we haven't the we have
got Peach time because we're waiting for Logan to be a little older so then
they can both kind of do single player stuff. But this is one that
I'll probably have my eyes on in the future and see what it could do.
So no, I think this is a great showing for a platform,
which platformers are unless you're Nintendo. It's like the forgotten art of the video
game. I think people just almost like, oh yeah, it's like black
and white movies like it had its time, and then if Martin Square says
he drects the movie, it's like nothing just black and white movies, like
oh yeah, classic director. And that's where Nintendo is, right, it's
like, oh yeah, platformer, but anybody else doing them. I just
feel like it's it's like, oh, well, it's not Nintendo. It's
just face for indie games these days. But indie games are crushed. My
favorite platformers ever recently are made by these small indie teams. But yeah,
exactly, And yeah, to clarify, I don't mean the quality of them,
not like there's tons out there that are great that I've played or people
that have played. I haven't just said great things about them. It's just
in the eyes of the public, those aren't like like system movers or system
sellers or moving shipments. Right, So that's unless, again, you're Nintendo,
and that's just like it's kind of a cheat because it's Nintendo. But
they're also banking off IP that's been popular for what fifty six to forty years
or whatnot, So it's like name me in a Tendel platform that's come out
that's an entirely new character that's done those numbers. They wouldn't do the same
thing either, right, still waiting on a new Banjo Kazooi game or something,
but I digress. It's not coming out. So yeah, Xbox should
do that. They own that stuff. They owned Viro and Bend and Crash
now too, so they should do like a trio game where all three of
them team almost like they could do like some sort of fighting game too with
all these Yeah, maybe tailored to theoretical casts on this very topic, it's
like, maybe you should just do that. But no, I think this
was great. So I'm curious to two ways where I think it's gonna review.
Well, I got good vibes about this, felt like everyone was happy,
so that was really cool to see. So yeah, I'm gonna be
curious see what they price it wise, and then we're curious see what it
does hopefully reviews well and can kind of get some momentum because it could also
be maybe like good like Christmas purchases too for families of like here's something to
you know, give a kid for Christmas and it's a fun, safe game.
So no, I think this was really good, and I think them
giving it the highlight splot shows that they are caring about it, and I
think I'm happy they ended on this instead of Concord because I think there is
a multiverse where they end on Concord. I think it's the bigger deal,
and I think this was smarter to do, so mm hmm, yeah,
I mean, I think this is something that's very much needed. Like I
remember growing up and thinking that the PlayStation one and two where oh yeah,
these are there's tons of you know, kid I mean I didn't think about
at the time, but like, yeah, these are very kid friendly games,
a lot of platformers, a lot of mascots, and there was lots
of intrigue. But I feel like these days PS four and PS five,
like these, these so many first party games aren't really appealing to that market
other than like maybe Ratchet and Clank. But I even think that is maybe
for like maybe aimed at more like teenagers or something as the primary demographics.
So I think it's really important for their portfolio to have something like this.
And I think gosh are about such a cool, fun character and you know,
obviously I mean this was in Playroom as well, but like a Nathan
Drake and Prap with the Rappa and yeah, Journey Crados. All these characters
having like their funny little versions in here is really cool. So it's kind
of the crossover IP two. I love the Controller glider and the PS five
ship like that is just so fun. I think it's like the perfect amount
of like I don't know, just like selling your it's like product placement for
your own product, you know, so like it's very like like a Ralph
sort of way where they use like Disney IP in certain ways, like winking
nudget use, so it's like, oh, like it's a movie still,
but like you still get to see some stuff, so it's like a cool
like just wink of the eye tongue in cheek way, So I'm with you
there. Like just even the designs that I actually really like them because like
we talke about I think when it came out, like the PS five does
have like a weird like future techie type of feel, so it kind of
fits perfect with ashtro making fun of itself a little bit, like kind of
even more lighthearted, which is yeah. And then yeah, the music was
just amazing in this trailer as well, So I am mad that I won't
be playing this game at release, Like, this game looks fantastic. I
can't wait to uh play it out some play it sometime down the line.
Yeah, that does it for the state of play. Any final thoughts here?
Do you want to throw a number on it? What do you want
to do? Yeah? If I would have thrown in the old days that
we used to do the conferences like the one to five, I would put
this out of two. I'd still fail it because I still think there was
two semi like point five's when we did those. I forget uh, I
probably because we don't really take it that seriously. Yeah, I don't take
it that serious. But even if we did three point seventy five okay,
okay, yeah, even if we did, I'm still still failing it.
But some good stuff in there. M hmm. One other PlayStation thing I
wanted to ask you about. I don't know if you saw this rumor for
a couple of weeks ago that there's apparently a Horizon Lego game in development,
which it really starts to me as like that is a that is a weird
pick, but at the same time, I think it could actually work really
well in terms of like the creatures and like that just feels like Legos already
when you're breaking like pieces and parts off of each other. But I also
think of Lego games as like you need a lot of characters for these games.
You don't always write because like Indiana Jones has a Lego game, I
don't know, there's like five characters across those movies. So I don't know.
It seems like a weird ip, but at the same time, I
think it could work. I don't know, do you do you think?
Do you hope that that actually is real? Or do you do you not
care? Where are you at with that? I'm with you where I think
that's super weird At first when I heard it, and I thought I was
like, oh, like a Lego set, Yeah, that makes sense,
that'd be cool and like to a game. I just don't know if Horizon
moves a lot of units. I think the second game moved a lot of
units and it does really well. But I still to me, the Lego
games are kind of the Lego based on something games. I guess they don't
even do regular games because remember they used to be like a Lego Racer and
oh man, Lego soccer. I loved Lego Soccer Man. Yeah, they
did Lego City Undercover, right, oh yeah, that was such good stuff.
So now they don't really do it. But to me it still was
like Star Wars, Avengers, Batman, Indiana Jones or The Rings Pirates like
it was. These type of adaption games were for the Mega of IP right,
and I don't consider Horizon the Mega ip over. If you want to
talk about PlayStation sure you can argue that ALOI is this new icon and those
games are really well and it is a new franchise, so yes, but
is it enough that enough people are wanting or gonna buy that It sounds really
weird, and I believe it because I think the sources were pretty good,
so it's an odd one. It's even odd too that they're not even doing
it that maybe after the third game, when you could do like all all
three games. But like, I don't know if it's like a remake.
I don't know if it's like the replay over. I don't know if it's
something entirely. I don't say Horizon Lego getting a sequel at some knowing,
like I feel like it's a one all ran. Yeah, and I agree
that I think there's tons of things you can actually do with it. It's
just to me a very odd pick of how did these conversations start? Like
who did PlayStation go to Lego vice versa? Like I have more business sides.
I'm excited to read like a report on one day if like how did
this happen? And same thing, how does this sell? Is this something
that people see go oh Horizon lgo Like I don't think so, Like I
feel like the not that it's even a Mega one, but I feel like
the one to do that would have been like got a war where you can
like, okay, that's where you can have some fun and like you think
of Lord of the Rings and those games where there's serious dramatic moments, but
with the Lego characters, like think about Credos and some of those really comedic
stuff where not saying Horizon is like a funny game, but it still has
lighthearted It's more light harder than the God of War games, i'd say at
times, and some characters. So yeah, it's a weird fit. But
they are going in because there's the remake, there's the Lego game, there
is the three, and then there's that multiplayer games with the remake. Yeah,
the remake and there's a multiplayer game, which that one I want to
buy. I don't know if you're in it, because I feel like I
did not know about that. Tell me about the multiplayer game. I think
it's supposed to be like almost like a monster Hunter type of game where it's
you know, it'd be something I think akin to like the Ghost of Shashimo
and where it's like you me drop or go somewhere and we're taking down dinos.
