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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it is my birthday and welcome to Giant

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BombCast Revengeance, Episode eight hundred and sixty one. I believe,

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and the only way that I want to celebrate my

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day of birth is taking a nap. But we got

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a podcast, so I've decided to assemble the Oh god,

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accidents happening on the podcast already. I decided to assemble

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the best crew to destabilize governments and make myself believe

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in myself. Joining me cocap this ship Turbo Shawn Sean McDowell.

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Speaker 2: Happy birthday, jam Happy five years old. You can finally

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rent a car.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry you shut the hell a precious baby. I

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looked at myself in the mirror and I saw a

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couple of white hairs, and I'm like, oh my god,

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I'm thirty three.

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Speaker 2: I'm dying now, Sexy.

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Speaker 1: Come on speaking about salt and pepper. He is the

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pepper to my salt. Michael him, Hey, what a do baby?

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Speaker 3: It's your motherfucking buy. I know all about being thirty

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three because I once was, but I am no longer.

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Speaker 1: So what it's Spoiler's dog show. Sorry, Uh, We've we've

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got the youngest person in all of games media. That's right.

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That's a bold declarative statement, and I'm going to keep

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running with it. The years will go by and she

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will stay young. Lex Luddie Yep, never gonna age. And

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John just for the records in case I ever need

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to get a job in America. I do not want

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to destabilize any governments speaking about de stable governments. She's

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destabilizing video game reviews all across the internet. Jessica Coggswell, Hi,

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happy birthday. Jan Oh oh, you're muted in my head.

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I'm sorry, that's on me. Everything's fine. Everything something.

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Speaker 2: It was messed up.

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Speaker 1: It was super messed up.

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Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, yeah, I was talking about, you know, having

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a horrible birthday and not a really good one.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well well well I'm kidding. It's fine.

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Speaker 4: It's fine if it makes you feel better. I have

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so many like gray hair is coming in and I'm

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thirty one. So that's my on screen confession to you

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to make up for.

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Speaker 3: Solidarity.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's Soliday solidarity right there. That that is an ally,

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Ladies and gentlemens and thems at home. That that's right.

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If someone tells you they're graying, you tell them you

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have more even if you have if you are a

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Mike Manatt, if you are a bald, if you are

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a Mike Manatti, hf rikers, if you're one of the

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ball when I can say that, I'm allowed to say

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that because I'm friends with the bald, and at one

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point I was bald. It's okay, folks were here to

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talk about metaphor Revantasio Atlas's newest joint, perhaps maybe the

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most tirelish and sensory overloading menu game of the year.

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In three of these fine folks have reviewed this game

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across the internet fairly, I believe, super duper high scores

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across the board, sean real quick progress check. Where are

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you right now?

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Speaker 2: I am twenty five ish hours in. I was also

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playing Echoes of Wisdom, trying to juggle those you know,

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and a bunch of our stuff. Didn't have time to

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get farther into this as I'd like, I'm hearing that's

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somewhere around the one third to one quarter of the

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way through this game. So praise to enter for an

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Atlas RPG, I suppose, but yeah, really really enjoying it.

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For for the everyone else who is on the podcast,

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you'll know where I am if I say giant worms,

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you know the area? Uh, Jan, I'm curious, how where

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are you either have?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, that's right, but only with consent. God damn it.

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I'm about now fifty ish hours in okay, and in

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a normal video game, I would have completed it. And

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now I'm doing new game plus because this is an

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Atlas joint. Uh what what's the guestimation of my progress?

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I don't want to spoil too much because it's much

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further in the game.

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Speaker 5: Where they said like, hey, don't talk about leaving this place. Yes, okay, okay, yeah,

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so you'll probably about halfway.

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Speaker 1: Oh cool, sick sick? Nice? Great? It was mostly my

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marker because I remember, Jess, you had posted forty hours

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in and then the game finally has its its hooks

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into you. Sorry for blowing up close friends on stories.

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I'm so sorry, And I was thinking like, okay, cool,

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Am I done yet?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 1: Everyone else I'm talking to, Am I done yet?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 1: All right? Sick lex? What did you clock in afterwards?

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And what are your general feelings of metaphor?

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Speaker 5: I'm like one of the five people who've got a

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PlayStation code, and so the the in game timer says

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one hundred and ten hours the or yeah, one hundred

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and ten. My PlayStation time says like one hundred and thirteen.

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I had a couple of real rough nights with that

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there towards the end. I think the the weekend before

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the embargo, I was on a show with you and

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I was like, Hey, I'm about like sixty hours in.

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Do you know how much longer is left? And you

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were like, yeah, Jess said, that's like halfway. So I

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had a real fun week which ended up with me

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in Mike Minardi's Twitch chat at seven am my time

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fighting the final boss, totally running out of items and

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any like way to regenerate MP and just like three

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hours against the same final boss. Talking to Mike MINARTI

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not not a way you want to spend your day,

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but I did. I did really love I did really

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love the game. I think I'm the only person Michael

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you were nine, right, Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I gave it a nine.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I was nine point five. The the only downsides

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that I have with it is like some very late

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game mechanical balancing problems, and when it comes to the

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game story, I actually think it's by far Atlas's best

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thing that they've risien.

