Hey, welcome to Case Spot After Dark, Episode two thousand, two thousand
and nine, thousand nine. Damn, it's a year twenty seventy seven.
We're still doing this. Nine Dragon Age Wargins is coming out soon. I'm
really excited. Oh I said two thousand and nine. I thought I said
two thousand and twenty oh episode two thousand nine. Yeah, yeah, not
the year two thousand and nine. This is episode two oh nine. And
boy, we got a lot of shit to talk about. We got some
looks, some cutting edge topics. But before we get to those cutting edge
topics, I want to introduce you to my friends Johan Luke Siki. Hello,
I can't wait to talk about Cloud. Oh my god. Oh yeah.
Well, we're gonna get into that. We're gonna do a nice little
breakdown of that new Rebirth trailer. But who else will do that with us?
Jacob Decker Edge co host Listen. You know, you know, you
know the vibes, all the all the hard hitting topics like seven Rebirth new
trailer. Uh just does Nintendo direct very early in the morning, but I
was barely awake for that. But we will cover some of that. I've
been playing cyberpunk twenty seven seven update, we've all been playing that new cyberpunk
joint. You know what I'm saying is back baby, And what is also
on the documenttioned there's a lot there's ghost Runner, Ghostly talking about that,
and then Combat Day and last but not least, that Pokemon dlc oh.
I want to talk about Pokemon. I've already finished it, so I've got
I've got got at a lot of thoughts. Can you guarantee you this will
be the only podcast that talks about the Pokemon deals you think, Yeah,
probably, I'm sure only a general video games Yeah? Yeah, man,
my log on Twitter, everyone's like losing their mind over little Pokemon details,
like one of the new Pokemon appling his shiny has like an altered move,
which people are exciting. I want to be on your online. That sounds
way cooler. Well, my my online is like for five minutes a day,
I check and then or Twitter, I guess I check with life yeah,
and then I'm like, people are still mad. But then but on
the side, I see the trending things which I don't even believe are actually
real. I think it's like, oh, this guy like lingers on Pokemon
tweets so we're gonna tell on Pokemon's trending, and then I click on it
and it's like people happy about things, which is nice. Well, yeah,
that's because usually when Pokemon's trending, people are pissed. That's only what
reason why I would be trending that hard. But uh, but I guess
we'll kick off that. I mean, I think I'm sure our friends over
at NVC, over at I we'll talk about the Pokemon podcast. But you're
not watching that right now because you watch a gay swine of the dark and
I'd love to toss it to my boy Jake tell us all about the teal
mask. Hell yeah, So this is part one of a two part DLC
called The Hidden Treasure of Area zero, and it is like a legit part
one and two, and that this ends with a cliffhanger, which is interesting.
I don't think. Yeah, I already beat it's pretty sure. It
took me around took me around ten hours, probably ten to twelve hours,
but I caught everything, so I've I've completed the poke at X plan.
Now by the time I rolled credits, there was like six Pokemon left.
I needed a catch too to complete the deck. So I imagine if you
don't give a shit about that, you could probably finish it in like four
hours. But yeah, I was actually most impressed by the story. I
thought the characters were really good. There was some good motivations, there was
some good themes, there was some twists and turns and some really interesting situations.
I I'm kind of impressed at how into this story I was. But
then I was talking to you this morning and I was like, Okay,
well, Scarlett and Violet, I actually had a pretty good story, very
well for I mean, I hate saying four Pokemon, but like not that
the Pokemon story is necessarily bad, but I feel like they're always so shackled
to like the Gym challenge, where it's like, okay, you got to
get through. There's always there's always a villain group that's trying to steal Pokemon
or whatever the hell they're trying to do, and then there's you who wants
to become the master, and like that is that story that's always the and
they'll change it up. Like with Sun and Moon, there was like the
four main challenges you had to get through that weren't weren't necessarily gym leaders,
but it still kind of revolves around that same challenge. This doesn't It just
can kind of focus on those characters and focus on the new area, which
is called Katakami Katakami, I think, and it has like I think the
poket X is two hundred Pokemon. I think hundred of them are new ones
and that they weren't in Scarlett and Violet previously. And then there are actually
some brand new Pokemon which they've shown off, which is which is a nice
addition. But yeah, overall, I'm pretty positive on it. I think
it's a very good addition. I'm super excited to see what people do competitively
with these new Pokemon. I think there's a couple of interesting additions that I
think people might be excited for initially. But I think like high level players
and like competitive scenes are just going to still use the same few legendary Pokemon.
But I've heard some of the Loyal Three, which are like the legendary
trio of this area, are are kind of viable. But yeah, I
would say like the biggest disappointment is that technically it didn't really improve a whole
lot. Like I wasn't really expecting it to visually look better, but I
was hoping it would run a little better, and you know, frame rates
still kind of low. Like there's some weird visual glitches in terms of like
if you battle a Pokemon on uneven ground, the camera's probably going to cut
through the ground. The lot of that. Yeah, so weird stuff like
that is still present, and I was hoping some of that would get well.
Some of it did actually get sorted, but I think like overall,
when you're playing the game, it feels pretty much the same. The thing
that did get fixed was when you bought navigating boxes as much snappier. So
I don't know if you noticed, but when you like pull up your boxes,
you'd switch and it would take forever to load in. All Pokemon would
be all there would like box six empty because none of these motherfuckers as low,
which is nice especially like, like, yeah, the way Scarlet and
Violet ran was frustrating at the time. I had issues with that, but
like I like, I don't know, my last one hundred hours of that
game are not exploring the world. It is just training up Pokemon and managing
Pokemon in my boxes or whatever. So I was in there a lot,
and like that is a huge change for weirdos like me. Yeah, I
think most people probably won't notice because no other Pokemon game has really had laggy
boxes. They're probably just like, oh, yeah, this is how I
remember when I played Scarlet and Violet or whatever. But yeah, I think
it's quite good. I think it sets up a very interesting second expansion because
they've hinted at a couple of times that this Blueberry Academy that you go to,
which takes place in the Unva region, which I think is what the
fifth generation of Pokemon Black White, Yeah, which they're kind of priming up.
I mean in theory that would be the next remake as well, because
there's a little crossover there synergy. But I think what has me most excited
for the second delC is that everyone keeps saying that it is like we're focused
on battling, Like battling is what we do. So I think this next
deal C might introduce more of a challenge, and you actually get a little
taste of that in the DLC, and that trainers learned how to use held
items on their posts. Yeah, like I was battling like a more Pico,
a more Peco or whatever, and it had a focus sash and I
was like, what the they never have a focus, they never have items
or like a poly wrath who belly drum d which, for those who don't
know, belly drum has your HP and maxes out your attack But a lot
of people pair that with a berry, so you'll have your HP and then
you'll get a quarter of your HP back, so you're only losing like a
quarter HP and you are maxing your attack stat. NPCs don't do that.
They'll just use belly drum and they'll be like a idiot, now I'm knocking
out. But they actually there was one trainer who had a berry that so
I was like, Okay, this is exciting because they're learning. Maybe in
the next deal, see there'll be some really challenging battles that the trainers are
getting sentient the trainers are learning, which which to me is really exciting.
I think, like casual fans, I think casual fans will still probably enjoy
the story. I think the story is pretty good, but I think you
know, you're only gonna get a couple hours out of it. But I
think the people who are really into it are going to enjoy it just because
there's a lot of great new Pokemon. Poly Toad is in it, and
I love polytoach and I and since it's easier to get Shinese, I can
now get Polytoad's shiny and he looks like cotton candy. Pretty great. He's
like cotton candy with like blue swirls. Tasty. It's nice little detail.
But yeah, how's quite good. How's how's Briar? Briar's good parent though,
par parent is uh is the real bad? Okay, okay, alright,
alright, Briar is good though too. Yeah, I was you know
what I'm saying. You know this Pokemon game Scarlet and Violet, they said
you want professors hunt. Yeah, all right, well we got professors horning
this game up a little bit. Hey listen, every game this year is
a little horned up. Was like, we got to get him on something.