And that's where I think, like Officely's story and you know, has
some problems, but I think like that's when i'd love to play, whether
it's with you or somebody, because I feel like, just like Ghost of
Shashima where it's a sole game. The second we did Legends, we're like,
oh, this is to of fun, Like I think there's there's tons
of fun too. Oh there's a massive, huge t Rex that you and
me gotta take down. Like I think, I think there's some really fun
multiplayer potential there. So with three, even though I did think about the
other day and we had that experience with two, I still was like,
you know, when three comes out, I might be back on the horse
because I just like I thought about how much I loved that first game,
like you never know, and I think that's a good thing. With a
lot of time in between, you do start to go like, oh,
maybe I could finish out the trilogy, but that one's a iffy. The
multiplayer game, if I had someone to play it with, because I don't
want to play for Randos, that was like a day one, Like,
I think that could be tons of fun. So I but clearly PlayStation very
values that franchise, and it's cool to see a newer one take off like
this. So yeah, I agree. I like that they're putting the resources
into an obviously, you know, making appearance an Astra boy as well.
Now you got me saying asher Boy Astrobot as well, So that's cool.
No, the multiplayer game sounds cool. I'm I'm into that idea. I
don't think I will pick up the third game, but I would definitely consider
picking up the multiplayer game. I hope it wouldn't be a situation where it's
like Legends that you need to own goes as the Shima and then it's like
a free download from that, Like hopefully it wouldn't be like, Okay,
Horizon three comes out and then this is like a free deal. So hopefully
they just put it on its own thing. Didn't they make Legends purchable events
at some point? Or was that wrong about that? I thought there was
a time where you could I thought you had to own Gohoes as of Shima
to play it, But I could be wrong. Maybe I'm just thinking,
well, because here's why I think that is the case is because I think
when they just put they just put goes As Shima on PC. And I
don't think there's a separate skew for Legends, like I think it's just goes
As a Shima. I could be wrong about that, but no, that's
fine. But yeah, I guess because what would because what in your if
it's not tied to Horizon three, how would it be Then do you think
we had separate eight dollars game? Because at that point, would you rather
just be tied to Horizon three? Because it's like, well, then I
got Horizon three and the multiplayer mode because if you wanted to at least put
your toes in the game, it's like that'd be better. Yeah, you're
right, that is a tricky part of about it. I guess we just
haven't seen a ton of these other like PlayStation multiplayer or these live service things
yet you know, from this new kind of last station, right, Yeah,
So I don't know what they would do for that, yeah, because
I don't think they'd want to like discount it either. I think they would
either want like a full price thing. I guess they'd really just have to
sell it as like it is a big game all on its own. But
I yeah, I feel like it would make more sense to actually tie it
to three unfortunately, so I don't know. We'll see what happens there.
Maybe we'll be but I feel like the ways this has been reported sounds like
a separate game, so maybe who knows, Maybe it's even something they could
do like a we always talk about it, but we'll see with this and
like hellby we're gonna talk about later. That's very different. But that's like
a fifty dollars game, right, Maybe there's like a price they pay with
play with I don't know, you know, Yeah, I don't think PlayStation's
done that yet that I can think of their first party stuff other than maybe
VR titles. And I'm guessing Horizon Call of the Wild is like a very
cheap game relative too, you know, a regular trip play game, which
might just be a playtime thing that they're factoring in there, but I don't
know. I guess there is precedent for it to some extent, so I
think that would maybe be the way to do it. Half price game in
that realm are you doing at the PlayStation stuff? Yes, I am.
I got one bit of news I wanted to bring up because that's that's why
you gotta, you know, be in our discord. He shared it and
it's very interesting, So it's video game related, but it's TV show related
related as well. That Prime Video just announced that there is a like a
Dragon Yakuza show coming on October to Prime Video Live Action. It's gonna be
six episode things. So another video game adaption, and this one is like
everyone's popping off because there's no rumors of this whatsoever. So I don't know.
It's funny that I feel like months ago I've download an Xbox we were
talking about Yakuza. That's still one that I want to dip my toes in.
So it's I've had download the newest not the newest one, but the
one right before that. I have a downloaf games pass like a Dragon.
Yeah, so at some point I'm gonna but yeah, so keep your ays.
I don't think I don't know if we'll be reviewing that maybe like a
mini one, but still that's it's fun to see, and I don't think
prime other than Fallout Now they've got two like video games one and not that
I think like a Dragon's on that size, but still like a big I
think that one that that one could be a lot lower budget, which is
helpful for them, and to me that seems that seems like a perfect pairing.
I think a TV show is a better call for you. You could
those usually pretty long games, I think, so if you want to access
that type that much character stuff, I think the TV show route is the
way to go. Yeah, and I'm not a huge fan of Serious because
I haven't played any so I want to get into it. But I hope
they keep I wonder if they're gonna play it straight or there's gonna be a
lot of that, because's a lot of weird, wild stuff that happens in
those games. That's what that's what made me want to play the game.
I saw a cut scene from the newest one. Okay, what is this
game? And I gotta play it. So I'm curious if you can do
that. That's a hard tone balance. But yeah, no, that's cool.
Another video game adaption coming out soon, so I don't know if the
games have English voice acting or not, so I wonder what the show will
be like in that way. Yeah, it doesn't say, it's just the
tie, make your choice, take the next step if you use it like
a dragon comes out, comes to prime October twenty fourth. So nothing.
I don't think that's an opposie or anything yet. But again, it sounds
like it's like this wasn't something that's been known, and the fact that's already
dropping this fall is pretty cool. So yeah, so stay tuned. Very
nice. Let's take a quick break. When we get back, we will
be talking about hell Blade. We'll be right back. Okay, we are
back, Travis. Last week or what was it two weeks ago we did
in retrospective of hell Blade Senduous Sacrifice, and here we are just a couple
weeks later. The sequel is out and we have played it and we have
finished it. You've finished it? I ye, Travis, what did you
think of the sequel? Here? So I think my thoughts are almost identical
to the first one, but just lesser than like that's the way I would
promote the whole game, where I think that you have to know, and
especially if you're playing the sequel. I think there's probably a few people that
it's funny. There's probably a few people that dropped off because they play that
first one, and I think it is fearing more on that experience video game
than it is a video game. Like we talked about two weeks ago,
I feel this is what maybe could you even want to with od or this
is what he looks like, Oh, it's this cool hybrid of video game
and movie, And this does feel like that. Even at times. There's
some things that they've taken out from the first game that have eliminated them,
and there's some things that they've added where it is the classic. And I
know it sounds cliche, but it's like, Okay, am I in a
cut scene or am I not? You know, am I some playing or
not. There's multiple times, like for example, this happens throughout the game
a few times where your character will be laying down to maybe they're squishing between
something you have to crawl. For a while, she was crawling and then
she just stopped like what's going on? Like, oh, that's me and
this even the way you move, it's it. It feels very close to
kind of something that people have joked about. Oh imagine one day if we
can play a video game that looks like a cut scene. That's one thing.
I think we talked about it a lot in the first one. But
I don't think it's hyperblock for me, Like I would put this in like
a top ten best looking video games all time visually too holy mull rocks,
baby, Oh they look so good. The rocks, the dirt, the
visuals, everything, just some of the water, some of the northern lights
happen, the caves, like just it is breathtaking. Just I've never seen
anything really like this. I'd have to make a list and see. And
of course they can do that shorter experience, not as much moving around.
We talked about the combat before, so that's where for me it's still an
achievement, even for me overall if it's like a little lesser than one,
because I feel like it's kind of what we talked about, where we go
what do you do with this? And I feel like there is kind of
a sense of like what do we do and it feels like this is the
best of it, but I don't know what you could have done if you
make an even smaller experience of like a DLC. But at the same point,
it's like I don't want to be like, oh, well, this
is a complete failure or like I didn't need I don't think it's some games
where it's like, oh he did number two, they didn't do anything new,
or it's disappointing, and it's I'm fine, the same that Horizon that
we talked about right where I don't think it's that, but it's a game
that I don't think about Horizon too that much right where this even far out,
I'll be thinking about this game for a while just because of those visuals,
so visually graphics, what you're looking at. It is a stunning game
that I recommend even if you don't want to play it, go find a
best of or a YouTube da like watch some of this. But I still
even recommend playing it because it is like seven hours unless you really don't like
the whole video games as art experienced thing. But yeah, So for my
cons where I talked about my biggest com the last one was Combat. That's
kind of the same here, you know, it's still very much the same.
