Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show here at gek First. I'm your host
Dil Muss, and I with me a very special guest
here on the show today, making her podcast debut on
Geek First, Glamrine Harpy Reya. Welcome to Sidequest. How are
you doing today?
Speaker 2: Hi, Dylan, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for
inviting me, And yeah, I'm excited to chat with you
for the first time about like my interests in video
games and stuff. So yeah, I'm just stoked to be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is gonna be a fun discussion, fun episode.
You know, me and you met briefly on like the
geek First twenty four hour stream where every year we
have a trivia battle and you partook in that, and
that's where I heard about you and the content that
you do YouTube channel talking to me about video games
and other that you're passionate about. And then we kind
of connected after that and it's been a bit, but
we finally have a nail down to day here to
just talk about some video games. So yeah, I kind
of wanted this episode to just be me and the audience,
like getting to know you and the games and the
nerdy things that you're into and all that, and so
I don't know. I think it should be a fun,
laid back episode, which is good because next week me
and Kirklann are gonna do like our Game of the
Year stuff and that's probably gonna be very you know,
long and extended, and we're probably gonna be very exhausted
by you do know of that. So I think this
is a good like calm before the storm, just like
a nice chill holiday a sort of episode, if that
makes sense.
Speaker 2: No, that's a good idea. Well, yeah, I'm stoked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I was going through looking through your YouTube
channel and listen to some stuff, you kind of do
all sorts of different stuff, But how would you describe
the content? And like, do you want to just shout
out and plug your content here at the top here?
Speaker 2: Sure? So my username across pretty much all my socials,
and my primary YouTube channel is at Glimmering Harpie and
the basis of my main channel has is definitely game focused.
So I talk about like gaming devices that I'm a
big fan of, fighting games, RPGs, action adventure games, indie games, RPGs,
j RPGs, some some podcasts in the past as well
with different guest appearances from different channel creators as well,
and yeah, that was that's been pretty much the mainstay
of that channel for going on maybe like two three years.
I take you know, extended breaks here and there just
for life. But but yeah, like I pretty much keep
all my legacy content there, so it's pretty accessible for
everyone to see, and it's pretty much the the nature
of the Beast, I guess if you want to know,
like a little bit more about like how how I
structure content and how I present it, A lot of
it is like you know, very like I try to
put my own like you know, signature branding and spin
on it and special especially with like presentation and how
I have a bunch of different voices on to talk
about similar topics. So that's something that's I'm really passionate
about that I hope is like kind of the the
the landmark of a brand so far, just you know,
making a space that is quintessentially me, but also inclusive
of other folks as well and welcoming to other folks.
And that's pretty much my my EMO. And I also
love movie talk, TV talk, pop culture, talk music. Yeah,
there's a huge interest for that that may not always
have like the right fit over on my gaming channel.
So I made a second channel called the glimmer Cast,
where the intention was to pretty much host everything that
was like non gaming over there, as well as potentially
some podcasts too. So that that channel, I've been slowly
raking racking up content as far as like shorts and
edited video content, which I've gotten more into it over
the last like year or two. Editing is something that
I really find a lot of fulfillment in because it's
it's where I can be more intentional with how I
present my content and telling a story through editing. So
that's actually pretty cathartic for me out there rather than
trying to you know, wax poetic about something on a podcast.
But yeah, that is pretty much what I do online
for the most part. I love supporting my friends and
other creators to do what they do, what they love,
and especially when like they talk about things that I'm
also interested in. Uh So yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Yeah. I want one thing I really like
about your YouTube channels that like you got live streams
of like playing through games, you got like unboxing videos,
you got podcasts you got like reviews and things, so
you kind of have like no matter what someone's looking for,
whether they just want something short and like quick or
like a longer thing to just kind of have on
like you kind of have it. You kind of run
the gamut there, running all sorts of different content. So
I think that's that's great.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, uh cool. Let's let's get into it here. So uh,
let's just talk about some of the games that we've
been playing. One thing, I'm maybe you have some other
surprises forum, but you mentioned that you've been playing some
Pokemon romhacks. I'm very curious to hear about that because
we've we like Pokemon is not usually like a top series.
I guess you're here here at geek first, Like we
we talked about games every once in a while, me
and Kirklam. Recently we're playing Pokemon Emeralds. We're talking about
that a little bit. I loved New Pokemon Snap for
no particular reason. I just got like really into that game.
But like with the main series, I kind of come
back to it every few years and and and just
it that way. But I feel like I've never really
delved into the world of romhacks from but from what
I've heard, it sounds like maybe the great greatest place
to go because like game Freak, you know, kind of
slow to iterate on the games they make. They don't
always add a ton of features. It's usually pretty safe games.
But I feel like the romhacks scenes where you get
like more interest in stuff. So, I don't know, what
are some of the highlights from suff you've been playing there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've been playing a lot of rom hacks
of the Bass game for Pokemon Emerald, so that seems
to be like really yeah, a really popular sort of
like I guess, like foundational rom for or disk image
for folks to kind of build off of and take
assets and then create either an original story or like
a more challenging version of like the poor story. And
I've gotten a lot of great, you know, kind of
FaceTime with doing a lot more challenging versions of whether
it be like Emerald Fire Red or Leaf Green. So
those are all like you know, the game Boy Advance
versions of the of the mainline Pokemon games, And for
me that was kind of like the renaissance of my
memories with the Pokemon series. I first got into it,
like a lot of folks with like red, blue, yellow, crystal, gold, silver,
So those are all amazing, and those were like just
very like you know, introductory RPG, you know, fun experiences
for me, where like I got to I got to
you know, like do my like hours and hours of
grinding searching for Pokemon, just hundreds and hundreds of hours.
And then as like quality of life improvements came with Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, fire, red,
so on, I felt that something about the Game Boy
Advance versions just seemed to be very streamlined, where especially
like on a graphic presentation level. Yeah, it kept that
charm of what I got with the Game Boy and
game Boy Color versions of the games, with like you know,
some added you know, like shadows and depth and character
animations for Pokemon on screen as well, also like some
environment elements introduced into the battle as well, So things
like that. It wasn't like over the top like you know,
three D rendering or like you know, orchestral music or
focus on realism or anything like that that came with
like the three DS and Switch games onward, but it
was something that just sort of lingered with me as
far as like this is like you know, this is
like peak Pokemon right here, and I kind of grabbed
onto that for the longest time, even as an adult.
So when I started to go back online and learn
more about like emulators and other like fan communities for
different types of games that are either getting like either
fan translations or like revisions by fans just you know,
sort of like this community who brought who brings it
upon themselves to keep the the name of an ip alive.
There was this other like subcommunity of Pokemon fans who
designed their own games based around existing games, and I
thought that was really interesting. So I started watching more
YouTube videos of folks doing playthroughs of these ram hacks
or like these these these edited versions of these Pokemon games,
and then it got to where it was like just
challenging versions of those existing games to where it was
fully original stories and even some new Pokemon designs too.
Like some folks you were very ambitious with.
Speaker 1: Like you know those work for you? Are you are
you a fan of what people create? Or you were like, no,
let's keep it to like the can in Pokemon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little it's a little odd, uh, seeing
so many different, like different variations of existing Pokemon, especially
when there's so many already existing right now where I
think we're close to like a thousand, so I can't
honestly say I recognize all of them, so like it
could be like a real Pokemon, but I'm like, wait,
what is that? Is that a real Pokemon? And then
I google it, I'm like, oh, man, that actually is
like canonically like a license to Pokemon. So so there
is like a good like way for me to kind
of get get back into Pokemon on a casual level
where I can like play it on any device, like
on an emulator on my phone. Is probably like you know,
the most convenient for me to just pull out and
like you know, start playing something and do a safe
state and then go back to my day, or for
me to just you know, play a more recent version
of a Pokemon rom hack that has additional what is
it generations of outside of just you know, one, two,
and three. It goes all the way up to like
generation nine I think at this point, and a lot
of folks make custom artwork that would fit in the aesthetic.
Speaker 1: Of the Pokemon Emerald design.
