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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Game Informer Show. You're weekly

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tune in for all things Game Informer. Here, we've got

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the whole crew. I'm Eric Van Allen, video editor. Joining

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me today Brian Shay. Brian, how you doing.

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Speaker 2: I'm doing great.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's a strong week of video game releases

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and I'm excited to talk about them.

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Speaker 1: It's it's so much to talk about. We're gonna have

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a pretty fun fast light show here talking about everything

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that's been happening at Game in Form and in video games.

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And joining us to also do that, Wesley LeBlanc, Wesley,

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how you doing?

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Speaker 2: Hello?

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Speaker 4: Hello, I'm doing great, and I'm very excited to talk

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about our latest cover story because I wrote it.

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Speaker 1: And that cover story, Folks at Home, is of course

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on a Musha way of the sword weird. So excited

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to finally be able to show this off. Look at

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the scorgeous cover. Look at that it's incredible, it's so good.

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Speaker 5: Look at the back to even the back.

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Speaker 1: You got some like genma on the back, I believe

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some of some various genma of various sources. Uh yeah, yeah,

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we'll be talking about that at the top of the show.

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As always, Head over to gaminforma dot com slash subscribe

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to pick up your subscription right now. If you jump

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in as of this recording, as of this going live,

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you will be able to secure your own and Musha

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way of the Sword cover story arriving in your mailbox,

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and you should do that. Support physical media. It's great,

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I'll say it.

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Speaker 3: The cover art is absolutely gorgeous, but it like seeing

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it on a computer screen does not do it justice.

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Like you absolutely need to see this in person. It

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is it pops like the art and everything. I have

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no history with the ownA Musha franchise, but I am

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jealous that I'm not going to be hanging this on

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my wall as like one of the cover stories I've written,

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because it is so beautiful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, no computer screen will ever capture the

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physical majesty of a Game Informer. You gotta check that out.

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And hey, if you do miss that subscription window or

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if you just like buy an issue by issue, we

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are also in bookstores now. Head to Barns and Noble

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Books a Million or your local bookseller see if we're

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in those shelves. If you're international, we are still figuring

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out exactly where all of those booksellers are so please

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if you are internationally you see us in whatever bookseller

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you have near you, please drop us a line. Let's know,

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we always love to hear about where we're popping up airports,

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new stands, various gaming places and things like that. It's

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always fun to see us pop up in a new place.

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So let us know if you see us out there.

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I actually, as part of this cover trip, went looking

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in a Kina Kinea in Osaka to see if we

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were there, but I could not navigate the Quino Kaneya

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well to even begin to ascertain where we might be located,

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so I came up empty there. But if you find

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us in a Kina kanea, let us know. Folks, Let's

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get underway. Let's just get right into the main topic.

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Ona Musha is our cover story. Wes. You and I

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were the cover attendees, the respective writer and video editor

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for that cover trip. Let's start with you. What is

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your history with Ona Musha going into this and why

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were you excited for this cover trip?

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Speaker 4: So my history with only Musha largely goes back to

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Only Musha one and two.

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Speaker 5: They're like the pinnacle.

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Speaker 4: Of I am a young boy and this video game

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has a cool samurai guy with a cool sword and

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cool demons and you get to do cool stuff to

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them by hitting them with the sword. And to me,

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video games didn't get better than that, and.

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Speaker 5: So I always appreciated the series.

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Speaker 4: But there's been a twenty year gap, so as I've

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grown older, honestly, I've kind of forgotten that it existed,

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because Capcom seemingly did forget it existed for a while

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there too. But going into this cover story trip, I

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replayed the recently released remasters of Only Musha one and

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two just to kind of like freshen up on the series.

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And not only do they like hold up well, but

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they are so like such a fascinating piece of like

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two thousand and one and two thousand and two history.

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Like the first game is was project titled Singoku Biohazard,

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which is sing Gooku's like the Warring States period. It's

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when one Musha won a tour set. Bio Hazard obviously

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is the Japanese name for Resident Evil, and that game

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is straight up just Resident Evil, but you're a samurai.

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And then the sequel kind of expands on that, and

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as they kept going, they kind of found their own

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formula for what One Musha is, and I don't really

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think Way of the Sword is resident evil at all.

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I mean there's some horror elements, but like it's it's

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kind of gotten away from that what that first game was.

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But I'm very, very very happy that One Musha is

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back in my life and the public demo I've played

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and what we played in the offices, which is like

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some I've never before seen stuff as well, I'm stoked

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for September, like it's it's maybe my most excited game

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for September. I don't I say maybe because September is

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a huge month for releases and I'm not I'm blinking

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on some of the other games, but it's up there,

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like I cannot wait to play more of this game

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and this cover story trip just like reaffirmed that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really like I went into this with

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no knowledge of Onamusha. To be totally honest and transparent

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with y'all here on the GI Show podcast, I went

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in just knowing that Ona Musha was a game that

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Capcom made that had Samurai in it. It was third

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person action, that's about it. Going in, I was like,

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you know, maybe maybe I'll enjoy this, maybe this would

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be neat. I came out being like, Ona Musha way

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the Sword is probably one of my most anticipated games

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of this year. Feels like a really strong candidate for

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one of the better action game titles of the year.

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Really just number one reaffirmed and you can check out

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in the magazine as well. The future that Hayes Mattson

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did about Capcom's kind of golden age that they are in,

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and Ona Musha just really reaffirmed that. Where I walked in,

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I was like, yeah, they they've got enough juice to

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bring back something from the dead, essentially to say, this

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is one of our old franchises that we haven't done

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in years, but we are on such a role right

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now we can't miss And it really does feel that way,

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and it's a really enjoyable game. I think there's so

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many elements to it that are worth digging into that

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we'll talk about. But one that jumped out at me

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was the like the setting and the theming that is

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tied so like well into the actual Japan, real life,

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historical Japan. We got to go visit some of the

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sites that are used as inspiration or portrayed inside on

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a moosh Away the Sword, real life temples, locations. What

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did you think of those wes? It was it kind

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of cool seeing them side by side in your mind.

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I guess we didn't have a station there to food

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up and compare, but.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So it was actually really interesting because I've been

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to This was my third time in Kyoto, and I

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actually just went on a personal vacation in Japan with

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my family in April, so to come back in June

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was really cool, and it put a new light on

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places I've been before, which is primarily Kyo meet Sudera Temple,

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which is like probably Kyoto's most famous temple arguably location,

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and then the Yasui Kompiragu Shrine, which is the like

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wishing shrine. And I visited those places as tourists and

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I was just like, this is really cool. Oh yeah,

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it's a Buddhist temple, like, oh, it's it's old. It

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has a giant sword thing that you can pick up

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that has like a fun fable tied to it, or

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you can pick up like some like there's like a

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I don't want to say fortune teller because I forget

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what they call it, but you can get some like

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fortunes told there and whatnot, and it was like it

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was just a tourist spot to go to and it

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was a cool location in Kyoto history. And then having

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played the game, which the Kio meets Sudera Temple is

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the publicly available demo if you want to see that,

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and then Yasui Kompiragu is what we played, It's what

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people played it SGF.

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Speaker 5: It was really cool to go back to those.

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Speaker 4: Places with the knowledge of what they look like in game,

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but then also like why they were included in the

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game Kiyo meets Udera is, I mean, one is just

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an iconic location. So it's a really cool thing to

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take this lush, green, beautiful temple area that is packed

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with Taurus and then put it in early Edo period

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Kyoto and turn it into the dark fantasy that is

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ony Musha's like thematic styling. But then we also learned

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some stuff there, like in the I think it's the

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first trailer you can see people like jumping off the

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main stage of that, and we talked to one of

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the producers on site there and in Japan, we like

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a leap of faith, that's a saying we have here

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in Japan. They would say, like leaping off Kiyo Meetsudera

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is like a saying there. And that's because back in

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the day, during the Edo period, if you jumped off

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the stage and survived the forty three foot fall, you

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were blessed, and so like that was your sign from

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the god, from the mythology, from whatever, to like continue

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forward because you're on the right path. And in real history,

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that's a real thing. Like over two hundred people jump

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from that stage, and I want to say sixty seven

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percent based on historical records, survived. And so just like

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having that strange little nugget of a fact and then

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seeing something like the trailer where people are jumping off

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and where protagonist Mimo too Musashi is pushing people off

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and whatnot is really cool.

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Speaker 5: And then.

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Speaker 4: In the same vein the Asui Kompiragu Shrine is it's

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this oblong stone that has a hole in it, and

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you write down a wish and then you glue it

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to the stone and you crawl forward through the stone

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and then you crawl backward through the stone, and that's

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to grant your wish. But today it's more of like

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a tourist attraction or just like a fun thing to

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do back in the day, there was mythology tied to it,

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which is like, if you make your wish like it

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might come true.

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Speaker 5: But but it's kind of like a Genie's lamp situation, where.

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Speaker 4: Like if you don't like something less uh. For example, Musashi,

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if he doesn't want the only gauntlet on his arm,

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he could wish to have it removed, and the way

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it would be removed is cutting your arm off. So, yes,

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you did get the only gauntlet removed, but not in

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the way you want. And so to translate that into

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the video game, they attached a deity to it named Rashiaghan,

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which you can see in her cover story what he

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looks like. He's like an eight arm figure. He kind

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of looks like a a demonic form of my Champ

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or something, and his whole thing is like, yeah, I

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grant wishes, I'm the but he's called the Wishwharper in

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the boss fight, like Rashia Gon the Wishwarper, and that's

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because he grants wishes, but he warps them to kind

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of appease himself. So in the game, we saw a

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woman who is really really tired of playing the Oh

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my gosh, I'm blinking on the instrument, but.

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Speaker 5: Sham sent Shami Sen.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and she keeps having to practice this to appeace

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her lord, and her finger's hurt and she's tired, and

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she goes to Rashagan and she's like, please relieve me

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of this. I do not want to play this anymore.

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I don't want to practice. I don't want to play

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this dang instrument anymore. And he's like, yeah, I can

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totally do that, and then the next scene is him

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cutting off her fingers and now he gets to like

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he uses those fingers as like a trinket almost, and

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she has no fingers anymore, so, yeah, you don't have

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to play the Shamis anymore. And it's because you don't

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have hands to do so. And we didn't see exactly

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how the fingers translate to him, but at a certain point,

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you know, his eyes are he's covering his face with

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a bunch of hands, and a certain point we see

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those hands come off his face and he has a

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bunch of eyes, and Capcom told us those are not

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his eyes, so, uh, presumably somebody wished for something that

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ended up them losing their eyes and then he gets them.

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So now he has multiple eyes to see. So it's

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a really fun twist on the real mythology of Kyoto

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to take these like fables, these legends, these myths, these

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pieces of actual history of Kyoto and apply them to

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like a video game, uh Mechanic or boss or something

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that fits thematically with what Only Musha is doing. And yeah,

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it was I was really really thankful we got to

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go to Kyoto because I mean it's like a thirty

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minute train ride from Osaka. But yeah, really put into

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light some of the more iconic scenery I think players

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can expect in Only Musha way the Sword because it's

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mostly set in Kyoto.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a really really interesting moment to see

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something like that and and realize like the amount of

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work that has gone into trying to translate that into

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a virtual environment and put stuff in there. I was

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thinking about Paranorma site a lot while we were on

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this trip, as I always do. I just always consider

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Paranorma site before I do anything.

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Speaker 4: But we actually did talk about Paranormo site a good

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few times. I think we saw a guy playing it

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in the airport.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, when you and I were walking through the airport

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in poland you were like, this is just like paranorma site.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, big paranormosit vibes.

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Speaker 2: Everything guy who has played one video.

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Speaker 1: Game exactly Hormozy from this. But it was the same

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thing of a lot of desire to just create this,

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this world, this story that takes place within the world,

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and have that real world history, that real world mythology

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and folklore play into the story and help build it up.

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And I think Onamusha does a lot of that. But

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I think what some people definitely want us to talk

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about is definitely the combat of Onamusha, the sword play,

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which I had a lot of fun with. I was

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going into, Like I said, I had not played a

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lot of Onomusha in the past, so I was not

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aware of what the style was going in. But I

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was really pleasantly surprised by the focus on kind of

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smart tactical, not just hack and slash your way. If

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you tried to hack and slash your way through it,

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like maybe you could get through some of the fodder

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a little bit, but once you got to some of

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the bosses, especially one that dumpsterred both of us a

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few times, you really needed to carefully perry, dodge, move,

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get around. It was more of a dance, a ballet

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of swords, and I really really enjoyed that. Did you

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kind of feel the same way?

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Speaker 3: Was?

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So the original only Musha games were a response to

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Resident Evil, which is, I don't want to say long

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range combat, but you try to be further from the zombies.

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You shoot your gun from a distance and the game

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responds and kind and Anie Musha one was like, hey,

291
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what if we take Resident Evil and we make it

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a close range combat game, so swords and we fight

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up close, and so it always had a really cool

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and unique emphasis on the sword being your primary weapon.

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Although there are other weapons to use, they're like triple

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tripling down on that in way of the sword to

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the point where the sword is your only weapon. Like

298
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and Onni Musha two, you have like three or four weapons,

299
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including a hammer and a spear and some other stuff,

300
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but you just have one sword here. Although you do

301
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have they're called only armaments, which are like bumper attacks

302
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that you can use once the gauge builds up, and

303
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those are technically weapons, but your primary weapon is the katana.

304
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And my biggest takeaway from combat is I love action games.

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I feel like within ten minutes of most action games,

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I understand and I have a grasp on what the

307
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combat system is. And that's just because developers take inspiration

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from other games, they borrow ideas this, and that we've

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kind of been ingrained in what an action game is

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in twenty twenty six. The thing that's most exciting for

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me and Wave the Sword is I think it kind

312
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of bucks that trend in the sense that it is confusing.

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It's mechanically sprawling in terms of what you can do

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in combat. Yes, you can just do one thing, but

315
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you have so many options available in front of you,

316
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and to me that is it was refreshing to be

317
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confused and to have so many buttons to use in

318
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combat and wonder how this is going to advance further

319
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in the game, as opposed to feeling like I already

320
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know what's going on. I mean, the easen is like

321
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the main thing. That's when you attack at the same

322
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time as an enemy. In the original games, it was

323
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like an instant slash kill that returns here and it's

324
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still the hardest move to pull off, harder than a perry,

325
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which there is, of course an actual pary. The perry

326
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fills a blazing gauge meter, which when it's full, automatically

327
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lights his sword with like blue flames for increased damage.

328
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There is a reflex dodge, which is like a quick,

329
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slowdown time dodge that fills your reflex gauge, and when

330
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you fill that up then you can do a massive

331
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blow to the enemy. There is a break easen. There

332
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is a chain easen. You can deflect arrows, you can

333
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deflect weapons. You can perform my favorite move, the blade barage,

334
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which is like when you and an enemy use the

335
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same type of attack, so a one handed slash, for example,

336
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it locks you two into combat and kind of like

337
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zooms a bit in on you, and then to win

338
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you have to use a move that the enemy doesn't use.