I will completely admit that I think it is something where I'm playing one
and then two weeks later or less than playing two and back to back.
So even though if you put that together it's like a fourteen hour game,
it's still just like it's a fourteen hour game that doesn't have much variety in
fighting. And I actually think that I think maybe last game I said you
could have done with less of the puzzles. I think you could done less
combat here as far as just interactions. I feel there's maybe like three big
sections where there's like a boss or some big fight. I feel like you
could just do that and then maybe two other more like one to teach you
a bit, and then one sprinkled. Like, I think less combat would
actually be better here because I feel like they're definitely going for the experience and
that's what people want, and I feel like they're trying their best, like
they're very condom between. We still got to make this a video game,
and I think it should be something almost more like a Gone Home, where
it's just it is more about the story and the visuals and you're kind of
playing a walking sim because I think at times the combat it's just I'm just
kind of over it. I'm just it's not it doesn't excite me. And
I even looked into because I had read some reviews and stuff that there's even
some stuff with the pairing that on purpose that even if you do perfect parry,
they'll make it that it doesn't. So they're trying to make the fights
like more like cinematic and like I remember, like when they talked about it
this back in the January direct that they wanted every fight to feel like you
were just barely scraping by. Don't like that, Yeah, artificially kind of
a difficulty to give you that intende. I like that for certain fights we
talked about there certain fights the last game where it's like you're supposed to lose
or not do well. I love that ENVIEO games when you're getting tricks to
go okay, but when it's just like a little random battle with like one
guy, it's like, I just don't feel like I'm progressing there. The
puzzles, they're pretty much the exact SAX think. I feel like they did
less of them and they made them even easier though, Like there's sometimes where
you definitely would have, oh, look at these three poles and put them
together. But I had so many times where we're just looking all that symbols
right on the wall. That symbol is just a stick of like it's an
an. You're looking for an Oh, it's right there. And I feel
like they're really guiding you to the point where it's tough, because for me
it's never that. I still I think I like the puzzles more than you,
but I just thought it was a variety or also just doing them too
much of the same one we talk about that fire one right like where I
think they did pulls back, but the same time, I feel like they
almost like overcorrected, like they dumbed them down in a sense to make it
like you don't really need to do them. So and story wise, my
last point give to you. I think it's a good story, but I
don't think for me it hits the same chords as the first one. I
think even the element of like what's real what's not, I think there's more
elements that you can argue this being real. And I think that there's two
examples I have which we're gonna do that I think they could be in this
person's mind suffering from psychosis. But for me, it just wasn't as intriguing,
and I think it did show that that hell Blade one from a story
point of view, I think was better as just a one off. I
don't think this added too much more. I think by the time, I
think it kind of padded what you learned before. Even there's just times if
we're talking about getting over you know, some things darkness and stuff. It's
like I felt like we kind of went the full circle the first time,
and this is, you know, maybe an impact on how mental health will
not just hurt you but others and what you can do with that. So
I think there's still good messages in there. I just was not as enthralled
with this story as the first one. And like I said, I'm not
sure if there's like a way they could have done this as like a DLC.
Maybe there's a version that they should have done hell Blaye, but not
Senya and like a different character in this type of world, because I still
want this game to exist, because just do something in this world, because
the visuals are at least worth it. It is a gorgeous game, So
again, not a bad story, but I think everything is kind of lesser
than as the first one. So that's that's kind of where I am with
L two, where I enjoyed it, but still not not the first one,
other than, like I said, just being an awe of what's on
screen in front of me. So mm hmmmm, Oh, where do I
want to go first? I had a very mixed time with this game across
the board. In many ways, it improved on my Like the thing I
hated the most with the first game the puzzles. I hate those puzzles,
and they pad the game. They make it way longer. That game should
be two hours shorter than it needs to. And I think that they fix
that here. The puzzles, there's way way less of them. You're not
doing the same things over and over again. They do a good job of
actually like a layering the puzzles that you're doing, so it's like, Okay,
here's one puzzle mechanic, half an hour later you're doing some other type
puzzle mechanic, and then there's like another point later on that you're kind of
using those two things together. It was never too hard. I was never
stumped for too longer than like maybe a couple puzzles and that was like the
perfect amount for me, so it didn't drag the game down. I think
because of that, this game is a lot shorter than the first one,
at least it felt like it to me. But that was like positive.
That was good for me for this kind of game. I don't need it
to be too long. And in the first game, I loved the combat,
and here I love it too. I think it's I think it's great.
It's exactly it does exactly what needs to Its focus is on cinematics over
gameplay mechanics, and that's the same thing as that the Perry mechanic that you're
talking about there. I didn't notice that was the thing, but I think
it makes sense, and I actually think it's a good idea for what this
game is. I think the comment is a huge success, and they've made
good improvements to it. I don't think it's like wildly better than the first
game, but it's like about is good with a couple little things there,
and they've only they only removed one element of the mechanic or the combat mechanics.
We'll talk about that ability on visuals. I mean, I agree with
you there, games freaking breathtaking, really beautiful. The sound design is fantastic,
and the voice acting it's great, all that stuff. Yeah, I
was pretty let down with the story of this game, though, and that's
where I'm ultimately going to be. I think lower on this one than I
was on the first game. There is that element of like, Okay,
what's real what's not? And I feel like it's more clumsily done here,
or like more yeah, like it is inherently a confusing thing, but I
think it's more confused in a way that I feel way less connected with the
story and that like the first one was, like man, I loved having
that conversation of be like, oh, what is real? What isn't?
Like this thing that isn't really like what do we think it's a what does
it mean? Or how is it manifesting? All that stuff. I don't
really like so far in the last week, because I finished the game a
bit ago that I've been thinking about my time through the game. I'm not
having fun thinking about the ambiguity of it. I'm just like, I feel
like this is maybe a plot hole, this doesn't really make sense, or
I feel like kind of cheated in a way. Even though I knew what
was coming, and then you know, this game introduces characters. Like the
first game, you could argue like there's only one character in the game,
but everyone else is just like imaginary or like part of senuous memory, you
know, and those ones are more real, but they were part of the
her past, right. This game introduces a lot more characters. I don't
think really any m ad to the experience like a whole like a lot at
all. And there's even a couple of story points like I'm not going to
spoil the ending here, but anyone, you know, she's giving some like
big what's the word a mono monologue? She's give me like a big monologue
at the end, and I was like, what are you even talking here?
Like is this what this game has been about? I feel like these
themes that you're establishing here are like not things I was experiencing as a player.
So the story felt really weird and disconnected and really lackluster to me.
So yeah, like, you know, combat is as good as the first
game, puzzles way better in the first game, but then stories a whole
lot weaker. So I think it kind of bounces out to this game being
just a bit of a worse experience in the first one, but it's also
shorter, so I guess it's uh. I don't know. I didn't find
myself like as annoyed as I did playing the first game in that way,
So yeah, I think that's where I'm at on it. Any other kind
of non spoilery things or do you want to jump into some spoilers here?
No, I think we covered all that. Okay, let's let's do that.
Let's jump into some spoilers. Maybe we we will just start with with
combat talking about that probably probably won't be too long. They pretty much have
all the same mechanics here. It's the same as the first game. There's
nothing really new. The only difference actually is they removed the kick. Yeah,
I know, I went that a couple of times, like muscle memory,
and I was like, oh right, And I didn't enjoy that they
removed the kick. I like that animation and another thing. I maybe I'm
wrong, but I feel like they removed one of my favorite attacks is when
you would run with her and then do the sword she do like a superman
like right in the air, and I don't think they have that in this
game at least. I think there is still like a running attack, but
it's definitely less the same thing dive that it was in the first one.
Yeah, so I mean I didn't really It's funny, I didn't really miss
the kick because, as we talked about in the retrospective, I didn't even
know there's a block button therefore perry button, and so it kind of like
replaced that for me, and I don't know, I guess there was less.
