Welcome ever one episode one seventy five of the Jiff Againstcast, immy host Rob
a Kid's end joining me today. We have my usual best friends in the
world, Ryan controlling everything. How are you, Lion, I'm fine,
I am doing a okay, I'm doing spectacular, Lion. You guys don't
know why in a few minutes have rights Um on the on the other end
of this call. Uh, Drew, how are you? I'm fine?
I do have a question for you. Okay, what do you call a
precints graduated from law school? Oh no, what father in law? And
this has been a dad begins casting guys for joining us. It has been
a wonderful show. And state about the games that we have been playing by
y'all later. Yeah, I just don't appreciate good humor. Is that what
you call it? Okay? Anyway, puns are though, like it's just
supreme form of humor. People just don't understand the supreme form, like the
brand supreme. Yes, all right, yep, totally anyway, moving on
with the show. Oh jeez, and take y'all nowhere. Oh man,
we have video games to talk about things that happened. I am back on
the show. I was not here last week, but you guys held it
down which was very cool. Um. Oh yeah, how was your assignment?
How was everything with that? It was great? So for people that
don't know, I was in New York for the Rad WIMPs concert, rads
WIMPs being the band primarily primarily that does the Mako Shinkay movie soundtracks, so
like your name weathering with you Sis Tome Um, it was fantastic. It
was actually one of the best like shows I have ever been to, Like
they do a killer performance. Um. Definitely definitely a real highlight. And
if they ever come back to the US, which I feel like they will,
Like the New York shows sold out and they were allowed to do like
a second night Wow basically, so the reception was really really good. So
if they do another US tour, I definitely recommend everybody to go go see
it. They had like this one segment in the middle of it which was
just like this It could only be described as like a musical battle royale between
like all of the band members. It was insane. Um. So yeah,
ten out of ten trip. We went to go visit the Nintendo store
as well, so some video game related which that I've been to that store
a couple of times, but um, every time I go in there,
it's just it's a really wonderful experience. Um. There's usually something new,
some new, some new parts to the store. Um, you know,
new merch, exclusive merchant. There always a good time. But yeah,
overall, a very good trip, nice fun, fun weekend, except for
the fact that it was raining the entire weekend, So that's that's never fun.
Yeah, it killed the idea of just like walking around New York,
right, But we got to at least do like the big stuff. And
it was Nick Nick's first time in New York, so we definitely got to
show him a few places and had a good time. Had a good time.
That's good. Yeah yeah yeah. Um, And then I got back
and this game, Idol Showdown came out. Ye. There are several games
that have come that have come out since the last time I was on this
podcast that have just like completely derailed my life. Uh And if you want,
like I could just jump right in. Yeah, sure, let's go
to some video games, but let's let's let's talk about Idol Showdown first.
This game just came out last week. Wasn't the last Friday Friday, Friday,
Friday at the beginning of the weekend. Uh, it's completely de rounded
my entire fucking weekend. I have not sat in net played on a fighting
game for like eight hours at one time in like since like the beginning of
like Strive right, Right, it's been a it's been a pretty long time.
So I sat down and done something like this. Um. But it
is such a well made fighting game, done by a very very small team.
Yeah. Um. So for people that don't know, Idol Showdown is
a fighting game that was It's a free to play fighting game that is currently
on Steam. Um that features all of the hall Alive characters. Um.
It has a pretty uh, pretty decently sized cast, right, it's like
eight characters or something like that. Yeah, um, with three more places
too, yeah, with three more in the in the chamber. Um.
It is a game that also has assists, um, and there's a pretty
decent amount of them as well. I think like another eight characters or something
like that as well. Yeah. Um, but it doesn't like feel like
your typical assist based fighting game, right because of how like the meters work.
Right, So in this in this game, you have two separate meters.
You have your Star meter I think it's called which which is you use
for like your supers or your ex moves right um. It can store up
to four bars um and ex moves cost what one bar I think it is,
and then you have like a big super that cost two yeah. Um.
But you can also use that meter. You could use two bars of
that meter to do like a super assist call, right um, which is
like this big huge attack that the assist character does. And then you have
another meter which I forget what this one is called, U Ryan if you
happen to know, it's called the super Chat meter. Is what it is?
Super chat That makes sense because because you're getting super chat points. Yeah,
so yeah, it's a super chat meter, where like if you do
certain things like if you do like special moves as like manual inputs, you
gain meter that way. If you hit like a perfect anti air, you'll
get meter that way with the super chat If you instant block, yes there's
instant block in this game as well, you get a super Chat meter for
that as well. And that's kind of like for your secondary like assist call.
It's either your secondary or your primary. It's one of the two.
Technically, it's your technically, it's your primary one. Yeah. Um,
But that meter is also tied to another mechanic where you could spend the entire
bar on an assist call um or you can spend a section of that bar
to special cancel your special moves yep. Right, So essentially, if anybody
that's played Guilty Gear Strive or Guilty Gear Expert and you know Sin, like
every character is just Sin with this meter, um, which which is very
interesting because it creates a bunch of different play styles right where it's like do
you want to use like a sin calls more often, or do you value
your special cancel options more so, or even just like situational things right,
Um, Like, like I discovered earlier today that like there's one match up
in particular that like I'm probably going to use my assist a lot more and
save that meter for this more so than other matchups, which I find very
interesting. Right. So it's not like a case of like a Marvel or
something where like you're constantly throwing out assist calls all the time, right,
It's just like it is this tool that is like used somewhat sparingly, right,
because that meter doesn't fill up super fast, but like fast enough to
where like you probably could get like two assist calls out and around or something
like that. I think it's like the best in comparison would probably be like
either like a Dfcium where like there was a meter with those assistant or thing.
Um. Also kind of like uh, even though I touched it a
little bit, but it came to mind like what I was playing at Aquapasa
was kind of another one, so my brain like defaulted to Aquapasa in some
ways. Right, Um, still not like one for one, but I
think that's like the closest where like, yeah, I would play something like
this where like the assists are there, but they're not like a primary thing,
if that makes sense. Yeah. Um, And every character in the
game so far feels like super unique in what they do. Um. So
you have like your character Boton for example, which is like this long range
fighter but also has like close range options as well, like she's she's the
FPS god. Yes, right, they do a really good job of translating
every character's personalities into this game, right because Boton is known for like her
FPS plays. Right, So you're over there with your like sniper shots and
honestly she has some of the sickest confirms I'm not gonna lie. Yeah,
I'm not gonna lie. Um. And then you have like characters like Corona,
who who's kind of like this all around her type deal. Like she
she almost feels like the Reu of the game in some ways. Right,
she has like she has the fireball. I mean there is a face.
Yeah right, I would definitely say Corona is very much the Reu of this
game. Yes, it definitely makes sense. Yeah, that that's exactly so.
Um So, like she has her fireball, which is ub ub right,
she just fires a finger at the opponent of she has a which does
like she does Mario's jump as a shower you can, right, So,
like she actually turns into like this giant, like eight bit like version of
Corona. It does like a Hupper cut Yeah, a lot Mario's jump.
Um she does like the spring sounds. She's like bring bringing Uh she does
it. Um her there um her quote cycle back is the chainsaw. Right,
so when she does her doom plays, uh, so she's just like
she does it. So it's like it's really funny, um amazing stuff.