Yeah, dude, you can't have fucking hysterian biting everyone's necks all the
time and blowing your back out, like come on shore, share of the
wealth. You know what I'm saying. Sick, That's that's that's Pokemon.
So are you are you gonna play it? Probably? Yeah, but not
not right now. I'm very busy with going on at other games. But
yeah, like we've talked about on this podcast before that I was late to
the party. But Scotland Violet, that shit broke me. Man, I
I was, I was in my feelings when I finished that. Just wait,
I think, Yeah, this one hit harder for me. The story
hits. Yeah, it really just because of it's kind of predictable and it
sets up a lot and you kind of know where it's going. But I
think the way it is delivered in the context, especially of the region,
because the region plays a very important role in the story, uh and the
loyal three Pokemon, the new legendaries, and I think it works really well
because they I don't want to spoil anything because I actually think I think it's
really good. Like I was, I was, I was in it from
start to finish. Oh man, that's that's that's what I like to hear.
It's funny because Area zero's only like the last like two ish hours of
Scotland Violet, and I played that game for what like thirty forty hours or
whatever, but that last two hour fulk and hit and yeah, so this
this de'll see, like me for like four hours of story content. If
it's like that, then that's all I need, buddy. It's it's about
rejection and acceptance. Is that that? Uh? Yeah? Core themes?
Oh god damn, I love themes. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
That's that's good to hear our Pokemon Master reporting in. Yeah, that's
all I'll say. I won't talk about Pokemon again until part two. Yeah,
while we're while we're here on Nintendo, do we want to talk about
the direct a little bit? Oh? Yeah, well, any I think
anything stood out to see all from the direct besides the bucking banger that is
paper Mario thousand years, Yeah, like this was this was like Mario and
Friends is direct. Yeah, oh yeah. It was just like I mean,
Mario, this Peach, this Luigi, this Mario. The Peach game
actually look kind of what first I was like, I was kind of like,
oh, okay, like you know, she's doing this, and then
they're like and then she can turn into a Samurai and gets the sword.
I was like, detective and then she detective and I was like, okay,
I see what you're doing. Like what's called the Princess Peaches. I
don't know, I don't remember the name. Detective Peach returns name it looks.
It looks like I was half asleep watching this. Isn't it like,
uh, Princess Peach Showtime or something show Time? Yeah, it is Princess
Peaches Showtime. I still don't really understand what it is like happening in that
game, but it looks pretty cute and fun into it. It's like an
adventure game where Peach transforms into different jobs. Just it's like a job system.
Yeah, but but under the guise of like a play Yeah, it's
like really cute. Yeah, I'm curious about that. That looks cool.
I like, I like it when Nintendo kind of branches off tries other things.
You know, maybe not all of it pays off, but yeah,
I've had some. They had some real bangers, like Kirby's epic Yarn Yoh's
uh yarn other buly Worldly World, Yeah, Wally World, the Dune that
Mario versus Donkey Kong thing that that was kind of expected, right, Yeah,
that was that's uh. I mean, I played the game Advanced games
way back in the day with those, and those are fun. They're just
like a little bite sized puzzles. They were like perfect for the Game Boy
Advance. They were sure and I think the art style looks looks pretty great.
It's how I would envision that with better graphics on a you know,
because I'm not the pixel game boy. Yeah. Look, but I'm curious
to see if they're new levels or if it's like kind of a remake,
or if it's just like the same style but different different levels. But yeah,
it could be fun. It does feel like we're in the current era
of Nintendo where they're like, we're still waiting on the switch too, what
can we remake? Yeah, paper we got a paper Mari thousand of Your
Doors RPGA. We still got the got the source code for paper Marios,
Like, we don't have paper Mario. We got thousand of your doors,
all right, fucking thousand of your doors in your door is really funny because
I feel like that was the last paper Mario that like fans universally liked,
like all the other ones have been like okay, but like ur Star,
most of them, people are like they say one we want, and no,
just give us like thousand your door, and then Nintendo's fine, like
fuck it, thus in your door. Also, here's bar RPG as well,
basically a paper Mario game. So Mario RPG is like one of the
most important games in my life. Taught me how to read. I played.
I beat it like thirty times because the only game I had for a
very long time. And I think I figured out what it is that is
off putting me about this remake. Mario doesn't have a fucking neck. That
is it was like that feels like sunk into his body. Dude. It's
yeah. I mean, I think we talked about it before, but like
to me, it's just like, ah, like it's like the magic.
Yeah, the well, the magic was in the pixel art. Yes,
and especially for SNS where it was kind of a three d ish world that
meshed with pixel art. That was also it's well, I wasn't talking to
you about this. I was talking to somebody my other friends. Eric Van
Allen shouts out to you, my boy, we're talking about Croner trigger and
like how we never Yes, it's just like for audio listeners, just look
up in Mario RPG remake and if you're watching on the stream right now,
that motherfucker's got no neck. No neck, oh my god. But yeah,
it's the magic was in the Pixar. It's like the same thing.
I would never want to see Krona Trigger remade, unless it was like a
while like HD two D style thing because the magic or like you know,
you need to just do something weird with it, Like you know, I
think I said it before, like how they took links Awakens Awake and kind
of gave it that like toy box sort of like look. It was like
it's like, oh, you're doing something like unique and different with the art
style or this. They're just like, yeah, we took those models and
made them nice looking. But it's like it's kind of yeah a versus paper
Mario, where oh they didn't need to change much. They didn't change it
because it's just like, oh, it's just all high res now. But
they're like it looks so it has its crispy resolutions, nicer lighting, widescreen,
like oh crispy that do you guys both played that when it came out.
No, I didn't play it with at the time, do you so
do you know that like ghost Lady? Yeah, I have a question.
Yeah, And so I played it originally and I was very young. Yeah,
I was very young, and it always looked like Mario was squeezing her
breast in order to get her to like to do her little blow move.
Hey yo. In the trailer, it showed that, and I couldn't tell.
I can't imagine Mario is still grabbing her. I don't even know if
that actually is what happened. But as a kid, I was like,
that looks like he is squeezing her booby to make her blow yo. Hey,
that's what it looked like as a kid. It looks like he's holding
her hand now, which is probably better, but I yeah, some some
flashbacks. As a kid, I was like, did that actually happen?
Was that real? Or was that in my head? I don't know.
I can't remember my memory motives, original vision. My memories are a bit
hazy from back when I was a thirteen year old boy and I didn't know
what any of that stuff was. How often that that's a thing where like
they were able to kind of do some a little risque because like it's it's
so lorez, like you can't tell. Now they're like, what we got
to change that name? I fuck forgot. I don't know, does Mario.
I'm just gonna say, does Mario squeeze the boob? That's a podcast
title right there? All right? Oh my god, hey, I should
put it probably pull up the chat here, so hold up, give me
a second. I don't want to see if anyone knows I googled it.
And this says, has anyone else noticed that it was talking about game facts
earlier? That should will ever die? Game facts is forever when there's a
nuclear apocalypse and all the websites are shut down, game facts will survive.
When you get the ghost in your party in the Boggley Woods, whenever you
use her windpower, Mario grabs her boobs dot dot dot dot. Two things
here. One that's sexual harassment too. This is supposed to be a kid's
game. It's actually ambiguous where Mario grabs here. The most accepted theory is
that it's supposed to be her hand, but the angle isn't good enough to
say anything for sure. Okay, that's the GameCube resolution that puck this up.
You know what I'm saying, damn wow, Well, I mean now
you can see that and then this comment here. She doesn't have nipples period.
Okay, but we're trying to stop saying he squeezes her nipples. We're
saying, whoever had to like do that animation for the new one, like
also had to be like wait, what is he doing in there, like
reanimating? Like, hold on, I gotta call someone. They definitely booked
the conference room for that. Yeah, it's like, oh, we need
to get me Amoto on the phone here. Yeah, that's crazy. But
thousand of Your Door is game was a banger though, was so fun.