339
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So it really feels like you're playing almost like against

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an actual player or something, because if you both use

341
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a one handed move, the blade braj occurs. If you

342
00:17:03,639 --> 00:17:05,519
both use a one handed move, again, they're gonna win,

343
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so you need to be like kind of looking at

344
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what they're gonna do and how they're moving to responding

345
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:16,119
kind There's grab reversals for like straight up WWE wrestling slams.

346
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There's the only armaments I've already mentioned like there is

347
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just so much going on in the combat that there

348
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is a level of expression I don't feel like you

349
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get from a lot of action games. And that's not

350
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to like disparage other action games. I just feel like,

351
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more than any game I've played this year, I feel

352
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the way that I'm gonna play ony Musha will differ

353
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vastly from the way Brian plays it and from the

354
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way you play, and that's super super exciting for me.

355
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Speaker 1: Yeah, my favorite thing to do in a room full

356
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,319
of enemies was just kind of like walk in and

357
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just stand there with my sword out and just kind

358
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of wait for them to make the first move, like

359
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almost like Era max on them a little bit and

360
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:57,720
then yeah, yeah, And it felt so cool like a

361
00:17:57,799 --> 00:18:00,960
game actually capture that without just trying to be like, oh,

362
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:02,480
look at this guy, he's so cool. It's no, you

363
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just feel awesome when you walk into a room and

364
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you're like, who wants to take the first swing? And

365
00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:11,079
I think one of the really cool things that surprised

366
00:18:11,079 --> 00:18:13,599
me about on Amusha as well was the amount of

367
00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,640
love put into the animations in combat. I love the

368
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variety of animations, the ability, I mean, just the talent

369
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to have all these different animations for where you'd be

370
00:18:24,799 --> 00:18:28,039
blocking or pairying or moving around. There was so much

371
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work that will show in the cover story and in

372
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videos and stuff like that that went into just having

373
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:39,400
Musashi look natural while he's sword fighting in this kind

374
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of three sixty degree arena around him, and it works.

375
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It looks really really good in motion, and I was

376
00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,039
constantly surprised by how smooth it all felt. Sometimes games,

377
00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:52,160
especially when they have a perry where you're trying to

378
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,279
respond in that sort of like three sixty realm, you'll

379
00:18:55,319 --> 00:18:57,279
kind of have a character that almost like spins on

380
00:18:57,319 --> 00:18:59,640
a pivot, like he's like he's on a little lazy

381
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:04,319
Susan that spins them around and and lock stuff. Yeah yeah, yeah,

382
00:19:04,359 --> 00:19:08,039
And here it feels more natural. It feels more like

383
00:19:08,279 --> 00:19:10,240
you are kind of playing somebody who is trying to

384
00:19:12,079 --> 00:19:16,119
operate the way that the human body operates in real motion,

385
00:19:16,319 --> 00:19:19,039
and that that really adds to how intense the combat is.

386
00:19:19,079 --> 00:19:21,000
And then the bosses, Oh my gosh, the bosses, I

387
00:19:21,039 --> 00:19:25,640
mean the uh we we fought several of them. I

388
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,000
think my personal favorite was probably the Greater new A,

389
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:32,519
which was a really really interesting enemy to tackle. It

390
00:19:32,559 --> 00:19:37,279
was basically two bosses in one These these two Chimera

391
00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,759
style enemies that would just gang up on you, and

392
00:19:41,319 --> 00:19:44,400
the first part of the fight was probably the hardest,

393
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,160
where you're just trying to manage fighting two enemies at

394
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:50,680
the same time and deal with both of their attacks

395
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,640
being not not simultaneously shot at you, but definitely like

396
00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,640
they were not giving you a lot of respite between

397
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,720
their attacks. They were not giving you a lot of space.

398
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,559
I really really enjoyed that one. Were there any bosses

399
00:20:03,599 --> 00:20:04,640
that stuck out to us?

400
00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,359
Speaker 4: Yeah, those ones in particular, I'm just gonna piggyback on that.

401
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,640
Excuse my dog's barking. Yeah, Like, it's a hard fight

402
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:14,319
because you have two people managing it, and then you

403
00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:16,519
piss them off enough by breaking down their health bar,

404
00:20:16,599 --> 00:20:19,000
and then they're like, okay, fine, we will just activate

405
00:20:19,079 --> 00:20:23,640
our fully lightning electric tails, and then the fight just

406
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:28,000
gets twice as hard. We're gonna talk about challenge as

407
00:20:28,039 --> 00:20:30,200
we talk about these bosses, But I do want to

408
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:32,920
say this is not a Soul's like game. Capcom says

409
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:34,759
that I'm a big fan of souls like games. This

410
00:20:34,799 --> 00:20:37,240
is not a Soul's like game. It is an action game.

411
00:20:37,319 --> 00:20:38,000
Speaker 5: It does have some.

412
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 4: Difficulty, but like if you're worried about a Soul's like

413
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:46,160
level difficulty, it's not like that. And one more thing

414
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,160
you mentioned the combat animations they mocapped like all of this,

415
00:20:49,319 --> 00:20:52,079
They even mocap the more extreme bosses. We didn't get

416
00:20:52,079 --> 00:20:53,920
to see what that looks like, but they explained that

417
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,079
they went to great lengths to like hire some of

418
00:20:56,160 --> 00:21:00,200
Japan's best swordsmen and give them like fake appendages to

419
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,319
be Rasha Gone with eight arms and stuff, and.

420
00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,000
Speaker 1: They at one point describe that experience of like people

421
00:21:07,079 --> 00:21:09,400
just kind of pretending to be arms for each other,

422
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,279
like almost kind of a Goro and Mortal Kombat situation,

423
00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:14,559
And I was like, that sounds incredible.

424
00:21:14,559 --> 00:21:16,640
Speaker 4: I wanted to see it so bad. He was like

425
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:20,079
teasing us with how funny it looked. And yeah, and

426
00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:22,079
to the blocking point you mentioned as well, I think

427
00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:24,079
they it's in my cover story. It was either ten

428
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:25,640
or sixteen of the numbers I have in my head,

429
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,960
but that's how many different ways he can block directionally.

430
00:21:29,319 --> 00:21:34,119
And they were talking about how the Capcom they weren't

431
00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:35,880
saying they're going to use this, but they were saying

432
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,880
they see the potential for what some of the stuff

433
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:42,839
they've built with ony Musha and Resident Evil, including the

434
00:21:42,839 --> 00:21:44,920
way that you can block this direction, They said the

435
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:46,720
same for street Fighter. He was like, it'd be really

436
00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:48,880
cool to see street Fighter take advantage of the system

437
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,720
we've created where you can block from ten different directions.

438
00:21:53,319 --> 00:21:55,200
They're just kind of spitballing in there. I don't think

439
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:55,880
you shouldn't take that.

440
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,079
Speaker 1: Well, street Fighter only as two directions, crucially, yes, exactly,

441
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:00,359
it just has left and right.

442
00:22:00,839 --> 00:22:03,279
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so okay.

443
00:22:03,279 --> 00:22:07,599
Speaker 4: Further on on bosses, uh, Rashagun is really cool, but

444
00:22:07,799 --> 00:22:10,279
you can people wrote about that. For SGF, I just

445
00:22:10,279 --> 00:22:12,200
will mention he has this one move where he uses

446
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,880
these gigantic scissors to like sling them across the stage

447
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,160
and try to like cut you in half. Very cool,

448
00:22:18,279 --> 00:22:21,720
but again you can go read game informers. Marcus Stewart's

449
00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:25,559
his hands on preview fighting Roshagun. One of the bosses

450
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:27,720
I really enjoyed was biak Q.

451
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,160
Speaker 5: I believe is his name one hundred defiling defilements.

452
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the giants. Uh, it's like.

453
00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:39,119
Speaker 2: Type dude, Harry guy.

454
00:22:39,799 --> 00:22:42,279
Speaker 4: He's in a trailer. He's not that it matters, but

455
00:22:42,319 --> 00:22:46,000
he's in a trailer. We fought him in this underground

456
00:22:46,079 --> 00:22:47,640
lab area that we can touch on in a bit.

457
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:49,279
Speaker 5: But what I really liked.

458
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,559
Speaker 4: About him is the more you hit him, the angrier

459
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,480
he gets, and he has like an angry state almost

460
00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,240
where he hits harder and attacks more frequently and kind

461
00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:03,240
of just hit you with more barrage of attacks. And

462
00:23:03,279 --> 00:23:05,240
I thought that was really cool because I am the

463
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:07,240
type of person who just rushes in and I'm trying

464
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,519
to hit you as much as possible. And that was

465
00:23:09,559 --> 00:23:14,440
like a very blunt reset for me where it was like, Okay,

466
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:16,000
so you don't get to play that way that you

467
00:23:16,079 --> 00:23:16,880
usually play, Wesley.

468
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:18,319
Speaker 5: You need to go in and.

469
00:23:20,599 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 4: Like really focus on when you want to hit him,

470
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:25,680
because the more you hit him, the angry here he gets,

471
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:27,519
the harder he gets. So I had to make sure, like, okay,

472
00:23:27,519 --> 00:23:29,960
if I'm hitting him and needs to be at a

473
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:31,880
moment where I can inflict the most damage.

474
00:23:32,319 --> 00:23:33,079
Speaker 5: And it was really cool.

475
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:34,359
Speaker 4: It was kind of a boss fight where I had

476
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:37,440
to sit back and kind of to read what he's

477
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,680
doing and when I can counter best in which of

478
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:43,440
my various moves to use, and I really appreciated that.

479
00:23:43,519 --> 00:23:45,559
It also kind of showed off some of the environmental

480
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,160
stuff you can do in this game, because there's like

481
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,799
red barrels everywhere and you can kind of, you know,

482
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:53,839
yield him over to that direction so you can blow

483
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,920
him up. It was a really really really cool boss fight.

484
00:23:57,039 --> 00:23:58,640
Quite enjoyed that one.

485
00:23:58,759 --> 00:24:01,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one was. It took me a while. I

486
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,000
think you beat it before me. We kind of trade

487
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:05,920
it off on who was beating which boss first. Not

488
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:07,440
that I was keeping track, not that I you know,

489
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:09,400
have a little chip on my shoulder about that or anything,

490
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,759
but I got stuck on that one for a bit

491
00:24:13,839 --> 00:24:17,000
because I had been playing so aggressively and because I

492
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,279
was very much doing the Okay, I dodge and hit,

493
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,640
I dodge and hit, And one of the producers came

494
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,720
over and was like, hey, yeah, just just letting you know,

495
00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:28,759
like this is the mechanic of the fight, is that

496
00:24:28,799 --> 00:24:31,799
the bloodier he gets, the more powerful he gets. So

497
00:24:31,839 --> 00:24:34,200
you could like, like I got really close on one

498
00:24:34,279 --> 00:24:37,119
run where I was I had him super bloodied and

499
00:24:37,279 --> 00:24:39,319
if you just play well, if you play right, you

500
00:24:39,319 --> 00:24:42,440
can still beat him. But you could also try going

501
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,720
for a more balanced approach or even more passive approach,

502
00:24:45,799 --> 00:24:47,759
trying to just dodge and perry and stuff like that.

503
00:24:47,799 --> 00:24:50,519
And when I started kind of leaning more that way,

504
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,319
I was like, oh, this this fight feels very different now.

505
00:24:53,319 --> 00:24:57,160
It feels a lot more manageable. But also I'm having

506
00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:59,720
to think about it in a different way, not as

507
00:24:59,759 --> 00:25:03,359
a but just think about Okay, watch his moves, watch

508
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:05,759
his shoulders, watch where he's swinging things like that, and

509
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:06,839
I really really like that.

510
00:25:07,559 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really cool to have It's one thing to

511
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:11,480
have a boss and like you got to learn a

512
00:25:11,519 --> 00:25:14,480
boss's moves. That's just across video games in general. It's

513
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,759
really cool to have a mechanic like his blood State

514
00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:21,400
mixed in where it changes how you interact with the boss,

515
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:23,480
not just because of the moves we're using, but how

516
00:25:23,519 --> 00:25:26,640
they they work as like a character in this world.

517
00:25:28,039 --> 00:25:31,839
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that Underground Lab now, because that was incredible.

518
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:36,960
That that was Maybe the I did like the the Wish,

519
00:25:37,279 --> 00:25:40,839
the Wish Grant or Area Raschkan stuff, but I think

520
00:25:40,839 --> 00:25:42,839
the Underground Lab is the moment where I was like,

521
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:47,000
this is this is a really really good video game. Yeah.

522
00:25:47,039 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 4: They described it to us, the director Satoro and yih

523
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,480
before we played. It was like this area that you're

524
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,799
about to experience is specifically inspired by like a classic

525
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,880
Japanese ghost house, which I looked up after the fact,

526
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,960
and like one of the main fast that is the

527
00:26:01,079 --> 00:26:04,400
show Gi Joe Showji Joe. It's in my cover story

528
00:26:04,839 --> 00:26:07,359
behind the shoji, which is like those you know what

529
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,240
those are? That's the it's like the almost like papery

530
00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:18,359
texture walls that move in Japanese architecture. And throughout this

531
00:26:18,519 --> 00:26:21,359
underground lab, you're kind of like walking through this haunted

532
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,119
house and fighting enemies along the way, and you have

533
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,799
these showji surrounding you, and because of the light and

534
00:26:25,839 --> 00:26:28,440
the shadows, you're seeing like some really horrific stuff happen,

535
00:26:28,519 --> 00:26:30,400
but you're getting like a black and white version of

536
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,480
it because it's just the shadows. So you're like fighting enemies,

537
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:35,000
and then you look to your ride and then the shoji.

538
00:26:35,079 --> 00:26:38,160
There's like some dude who just exploded into blood. There's

539
00:26:38,279 --> 00:26:43,799
animals and cages. Dokio is this. She's a Gamma confirmed,

540
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,920
but like different than just a random a regular mob,

541
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,880
Like she's a named, she has she's a character, she

542
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:54,400
has a personality. She's very She's my favorite character that

543
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:58,799
we saw. She's very like mischievous and twisted and demented,

544
00:26:58,839 --> 00:27:01,920
and she really relishes and an evil demon, and she's

545
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,599
basically taking humans and animals and all kinds of other

546
00:27:05,599 --> 00:27:08,039
things she could find to create new Ginma. So she's

547
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:10,279
kind of this evil scientist and you're in her underground

548
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:13,119
lab fighting through it while she's taunting you and making

549
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:14,119
fun of you along the way.