And every character is like that. They all have like the their thing that
is like their signature, what they're known for. Yeah, um, have
you have you missed with like other characters or like the other just kind of
stand out. I messed around with Fubuki for a little bit as well,
and she's a little bit of that. So, like she has like a
gotcha system with her game plan, right thinkum sing tu. Yeah, think
of Shingo from kof where like certain specials of his would be like a critical
hit or like a counter hit state. Like, so they have different properties
and stuff. Um. So like sometimes you'll get like her SSR variant of
her special, um yeah, and like it has different properties that where like
she could continue comboing it takes like that everything. Now, she does have
a mechanic that's uh where she can spend a bar and eat a Hamburger because
hamburgers her favorite food. Um. And it guarantees that the next special that
she does is the SSR variant. Oh that's how that works. Yeah,
so that's so so so that's how that works and everything her super she turns
into her dark form, which is a Kura kami and um and uh that's
it's but it's only for like the special, like the super animation, Like
she doesn't stay in that form or anything like that, it's what she does
are super um. She also has a fireball, a DP and a tatsu
as well, so she might be like the Ken so to speak. Um,
but I think honestly, like I feel like a lot of stuff with
her, Like if you want to play Fubuki, you might as well play
Coronae at this moment. Now, obviously this game is still very very new,
and they've been pumping up a lot of hot fixes and updates since the
getting dropped at everything. So like the developers are which shout outs to them,
man, I mean the hollow alive like fandom and like the developers and
like just in general, like the games that they've made and not just this
developing crew. But like even when you look at the Holocure like the Vampire
Survivor games and I've got anything, like they're all well made. Like it's
just kind of crazy, like how good these projects end up being in a
sense. So obviously you know things are being tweaked as the game is kind
of progressing in everything U. But yeah, I mean, like Fubuki has
some cool stuff, but I feel like some of its probably needs just tweaked
a little bit more, because it's there's some aspects of her that kind of
feel incomplete. But I mean again, it's a free to play game.
They're going to continuously update it and things like that. Um, and people
are gonna find stuff too. Oh yeah, who knows. Who knows what
this is gonna look like in a couple of days from that, Yeah,
exactly, you could. You could completely change um. As far as like
other characters that I kind of labbed, I did check out a Susway a
little bit. Players don't have, right, She's a very unique character,
and she has some set play elements that like I've seen like a really good
Susuay like that I played against again and I was just like, I was
just like, oh wow, this character is crazy like so much and I'm
like I don't even know where I'm getting tossed at. Like she has a
command grab that has like a super subtle start up animation, Like I next
thing I know, I'm being like put into a Tetris piece and like tossed
across the stage. What's happening. Yeah, it's like a special move which
like she does this like long reaching act a thing that like I swear to
god, goes like half screen and it's an overhaul, isn't an overhead,
there's there's there is a variant of that move of the acts that overhead.
Yes, yes, that is true. That is true. I do remember
that that that was punishable though, yes, um because I remember she was
doing that to me and I was like, nah, I'm at least going
to punish this shit every fucking time. But like playing neutral against her was
like I feel like that that gift of Coronae with like all the fucking numbers
and shit like that, that is me. Yeah, I'm like, I
gotta calculate through this matchup. M god, she's annoying. Yeah, but
oh yeah yeah. I mean there's definitely some wild stuff, like um uh,
Coco's got some interesting things, like especially with her command grab stuff and
everything. There's one thing that was sewing me off too, like and I
think it's something that maybe the developers might have to adjust or maybe I just
wasn't seen it right or whatever. But like her fireball that she does,
right, like a little flame that she does, there were times where like
the flame would be completely off the off the screen and then like I would
try to move or stuff like that, and then I'm hit by the flame.
So I feel like because it's like lingers. Yeah, there's like a
hit box that lingers, and like the fire animation's gone, so like I
get thrown off and I'm like, oh wait a minute, that that lingers
for a good while after the fact, so like I have to make sure
like I'm like blocking for like an extra second after the after the flame attack,
because like I don't know how many times I got caught by like the
lingering hit box of that, and I'm just like, what is going on
here? What just happened? I noticed that too earlier today and I'm like
why, why is this a thing? But then I also realized, like
she recovers for a very long time. Yeah, thing, so like just
keep it in mind, just like take that extra second to like not do
a thing, go make a sandwich, come back, and then like punch
you in the face. Yeah. Um, but like she seems like she's
uh, that's probably the character honestly, Like for me personally, I probably
fought the most is Coco players. Yeah, I haven't seen too many.
I've only seen a couple. Yeah, I think that's the one I fought
the most. Right now, her and Ayame, those are probably the two
that I have fought the most. I think Iyami is like the most popular
one. I see her the most, and then I think I play against
boton the second most. Yeah, is probably the easiest character to play in
the game. And you just you treat her like Wolverine. She just hits
buttons. Yeah, yeah, basically you know. She she has big sword,
big sword, hurts, sleeps into converts from every range, good good
damage output off that stuff. Easy confirming to her level two super as well
and yetuff Yeah. Yeah, very very easy character to kind of kind of
pick up that that too, be of hers. That fucking low range sword
swipe is so annoying. I run into it so much. Yeah, I
get tagged by it a lot too. It's almost some of the like when
I was playing Bob Tagg and I get tagged by Carmine two C all the
time. Yeah, it's almost like that. Yeah, It's like then you're
like sitting through the full whole jungle combo. All right, Yeah, can
we speed this up? Put me down already? Yeah, exactly. Um,
and she has a tiny box too. Yeah, she's a tiny character,
so your combos drop on her and I'm like, I gotta find a
new route. Same. Yeah, we were talking about it a little bit
before start podcast. Is like, oh yeah, Bothon's B and B does
not work on a yam, I gotta find a different route for it,
um to like make up for it. So um, outside of that,
like as far as like characters that I've like tried out or like you know,
faced a lot of it. Everything, that's pretty much it. I
think the one character that I have not seen yet but I've heard a lot
of people say that the character is pretty cracked out right now is yeah,
yeah, I've heard that character. I have not seen it yet, but
I have seen some clips and I've seen what people have said about that character.
Um, I've heard that character is cracked out. She's a menace to
society. I haven't fought a good one yet. But I didn't have m
I had no Josh stream up on the side. When I was doing some
stuff. Oh nor Josh is playing her. No, no, he's playing
boton okay. But he was playing he was playing against Kogie who was playing
oh okay, And you could just see the joy on like, uh,
Josh's face just started to fade away after like an hour. It is just
like this, this situation is becoming more and more dire, as like Coogie
is figuring out the ship with Aki. Oh no, it's just like Aki
has has a teleport that has like her recovery, and like you can't do
anything about it. It's very very hard to like preemptively throw out a button
to to like stop her or even if she does like the up teleport to
to do an upward you know, to do an anti air. She just
like stuffs out all the options. Yeah, on top of a character that
has built in like assist calls as well. Yea, she basically uses like
to stand just about yeah, yeah, she has a stand and in a
really strong like zoning game as well too, So like she kind of just
has a little bit of everything and like no recovery on like anything. Um
So, she definitely seems like she is a problem in the right hands.
Um But she is not technical character, is she. I haven't seen like
her. That's what it seems like. I'm going based off like the difficulty
thing that they show. Oh true, Yeah, that's really the only thing
I can really gauge off of it or anything I mean, she's her play
style and what she does is not exactly my style play. So that's why
I like it. I didn't really laugh it that much, but it seems
a little awkward to use. But like watching someone like piece it together kind
of in like real time and then like figure out the cheap shit, and
it's just like, oh yeah, I could see why Q would rise to
like the top of like an early tier chart, right, Like, she
definitely has a lot of shit that seems hard to deal with for like probably
most of the cast. Now, maybe there's some like specific assists that may
be able to help counterplay it, like that would be one area to like
experiment with. Um, but just like pound for pound on like the tools
on, like character tool sets, it seems pretty tough to deal with for
most of the cast. Yeah, definitely, But that's pretty much like all
the characters I really kind a sample of. I know we were talking about
Sora earlier. Um, that's a character I'm not That's a character I have
not seen yet, like at all. Like she and AKEI are like the
two I have not seen. I thought her for the first time today,
right, you would seeing me go through it, Like, oh yeah,
real time. By the way, it's a rarity to see you go through
your something like that albums. Then I'm like, damn, all right,
it's just Roberts, Like like I was deep. I was feeling it because
like so I had I was talking to you before the show, right,
I had a fundamental misunderstanding of like one of Corona's moves, right, yeah,
which which is her chainsaw. So like I fought against a really strong
Florida player the other day, uh SUCCIONI who who's known for playing like Bullet
and BBCF, like one of the best players, and we had like a
really long set on Saturday where he was playing Bolton and you can tell like
both of us are just like figuring this thing out as we go, right,
Like I'll find an answer, He'll find an answer, and it's just
like the stack and forth interaction. Um. But what was really getting me
in that matchup was just like bots on zoning tools. Yeah right, and
I'm just like I don't know how to get around this. This is this
is a nightmare for for Coronae. Like if I get in there, it's
it's cool because like she has some really good buttons up clothes and can put
on pressure well stuff, and Boton really only has one reversal, which is
the shopping cowart right. Yeah. So then I was just started like experimenting
with the special moves, and then I learned that like chainsaw blows up a
lot of bots projectiles like for whatever reason, so I thought that her chainsaw
had projectile envol right, which I was like, oh, this makes things
a whole lot easier. It functions as if like an actual thoughtsu. Um,
that is not the case. That's just a very specific thing to Boton
because for some reason, Boton's projectiles have awkward hit box hurt box interactions with
Corona's chainsaw. M So I could just like blow through Boton shit, which
is cool for that matchup, but does not work in Sora or anybody other
anybody else with projectiles. Um. So, Sorea's whole thing is he has
these musical notes that she tosses out, and it almost reminds me in some
ways an Eno. There's like an Eno in alco in here, Yeah,
because like she has a music note that goes like in an upward trends as
if he was holding up on ENO's notes, right, And then she has
one that goes forward but hits multiple times and keeps them locked down, right,
So it feels like I'm almost playing against like Eno zoning in some ways.