Like there's a couple guys that have shields in this game, but that's
usually what I was using the kick for in the first game, was to
kind of take out a shield guy or a block or something, but I
think just I preferred using pairing instead, or now that I like know how
the focus works, I feel like I was really abusing the focus to just
completely destroy enemies. But one thing I absolutely love about the combat I think
is so cool and I hope other games steal this is whenever Like one of
the issues I have with combat in the first game was like certain arenas were
kind of small, and you get back into a corner and like the camera's
like not aiming the thing I want it to. This game never really puts
you against multiple people at the same time. Instead you're like doing a one
on one fight, and then once you defeat that person, they'll be like
this kind of this cut scene will pop in all of a sudden. It's
like really good on the fly how it does it where you're fighting someone and
then as soon as you kill that enemy, like maybe one of your companions
gets like knocked to the ground by some other opponent and then you go in
there and kind of intercept and then you start fighting that person and it kind
of just like throws these little cutscene transitions in that makes it like feel like
a John Wick type fight for me, or just like every time you turn
around, there's like some other guy doing something about to strike at you,
taking out of teammate, taking out some other guy that you're trying to save.
And I just thought it made some of these very specific sequences that really
like did that well. I thought were really really cool and cinematic and we're
just really fun. Once again. The mechanics are very simple, but I
just think it like visually looks so good and like I think the camera they
dropped it a bit lower, and it like really follows the sway of the
character that I just thought was just perfect. So I thought the camera work
was insanely good for the combat system here, I agree, but that that's
what I noticed too, like the camera being just almost more like closer to
the hip in this opinion that you just felt like it felt like a bit
more over the shoulder. But yeah, I agree with you. And I
think also because I thought about this when we talked about the last review,
where it felt like one you didn't have to worry about this, but when
you fight multiple enemies, you would say like, oh, it's hard to
focus on one one. You're just finding the one. And even then too,
I feel like they did a good job. If you get a hit
or you move around, they're always kind of in your line of sight relatively.
So yeah, I never got like backed in a corner in a janky
way like the first game. And I think there's something, especially like the
last fight you have. I think visually they do some really really cool stuff
and they make it so I do like that change. I guess that I
do miss the kick. I missed that running knife. I don't miss I
don't like the like fake out pairy thing. So yeah, there's a few
aspects that lessen it for me because the kick was at least something even added
more variety. I could like throw in a strike, a heavy strike,
and then a kick. Now it's just this heavy strike and the strike,
you know, so it was even less so so but no, I agree
from I think it was smart to make that change up, especially this one.
Nothing The other one wasn't a walking around, big area game, but
I think there's just something about this one that does fit a bit better.
Even though it is funny that you're lost times versus one on one, and
you would think this would be the time to put multiple enemies when you have
companions with you, because maybe you could do some things. But uh yeah.
So for the most part, I was lower in the combat, but
as we said before, I was already kind of lower on the first go
around, so it was just somebody wasn't a fond of and then it lessened
it for me. So that's where it was. It's it's not the most
fun to play that way, and I will say before I can forget,
there's lots of instances where they don't let you run, which was also just
a little annoying for me because they're definitely just slowing it down because combat or
just like in the world, just in the world, just in the world,
but I just want to throw it because anyway I forget. But yeah,
so there's a few just little changes like that throughout where quality life stuff
were down for me that made it feel longer. So my my biggest like
quality of life complain in this game is that in the options there's no toggles
run button, Like this game needs that where you just tap left bumper and
then you're running by default. I'm shocked that they don't have that kind of
thing in here, because yeah, there's there's so many moments where you're like,
yeah, in that slower walking moments cause you're like walking with a companion
or something. But if you hold the sprint button you still move a little
bit quicker, but it's like so little that I'm like, I'm going so
sold that I like I need to hit it. But I also like it
moves me maybe you know, five percent faster or something. So I found
that annoying. But I also one thing I related about the combat was I
just feel like the animations, I don't know, it seemed like almost like
more of like a physics system where I feel like I was never seeing the
exact same swings or finishers, like there'd just be little variations, and like,
you know, you have like kind of set combos that do types of
things, but I just feel like the way she would actually swing the sword
around was always like a little bit different, which once again was very cinematic
and very immersive for me that I just didn't feel like I'm seeing the same
stock animation over and over again. And then yeah, like enemy variety,
we talked about the first game, like there wasn't a ton of it.
This game probably actually is like a little bit less than the first game because
they're aren't really addicially too. I was like, they do some change,
but the first game, the visuals of them are so cool. If there's
a lot more just human people that look gross, look like locker people,
I can agree with that. And I feel like the it's like they almost
have like maybe potentially more enemy types because there's just like, oh, this
guy's two acts, this guy's like one acts, and they have like similar
move sets, but once again kind of like these almost improv type animations to
it. But then yeah, there's like not as many, like I think
there's only two boss fights in this game, right, like you fight this
like what's his name, the Sun, yeah, Thor Guester, right yeah,
yeah yeah, so you like fight him and then like his dad.
And I think those like the only two actual boss fights, like when you're
doing the giant stuff, like that's more of like cinematic. It's more of
like almost like a platform challenge or something than it does a combat challenge.
So you don't have something like the dog from the first game, or like
the double axe dude who was like always sprinting around, or like the big
dude Surder. Yeah. They add the like fire breather as like a new
enemy type here, which you know, and then like the creepy little like
Gollum type dudes as well. They're always kind of scratching at you and whatnot.
So yeah, enemy variety I think is about the same quality as the
first game. But I was kind of surprised that they didn't have as many
boss fights or at least like traditional like combat heavy boss fights. Maybe they
just felt like, Okay, these giant fights, we want to do something
different with them, and like this is working. This is working and having
that level suspense, so we don't need those, But I also I don't
think the boss fits were like my favorite part about the first game. I
think the dog one was fun, but like Surder, I kind of just
found more annoying than anything else. So I guess I don't. I guess
I'm not too mad that they took those out, But even the ones that
there are here, I found this like, I don't think I died in
this game once, whereas I died like a bunch of times in the first
game, So I don't know. Maybe it was just easier across the board.
Yeah, I could have used one more. Maybe not, because I
think the point of the giants, other than the dad they're trying to which
will get in the story wise, you almost not choose a violent route.
But I still wish there was something a bit more to it, so I
could have used one more because I think the first fight to me wasn't much
because that just felt like it is so early on they were just trying to
get you to feel like, oh if you remember the controls, and you
just didn't feel that hard. So yeah, I wish there was one more
in there. Mm hmmmm. I don't think I have anything else on the
combat. Do you want to talk about some story here, Where do you
want to start with the story? Don't know characters, certain plot points,
the end, where do the characters will start there? Because I'm with you
where they didn't. They worked a bit better near the end, but they
still didn't work well enough. I think that is the problem with this game.
I would love to see if there was a version of this. I
don't think they would, and they're working on a different game, but if
there was like a hell Blade three and they go like, we're and you
couldn't do this because the visuals or take forever, but just like we're gonna
make a twenty hour one or something like that. And that's where the multiple
characters, I think they worked as well as they could but for a while,
especially oh gosh, what's the bad guy that starts at the beginning,
but he becomes your friend the end, like for Guester, Like I was
not taking that character for almost majority of it until the end where he really
makes like a baby face turn. But so there are good little snippets.
I think for me, there is something where I think with they're being kind
of three giants in a sense and then three characters, I wonder if that's
kind of like three personality traits, and if you look at each character,
they kind of represent something like he is the he has the exact same kind
of dynamic that she does with her dad, right, or kind of what
we've been applied. The lady what was her name, Broanahan or Bronan or
ad. I think Astro who was brown in then I thought there was a
bo n N and then far Grimmer is like the village leader guy that kind
of takes you under his wing. But I don't know who Bronahan is.
I'm not sure. Maybe you're thinking of I think the Klan is called I
figure the burg of Virki is the name of like the city, or maybe
it's his dad. They're so right now, they're just gonna be the warrior,
the villager and then uh, you know, the bad guy. But
yeah, so with her, she's representing I think like the vicious kind of
soldier fighting side, right, and you get to see that, and the
villager. I think it's just kind of representing the person that she almost wants
to be in a sense, or the few little bits that she has in
her that are just a good and caring person that would take people under the
wing, because I think that's what it was. That if it's the the
what's not real, then to me it's like the giants and these three people
are just kind of variations of her personality or things she's been through, and
then if they are real, I think the allegory is just that one.