550
00:27:14,759 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 1: She's she's Showtucker from Full Metal. For those of you

551
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,240
at home who who have watched your Full Metal, it's

552
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,119
in every bit as evil as you would hope from that,

553
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:28,920
but also yeah, a lot of the strange twisting anatomy

554
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,119
that it reminded me if you played Dragon Age the

555
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:34,240
Vailguard of Gillinane from that, or maybe of trying to

556
00:27:34,279 --> 00:27:38,000
think of as similar kind of slithering, kind of creepy,

557
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:43,599
elongated form character, but definitely adding to the horror vibe.

558
00:27:43,599 --> 00:27:47,200
We did ask, by the way, why does Capcom keep

559
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:52,680
putting underground labs in their video games? It was not

560
00:27:52,799 --> 00:27:54,920
in order from the top, is what they heard. It

561
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,319
just it fit the theme very well. It's a happy accident,

562
00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:58,160
it sounds like.

563
00:27:58,799 --> 00:28:02,319
Speaker 3: Because they have a giant undergrad lab underneath the Roska headquarters.

564
00:28:02,559 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: Yea they have.

565
00:28:03,279 --> 00:28:04,319
Speaker 5: They must like the.

566
00:28:06,279 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 1: Yeaeah.

567
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 3: I mean I will say that little like entrance lobby

568
00:28:09,759 --> 00:28:10,799
that you go in. Don't know if you were in

569
00:28:10,839 --> 00:28:12,640
the same building I was for the Shipwight or six

570
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:14,680
cover story. It does have a little bit of like

571
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:16,720
this is the beginning of an underground lab.

572
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, I was really impressed by impressed by Onamusha.

573
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,119
I think everything we saw was was super impressive. We've

574
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,079
got a lot of content coming up, a lot of

575
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:30,640
coverage to put out there, so we're not going to

576
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,079
talk about all of it on the podcast today. But Wes,

577
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:35,279
is there a single piece of coverage that you're really

578
00:28:35,279 --> 00:28:37,599
excited for people to see from this cover story?

579
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, I actually just wrote it today and I'll kind

580
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:41,240
of talk about it here because I think it's an

581
00:28:41,279 --> 00:28:45,240
important facet of the stories, especially because it's the dude

582
00:28:45,279 --> 00:28:48,599
that's on our cover. The protagonist is Miamoto Musashi, who

583
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,920
is a real life samurai. He's famous for sixty two

584
00:28:52,119 --> 00:28:56,839
successful duels, successful being he did not die, and he

585
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:01,319
also kind of invented the two sword samurai combat style

586
00:29:01,359 --> 00:29:05,559
you see with the katana and Milwaukie's Wazi kashi. He's

587
00:29:05,599 --> 00:29:07,599
younger here, so he's not using his two swort approach

588
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,079
yet because he hadn't created it. But this real life

589
00:29:10,079 --> 00:29:12,359
Samurai did go to Kyoto looking for a fight, and

590
00:29:12,359 --> 00:29:14,599
that's kind of his personality in this game is I

591
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,599
want to be the best Samurai ever who wants to

592
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,480
fight me. And unlike other games where protagonists get the

593
00:29:21,519 --> 00:29:23,680
only gauntlet or they get ony powers and they're like,

594
00:29:23,799 --> 00:29:26,839
I want to save the world, he's like, get this.

595
00:29:26,759 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 5: Freaking thing off of me.

596
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:31,599
Speaker 4: I am I am an athlete. I do not want

597
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,759
this this steroid, this performance enhancer on my arm. He

598
00:29:34,839 --> 00:29:38,720
wants to become the best swordsman naturally with his own skills,

599
00:29:38,759 --> 00:29:40,640
and so his whole thing is like, I'm going to

600
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:42,480
kill Gimma because I think that's how I get this

601
00:29:42,519 --> 00:29:44,400
thing off and hopefully it comes off soon.

602
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:46,599
Speaker 5: And that's really cool.

603
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:50,839
Speaker 4: And from the jump capcom when they decided Musashi was

604
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,880
going to be their Samurai protagonist, they wanted to use

605
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:58,559
the likeness of late Japanese actor Toshiro Mufune, who has

606
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:00,759
been in a lot of akurri or A films, but

607
00:30:00,799 --> 00:30:04,319
he was also in a series of movies called The

608
00:30:04,359 --> 00:30:08,519
Samurai Trilogy where he actually played Musashi, so for three

609
00:30:08,519 --> 00:30:11,359
movies in the nineteen fifties he was Musashi and that's

610
00:30:11,359 --> 00:30:14,400
one of the more famous depictions of the samurai. And

611
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,119
they really wanted to use his likeness from the jump,

612
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,319
which for me, I'm kind of a person who's like,

613
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:20,759
let the dead stay dead. I don't you know, I

614
00:30:20,799 --> 00:30:24,920
don't really like these Elvis holograms or what RGG is

615
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,799
doing with Tupac especially, but you know, Capcom is using

616
00:30:28,799 --> 00:30:31,039
Tashar Mufune's likeness, so we wanted to talk about it.

617
00:30:32,359 --> 00:30:32,599
Speaker 2: One.

618
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,359
Speaker 4: I think it makes a little more sense than say,

619
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:39,440
Tupac in a decade spanning Japanese yakas a game, because

620
00:30:39,599 --> 00:30:41,640
this actor actually played Musashi.

621
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:42,759
Speaker 5: He has a history with it too.

622
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,839
Speaker 4: They worked with the family, got approval from the family,

623
00:30:46,319 --> 00:30:48,519
and not only got approval, but they kept the family involved.

624
00:30:48,559 --> 00:30:53,480
They sent drafts, they sent digital recreations from the ri Engine,

625
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:55,240
they asked for pointers, they asked for tips. They made

626
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,680
sure that the family was like happy with it along

627
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:00,599
the way. And then furthermore, they're not doing any weird

628
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,880
ai stuff. They're not using his voice from other movies

629
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:07,680
like they just when they think of Musashi Miyamoto to

630
00:31:07,799 --> 00:31:10,400
shar Muffune is who they see, and so they wanted

631
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:13,079
that to be the face of their samurai. But that

632
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,400
is where the Mufune likeness is. They're not trying to

633
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,400
recreate his voice, they're not trying to do the the

634
00:31:18,519 --> 00:31:20,160
Musashi from his movies.

635
00:31:21,119 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 5: It's just it's just.

636
00:31:22,359 --> 00:31:25,519
Speaker 4: A visual image, which I'm still not the biggest fan

637
00:31:25,559 --> 00:31:27,599
of in general, because it's just, you know, it's weird stuff.

638
00:31:27,599 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 5: I don't know.

639
00:31:28,839 --> 00:31:30,599
Speaker 4: I guess I'll find out when I die. What people

640
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:32,519
do with my visual likeness. Probably nothing.

641
00:31:32,599 --> 00:31:36,279
Speaker 1: Oh, we got plans. The games got plans.

642
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:36,839
Speaker 5: Good, Actually, you guys.

643
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, Game of Former has full You can yeah, do

644
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:39,880
whatever you want with my face.

645
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 1: You think the podcast ends when you die?

646
00:31:42,079 --> 00:31:42,319
Speaker 2: No?

647
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:44,799
Speaker 5: No, oh no.

648
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,759
Speaker 4: But like to the director's credit, when I brought this up,

649
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:53,880
uh to saturni he he pointed out correctly that like

650
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:56,240
this is not new for ony Musha, it's following in

651
00:31:56,279 --> 00:32:00,000
line with the series. The first game, the protagonist samonosk

652
00:32:00,039 --> 00:32:03,000
a Catchi, is played by Japanese actor Takeshi kana Shiro.

653
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,759
The late actor Yasuka Matsuto was the model for only

654
00:32:06,839 --> 00:32:11,720
Musha two's protagonist Jubei Yagyu. Only Musha three famously features

655
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,400
French actor gen Rena because that game is a time

656
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,519
traveling threequel that takes place in modern day Paris and

657
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,000
the Warring States create of Japan.

658
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:25,119
Speaker 5: And I don't think that One.

659
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 4: Musha four used a celebrity for different reasons, but like

660
00:32:30,519 --> 00:32:32,960
for Capcom, it's part of the lineage of this series

661
00:32:33,039 --> 00:32:34,559
is like get a celebrity.

662
00:32:34,559 --> 00:32:36,440
Speaker 5: And I spoke to the director of.

663
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,799
Speaker 4: One Musha two, who was a planner on One Musha one,

664
00:32:38,799 --> 00:32:40,119
modohide A Shiro.

665
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,559
Speaker 5: He said that he actually attributes.

666
00:32:43,079 --> 00:32:46,039
Speaker 4: The success to Only Musha one because of the fact

667
00:32:46,039 --> 00:32:48,799
that they used celebrity likeness. Back then, games weren't doing

668
00:32:48,799 --> 00:32:51,519
that as much, and it really drove people who maybe

669
00:32:51,559 --> 00:32:54,440
weren't playing games, were familiar with Capcom in to play

670
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,599
these games because, oh, that's a popular actor.

671
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:57,319
Speaker 5: I've seen the movies.

672
00:32:57,359 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 4: I like that, Let's check out what he's doing in

673
00:32:58,880 --> 00:32:59,279
this game.

674
00:32:59,839 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 5: So this is Capcom following in that lineage.

675
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 4: You know, you could there are worse ways and better

676
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:12,039
ways to do digital recreations and resurrections of dead actors,

677
00:33:12,079 --> 00:33:15,279
but in talking to Capcom, I was more pleased to

678
00:33:15,319 --> 00:33:18,559
hear how they went about this than say rgg's approach

679
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:23,160
to Tupac in Stranger than Heaven. I'll have a whole

680
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,599
feature breaking that down with like actual quotes and stuff

681
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:26,799
coming out soon, so be on.

682
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 5: The lookout for that.

683
00:33:27,519 --> 00:33:30,839
Speaker 4: But didn't want to ignore that considering we have to

684
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:32,680
share a Muffune's face on our cover.

685
00:33:33,519 --> 00:33:36,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think it's a good thing to note,

686
00:33:36,119 --> 00:33:38,519
and you're going to have just tons of coverage. When

687
00:33:38,519 --> 00:33:40,519
I saw your your plan for that, I was like, Yeah,

688
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,680
Wes is really going off on this one.

689
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:44,799
Speaker 5: I really like any Musha guys.

690
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 3: So I have a question about that because I all,

691
00:33:48,039 --> 00:33:50,799
everything you're saying sounds amazing and it makes me just

692
00:33:50,839 --> 00:33:52,839
like really want to play this game. But as I

693
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,640
mentioned at the top, I have no history with this franchise.

694
00:33:56,279 --> 00:33:59,480
Is this something from from a multiple prong approach here?

695
00:33:59,839 --> 00:34:01,400
Is this is something where I should go back and

696
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:03,440
try to play one Musha one and two because those

697
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:07,079
are both on PlayStation and Switch and I'm assuming Xbox

698
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,719
or is this like the entry point? Like should I

699
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,079
just wait until Way the Sword comes out and just

700
00:34:13,119 --> 00:34:13,639
start with that.

701
00:34:14,599 --> 00:34:16,639
Speaker 4: So they're very aware that they've been on a twenty

702
00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:19,559
year hiatus, and they do look at this as only

703
00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:22,920
Musha five, But for Capcom, the number that comes after

704
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,639
the word only Musha is more like a signal of

705
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,199
evolving this series. None of them are really connected and

706
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,360
only Musha five confirmed like not connected at all to

707
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,960
previous games. It's all new demons, it's all new enemies,

708
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:38,760
it's all new characters. There's no knowledge, you don't need

709
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:41,840
anything from prior games. So this is like a fresh

710
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,119
start for the series and it plays very different from

711
00:34:44,159 --> 00:34:45,320
anything else in the series.

712
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:47,880
Speaker 5: That said, if you want to feel for.

713
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:53,039
Speaker 4: Like ony Musha, I would replay at least one, and

714
00:34:53,079 --> 00:34:55,480
definitely and two as well, because they're both they both

715
00:34:55,519 --> 00:34:59,559
hold up. They're both fantastic games, and it's really fun

716
00:34:59,679 --> 00:35:03,719
to see what they started in those games and then

717
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:05,840
play Way of the Sword and be like, oh, this

718
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:09,000
is a continuation of those games from twenty years ago.

719
00:35:09,039 --> 00:35:11,360
Like they're taking ideas that they've been developing for two

720
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,079
decades and now they're doing the twenty twenty sixth version

721
00:35:14,119 --> 00:35:16,880
of that. So if you're like from a like historical

722
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,000
or like gamer perspective, I'd say replay those But as

723
00:35:20,039 --> 00:35:22,000
far as like do I need to in this busy

724
00:35:22,039 --> 00:35:24,280
time period before this game comes out in September.

725
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 5: No, you absolutely don't need to.

726
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 4: I would just play Way of the Sword and have

727
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:28,039
a really good time.

728
00:35:28,519 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: Yeah.

729
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 3: That was the other angle from which I wanted to ask,

730
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,079
is like, do these games hold up because I know

731
00:35:33,159 --> 00:35:36,199
you recently replayed them west in preparation for this cover story.

732
00:35:36,639 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, they hold up like so shockingly well for games

733
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:41,559
from two thousand and one and two thousand and two.

734
00:35:41,599 --> 00:35:44,639
I think that's you know, the same goes for like

735
00:35:44,679 --> 00:35:47,679
some older Resident Evil games. Like pre rendered backgrounds really

736
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:52,039
help games feel like, yes, you see a pre rendered background,

737
00:35:52,039 --> 00:35:54,440
You're like, this is an early two thousands game. But

738
00:35:54,519 --> 00:35:56,480
for me in twenty twenty six, a pre rendered background

739
00:35:56,519 --> 00:35:59,480
also feels timeless, Like I actually want more games to

740
00:35:59,559 --> 00:36:02,519
utilize it because it feels like you're looking at a

741
00:36:02,639 --> 00:36:07,239
playable art piece rather than a demonstration of visual fidelity

742
00:36:07,679 --> 00:36:10,360
in the year. But yeah, they hold up for sure.

743
00:36:12,159 --> 00:36:15,079
Speaker 1: Awesome. I think that's gonna do it for Onamushak cover Talk,

744
00:36:16,159 --> 00:36:18,800
We're gonna go to break real quick, take a little breather,

745
00:36:19,079 --> 00:36:21,519
but when we come back, we'll be talking about Halo

746
00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:25,679
Campaign Campaign Evolved. Is that what's called Yeah, that's the name.

747
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:30,599
Halo Campaign Evolved and Splittoon Raiders don't go Far and

748
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:32,960
we're back. Welcome back to the Game Informer Show. We're

749
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,320
here to talk about some of the newest releases on

750
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:38,400
your gaming slate that you might be thinking about picking

751
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,159
up this weekend or playing. Maybe you're even playing it

752
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:42,280
right now while you're listening to us. That'd be pretty cool.

753
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,519
Shout U out in the comments if you are. Let's

754
00:36:44,559 --> 00:36:51,000
start with the big one from Xbox Halo Campaign Evolved.