It was like still that core RPG gameplay, but also with the platinum plat
platinum puzzle solving and platforming and just so genuinely funny. That game is so
fucking hilarious, like clean humor. Besides Mario grabbing the city. Okay,
good for him, I say, listen, yeah, look at looking real
Italian and shit. But yeah, thousand Your Door that is coming out next
year, next year year. Yeaheah, that's that's that's really cool. I'm
hype for people to try it for the first time because I think it ages
well time for Mario RPG looks. Hell yeah, it definitely feels like switch
to is coming. And they're just kind of again, They're just like,
here, let's let's get these not cheaper games, but like a lot of
remakes that are easier to produce, like we get those out now, while
we ideally they're focusing on like the titles. I'm four, they're focusing on
their launch titles for Switch Too. Oh man, I didn't even think of
the idea that Prime four could be a launch title for the Switch. You've
been saying that, I'm not gonna I don't believe. Yeah, I think
I don't think it'll be launch title, but I I mean, that'd be
a good way to get people to buy it. Sure, but I think
a launch title for the Switch Too is going to be the next three Yeah,
because it feels pretty twenty seventeen right was when Odyssey came out. It's
been a long time we've gotten another Zelda in that time. I think I
think for sure they're just taking their time on that, and when that game's
ready, they're like, Okay, here's the Switch Too. We're gonna launch
with this because they're not gonna be Zelda. Yeah obviously. So yeah,
and like as they look, you know, like with the WU it didn't
really have any heavy hitters on launch, but the Switch had Zelda. And
then we're talking about we Festival what was it called? Oh god, yeah,
we Sports Resort. No no, no, no, no, no,
what was it called? It? Was like that festival game. There's
a bunch of mini games. It was actually kind of sick, and it
was like the best use of the game pad two or whatever it was.
It was pretty all right. But yeah, I mean it was no,
yeah, well you had a fucking bang or launch game. It was pretty
all right. It was pretty all right. I don't remember the name,
don't even remember the name. Well once which who comes around, I'll fucking
cop that shit, man, I well them, Yeah, this is not
about the switch to but this is about that direct anything else from the Direct
stop. No, that wasnt There's a lot of a lot of smaller games
that were in it. So that's cool. Yeah, Splatoon DLC, which
is surprisingly far out, like they reveal that the last ye the side Order
deals. Yeah, that's not till what do you say they're doing like a
roguelike, Like, yeah, that's kind of ye play your own I'm like,
oh, it's kind of neat. Yeah, you know, like it
looks like there's like a lot of existential crisis. That's what I want out
of Splatoon play. Can you play the story mode? No? I didn't.
It gets like in the law, like real deep and you're like,
oh, man. Yeah, ship, it's a dark world out there if
you want to splat with your friends sick. But yeah, direct was out
there. We have a summary on the site if you want to get all
the details on that. Yeah. But before we get to to talk about
the Sony State of play ghost Runner too, sure, I briefly talk about
ghost Runners. So they actually had a trailer for at the State of Play
with an announcement for a demo. I assume the demo is very similar,
if not the same things that which is basically the opening of the game and
you get so you get a little bit of kind of the more like traditional
ghost Runner stuff that was in the first game, and then they showed a
little bit of like the bike stuff, which is the new thing bike stuff.
Yeah, you're on a bike. You get a run a motorcycle a
game. Yeah. For for those who don't know, the original ghost Runner
is basically like first person Ninja parkorb Hot on Miami. Yeah, where it's
like, you know, you're super fast paced, super fast paced. You're
you're kind of like running through these different like platforms and then you'll kind of
get to these like pockets of arenas with enemies and you have to like defeat
them all on one go, and you know you'll like die in one hit
very fast. You're just constantly you're loading and trying stuff. Uh, super
fun. I really like that first game, kind of a little surprise,
small title. I'm shocked how quickly they're turning around a sequel, to be
honest, when the first one came out in twenty okay, oh you're right,
saw that right before the pandem Like if you never mind, oh,
if you don't count the pandemic, it wasn't that long. Yeah I don't.
I don't have Yeah, I don't count the pandemic. So yeah,
somewhere I'm still twenty nine. I wish. Uh. Yeah, what I
played was cool. It definitely seems like it is just building off the first
and giving you more. So it might be a little much if you've never
played the original. Like they were throwing a lot of abilities at you,
and I was like, oh shit, okay, like I'm kind of having
to balance all this stuff out. But yeah, like I dug the new
uh the new traversal stuff. They kind of added some of the powers.
The bike stuff was like the one new thing. It's basically just like you.
So the first sequence is pretty straightforward, where you're you're just kind of
like on this linear track with a bike and you have to kind of avoid
these obstacles and you will like need to either like time avoiding the obstacles or
you'll have to hit like a power junction with like your sword to open up
like the door so that you don't die. It's i will say, it's
not doesn't feel as satisfying as the core combat stuff. Like I don't find
there's something about dying and needing restarting a bike that feels less especially if it's
pretty linear. Right, Yeah, it's pretty linear like that Stop and start
is like a little more frustrating, Like to be fair, it has good
checkpointing where it never took me back far, but it's just more like that's
sort of some momentum. Yeah, yeah, is kind of lost, but
I'm curious to see like how it expands because everything they should was so early
in and also like as a part of the end demo, the original game
like took place inside like basically this one giant like mega building. Yeah,
yeah, that was the whole concept. In the future. At the end,
you bust out and then you're in the outside World. So I'm like,
oh, okay, cool, Like that's kind of more of the stuff
I'm curious about. It's like a new environments. What's it like outside and
like the post apocalyptic wasteland. So yeah, you know, I don't think
it's necessarily seems like it's gonna be uh breaking new grounds, but it is
definitely like I think if you like that first one, yeah, he's another
one of those with it. So yeah, I definitely go check out that
demo. I think it's just now right the demo, Yeah, it's available
now. Yeah, Ghost where two. Pretty cool ass concept. Yeah,
good execution too, So definitely peep that. I'll say. The one thing
I don't love they kind of doubled down. I didn't. I was like,
I wasn't a huge fan of the story of the dialogue in the first
game. I thought was just kind of okay. I was like, yeah,
it's fine, and I wasn't the focus of that thing. Yeah,
at least and for me, I was just like, I'm not like super
invested in this, and at least the first mission they did have a lot
of dialogue, and I was just kind of like, I don't really care
about that, Like skips just skip. I mean, it's there for those
who like it cool, but I feel like it's easy to ignore, I
guess, but it's really hard to balance like a fast paced quick restart game
like ghost Runner with a story like a a you know, stop and talk
to people kind of like meon White had that issue too, sure. I
mean to be fair, like they do a good job where it doesn't repeat
dialogue if you die. And then also most of the dialogue happens in like
the traversal between the arenas, so it's not like you're constantly getting dialogue while
you're trying to the combat, so like they know how to handle it.
It's more just like yeah, good Conda, take it. Leave all this
stuff cool. Yeah, there's another game where you are a cybernetic person with
a sword swinging that shit around with bikes as Oh my god, let me
tell you about Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven two point h update, which we can
now talk about. There's just play a content on the site. Jake,
you did a nine Biggest Changes breakdown video which is a short and suite if
you want to know what's up with two point zero for sy Punk. And
then we also did a discussion video to talk about our feelings about two point
zero and how it changes the game from our perspective, and I also posted
an in depth article talking about my experience so far, played about twenty hours,
started from the beginning. Again, if you have a current save,
you'll be able to respect because the skill tree has been completely revamped. They
fucking took that old skill tree out back, fucking shot it in the back
of its head and buried that shit because there is a new perk system and
it is fulk insane. It is shocking how much better it is. It
is. I was really thinking about like the way I played that game originally,
and how like I remember its skill tree being it's kind of all over
the place. It wasn't very clear, and like, you know, it's
just like, oh, I don't know, I guess I'll just pick some
skills or whatever. And I remember like not really I remember hitting a point
where I was just like, oh, I don't twenty percent more health or
something like. It was just a lot of skills that either didn't matter,
like didn't There wasn't a clear sense of like like building into it, yeah,
build, yeah, making a build right, like you got shoot,
So it's just like I guess I'll pick this stuff that makes me shoot better.