But she also has one that she can hold there like ALCO's note and
then like explode it when she wants to. So I'm sitting here in this
matchup like trying to blow through these projectiles and I'm like, this does not
work. I don't know how this works. On top of her having really
long range sword normals for some reason, like this bitch just pulls out an
energy blade, yeah, yeah, and she has two. She has two
of them, like five B and then fourard B and I'm just like she
also has help of achon yeah, which basically acts like almost as like Maya
for Phoenix Strite in Marvel three. Just about yes, yeah, so it
reflects back things, right, So like I'll try to try to play this
zoning game with ubi's and then it's like, oh, she just throws them
back. Or if I do block string into ub she counter, it's kind
of sit back and gets a confirm and I'm like, this is this is
awful. I don't know how to deal with this um because like she'll do
she'll do energy B or energy sword into the forward energy sword into the two
hitting note. I can't do anything about it. Like if I try to
jump over it, I get hit. If I try to like change saw
through it, I get hit. I have nothing to go through it.
And then she just goes right back into the string again. I'm like,
this feels like an infinite block string. Help me, I'm dying. I'm
dying. Thank you for exactly right. But I did figure, um,
so I could force a trade, right, so if I don't have any
any other like assist meter or anything like that, if she cancels into that
note, I can hit five B trade and then get the confirm off of
the trade. So I'm like, so I learned that after the fact,
and I'm like, Okay, it's still kind of a guess because like if
she does the other note, then like I get hit, but I don't
think she could pick off off of it, So it's a weird thing.
I'll have to play around an actual match. But then I sat down and
found the actual counter to this, which was neo assist, which she does
the fire punch, blows through projectiles, gives me the wall bounce and then
I take off fifty percent of her life, so I'm like, okay,
next door I run into, They're gonna fucking die. This ship is annoying.
That felt like the worst matchup I've played so far, but fun,
it's still a fun game regardless. Yeah, putting me through the Ringer,
Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of right there with you. It's been
forever for me since I played like a fighting game like where I want to
actually dump hours into the game and stuff like that. So like it's super
refreshing for that and everything. And also one month before screw Rinter six,
which is kind of neat um and um. Shout outs to the lobbies just
kind of like working. Yeah, so like we have very simple lobbies,
even though the onlines in Beata. Yeah so like and when the game for
Slatch of the Online was not good, you can tell it was off,
but they immediately hot fixed it, and uh like it's much better now.
It is very It's a very functional online which is at the end of the
day, that's all you want. Uh So, um, yeah, I've
been able to play quite a few online games. It's definitely gotten better and
everything. Um, I have not messed with any of the single player mode
yet, which I might do that sometime this week. I did, Oh
you did miss with it for a little bit. Yeah, okay, it's
pretty cool. Um. It reminds me of like I forget the name of
the mode, dude, you probably know off the top of your head,
like the modes from Soil Caliber too, where you like, we have like
a Weapon Master mode where like you're going through these stages and every stage has
like a random condition on top of it. Right on top of like you
have items that you can use midfight. Um, so item button, Like
you hold the item button and then you can push a light, medium or
heavy to use whichever item in that slot. And they have things like you
know, get health back, or increase your attack or defense, or poison
the enemy, like different things of that nature. And the mode like it
takes place on a what looks like a game board, right, and you
can kind of like pick your path throughout this, uh this entire board to
get to the end. And there's like there's events spaces where like you run
into other Hollow Live characters and they have these fun little interactions. Um.
One of the one of the Hollow Live characters, Moveme, has like a
shop that you can shop into and spend currency that same apropos. Yeah yeah,
right, there's like an in you can rest in or restock on items
and stuff like that. It's a very well thought out like single player mode,
which is cool because like, obviously not everyone that's gonna play this game
is gonna be like the hardcore fighting game player, like you know what do's
for example, Right, there's gonna be people that just want to play the
game and just have fun with it and stuff like that, And that seems
like that's a very good thing to add on to have that option be there.
And it's challenging, Like I have not beaten it yet. I've tried
like several times, you know, I've gotten to like stage two, Like
so I cleared the first board and gotten to like the second board. I
don't know how many boards there are, but like that difficulty like ramps up,
and like I need to think about the items that I have because running
into like running into CPU corone is a fucking nightmare in my run more more
times than any other character. Damn. Um. It's it's cool. I
like that, Bode hmm, Yeah, I might have to give out a
shot and later in a week just to see how does and stuff. I
just, like I said, I just more or less been booting it up
and just playing online against other people and just you know, racking up headshots
with boats on a basically, Yeah what what I did immediately? It was
like I did the tutorial and then I immediately just jumped online. Yeah.
I have not spent a ton of time in training mode right outside of like
a few specific instances, but it's it's just been online play and then like
the three or four of Brians I did have a single player Yeah, it's
having unlockable costumes or unlockable colors and stuff too. Yeah, unlock in the
game as well. I figured like some of those unlockables are probably got through
the single player mode. Um. Yeah, one of them seems to be
for a game count like if you play a character first I number games,
Yeah, locked one for Coronae ye yeah, I think the other ones a
single player locked somewhere. Okay, I guess that's an incentive to play through
the single player in that regard to try to unlock colors and stuff. Yeah,
it's pretty cool. You don't really see like traditional unlockable stuff um these
days. So yeah, that is Idle Showdown pretty much best. The game
team is the developer, which is a very good name. I like it.
Yeah, it's pretty strong, pretty strong. I look forward to the
same what the DLC characters are and I'll probably keep pecking away at this game.
Very very very good fighting game, free to play up on Steam Go.
There's no reason not to go down about to try it. Yep.
Yeah, if you like fighting games and you like having a lot of diversity,
and has some pretty cool mechanics in it, and it's like a definitely
give Vital Showdown a look. Definitely definitely worth it, especially since it's a
free project, free to play games. So yeah, definitely, uh,
definitely check it out. Yeah. Another game I have lost my life too
that I didn't get a chance to talk about last week was Honkey star Rail.
Um. I have yet to build that up. Oh man, it's
man, Mijolio got me. Um. It's a very interesting game. I
think I posed the question. I posed this question to myself and then I
said it to Drew Um and I'm almost starting to believe it more and more,
and I'm just like, man, is this just a better free to
play Star Ocean and I hate it because that makes me want to play it.
It's really the more I play it, the more I'm just like it
has the vibes of being that and obviously like it still depends on where they
go with it, right, But but they set they set the story up
to like be that thing, and I'm like, man, that's very cool.
Um, We're going to travel to like a bunch of different fucking planets
and get into some shit. Um. It's it's a very neat premise.