It's showing that you're not alone in mental health, like not only with help,
but it's just like there's many people that can be going through but have
different issues, right, there's many clinical versions of mental health. It's not
one fits all type of size. I think it's also then with the giants
to represent that there's even a line. I think they just spelled up like,
oh, every monster start as a man, and that's where it is,
right where without help, without support, maybe that's the route you can
go. So I think those messages is were good there. I think that's
where you might need to be longer if you're doing a group one, or
maybe lose one of the characters. So I think that stuff did work for
me in the end, the multiple characters. I think the stuff of her
not killing the dad and then being like, oh, she's overcoming the darkness,
it's like, well, you've kind of done that before, and I
think that's the good thing. With the two giants, it wasn't it was
like the Batman thing where she's not trying to kill them, she's trying to
find was the best route, and one was, you know, giving the
infant bones or the other one's just setting him free. Like I think that
was good of showing. That's where I said in the nonswords that it's like
Patty and it's showing, Okay, she's not dark like your father. But
I kind of already got that from the first game. So the multiple characters
I liked of seeing different sides of herself mental health is like our group discussion.
But I think the other stuff about Senya's journey they didn't. They didn't
nail per se. And the characters I like they were they were fine,
But again, how much can you do with them, especially some of the
characters you're meeting three and a half hours in and then there's only two hours
left, and a lot of them they go disappearing for right. So sometimes
it feels like it's like a slice of a second act of a game,
but it's not. It's the full it's a full game. So yeah,
I think to break them down for myself. Like thor Gester, who's kind
of the the slave master guy at the start, it just like it's pretty
obvious what's gonna happen with him. You know that he's gonna be the good
guy. Eventually, he's gonna rise up against his dad and all this stuff.
And I feel like it never really surprised me in what was happening with
him, So I guess that's where I didn't connect with him. Him far
Gurmer. I liked him, you know, he's a cool guy. He's
like a father figure in this in this lost place, a father figure that
Seua desperately needs, given her a very toxic father. And then Astra.
It's a weird one because, as you mentioned, she's the one that like,
yeah, pops in way later in the game, and like the first
time you meet her, you're hanging out with her, and then there's like
a combat sequence and she just leaves you. She just abandons you, and
then you stumble upon her again timids later. So I feel like immediately I
was like, fuck this character, Like she just abandoned me. I don't
care about her. I don't want to protect her. There's a point that
I found pretty strangers when you go into the woods. I thought this sequence
is pretty fun. Visually, I think it looked amazing and you're going through
and then eventually like you're because you're with your whole crew at this point.
And then at some point I was always turning around to see make sure they
were with me, and then at some point they just they go missing in
the woods, you know, and you're all on your own. I thought
it was good that they kind of they got they tricked me in that way,
and you're going around eventually find them. They feel like they've kind of
lost themselves a little bit, or maybe they're like starting to feel the effects
of psychosis. It's kind of on exactly what's happening. But you get to
a moment where you have to choose between Fargarmer and Asterid, and like,
ooh, which one do you want to save? Do you want to go
up the river or do you want to go down the river? Which one?
Yeah? And so you pick one, but then like thirty seconds later
you encounter the other one again. And then like there never seems to be
any consequence to that, And I don't know if it was like supposed to
be really tugged at my heartstrings. But for me, I kind of hated
Astrod if she abandoned me, and Fargarmer always had my back, so it
was an easy decision for me, and I didn't really care if I had
to leave her behind. So I thought that was a weird moment that I
don't know, maybe it ties into some moment, like some decision that affects
something later on, but from what I could tell, like nothing really seemed
to happen in that way. So I was a little confused by that moment.
Yeah, I picked the same when you did, because I'm like,
Okay, it's the journey that I think my character's on here. But I
think that's where I thought, oh, we're gonna it's it's different, because
I thought, oh, this is where maybe we're gonna get something quite different
with the game. But then I still thought of the run time. I
thought, well, you can't, like, there's not that much to me.
This would have been an element that you'd introduce our one and then go
oh, oh, there's gonna be like some you know, choose your own
adventure type of type of like telltale situations here, which I think wouldn't be
bad for this type of game. That could have been a good angle for
help a two of like, hey, we can't exactly recapture the first one,
so let's do it a little bit differently. But no, it was
kind of a misopportunity. I don't know if it was trying to do like
the kind of lie to you again thing, like with the first game of
Oh if you you die too many times, so I think maybe trying to
hit on that, but that that mechanics just so good where you can't rate
recreate that that way. I'm not sure if it plays anything differently. I
have heard that if you replay the game, it's a different narrator, So
not that I'm going to be but I don't think you would play anything to
it. But that is a cool fact, which I think is cool.
So yeah, I saw that. There's I think three separate options there.
Oh really, it's like Senua, it's your companions, and I think the
other one is I don't know if it's your father, but someone who's like
not in the actual story. It's like some it's like almost just like a
storybook narrator, like some omniscient presence or something. And I'm pretty sure,
so I think that's really cool. I mean, this is not a game
I really want to replay because of the gameplay of it, but I think
that's a really interesting thing that's there. And I did watch them YouTube videos
of like certain moments that I kind of wanted to see what different narration would
be like for specific things when I was more curious on what was going on
there. Speaking of that, I want to I want to jump to this
right away, which is, you know, we had that great conversation in
the first game of talking about like what's real and what's not, and I
just found that to be a lot muddier in this game because there are other
characters. In that first one, you could make a case that there are
actual people that you're fighting, but then like Senua is seeing it as like
these monsters and whatnot. You can make a case for that, but there's
really no evidence at any point that there's ever actually humans on this whole journey.
She just goes to an isolated island, right, But in this game,
it's like it seems like it has to be the case that these people
are real, Like there's no way that all of these people are figurements of
her imagination, right, Like, I think, if that is the case,
then that seems like a real the weird stretch that like she's created like
hundreds of people in this world, so I have to assume they're real.
But then I feel like that really throws off some of the story points for
me, and particularly like I love the concept that the slave master guy like
created the idea of these giants to create the fear so that people would follow
him and see him as their leader. But to me, it makes no
sense whatsoever that everyone in this world believed that these giants were real even though
no one has ever seen them. And I know it's supposed to be like
natural disasters and they're kind of adding the personality of those, But then there's
certain sequences. I know, I'm going over the place here where we can
break it all down. Like there's one point where you're fighting that giant in
like the watery cave and you're chasing it. He's like following you out and
then you like throw spears at him, and then he follows him out,
and then you go into the sequence. But it's like, are all those
people then, like, are all those people think of them for animation?
Because I think because Fargroomer's there too, So is it just like a different
far rumor that's in that sequence, like an imaginary one like that. It
gets way too confusing for me, So I don't know, maybe you can
shed some light on it. But how did you feel about that angle of
the kind of is it real or is it not? Well? Yeah,
I think if it was a kind of look at both of them, I
think you could play the case of it is a mix and match the same
way we said, like all these people are there, but maybe they're in
this monster type of form. I think there's tons of stuff of her when
she's in the cave. She's also in like different worlds, even some of
the giant aspects where you could say, okay, most of the stuff is
real, but even the fight with the father at the end right where that
could be real, but all this other stuff's going on. But at the
same time, because the characters all stem from almost something that she's been through,
that's where I could see it's almost a like an inception moment where the
I can't remember what they call Elliott Page's character and that gosh, remember architect,
right, the architect? Yeah, so the way sure, that seeing
the Dad, like the evil giant Dad at the end is like all these
other characters. There's a kingdom, but it's also playing off something that's happened
to her, So she's almost could be filling in like the filling in the
blank of thinking about, oh, this guy would have this dad and he's
kind of like this architect and it's doing X, Y and Z. So
that's where for me, I could buy that you could say, oh,
it's all made up, but I think it's a bit more like a bit
more unlike the first game, where I think there's things that could have happened,
but there is more the first game, I think it was linear as
far as lots of stuff could not be real, but it's all happening at
the same time. It almost feels like there's little breaks of okay, this
is the unreal section, and how we're back to the real section. But
then, like I said, I could see a perspective where it's almost like
an inside out where these three characters are just certain personalities and the giants,
the bad guys, the Dad, those are certain architects like that are bad
things for her. So I think there's some stuff from what I gleamed on
from this story in the last story where I go, Okay, I could
see, now it's a very big world. That's that you're constructing a very
high octane lots of people, lots of them. It's like you're making a
video game, but you know it's a Heiden world. So I could I
agree with you that might be a little bit more messy, but I could
see some sort of uh, some patterns there, I guess to get me
to that point. So with the giant, like the giants not being real,
that being a creation, is that something you saw coming or was that
at the reveal when you when it made sense to you that all clicked into
place. Yeah, No, I I guess I didn't really think about that
because I just didn't really think about the giants being real yet either. So
that's where I didn't analyze it too much because it's like we're seeing as we're
hearing the tomboat, but it's like one is it an urban myth too?