Cool like, and that was kind of it. So I never felt
like I really had to handle on like, oh, I'm building a very
specific version of the Yes, this version, this version of the skill tree
makes it so much clear, like it's split where it's just like all right,
yup, you have your different attributes and then in those has like three
specific trees that are like very clear, like hey, you like shotguns,
go down this shotgun. Yeah, you like you're like hammers, or you
want to do like adrenaline shit and have a bunch of health, Like there
are specialized perk trees for those play styles, and it's very obvious, like
you need like to to go up the tree. It's like, okay,
once you have like ten you can put into like you know this many of
the skills. Yeah, it's like a tiered system for ten cool for this,
and then like to get like the final perk, you need like twenty
twenty cool. Yea ten cool, you have to have twenty cool, I
mean twenty cool man. And loading it up made me realize like how much
I didn't do that in the original game, because like all, I very
clearly put like kind of an even split of attribute, so I kind of
had like a bit of everything playing. Because of that, I couldn't actually
want with this new tree. I was like, oh, I can't unlock
any of the higher tier stuff, so I like reset it, and it's
like, Okay, no, you really want to just like pick like two
or three and max them, which is way more satisfying because you get to
create a lot more builds. I think that's one of my favorite things,
is like I think all of us are using swords, but all of us
have managed to build all of us have managed to build different builds around swords,
right, Like I'm pretty like tech. I'm I'm like, obviously,
uh, investing in god, what is it reflexes so I can get better
swords used. But I'm also doing cool because I want to be able to
throw down at people because that's super satisfying. But also I'm I'm doing a
lot of intelligence and net running and stuff, and like the way you can
combine all of these different skill trees in different ways. I think it's super
satisfying and I'm super excited to do like a more tech focused one because usually
I'm not super into tech trees. I'm like, yeah, whatever, but
like that's kind of like if you want to build like a just like edge
Runner sort of all cybered up character, like you can invest hard into that,
but then also invest in like stealth too if you want to use some
of like the optical camouflage, a cyber ware and stuff like that. So
so I think it's really cool, like how how much malleability there is to
it, And I think, yeah, like I'm I'm I'm enjoying the hell
out of it, and I to be honest, like, yeah, you
can load into other your other characters, but I kind of think you should
start, yeah, if you have the time. I know, you know,
I chose not to. I just took my old character. Yeah,
although I do eventually wanted someday do it like a full Yeah. I mean
I think, like, nothing wrong with that obviously, but I think it
was like kind of fun, just like watching the skill trees develop as I
was peeing, like leveling up one at a time, and like we were
talking about I mean, I think you mentioned it in the impressions too,
where it's like a sign of a good RPGs when you don't know what skill
to upgrade, and I feel like you're not really getting that if you start
with your like level fifty character and you're just like baby, like don't get
all the trees. I don't get shit. That's kind of what I did,
damn. But also but I mean you still have a great time.
So yeah, it's like my whole thing because I remember trying swords in the
original game and it was there all right, like, but it was like,
this doesn't feel uh, I'm using it just because I want to,
not because it feels viable compared to what else I have. Like it was
always like, uh, like I would just be a lot better if I
pulled out my shotgun or something like this, because I spect specifically into the
sword, so I spec so word uh speed and then like just like health
so I'm just like Tanky. And also had like a couple of things that
made it so like specifically when you're like close by people, you'll recharge your
stamina faster and stuff like this. You combined it with the new dash ability,
which is one of the best things they've got is awesome bear dash.
You can like, uh, you get like an increased slide move that goes
real far nice slide and so slide down hills too. Fucking apex out here.
Man. Like the majority of the time I've been playing, I was
like, man, like, fuck these guns. I got my sword and
you're just like dash into a guy, slice, slice, dash the next
guy. Reflect is so satisfying, especially like I'll like run in, cut
up a guy, then hit the block and if you will just go like
bing and then the guy just like immediately like dies and I'm like, oh,
I feel like such a bad you got a headshot without even shooting a
gun. And I'm like, oh, this is so good. It's so
good man. This is this is like I said my article that it is
cyberpunk is now a fantastic RPG. This is what this is what a like
first person action RPG should be. This is a brilliant system because of that
synergy that you get no matter what, two or three attributes who want to
spec in and they're they're all viable. It seems even when I like mess
around, it's like, oh, well, I'm because you can also take
out take out perks too. You can refund those points without you only get
one respect for the attributes, but for perks you can you can swap them
in and out freely. Ish. There are some restrictions with like because it
is a tiered system, but there's just there's so many fun things to tinker
with. And the more I look down at like the Final Tiers system,
like I'm not I don't have any I don't have twenty points in any one
of the attributes yet, but I'm looking at the at the ship that you
could do with someone, like the Final Tier perks, they're cool, likes
sick, And I also realize that there are edge writers references in the perk
tree. Becca's in there on the shotgun tree, h Lucy has the tech
or the intelligence, sure, and the tech ability is what's his name,
David David Martinez. The I think the edge Runner one, which is the
highest one for body, I think it is. Yeah, yeah, well,
I mean just to speak on like the role playing side of it too,
I think a lot of the changes benefit that a lot too, just
in terms of, like you can now wear whatever you want because armor is
no longer tied to clothing, which like is a small change, and like,
yeah, sure it's a first person game, you're not really seeing your
character that much, but like For me, I feel so much more connected
to my character now that I can like wear the shit that I want to
wear and make my character look cool. I'm not looking like a clown walking
around with like a dumb hat because it gives me extra armor and like the
brightest vest I've ever seen in my life, you know, like like like
that feeds into it. And then also all of the cybernetics I think so
really cool because like, not only are you building out this character through these
improved guiltres, but also like there are so many abilities that are very specific
to cyberware that, like, to be honest, like I didn't even know
existed when I played the original, like optical camos something I didn't know existed
until I think Aaron mentioned it and I went and I was like, oh,
yeah, I can just turn invisible because of course I can, because
NPCs do that. Shit, Yeah, why can't I do that? So
like that's there, and like uh like like there's the mantis blades, which
have been shown off a lot, but mono wire is something that, yeah,
that's something that I like kind of forgot about. And then I was
like, oh, you know what, I should do that and run But
also, uh, there's missile launcher arm you can install too that'll just mess
things up. And like it's like such a rich playground now with so many
different opportunities and abilities, and like, uh, I don't know if you
saw some of the gameplay that they've been posting, the CD project guy has
been posting, but like how they've combined them are pretty cool. Like there's
that stunt jock ability that lets you jump straight up from vehicles and like you
can just leap up in the air and use your like hammer ground pound down
on a bunch of enemies and they'll go flying and then you switch to your
sword and like start dashing to all of them and kind of it's so cool.
There's so much flexibility to it, and like I'm excited to dig deeper
into those skill trees. Yeah, even the cyber ware stuff feels more meaningful.
And just the way they changed around it, I mean, like they
completely redid the tree and I know, like it actually dictates health and armor
as well as you can only have a limited amount. But I found because
at least in the late game, that shit so expensive that like I really
had to be deliberate in what I did, so it's like it it felt
meaningful in a way that like that like you're augmenting your body like it should
it should feel meaningful in the game because it's supposed to be meaningful in the
world, and I never felt that originally. And like it's the small just
like another menu that was just like click click click exactly, and like this
it's like, you know, oh, okay, like I want you have
to go to a ripper doc to do it, which I don't think it
worked like that in the original. Am I crazy? Or you had to
go Okay, you did have to you okay, maybe, but I just
remember it like being more trivial in the original. It feels more meaningful.
Like I was like, yeah, yeah, I feel like I have to
be real deliberate in what I'm doing and what I'm picking and oh yeah,
just like yeah, it's like they're there's small tweaks that just make you feel
like part of that universe in a way that you didn't before. Yeah.