Um. They moved away from genshen sort of open world formula, right because
if Gensen is like the free to play Breath of the Wild as it were,
right where it's like you have this giant open space, like you have
the standin the meter, you can climb anything and everything, you have a
hang glider, Um, you're just looking for the next shiny thing on the
horizon. This is a much more like linear experience, right, more like
a traditional like JRPG style game. Um. You have the these smaller and
scope areas that are filled with enemies and it triggers into a turn based battle
system. Um we have four party members. But it but it it also
keeps its simplicity. Um. It focuses more on like skill combos and elemental
weaknesses and stuff in the same way that like Gensin does. Right, like
Gensen isn't like this hardcore action game allah DMC. It's a much more simplified
game. But there are like character compositions and stuff that like play off of
each other since there's like a little bit of thought and how you want to
like put together your team, right, um Hanky star reiled. That's like
the same thing, just in like a turn based formula. Um. So
every character has like a basic skill, um, and you have a you
have a basis skill, you have a special move, and then you have
like an ultimate right, and every time you do a normal attack, it
builds like this special gauge, which then you can use that to use like
your special moves. Right, So you can have one character primarily like build
up this gauge while you take advantage of another character special moves. So this
way you never caught like having no meet her, and all of that plays
into them charging up their supers. And then everybody just has like this very
unique super to themselves. So you have one that might be like defensive oriented
that gives everybody a shield, one that might do like a wee heels,
one that might buff the party in some other ways, ones that are just
like super powerful attacks. Um. And then every character has like a passive
ability and these get kind of wild. So there's one character, Oh god,
what is her name? It's her name like Harticut or something like that.
It's like the red Headache character that everybody is fucking losing their minds over
in the art world. There's always one. There's always that one. But
it's so funny because like she's a fire character, right, and this passive
of hers is really good in like I feel like in most cases, but
like there's one particular event that you can constantly rerun for resources, where like
she is absolutely broken in this where if you if you attack the enemy's weakness
three times, like every time you attack the enemy's weakness, it builds a
gauge for her. Once that gauge gets to three, she automatically does a
follow up attack that's an AOEE hit. Right, is a fire attack that's
an AOEE hit. She can build this meter for herself as well, right,
so it lines up to where there's like more than three enemies that are
weekly fire. So like you trigger it, and then she does the count.
The follow up hits all three, breaks them, and then does it
again on the next wave of enemies, gets three again, does it again,
and it just like never stops until until we get a wave of enemies
that's not like three fire weakness enemies. Oh god, it is so fucking
funny that she just like plays this mode herself. It's it's a tight attack
though, like the animation for it is sick. That's one thing about this
game you could definitely tell me Hoyo is has learned a lot from Genshen,
because like with each season of Genshen, the animation and the production gets better
and better, right, and all of that plays well into here too,
where like these attacks are gorgeous, the animations are so well done, and
it's really really cool, high production all around, which is what you now
expect of Hoyo Verse, which is what would you would you expect of them
now, right, And I feel like that lends itself to turn base way
more than a lot of like action games in some ways, right, because
you can get crazy with it. Yeah, you know, you don't have
to worry about this like breaking the environment or anything. It's very like controlled
animation sequence, right, so when they do their big abilities and stuff,
it is much cooler than what it looks like and say Genshien Impact. Yeah,
and that was kind of like and I've yet to beat the game up,
Like I have it down loaded and ready to go, I just haven't
got it going yet. But like that's the one aspect that I was kind
of like really looking forward to was seeing what those animations were going to look
like in like a more RPG like, you know, turn based like scenario.
Because I mean, we saw what they could do obviously with the kins
An Impact. We saw all they could do with the Hankie to Third,
which is which was like their first big project that they they did. And
so that's why I like I was intrigued with star Rail because I was like,
ooh, if they've already gotten a pretty good feel for the action style,
I'm curious to see how these are going to translate with the the RPG
base. So I'm that's why one reason why I was definitely looking forward to
eventually trying to get this game like going myself. Yeah, it's it's very
cool presentation. It's like definitely like a ten out of ten um. Even
like the end game cut scenes and stuff like that all animate very well.
There's there's very few segments where I'm like, oh that was that was a
little jankie. Uh. But for the most part, it all flows very
well. Um. And in the story is so far is intriguing. Um.
It's not like I'm not gonna sit here and say it's it's the best
thing in the world or anything like that. Story it might be, it
might be, it absolutely might be the best Star Wars and story, um,
but but it is interesting enough. I think the beginning segments where you're
where you're on this space station is probably, like so far, the least
interesting part of it. Like, I think the intro is a little lacking
in explanation as for what's going on to kind of just thrust you into the
situation and then like you kind of figure it out over time. I think
that's what they're going for. Just sounds like life, right. Um.
And then you're in a situation, uh, and then you get into the
space station, they kind of like break down like this threat that is imminent,
uh, that that that space station is facing, and you kind of
push that off and you're like I don't really know what's going on here blood
okay, But um, once you kind of drop down to like the first
planet that you go on, and then they really sum up like what they're
doing and how they're trying to gather a specific item from all of these places
to prevent a calamity from happening. So we have to visit these planets,
and we're on this giant like space railroad as it will as we travel through
the galaxy. Is pretty sick, um, And it starts to become clearer
like what this game is. And then you get down on the planet and
you like get into like the structure and the political structure of like what's going
on there and the characters that are inhabiting this place. Um, And I'm
like it's good, Like it's hitting some good emotional beats when it needs to.
Um. I'm very curious to see like where this place wraps up and
then like where we go from here. So cool stuff for this game.
I was expecting to like it. I wasn't expecting to get like drawn into
it in the way that I am. So it is a game that like
I'm putting into I'm probably putting like an hour or two into it every single
day nice at the very least, I'm doing my dailies before I go to
sleep, which are pretty quick to do as well. I found it to
be like a little tiring and Gensen right, like it sucked up way more
time than I wanted to like put into doing dailies. Yeah, Like I
never I never got to the point where like I wanted to push the story
because I'm too busy finishing up my dailies and that's all the time I wanted
to a lot for like this game. Does that make sense? No,
definitely. I mean that's kind of what you mentioned with the dailies is like
one of the reasons why I kind of stopped playing, because I felt like
I was spending way too much time just and those done, especially like certain
ones, like obviously I didn't mind them being random and stuff like that,
but there would be certain ones that would show up be like, oh,
this is your daily today, and I'm just like, fuck, I gotta
do that one. This is gonna take me a minute, yeah, and
I want to use up all of my points to go kill like this boss
monster, which is gonna take me probably like five to ten minutes per run.
And it's like by the time you know it, you just killed like
an hour or so or hour and some change, right, and it's like,
well, I could have been pushing the story and now I just don't
like continuing, like yeah, yeah, So like with with with Star Rail,
I appreciate one that you do have like a turbo button for battles,
and you do have like the auto battle function as well for things like that
nice that's big. You can get through like the daily Benot and this stuff
like very very quickly. Um there is also a mode in here. I
forget what it's called, but it is. It's a pretty interesting random dungeon
that you kind of go through from materials um Or. It does have like
UM has like that rogue element where it's just like here are these like random
buffs that you can give your character after every encounter RAN you'll be familiar with,
like going through the Cave of space and time thing in a mental Mari.
Right, It's pretty much that, okay, except you're going through an
actual dungeon and every every fight that you that you complete, you get to
pick one of three cards to buff your party, and they have like wildly
different effects which are pretty interesting, Like I would be very curious to see
like what the high level version of this dungeon is, because like, obviously
I'm still in like the beginner status, right, so everything is kind of
a breeze. But like the way that these abilities can affect the battle and
like your team and your strategy is really cool. So like there are some
abilities that allow you to inflict like different status effects on the enemies a lot
easier, or there's something that gets very technical in terms of like hey,
if if you freeze a character, then like your next attack is counted as
a follow up or something like that, and then you have other cards that
like play off a follow up, so it's like any follow up gets like
a damage boost, and it gets pretty pretty technical, and like you can
get a bunch of different combinations to do a lot of wild things, And
I'm like there's a lot of potential here for a really fun game mode,
assuming like it forces you to interact with that stuff instead of just like mindlessly
mashing through it. Yeah, so I'm very curious to like what the endgame
of that mode is. So, yeah, it's cool game. I'm gonna
keep playing it. I'm trying to get the banner character right now, seel,
I think I only have like fourteen more days of this banner and she
has not come home yet, and I am stressing. But I did get
a lot of other cool characters in the meantime, so I am technically eating
good. But you know how these games go. You want you want the
shiny new character, and I want the shiny new character that seems kind of
broken. Um yeah, cool game, cool game out of ten. Um.
Pivon is not in this game, so that's already good. Plus,
yeah, there is a cute little mascot character in here, but it is
not one that like follows you around. Um it's it's not Pivon's. He's
actually a very cute little train conductor rabbit thing. Um, it's actually very
adorable. Um. I will say I do like the main character a lot.