755
00:36:51,519 --> 00:36:54,800
Is the reviews are out. I think it is out

756
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,480
right now if you pay to access it early and

757
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,400
then it comes out later, if you pay less amounts

758
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:03,719
of money something like that. We're still doing that in

759
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:05,880
the games industry in twenty twenty six. Is you can

760
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:07,519
pay a bunch of extra money to play a game

761
00:37:07,519 --> 00:37:10,480
a few days early. Our review is uh.

762
00:37:10,519 --> 00:37:14,360
Speaker 5: I hate that. It's hu monetizing fomo, very lame of companies.

763
00:37:16,199 --> 00:37:18,280
Speaker 1: It's a very silly thing. I don't get why we

764
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,639
do that. Our review is up. I'm double checking myself

765
00:37:20,679 --> 00:37:22,599
right now because I knew the score going in and

766
00:37:22,639 --> 00:37:24,559
this only second guest myself, and it is an eight

767
00:37:24,599 --> 00:37:27,400
point five up on Gameingforeward dot Com. You can go

768
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:31,000
read Matt Miller's review of that over there, where he

769
00:37:31,079 --> 00:37:33,679
says even stripped of its multiplayer, this return trip to

770
00:37:33,679 --> 00:37:36,280
the original Halo nails the fun in chaos that made

771
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:41,519
the series a landmark game. Notably, this is Campaign Evolved.

772
00:37:41,679 --> 00:37:46,599
This is not Halo one remake in the strictest sense.

773
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:50,679
This is specifically the campaign of Halo one plus some

774
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:57,480
additional prequel missions I believe that are remastered and remade

775
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:02,199
and redone as kind of a new package. Brian, you've

776
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:06,320
experienced some of Halo Campaign Evolved, not the entire package

777
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:07,519
just yet, but we want to have you on to

778
00:38:07,559 --> 00:38:09,920
kind of talk about some of that stuff. What has

779
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,480
been your impression of Halo Campaign Evolved thus far?

780
00:38:13,119 --> 00:38:16,039
Speaker 3: Sure, so, I wrote the cover story that we had

781
00:38:17,119 --> 00:38:20,719
our previous issue for Halo Campaign Evolved, which meant that

782
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:23,320
I went out to Halo Studios. I played the entire

783
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:27,280
three mission arc of those prequel missions, and I also

784
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:29,760
had played the Silent Cartographer mission when I went out

785
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,079
to Halo Studios the first time when they revealed it,

786
00:38:32,119 --> 00:38:34,960
and like, let us do like pre announcement hands on

787
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,199
now that I have like the full game I have

788
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:43,159
played through the first two missions, and I came away

789
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:45,360
kind of the same impressions that I had before, which

790
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:50,039
is like, this is a extremely good looking version, Like

791
00:38:50,079 --> 00:38:53,360
this is a true remake in the sense that like

792
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,559
whereas Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary back in twenty eleven was

793
00:38:57,719 --> 00:38:59,960
like a little bit more of like this is just

794
00:39:00,159 --> 00:39:03,239
a very very shiny remaster where it was like the

795
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:08,239
main game is still running underneath like the new shiny visuals.

796
00:39:08,679 --> 00:39:13,239
This is them using Unreal Engine five for this whole

797
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,400
new era of Halo, right, Like they've been using their

798
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:21,639
proprietary engines for Halo since its inception, and now this

799
00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:24,320
is them transitioning to Unreal Engine five. And it really

800
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:28,480
shows like Unreal Engine five like looks fantastic in motion.

801
00:39:28,639 --> 00:39:31,679
It does a great job of making a lot of

802
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:36,039
those visuals how you thought they looked back when, back

803
00:39:36,079 --> 00:39:37,840
when you were playing this in two thousand and one

804
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,760
when it came out on original Xbox Because like, if

805
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,960
you go back and play that original Halo Combat Evolved,

806
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:45,639
it was mind blowing for the time, but that was

807
00:39:45,679 --> 00:39:48,360
twenty five years ago. Now you fired up and it

808
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,800
actually does look how like your brain kind of converts

809
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:53,639
it in your memory today, which I think is the

810
00:39:53,679 --> 00:39:56,960
sign of a good remake or a really great remaster.

811
00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:59,519
And I know a lot of people were not fans

812
00:39:59,679 --> 00:40:04,000
of the Combat Evolved Anniversary visuals. They thought that it

813
00:40:04,079 --> 00:40:06,280
kind of didn't really capture it. I think that this

814
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,119
does capture the original intent. And talking to a lot

815
00:40:09,119 --> 00:40:12,079
of the developers on the ground at Halo Studios prior

816
00:40:12,119 --> 00:40:15,400
to getting my hands on the final version, they were like, yeah,

817
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,159
you know, we got a lot of the original design

818
00:40:17,199 --> 00:40:19,599
docs from back when Bungee was making it, and like

819
00:40:19,679 --> 00:40:23,760
we could see what their actual intent was with the

820
00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:28,400
original design of these levels, and so like when you're

821
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:31,000
going through certain stages, you'll see like, oh, this is

822
00:40:31,079 --> 00:40:34,199
like a lot more intricately detailed. That's because that's what

823
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:35,440
the original intent was.

824
00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:36,440
Speaker 2: Now, I mean, the.

825
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:41,159
Speaker 3: One to one comparison you could make there was like, okay, well,

826
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:45,039
the Star Wars special edition of the original trilogy. That

827
00:40:45,119 --> 00:40:46,679
was what George Lucas always said. It was like, oh,

828
00:40:46,679 --> 00:40:48,840
this was my original vision, and you know that was

829
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,559
very hit or miss, whether or not it added or

830
00:40:51,639 --> 00:40:55,840
detracted from what the magic of those iconic scenes were

831
00:40:56,239 --> 00:41:00,800
here in Halo Campaign Evolved. I think it does enhance

832
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,480
the experience. I've not come across anything where it's like, oh,

833
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:07,800
that's distracting from the campaign that I've played through probably,

834
00:41:08,199 --> 00:41:10,119
you know, five or six times over the course of

835
00:41:10,159 --> 00:41:13,239
my life. Like I've beaten Halo Combat Evolved multiple times,

836
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:16,599
whether you're talking the original version, the Master Chief Collection version,

837
00:41:16,679 --> 00:41:20,480
or that standalone Combat Evolved Anniversary edition back in twenty eleven.

838
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,199
You know, I've beaten this game probably six times or so,

839
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:28,400
and I've not come across anything in Campaign Evolved where

840
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,880
I'm like, that's distractingly different. Like it all feels in

841
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:35,840
the spirit of what they were attempting to do with

842
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,960
the original the original design of these levels.

843
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:40,760
Speaker 2: Just the tech had not caught up yet. You know,

844
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:42,559
we're we were still less.

845
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:47,079
Speaker 3: Than a decade into three D gaming in true, you know,

846
00:41:47,119 --> 00:41:49,679
in truth right, Like you know, the PS one and

847
00:41:49,679 --> 00:41:53,280
the N sixty four were merely like five years or

848
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:58,519
seven years prior depending on the system to Halo Combat Evolved.

849
00:41:58,559 --> 00:42:01,599
So we have a lot more experience with developing three

850
00:42:01,679 --> 00:42:04,400
D games and three D visuals. Obviously, Unreal Engine five

851
00:42:04,599 --> 00:42:07,639
is the kind of the high water mark for game

852
00:42:07,679 --> 00:42:12,000
engines and development, and I think that you know, Halo

853
00:42:12,039 --> 00:42:15,760
Studios did a really admirable job. Based on what I've

854
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,000
seen so far. I'm playing on the PS five, which

855
00:42:18,039 --> 00:42:21,480
is a little confusing from my gamer brain. It's like

856
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,039
the first time I fired up Sonic on a Nintendo system.

857
00:42:24,079 --> 00:42:27,280
It's like, wait a second, this feels illegal in some ways,

858
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,320
and it does play pretty well. Like you know, I

859
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:33,440
like the quality of life stuff that they've added, where

860
00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:35,639
it's like you can sprint, you can aim down sites,

861
00:42:35,679 --> 00:42:37,440
which were things that you couldn't really do or you

862
00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,679
couldn't do at all in Halo Combat evolved originally, so

863
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,320
now like they do have They did that they kind

864
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:45,960
of walked a fine line of like not modernizing the

865
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,360
controls too much, but modernizing them just enough that it

866
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,760
feels in line with a modern game. And you know,

867
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,280
they didn't like add a bunch of stuff that like

868
00:42:56,039 --> 00:42:58,079
you know, oh we're gonna add I can't think of

869
00:42:58,079 --> 00:43:00,440
it a good example, but like something that would really

870
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,079
upend the entire flow of the game, like they preserved

871
00:43:04,119 --> 00:43:07,920
like how it feels going from section to section, and

872
00:43:08,079 --> 00:43:10,400
the sprint I think really does add a lot to it.

873
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:15,960
I also think that they default you the modernized Warthog

874
00:43:16,079 --> 00:43:20,800
controls where it almost controls like a car, where it's

875
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:22,719
like like a car in a video game, where it's

876
00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:25,400
like the right trigger actually is like acceleration and you're

877
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:29,079
steering it more so than aiming it. I tried that,

878
00:43:29,159 --> 00:43:30,800
and I was like, Okay, I see what they were doing.

879
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,400
I immediately switched it back to like the classic like.

880
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:38,480
Speaker 1: Me is too too strong, like it was the Warthog

881
00:43:38,519 --> 00:43:40,480
was goofy. I'm the same way with the Maco and

882
00:43:40,599 --> 00:43:44,239
mass effect one, where I need the Mako to handle

883
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,840
in the terrible way that I learned how to drive

884
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,280
it in the first place, and not some sort of

885
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:52,559
new fancy way of trying to modernize it. Like I

886
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:56,280
learned how to drive the bad car. Don't make it

887
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,119
a good car now because I don't know how to

888
00:43:58,199 --> 00:43:59,000
drive good car.

889
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 3: For me, the Mako is a step down from the

890
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,000
Halo Combat Evolved warhaw where.

891
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,559
Speaker 1: I would Mako is the ultimate machine. All right, That's

892
00:44:08,679 --> 00:44:11,840
that's the You may not like it, but that's peak

893
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:12,920
perfection right there.

894
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, I'm glad they have the option

895
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,559
there this And it's funny because they actually were like, yeah,

896
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:25,440
even though we made these modifications to Halo Combat Evolve

897
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,239
for Campaign Evolved, and then we moved it to an

898
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:30,880
entirely new engine, and like this project was born basically

899
00:44:31,159 --> 00:44:34,000
from the same way that like I've talked about multiple

900
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,119
times where it's like Pokemon Sword and Shield were only

901
00:44:37,199 --> 00:44:40,079
possible because game Freak took on, let's go Pikachuu and

902
00:44:40,119 --> 00:44:43,519
Evy to like learn how to make games for console

903
00:44:43,559 --> 00:44:47,559
instead of handheld. This almost feels like this is Halo

904
00:44:47,639 --> 00:44:50,440
Studios learning how to make a Halo game on Unreal

905
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:53,159
Engine five. And that's kind of the way that it

906
00:44:53,199 --> 00:44:54,559
was pitched, where they were like, all right, we're gonna

907
00:44:54,599 --> 00:44:56,760
start doing on Unreal Engine five, and then like they

908
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:59,320
started making biomes in Unreal Engine five, and then like

909
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,320
there are direct was like what if we just did

910
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:04,440
this for all of Halo one, And then they decided like, oh,

911
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:07,159
that'd be a really cool anniversary thing for the twenty

912
00:45:07,159 --> 00:45:08,280
fifth anniversary of Halo.

913
00:45:08,639 --> 00:45:11,119
Speaker 2: So that's where we're at. So like the fact that

914
00:45:11,159 --> 00:45:12,639
this plays.

915
00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:14,719
Speaker 3: Well on PS five, I don't I mean give any

916
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:18,119
xboxes pulling back on exclusivity. I would kind of doubt

917
00:45:18,119 --> 00:45:20,119
that we get the next Halo game on PS five,

918
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:25,440
but we'll have to wait and see it's It does

919
00:45:25,519 --> 00:45:27,440
play really well though, so it does seem like they

920
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:31,079
have they kind of got a good handle on how

921
00:45:31,079 --> 00:45:33,960
to develop for Unreal Engine five and hopefully.

922
00:45:33,559 --> 00:45:35,599
Speaker 2: That bodes well for where we're going from here.

923
00:45:35,639 --> 00:45:40,519
Speaker 3: But you know, the core campaign is there and it

924
00:45:41,159 --> 00:45:43,679
so far, I haven't run into any major hiccups, Like

925
00:45:43,679 --> 00:45:46,039
there's a little bit of slowdown that I've anticipated playing

926
00:45:46,119 --> 00:45:49,519
or that I've experienced playing on a base PS five.

927
00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:52,559
I've not played on a PS five Pro. I mocked

928
00:45:52,559 --> 00:45:54,480
the PS five Pro and it first got announced for

929
00:45:54,519 --> 00:45:56,239
seven hundred dollars, and now I'm looking at that nine

930
00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:58,239
hundred dollars price tag being like I should have bought

931
00:45:58,280 --> 00:45:59,519
it at seven hundred dollars.

932
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,119
Speaker 1: Appreciated in value. That was an investment opportunity. Brian Jay.

933
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,599
Speaker 3: It's funny because when Xbox went through all those layoffs

934
00:46:06,599 --> 00:46:09,280
a few weeks ago, I actually looked at Microsoft stock

935
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:12,320
and it would have been a better investment to buy

936
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:14,599
an Xbox Series X when it was five hundred dollars

937
00:46:14,639 --> 00:46:16,280
and then let it appreciate in value than it would

938
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:18,639
have been to buy Microsoft stock from that time because

939
00:46:18,639 --> 00:46:20,559
that has only gone down unfortunately.

940
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:25,519
Speaker 1: That's that's dark in a lot of ways. Yeah, yeah,

941
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,719
that's that's a dark mirror in a lot of ways.

942
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:30,360
And I think that brings me to a point I

943
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:32,199
wanted to make sure to raise in the section, was

944
00:46:32,199 --> 00:46:35,519
that obviously, this Halo game and a lot of Xbox

945
00:46:35,519 --> 00:46:38,760
games in the coming year are going to arrive amidst

946
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,840
all of the layoffs that have either already happened or

947
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:45,960
will happen under Xbox Game studios, and that, you know,

948
00:46:46,079 --> 00:46:49,519
puts a sour mark over a lot of it. It's

949
00:46:49,559 --> 00:46:52,519
pretty frustrating because I think, Yeah, when I see the

950
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,519
love and attention that a lot of these devs put

951
00:46:55,559 --> 00:46:58,599
into a game like this, that they put into making

952
00:46:58,639 --> 00:47:02,440
something that feels like they have rekindled the Halo spark,

953
00:47:03,159 --> 00:47:05,559
it makes me even more frustrated to see the way

954
00:47:05,599 --> 00:47:08,960
that they're being treated on the other side of it.