Speaker 2: So there's like a lot of love and passion and like,
you know, just a lot of creativity in the rom
community where like I even joined like a bunch of
Facebook groups and to to get the like you know,
ear on the ground for any like new realms or
any like new updates to existing realms that I play. So, yeah,
I think that is something that I didn't I'd never
really hear a whole lot of talk about, because I
always hear about folks talking about like, you know, what's
the new slatest game and things like that, and like
there's not much you know, tread not or we don't
really like tread back to like you know, communities that
are keeping certain ips alive or just like you know,
or just like our fond memories of playing old games,
but like what happened to those games afterwards? You know,
are people still talking about them? Like what's the latest
status of any new additional content on them? So I'm
kind of in that weird niche where I'm just like, wait,
let's you know, see what's going on like in the
community for this particular IP and what are they doing now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that for Pokemon that's so interesting just
because there's it's a series that has never had a
drought since it came out, right like just constantly, whether
it's the New Generations, which for a mainline game that
comes out pretty often, but then also like multiple spin
off games coming out every single year. So I feel
like for a lot of people, like there's like one,
they're just getting so much new, so many new games
that they don't really feel they need to go like
find things outside of that. And then if they do
want like an old experience, they're probably like very nostalgic
for like Emerald or like some of these the ones
you're talking about, and like maybe just want to go
revisit that, but don't really think to go and like
tackle it from like a different version from the rom
Haack side of things. But I also I love what
you said about like the the Game Boy Advance is
one of my favorite consoles, and you know, part of
that is like nostalgia, but I also think it's a
really interesting pocket for Nintendo where even though it was
a handheld, it was like the last time that like
first party Nintendo studios were like making pixel art games
really right. It was like that like it was like
the peak of them making those types of games, and
then they like fully moved on to three D because
at that point we were in like the GameCube generation
and then uh, I guess the DS afterwards, and so
I feel like especially yeah, when it comes to like
game Freak, Like I guess I'm thinking of like all
the DS games. I imagine all those were three like
the more three D graphics instead of pixel art, and
then maybe they had like little sprites here or there
or something. But yeah, to have like the fully pixelart games,
like I don't know, game Freaks art has always been fantastic,
like the color palettes, and yeah, I just love the
Game Boy Advance in terms of like the screen resolution,
the colors, like it had like the perfect amount of
limitation for me, uh to make just like all these
really special games. So just some of my all time
favorites are there as well. And yeah, like until recently,
I had never even really played any of the Pokemon
games on that system. It's just since I'm not a
diehard fan. I just play every once in a while.
But yeah, picking up a cartridge for Emerald and like
playing through that, it's really just fun to go back
and experience those those kind of things. So yeah, what
what is like the current rom Haack that you're playing,
which which version or which what is it a which
game is it a hack of? I suppose okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me check really quick. So I don't know
if folks have have been in the know about how
iOS now has legitimately like allowed emulators on their app stores.
You don't have to hack your iPhone or you know,
anything like that to try and play emulators on it.
You could just play them natively and just get the
ROMs uh wherever you get them. So anyway, the rom
hacks that I were playing that I've I've been playing
have been one it's called rat cold Red, and one
is called Pokemon Unbound.
Speaker 1: So oh, I've heard about Unbound. I've heard really good
things about Unbound. That's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the older ones. So I started
playing that one because it's a completely new new just
you know, world protagonist new starters all you know, like
uh in uh, canonical Pokemon like our I like legitimate Pokemon.
And what I like about it though, is because it's
like a completely new like map gyms and antagonist team,
but still with like you know, the same like core Pokemon,
especially like with additional newer generations I think between like
like like up until like maybe generation nine. I could
be wrong, or maybe like eight, maybe eight or so,
because this one is the Pokemon Unbound as a rom
Haack is a little bit older, so so yeah, it
I know, it has like a lot of different like
newer Pokemon, and so that's that's really cool. And and
the quality of life enhancements that I was mentioning earlier
about like how Game Boy Advance is definitely like kind
of like the peak for my Pokemon experience, but they're
but going back to those games without like let's say,
being able to speed up the frame rate and being
able to like shind a little bit faster, Like I'm
so used to being able to speed up the frame
rate like by five x and then just grind to
like you know, grind up my new Pokemon to be
the same level as my other ones I can continue
the game or something like that. It just made grinding
a lot less tedious. So going back to just you know,
playing the base cartridge in a Game Boy Advance, as
charming as that is, like I'm kind of used to
those you know, benefits of being able to play on
like an emulator. So that's what I kind of get
with the with the ROM hacks is that same, like
emotional satisfaction of seeing a game presented in a way
that is endearing and familiar to me, And also like
a lot of the more modern I guess, like accessibility
fees for being able to navigate your your menu and
your item back, your item bag a lot seamlessly, a
lot more seamlessly, being able to see weaknesses and benefits
of different moves like on the safe.
Speaker 1: That's really nice. I since I'm not so much of
a diehard fan, I forget all that stuff, Like I
what is fairy weak to? I have no idea. I
feel like I'm playing half the game with like a
Wikipedia page open on my phone. It's like, it's very
nice to have that stuff kind of contextualized within the game.
That's perfect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, So yeah, case in point, those are things
that I are kind of like a learning curve for
me too. So yeah, the different like type advantages too,
especially because now different Pokemon have different type types registered
to them as well, Like one at once, at one
time a Pokemon would be a normal type and now
it's a fairy type and now type and I'm just like, okay,
you're just yeah, you're just messing up my legacy knowledge
and like nothing else matters, like what I thought was
the truth, like you know back in like two thousand
and four, it means nothing now, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Very true. Yeah that's cool. Yeah, I feel like I
don't know, for someone like me who's like kind of
a passing fan, would you recommend these or would you
more recommend like just play the original games than if
you love those, like then go to the rom haacks
for kind of more of a alternate version of the game.
I don't know, I even like the first generation. I
haven't actually played those games. Do you think like a
rompack version would be a good way to do do
it because of that accessibility features? Or is it kind
of good to go for like the peer original version.
Speaker 2: I actually think that anyone who has never has never
played a Pokemon game yet definitely go for fire Red
or Leaf Green. So those are the game Boy Advanced
versions of the games, and I would I would say
start with those versions first, but because I know for myself,
I'm someone who has gotten used to being able to
speed through grinding a lot. If you'd like to play
it on a on an emulator, I think you'll have
a more satisfying time to be able to customize the
button layouts and menu options and and frame rate of
the game, so you can actually like make your experience
a little bit more easy to get into and you
don't have to kind of like shoehorn a game style
that's not familiar to you into your you know, into
how you are able to like play the game, like no,
you could. You can make it your own experience instead
of having to adapt around it.
Speaker 1: So nice, sounds good. What else you've been playing lately?
Any other highlights from recent games?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So on my Nintendo Switch that is my primary
gaming device, I was also playing Monster Hunter stories. So
growing up I was not super familiar with the Monster
Hunter mainline series until maybe, like I want to say
maybe like the PSP had one Monster Hunter game on it,
but I didn't own it. But entering into like the
wei U and PS four onward and h into like
Nintendo Switch when more games started to get poured it over,
so oh in the three DS Monster Hunter three. So yeah,
there was like very little exposure to the series I
had earlier on until like maybe around like the late
twenty tens into like you know, the early twenty twenties,
So yeah, like around what is it like? Maybe like
twenty twenty twenty twenty one, I started to give some
of the Monster Hunter Stories games a chance on my
three DS and then on Switch. So the original Monster
Hunter Stories is kind of like a spinoff of Monster
Hunter where it's like a little bit more geared around
turn based action combat with with some elements of like
of Pokemon, where you would basically train your monsters or
go out and capture monsters, befriend them. They help you
with with different quests you're on and help you around
different obstacles around the math and stuff, so while you're
doing quests, a lot of side quests. I'm really big
into side quests, so I spend a lot of time
on that game on three DS and then the sequel
on Switch. So that's one that I would also. That's
another series that I also really like as well, because
the turn based combat aspect of it definitely something you
know that's common in Pokemon and kind of a gaming
trope that I've always, you know, really loved because I'm
really big into like tactical strategy types of games too,
especially if there's like a grid map system and I
can move my team around, so like different types of.
Speaker 1: Is that what stories is like? Is there like a grid,
are you positioning people as well? Or is it more
just like Pokemon style or you just have like your
your teams up against each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's more Pokemon style where it's like your teams
are against each other. But I'm also really big into
other turn based styles of games, like the strategy tactical
games like fire Emblem and Dyskaya and let me see, Yeah,
those are some of the bigger ones. Tactics ogre. Oh yeah,
a final fantasy tactics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, cool, Yeah, that's that's another one of my
favorite genres. What's your what's your favorite Firelom game?