Like the main character is such a mood um, and it's so hard
to explain why. It's just like their facial expressions is just like I'm so
old for everything that's happening year, And like the replies you can give to
like the dialogue is just like perfect. There's so many chances for you to
just like dismiss what is happening and just like not play into the foolishness that
is unfolding in front of you, and then seeing the characters like work around
that is really funny. And also like they have a cell phone mechanic where
like, um, characters can like send you little texts, right, and
then you can do like a little multiple choice to like answer them, and
those conversations are actually very cute and very very good. Adds a lot of
personality to the characters, not just like the playable ones, but also some
of the MPCs as well. I will say that there's some MPCs in the
Space Station that are actually like pretty relatable in some uninspected, unexpecting ways.
Yeah, great game, very cool game. Highly recommend people checking out that
that is another free to play game for people to to look into. Um.
And then the final thing I'll talk about, which is something that we
we've all got it had a chance to touch at one point. Um,
Omega Strikers is back. Yes that that that video game is back in our
lives officially launched yep. Um. Yeah, I don't think I've talked to
you about this game after launch yet. I think the first time we've talked
about it Um, I really like the changes that they made. Yeah,
um, like the before you had to like pick your character and then like
you had these like tech skills that you would have and you would have to
like kid out your character beforehand and stuff like that, and that I felt
that to be like I don't know, you could create some really busted things
and just like it, it never really asked you to like engage with like
different abilities and stuff. Um it felt very like cookie cutter, like,
oh, here's obviously like what the best kid is. Don't you there anything
else? Blah blah blah blah. Right in, characters were often kind of
like pigeonholed into like very specific ways to use them. Um where I feel
like the mechanics now where um one, the game is longer right, Like
you're playing the best first of three right in whichever side scores three points gets
like one game, right in first three games, but in between each game,
based on performance, right, whoever gets the MVP, and then like
whoever gets XP afterwards gets a chance to pick one of eight skills that pop
up. And it's like, I don't know that that forces you to sometimes
pick different skills and play in different ways. It just adds like another layer
to the game that wasn't there before, and I find that stuff to be
really freaking cool. Um. I also added, I also say also the
fields being different now too, that yes, they added like different little different
traits to like each field basically, or you got to adjust your play style
a little bit based off of whatever field you're playing on. Yeah, exactly,
right on top of like how the goal works, right, we had
Cats talk about it a couple of weeks ago. But it's like every stage
has like a different way of how you have to open up the goal before
you can score. Right, There's usually there's like two things you have to
hit, and sometimes it's like the circle bumpers. Sometimes it's like actual bumpers
on the edges. Sometimes it's just these two little gates in front of the
goal. And it makes you play each map very differently, and there are
some characters that are like some maps on more than others. Like as a
goalie, I do not like the map with the black hole on it.
Oh yeah, I hate that map. That map is so annoying. Yeah,
especially when I'm playing against Uobo and I'm just like I can't I feel
like I feel like I'm suffocating in that match. And then you have like
the circle bumpers that are on there too that I'm just like, these are
so obnoxious and in the way. I'm like, yeah, I can't find
the right positions to be in. I don't know how many times I got
knocked out of the out of the field because I get hitting that damn black
hole all the time. Yeah, but you touched the black hole, it
explodes and just like knocks you all the way off the stage, and yeah,
God damn it. Yeah, Jesus Christ, i gotta sit there and
just wait for me to respond, or you hit the puck and then it
like gets sucked in and curves into it and then explodes and you just like,
God damn it, Jesus Christ. But it's cool that that stage exists.
It's like, it's cool that there are multiple different types of stage that
you have to play differently on. Some are going to be winners, some
are not going to be as cool. But the fact that they're trying that
is a cool thing. And I hope to see like more maps added later
with more mechanics. Yeah, I'm having a blast Secade. Shout outs to
that Shout outs to the studio trigger doing the op for it, and I
didn't realize any of the anime for Omega Strikers until now. Yeah right,
um and uh yeah are you Are you still playing Juliet or have you checked
out some other characters. Yeah, I'm still playing Juliet mainly. You know,
I gotta play the punch Girl's true. And you know Juliet is the
she is the punch girl, So I am playing the punch girl. I
really like uh Imy the cat girl. Oh yeah, yeah, she's cool.
She's She's the one that I'm trying to learn more of. Like I
like the fact that she can set down a turret right and that just forces
some shots out to like either zone people out or trying to guide the ball
in the direction. Um. And that she has like a teleport that is
awkward to use, but I'm trying to get better at it. Um.
But I'm still largely playing like Era in dude, those those are those are
my children. They always will pay. Yeah, but but I mean might
slip in there, Drew, you had a chance to touch it for the
first time. We got We had some duels in what did you think.
I think that games really fun. I really like it. It's uh,
it's a big chaotic, so it takes some getting used to but fun little
time oyster Um like it. Well, when I say a time waister,
I imagine you can just lose hours and hours of time. You can very
easily. But I think I think that is a game that I want to
regularly add into my rotation. Um as someone who like loved Win Jammers,
I definitely get a big wind Jammers vibe that game. Yeah, especially now
that they have like that flip mechanic too, which like, yeah, flip
the puck and to like hit it double feedback and yeah, that's so I'm
all in for it, you know. Like I think my opinion is very
limited, so like I only played a couple of hours, so I don't
have like a really developed opinion about it. But what I played was really
fun, and again I just I got that wind Jammer's vibe. If anything,
the game was a little chaotic for me to follow, but I mean
it was the first time I played it, so that's to be expected.
But it feels real good, like when you score, and like the game's
really simple to pick up and play. There's not a lot to it.
It's if you played Pong before, I'm pretty sure you can figure it out.
Yeah, right, Like sure, there are elements in there that that
kind of complicated a little bit, like you get used to like different skills
and stuff or like the gear system, but like at its core, it's
like I just need to get this puck this ball into the goal and here
is my hit button, right, and then everything else will just kind of
like fall into place as you play it. And like it is, it
is very chaotic to to watch at first into experience, right, especially when
when people start like crowding around the ball and you're trying to like figure out
what the hell is going on. But it is something that you just kind
of like get used to and eventually you develop the eyes to follow everything.
Yeah, man, cool game. A definitely got to play some more of
that big same. I would be down to play some more games. Yeah,
but that's all I've been doing, which is just a lot of free
to play games. You know, I kind of left Rise of Hanging.
Maybe one day I'll get back there, but I'm enjoying some free to play
games right now. Yeah, free free to game, free to play games
that you just hop into and play too it seems like, yeah, it's
it's a lot of like hop in and out games right now, Like I
can I can play on Mega Strikers like for like twenty thirty minutes and like
okay, cool, I can move on to something else. Like It's very
low commitment games for me right now, which is ye really cool that so
many have dropped. Um, Ryan, what have you been up to?
Um? I mean, I really don't have much outside of the games that
you've already talked about. Like i'd said, mainly been Idle Showdown for this
past week, um, which we've already talked about. Um, So I
mean yeah, I mean that's been pretty much the games you mentioned, with
the exception of a star Rail, which I still plan on get into,
are basically the ones that I've been playing as well. So uh, just
quickly pass along the baton to Drew nice ones down yep, Ruth talk to
me about. To be honest, I've really just been playing Octopath still.
I'm trying to finish that before Zelda comes out, which I was pretty confident
was going to happen until about like two hours ago, and now I'm far
less confident that that's going to happen. I can go into death as to
why that is, but I don't want to spoil it for you, Rob,
if you don't want me to, please please don't spoil. No spoiler.
Yeah I gave I promise. I completely understand. Like I'm just gonna
say that I feel bamboozled. This game got one over on me. I
was not expecting this at all. Um as it was leading up to it,
I was just like, huh, what does it mean? Let me
ask you from like a feeling's perspective, like is it a good thing?
Like are you excited at this point to see? Well, I'm very excited.
I'm very excited. Okay, okay, because sometimes there are those moments
where like you're ready for it to end and then it doesn't and you just
like, yeah, well because as far as like the setup for like the
original Octopath, yeah yeah, I'm still probably about halfway through that. But
like, as someone who's played the Original Octopath, you know how it is.