955
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,199
There's kind of a sinking feeling in my stomach. When

956
00:47:12,199 --> 00:47:15,000
I saw the reviews go live in my first thought was, well,

957
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:18,320
maybe this will help three four three and the Halo

958
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:22,079
team like avoid layoffs. Maybe maybe this helps them dodge

959
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:24,119
the acts. And that sucks.

960
00:47:24,199 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 2: That's unfortunately sucks.

961
00:47:25,599 --> 00:47:28,119
Speaker 3: It's unfortunate we have to constantly be thinking about that

962
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:32,280
because you know, it is a very solid game, and

963
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:35,679
it's it's a very passionate team. Like I said, I've

964
00:47:35,679 --> 00:47:39,480
been at Halo studios twice in the past year, and

965
00:47:40,119 --> 00:47:42,360
you know, they care a lot about this franchise. And

966
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:44,320
that's the thing that I always try not to like

967
00:47:45,079 --> 00:47:47,760
lose sight of when we're like raging at these corporations,

968
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,559
whether it's EA or PlayStation or Xbox is like, yeah,

969
00:47:51,639 --> 00:47:54,960
these these corporations suck, and the leadership is making a

970
00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:58,920
lot of upsetting decisions right now, we'll say, but like

971
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:02,519
there are a lot of really passionate people underneath the

972
00:48:02,559 --> 00:48:05,840
people who are making these these decisions that we may

973
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:10,480
not agree with or are calling outright, you know, bad

974
00:48:10,639 --> 00:48:14,840
moves for the future of the games industry. But the people,

975
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:17,679
the rank and file folks who are pouring their passion

976
00:48:17,679 --> 00:48:20,719
and their life and their soul into this like that,

977
00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:23,639
that's those are the people that I really want to

978
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:26,239
you know, shout out because they're doing really great work.

979
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:29,199
And before we move on from Halo, I did want

980
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:32,559
to talk a little bit about the the three prequel missions,

981
00:48:32,559 --> 00:48:35,320
which are brand new that's completely new content that they

982
00:48:35,599 --> 00:48:40,079
they've implemented into this Halo campaign evolved. I'm still kind

983
00:48:40,079 --> 00:48:42,719
of disappointed that we didn't get the competitive multiplayer, although

984
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:45,280
I get the reasons that they don't because I mean,

985
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,360
if I'm being honest, I would have to speculate I

986
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:49,000
don't have any inside information, but I would have to

987
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:51,360
speculate that multiplayer team is working on the next, like

988
00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:54,719
mainline Halo game right now, and that's why we didn't

989
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:59,119
get this. But the brand new content that comes in

990
00:48:59,119 --> 00:49:01,159
the form of these three bonus missions, you know, it

991
00:49:01,159 --> 00:49:03,519
takes about I would say, I think my first playthrough

992
00:49:03,559 --> 00:49:06,119
of it took about two hours to get through these

993
00:49:06,119 --> 00:49:09,360
three missions, and that was, you know, sitting entirely focused

994
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:14,360
at the studio, just playing straight through and you know,

995
00:49:14,519 --> 00:49:16,760
minimal I think I died two times over the course

996
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:19,719
of But they are more difficult than you're especially early

997
00:49:20,199 --> 00:49:22,840
Halo missions. So if you're new to the franchise, I

998
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:25,440
would recommend actually coming back to these after you beat

999
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,559
the game, even though they take place chronologically before. It

1000
00:49:28,599 --> 00:49:32,159
takes place about a year before the events of Halo one.

1001
00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:34,800
So if you have played a lot of Halo in

1002
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:36,679
your day, then maybe you can start with that before

1003
00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:38,280
you jump in. But if like you are new to

1004
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:40,800
this series, then I would say I would suggest going,

1005
00:49:41,559 --> 00:49:43,519
you know, campaign then bonus missions.

1006
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:45,159
Speaker 2: But it's a it's a.

1007
00:49:45,079 --> 00:49:48,880
Speaker 3: Fun little like you know, almost like Buddy Adventure with

1008
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,239
Halo and Halo Jeez with.

1009
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 1: With John Halo himself.

1010
00:49:53,679 --> 00:49:56,880
Speaker 3: John Halo's with Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson. Sorry, I

1011
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,239
was trying to recall the name of Sergeant Johnson for

1012
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,519
some reason my brain and always goes to Keys, but

1013
00:50:01,639 --> 00:50:02,239
it's Johnson.

1014
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:03,159
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1015
00:50:03,199 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, So with Master Chief and Johnson on this this

1016
00:50:07,039 --> 00:50:12,880
infiltration mission almost akin to Rogue One, where it is like,

1017
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:18,280
you know, the Covenant have struck and glassed a human

1018
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:20,400
planet and you're like, all right, we can't allow this

1019
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,360
to happen anymore. We're gonna We're gonna infiltrate this this

1020
00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:28,079
ship of the Covenant and and steal their plans so

1021
00:50:28,119 --> 00:50:30,480
we know where to strike them. And so it is

1022
00:50:30,599 --> 00:50:31,280
very Rogue one.

1023
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:31,800
Speaker 1: In this role.

1024
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, And which is interesting because if you play the

1025
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:41,599
Silent Cartographer mission in Campaign Evolved, there is absolutely another

1026
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:46,480
Rogue one reference there where you see the first Covenant

1027
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:50,760
Elite emerge from the base there and he draws his

1028
00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:52,639
energy sword. That's the first time in the series. You

1029
00:50:52,679 --> 00:50:55,400
see that they definitely pulled from that Darth Vader scene

1030
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:57,480
in Rogue one at the end.

1031
00:50:57,519 --> 00:50:58,519
Speaker 2: For inspiration on that.

1032
00:50:58,559 --> 00:51:01,280
Speaker 3: And even before I knew about these bonus missions and

1033
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,440
what they were accomplishing, like I when I did the

1034
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:07,440
hands on with Silent Cartographer, like back in October, I

1035
00:51:07,559 --> 00:51:09,559
was like, oh, that's a Rogue one reference right there.

1036
00:51:09,599 --> 00:51:11,800
So it's it's interesting to see it come full circle.

1037
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:13,719
Speaker 2: But you know, they.

1038
00:51:15,079 --> 00:51:19,159
Speaker 3: Consulted with one of the Halo novelists in order to

1039
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:21,440
ensure that like the lore was all intact, and then

1040
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:23,159
they also have like kind of like a law master

1041
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:26,760
within Halo Studios that they were like working constantly to

1042
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:29,159
figure out like all right, where can we plug in

1043
00:51:29,519 --> 00:51:32,920
where we're not breaking Halo lore, but we're also complimenting

1044
00:51:33,039 --> 00:51:35,119
the story of Halo one and we're not breaking what

1045
00:51:35,159 --> 00:51:39,159
happened to Halo reach. So it's a lot of fun

1046
00:51:39,159 --> 00:51:41,519
in that regard. And also, like this is pre Chief

1047
00:51:41,559 --> 00:51:45,159
getting Kurtana obviously, so like there's a lot of like

1048
00:51:45,639 --> 00:51:48,960
the voice in your head is Johnson, it's not Kurtana,

1049
00:51:49,079 --> 00:51:51,039
so you get a lot more personality with him, and

1050
00:51:51,079 --> 00:51:53,920
you get there's always a lot of fun little comedic

1051
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:57,639
timings with like Johnson being very talkative, and there's even

1052
00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:00,599
a moment where it's like, Chief, don't you ever get

1053
00:52:00,639 --> 00:52:02,519
tired of be in the strong silent type or strong

1054
00:52:02,559 --> 00:52:06,719
mostly silent type and Chief just goes no, And so

1055
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:08,840
like there's there's a fun little back and forth, like

1056
00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:11,119
you can tell that like Chief and Johnson had this

1057
00:52:11,199 --> 00:52:15,480
rapport and as like you know, as the narrative directors

1058
00:52:15,679 --> 00:52:17,719
talked about in the cover story, they were like, you know,

1059
00:52:18,039 --> 00:52:22,199
I think that we in like retrospect, think that like

1060
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,039
Johnson had like this huge personality and big role in

1061
00:52:25,079 --> 00:52:27,760
Halo one, but he's actually fairly limited in that story.

1062
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:29,800
It's only in Halo two and three that he really

1063
00:52:29,840 --> 00:52:33,519
fleshes out and he becomes the Johnson that we all remember.

1064
00:52:33,599 --> 00:52:36,800
Whereas Halo one he was there, but like he was

1065
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:40,199
not like the larger than life personality that we eventually

1066
00:52:40,559 --> 00:52:43,320
see him become in the series. So they wanted to

1067
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:45,840
include that more of that in this package. But like,

1068
00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:48,800
something that's really cool about these bonus missions is also

1069
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:53,360
that there are there are elements that are not in

1070
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:55,880
Halo one but are peer in later games, like the

1071
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:59,960
Brutes from Halo two are in these bonus missions. Weapons

1072
00:53:00,119 --> 00:53:03,119
that you don't see until Halo two and three are

1073
00:53:03,159 --> 00:53:05,440
in these bonus missions. So it gives you this feeling

1074
00:53:05,559 --> 00:53:08,840
almost like, Okay, these things were always here. These things

1075
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:11,760
were always in this universe. They didn't just like you know,

1076
00:53:12,559 --> 00:53:16,159
appear into existence when Bungee thought like, oh, we need

1077
00:53:16,159 --> 00:53:18,760
something new for this sequel. It kind of just be like, Okay, well,

1078
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,079
the Brutes weren't a part of the story of Halo one.

1079
00:53:21,119 --> 00:53:24,599
They only like you know, came back into focus when

1080
00:53:24,639 --> 00:53:27,599
Halo two's events rolled around, But they were always in

1081
00:53:27,639 --> 00:53:28,880
the background in this universe.

1082
00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:30,119
Speaker 2: So I really like that about it.

1083
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:34,440
Speaker 3: Some of the combat arenas are pretty intense, so I

1084
00:53:34,440 --> 00:53:36,800
would if you're looking for a challenge, like, you know,

1085
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:40,159
boost up the difficulty and jump into these missions because

1086
00:53:40,159 --> 00:53:44,159
they will definitely give you a good deal of challenge.

1087
00:53:44,199 --> 00:53:46,079
There are definitely like some things where it's like we're

1088
00:53:46,079 --> 00:53:48,400
just gonna put master Chief in the middle of a

1089
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:52,519
big circular arena and send enemies from all directions at

1090
00:53:52,599 --> 00:53:54,360
you and you have to just try to figure it out,

1091
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:57,159
and there's like really fun weapons laying around. There's one

1092
00:53:57,440 --> 00:53:59,079
area where it's like I'm not going to spoil too

1093
00:53:59,159 --> 00:54:01,400
much here, but like early on you encounter like a

1094
00:54:01,519 --> 00:54:05,519
literal like Covenant training room in this space station that

1095
00:54:05,559 --> 00:54:09,920
you're infiltrating, and after you take out the Covenant that

1096
00:54:09,960 --> 00:54:13,880
are in their training, you just notice that basically every

1097
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:16,280
weapon from like the first three Halo games are just

1098
00:54:16,360 --> 00:54:18,760
laying around like on shelves, so you can just choose

1099
00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:21,400
how you want to once they like, once you take

1100
00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:23,400
those enemies out, it's like they set off an alarm

1101
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,639
and like you have every weapon basically at your disposal

1102
00:54:27,199 --> 00:54:29,320
to choose, Like, all right, do I want to take

1103
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:30,079
them down the shotgun?

1104
00:54:30,119 --> 00:54:31,119
Speaker 2: Do I want to take them down.

1105
00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:35,559
Speaker 3: With like the the the assault rifle, or or a

1106
00:54:35,639 --> 00:54:39,039
rocket launcher or a needle or needle rifle. Like the

1107
00:54:39,039 --> 00:54:41,840
needle rifle, by the way, absolutely rules in these bonus missions.

1108
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:44,519
So yeah, they do a really cool job. And then

1109
00:54:45,599 --> 00:54:47,360
I don't I don't think I want to spoil the ending,

1110
00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:49,320
but like it's out there in marketing, but they do

1111
00:54:49,559 --> 00:54:53,159
a completely different gameplay experience to put an exclamation point

1112
00:54:53,199 --> 00:54:59,360
at the end of the three bonus missions, and so yeah,

1113
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:02,920
I mean I it's easy to say, like Okay, well,

1114
00:55:03,039 --> 00:55:06,000
you know Halo four or five and Infinite don't have

1115
00:55:06,119 --> 00:55:10,360
the same like design chops or magic that Bungee was

1116
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,840
able to capture with those first several Halo games. But

1117
00:55:14,239 --> 00:55:16,880
I think that the bonus missions here give me a

1118
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:20,000
lot of hope for where Halo could go in the future,

1119
00:55:20,039 --> 00:55:23,159
because it almost feels like they're starting to figure out

1120
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:27,000
how to capture that magic. Because these don't feel out

1121
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:31,159
of place with the incredible package that is Halo Campaign Evolved,

1122
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:34,760
or at least that original campaign that they recreated through

1123
00:55:34,840 --> 00:55:35,760
this bundle.

1124
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:37,760
Speaker 2: Like, those bonus missions feel right at home.

1125
00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:40,119
Speaker 3: They feel like they slot perfectly in, and they don't

1126
00:55:40,159 --> 00:55:43,199
feel like completely disjointed in the way that like, Okay,

1127
00:55:43,199 --> 00:55:46,079
well this was made by a different development team twenty

1128
00:55:46,119 --> 00:55:48,639
five years in the future from the original game. Like no,

1129
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:51,000
it feels like they're a part of that original package.

1130
00:55:51,039 --> 00:55:53,039
And I mean that's a very high compliment.

1131
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:58,079
Speaker 1: Well, that's Halo Campaign Evolved. But Brian, we're gonna stay

1132
00:55:58,119 --> 00:56:00,599
with you now because we're gonna talk about a different

1133
00:56:00,639 --> 00:56:03,199
game that you played a lot of, uh in the

1134
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:09,800
last couple weeks, Splatoon Raiders. Your review is live given

1135
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:15,960
eight point seventy five for Game Informer Brian, Splatoon Raiders

1136
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:18,559
sell me on it. Well, what's what's the deal with

1137
00:56:18,559 --> 00:56:19,679
Splatoon Raiders.

1138
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:20,280
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1139
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 3: So I have reviewed every single Splatoon game for Game Informer,

1140
00:56:24,079 --> 00:56:28,199
starting with the twenty fifteen debut on WU, and one

1141
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:30,639
thing I've always kind of been a champion of is, like,

1142
00:56:31,239 --> 00:56:35,159
I know, the competitive multiplayer stuff is the main draw

1143
00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:37,239
for most people when they go to a Splatoon game,

1144
00:56:37,599 --> 00:56:41,480
but this single player content, whether you're talking Splatoon one, two, three,

1145
00:56:41,800 --> 00:56:45,360
or the DLC stuff like the Octo expansion for Splatoon

1146
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:48,400
two or the Side Dish expansion for Splatoon three where

1147
00:56:48,440 --> 00:56:51,440
it was actually like a rogue light like mode that

1148
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:55,079
they added in, Like that stuff slaps like it is

1149
00:56:55,159 --> 00:56:59,000
like one of the more like this deserves more attention

1150
00:56:59,119 --> 00:57:00,880
and just doesn't get it for whatever reason.