Speaker 2: Oh, let me see. Awakening was probably the one on
the three DS that that was probably like the biggest
one that got a lot of like newbies like me
into the series. So that one, it was really challenging
going into it, like it was my first time actually
like trying to play a game on normal and still
getting like you know NERFD or not not even NERF,
but just like you know, getting getting just obliterated by
the by the the n like the the computer antagonist
teams or whatever. So I was like, I mean, do
I want to play on easy? I don't know, Like,
so that was like one of my one of my
sort of like first encounters of like the difficulty scaling
and then feeling like kind of self conscious around like,
oh do I adjust it too easy or do I
just you know, struggle through it on normal. But but yeah,
that was a game that was very rich in different
story paths as well, for you know, how you want
to like navigate your your and develop different bonds with
your teammates and how you want to like design your
your team as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and like the kids Mechanic was so fun,
like depending on who you pair up, they like have
different children with like different stats and like different hair
colors and goofy stuff like that makes it very replayable
more so than like in a different way than other
Fire and Bloom games. Yeah, Awakening is fantastic that it's
a because I've played since like the game Boy Advance
era for Fire and Bloom and then I had like
a couple of games, like mostly the one on the DS,
which was like a remake of an earlier one. I
was like, ah, man, I really I really don't like this, like,
am I out on this series? I don't know, and
then picked up Awakening and was just like totally in
love with it again, and yeah, I had so many
new mechanics, but it was also just kind of classic fire.
I'm blown at the same time. So that's great. Have
you have you gone back and checked out those Game
Boy Advance ones since you're a fan of that console
as well.
Speaker 2: No, I haven't. So Like, I love that Nintendo Online
service offers this expanding library of older console content, including
the Game Boy Advance, but I honestly haven't spent too
much time on it. I think it's because, yeah, I
don't have the the quality of life enhancements that I
do on like an emulator, let's say. So, as much
like as I love these, like you know, older like
PS one and Super Nintendo games and the aesthetic just
you know, fits what I like about what I like,
what I look for, it's it is very hard to
go back to like how slow you know, combat and
animation and cut scenes are and things like that, not
being able to like skip them or anything. So yeah,
those things like that, I uh, it's kind of like
a give and take. I'm like, I want to play
this game, but then I can't on the official version
of the game that I have access to on my switch,
Like I I can't skip or or make my gameplay
any faster, but I can do it on my emulators.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's definitely worth noting, especially for Fire Emblem,
like because they have one of the game Boy Advanced
ones on there. I don't think they have both. There's
a third one that's like only in Japanese that I
haven't played, but I think it's Binding Blade Basing Blazing Blad.
I always forget which one it is, and like that
game was the first one that came to like North
America as the first like localized in English one, and
so it's like very tutorially for like hours and hours
and like forcing you to do certain moves and for me,
like playing after a bunch of other ones, going back
to him like goes tearing my hair out on how
slow it was. And so that's one I would definitely
wish I could like fast forward through some of that stuff.
And then also like with with three Houses and then
with Engage where they have like the rewind feature now
so if you get if you lose a unit, you
can just go back a few turns and you can't
do it unlimited amounts, right, But that is like the
perfect quality of life feature that when I go back
to any old Fire Bloom game, I'm like, man, I
wish I had that, because I just I hate losing
one guy to a random critical hit and then having
to like restart the level when it's taken me like
two hours to get to this point. That's where a
lot I feel like most people, if they ever quit
a Fire and Bloom game, it's because they had that
exact same situation happen where they were deep into a level,
lost a character, don't want to restart it because that's
just like a frustrating thing to do. And so yeah,
I'm sure a lot of the emulators have that too.
I guess an intended switch online you can at least
like make save states right more.
Speaker 2: More not to say that, Yeah, like especially with the
turn based combat and the tactical combat that you're talking about, Yeah,
losing like a major, like you know, player in your
team and wanting to like go back or rewind a
little bit to go back to that that is like,
you know, kind of like the best feature that I
have to oh and then like creating safe states, like
especially if I'm going up against like a major like
you know, like boss or mid boss character.
Speaker 1: So yeah, definitely, Uh yeah, that's great. Have you played
just throwing this out, have you played UFO fifty yet,
like the indie game that came out earlier this year, No,
I didn't, what's that? Okay? You definitely because you're you're
into like retro stuff, you're into indie games, definitely recommend it.
UFO fifty is a collection of it's a bundle of
fifty games in one, but they're all like new games.
It's not like a collection of old games made by
a bunch of indie devs that are that some are
some of my favorites, and it's yeah, it's just fifty
games in one, so you kind of get like things
from all sorts of different genres. Like there's a couple
strategy tactics games in there, there's a bunch of platformers,
there's like a racing game sort of thing, puzzle platformers,
all that kind of stuff. So yeah, definitely check out
UFO fifty. I don't know, I've talked about it so
much on sidequest. I don't know. I'll talk about it
much today, but like, I'm still just playing that even
though I have like eighty hours now months later, and
I still have so much to do because obviously fifty
games is a lot to play through in one game.
Some of them are pretty short, like you can beat
them in like an hour, but then others are like
there's a straight up JERIPG. Well, I guess it's not
JEERIPG because it's not made by Japanese people, but an
RPG rather that's yeah, like hours long, So it's just
one of the fifty games. So definitely add that to
your wish list. Or right it's only on Steam right now,
I guess, do you play any PC stuff or just
on on switch right now?
Speaker 2: For you right now just on switch or yeah, any.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that game will get poured it over there.
It's pretty pretty soon maybe for the switch to or
something like that. So yeah, definitely pick it up when
it when it goes there. I had I had one
game I wanted to shout out here. This is what
I've just been playing the last few days. This game
called Still Wakes the Deep. Have you heard of this
when it came out earlier this year?
Speaker 2: No, I haven't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it came out I don't know, I think
in like the summer, and I just didn't get around
to it until recently. This is made by a Chinese
room who are the developer of Dear Esther. They made
an Amnesia game, but dear Esther's. It's not like their
most famous game, and that was like over a decade
ago now, which is like, yeah, a very first person
narrative focus game, not a lot of gameplay, more just
kind of walking around taking in this story and still
wakes the deep. Seems like it's sort of like that,
but a little more involved in the gameplay side of things,
more of a scary horror game. Dear Esther has some
freaking moments in it, for sure, but this is definitely
more on the horror side of things. It's funny that
I took so long to play to this game but
actually ended up being perfect because this game is like
set at Christmas, which I didn't realize. So it's like
maybe the years you're waking up, you're like reading a
letter from your kid who's wishing you a merry Christmas
because you're out on this oil rig. And then you're
walking around there's Christmas trees and Christmas lights everywhere, and
I'm like, ahd, I feel like I did not hear
anyone talk about this or is not in like the trailers,
which makes sense because they released it in the summer.
But I'm glad I waited because it's like a perfect
setting for it. And yeah, so the setup of the
game is you are a guy working on this oil rig.
I don't know if it's like near Scotland or something,
but like it's a very Scottish game. All the people
have like the thick Scottish accent, and it's really funny
too because there's so many like little little phrases or
like insults in Scottish and the subtitles this is like
the funniest thing we'll have. They'll say some like funny
Scottish insult and like me, I don't really know what
it means, but you know, I can understand it's an insult,
but they like translate the insult into like something you
can understand, so I don't know. They change it to
like they're localized in it, even though it's like spoken
in English still, which is like hilarious, but yeah, like
very it has a pretty jovial start, but then it
like gets pretty quickly into the depths of it, which
is that on this oil rig, some you know, some
monster has attacked and I'm not too far in it,
and I think it's a pretty short game, so I
couldn't even spoil too much if I wanted to. But
I think the thing that it's it's clawing out to
me as is like, man, this is very much like
Alien Isolation, which I played for the first time earlier
this year. So people are fans of Alien Isolation, definitely
check this game out. It's and I feel like it's
I've heard it's pretty short, like three to four hours long,
and that's what seems to be most people's complaining, including mine,
with Isolation, is that it's just way too long for
a game that's kind of based off a movie or
the movies in general. So really enjoying this game, and
also I kind of didn't realize it if I was
play this, but like an oil rig, it kind of
feels like a space station a little bit like it's
very metal, very metallic, a little like Walkways. It's very
it's there's not a lot of just like cozy space
like it's really all just like manufactured for like a
certain job, right, So it's kind of fitting in that
way too, And yeah, it's it's all right so far.