You're just going along like hitting everybody's chapter three's and then everybody's chapter fours,
and like that's not like a long and involved experience. Like, if
anything, I still have that complaint about octopath where like the beignettes feel a
little bit too stilted, right, and I think that that's just a nature
of octopaths, like Skeleton, Yeah yeah, And I mean I feel like
it can be improved upon in a way that doesn't feel so segment because like
I do enjoy what's there. I think the little vignettes are like really you
know, fun there. There's like some good, wholesome moments, like nothing
that's like killed me, like a trail story or something like that, but
like they're they're just good. It's very it's very it's comfort food almost like
it is the retro ARPG experience, but to some degree, like I just
kind of wish it was woven together a bit more in and octopat two does
improve upon that, between like the increase in travel banters and those not being
missible, as well as like you know, the crossroad chapters where you have
characters that join together and have their own stories. Those are cool. I
just wish that there was more of like a I saw an article recently that
compared octopas storytelling to a Souls game, which I can kind of agree with
because like you have all these happenings that are going on in the world and
like that's fine, Like and they affect all the characters of the game,
for example, like the primal like hit Car storyline of like the Nation of
Coup and like how the Nation of Coup is always at war with everything,
like you see that come up in other Traveler stories, right, and like
that's cool, and so like you do see that world building that sort of
like dark soul storytelling that you see and like NPC dialogue and like little journals
that you read and all of that, but I still wish that it was
a bit more segmented and like the chapters that you do, that part hasn't
really improved. Like you start up a chapter, you have to do your
path action for like a few things, and then like you fight a boss
and then you're done with that chapter. And I'm like, I feel like
there's a better way of doing this, right, Like it's fine, it's
aggressively fine, but I feel like there's just a very better way to do
this. Yeah, that means that, Like I still really like the game,
Like it's it's what I want in terms of like uh that again,
it's comfort food, It's it's it's that Ritro RPG experience that like I crave,
and uh, it's delivering on that aspect. It's delivering on the soundtrack
aspect. Like, Bro, soundtrack of the Year guaranteed, I don't even
care you have, like F sixteen, you have Tears of the Kingdom,
don't fucking care Soundtrack of the Year. I'll die on this hill, all
right, He's gonna die on that hill. I am. I fucking love
this soundtrack, bro, Like this ship has my head, bob and all
the fucking time, Like I'm sitting here on my couch like an idiot,
I'm like, hm hmm, this ship is fucking good. I am very
excited to listen to it. I still have not heard like anything from it.
Well, I don't feel like I've heard anything from it, So I'm
excited to get down on it. I just just play it when you gets
please. I want to yell at somebody about this game, because again,
like it ain't that some good things that I really enjoy um and like I've
talked about it on this podcast, and it is an improvement. And I
think by Octopath For, we'll have the perfect game. By Octopath For,
you said, yeah, amazing. Yeah, if they keep training in this
direction, right, they so far they're they're learning from from the first game.
They made some steps, So like, as long as I keep training
in this direction and listening to feedback, I think that that is very important,
and I think that is something that teams does. Really like that that
team, I think it's Team Asano. It's yeah, I like that team
listens to feedback a lot, because this isn't the first game, like like
they did that with Octopath one. They did that with all the Bravely games
like Bravely Default and Bravely Default too. I think they might have done that
a Triangle strategy as well, which is another game I really need to sit
down and play, Like I really like this team for like, I guess
what you would consider if Production Unit three is like Square Enix's a team like
that's HP, that's f A fourteen, that's sixteen, like Team Asana being
like Square Enix's B team, like really deliver delivers the experience I love because
I fucking love the Bravely games. Still need to play Bravely Default two,
but like Baby Default, Bravely Second or two of my favorite repgs that I've
ever played. I love Octopath one I really want to sit down with,
like Triangle Strategy and like the liveliverymake Like I really enjoy what that team puts
out, and I really hope that that team gets to continue doing what they're
doing, because one, they're filling a niche that not a lot of other
developers are really filling. And like, I understand that some people are tired
of HD two D, but like I eat that shit up like fucking potato
chips. So I'm like them for it. So I need that team to
just keep bringing. It's it's the team that did like or it's the idea
of what I am Setson a kind of set out to do. Yeah,
where I am Setsona like sort of set out to do the same thing,
and it didn't really quite do that right, But like the Bravely games an
Octopath and Triangle Strategy, I feel like are really hitting that sort of they're
hitting the mark on that I feel I think they they're absolutely hitting that thing
right, Like it's hard to really explain what it is exactly like capturing a
very specific type of game right from from an age past, you know what
I mean. Yeah, but they're they're hitting it um And like even even
the games that I feel like be on their weaker side of things, Like
I I'm sort of fallen out of Triangle Strategy. I would have to go
back and finish it, right, Um, but I don't find it as
engaging as I want it to be from a storytelling. That's interesting because like
Asher loves that game. Yeah, he really enjoyed it. Um So I
know he said it wasn't tactics for him, right, but like it it
did a thing, like it satiated him, and like for some reason,
it's not holding my attention as much as I wanted to. This might having
really cool characters in a very solid battle system, um, but I do
think like everything that they've done is like at the very least good, right,
Like I'm not gonna sit here and say like T is a bad game
or anything like it is a good game, right, And they put out
great products, um and I'm always looking forward to like whatever they put out.
Right. They missed the mark on Squares ridiculous, like sales programmers away
all of their games. Always. I feel like a team Asano they kind
of have like a pass like for like it seems like Square is putting a
lot of investment into them, right, considering that they're doing like the dragon
Quest three remake, and I imagine we're going to get that pretty soon,
right. I imagine whatever year of dragon Quest twelve is set to like really
start their marketing stuff. I imagine we hear more about three. I imagine
you wrapped up media cycle. Um. But they're definitely like Squars is definitely
putting a lot more trust into them and giving them more projects. I don't
so I take that as a sign of like they're doing what they need to
do, and they're they seem to have like successes on their hands, um,
at least from a critical standpoint, right, because like Aucopaths scored very
high. Um. I think Trago Strategy did pretty well as well. Right,
So like they're they're putting out good games forwards. Grannis. Yeah,
they don't have too many teams left, I feel, considering like older Western
devs for spoken kind of tanked. Um, what Square have that's not Final
Fantasy fourteen and Team Asano right now? That's a very good question. Um.
Oh, I guess they have like the near properties. Yeah, yeah,
they do. Um, I'm very curious to see like what Studio Square
Nix has left in their chamber, probably a bunch of other business units.
Um well, Like I raised the question in the older days, what did
what did Square do that was in Final Fantasy like Secret Amana they did though,
So you had like the Mana series, you had Saga, which I
mean Kuaizumi is still doing things. I think, like he's still out there
fucking churting away, like I feel like I see a Saga game like come
out every so often in Japan. Yeah, Taga is pretty big in Japan.
I think. Yeah, usually they're on the mobile platform, right,
but they get them actual real games, right, like they're not just yeah,
I think they have one mobile game, right, but they do occasionally
put out like some actual Saga games. Um um, it's like one of
their older ones too, right yeah, but doing anything with Corona like they
did the they Didronocross remake which finally got its patch like a couple of months
ago to fix that. Guy, um, I think came and it's gone
again. I want ye, it was like the mobile game taint like it.
But how did you like a year? What about those remakes though?
Those did pretty well? I know Trials of Mana did really well. Yeah,
I don't know if the Secret of Mana remake did well. I think
the Adventures of Mana did. But like Secret of Mana remake was so buggy
or true to source material depends on who you ask out came out on it.
But like Trials, I thought Trials of Mona and that remake was really
good, Like it was very one for one, but that's fine. It
hits a niche that doesn't exist in the game space today, and I think
there's still a place for those kinds of games and that's fine. Yeah,
yeah, I think I wouldn't say Mana is dead yet. I feel like
they have like another shot in there. Oh, I know there wasn't imagined
a Mana anime and that also tanked. Oh they did do that. I
wonder they were really trying to push it and they just they did not.
They did not do what they were hoping it would do, which I mean,
like I love Mana, like I am the resident Mana guy. Even
after replaying Secret of Mana, I was like, oh, I should not
have replayed this. Um like Mana does not have that staying power. It
never was. It was always on like square sort of B list along with
um Saga and and whatnot. So like this this push that they did,
like I was excited for it, but I also was like, I don't
know if this is really financially viable, Like, oh, ball for it.