Is this just still in her head and these people are talking about a giant,
but they're just fueling her thoughts. So I didn't think of the dad
saying, oh, I've created this thing about the giants. But at the
same point, I wasn't. I wasn't looking into it because of the way
her mind works. I didn't want to look into because it might not.
It's like an unreliable narrator, right, So it's hard to think about it
and a like I could at any point think about all the giants not real
and be like, yeah, okay, just even in the sense of the
dad didn't say like all this is, I could believe that because of certain
things she's gone through. So yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't something I
caught, but it wasn't something I was diving too much into as well,
either, Right, So yeah, it's really just that cave scene with the
spears getting thrown at that one giant. Like, to me, that's just
like a damning plot hole moment. It's really hard for me to get over
that. In terms of other characters not realizing this, or like, you
know, a world where everyone in this world has psychosis and they're all like
seeing things, you know, that could makes sense. I guess there's the
idea of like, I know, the shared consciousness if you people are saying
that you start to do and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, but like there's
a difference between like, oh, there's some rumblings in the ground, and
that makes sense, Oh maybe it's a giant hitting us from underneath. But
like if we're all throwing spears at a giant thing, like like what are
we talking about here? Like I don't understand how that's supposed to make any
sense, but I one thing I really did like about that is kind of
the way that connects with the first game and how Hella in that game is
a giant very much like this, and we talk about how it's like,
Okay, maybe that's what the story is telling us there is that like Senua
is seeing herself in Hella, and that's who like she's going to become if
she goes down this path, down this darkness. And I think that is
like something that was really well done in the first game, and I really
like the idea that we're kind of taking that idea more here, where like
these people that are alive in this world, like they come up with these
characters of these other people that become the giants, and presumably those people just
like died in a cave somewhere, right, and that's where they went and
that's why their body was never found or something, and then people kind of
imagine them to be these giants, but I think it's an interesting idea.
And that was when something before the reveal happened of all these giants are actually
really like I wondered, is that something that's going to happen to Senuel in
this game? Like are we going to go down this dark path and like
turn into a giant ourself, whether that's whether that's an imagined thing or a
real thing, if the giants actually are a literal thing in this world.
So I really liked that kind of mirroring between Hella the Giant in the first
game in the Giants here. And then I also thought was really cool that
the final boss fight isn't against a giant, like you're singing cool like flashes
and weird imagery and stuff. Yeah, but I like that you're just fighting
the guy at that point, which is, you know, very symbolic of
what's to happen. So it's it's like, yeah, some of these parts
are like really really well done, and I just I just find it hard
to connect all the dots in a really cohesive way. So I don't know,
maybe I need to, like hear the developers explain their perspective or something
and get some other takes. Maybe even just these other narrators could honestly fill
in the gap. So maybe I'll check out some more of those YouTube videos.
I don't know, Yeah, I guess, you know, talking about
some of those moments. Like I thought though the sequences when you are fighting,
you're not really fighting the giants, but you're more like, Okay,
you find about their identity and you're going to go through this sequence. I
thought they were cool prime. I think the level one was my preferred between
the two. I thought it was cool hide him on them Laba and like
smashing those giant chains was really cool. And that character was so freaking creepy
the way she would like exorcism, like contort upside down and all around spinner
and bad teeth too when she was got closer. They're sharp and jagged and
whatnot. Yeah, that sequence was brutal, But I like both of those
giant sequences. I thought they kind of matched the epic and nature that they
needed to with, like the environment element of it. So yeah, no,
I like those. I like it. It's the only thing that it's
you gotta do what you gotta do. But it felt funny where the Lava
one and the Water one they felt very similar in the layout. It's felt
like because it's just like even like little rocks in the ground and where the
giants were, and that it was like everything else around it was different.
But I still love them both, Definitely the Lava one because they feel like
they didn't do more of this. We wanted them, like that one hell
section in the last game. We want more of that, and I was
like, oh, we're gonna get here. We really didn't. And even
though it wasn't as trippy, so but I enjoyed that. It just like
the color of it just looked I'm not in the sinking with the explosions to
Yeah, such a cool moment. And again I think it's one of those
things that's like we didn't mention, but it's just like we talked about a
bunch of the first game, like the audio design again just flawless and home
run stuff. You know, it's like they're there. I don't talk about
because I don't have enough descriptive words to talk about how good it is.
And I hope they win a lot of technical stuff down the road, but
yeah, just even visuals they make you look like it's worn there. But
yeah, I think my stand ups were Yeah, that one, I like
the water one. I really liked after the after the level and there's like
a kind of it was back and forth. It was almost like a northern
light. Soort of sequences where the sky was very kind of rainbuish and stuff,
and it's good because the moment the game doesn't think do a good job.
The first one did that too, where there'll be big moments and then
you kind of have a some quietness going on. The cave I liked for
the most part. I think I was in there a little too long.
I think they could have cut it down. But there's some really cool just
like you put an orb there and then just lights up and everything. So
I again visually saying, but there's also just some sequences that are very good
where I think the first you know, as you say, the first two
hours, but even then I'll give credit to like the boat crash scene.
I really liked that with the waves crashing and you're bumping into innocent people or
the slavers you gotta fight. I think that's a really good opening as well.
So maybe it's a bit more underrated moment of the game, but I
enjoyed that. Yeah, it's funny. I feel like we're very similar in
some ways and total opposites. It's like just on everything today, the state
of play this. But I think that the cave was my favorite sequence.
I know you liked it. You just went yea too long, but I
just thought, like, visually, I love just I love in a situation
like when you just keep going down and down and down and down. It's
very like dark souls kind of thing too. But I just really liked that.
I really like the visuals, and I think those are my favorite puzzles
with like the braziers that you're kind of putting extinguishing and re lighting to create
new pathways and whatnot. I thought those whole sequences worked pretty well for me.
And then yeah, I just like the creepiness of like those little creatures
that were down there. Yeah, yeah, that was a really fun sequence
as well. Another another element with the story. So jumping to that monologue
that I mentioned at the end, you know, maybe I gotta listen to
it again, but like, and it's pretty long, but yeah, Senya
was talking about like we are we are not our parents, Like we can
make our own choices and do our own take, But like, what does
that have to do with the game that I just played for eight hours?
Like I know the slave master guy and he like rebelled against his dad,
but like was that? How was that Senua's Journey? Because I know the
dad's in this game again, uh you know, he's talking a little bit,
not as much as the first game. But I just felt like this
was not the central theme of this game. But I don't really know why
this is part of like the final monologue as you see us on the way
out here, it seems like a really weird place to leave off. So
I feel like I was maybe just missing some context, like maybe Astroid and
Fargarmer all had like some element about this to the character as well, But
I just felt like it seemed really out of place and strange. No,
I agree, That's where I said. I felt like it was again patting
the first one of that's the journey went on, and it comes into a
very tough situation, right because it's this whole thing while she's not going to
execute this and she's not gonna be your dad, but at the same time,
it's like one. You kill a lot of people in this game,
asking them and also at the very bed of the game, you know,
at the very beginning, but once you the slaver's son, you get them.