The thing that I brushed up a little a little
bit against is eventually there's some creature like kind of
the first made major creature encounter. It's the classic. You're crouching,
you're hiding under a table, you're hiding in a closet,
You're like throwing wrenches at walls to make sounds for
them to get distracted and go over check out. And
I no joke, I'd like fifteen times on this first
encounter earlier. I had to do it, redo it so
many times. And I play so many of these games,
even like Indiana Jones, like the last couple of weeks,
where you're crouching around throwing things to make distractions. I
feel like that's my genre. You know, so many of
those games. But this one's really really difficult, So I
don't know how far I'll get in it just because
of how just maybe I'll drop the difficulty down. But yeah,
really interesting, cool game. And yeah, definitely like a lot
more involved than what I kind of expected for it,
just from the trailers that looked very atmospheric, slow, and
having played Dear Restor, which, as I mentioned, a game
with very little actual gameplay and more just like walking around. Yeah,
very different style. So this is this is definitely a
recommendation for me so far. It's on game Pass, so
it's pretty easily accessible for people there, and uh, yeah,
cool game. My my one big complaint with it. I
don't know if you experienced this ray when you're playing games,
but I feel like my biggest pet peeve right now
in video games is yellow paint. I'm gonna call it
yellow paint itis. We're like in games that like they're
just trying to guide you, you know, through the level,
and so like the things that you can interact with,
the ledges you can climb, the things you can shimmy on,
are all just like painted yellow. I feel like this
started back with like Uncharted. Uncharted had like yellow paint everywhere,
and then every developer is like, oh, that's a good
way to like make sure our player and get lost.
Let's put yellow paint all over this stuff. But to me,
I'm just at a point now where it just takes
me out of these things and I feel like I'm
not even engaging with the game, like you might as
well put me in just like a blank room and
I'm just interacting with yellow paint, and like, this game
is beautiful, the lighting's fantastic, there's like rain effects on
the window that look amazing for like an indie ish game.
But then like it's just so young, ugly because there's
like yellow paint everywhere. And the weirdest thing of all
is that in the settings, there's like a yellow paint
setting reduced or on. And so when I saw that
in settings right at the beginning, I'm like, oh, yeah, absolutely,
let's turn this on reduced. I hate this kind of thing.
But then there's still everything is covered to yellow paint.
So I'm like, how can you have less yellow paint
than when I currently have on your So I know
this is very nitpicky, but it's a thing specifically for
me that just grinds my gears and it's funny. The
same thing happened with Star Wars Outlaws, which I played
earlier this year, which is the game I really enjoyed,
but same thing, yellow paint everywhere, and that game also
had like a setting that you could turn off yellow paint,
and there was still yellow paint everywhere, So I don't
know what these games that are was just like almost
lying to me. They're like, oh, we know you like
this setting, Dylan, We're gonna put this in here for you.
But then like either it's bugged or just like the
amount of yellow paint that they're talking about is different
than when I want as a player, So that is
admittedly a kind of nitpicky thing, but yeah, otherwise still
wakes the deep really cool interesting game so far, and
I definitely hopefully it's not this hard the whole way through,
but yeah, I definitely want to keep going through it.
It's really interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you mentioned about how like on screen prompts,
for example, for like three d JRPGs that I tend
to play a lot, like Monster Hunter stories for example.
Sometimes like I'm someone who likes to kind of navigate
not so much looking at my character, but looking at
my map on like you know, the bottom right hand side,
So I'll see an icon that like, okay, that's me,
and then our landmark or wherever we're headed is like
a star on the map, and then sidequests are different
light colored dots for example, and then there's usually like
a light projecting from my my dot on the map
saying like okay, you're going this way, and that's how
I know that that's me moving on the map. So
I'll i'll like basically follow that and not really pay
attention to my my on screen character because also the
maps will show me Okay, there's a cluster of enemies nearby,
and I'm like, okay, let me just like navigate over there.
So that's like not it's it's a little different than
what you're talking about, because I I don't get those
on screen prompts with like those huge glaring you know,
like uh color you know of like uh indicators like
you're mentioning with the yellow paint. But I am someone
who heavily relies on, you know, the the map that
you could also toggle on and off if if that's
not like something that you really want in your experience
and you just want to explore. But for me, I
tend to lean on like on screen prompts and things
like that to be able to enjoy the game. So
I think if if if it were me and I
saw like a bunch of like different, like colorful on
screen prompts that were just very like you know, dissociated
to like what the actual environment is. I can definitely
agree with you there that it would be kind of jarring.
I'd be like, you could have integrated this a little
bit better. So yeah, it's kind of like a mixed bag.
I'm like, I could go with like the map, but
then for me, I would probably like start leaning more
towards like paying attention more to the map than I
am in the game. But then if I get like
the on screen, like you know, yellow paint, then I'll
be like, Okay, yeah, this is like pulling me out
of my immersement. So I'm just like, uh, what do
I do? Which one is better? I don't know. I
would like try and play. If I had a sad
side by side, I would compare it. But I kind
of get what you're saying too. It's just like both
things which probably pulled me out of the game one
way or another.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure half the things of yellow
paint that I'm complaining about in this game was like
someone play tested it for the developers and like could
not find the ladder right in front of them, and
so like, okay, let's paint it yellow. And then with
the next player like doesn't miss it, but then it
seems like, Okay, well, players must have been getting lost
all over the place because there's pain everywhere. And it's funny,
it's like such a linear game where there's like not
you can't really go in different rooms, like it's very
very linear at least so far. So it just feels
like a little over the top. But yeah, I can
definitely sympathize with that the mini map thing too, where
I feel like certain games when they have just like
the compass at the top that's like loaded with icons
or the map, and I feel like, am I even
looking at the game anymore? Or am I just looking
at the map? Like I feel like I'm playing like
a simulation of the game or something. Which, yeah, it's
like useful if you're trying to hunt down specific things,
but I feel like if you want to get like
immersed in a world, which typically like a first person
game like this is trying to make it very immersive, yeah,
I feel like it just has the opposite effect. Unfortunately.
It's just one of those like industry trends that I
feel like has really I've really noticed it bubbled up
in the last few years, especially like yeah, I remember
noticing a lot with like Resident Evil four, which is
such a beautiful game, like that remake, but then like, yeah,
just yellow paint itis everywhere, and so I'm I'm like, oh,
this game is so beautiful. I wish I wasn't getting
distracted by like the color that's normally associated with like
a warning sidne you know, like it's like a it's
like a roadside or something like that. So once again,
maybe nitpicky, but uh yeah, there's my thoughts on still
wakes the deep. How about with that? With that we
take our first ad break. We will be right back. Okay,
we are back right Any other games specifically you've been
talking that you've been playing recently or do you want
to move on to next topic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can move on to the next topic. I've
been spending a lot of time on the titles I
mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, so I wanted to talk about just some
of your other like the specific genres that you you
mentioned to me that that really call my eye. So
like JRPG's is one that you mentioned, which I guess Pokemon,
Like I don't do you consider Pokemon a JRPG? I
guess it kind of. I guess it kind of is.
People don't really think about it in that same realm
as like final Fantasy and whatnot, but I guess on
paper it kind of kind of is. But I know
another one that you're interested in to some extent is
Dragon Quest. I want to hear about that because that's
a series that i've very barely like dip my toes
into it, and I want to just know more about
it because it kind of seems like my cup of
Tea in terms of being a little more silly but
still having like the depth of a normal jerapy juice. So, yeah,
what is it about Dragon Quest that you're interested in?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you described it pretty well. So it
is definitely a high fantasy themed ip where each entry,
at least outside of one through three is essentially like
a new protagonist, new new group of characters, new adventure
or antagonist, YadA YadA. But a lot of the creature
types that you encounter out in the wild, they've more
or less stayed the same over the last like, you know,
forty years. Like my dragon Quest is a pretty old ip,
and it's heavily inspired by Dune and dragons. So like
a lot of the themes of like you know, turn
based combat and different classes or that you you can
have your character you know either as like a warrior
or mage or like a wizard, a healer, things like that. Uh. Yeah,
there's just so many different classes that you could align
your create your character around, or create your team around.
So yeah, if you want to be able to like
like focus your your team heavily on like all offense,
like with with like all warrior types for example, you
could do that or just like kind of max out
your your team's like attack and uh and attack stats
individually for everyone on your team and just you know,
like go go full offense. Or if you want to
be more focused on on defense and like healing and
you know, more of like the endurance side of of
building up your team, you could do that as well,
or just have it be more bald where some folks
are defense over healers, some are more offense, and then
you could like basically design your team around like okay,
we'll have the defense in front, the offense in the middle,
and then the healers in the back something like that.