Yeah, even like how you after you get implants, you like get up
out of the chair and you hear like the buzzing and stuff like that,
and it's like, okay that that's kind of cool. But also to your
point, like, one thing I really like about this is that there are
so many worthwhile things to purchase in this world that it feels like it like
I feel like I make a lot of money in that game, and I'm
like, oh, big spendings for hearing this stuff I want to get and
I can, like I get like two things, and I'm like, oh
shit, I gotta work for the rest of this. And I love that
stuff in games like I hate when you're given too much money you can just
buy whatever you want. But I feel like, you know, it's like
I'm like, I make like one hundred thousand, I'm like, okay,
there's some cyber where I want, but I also probably need a new car.
And like, man, some of those new houses they added in like
one point four whatever are like pretty cool and while they're not super useful,
like they're still kind of cool to have you can like roll up, change
your clothes, like check your emails and stuff. It's just nice little details
like yeah, pour some coffee, you know, yeah, get get shit
done. In the World of Cyberunk twenty seventy seven, Man, that that
that game is in a real good spot. The two point Hill update is
free, and that comes out on the twenty first. It's just just ahead
of Phantom Liberty. Talk about Fansom Liberty next week. We're not we're not
allowed to talk about the CD CD project. Where it read police are outside
our door, Max Stack is on our doorstep if we mentioned anything about Idris
Elba. So yeah, syer Punk's in a good spot. If you've been
meaning to try it out at some point, it'll be a good time when
two point over releases. And if you want to jump back in, who
start over again, man, because that's what I did. And you really
feel the impact of building your character, having an identity that you take into
combat and you take everywhere else in the game. So yeah, it's it's
in a good great spot. I think. Also we mentioned the impressions real
quick. There there's some things this update doesn't touch, like questing, story,
story stuff, so all that's still consistent. So if you love that
stuff, jump back in and have a great time. But but if you
had like reservations about any of that stuff or found any of those aspects disappointing,
that's not what this update touches. And but yeah, overall, at
its core, this is this is fantastic. I hope that they build on
this in the future in some way. But that's cyberpunk twenty seventy seven.
Baby. You'll hear more about that soon. I guess the big game that
came out this week Mortal Kombat one. Mortal Kombat. Uh, dude,
I've been Oh my god, have you been deep in it? Huh?
I've been deep in it. We got code kind of late. Everyone did,
everyone did, and so I've been in the Mortal Combat minds for like
two days straight, just uh doing everything I've been. I was grinding out
all those fatalities. Go go check them out on a so far. You
know what I'm saying that if you're of age. If you're of age,
of course, yes, please please ask an adult before you don't. Don't
lie on YouTube. Yeah no, never, never do that. We'll find
you'll click on it and burn. No. No, no, yeah,
man, Mortal Kombat one, it's pretty fucking dope. If it was real
good. You're telling me about the story stuff, Yeah, yeah, so,
I like I I grinded through the story. Took me about like five
and a half hours. This is about on par with the Mortal Combat story.
It's real dumb in like the exact way that you want Mortal Kombat.
Like, I think Mortal Kombat like has always struck this really fine line where
it's like, you know, we're gonna take the world seriously, and the
characters take it seriously and everything they're saying it's so serious. But you're also
like do this shit so dumb? And like but like fun, it's like
it's great, Like like like I think they've they know the tone, they
know the balance to strike, and this game like totally does that perfect camp
exactly. And what's interesting about this one is it's it's Mortal Kombat one because
it's a reboot, you know, uh Luke King restarted the universe at the
end of the Mortal Kombat eleven DLC, and so you'd be like, oh,
okay, like this is the opportunity to kind of like reset everything.
You know. It's a lot of like, hey, here's characters, you
know, but like as some things are different now, you know, and
which is really fun. I actually like really it was cool seeing like the
variations of this character is like you know, uh, like hey, maybe
Molina isn't quite like as evil as she was in you know, like previous
games or you know, like you know, so it's kind of like,
oh, is this person gonna become evil? Or like the is this is
the thing that happened to them in the previous timeline gonna happen this time,
Like like it's the very smartly plays with that and kind of like your expectations,
so you're kind of like waiting for certain moments to maybe happen, and
sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. They also like have some really good
fun twist on characters like my boy Reptile, Oh my god. Like they
took a character that reptiles like always been in moral combat since like two.
I mean, he was like a hidden character in one, but like he
was like a lizard guy right, Like he didn't really have much going for
him. They gave him like a personality and a character and he's hot now
and you're like, oh, you're like, oh I Reptile, Like okay,
Like he's like one of my favorite characters in the story. I was
like really like I was like, yeah, like Reptile, let's go.
Like I was like really about it, and like, you know, like
rating's in it, but he's like completely different now. He's actually Asian.
Yes, yes, I was gonna say, they actually made Fuck yeah,
dude, they made they made Rating actually Asian, and he like him and
Luke King of basically like swapped roles for like Luke Kang is now like the
Protector of Earth Realm and like Ratings like the up and comer like Champion,
And I'm like, oh, think it's cute, like I like seeing switches
in Dynamics. It's really fun. Yeah, pretty good, I would say,
like, yeah, like the presentation is great. It looks incredible,
like god damn, like just one of the best nicest looking games I've ever
seen, like the details un real. Yeah, looks really good. And
it's just a lot more colorful, vibe, much more vibrant. Yeah,
it's very vibrant. I thought eleven was pretty vibrant compared to like, say,
like x X was pretty muddy, really like the way that game looked.
But yeah, this is very vibrant, very colorful. All the stages
are just beautiful looking, and the cut scenes are so well produced. Voice
acting is good. Well okay, I hate to disappoint, but hold on
worse than uh Sonia Blade Okay, so okay. So for context, Ntara,
I think she's like a vampire lady. Uh, and she's voiced by
uh, Megan Fox said, Megan La Fox. That's not correct. She's
voiced by Megan Fox transform Transformers okay, and but more importantly Jennifer's body Okay.
Yeah, And I like Megan Fox. I don't think she's a bad
actress. She doesn't really fit here. She feels very I don't know she
her all. Her performance is very flat. She's kind of like, hey,
I'm a vampire and you're like, okay, sure, Like there's like
a there's there's a divide between acting and voice acting. There is, there's
one hundred percent, and so it's more just a case of like, like
you just you don't feel like you fit or maybe like the direction wasn't great
or something. But no, not as bad as Ronda Rowsy as Sonia.
Ronda Rowsley is not an actor in any way terrible in that game. It's
so bad and also like it's extra bad because they gave she voices Sonya Blade,
who's like a major character, not some very like emotional pivotal moments in
Mortal Kombat eleven like that require like some chops to pull off that she cannot
where in this one. Like, uh, Natara like isn't as involved in
the story, so like she's actually pretty limited. She doesn't really say all
that much. So even though like she's she kind of stands out as a
weaker element, she's also not in it enough to really like be an issue.
It just sort of feels weird of like why did you cast her for
this if she's also not even gonna say much and it's like kind of weird.
That's cool, but yeah, it's fine, And hey, it was
a cool sexy vampire in the game, so that's great, which is neat
This game really like pays homage to those like three D games, like puts
a lot of those characters in there, which is like super fun. Kind
of took the good ones and the source of like well kind of lead the
rest because I don't think those three D games hold up very well. Apologies
to anyone who has fond memories of the like Deadly Alliance and Armageddon, but
yeah, I mean, like I think they took the right amount of like
reverence and stuff and brought those those forward. But yeah, uh, this
game goes off the fucking rails in the second half in a way that I
do not want to spoil, but like wherever I said at the beginning,
hey, like this was their chance to kind of read the series and and
maybe introduce new covers. They throw all that out the window in the second
half. They say, no, screw man, all that deep lore.