There's a more where she ties them up and says, oh, you
know, how do you like it? But she thinks about killing him,
so already in the first act of the game, she's choosing not to just
blood, you know. So that's where I think the theme they should hit
on more was the what others go through and how you can help one another
and be there for one another. I think there is still a theme of
not being your you know, your father's son, or the sins of your
father passing that. I think they could have just made that his journey almost
and her echoing that and treating that like I think her journey could have been
helping other people and realizing that not so much like, oh you don't want
to be a killer, just that Okay, yes, it's great to look
after yourself, but if there's others that need your help, you can give
them a lending hand. And then it kind of is a Jena say,
quad goes all the way around. So I think I like those things,
but I agree with you when we got to that it gets muddy, because
I think they were it's tough in a game, And that's where I said,
with the combat, maybe take out some of it, because it's tough
in a game where you're killing people. Because I think the story beats of
her not killing him and tying him up first, and then along the journey
her trying to help the giants set free instead of killing them. They all
fit, but then the combat of the game, you got to execute people
your slitting throats, So it's kind of a it's kind of a mishmash of
this doesn't exactly line up. So I agree with that. The ending monologue,
even though well acted, well written, it's visually very cool going on,
I feel like it doesn't exactly work here. So I also felt that
way too. There is a multiple moments where, especially early on in the
game, where you're going through the sandy beaches, as you crash onto the
shore and like people are dying left, right, and center, and the
voices and like your father's voice are being like you let these people die.
It's all your fault, and it's like that doesn't make any sense, Like,
yeah, there's a couple of people that maybe I could have saved I
was a bit quicker or something, but for the most part, like I
I am objectively saving more people than who would have all just died were I
not here, And so, you know, I know in her head that
guilt would still, you know, weigh on your mind to some extent,
but I just felt like it was pressing the issue a bit too much.
Of like, I never really felt like like it would have been more impactful
if they threw a really difficult combine encounter at you, and if you didn't
perform well in it, someone did die in front of you, and then
it's like, Okay, now lay the guilt on, because I feel like
it's a bit more earned at that point. But if you're just like having
a cut scene of someone dying two hundred feet from me, it's like,
there's no way I, possibly in any world, could have saved that person.
So that guilt angle isn't really working for me. I think the only
reason that works somewhat for me is just because in the first game they established
it that the dad is someone that took advantage of her mental health. So
I feel like that's something that people do in real life where oh you didn't,
you had nothing to do with this. But I can hit on this
and make you feel really bad and make you twist it so that that's where
it's still worked for me. I think this guy is he is a just
a twister of emotions. And I was surprised if we didn't get too we
told about the first game, we didn't get much of those like people in
real life in the game, not really out Yeah, the live action sequences.
I didn't even think about that, but you're right, Yeah, we
didn't get any of that, so I thought there's a couple opportunities to do
that. So that stuff all over for me. But I just mentioned that
because the dad the son was like a cloaked figure for most of the game
in this one, and you look like an od school pretty much. Yeah,
I'm more like just recognize his voice, but I never even thought about
physically. I didn't really see him at all. Yeah, yeah, how
about we take our next break. We'll be right back for some more hell
Blade. Okay, we are back. So early on in this game,
you go through a little town, which I thought was I just like going
through little towns, so I like this little town here. That's when you
tie up the slave master guy. And then you're going around and then you
come across some ruins, and I was like, oh god, I'm gonna
fucking hate this game. Like I'm seeing the ruins already. So you go
do a room puzzle, but then thankfully, like I don't think you really
do another one for a bit, and the game never really does over use
them, and I thought that was really nice. But I think they made
up for that, you know, if someone was missing that from the first
game, I was not. I thought one thing that I loved in this
is they still the lower Stones or you can go around and read those and
that same guy we'll talk to you and filling you into stuff. But then
they also had these tree I don't know what they're called, but there are
little trees that you go and find a little sapling essentially hidden away, and
that is another character's voice giving you other lower stone type stuff. But I
thought those were so cool where they always hidden behind this face in the environment,
and so you'd go around and in the rocks you'd be like, oh,
that kind of looks like a face a little bit, and then you
focus on it and then it kind of like in a very inception way,
like zooms out and then it turns into like a hallway that you can walk
down. That was cool every single time, and I love that it was
not a mandatory thing that's like, oh yeah, fuck ground in this environment
for twenty minutes until you find the one specific thing that we want you to
look at from the specific angle. But instead, like I'm in my head
always tripping out playing this game, like oh, is that a face over
No, that's not a face. That some random tree over there? Then
oh maybe I would actually find one and I'd go down this cool path.
So to me, that's like that took the lesson of like, yes,
perspective, puzzles can be cool, but if they're forced upon you and you
have to go find them, they're a lot less impactful than like if you're
just playing naturally and seeing something out of the corner of your eye and it's
like in the back of your head constantly like oh am I seeing this thing?
Am I not? And I don't know about you, but like it
has the little counters of how many you've got, like lights up a certain
symbol. I missed so many lore stones in this game, and almost all
the trees too, like there are so many I didn't see in the lower
stones. Secondly hidden in the first game, they were more just like on
the side of your critical path, so they hit them a lot better this
time. Yeah, no, I can't work because I did a couple of
those, but I was trying just to track along make sure it's there.
But I think it's cool to have because I think it is something too that,
like we said, if you want to do, if you really like
the game and want to do a second play through, then that stuff to
really look up for you can take your time anymore. But I think the
stone faces were very cool because the very first like like you said, there's
one and two clear. I can't remember where it was, but it was
almost like a darker scene and it's the same thing like is that a face?
Is that not a face? And stuff, and it was a face.
Once I got there, it looked more. But it's a it's a
fun thing I think in this game, especially with the giants having bigger features,
it kind of fits with that theme too, of like big rocks and
in the first game you're always seen your mother's face and different rocks. Yeah,
that kind of brings those scenes to life. Yeah, so I think
it worked. Mm hmm, yeah, I and I think the other mistake
here in like the first game, we talked about this, where you do
the lower Stone, the guy would be talking to you, but if you
want wander too far away, even if there's no other dialogue or story stuff,
it would fade out. These ones, if you go a meter away,
it immediately fades out and you can't listen to it. So I didn't
really listen to any of these. So but from what I did listen to,
because I tried listen to the tree ones because I was curious how those
would differ. Once again, I didn't really see that connecting much with like
the narrative that was going on. And maybe it's because I was missing a
lot, whereas in the first game, I got almost all of them just
because they were kind of in obvious spots. But I don't know, did
you ever when you did find one of those, listen to those you get
any interesting tidbits or lore from the no I listened to a couple and then
I was on my I was on my way because I feel like they are
good, but not good again, I just wish they played while we continue
to walk. You know, they'd be the best thing, but I get
it. It's good immersion. So another thing that I found interesting, like
the first game, as we talked about, it's like pretty much a one
shot game, kind of like Got War in that it's like one extended this
this game is not that case. In fact, there's like three or four
time jump sequences, and each of them are just like a couple hours pass
and you journey down the road, and it doesn't really explicitly say that,
but it just feels like it. But I always thought they were visually really
cool, and they kind of kept that one shot angle to it where sen
you would be looking out at some horizon, some beautiful just rocks and some
beautiful environment islands, and then like the camera would like zoom out into the
sky was like a bird's eye view and just zoom around this beautiful environment and
then kind of like eventually would zoom back in and send you a new crew
would have been, you know, a few hours further down the road.
So I thought that was a really cool, unique way to do a time
jump sequence, and I'd like to see something like that from like open world
game open world games that have fast travel to have some element like that where
it's like almost taking you on that journey artificially rather than just a loading screen.
With these consoles in the ability to have really fast loading I think is
something that I'd like to see other games do. So I really liked that
visual touch to it. Yeah, it's cool, and I think it was
fine to not be the one shot kind of in a way they did the
first game. You don't have to be beholden to that, so I think,
yeah, it all work there. Yeah, I'm trying to think what
else. You know, there are other puzzles, but I don't think there's
much to break down there. Like there's orb ones that kind of flip environments.