So things like that type of like deeper surface like
you know, strategy around like really making it making the
game your own and curating it around your own experience.
That's like the core of like what I love about RPGs,
or I guess specifically j RPGs in general, because they
basically like introduced me to those concepts of like being
able to you know, think strategious, think strategically around how
you want to play the game, as opposed to just
you know, having one one protagonist and one move set
and then going from point A to point B and
then PC and then finishing the game through a really
linear path. With dragon Quest, similar to Final Fantasy, it
it has like this really like endearing art style obviously,
like you know, the creator of Drag uh the the
artists for dragon Ball and a Chrono trigger dragon Quest. Yeah,
for like the last like thirty plus years. Yeah, there's
that signature, you know, character design that is like, you know,
very enduring about it. And I think what differentiates it
from Final Fantasy is that Dragon Quest has been I
think a little bit more a little less experimental, I guess,
like in terms of how it approaches uh term based combat,
it's pretty you know, pretty formulaic, I would say, like,
you know, it's very much like if you're a fan
of Dragon Quest, then each additional entry in the series
is not going to be too much of a learning
curve as far as like you being able to navigate
the combat or uh expect expect any like you know,
random encounters with creatures that you're not familiar with, because,
like I said, there's a lot of like reoccurring you know,
monster encounters that are just like legacy monsters throughout the series.
So I would say that it's probably like the most
consistent in terms of like gameplay definitely, like I said,
character design and gameplay design, And I think that's more
or less why it's sort of gone under the radar
as far as like folks being so much more aware
of like Final Fantasy as an ip as it became
more popular in the West in the nineties, whereas with
Dragon Quest it was always just sort of like you know,
on Simmer, you know, the entire time, it was just
consistently you know, on on the back burner a little bit.
But it had its like hardcore dedicated fans internationally, especially
like in Japan, that kept you know, the the series
alive and we're selling like you know, all the units
and stuff, and like some of the game.
Speaker 1: I guess it took a while before it came to
North America too and got like the English translations. I
don't know which number it was that, I don't know.
I think they've gone back and re released a lot
of them, right, But for a while there, it wasn't yeah,
it wasn't even really available in English.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's yeah exactly. So my familiarity with the
series finally came around when Dragon Quest eleven came out
and for a lot of folks that is like the
most recent entry for like as an introduction to the
series too, and beautiful game. I love it, Like all
the characters in it are just like so endearing. I love,
like I said, all the different you know classes that
you're able to create your team around, like like I said,
more like more like warrior types or like magic users,
et cetera. You're able to you know, kind of curate
your team around that. And the stories themselves are just
so endearing too, Like to your point, they're just like
very I would say that they are very like self
aware in terms of like, you know, yeah, they are
like kind of silly and like satirical and engaging, but
they're also very endearing because you well, for me, for example,
I get attached to all of my all my characters
because they all have like their own individual personalities and
kind of backstories and how they get introduced into your
group through whatever way that they cross paths with you,
and they have like a significant, you know, presence in
how you advance your story, whether you choose to use
them exclusively in your team or if you decide to
swap them out or not. And the inter character banter
as well is also something that I'm a big fan
of too, especially in like games where your your decisions
are impacted by who who the who who you who
is present in your team, and then information and side
quests and stuff that you get u endgame are dependent
on who's in your team as well. So things like
that where like there are little instances where you can
control the trajectory of your story in a way that
increases the replayability and that makes it more memorable because
it's something that I these are decisions that I'm making
to design the my gameplay experience around what i want
to see. But it is like a story that's already
sort of self contained, but I'm going about it in
a way that that that I feel is more reliant
on my individual preferences as opposed to just the game
designers giving me a you know, a one track you know,
path to follow.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I've been playing I believe it's eight that
I've been playing, the one of the three DS ones,
you know, pretty slowly, and it's been a few months
since I picked it up, but like, even just talking
to you now, I kind of want to go back
and pick it up, because, yeah, I mean, one of
my favorite parts about it was like just the insane
enemy designs, Like I remember one of them was just
like two peppers on like a skewer together, and like
they had faces of course, and they're like the one
that has like a boot and it's just like a
big I in the boot or like the dancing devil
who is trying to seduce you. Like it's so stupid
but so fun, uh, And like, yeah, the mechanics around
the combat, like I feel like, especially since I jumped
into eight as like my first one, a lot of
quality of life stuff in there, Like I remember, there's
tons of settings in terms of like setting characters who
will just like auto attack or like take certain actions
or like, oh, when you're low health, it'll automatically like
this character will automatically heal. And then you could just like, oh, yeah,
I want one of my guys to like auto, and
then one of them I want to control, or you
can make all of them auto, or you know, change
that on and off on the fly and like that.
That is that is amazing. That's the kind of stuff
I feel like I want from a JRPG. And if
I go back to like some of the older ones,
where it feels very I don't know, I guess like
the framework for it is a lot more structured and
you can't really I don't know. That almost feels like
you're cheating the game a little bit. But it's like, Okay,
we know you've played eight of these Kalers these games
in the series. Let's like move away from some of
the inconveniences. And that kind of thing allows like makes
grinding and great because you can just like put it
on auto attack and just like watch something on Netflix
and then just like walk around and interact with these
weird peppers and just like level up your characters in
the background, which you know is kind of part of
the journey of I feel like Dragon Quest, I feel
like as a JRPG series known to maybe be a
more grindy or at least like the games are typically
quite long, so maybe, yeah, maybe you gonna have those
boats where you're just going around training up before you
hit the next story beat or something like that. But yeah,
I definitely want to get into eleven more at some point.
I remember I think I played the demo for it,
which was like pretty long on switch as far as
demos go. Yeah, I just love the art style so much.
I love the colors, yeah, the Tori art, like just
the eyeballs, Like all the characters have so much personality
to them, especially I'm a huge fan of Smash Bros.
And ever since they added hero In there as a
playable character, and like seeing the little details and all
the different outfits and stuff and that they have like
the character from each of the different games or at
least you know, eight different ones is is really great.
It's yeah, a very I like what you like. Endearing
I think is a great word to describe it that
you use there, Just like such a charming art style
and like I don't know whimsy to it, I suppose,
and I'm sure it gets dark and deep at some points,
but at least the presentation or like to get you
in the door, you know, charms you in, and then
it maybe gets into the deeper, darker stuff later on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, it's definitely increased my interest to go back
to those previous titles. Like you mentioned, eight is up
there as one like that. I hope either it gets
re released with a lot of like additional quality of
life improvements or enhancements, or I'll probably play the three
DS version of it. If not, like maybe the PS
two version. I have to look online because I usually
do go to Reddit and I'm like, which version of
is of the game is the best one to play?
Speaker 1: Ask the pros? Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: And Reddit never fails me.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's perfect. What's up with the dragon Quest
on the Game Boy Advance? What? What what did do
on that generation?
Speaker 2: If anything, I'm pretty sure there are none?
Speaker 1: Crazy yeah, wild Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was actually looking for any dragon Quest game on
GBA and I didn't find any specifically. I know, I've
looked like multiple times.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's like a spin off or something, right, because
there's like, what is there's a dragon Quest? I know
builders is one of the new ones, but there's like, yeah,
what is like there's like a Pokemony sort of dragon
Quest game, right, like more about collecting creatures.
Speaker 2: Oh, dragon Quest Treasures.
Speaker 1: I treasure that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and oh dragon Quest Monsters. Yes, I did just
pick that one up. I haven't played it yet, so
so yes, I got I got familiar with dragon Quest
in addition to eleven through like you know, there's a
lot of their spin offs, like like you said, Builders
and then Treasures and Monsters. So I didn't realize that
these were like Siri or like entries that are I
guess like it spinoffs of the main ip that existed
prior to you know, my introduction to the series as well.