1151
00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:02,320
Speaker 2: Like modes.

1152
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:04,320
Speaker 3: It would be like if you were like, yeah, like

1153
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:07,119
the Halo multiplayer is great. It's so good that I

1154
00:57:07,159 --> 00:57:10,320
don't even go to the single player content and nobody

1155
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,039
talks about it. Obviously that's not the case, but Splatoon

1156
00:57:13,199 --> 00:57:14,880
it is the case. I feel like a lot of

1157
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:17,239
people are like, oh, yeah, I bought Splatoon and then

1158
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:19,440
I just immediately went to turf Wour and never played

1159
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:22,760
any other modes, but like the single player stuff, it

1160
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:25,119
starts off almost like a tutorial for like, Okay, here's

1161
00:57:25,159 --> 00:57:27,480
how you get around, Here's how you use these different weapons,

1162
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:31,119
Here's what these like mechanics do. But then it eventually

1163
00:57:31,159 --> 00:57:35,800
evolves into like super creative boss battles, fun puzzle platforming,

1164
00:57:36,119 --> 00:57:39,800
fun like obstacle courses and like challenges to like clear

1165
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:43,679
out enemies as as quickly as possible, and then boss

1166
00:57:43,719 --> 00:57:47,079
battles that are just over the top creative and just

1167
00:57:47,239 --> 00:57:50,760
bonkers and all set to music because Splatoon is always

1168
00:57:50,760 --> 00:57:53,760
great about its music, so I've always been a champion

1169
00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:55,519
of that. And then so when I heard they were

1170
00:57:55,519 --> 00:57:59,800
doing a single player Splatoon game, I was super stoked,

1171
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:04,000
But also like, will people care, because the vast majority

1172
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:07,239
of people play multiplayer, will they go into this or

1173
00:58:07,280 --> 00:58:09,360
will they just be like, Oh, I don't who wants

1174
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:11,599
to play single player Splatoon? Like, I think a lot

1175
00:58:11,639 --> 00:58:14,880
of people might think that. Thankfully, it is good enough

1176
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:17,840
that I think people are gonna have to pay attention

1177
00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:19,639
because I think it's gonna end up being one of

1178
00:58:19,679 --> 00:58:23,239
Nintendo's best games of this year. And basically it's a

1179
00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:27,480
single player focused game, but it offers the ability to

1180
00:58:27,559 --> 00:58:29,960
play co op with up to four players, right, so

1181
00:58:30,039 --> 00:58:32,280
you can go in with a you can I played

1182
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:34,760
the vast majority of this game single player and didn't

1183
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,559
have any problems with balancing, didn't have any problems with like,

1184
00:58:38,039 --> 00:58:40,800
oh man, I really need another player for this. But

1185
00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:43,480
if you want it, it's there and you can call

1186
00:58:43,519 --> 00:58:45,400
in you know, up to three friends to join you.

1187
00:58:45,679 --> 00:58:49,199
Speaker 2: Or you can even do like a call for help button,

1188
00:58:49,239 --> 00:58:50,119
which is really cool.

1189
00:58:50,159 --> 00:58:53,239
Speaker 3: So like if you're struggling with something, you can highlight

1190
00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:55,519
that on the map and then hit like I think

1191
00:58:55,519 --> 00:58:58,679
it's like the minus button on switch and or switch to.

1192
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:00,719
Speaker 2: And it will out a call.

1193
00:59:01,199 --> 00:59:04,960
Speaker 3: And if you are if somebody out there says like

1194
00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:08,119
I want to help somebody, because like you get a

1195
00:59:08,119 --> 00:59:10,880
bonus every twenty four hours for going into somebody's game

1196
00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:14,519
and helping them with a mission. You can have somebody

1197
00:59:14,639 --> 00:59:17,400
join you or multiple people join you and go in.

1198
00:59:17,480 --> 00:59:20,199
Speaker 1: It's like a it's like a subn sign from souls.

1199
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:22,760
Then is you kind of put it down or like,

1200
00:59:23,199 --> 00:59:25,000
you know, you get to the Stakes America and Elden

1201
00:59:25,079 --> 00:59:26,639
Ring and stuff like that and you're like, I need

1202
00:59:26,760 --> 00:59:29,840
I need help on this. Uh this Splittoon Millennia is

1203
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:31,800
destroying me. I need help.

1204
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:36,000
Speaker 3: Exactly, and so and if somebody comes into your game,

1205
00:59:36,199 --> 00:59:39,599
they leave with extra loot. And what's cool is that

1206
00:59:39,679 --> 00:59:42,559
like when you go because like it incentivizes you to

1207
00:59:42,639 --> 00:59:44,519
like be like a person who goes out and helps.

1208
00:59:44,920 --> 00:59:47,239
So what's also cool about the co op stuff is

1209
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,440
it level scales to everybody individually. So like while I

1210
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:55,480
am like, you know, level forty something, and Eric, you

1211
00:59:55,559 --> 00:59:59,360
join my session and you're like level eight, your enemies

1212
00:59:59,360 --> 01:00:02,400
that you're seeing on the screen are level eight, whereas

1213
01:00:01,960 --> 01:00:04,960
my enemies that I'm seeing on the screen are whatever

1214
01:00:05,119 --> 01:00:10,000
level like I'm at. So it actually will play out

1215
01:00:10,119 --> 01:00:14,199
the way like it should for like appropriate level scaling

1216
01:00:14,280 --> 01:00:18,800
to your character. Or like there's also like all the

1217
01:00:18,840 --> 01:00:23,239
missions themselves have individual level like attached to them, so

1218
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:26,239
like after you beat a level and then go back

1219
01:00:26,239 --> 01:00:28,280
to it later, you can take it on in its

1220
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:30,519
original form, so like if it's like level seventeen, you

1221
01:00:30,519 --> 01:00:32,639
can do that, or like it'll have a spicy version

1222
01:00:32,679 --> 01:00:35,400
where it's like, okay, now it's level thirty six, and

1223
01:00:35,440 --> 01:00:39,119
then there's like eventually you unlock extra spicy versions, which

1224
01:00:39,159 --> 01:00:41,079
are like all right, this is like post game, like

1225
01:00:41,159 --> 01:00:45,840
far post game, and as you keep going through these missions,

1226
01:00:45,880 --> 01:00:48,239
you know there's there's tens upon tens of missions that

1227
01:00:48,280 --> 01:00:52,440
you can compete in or complete, and hundreds upon hundreds

1228
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:57,000
of weapons. You're constantly gathering weapons and gadget parts. And

1229
01:00:57,559 --> 01:01:00,159
the way it basically works is you go in to

1230
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:04,440
each of these they're called raids, you know, playing into

1231
01:01:04,440 --> 01:01:07,320
the name, and there's a few different mission types. One

1232
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:09,039
of them is like, okay, just go into here and

1233
01:01:09,079 --> 01:01:11,159
collect power eggs and once you fill up your meter,

1234
01:01:11,280 --> 01:01:13,400
you'll be able to move on to the next level.

1235
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:14,719
Speaker 2: And then like it's.

1236
01:01:14,599 --> 01:01:17,519
Speaker 3: Usually like three levels or three layers that you were

1237
01:01:17,559 --> 01:01:19,239
going down to and then it ends in a boss

1238
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:21,440
battle that is one of them. Then another one is

1239
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:24,039
like it dumps you into a big open area and

1240
01:01:24,440 --> 01:01:27,840
there's a big spiral light shard. It's the Spiral Light Island.

1241
01:01:27,920 --> 01:01:30,320
So like the main currency is spiral light chards. There's

1242
01:01:30,360 --> 01:01:33,920
a big like like like shard that you can drill into,

1243
01:01:34,239 --> 01:01:36,039
but first you need to power up your drill with

1244
01:01:36,079 --> 01:01:38,440
power eggs, so you go around to smaller spiral light

1245
01:01:38,519 --> 01:01:40,760
charts that you can drill into clear.

1246
01:01:40,519 --> 01:01:41,280
Speaker 2: Out all the enemies.

1247
01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:44,679
Speaker 3: Gather their power eggs, get the shards, and then once

1248
01:01:44,679 --> 01:01:46,559
you have enough power, you can choose to keep going,

1249
01:01:46,599 --> 01:01:48,920
and you as you keep going, you actually get on

1250
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:51,880
a multiplier, So like like if you choose to do

1251
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:54,320
that risk reward of I'm gonna keep going before I

1252
01:01:54,400 --> 01:01:57,159
go and complete the main main mission here, you'll get

1253
01:01:57,159 --> 01:01:59,960
a multiplier on the currency that you get. And then

1254
01:02:00,039 --> 01:02:02,320
and you know, once you drill into the main spiral

1255
01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:04,400
light shard, you get your treasure and you exit the level.

1256
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:07,920
There are also the set piece boss battles like we

1257
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:12,519
talked about in the original Splatoon games. There are other

1258
01:02:12,559 --> 01:02:15,280
ones where it's just like more of a linear style level,

1259
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:19,519
kind of akin to the splatoona like mainline game single

1260
01:02:19,519 --> 01:02:21,440
player stuff where it's like all right, you start at

1261
01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:24,280
point A, you're working your way to point B, and

1262
01:02:24,320 --> 01:02:27,079
then you defeat all the enemies on en route to that,

1263
01:02:27,400 --> 01:02:30,840
or like there's there's some mild platforming stuff. Honestly, that

1264
01:02:30,960 --> 01:02:32,440
is the thing that I missed the most is that

1265
01:02:32,519 --> 01:02:35,639
like the puzzle and platforming elements were really toned down

1266
01:02:35,639 --> 01:02:39,280
for this. They're mostly relegated to kind of like you

1267
01:02:39,480 --> 01:02:43,559
unlock these kind of like side raids where it's not

1268
01:02:43,719 --> 01:02:48,400
so much like a standard Splatoon Raiders level, but more

1269
01:02:48,440 --> 01:02:50,880
so it's like a challenge, like a test chamber almost

1270
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:51,960
in where did.

1271
01:02:51,880 --> 01:02:54,559
Speaker 1: You call shrines, Like like would a shrine be the

1272
01:02:54,559 --> 01:02:56,760
comparison point like a Zelda shrine?

1273
01:02:56,960 --> 01:03:00,559
Speaker 3: Maybe a little bit, but it's it's still the core gameplay.

1274
01:03:00,599 --> 01:03:03,880
It's mostly like, Okay, you are put into here. You

1275
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:05,840
don't have the same like level of agency that you

1276
01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:08,239
would in a Breath the Wild shrine, for example, where

1277
01:03:08,280 --> 01:03:10,159
it's like you still have access to all your abilities.

1278
01:03:10,880 --> 01:03:15,440
Here in Splatoon Raiders, it's like you enter these special

1279
01:03:15,519 --> 01:03:19,039
levels and it's like, okay, you only have this one ability.

1280
01:03:19,159 --> 01:03:22,039
You don't have any weapons or whatever. We have a

1281
01:03:22,119 --> 01:03:24,199
level that is catered to making it so you have

1282
01:03:24,239 --> 01:03:27,360
to use this one ability, this one gadget in very

1283
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:30,960
specific ways. So like there's one ability where like you

1284
01:03:31,000 --> 01:03:33,440
can throw out a balloon that is full of ink,

1285
01:03:33,719 --> 01:03:35,039
and then you can throw out another balloon and it

1286
01:03:35,079 --> 01:03:37,320
automatically tethers them to each other, so you have to

1287
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:40,760
manipulate it so that like the tether is taking out

1288
01:03:40,800 --> 01:03:43,480
like target balloons in order to open up the next path.

1289
01:03:43,559 --> 01:03:45,400
Speaker 2: So it's kind of puzzly in.

1290
01:03:45,400 --> 01:03:47,719
Speaker 3: That way, and like kind of physics based puzzles in

1291
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:49,960
some sense, other ones where it's like, okay, you have

1292
01:03:50,039 --> 01:03:52,920
no weapons, you just have like you have to run.

1293
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:55,239
Speaker 2: Through these these loops or these hoops in order to

1294
01:03:55,280 --> 01:03:55,960
clear the level.

1295
01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:58,280
Speaker 3: You have to run through like twenty seven hoops and

1296
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:00,519
you have no weapons, and enemies are just constant spawning,

1297
01:04:00,519 --> 01:04:02,400
so you have to like lure them away and make

1298
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:04,840
it so that you are getting through those those hoops

1299
01:04:05,519 --> 01:04:09,679
before they splat you. So it's like little challenges like that.

1300
01:04:10,119 --> 01:04:11,920
So I guess like the Breath of the Wild Tears

1301
01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:15,480
of the Kingdom Shrine metaphor is a little bit apt there,

1302
01:04:15,480 --> 01:04:20,280
but it's it's more restrictive than they are in those

1303
01:04:20,519 --> 01:04:25,519
in that. In that way, the gameplay loop, I think

1304
01:04:25,679 --> 01:04:28,599
is probably the thing that is most attractive to me,

1305
01:04:29,000 --> 01:04:31,440
because these raids are often very bite sized, they only

1306
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:34,000
take a few minutes at most to complete, Like a

1307
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:36,719
lot of them are often on timers, especially if it's

1308
01:04:36,760 --> 01:04:38,320
like one of like the collect as many power eggs

1309
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:40,920
and then move on to the next level. Those are

1310
01:04:40,960 --> 01:04:44,039
timer based, so you can only last a certain amount

1311
01:04:44,039 --> 01:04:46,559
of time on there, and you gather so much loot

1312
01:04:46,679 --> 01:04:49,239
and then you go back to your your home base,

1313
01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:52,960
which is upgradeable, and it's like okay, on one side,

1314
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:56,199
you can upgrade your character with like modifiers to say

1315
01:04:56,199 --> 01:04:59,719
like all right, weapons do more damage, gadgets do more damage,

1316
01:05:00,079 --> 01:05:04,159
your your HP is higher, you have more customization slots

1317
01:05:04,159 --> 01:05:06,480
for each gadget if you if you upgrade this part,

1318
01:05:06,880 --> 01:05:08,880
then there's another part where it's like you can upgrade

1319
01:05:08,880 --> 01:05:10,840
your gadget, you can research new gadgets if you want

1320
01:05:10,840 --> 01:05:13,719
to unlock new abilities, and then there's another one where

1321
01:05:13,719 --> 01:05:16,079
it's like you can upgrade your weapons. You can transfer

1322
01:05:16,360 --> 01:05:20,199
in the post game, you can transfer abilities between weapons,

1323
01:05:20,280 --> 01:05:22,239
so like they you know, they'll have special modifiers like

1324
01:05:22,280 --> 01:05:26,599
depending on rarity like legendary or or like I don't

1325
01:05:26,639 --> 01:05:29,159
know what, like epic or whatever. Like they're actually not

1326
01:05:29,239 --> 01:05:31,199
called that, but like they're they're sort of like five star,

1327
01:05:31,239 --> 01:05:34,960
four star, three star rarity. The higher the rarity, the

1328
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:37,480
more special, Like like there's one where I was shooting them,

1329
01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:39,840
and like there's like a two percent chance that it

1330
01:05:39,920 --> 01:05:43,199
will freeze the enemy in place. And when you're using

1331
01:05:43,239 --> 01:05:46,920
like an automatic like splatter shot, that at two percent

1332
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:50,360
happens pretty frequently because you know every hundred shots. Two

1333
01:05:50,440 --> 01:05:52,679
of those are freezing an enemy, so you could upgrade

1334
01:05:52,679 --> 01:05:55,280
that to four percent so it happens more frequently, and

1335
01:05:55,519 --> 01:05:57,320
you can if you find a weapon that you like more,

1336
01:05:57,360 --> 01:05:59,480
you can be like, oh, well, how can I transfer

1337
01:05:59,599 --> 01:06:02,320
this freezing property over to this other weapon?