I get it. I think this is really cool, but I'm not
expecting a whole lot out of it either. U So, I mean,
I don't know, Square does have all the Unix properties. Stars and six
did just come out, and I think it was okay. It it did
well, It was all right, like it wasn't like a ten out of
ten thing, but it didn't. Everybody comes out of that game going this
is a step in the right direction, right, um. So as long
as they're taking back like the feedback around it, it has, it's sold
fairly well, like fairly okay um, and and the reception seems generally like
positive, so maybe there might be more Stars in the future. I know
Valkyrie is going back into the fucking like they're gonna they're gonna shove that thing
back into the fucking vault. It never opened it again. I don't know
what they were thinking, man like, and like you cannot blame like all
of this didn't so well, bro, bro, like my resident Valkyrie profile
fan, the guy who heralds it as his favorite game ever. Knew it
was gonna be bad, still bought it, played it, beat it,
and was like, I don't understand why they made this game. There's very
few games were like I will touch the demo and be like, nah,
I'm good. That was one of them. That was one of them.
I was like, I, m hmm, this is not this is not
a well put together thing. I just I don't look these old ips that
exist. They can exist in this future realm, like your your Valkyrie Profiles,
your Breath, the fires. You're like, all these games can exist
if given the proper time. And I feel like Valkyrie Elysium and there's the
Valkyrie. No, I'm thinking the Valkyria game from Saya. That's different,
yeah, I mean, but very relevant to this case, as in it
was kind of like, hey, here's this like old series. We haven't
done a new game for in a while, but it's not really the same
thing, and it kind of sucks. Yeah. Well they almost killed off
Valkyria Chronicles going back to Sega, right because they did Valkyria Revolution, right.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, Like Valkyrie Elysium and Valkyria Revolution
are like that same idea, Like thank god that you know, SECA still
went ahead and made Valkyria Chronicles four and it's like really really good. One
day, I swear to God I'll play it. But um, like I
don't see that same thing you happened for Valcara because like Square doesn't know what
the fuck they're doing. Yoship is carrying that entire company on his back.
Yeah, uh, like across the fiscal year line, oh man, as
as in my thirty four years of age. I didn't even really get into
Square Games until like my mid teams. But even then, I expect better
out of this company that raised me almost right, Like I just I don't
understand, like all these older companies were able to evolve, and like Square
was doing well there in like the middle like two thousands, like yeah,
fa Fanacy thirteen they had like the tomb Raider reboot, hit Man was doing
really well, like they really embraced into the Western market, and then these
idiots were lying crypto. I don't know why this turned into a Square Enix
ran, but here we are, Like here we are. I play games
like Optopath and I'm like this this is what you need to be doing,
like fix this a little bit more, but like this is the right direction.
What are you fuckers doing? I wish, I wish I do.
It's all down to RP and Team Masana and I guess that man's back.
M hmm. Let's see what Kingdom Hearts for does. Oh yeah, they
do have Kingdom Hearts. I forgot about that Square had more properties than I
give them credit for tactics anything because they don't market well. Right, that's
true. Oh yeah, what was it the game that you were talking about
that was really really cool? Oh, Paranorma side that developed and published game
which feeling we didn't advertise Octopat too really all that much. Yeah, it's
it's really sad because like Paranorma Side I think is the coolest thing Squannas has
done in a very long time. Right, it's just like this cool experimental
small game. Um, it's like I want more of this, Like I
want more of a weird experimental Square that's not trying to like chase a trend
poorly. Meanwhile, I have to skip like a Final Fantasy sixteen drill or
five times a day because I'm trying to like not seeing anything on that game,
and I'm like, bro, ye, I'm already buying this game.
You do not need to sell it to me. Bro fucking yeah, sell
me these other things, you know, because like they have things coming out
apparently, it's just so we don't know about them. They don't do a
new Residence of Fate. Is that still on sale? Holy shit? That
was that was onself for like twenty bucks on team and I was like,
oh shit, I need to pick it up, and then I forgot I
actually need to play that game. But I Cross Zone has really made me
interested in that game. That is one of the most like complicated video games,
but one of also one of the coolest video games. Yeah. Yeah,
So it wasn't no Trice t r ic right, I mean so that's
like pseudo Square Enix. But I mean yeah, they worked together on stuff,
right, So not the new Valkyrie game. I mean it should have
been try. Well, if you ask my my Valkyrie profile loving friend,
Trice hasn't made a good games and Valkyrie profile too, So like I don't
know what to tell you. Yeah, well struggled too. Yeah m hm.
He might not be wrong. M h. That might be some truth
in that statement. M m m m. But anyway, Residents of Fates
is on sale for twenty dollars for the next thirteen hours on Steam is dam
or because like, I know that got a console port as well, Right,
yeah it did, because I got the four k uh Persion remaster.
I don't know if it's on sale everywhere else. Are you saying Residents of
Fate or yeah, Residents Resonance, So yeah, I'm looking up with residents
like Resident Evil, yes, yeah, the Residents Residents of Fate. Yeah.
Um, it's it's a really fun like tactics game, um featuring a
lot of gun combat, but it's mechanics are just very obtuse in how you
have to like damage the enemies because you have to like break their guard gauge
first before you can deal enemies, and only certain like weapon types will do
that, um in like some weird combo mechanics in there. It's it is
a clunky mess, but it is fucking awesome once you, like you get
the hang of it and watch it. But that sounds like the perfect try
S game description. Yeah yeah, right, yeah, that is a Tris
game and it was Yeah, it's the humor in it is also ten out
of ten like it. It's a very goofy game as well. Um yeah,
looking at the trailer right now, mm hmm. The animations are like
top tier, some of the best attack animations out there. Like they're fucking
sliding and shooting and jumping over each other's backs and it's so qui. It's
like I made an equilibrium like video game. Yeah, yeah, for those
those are for all our like mid thirties fans who watched that movie in the
like early nineties. M So, I'm gonna add that to my carts and
figure out how to hit the purchase button. Uh so, yeah, with
that segment over, or I guess our square innex Power Hour, anything else
we want to touch on before we wrap this thing up. No, I
think that was everything I played, which is really just Octopath. Zelda is
on the horizon. I'm scheming ways on how to get all the pre order
gifts without bankrupting myself. I don't think that's possible. Fucking hate that.
Like there's like seven pre order gifts and they're all retailer exclusive. It's the
worst. Yeah, but Zelda comes out on Friday. I'm gonna try to
have Octopath done by then. So I can like give you guys a lowdown
on Zelda next week. I'm excited, if if only because it's it's another
trip into High Rule. Like for as much as I rag on Breath of
the Wild, I did really enjoy my time and that with that game,
and I imagine Tears of the Kingdom will deliver on that as well. Um,
I'm very very excited for that game, very excited game, very excited
to check that game out as well. Um, it's probably gonna steal another
one hundred hours from me, I'm sure. Mmmm. Like, man,
when we get to Game of the Year, it's gonna be a tough year.
It really is. M hmm, yeah, yeah, it's it's gonna
be a good one. Like there's no at least I don't first see there
being like a runaway game, right, No, not like last year with
elden Ring. Yeah, Like last year was elden Ring or Got Up War.
It was one of the two. And hey, is that elden Ring
DLC comes out this year, elden Ring has a chance to do it again.
Oh my god, we're not going to see that Front of the Year
hits PC. Oh my god. For the fiftils, Zero is like the
last game of the year of like the past ten years. So I mean
it's it's up for nomination if you want it. Um no no, no.
I mean I did mention it as an honorable mention last year, but
I mean Armored Core is also coming out this year, and I keep thinking
about that game more and more. Oh that game looks so sick. The
last Till Cool I missed out on. So there was a Collector's Edition,
right, which is like a lot of money. Wasn't the Collector's edition?