It still matters just as much, and they start throwing out like terms and
callbacks and they don't explain it at all, and they're like, if you
don't know what's going on, like sucks to be you. And I was
just like, yeah, like I love it. I'm like this is what
I want, mortal comment. I just want like constant references and callbacks and
doing dumb shit. And the final mission in particular, goes so off the
rails in a way that's just like extremely fun, Like it's it's real good,
Like there's an achievement for doing it twice, and there's a reason why
you want to do it twice because it'll it'll change up a little bit depending
on like you do, and yeah, exactly, it's like it's just like
it's exactly like exactly like that. So yeah, story mode fantastic. I'm
playing online at all, Uh, not much. There wasn't really I couldn't
really get a match going. I got like one match and I got my
ass kicked dead game. Why isn't anyone online because it ain't no yet.
I'm so tempted, yeah, to get this game right now, But I
know if I get it right now that, yeah, I don't recommend that.
Yeah, like you're very busy, You're busy, there's too much to
play anyway, But I do really want to. I do. I do
think it's it's a good entry point. It's like the combat feels really good.
It's smooth, like it's a little snappier, there's some good like air
mobility in comparing the previous ones, Like it's a it's not necessarily like drastically
different, Like I think, if you didn't like Mortal Kombat before, this
isn't going to change your mind. But to me, I'm like, yeah,
this is probably like my favorite iteration of the last couple in terms of
just how it plays. I was also checking out that invasion mode, which
is the it's there like seasonal content style thing, where like that's where they're
gonna that's the hooks they get you in to keep playing, especially for those
who like maybe aren't interested in the online but want like a thing to keep
doing that's more single player focused. It's pretty all right. Essentially. It
works like how the Towers of Time worked in Mortal Kombat eleven, but it's
like a board game where you like walk around Mario Party World part Yeah,
Mortal Kombat Party get behind that hell yeah yeah. I remember Kurt didn't really
He saw it a preview and he said he didn't really like it because he
found the board game stuff to sort of be like it was really slow,
really slow, and it kind of gets in the way. And I do
agree it feels a little slow. There was like a moment where I had
to like backtrack because I was looking for a key, and I was like,
oh man, this is like really really slow. Some moments like that
are kind of weird. But I do actually kind of like the whole I
don't know, just like having a board game where I'm like, oh,
I'm moving my little character around and then like I hit a battle and like
it. It just has a little extra flare that I do think it's kind
of fun, and I think they said they're gonna like do it over seasonal
stuff. It's also the best way to grind your experience points, which you
need to do if you want to get the remaining cameo fighters like five get
us, you get one every five levels. You gotta get the level twenty
five. Grind out the I mean it's not really grinding. Like I just
played through it and like, after like a couple hours, I got them
all. Okay, so not a big deal. I gotta play the game
if you exactly, just gotta play it. But yeah, I like that
mode. It's it's pretty all right. I'm not sure if it's the thing
I'm gonna be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna come back every season,
Like no, I'll probably just do it this one time and get my fill.
But it's pretty cool. So well combat, I highly recommend it.
Wow. Well, well, we are currently working on a review. I
don't know who's on that is it. I don't want to say without I
don't want to say without any confirmation. But I mean, again, like
I said, we got the game pretty late, so the review is going
to take a little while. But I mean, if you drop a hundred
was a hundred twenty, if you're probably not gonna care whatever, Yeah,
yeah, you're you're probably just gonna buy it. Anyway, But those are
our initial impressions, and there's gonna be Mortal Kombat content continually through this weekend
next week, so if you interested, keep your eyes peeled for that.
And I think moving on to the last topic of the league, PlayStation stayd
play. Yeah, that like just happened before we started recording. Yeah,
and I think because I was helping cover it, I missed some things along
the way because I was focused on it. I missed the second half because
I had to go capt some Mortal Kombat fatalities. Yes, you walked back
and you're like, huh, what happened? I was like, dog,
there's a fucking Final Fantasy seven rebirth trailer, so hard. I had to
watch the residue before uh, Separate Ways, Separate Way three year monitor,
So I didn't have any next week because next I was like, oh shit,
I'm very excited for that. Probably she ain't calling me for sure,
I did. I did watch the Final Fantasy trailer in the bathroom before the
podcast. That improved the experience. Yeah, absolutely, the bathroom experience of
the trailer watching experience. Both both Yah to the Bathroom had a rebirth.
That ship was sick though, Oh my God, they showed so much.
They showed everything that you kind of yeah that's what you said to me,
and I was like okay, and I watch it was like, oh no,
it really showed everything you'd want to see. Oh my god, it's
it's this, It's for me. It's the little things too. Having recently
replayed it, yes, everything that happens in June on where you have like
the marching mini games, the parades there, you know, yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's like fully realized too. And then uh uh Gold the
Gold Saucer, all the mini games, if not more mini games, Like
it's crazy Gold Saucer. Bro, I'm so fucking excited. Pocabo Racing,
the boxing. Do they show the snowboarding one? I don't think so,
because snowboarding doesn't it's not available to like later in the game, So I
don't know if it's gonna be part of that's a part of three. That's
a part three thing. Yeah, someone dies, go snowboarding. Gotta say
something. Best friend dies, Cloud on a segue, Cloud on an I
don't know what that's about? Is I don't I think so? But that
made me laugh out loud. It looked like it looked like that one,
the One City and a Final Fantasy fifteen because yes, yes exactly, And
I was like, what is going on here? He was He's wearing like
this this this light blue outfit right A look, he looks like he's yeah,
like coordinated, Like all the is going on? Isn't like the world
gonna end? Is there an environmental crisis? He's like, I'm chilling,
bro. I hope they have that area because if they do, that means
we get to see what's his name, chilling on the beach. Ye,
I need to see like high chilling on the beach, me too. That
is that's like there's some goofy shit that happens in that particular chunk, and
it seems like they're keeping it in great Yeah, because I think based on
you know, seven remake was a small part of the game, but it
felt like like, Okay, yeah, y'all can still have the goofy shit,
play it straight and it still makes sense in the context of the story.
Yeah, it definitely looks like they they took how positively received what's the
area called in in remake? Wad car no no No in Sector seven,
oh, wall Market, Wall Markets, they took like how well received Wall
market was and so like, okay, cool, let's make sure we retain
that stuff in because I remember that being like a big highlight of that.
Yeah, I wrote an arcle said like, Yo, Final Fantasy seven remake
has a lot of Yakuza energy, yes, and they're keeping that energy in
yes, because this is like this is the perfect time in the chunk of
seven to do that with gold saucers before it gets real seriously, before it
gets real dark. So yeah, they showed a lot of combat stuff the
real a lot of like they had a lot of hints about where they're going
with the story. So you get the Seffroth and Cloud stuff. Oh god,
the two of them are fighting and then like they both like have a
look at each other. It's like the most animated bullshit. Yeah, Like
they do it like a partner team up attack. And then the cinematic like
cuts to like it's staring at Cloud and Cloud's kind of like, oh yeah,
they're giving you each other like this this this whimsical gaze. Yeah,
and you're like, wow, I think there's something is going on here.
And then he burns down Clouds village, kills his family, and immediately immediately
after that well, I mean, who knows, maybe that doesn't happen.
They can they can do whatever they want with the story, and that's like
one of the most exciting things about Rebirth is that the directions that they could
take it in and all the hints that they're dropping. There's a lot of
Zack stuff in it. Yeah, they seem to be really expanding upon that
Zach stop. Did they give a release date, Yes, February twenty nine.
Is it a leap year next year? Yeah? Next year, they're
doing it like February thirty. Uh funny, but yeah, that's it's February,
And I'm like, holy shit, that's that's crazy. That's close,
isn't isn't Person to three reload coming in February? It doesn't stop, man,
doesn't. My god, there's there's there is something else coming out in
February also that that is also in our Please don't please tell me that Infinite
Wealth isn't coming out in fifty Infinite Wealthy. I think it is going to
be a fall release, Okay, okay, yeah hopefully. Well we're gonna
find out later because there's good probably because there's gonna be RGG Direct Direct seventeen
yeah, these motherfuckers is like, we should have our own yeah live stream.
They've been doing the RGG Summit every year now, yeah, but now
they're having an RGG Summit and they're having a direct meant for the Western audience.