1338
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:03,719
Speaker 2: So in the postgame you can do that.

1339
01:06:04,239 --> 01:06:08,000
Speaker 3: And so there's so many customization options and the tinkering

1340
01:06:08,079 --> 01:06:09,360
of the gadgets themselves.

1341
01:06:09,400 --> 01:06:11,719
Speaker 2: I had it. So there are three.

1342
01:06:11,559 --> 01:06:15,280
Speaker 3: Tanks, right, there's the speed tank, there's the power tank,

1343
01:06:15,320 --> 01:06:17,920
and there's the tactical tank. Those basically serve as base

1344
01:06:18,280 --> 01:06:19,199
character classes.

1345
01:06:19,440 --> 01:06:21,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, classes and stuff. Yeah yeah.

1346
01:06:21,519 --> 01:06:24,719
Speaker 3: So the speed is all about mobility and range. And

1347
01:06:25,159 --> 01:06:27,320
so there's one the setup that I had, or the

1348
01:06:27,360 --> 01:06:29,360
load up that I had, where it was like okay,

1349
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:32,320
I on one button I have or one shoulder button

1350
01:06:32,360 --> 01:06:32,719
I have it.

1351
01:06:32,679 --> 01:06:34,440
Speaker 2: So you can just burst straight up, which is really

1352
01:06:34,440 --> 01:06:34,800
good for.

1353
01:06:34,719 --> 01:06:37,400
Speaker 3: Getting out of trouble, like if they're swarming, you burst

1354
01:06:37,440 --> 01:06:39,280
straight up and then I can like, you know, go

1355
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:43,360
elsewhere and then that it leaves like an explosion when

1356
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:44,760
you do that. And then the other one I had

1357
01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:47,079
the boo yah rang, which is just like a boomerang

1358
01:06:47,119 --> 01:06:48,679
you throw out it leads a trail of ink, and

1359
01:06:48,679 --> 01:06:52,239
you can modify that to like you know, spin in

1360
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:54,559
place at the end of its range for longer.

1361
01:06:54,599 --> 01:06:57,199
Speaker 2: So like if you if you get it like perfectly.

1362
01:06:56,760 --> 01:06:58,960
Speaker 3: Timed, and like there's like an like a boss salmonid,

1363
01:06:59,239 --> 01:07:00,960
you can have it so just like spins right on

1364
01:07:01,000 --> 01:07:03,960
top of them, doing damage the entire time. And then

1365
01:07:04,360 --> 01:07:07,079
the power one is all about like getting right in

1366
01:07:07,119 --> 01:07:09,679
their faces right Like There's there's the slash where you

1367
01:07:09,719 --> 01:07:11,920
could just like constantly keep slashing back and forth, but

1368
01:07:12,039 --> 01:07:15,639
that's like a charge forward move. And there's another one

1369
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:19,920
where it's like you're throwing out like a like a

1370
01:07:20,199 --> 01:07:23,079
like a projectile that like you can follow along with,

1371
01:07:23,159 --> 01:07:25,119
so it like really kind of clears a path for you.

1372
01:07:25,639 --> 01:07:30,400
My favorite ended up being the tactical tank, where I

1373
01:07:30,760 --> 01:07:34,440
was like throwing down turrets that would just shoot ink.

1374
01:07:34,960 --> 01:07:36,679
And then there was also one where I could throw

1375
01:07:36,719 --> 01:07:38,800
down like trip wires where it would shoot out like

1376
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:41,679
five trip wires and any enemy that walked into it,

1377
01:07:41,800 --> 01:07:43,960
they just constantly took damage. So like if there was

1378
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:46,360
like a bunch of enemies coming at me from all directions,

1379
01:07:46,360 --> 01:07:48,599
I would throw down that trip wire it would shoot

1380
01:07:48,599 --> 01:07:51,159
out these this kind of like spiderweb and any enemy

1381
01:07:51,159 --> 01:07:55,360
that walked into it is just taking the constantly damage

1382
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:58,639
and that was really helpful. And then the one that

1383
01:07:58,639 --> 01:08:00,480
I ended up going with was it.

1384
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:01,840
Speaker 2: Was like it created like a vortex.

1385
01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:03,719
Speaker 3: It almost like a sprinkler head that you put down

1386
01:08:03,719 --> 01:08:05,559
in the middle of the map and it created this

1387
01:08:05,639 --> 01:08:07,559
vortex and it sucked enemies in and it was just

1388
01:08:07,599 --> 01:08:09,679
constantly spraying out like a misting of ink.

1389
01:08:10,199 --> 01:08:11,639
Speaker 2: So it was like really really.

1390
01:08:11,440 --> 01:08:13,679
Speaker 3: Powerful when combined with the turrets and the way I

1391
01:08:13,719 --> 01:08:17,399
tinkered with those with the different slots that I had available,

1392
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:20,079
you get all these gadget parts and you can start

1393
01:08:20,159 --> 01:08:24,560
upgrading the individual abilities through these gadget parts. So I

1394
01:08:24,600 --> 01:08:27,920
had the turret, for example, I had that upgraded so

1395
01:08:28,399 --> 01:08:30,760
op by the end of the game where it was

1396
01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:34,000
like I had it. I had a gadget part that

1397
01:08:34,039 --> 01:08:36,039
made it so I could get an extra charge so

1398
01:08:36,079 --> 01:08:38,199
I could throw out two turrets at once. Then I

1399
01:08:38,239 --> 01:08:40,760
had it so that the cool down was reduced. Then

1400
01:08:40,760 --> 01:08:44,119
I had it so that the turrets lasted longer. So

1401
01:08:44,199 --> 01:08:46,439
like by the end of it, I had like four

1402
01:08:46,479 --> 01:08:48,840
turrets out because they were still on there there they

1403
01:08:48,880 --> 01:08:51,560
were lasting longer, the cool down was shorter, and I

1404
01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:55,359
also had it so that they auto deployed, so if

1405
01:08:55,399 --> 01:08:59,039
I damaged any enemy with my ink, it would auto

1406
01:08:59,119 --> 01:08:59,640
deploy a.

1407
01:08:59,600 --> 01:09:00,720
Speaker 2: Turret I had a charge.

1408
01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:02,479
Speaker 3: So they were just like blasting out of me left

1409
01:09:02,479 --> 01:09:05,560
and right, and I was just like, you know, basically

1410
01:09:05,600 --> 01:09:08,479
controlling the map with these tactical tanks. Like I love

1411
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:12,760
the way that they let you customize these abilities your way,

1412
01:09:13,479 --> 01:09:17,119
and just really they give you reason to bounce between

1413
01:09:17,159 --> 01:09:19,319
them as well. Like some of these raids they give

1414
01:09:19,359 --> 01:09:22,079
you bonuses if you've never completed it with that.

1415
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:24,239
Speaker 2: Type of tank.

1416
01:09:24,319 --> 01:09:26,000
Speaker 3: So if you've done it with the power and the

1417
01:09:26,039 --> 01:09:28,279
tactical but you haven't done with the speed tank, you

1418
01:09:28,319 --> 01:09:30,680
can go in with the speed tank and complete it

1419
01:09:30,720 --> 01:09:34,479
and get a bonus piece of loot. And they dole

1420
01:09:34,520 --> 01:09:39,079
out these upgrades so intelligently paced that you get out

1421
01:09:39,119 --> 01:09:39,279
of there.

1422
01:09:39,439 --> 01:09:40,720
Speaker 2: Like there were so many times where I was.

1423
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:42,720
Speaker 3: Just like, Okay, it's getting late, I should go to bed,

1424
01:09:43,119 --> 01:09:44,760
and then it'd be like, oh, I just got that upgrade.

1425
01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:46,479
I want to see what that is like. So the

1426
01:09:46,680 --> 01:09:48,880
raids only about like three minutes, I'll jump in and

1427
01:09:48,920 --> 01:09:51,840
do that. And then that got me going again, and

1428
01:09:51,880 --> 01:09:54,039
before I knew it, it was like another hour beyond

1429
01:09:54,039 --> 01:09:56,359
what I was planning on playing. Because they do that,

1430
01:09:56,560 --> 01:10:00,399
they install such a smart gameplay loop into make so

1431
01:10:00,479 --> 01:10:03,239
that you just like say, okay, just one more, all right,

1432
01:10:03,359 --> 01:10:05,920
just one more again. And even though it's so loot

1433
01:10:06,039 --> 01:10:09,039
driven outside of like ambo functionality where it's just like

1434
01:10:09,079 --> 01:10:11,359
you scan the ambo and you get like an outfit,

1435
01:10:11,520 --> 01:10:14,560
so it's like cosmetic, but like outside of that, there's

1436
01:10:14,600 --> 01:10:15,920
no like micro transactions.

1437
01:10:15,960 --> 01:10:16,760
Speaker 2: There's nothing like that.

1438
01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:20,680
Speaker 3: So even though like it's a luter shooter inspired Splatoon game,

1439
01:10:21,319 --> 01:10:24,319
it doesn't fall into the tendencies that we see other

1440
01:10:24,359 --> 01:10:27,359
louter shooter games go for, which is another testament to

1441
01:10:27,520 --> 01:10:29,520
why I enjoy this game so much.

1442
01:10:30,479 --> 01:10:33,520
Speaker 5: I have one very important question. I'm in the opening

1443
01:10:33,520 --> 01:10:35,079
hour still kind of like tutorialized.

1444
01:10:36,680 --> 01:10:40,840
Speaker 4: I like my Splatoon music funky, but right now Splatoon

1445
01:10:40,920 --> 01:10:44,600
Raiders music is freaky, and I'm wondering if it will

1446
01:10:44,600 --> 01:10:48,680
get better or change because I'm I'm missing some of

1447
01:10:48,720 --> 01:10:50,600
these spunk that Splatoon is known for.

1448
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:51,199
Speaker 2: You know.

1449
01:10:51,239 --> 01:10:55,119
Speaker 3: That's one of the things that I kind of detracted

1450
01:10:55,159 --> 01:10:57,520
a little bit in my review was that, like, I

1451
01:10:57,560 --> 01:11:00,279
think Splatoon has some of the best music of any

1452
01:11:00,399 --> 01:11:03,439
like game of the past ten years, like that first

1453
01:11:03,479 --> 01:11:07,119
Platoon soundtrack is fantastic, and every subsequent Splatoon game has

1454
01:11:07,119 --> 01:11:12,239
been incredible. The soundtrack of Splatoon Raiders didn't really vibe

1455
01:11:12,279 --> 01:11:14,119
with me. There are some bangers, like I like the

1456
01:11:14,159 --> 01:11:17,399
home based theme, I like the some of the boss

1457
01:11:17,439 --> 01:11:21,680
battle themes, but overall, you're right, like, it does feel

1458
01:11:21,720 --> 01:11:25,079
kind of like almost like a disjointed feel because like

1459
01:11:25,279 --> 01:11:28,119
you're fighting the Samanids, and the Samanids every time they

1460
01:11:28,119 --> 01:11:30,600
come on screen, it's almost like this like airhorn like

1461
01:11:30,640 --> 01:11:34,239
not air horn, like like air raid horn, like you know,

1462
01:11:34,239 --> 01:11:40,279
it's not so it's like an air raid horn almost

1463
01:11:40,319 --> 01:11:42,600
that plays when they come on screen, and it gives

1464
01:11:42,600 --> 01:11:45,640
you that sense of dread and that's cool at first,

1465
01:11:45,720 --> 01:11:47,840
and it gives you like that vibe of like, oh crap,

1466
01:11:47,880 --> 01:11:50,319
there's like enemies to take on. But I do think

1467
01:11:50,319 --> 01:11:56,960
it overshadows the soundtrack and the music itself didn't really

1468
01:11:57,000 --> 01:12:00,199
do it for me, and it never really did. Like again,

1469
01:12:00,239 --> 01:12:02,159
there were some songs that I think were exceptions to this,

1470
01:12:02,239 --> 01:12:04,319
but I do think this is the weakest Splatoon soundtrack,

1471
01:12:04,359 --> 01:12:07,640
which is unfortunate because it's probably my favorite. It's probably

1472
01:12:07,640 --> 01:12:10,840
my favorite single player Splatoon content, and playing co op

1473
01:12:10,880 --> 01:12:13,319
is awesome as well. So I by the end of

1474
01:12:13,399 --> 01:12:16,079
the review period and what I was just like grinding

1475
01:12:16,079 --> 01:12:19,239
for levels and replaying levels. I was listening to other

1476
01:12:19,279 --> 01:12:20,399
stuff while I was playing.

1477
01:12:20,479 --> 01:12:27,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, a bullet to the heart or a Splatoon splat

1478
01:12:27,159 --> 01:12:30,880
shot to the heart. Uh that that's that's serable. I

1479
01:12:31,079 --> 01:12:35,039
I love Splatoon. It's been one of my favorite new

1480
01:12:35,119 --> 01:12:38,399
Nintendo series of of the last few years. I think

1481
01:12:38,439 --> 01:12:42,199
it's like I was commenting on this the other day

1482
01:12:42,199 --> 01:12:44,000
that a lot of people talk about Nintendo. They talk

1483
01:12:44,039 --> 01:12:47,640
about the the sort of mount rushmore of Nintendo your Zelda,

1484
01:12:47,680 --> 01:12:52,199
You're Mario, your Kirby, your Donkey Kong. But for me,

1485
01:12:52,880 --> 01:12:56,119
I guess Pikachu. Technically it's that's that's a weird thing,

1486
01:12:56,319 --> 01:12:59,079
you know. It's it's Nintendo, not Nintendo game freak. I know,

1487
01:12:59,239 --> 01:13:06,079
But I personally love the era of Nintendo obviously where

1488
01:13:06,079 --> 01:13:08,119
I started growing into it, but a lot of Pickman

1489
01:13:08,319 --> 01:13:11,079
and Splatoon and those are kind of series that mean

1490
01:13:11,119 --> 01:13:14,159
a lot to me, and Splatoon three I've kind of

1491
01:13:14,159 --> 01:13:16,359
been looking for an excuse to want to go back to.