And that's where I was like, Okay, dragon Quest eleven
where the rest of the games? I'm And I looked
online and I started to like realize how deep this
this I goes back so that yeah, like to your point,
like in the West, we just like had little to
no exposure to this series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like eleven was I mean, the Switch,
you know, just is such a huge console that for
so like I feel like most Nintendo series, it's like, oh,
this is the best selling metro game. This is the
best selling Curby game. That just happens to be the
case for like almost every Nintendo series, right because it's
just such a big console. And I feel like that
was kind of the case for Dragon Quest eleven a
little bit. It almost feels like a fire Emblem awakening
moment for the series, which is weird to say because
we haven't had like Dragon Quest twelve yet, so we
don't really know where it's going to go from there. Obviously,
they're dipping back into these these remakes of three which
released recently that we were talking about, and then I
guess you're out there doing it in like the story order, right,
so it's like three, one, two, I believe. But yeah,
I'm really excited to see kind of where it goes
from there. But yeah, what what's the deal with what's
the deal with Treasures is? So is that a pokemony
sort of situation or what? What's What's I don't think
I've heard about that sub series actually, Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Treasures is a little pokemony in that you can
capture or I guess tame, different different monsters out in
the field, and there are different variations, colors and abilities
of all these different monsters that you go out and
search for and a lot of it is related to
like side quests or getting unique, getting the abilities of
these different monsters in order to help you find unique
treasures treasures across like different maps. So like there will
be one monster type that will be able to like
scale difficult like surfaces like mountains or like cliffs and like,
and then there's like a King slime or a Queen
Slime that you're able to like you know, bounce up
on to reach like you know higher, like you know,
platforms as well. So it is very like quirky, very enduring,
and like yeah, there's just you know a lot of
reallyef that was like kind of like the biggest like
introduction for me to a lot of the different monster types.
So I'm just like, oh, yeah, I've seen this, this
carried this, this monster and dragon Quest eleven, Oh I've
seen that, and like you know, like this other dragon
Quest game. Oh this is where this is why the
slime is like the mascot of dragon Quest because it's
like literally everywhere. Okay, yes, is treasure?
Speaker 1: Is that on the switch the one that you played
their treasures? Okay, cool, I'm gonna have to throw that
on my wish list because that sounds perfect. Yeah, I mean,
as so many of these dragon Quest games, is Treasures
like as cause I think eleven like what I've heards, like,
oh yeah, a hundred hours to beat the game? Insane
kind of over woman is Treasures. I don't know if
you've beaten it yet, but like, is it kind of
I don't know if overwhelming is the right word, but
it feels a little overwhelming for me as someone who
doesn't play on therapy us. Just in terms of the
time commitment, how does Treasures feel like pretty easy to
kind of just get into and maybe don't necessarily need
to beat it, but even just you know, mess around
with the mechanics for a few hours is a good time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's definitely a game that you could pick up
and play, and it's not where like your progression in
the story is contingent on you fulfilling every side quest.
They're there if you want to do them, but the
mainline quests in order to complete the game are very
short and simple, straight to the point. So yeah, it's
something that is very like, you know, easy to get
into it. If you want more out of it, it's
there for you.
Speaker 1: That is going on my on my list, that's a
that's a great recommendation. Any other any other JPGs? What
are there any other favorite series of yours? Where do
you kind of top dogs?
Speaker 2: Hm? I did mention the tactical RPG genre or subgenre
I guess as being one that I love a lot,
So Final Fantasy Tactics definitely up there, just like I
think the most recent new ip that I played that
was a tactical strategy RPG was Triangle Strategy SAE that
is from the creators of or the same team who
did Octopath Traveler, which is another Oh my gosh and
another amazing like JRPG series one and two. Oh man,
those games are just like incredible, and they also Octopath
in Triangle Strategy team also did the Dragon Quest three
HD remaster, so another reason to go pick that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that engine is just insanely beautiful. I love those games. Yeah,
Triangle Strategy that was my game of the year of
whatever twenty one twenty two. I forget when it came
out exactly, but love that game so so much. And
Octapath Traveler I think I put like a good forty
fifty hours into it. Stilven't got to the sequel unfortunately,
But yeah, it makes me very happy to hear I
love Triangle Strategy. That game is unreal, especially like, as
I said, I've played so many like that's a big
genre for me too, And yeah, it was still just
super unique and I had a ton of cool mechanics.
And that's also how I felt like going back to
Final Fantasy Tactics kind of after playing a bunch of
Fire Emblem and Triangle Strategy and stuff, and like the
rules system is kind of weird and like the nonlinearity
of exploring the maps and like doing like taking on
certain jobs but you're not just going through it. And
like here's level one, two, three, four, which, like every
other game in the genre kind of has like I
find the structure of that game really enticing. But yeah,
I love how the like we're really spoiled for choice
when it comes to that genre. There's so many different flavors.
And yeah, I'm glad to hear that you're into all
those games as well. That's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely I was encouraged to also pick up Tactics Ogre.
I hope I'm saying that correctly, So I do have
that on switch. I haven't started it yet, but I
did that because I think I read that Final Fantasy
Tactics was originally going to be part of the Tactics
Ogre series back in the day, so like there were
like uh oh yeah, like so Tactics Ogre is like
on Switch is a remaster I guess a HD remaster
of the earlier version of it that came out I
think on like PS one, Yeah yeah, and Final Fantasy
Tactics was also on the PS one So so yeah,
all that to say that, like, yeah, I was like
on a big like tactical RPG spike when I was
picking up that and playing Triangle Strategy. I think I
put in close to like seventy or eighty hours. I
would just I'm someone who likes to go back to
maps and like grind new characters so I can like
level them up and stuff, and it's like really fulfilling
just to be able to go back and like get
new items and like be able to build up currency
and buy new weapons and like armor and stuff. I'm
someone who does that because I'm like I need to
have the best of everything, so I need to have
as much currency as possible. Blah blah, blah, so like
I end up never playing the actual story because I'm
like constantly going everywhere else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's relatable. And I feel like with Triangle Strategy too,
that was one that you know, so many games have
dialogue choices that lead to different branching paths, and often
I'm like, it's really cool that that exists, but I
don't often replay the games. I'm like, I'm glad. I
feel like it's meaningful of the route I took because
I had to make those choices. But I don't necessarily
need to see every possibility, you know, I don't need
to go through all the multiverses like Doctor Strange. But
Triangle Strategy was one, like the day after I beat it,
which was yeah, like seventy hours or something, I'm like,
immediately boot up a new save. I wanted to like
take some branching paths and just see like the different
ways that this can go. And yeah, I found that
the decisions around that so engaging, where like anytime there
was one of those big branching paths that you would
have to like have the council, like you'd talk to
all your people in the town, you'd get their perspective,
on it. You could try and sway them if you want,
but then like ultimately it comes down to like a vote,
so you don't even have like the full save. What's
gonna happen. And like there was one or two occasions
when I was wanting to go to one place and
my team just voted the other way for whatever reason,
So maybe I could have convinced them better, but like
I didn't reload a save and try and redo that.
I was like, this is great. I love that there's
like consequences to my choices here. And then on top
of that, yeah, just the tactics gameplay of it was
so interesting, and so many weird classes like that one.
I think it was the Blacksmith class that just like
builds ladders and traps and like, oh, that's just so fun.
I just love having weird, goofy stuff like that on
top of like your basic archers and warriors and all that.
So I just love Triangle Strategy. I don't. I don't
think it sold super duper well. I don't even know
if talked about the Traveler did, but we got a
sequel for that game, so I really hope we do
get another. I also feel like Triangle Strategy not a
great game title, so I don't know if that helped
sell the game or not, but like, I hope we
get another one of that. I want to see where
they would go in a sequel, not even like following
those characters, but just a new take on kind of
the ideas that they did. There was such such a
cool game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, because I think this that studio, they tend
to lean more towards the turn based combat, but more
in the style of like Final Fantasy, where your team
is on the opposite side of the enemy and then
everyone is just sort of like taking turns attacking each other,
whereas with like Triangle Strategy, Yeah, it's you're you're navigating
across a grid. So I would like to see them
make more original games like.
Speaker 1: That for sure, mm hmm. Yeah. And yeah, Tactics Ogre
as you mentioned, that's another one that's been on my
switch wish list as it came out and just kind
of waiting for the right sale on it. I think
one of the enticing things for me on that is
just like the vast amount of I don't know if
it's classes or just like characters, but I remember like
looking through a list at just like all the freakish characters,
Like you're not just having humans, You're having like all
sorts of weird beasts and demons on your team, and
it just feels like so I one thing I like
love about a fire Bloom game is just like picking
the roster for the individual mission and like looking at
the map and seeing like, oh, there's a lot of
elevation here, a lot of rivers. Maybe I want more
movement and flying units, like making those decisions, even though
if like most of the time you're gonna like eighty
percent of the same people. But it feels like with
Tactics over you get so many characters and they have
so many crazy classes that it seems like really fun
mission to mission to kind of pick who are the
best like specialists for this particular job. That seems like
a and it seems like it's kind of more in
the realm of like Final Fantasy Tactics. Otherwise from what
I've seen, I don't know. If it was like the
same team that made those games, I wouldn't be surprised.