I mean, Michael is gonna be logging in at nine am or nine
pm, nine pm. Hell yeah. They released like three games a year,
might yeah I know, right seriously, Yeah yeah, so yeah,
a lot more to look forward to. So if you want to know more
about well anything else from the State Play, there's Spider Man. Of course,
that's kind of the real two real big things. That's because Rebirth.
Rebirth was the thing that capped off. Yeah, State Play, and that's
the one that's like, oh okay, yeah this this stayd play fo sick
because otherwise see Avatar. They should more Avatar. Yeah, yeah, I
think its final fantasy wasn't there and maybe like the resonable thing, I think
it would have been a pretty Yeah, it would have been like L plus
ratio and yeah, I wouldn't It wouldn't been that good honestly, because they
didn't really show anything new. Hey whoa Tales of a Rise, Dawn of
Not don of Sorrow. That's a Castalvina game, Dawn of Beyond the Dawn,
Beyond the Dawn, Beyond the dongy, I'll show you Beyond the Dong.
It's a DLC for Tales of a Rise, which came out two years
ago. I didn't play it, so damn, that's that's that's crazy,
like the timing gap because we saw that. I saw the beginning of the
trailer, like, oh shit, that's Alfin and like all the characters from
Tales of a Rise. And I was like, is this a sequel because
it's a two year of gap, So maybe they're doing Tales of a Rise
too. I figured that's what they've been working on because it's been a while
and like they do kind of take their time between games. But I know
this one was pretty successful, so I figured they do sequel. But I
wonder if maybe I don't know, it didn't quite makes sense. I don't
know, so compact the two. I'm curious because I played probably about three
or forty hours of Tales of a Rise and I really enjoyed it, but
I just got to a point where I had to stop and never finished it.
And now when I returned to it, I'm like, what the hell
was going on? Uh, so I've been this all the time. I
think I will probably check out this DLC if it like kind of fills me
in on what happened, because apparently this DALC takes place what a year after
year after the events? Interesting? Yeah, but I'm interested. The combat
in that game was really good. Yeah, some good action RPG type shit.
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's coming out this year November nine, I
think it was. I wrote the article on it, so I should know.
Too many games stop releasing games please? Oh man, I kind of
wish. I love I like Tales of a Rise, and I would I'd
be interested in returning to it, But November of this year is not the
time for me to be playing Tales of a Rise. No, it is
not. But yeah, that's that was also say to play. That was
pretty interesting. And like Tales, they've done sequels to their individual games before.
I think, what had Zelia had one and then uh that sequel is
bad? Yeah, and then they've been spinoffs two of other games like yeah,
anyway, Yeah, I would also like a different Tales game with new
characters and stuff. I think that's usually my favorite thing about those games is
just being introduced to fresh start characters. There's always a new world and like
all that's interesting to me but sick. Yeah, yeah, let me see,
let me see if I can rack my brain on anything else. No,
I think that that's the stuff that's stuck out to me or us.
Yeah, nothing stuck out there. But one game that I've been playing that
I don't think I've been able to talk to talk about see if Stars.
Oh shit, yeah, let's do that. Yeah, it's really good,
and like I feel like I have not had a chance to talk about it.
I don't know if it's been talked about on this podcast because I missed
a couple of weeks. But like that game is came out of nowhere kind
of. I mean people have been people have been anticipating it for a while.
Okay, it came out in the middle of like a bunch of shit,
Like I think, like Starfield code had already been distributed, yes,
and like it was nuts. But I've played like six hours or so that
game, and it is really good. The music is incredible, the pixel
arts really good. The combat's a lot of fun. Speaking of like you
know all these Mario RPGs, it's very inspired by that in terms of active
and active. Yeah, like trigger, I heard influence trigger. Trigger is
a big influence. One of my favorite things in the combat though, is
that there's a move where you like, you like hit a ball like a
moon ball at an enemy and you have to deflect it with a so you're
just constantly gets faster and faster and faster. It's like Gannendorf. Yeah,
and they do like cheeky things like that with the different moves. Okay,
yeah, I always always liked that one. Like that was my favorite thing
about like the paper Mario games is like when you did a move, you
actually had like a little fun. Yeah, Like there would be something unique
about really fun gimmicks is what the Mario RPGs like do really well, Yeah,
that makes it. That's what takes it beyond just being a turn based
rpg exactly. You're a look a little there's a little quirk for you to
like have a little fun with. So yeah, so he starts got a
little bit of that. Yeah, but I definitely think it's like it's gonna
be my top ten for sure. Well, I want to finish it,
yeah, but I I have a hard time seeing it not yeah, it's
gotta be in my top ten. I think like when we get when we
get to that point, I don't even want to think about that. I'm
like, that will be. I think this year is gonna be the hardest
year it will be. I'm gonna be Dredge was awesome too, and that
was like, oh, yeah, that's gonna be in my top ten.
And now I'm like, there's some stuff I'm gonna have to cut that's like
really gonna bum me, you know what. I don't even think so I
don't think is gonna make my top I don't think it is either this year
like it's good love that, it's it's how is I love it? But
like I'm with you or I'm like, I don't think it's gonna make the
cut. Man, Like there's too much other stuff. Got to make room
for the man who his name whoa whoa? I talk with the man who
race his name. I got caught saying that I will raise my name.
But yeah, everyone I've heard who have hows actually finished Sea of Stars came
away from it like like that was amazing. So it feels like there's some
people who like reach a certain point. It's like Okay, yeah, I
kind of get it. And then they do the RPG thing where there is
a kind of not not necessarily a twist, but it ramps up in a
way that like really grabs you and doesn't let you go. So everyone I've
talked to who has finished the game was like that was like that is definitely
going to be in my top volt. Sure, So I feel like if
you're if you feel like that right now, I imagine it's yeah, I
want to play more. It's also like appropriately challenging. I feel like,
you know, like obviously when you start, it's pretty easy, but like
one of the first bosses you fight like really had me rack my brain on
how to figure out how to take it down. Like I was like,
Okay, you have to focus on this while this character is going to focus
on this, and like I can't do anything too big with you because I'm
gonna need you to heal later. And like there's a whole cooking mechanic too
that fits into it that I think is really well signed and and it's very
appealing, like and how it looks makes me hungry, if I'm being honest,
but uh, but like, yeah, how a lot of these mechanics
kind of work together too to tell a so far very intriguing story with like
incredible music, beautiful pixel art like it is. It definitely do not sleep
on this game. Yeah, yeah, I love how well it's animated.
I love how well it's animated to animations are really good, like it's it's
super impressive across the board. Yeah yeah, that's uh yeah. Se Star
is definitely it's up my alley. I started it too, but I definitely
want to get deeper into. I feel like it's one of those games.
I mean I kind of mentioned this a lot, is that it's one of
those games where I owe it's myself to play because it's just like, this
feels like a game that was made for people like me on pass. I'm
pretty sure it's playing on game Pass. It's like thirty hours too perfect.
It's not like I mean that's still long, but I mean I guess for
a for an RG compared to compared to sixteen, it was like sixty hours.
Yeah for me, like I think it's three hours. I'm probably wrong.
I thought googled it because I was the the consensus. Maybe that's a
good like I don't get to it in time before. Maybe that'll be a
good like Thanksgiving Break. Yeah, it plays good on switch Steam Deck and
like that. Although if you want to play it on Xbox Game Pass,
get you a aces rock l I That's how I'm playing it, yea.
But yeah, that's a Sea of Stars. We have a review on Site
nine and it's tent from Jason Finelli, so we can he backs up the
claims that we have made about Sea of Stars. So that's cool to hear.
Jake sick another game to add to my infinite pile. I mean,
none of us have played it, so we weren't going to talk about it.
But like lies a pe lies that drop said, I said that comes
out next week? Also next week? What comes out next week? But
the embargo drop, Like, you can talk about it, but we haven't
played it. But apparently it's fucking awesome. I have seen it being played.