It was two hundred and thirty dollars a game with like an AC unit um
and like, you know, the usual collectors edition. But then there was
a premium edition. I know this because James texted me. He's like,
hey, are you getting the Premium Edition? And I'm like, you mean
the Collector's Issue's like, no, I mean them. And then I looked
it up and I'm like, how much is this shit? It's four hundred
fifty that's the one thinking of and like it comes with the same AC unit
but it has like a full on fucking garage behind it, and I'm like,
bro, that garage is not worth two hundred and twenty dollars. To
me, this is just no way. But you got to complete the set,
Drew. Now I missed out. They apparently all sold out, So
I'm fine. I'm fine. We we don't need that. I love Armored
Core. Like that game is gonna be sick again. I keep thinking about
that trailer a lot, and like they have all the Soul's money behind them,
because like, you don't understand, I grew up on Armored Corps.
I used to sleep over at a friend's house to just play Armored Corps all
night, like when I was a kid. So like, I'm so excited
that, like this is an Armored Core game with a fucking budget. That
is so exciting, so fucking cool. I'm very excited for this game.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm surprised it's coming out. So
that's because it was a quick turnaround time from announcement. I think they've been
working on it for a while because they did the same thing they have and
I like that trend of like we announced it is the nintended Special. These
days, they're like, hey, we made a game, it's out in
two weeks. It's out at least within the next six months. Like that
that's how I feel like a cycle should go right, stay quiet for a
while, and then like when it's about ready to launch, that's when you
announce it. Don't don't keep it. It does, but it I don't
know, it helps with the excitement around it. Um, at least I'm
more excited for when I first hear something, I'm like, okay, cool,
I can play that real soon instead of being bombarded with like, uh,
you know trailers for the next year and a half. I mean that's
fair. I get that. That is frustrating. Yeah. Oh then then
you then you get the part where like there's a long period of silence and
then you're wondering whether or not it is everything. Okay, is this game
actually coming out? You know? There we went through the era of announcing
things too early, right, so now it's like anytime there's radio silence,
everybody's skeptical about what's going on. You mean, like Metro Prome four,
Well, at least we know what that one. They had to restart development
like twice, so I hope that game still exists. It's it, Yeah,
I feel like it does given the timeline. Um, So, like
I wonder if it's going to launch the next Nintendo console because I feel like
I feel like we're we're like do That's fine? If it was any other
company, I would say, yes, Nintendo be doing Nintendo things. So
I don't know, well, it would be perfect for me to have to
switch, oh leeds for them just to announce a new fucking system, right
that's backwards compatible, because why not. I don't know if we're going to
get that new switch anytime soon. They seem pretty content with what they have,
and what they have is is selling still, so we're down, They're
still up, like I think they're I think they're down overall, but like
it's still like healthy sales numbers. It's not like a dire situation. Um
well no, I mean they're they're making money. People are buying their games.
The fucking Mario movie is the best grossing movie of all fucking time,
billion dollars, but it's bad according to critics. I mean, I still
have not seen the movie, but I think I can understand a critical view
on that movie considering what it is. I don't think that's meant to be
like viewed critically. I'll be perfectly, but I mean you can still so
you can separate those things. Right where it's like, okay, if this
is playing towards like a nostalgia kind of feel or like only going for the
specific thing. Um, it's the whole thing about reviewing and like how you
want to look at and review a thing and critically and critically like it may
not hit like the movie beats of like what you would call a traditional littlement.
Well, yes, that's fine to be citizen Kane. That's fine.
The thing is is like that's fine, it doesn't have to. But that
doesn't mean we can't like criticize it for it but acknowledge that, hey,
this is okay for the audience, that it is servic like you can have
both things, both things can exist. But I feel like critical reviews don't
put it in that way and they're just like it's some don't, some don't,
and that's a right. Um. I tend to not like put a
lot of stock into things that don't do that. But it's like I can
understand why someone would criticize or be critical like look at things from a critical
lens. Sure, Um, but that that's a whole like other discussion that
I could go down and I can talk for hours on that and how I
feel reviews are misunderstood in a lot of ways and and sometimes written very poorly.
Uh that's a subject for another day. Stay tuned for the dance p
Patreon if you want to exclude some content on on my thoughts on on on
the review process of media. With that, let's wrap up, let's get
out of here. I got some some more ass beatings to give with corone.
Yeah, I got some more head shots with both tom oh Lloyd.
You know y'all don't y'all don't have rights? Um, Ryan, Where can
people find you and your lions? Yeah? Well on on Steam obviously.
Uh you find me in the games there? Uh. Social media wisezoh um,
Twitter, RCB, Underscore draws. Um. That is basically my art
account, which fun little announcement. I don't think I officially announced it yet,
but um, I will be doing my first ever art booth in a
month from now. Oh yeah, so everything's secure and ready to go.
Um. As far as having a spot, um, it's going to be
at a Nacama Anime Bar, which is an Orange park on Sunday, yep,
Sunday, June fourth. It's my first ever art booth. I'm going
to have some prints. I'm going to have some stickers. Um stickers might
be coming this week, so I might be able to share photos of that
and might do like a little pre sale before the art booth as well to
some people that might be interested in them. And I think I'm gonna have
either eight or nine print designs that I will be able to share as well
once I get all the prints done. I know I shared which art pieces
I did that will be prints so far, including the US Grimmery one that
I did, the Okayu piece I did, I remastered. I remastered the
Sailor Jupiter one as well, so like there will be some stuff there to
share. But RSB Underscore Draws that's the Twitter account you can check me out
on that has all my art work that I posted everything and us so here
and there. I do stream on Twitch still, which is our cbund to
score tv um, so you can find me in those two spots. Cool
uh joostafer about you? Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at JSB
totally drew. Uh. Stay tuned for my Zelda Tears of the Kingdom clips
that are going to be hilarious, I'm sure, um I look forward to
like, uh, it's gonna be great. It could be great. It
could be great. Also probably me screaming about the Octopath like Final Bouts track.
It's gonna be amazing. I just know it a lot of good things.
Yea, sir, yes, sir, m hm uh. You can
find me on Twitter at zenos ka z and os uk where I will just
talk about I will show down and the struggle that is Corone being a fair
and honest character filled with other people. A buff Corone. She she needs
it. U you know all these other characters, they they are menaces to
society. Um, you should start a hashtag rob and then like tweeted at
Corona so then she talks about it. It's really funny. Actually, I
saw a tweet earlier that was like, this is the first game where we
could tweet directly at our characters that we were playing, and they tweeted at
I think it was Hockey. It was just like your character is bullshit and
they're like like respectfully, and I was like, this is a really weird
error that we're in. It was, it was very fun stuff. Um.
You can also find me on our other show that we do here,
the jsp Anime Cast, which we just did earlier today, so as you
are hearing this, the vade will be up on our YouTube as well as
an audio service um where. This week the assignment picked by me was Paranoia
Agent. UM. This was a series that came out in the mid two
thousands by the late Satoshi khon um. It is one of my favorite anime
of all time. UM. It's it's a wonderful like psychological thriller. UM
that just why haven't you shown me this yet? Uh, it's on the
list. It's on the list. It's it's on the list. We're going
to get to that. I will gladly watch this again. UM. It
was one that's like it's one of those things where like you know how like
you play so many games or you watch so many things that it's like it's
very it's almost impossible to put like a top ten list of things together.
Like it's something that changes all the time. At least that's how I am.
And it's like there are times where like I don't think about Paranoia Agent
because there's so much other stuff that occupies my mind. But at the same
time, it's always in the back of my mind. So it's just it
just happened to be like one day I was thinking about it and I was
just like, oh, yeah, the next assign it's going to be Paranoia
Agent, and I was just like reminded why I love this show so much.
So it's one of those things where just it hasn't come up because for
you specifically, I was thinking about other shows right like, this is what
I want Drew to experience, and now rewatching this, I'm just like,
maybe this is another one that I should show Drew. There are some horror
elements in it, but it's not necessarily a horror thing, so the subject
matter can be horrifying. But anyway, fantastic anime contender for like one of
the best of all time depending on who you ask. Um, if you've
guys seen it, go watch our spoiler casts on it. Um, if
you haven't seen it, go watch it, and then go watch that spoiler
cast on it. Because there was a lot of really fascinating discussions around around
that series. So yeah, with that, let's get out of here.
Thank you guys for listening, Thank you guys for being here. We will
talk to y'all next week. Bye play Idle Showdown. Sorry, I'm listening
to Octampa music. I see well that's the same