I think they're both Squaring DX games, right, So yeah,
I don't know that. That's definitely another one that I yeah,
looking forward to picking up at some point in the future. Uh,
and then we've already gone so long on just these topics.
I kind of figured this would happen. We had like
a bunch of topics lined up, but like, I don't
think we need to get to all of them. But
I want to ask you a couple more things. One
is like, Uh, you mentioned that you're a fan of
indie games, and that can mean so many things, especially
in twenty twenty four where there's just, you know, hundreds
of indie games that come out every year. But I
don't know your what are your same your favorites there,
whether that's just like genre or like specific games or
series or developers. I'm curious.
Speaker 2: We see. So these days I tend to discover a
lot of different indie games on X and then a
lot of them do crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter to fund
the development or the the extended like demos of those games.
So a lot of them are basically like inspired by
the a lot of my favorite games, like Oh, inspired
by Krono, Trigger, inspired by Final Fantasy six, YadA, YadA.
So like all these like you know, milestone like games
pretty much fuel like not only the graphic presentation, but
the gameplay and definitely the music as well. So a
lot of them take those cues and then I'll be
like we were mentioning, uh, put in the quality of
life improvements too. So I guess like my biggest example
of an indie game that like just just blew up
that like everyone was like, you know on on top
of like when it dropped was Sea of Stars.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Sea.
Speaker 2: Of Stars, Like basically like if you like Karna Trigger,
you'll like Sea of Stars. I think I would, hope. So,
so yeah, that that was one that like so many
people you know were totally like you know, like fans
of I didn't hear very many like you know, negative
like much negative feedback around it because there was just
so much care put into how the the three person
I guess team aspect and how you're able to quickly
like navigate between all your different team members to assigned
different like attacks to all of your enemies on screen,
and then allow them to kind of like integrate with
the other character. Like there's basically like co co op,
like not co op, but like let's say one character
doesn't move and then they also need like an additional
character to like have there have a move set set
planned for the for like an even greater attack, so
things like that, like you know, we're very strategic as well,
even though it like wasn't like, you know, a tactical game.
So yeah. Also, just like map design, character design, music,
just like everything is just so lush and dimensional and
like full of life. Everything on screen was like moving
or had some sense of like you know, uh like
just like vitality around it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really enjoyed my time with it. I still
love that game. I need to go back and finish it.
But yeah, it was just like an incredible, you know experience,
like you know, an endeavor for an indie game.
Speaker 1: For sure, you are speaking my language, like another that
was my game to your last year. I love I
Actually I got the physical switch version and this is
like the Boxer, yeah, limited edition. I love that game
so much, And yeah, you definitely need to get to
the end of it because like the amount of story
twists or like character surprises in that game just shocked
me because I feel like the first you know, a
lot of people were like bounced off the game pretty
early because like there's that longer like school sequence at
the beginning, and I get it. I get it, but like,
there are so many just crazy paths that game, that
game takes I'm looking forward to. I don't know if
it's come out yet, but they announced like co op
DLC actually like adding like multiplayer co op to it.
I don't know if that's two player or if you
would get like a three player like I assume it
would be two player, one character plays as I forget
the names of the main characters, but the two protagonists,
but maybe it'd be three player because as you mentioned,
the combat is kind of built around that that three
player system. So that's really cool. And then they like
that DLC is supposed to come out next year for
it too, right, did you see that announcement for the
DLC for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's gonna be free as well for folks
who have it's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I I it sounds like that game
sold incredibly well, So that's very generous of them to
be like, yeah, we've made enough money. I'm sure they'll
sell a bunch more when they put the DLC out
and people pick it up or pick it up on
a new platform or something. But Yeah, Ceo Star is
just what an outstanding game, and as you mentioned, like
the the visuals and the music is outstanding and that
combat system and then to me that was like that
was a game I did everything in Like I every town.
I would stop at the wheels table at the tavern
and like play wheels and like get all the unlocks there,
did like every side coest, had to get all the collectibles,
just because I wanted to see every last thing, which
I don't normally do. It's rare for me to do
every last thing. But yeah, I could not put that
game down, and I was I was sad when it
was over. I'm like, all my Sea of Stars time
is like done. Now I have to just sit and
wait for I guess this DLC, which seems like I
don't have to wait too long for that, but very exciting.
I'll have to hit you up when that comes out,
and we can maybe do another episode talking about the
DLC when that comes out.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, and then I'll have to like actually get
through more of the games so I can enjoy.
Speaker 1: So yes, yeah, that that's great. Any other favorite indie
indie games? Hmm, let me see, putting you on the spot.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, what else comes to mind? So there are a
lot of uh, platformer games that I actually really like
that are inspired by like let's say, like uh, Super
Mario sixty four or Galaxy or gosh, I'm blanking Sunshine.
So like a lot of those, like you know, mainline
Mario games. Like, So, what I'm thinking of is, uh,
Super Lucky's Tail. I think that was like this was
kind of like a mascot driven platformer game. So you're
playing like this little anthropomorphic box and a lot of
the the platforming is reminiscent of what is it, uh,
the most recent Super Mario Odyssey. So yeah, like this
this game that I'm referring to, Super Lucky's Tail. Yeah,
a lot of the I guess like platforming features and
explorations somewhat open world but still linear level design is
really fun, very like captivating and engaging animation just you know,
very like you know, very like like not over the top,
but like it's so like you know, endearing and yes,
just like very smooth gameplay. I think a lot of
after Odyssey came out that that definitely like you know,
like inspired a lot of like different three D platformers
after it to make it more into like like an
open worldy sort of exploration, map driven sort of experience
while still having like a linear A to B you know,
intention but also fleshing it out with like more more
places to explore. So yeah, Super Lucky's Tale would probably
be another one I would recommend.
Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, I feel like that's been I think platformers
never really went away, but it does feel like there
has been a renaissance in terms of the indie space
for like the three D I guess, I guess maybe
it feels like the technology is at a point now
where it's easier for like smaller teams to make games
like that. And so yeah, there's been so many cool
just mascot mascot platformers, Like I remember Snake Pass. Did
you ever play that one? It's like a, yeah, it's
a little different because it's very clunky, you know, intentionally, so,
but that game is really fun. Yeah, there's a lot
of other cool ones. I'm like, yeah, more hardcore ones
like I really enjoyed Pseudo Regalia from last year, Super
Lucky's Tales. Yeah, that one's been on my list, and like,
I don't know, yeah, just seeing like so many of
these different ones I feel like there's like multiple every year,
which is which is really cool. It's just a very
thriving space. Obviously a lot of people are like very
nostalgic for Super Mario sixty four and like Crash Band
keep Spiral, like that era of platformers. And yeah, it
now feels like those people who are like playing that
as a kid are like now making games and so
like those are the kind of games that they just
want to make. And yeah, so we're just once again
spoiled for choice on great indie platformer games. It's really
cool to see. Yeah, and then I maybe we'll just
close out with one more potentially smaller topic here. But
another thing that I know you're into is just retro games,
handhelds and things like that in general. I got a
question for you as like an emulator. You know, you
know your stuff. I'm very like in the dark when
it comes to knowing all that stuff. Do you know, like,
what's the what's the deal with like PSP? If I
want to emulate a PSP game, what's like the best
place to go, what's the best best thing to do?
Speaker 2: Yes, so great question. I actually have a few different
handheld like standalone emulator devices in addition to my phone.
So yeah, I actually reviewed one of them on my
gaming channel. So this one, yeah, so it's very cool.
It has like that translucent, translucent purple shell that I'm
like really big into from the game Boy Color days.
And this one it's kind of like a just like
a bigger screen version of of of this one.
Speaker 1: But that one straight up looks like a Sony console.
Is that that's not that's crazy?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like a PSBTA, right, So so yeah,
I kind of got the best of both worlds here.