I know the highest praise I can give it. I'm sure he'll talk
about it next week when he's back. Tam, it loves it. Tam
does not like souls like born type copies, like from software copies, like
I've never seen him like one. He's always like even the ones that like
people always are like, oh, this is the one. GAM's like,
no, no, no, yeah, I'm not playing that. Yeah,
that's just trash. He likes this one. So that to me, I'm
like, oh, that's high press. That is that is the stamp of
approval that you want for a Soul's clone, And like, I mean,
I'm sure folks know it at this point what Lizappe is kind of like trying
to do. We have a review on the review on site Richard Wakeling just
beautifully written, just really yeah, he's an amazing review. Is doing done
a lot of a lot of this stuff for us for a long for a
long time. But that his review of lizape was just like it's just incredibly
well written, well thought out. So if you really want to get a
like a full view, full breakdown of that, definitely check out the review.
But from talking to people who have played LISP, like Bless is also
someone who is kind of in that camp where it's like I see all this,
I try all these souls, like these clones whatever, like games trying
trying to do the from software thing, but there's always like something, it's
always something that makes it feel like it doesn't maybe doesn't have the identity or
doesn't necessarily execute on the specific things that make a from Software Souls game special.
But both Bless and Tam I'm like, oh, they are all in
on it, and I was seeing some of it being played, and I
get it like that that blood born atmosphere, and I think Andy courts has
also has liken it closer to Securoh in terms of mechanics with like Perry's and
blocking, and but it has the kind of pacing and the atmosphere of a
blood born, So you're kind of getting the best of those those worlds.
But I mean, it's it's also one of one of those things where it's
so clearly trying to be blood born that it kind of hits a ceiling in
a way where it's like, Okay, you can you can imitate blood born
as well as you possibly can, but you're never going to like you're never
going to break beyond that, which is still a very high ceiling for so
if you even come close, which lies of p seems to do, that's
a really good place to be in. So if you want to play genuinely
interested in like the Pinocchio stuff people are saying, it's actually like pretty good
Sabia. It's a good interpretation of that whiche. That's actually really cool because
like I first, I mean, I remember when they first announced this,
like it was almost laughable, the idea of like Timothy shallow May plays Pocchio
in blood Board and it's called Lies of p and you're just like it's a
silly name, Like what the fuck is this? When you die, it
says liar die, that's like that's the game over. Yes, the loading
screen is literally his nose like loading like it's no, it's face. You're
like okay, And then but then they keep showing I was like, this
looks kind of seems like they actually pulled it off, so like that's incredible.
Yeah. I think they should just do like these expired Disney licenses as
like two will be like lies of Winnie the Pooh who lies pooh oh?
Yeah yeah, like trying to think of other expired Disney license Yeah, I
was thinking of the same thing too. They need to copy like different from
software, like I don't know, they need to make like an armored Core
clone. That's like about I don't know, we need yeah yeah, hell
yeah? Is there any is there? Any? Is there any mex stuff
that is in public domain. Pete the Pete, Pete the Dragon. What's
the I don't know, Tomo, Lies of G make a Gundam Armored Core
Gundham game after Lies of G. That'd be spoke and sick. You can't
tell me that sick. That's another game. I haven't touched Armored Core,
which bought it and I played like two hours and said I'll return. I
have not returned. So listen, when when will my husband returned from the
console wars? Who knows? But yeah, that's that's video games, man,
That's that's crazy. Yeah, I saw a game. I'm like,
I want to play Timothy Shallow me in a in a Soul's Like, that's
crazy, that like, because here's the thing. Every Souls game, I'm
playing some raggedy ass motherfucker just got out of the swamp. Yes, every
Souls game, I am just like face and like the most fucked up clothes
and I'm just like, yeah, poor ass, you know you're you're you're
Securo and Securo. But even then, he's he's he's grizzle. He's an
older grizzle. He's like he's been through a lot of ships. A little
gray gray you know he's been he's been through a lot, Jonathan. Yeah,
he's he's he's been in those streets. But here it's just like,
Hey, I'm a pretty boy, and I'm I'm the most advanced pup puppet
in the world, and I wear cool clothes. He was wearing a sailor
outfit with like these really slim cut pants. I'm like, yeah, that's
my boy. That was like me when I was seventeen dog Like, fuck,
yeah, I want to play a seventeen year old version of myself in
a souls game. So I think that is the thing that's gonna push me
over the edge to hell. Yeah. So it comes at the nineteen,
doesn't it? Next week? That and Morald Kombat one, along with every
the game that you have not played yet. Summer Bunk stuff is also next
week. Oh yeah, my god. So yeah, that is those video
games for us here on game Splat after Dark episode two hundred nine. If
you want a full breakdown of the state of play, which we talked about
here, head on over the website on a full breakdown of what happened during
the Nintendo direct Also head over to our website. There's some great reviews already
up that we had mentioned, such as you have Stars, Eliza Pee and
everything else in between. So yeah, and see stars also, pant I'll
shout myself out FPS podcast friends per second. I always always on it to
talk about Starfield, but they are Ralph and the gang did a good interview
with the creative director four Seas Stars, So if you want to know more
about that game's inspirations theory, yes, so yeah, that was a really
genuinely interesting conversation. But not before you go to our YouTube page game spot,
YouTube dot com, slash Games. I watch all our videos out there,
a lot of good videos. As you mentioned. Me and Jake did
some some collabbing on cyberpunk coverage. Very good. Yeah, and we will
do more of that in the future. Jean Luca, do you want to
plug anything else again? All the Mortal Combat stuff that's going up and we'll
go up. Yes, has been captured and edited by yours truly or actually
with the help of Richard. Shout out to Richard, who've been helping me
get all that ship up. And uh yeah, I mean yeah, I'm
mostly working on that. I think, uh, just just like some housekeeping
for next week, depending on what happens next week, we might record the
podcast early and not be live because it might be gone during the normal recording.
I can't say anything because it's all in flux, but just yes,
what the fuck for this? This will not matter for audio listeners at all.
For those are you watching live, we might not be live next week
because we might be to record early. That's all. That's all I'm trying
to say. It doesn't matter for about You're getting your wisdom teeth pulled out.
Huh yeah, exactly. Damn that's crazy. Already had them Okay,
forever, I've never pulled out my wisdom teeth. Well, you wouldn't do
it. Someone else would do it for you. That's that's also true.
So probably hurt pretty bad if Yeah, it's a fucking yaking my own ship,
you know what I'm saying. But we also need to pull out of
this room to continue with our jobs. But I do want to shout out
Hedge Hugo in the chat, who's been falling along dropping some dimes in the
chat confirming release dates for us as we've been talking, So shout out to
you. Batman's also in the chat, Thanks for thanks for chilling with us.
And everyone listening in your ear holes from your favorite podcasts apps such as
Spotify and Apple Podcast. Hit us with that five star stunt rating. If
you have not already, you know what it is. We locked in Amen
gays right after dark. We'll be back with episode two hundred and ten next
week and until then, you know the fucking vibes peace ye sick? Hell?
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, lovely video game talk. Yeah.
Yeah. We might be flying a PLN on next Thursday. Say what we
might be flying a pawn next Thursday? Or London, London. Oh that's
right. I didn't realize. I thought it was like said Portland next school.
I thought it was the week after. No, it's next week.
That's why I keep being like, because I gotta get my passport dealt with.
Uh good luck bro. No, So there's yeah, I'm sure that'll
work. Fine. No, there's a special thing where basically like you can
go to the like passport office and SF and like get it expedited, but
they make you go like within like ten days before you're flight, like you
have to posish yeah early. Yeah, And so I'm going to do that,
but I need to get I need to give them a proof of Like
I'm flying, so I'm like, hey, can we buy tickets? Oh,
like not have to? So you might actually need to get a cancelable
flight then and do that because well, actually I don't know. I guess
they can still take your because if if they're booking the flights, they're gonna
need your passport number. Oh, I guess you can still give them.
I guess you can still give them your passport number. But I don't know
if it'll block them from I don't think it would interesting, which is cool.
Good luck with that. Tastes just messaging me release dates with games sick
okay, great thing they bound dead. Move on, dimpt dim