I hope those ones are pretty cool. There's the one that, yeah,
the braziers, which kind of creates platforms and then remove them. I
think there's probably less to talk about here than in the first game, because,
like as you mentioned, they are a lot easier and they're almost more
like mindless in a way. They're kind of just like busy work. But
since they're not overused, I never found them tedious or just there for patting,
So glad issues with any of them, but they all, Uh,
I don't know they're good enough. I was glad there wasn't like the last
in abundance of those stupid portals you'd have to walk through and do, like
the change environments. I think nothing was like it took so long to run
around just to try and figure it out, which I think was a nice
improvement there. Yeah, any other points here, Travis, No, And
like I said, I don't know if I mentioned enough anything I mentioned a
little bit. Performance is all still great. You know. It's one of
those things where it's just like I know she's won it before, but it's
kind of tough that when you get to the game Wars and those things,
it's like, how else can you compare anything to like this route? It's
tough, ye, Like what Final Fantasy, Yakuza. I'm trying to think
the other big story games. I just don't think maybe like that main character
in Star Wars could have some like moments and stuff. It's like inspiring,
it's about I just like that guy's always getting to know he's always Yeah,
Like I just feel like it's such a different level. But yeah, voice,
especially voice acting too great and she does a good job and I like
we talked about last week. I'm curiously if she will be in their next
game or I don't know, she should go and try and an agent to
maybe try and do some actual real not real not real life but live action
acting, you know, like stuff that's in TV shows or Yeah, but
no, it's all that stuff is very crisp and it's still Again, I
still think it's like a very well made game from a technical standpoint. So
I think the specifics that we talk about puzzles, combat, story, I
don't think there's anything else we haven't hit on that I wouldn't have won hit
on. Do you want them to make another hull Blade? Nope, not
with Senya, I'd say, Actually that's what I say. I think you
could do something in the world, but I don't know if I need another
of Senya's journey, even if she was made a supporting character. You could
do something a long time jump of maybe you're the daughter of Senya like something
like that, but I don't think one. I think a break And that
sounds stupid to say because the last game was seven years ago, so it's
like like not that. It's like all they're pumping out these hellblay games like
No, just like I think they're working on that new game. Hopefully Xbox
let them do what they do, because I think they're I think it's just
like definitely a company that they should provide lots of resources to. And I
don't think there's anything bad about small games, but I do look at this
in the first one, I go, I think there's a potential that Xbox
could have their like Last of Us with these people. But yeah, are
they getting good for their portfolio? Yeah? There other studios aren't making games
like this. Yeah, but are they gonna give them that chance to make
that type of game? I don't know. That's the thing, right,
game looks expensive while I'm playing it, Yes, And I don't know how
many people are gonna like there's games Pass then by itself as fifty bucks.
I personally can say, oh, yeah, it's worth it because the craftsmanship.
But if you're asking me what he spends fifty bucks on and it's a
seven hour games like, that's hard for me to pitch you, right,
that's hard for me to sell you on why you should I would just like
get games Passed. I'm just saying, if you didn't have games Pass whatever,
So yeah. The rumor I think is the next game is like a
whore game, which I'm like, that sounds great like them again some of
horror that I think could really really do some special stuff. So I hope
Xbox just supports this team. I hope we're not two years talking about them
being laid off or they're doing this and on and because I just think the
war game should ven, but I do think they should. It sounds weird,
but give them more funds and let them do something big. I think
they could have. Like I think there is a version. It sounds weird,
but there is like a last of Us length version of a Helplay game
that could be the big breakout combat a little bit better, a few little
things there characters get to flush out. So that's what I mean. The
Helplay world. I think there's stuff to it. I think it's just that
maybe not three so And I already thought with her journey specifically, there was
a risk of what can you cover here? And I think they were close
enough to I think we have a few examples of maybe there wasn't too much
meat on the bone that they already hadn't done. So that's why I think
something in this world, but other situations, characters, places, et cetera.
So yeah, I don't think I need to see a third game either.
I do like your idea of switching to another character's perspective, and I
think it'd be cool if the through line was the mental health angle and the
character who has some other mental health thing, and that can be like the
lens from which the character's perspective and story is told and how they grow and
go and struggle through That I think could be really cool. And I feel
like the first game too, like it had a not a cliffhanger, since
like you knew what was gonna happen next, but like Senny was like,
all right, I'm gonna go do some shit, like she's stories yeah,
And this game has a bit of that too, where she's like, I
fight for the people who cannot fight for themselves. But it felt a little
bit more of like I could see this being the endpoint and being content with
that was where I think the first game it would be like, oh,
really, that's it. That's like a bit two cliffhangary for my liking.
So but at the same time, I think there's enough room there where they
really could go for a third game, but yeah, I'm kind of wanting
something new, uh, something different, And yeah, I think like they
obviously showed their strengths here, but it seems like even before this game,
like as we talked about in the first hell Blade retro, like, they
have such a history with intense combat games and I'd just like to see some
of the stuff because I really like what was here. But I think which
is more more variety, more depth could be cool. But yeah, even
just like I don't know, try and do something a little bit different could
be It could be something nice to see. So yeah, I I'm excited
to see what they do next. I hope this game has been a success.
I don't know, like it's hard to gauge with numbers in game Pass
because Xbox isn't like releasing a lot of numbers these days, and game Pass
always scuse things. But uh, yeah, I hope this game is a
big success and I'm excited for their next thing. I think I gave the
first game a seven, so I think I should give this a six and
a half, a little bit lower than the first one. Overall, where
are you at? You want to throw a number? It's tough, so
like the first game, I give a nine from Mike my standpoint of the
enjoyment of a game, I think I'm like a seven. But then if
I were like, if you ask me, like, what's your score of
like critically, I'd have to go out eight because like the full visuals give
it like a full point, like is he more than a point? But
I just feel like a seven feels too low to give it. But because
I think there's certain things they are doing very well in this game and stuff,
certain visuals, voice acting that's tippy top stuff, So I wish I
could get it to a little bit higher. So I'm in that seven eight,
So I guess maybe I'll just call it a clean seven point five,
like somewhere meat in the middle if you want to put a you know,
if I win the lottery and gun to my head. But no, it's
so good. But I think that I'm not gonna say I would never play
these games, because maybe there'll be a time in my life where i'd want
to go back there smaller and maybe if the next game comes out and I
want a refresher or it's disappointing, I think there's some visuals in here that
I will want to see again at some point in my life, especially if
they do like ten years from now, we got better consoles and like,
oh it's an upscale even you know, you got your eighty K and like,
oh, what does this look like now? You know? And you
can play one of the other narrators so you can still get like an exactly
varied experience. Yeah, so there's some stuff there. So no, I'm
glad I played these and they are I think I think they are special games.
But I think it's tough because they are, like we said, they're
in a very wiggle room of game experience, swoking sim it's its own type
of genre that's not like a uber popular one. Because we've been talked about
two weeks ago of def Stranding, where there's tons of people that would say
the same thing where oh, I appreciate it, but that's not a good
game for me because I just don't enjoy playing that type of game, right,
So that falls in that category. If this is one where if someone
said this is ten to ten my favorite game the year, I would say,
oh, I get it. If someone said, oh I hate this
game, We'll never play again, I kind of get it. Right,
It's it's not a one size fits all, but I appreciate that, and
I hope that Xbox lets them do more of that. And I hope that,
like I said, I think from the visualties we talked about, like
the Giant, just other things, some of the enemy types, a like
a game in a horror type of setting. I think they will do Gangbusters
there. I think that could be really really fun. And again, even
the audio, this audio, it sometimes is even creepy enough, and it's
not even sometimes supposed to be creepy. Imagine in a game where you're in
the dark, even around there a little like, I'm very I'm very excited
to see what they could do if these rumors are true. So I look
forward to the future. And I'm happy we did these because we've touble these
for years. So yeah, definitely, I'm really glad that finally knocked these
off the lists. I'm glad I've played them, and yeah, it gets
me excited for Ninja Theori's next title. Thank you everyone for listening, Thank
you Travis for joining me here on this fun retro inter review combos, and
uh yeah, we will be back next week for some Summer game Fest and
Xbox showcase all sorts of stuff, so stay tuned. Thank you for listening,
see you next time. Byebye