But what I'm saying is that, like to answer your question,
for PSP games, I tend to look for something that
can replicate that experience of playing it on that similar
screen format. So this will probably be the one that
I would recommend, at least playing it on a similar
size screen because going back down to like, you know,
a smaller screen, even if it's like on your your iPhone,
which you can now emulate. Uh, there is an emulator
for PSP games for free on your iPhone, but there's no, like,
you know, there's not that tactical satisfaction of being able
to like have this like elevated joystick and you know,
the buttons and things like that. So I will say
that if you are able to get that you know,
experience through through like maybe like a lower cost emulator
device like from Ali Express or Timu whatever, I would say,
go for it. And and yeah, I would say that
playing it on playing PSP games like on a PC,
or like I mentioned, your phone or any other device
that doesn't that can't give you that same like like
I said that visceral you.
Speaker 1: Know response to Yeah, I think that's pretty important to
me rather than like touch control stuff. I feel like
even back in the day, back in high school, when
everyone had like emulators for all sorts of games on
their phones, it was like I'd rather just like play
my game boyd vand still because I like, I like
having the buttons. So that's that's definitely relatable.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's essentially what I was getting at, is
that you can emulate PSP games on basically anything now. Yeah,
but I would encourage you to potentially look for like
one of those like standalone handheld emulator devices and that
will give you that more satisfy that a more satisfying
experience as opposed to just being able to emulate it
on something more convenient.
Speaker 1: Right, So what are those two called those two ones
that you just held up there?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so yeah, so these are designed by manufacturer
called an burn it and yeah and a n B
e R I see, and uh yeah, these are pretty
much like some of their more popular devices. And I
got into them because of YouTube reviews and because I
wanted that like, you know, tactical sensation of feeling buttons
and my my joystick and different things like that, and
being able to assign menus to buttons and that's satisfaction.
Just it's something that like you can't you can't like
replicate it, I guess, Like on phone, I guess. So
there are some games that I would go out of
my way to play on that is, even if I could,
I have to like you know, uh set it up
to play a game, but like I know that I'll
have a better experience than just playing it on my phone. Yeah,
you know, I'm just sort of like doing on screen prompts,
but it's not as like engaging I guess, right.
Speaker 1: Can you stick games into that into those ones or
are they only like you got to kind of download
stuff from your computer throw it on there with the emulator.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there there are get basically SD card. Yeah, you
have to like emulators in the games on there.
Speaker 1: It's very, very random. But I a few years ago
learned about that there was like a Lord of the
Rings Tactics game on the PSP. Yeah have you played
that game?
Speaker 2: I haven't, but I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I like, I'm sure it's not great and
like reviews for like, you know, a classic six out
of ten, but I feel like, I I it looks
like a fire Emblems e sort of thing, and even
if it's like not as in depth as that, it
just looks like it's kind of recreating the story from
like the movie has like the similar aesthetic as the movies.
I'm just so nostalgic for those movies and that's a
genre I'm into that. I really It's like, I don't
want to spend all this money on a PSP to
play that game, like it seems like a bit like
financially not a great idea, but yeah, I think getting
an emulator like that would be a good idea for me.
And I'm sure they're like because I never owned a
PSP or Vita back in the day, so that's like
a huge blind spot for me, even like PlayStation in general,
played games at my friend's house growing up, Like yeah,
until the PS four, didn't actually own any PlayStation console.
So a lot of big blind spot for me there
in terms of not knowing some of those games. But uh,
that's good. Can you play other on those ones that
you had? Like can you I'm assuming you can download
like other not just PSP games, but like any anything
else too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it basically is good up to Sega Dreamcast,
I would say, so, like, yeah, Sega Saturn, Like I
don't know if like there's a lot of like Sega
Saturn players out there, but it's kind of choppy on
this so like I would say, like unless you you
really know like about it, then like you probably wouldn't
play it on the here anyway. But anyway, So yeah,
to answer your question, Yeah, perfect for like playing like
PS one games for example, Like it's got the dual
joysticks and PSP. Yeah totally find like even though PSP
doesn't have like two, it was the games weren't built
around like two joysticks, like just the one is fine, right,
and let me see, Yeah, it actually plays Dreamcast games
really really well. So yeah, another thing too I wanted
to kind of like give my two cents on, is
that like I have tried using my phone with like
one of those like controller shells that like have like
uh us, like I think for like uh for some folks,
I think the most popular brand is called Backbone just
based like any like generic you know controller case really
that is basically a Bluetooth controller to play play those
games on your phone. And for me, I don't know,
it's something about like having a dedicated device for something.
It motivates me a little bit more to put put
more serious effort into a game and dedicate more time
to it as opposed to like a device like my
phone with that I have multiple uses for. And it's
also like I constantly get like notifications or tempted to
check other apps like when I'm playing on my phone
for some reason. So that's that's another thing as well
that like I know, folks like want to have one
device for like one purpose so or like they want
to have one device that can do everything. But there
is something to be said about having a dedicated device
for for for things like you know, specific game experiences
that you can only get on like you know, the
native hardware.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very relatable, like for me in particular as well,
where I really I like to DIFFERENTI differentiate those spaces
and like, yeah, on my phone, like play Marvel Snap.
I've played super recently, but like that was kind of
the one exception I had. But like otherwise, like even
like PC games, because I work at the computer, I
podcasting here at the computer, I spend so much time
in front of my screen here that I try and
like I really only play Steam games if like that's
my the only place that game is, like UFO fifty
four example, But otherwise, like that's where I've for the
last few years of really preferred just playing on a console,
playing on a handheld really just have those dedicated spaces.
So that's that's definitely very uh yeah relatable for me.
Uh you mentioned so for game Boy Advance, like a
Pokemon You've been playing like a one on your phone
right now, but you have a favorite like game Boy Advance.
I guess those as you mentioned those two devices there
could do it, even if the resolution is a little different.
But I don't know, do you have a favorite device
that you that you own for emulating Game Boy Advance
era stuff?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I use my phone out of convenience, like
I mentioned, but to get the most fulfilling experience. So
this is gonna be weird, and I hope I can
can like map my way through an explanation of this.
So so between the two, some folks would be like, oh, yeah,
play it on the bigger screen, like, and I'm just like, well, no,
Like I would probably play it on the smaller one,
just because these games were you know, kind of intentionally
just signed it like a specific you know presentation, and like,
uh when they start, when the pixels start to get
like blown out a little bit, even if it's the
same like you know, three by four presentation on both devices,
for some reason, like it's a little more jarring to
see larger pixels as opposed to just like you know,
the smaller like you know, more detailed. Okay, yeah, these
like these are shadows. They're made to like you know,
look this way as opposed to like being blown up
on like on a larger screen just for the sake
of like being able to do it, especially like on Switch,
Like when I try to play like GBA games on Switch.
I think that's also something that's like kind of jarring
because I'm not used to seeing these like these pixelated games,
like blown up.
Speaker 1: Like you know, yeah, especially if you're playing it like
on your TV. Yeah, it's like, what the heck? This
looks kind of weird. It almost like takes away from
what made like, you know, so those things were meant
to be so small that it's almost like your your
brain is filling in the gaps of like you're looking
at something and kind of just assuming what it is.
But then when it's so big and you're like, wait,
that doesn't look like what it's supposed to look like.
So that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just reminds me of back in the day
playing Pokemon like Red or Blue through like the cartridge
reader for on Pokemon Stadium, so you were able to
put a cartridge reader on your N sixty four controller
then put your Pokemon game in and you were able
to play like Pokemon Red on your TV. And I
was playing, I was like I need for the ability
to do so that's great, you know. The novelty is like,
you know, fine, but in terms of like my preferred
you know, way of playing that game, it was like
it was.
Speaker 1: Not that Yeah. Yeah, definitely relatable, awesome. I think I
think that's a like we did have a couple of
topics on our plate, but I feel like that's a
that's a pretty good place to call it for the day, Ray,
this was a super super fun discussion. I feel like
it didn't take long for us to find a lot
of like crossovers of things series or games or whatever
weird things that were both just super into. So this
was a this is a really good time once again,
do you want to just show out where people can
follow you after after so after this episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can definitely check me out on x slash,
Twitter at glimmering Harpie and that's pretty much you know
where like all of my content is promoted, and then
my links to my various social media channels, very social,
various platforms, i should say, and other content like for
looking at my past like TikTok content or YouTube reels
or YouTube shorts, and yeah, my two channels for movie
talk and like gaming talk. Yeah, all that is centered
there easy to access on x and yeah, that's where
you can find.
Speaker 1: Me right on. Well, thank you Reyes so much for
joining me, Thank you everyone for listening. As I said
at the very beginning once again. Next week's episode will
be the Game of the Year episode with me and Kirkle,
so that should be a lot of fun. Thank you
everyone for listening and we'll see you again next time.
Go bye.