1492
01:13:17,479 --> 01:13:19,560
In some ways, I'm almost happy that this is a

1493
01:13:19,600 --> 01:13:21,880
single player one because I'm hoping that the servers for

1494
01:13:22,000 --> 01:13:26,840
Splatoon three will They've been populated, They've never been barren

1495
01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:29,600
or anything, but I'm hoping some more people pick Splatoon

1496
01:13:29,640 --> 01:13:31,479
three back up and have an excuse to go back

1497
01:13:31,479 --> 01:13:33,680
to that multiplayer. But I'm also really looking forward to

1498
01:13:33,680 --> 01:13:37,039
this as sort of a chip away at it played

1499
01:13:37,079 --> 01:13:39,399
over time, definitely co op. I love the idea of

1500
01:13:39,399 --> 01:13:42,439
doing co op and either hopping off with friends or

1501
01:13:43,199 --> 01:13:45,439
doing those kind of support missions and just helping people

1502
01:13:45,479 --> 01:13:47,199
out because it's the other thing I love about Splatoon

1503
01:13:47,279 --> 01:13:50,159
is even though it is a quote unquote competitive shooter

1504
01:13:50,399 --> 01:13:54,880
and all that, it's community is so like just loves

1505
01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:58,000
the act of playing Splatoon and wants to have fun

1506
01:13:58,079 --> 01:14:01,159
playing Splatoon. And maybe it helps that there's no voice

1507
01:14:01,239 --> 01:14:03,319
chat or anything, but like, I've never really run into

1508
01:14:03,359 --> 01:14:08,079
like toxic situations with Splatoon very often, and it's it's awesome,

1509
01:14:08,319 --> 01:14:11,840
and I'm happy to see if there's some mechanics in

1510
01:14:11,880 --> 01:14:13,840
here to kind of encourage some of that with the

1511
01:14:14,159 --> 01:14:17,159
jumping into help and hopefully I can boo yah with

1512
01:14:17,239 --> 01:14:19,920
other people. That's that's what I'm hoping for you can

1513
01:14:20,520 --> 01:14:22,880
you can bou yah. Okay, that's that's important. I want

1514
01:14:22,880 --> 01:14:23,079
to think.

1515
01:14:23,159 --> 01:14:24,760
Speaker 3: I think it's down on the dpad because I was

1516
01:14:24,760 --> 01:14:26,479
booyahing with people pretty frequently.

1517
01:14:27,000 --> 01:14:31,720
Speaker 1: Yes, that's that's the important part. Uh. One last question

1518
01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:34,800
for me before we go. We talked a lot about

1519
01:14:34,840 --> 01:14:37,479
all of the sort of gameplay loop the story or

1520
01:14:37,520 --> 01:14:39,159
the new music and stuff. I want to know about

1521
01:14:39,199 --> 01:14:42,640
the story, like how how deep is the story, Like

1522
01:14:42,800 --> 01:14:44,800
does it really get into a lot of interesting stuff.

1523
01:14:44,840 --> 01:14:48,279
I know Splatoon can kind of have a story and

1524
01:14:48,359 --> 01:14:50,920
really interesting lore, even if the main plot is not

1525
01:14:51,079 --> 01:14:53,680
exactly like the most complicated, dense thing. I do love

1526
01:14:53,760 --> 01:14:55,720
the world of Splatoon. Do you feel like a lot

1527
01:14:55,760 --> 01:14:57,520
of that carries over here or is it just kind

1528
01:14:57,560 --> 01:14:59,920
of like a framing device for what you're ultimately doing.

1529
01:15:00,680 --> 01:15:01,520
I mean it's both.

1530
01:15:01,880 --> 01:15:05,520
Speaker 3: It's it's silly, it's inconsequential in terms of like you

1531
01:15:05,560 --> 01:15:08,760
know that coming from something like Halo Campaign evolved and

1532
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:11,039
being like wow, this is like the fate of humanity,

1533
01:15:11,079 --> 01:15:13,600
and then like you go to Splatoon Raiders and it's

1534
01:15:13,720 --> 01:15:16,479
like we need to figure out like how we can

1535
01:15:16,520 --> 01:15:19,199
get more treasure, but also like here we are in

1536
01:15:19,239 --> 01:15:21,760
the spiral light islands and the Salmonids are being like

1537
01:15:21,840 --> 01:15:24,000
driven crazy by something, and like we need to figure

1538
01:15:24,000 --> 01:15:26,880
out why they're being driven crazy before they go attack

1539
01:15:26,920 --> 01:15:31,560
all of our cities. Again, Like it's semi interesting and

1540
01:15:31,640 --> 01:15:34,640
like you you uncover a lot about like the Splatoon

1541
01:15:34,760 --> 01:15:38,760
lore in general, through like scrolls that you find while

1542
01:15:38,800 --> 01:15:42,079
you're you're exploring, Like there's briny scrolls they're called where

1543
01:15:42,079 --> 01:15:44,840
it's just it's a bunch of like Splatoon lore and

1544
01:15:44,880 --> 01:15:47,760
like hints the past and things of that nature. There's

1545
01:15:47,760 --> 01:15:50,520
some cut scenes that play after you defeat a boss

1546
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:54,039
in particular, where it's like, oh, yeah, this is related

1547
01:15:54,079 --> 01:15:56,560
to this because of this, and so you do if

1548
01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:59,399
you've been following the Splatoon story, there are some like

1549
01:16:00,079 --> 01:16:03,520
you know, minor revelations that you will come across. But

1550
01:16:04,520 --> 01:16:08,840
I it was not my like standout part of the experience.

1551
01:16:08,920 --> 01:16:10,640
Speaker 2: The standout part of the experience.

1552
01:16:10,319 --> 01:16:14,399
Speaker 3: Is Splatoon has the thing that the reason that it

1553
01:16:14,479 --> 01:16:17,199
has been so successful over the last eleven years is

1554
01:16:17,239 --> 01:16:21,000
because starting with the first s Platoon game, they absolutely

1555
01:16:21,079 --> 01:16:24,680
nailed the gameplay feel right, the feeling of like sinking

1556
01:16:24,720 --> 01:16:28,199
down beneath the surface of an inked surface and being

1557
01:16:28,239 --> 01:16:31,960
able to like smoothly glide around while you reload. By

1558
01:16:32,000 --> 01:16:35,479
the way, that's such a smart process of like all right, sink, reload,

1559
01:16:35,800 --> 01:16:38,279
move how you want to move, pop out, and then

1560
01:16:38,359 --> 01:16:40,359
you have a full ink tank to use whatever weapon

1561
01:16:40,359 --> 01:16:42,520
you have equipped and that feels good as well. And

1562
01:16:42,520 --> 01:16:44,159
then it's just you get into a rhythm of sink,

1563
01:16:44,439 --> 01:16:46,520
get to where you need to go, pop out, blast,

1564
01:16:46,600 --> 01:16:49,199
and then sink and then keep going that cycle. That

1565
01:16:49,319 --> 01:16:52,359
rhythm feels so good from the start of Splatoon one,

1566
01:16:52,479 --> 01:16:54,600
and that carries over into Splatoon Raiders. And I think

1567
01:16:54,600 --> 01:16:57,640
that's why this is successful franchise, because it just feels

1568
01:16:57,680 --> 01:17:01,159
so freaking good to play and and that is the

1569
01:17:01,199 --> 01:17:03,640
main triumph of this and then they can I think

1570
01:17:03,800 --> 01:17:06,319
the sky is the limit for the different types of

1571
01:17:06,399 --> 01:17:09,600
gameplay experiences that they can put Splatoon into. I know

1572
01:17:09,640 --> 01:17:12,199
that there was a report that came out recently where

1573
01:17:12,199 --> 01:17:16,680
they did like an Aska developer conversation over at Nintendo

1574
01:17:16,720 --> 01:17:19,279
with the producer of Splatoon Raiders, and he was like, yeah,

1575
01:17:19,279 --> 01:17:21,680
the idea behind this actually started as a tower defense game.

1576
01:17:21,680 --> 01:17:23,039
And now I'm like, oh, I want to play that,

1577
01:17:23,079 --> 01:17:26,439
Like I'm happy Splatoon Raiders, except it's one of my

1578
01:17:26,479 --> 01:17:28,640
favorite games of the year so far, but like a

1579
01:17:28,720 --> 01:17:31,359
tower defense game would be amazing with all the different

1580
01:17:31,359 --> 01:17:33,359
like trinkets and weapons and everything you can do.

1581
01:17:33,279 --> 01:17:36,000
Speaker 1: With almost like an orcs must die kind of thing. Yeah.

1582
01:17:36,239 --> 01:17:38,199
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, like there are so many different ways that

1583
01:17:38,199 --> 01:17:41,840
they could go out and like try different genres with

1584
01:17:41,920 --> 01:17:45,199
Splatoon and Splatoon Raiders. Makes me really excited about that

1585
01:17:45,239 --> 01:17:49,199
process and like the prospect of going out and trying

1586
01:17:49,239 --> 01:17:51,399
new genres because this is their first attempt at doing

1587
01:17:51,399 --> 01:17:53,439
that outside of like the little side games like they

1588
01:17:53,439 --> 01:17:55,600
did like a Card Battler and Splatoon three, and then

1589
01:17:55,600 --> 01:18:00,600
obviously they Salmon Run and Splatoon two and three, which

1590
01:18:00,640 --> 01:18:03,159
I mean, if you like Salmon Run, Splatoon Raiders, the

1591
01:18:03,479 --> 01:18:07,039
elevator pitch for Splatoon Raiders is basically like a looter

1592
01:18:07,159 --> 01:18:11,560
shooter that implements mechanics of Salmon Run and the single

1593
01:18:11,600 --> 01:18:15,800
player content of Splatoon's mainline series. Like that is basically

1594
01:18:15,840 --> 01:18:19,920
what Splatoon Raiders elevator pitch is, and it does it

1595
01:18:19,960 --> 01:18:23,640
really well. And you know, there's little complaints I can

1596
01:18:23,680 --> 01:18:26,640
have here and there, but again it's it's the highest

1597
01:18:27,000 --> 01:18:29,279
rating I've ever given a Splatoon game, and I've reviewed

1598
01:18:29,319 --> 01:18:31,199
all of them. I gave the highest one before this

1599
01:18:31,439 --> 01:18:34,960
was Splatoon three, which my complaint always with Splatoon games

1600
01:18:35,039 --> 01:18:38,560
is like there's not enough content at launch. This has

1601
01:18:38,600 --> 01:18:40,199
more than enough content at launch, and I don't know

1602
01:18:40,199 --> 01:18:42,560
if they're planning on adding more post launch, but if

1603
01:18:42,560 --> 01:18:44,960
they do, I will absolutely return. And something I want

1604
01:18:44,960 --> 01:18:47,640
to mention before we wrap up on Splatoon Raiders. After

1605
01:18:47,680 --> 01:18:51,720
you beat the game, there is a extremely challenging post

1606
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:54,920
game that you can tackle that I am currently still

1607
01:18:54,920 --> 01:18:59,760
working my way through, and it's it's awesome, it's rewarding,

1608
01:19:00,039 --> 01:19:02,600
it's challenging. It puts like if you think that like

1609
01:19:02,640 --> 01:19:05,600
you've broken the game. I was talking to IGN's Logan

1610
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:09,279
Plant on my All Things Nintendo podcast and he was like, yeah,

1611
01:19:09,319 --> 01:19:12,000
I thought I found like the build that broke Splatoon

1612
01:19:12,079 --> 01:19:14,439
Raiders by the end of the game. And then they

1613
01:19:14,439 --> 01:19:17,800
were like, no, way, you have to go rethink your

1614
01:19:17,960 --> 01:19:20,439
entire life in order to get through this post game stuff,

1615
01:19:20,439 --> 01:19:23,800
because like they thought, like ten steps ahead of whatever

1616
01:19:23,840 --> 01:19:25,640
build you have, you need to go back and not

1617
01:19:25,680 --> 01:19:28,119
only get better at it, but also like readjust it

1618
01:19:28,159 --> 01:19:30,079
and maybe even rebuild it from the ground up to

1619
01:19:30,239 --> 01:19:32,439
like figure out the load out that you're gonna need

1620
01:19:32,520 --> 01:19:35,920
to tackle this post game stuff because they don't mess

1621
01:19:35,960 --> 01:19:37,840
around with that. So that's something else that you can

1622
01:19:37,880 --> 01:19:39,800
look forward to even after you roll credits. And it

1623
01:19:39,840 --> 01:19:42,720
took me about probably twenty to twenty two hours to

1624
01:19:42,800 --> 01:19:45,960
roll credits on it, so it's it's a pretty solid

1625
01:19:46,000 --> 01:19:48,800
experience from start to finish.

1626
01:19:48,880 --> 01:19:52,279
Speaker 1: Heck yeah that as Splatoon raiders out now as of

1627
01:19:52,399 --> 01:19:55,560
this recording for the Switch to folks, that's gonna do it.

1628
01:19:55,600 --> 01:19:58,399
For the Game Informer show this week, Fast Breezy talk

1629
01:19:58,439 --> 01:19:59,680
about all the games you want to hear about and

1630
01:19:59,840 --> 01:20:02,800
co us our cover story on a Musha Way of

1631
01:20:02,840 --> 01:20:06,520
the Sword. You can go Gaminformer dot com slash subscribe

1632
01:20:06,560 --> 01:20:09,359
to go lock that in right now, or if you

1633
01:20:09,359 --> 01:20:10,720
want to wait a little bit, you can always hit

1634
01:20:10,720 --> 01:20:13,000
to your bookseller. We like the subscription. It's fun, you

1635
01:20:13,039 --> 01:20:15,279
get to guarantee it, you get to know what's going

1636
01:20:15,319 --> 01:20:19,039
to be on its way to you. Please go follow

1637
01:20:19,079 --> 01:20:21,600
us on all social channels, Go go check out the

1638
01:20:21,640 --> 01:20:23,439
YouTube content they'll be going up. If you're watching this

1639
01:20:23,520 --> 01:20:27,920
on YouTube, please smash that subscribe button, slam it and

1640
01:20:28,279 --> 01:20:32,560
destroy your keyboard with it. Until next time. For Wesley,

1641
01:20:32,640 --> 01:20:34,640
for Brian, for myself. We'll see you on the next

1642
01:20:34,640 --> 01:20:36,159
Game Informer show later y'all.

1643
01:20:36,640 --> 01:21:02,319
Speaker 5: Bye.