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Speaker 1: Quite just what how many hours did you clock in afterwards?

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End you gave it a ten? I want to say ten.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I ended up playing it for about seventy five

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ish hours. I think that's what my official time was.

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But I do also know that there were a couple

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of times when I quit out of the game and

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like went back and I lost probably an hour, So

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I would say it's probably closer to some like in

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the eighties. Okay, but okay, yeah, it's I I want

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like ham on this game.

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Speaker 1: It was why I had.

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Speaker 4: I remember Bless messaged me on Instagram from kind of

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Funny and he was like, it is so funny to

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see that you are the only name who has cleared

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so many of these dungeons because you are wild. Because

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so if you hit like the little middle button, it

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tells you like what everybody was doing, like what their

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party comp was when they did certain dungeons. And when

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there's only you know, however many codes in the wild,

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you see a lot of fellow reviewers and stuff that

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you know, and I guess, yeah, my I just looked

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like a mad woman because mine was showing up on

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all of these dungeons. Every time people went.

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Speaker 5: In and I got whatever. I went into a dungeon.

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I was like, am I am? I the same level.

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Jess was like, will I be able to handle this?

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Will be paid in the ass, so you just get

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through it. And if your level was like lower than mine,

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I was like, well, I have no fucking excuse. I

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have to get through this.

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Speaker 2: Uh quick. Aside, just what did you play on what platform?

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Speaker 4: PlayStation five?

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Speaker 2: Okay, that makes sense because on PC it was just

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player codes for all the airnet connected stuf during the

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review period, so I was like, oh, this must just

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not be implemented yet. Okay, that must have been fun

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to see, like friends, less people and stuff.

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Speaker 3: Though.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Michael, yo, you gave it a nine on itea

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dot com. I did. Yeah, your your overall feelings from

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your review on on Metaphor.

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Speaker 3: I love Metaphor very dearly. I think that Damn I'm

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blank and I was on I was on John Warren's

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own VGBS yesterday talking about talking about this game, so

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I'm like, Damn, what did I say? I love this

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game a lot. I think it's a it's a clear

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evolution of atlases like there, especially that team's bread and

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Butter I guess, So you know, the social mechanics are refined,

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the battle system borrows a lot from SMT, and the

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archetype system, which we'll dig into deeper later, is a

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very fascinating system and a great execution of a job system,

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so you're not going through the same motions as you

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do in an SMT. In persona combat plays like SMT,

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and there's some real wild things that you can do

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in combat. But at the end of the day, I

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will there are things I take away from Metaphor that

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that really affected me on a personal level. So Jess's

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review really resonated with me because I think we came

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at it from a similar angle, because of what it

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has to say about our favorite pieces of fiction and

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how they affect us and how they can affect the

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real world. And I know that there's been I mean,

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I mean there's people are sharing screen shot from the

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game during the review period, and a lot of us

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are talking about how it incorporates a lot of social

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issues into its story, because this is about this is

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one of the most like overtly political games. It's about

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an election, for one, but also two. In the first hour,

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they show you like, hey, listen, this place is fucked up.

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There's mad racism, there's hell inequality, there's poor people everywhere,

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and a bunch of people in power who are abusing

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their power. And so it's like, Okay, this is what

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we're getting into. You play as a character who is

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you know, discriminated against wherever he goes, and that's kind

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of like the base. Yeah, so that's like the basis

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of the story. So to me, I'm kind of like

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Atlas's stories have affected me in some very very personal ways,

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of course, but they're kind of treading into different territory,

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and I was a little hesitant.

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Speaker 1: To be like or I was rather.

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Speaker 3: Looking to see if they understood the material they were

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working with, because like, I don't go, I'm not going

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into metaphor for like, to confirm my political views or

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to be taught something that I don't already know. Rather,

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I'm going I went into this game looking for the

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way they're incorporating these themes and if they can demonstrate

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and an understanding of what they're working with to tell

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a powerful story. And they very much did. You know,

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there are a few things that held it back from

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being a ten, but we'll probably get into that a

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little bit later, but at the end of the day,

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metaphor is it's an important game, I think, or at

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least for me, it is.

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Speaker 5: So Yeah, I think that that's a super important bit

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of like background on the game that I talked about

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when I was previewing the game, and I was super

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hesitant of it because of Studio Zo's track records. Like

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a lot of the Persona games for me, have really

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resonant themes, but then like Fumble in the final act,

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where you have like, you have a whole character in

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Persona five whose like mom is a detective or sister

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is a detective, and then her big revelation is like

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I'm instead of like realizing, oh, the cops are corrupt

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and this is bad, she's like, I'm going to become

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a good cop. You have the stuff in Persona three

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which is so bad that they basically had to like

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completely rework the beach scene, and I found that with

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the splithing of Studio Zero and kind of the younger

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Persona team.

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Speaker 1: I really really.

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Speaker 5: Enjoyed Persona five Tactica that came out last year, and

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I thought that game had like an incredible good game. Yeah,

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that game has incredible politics and a really strong message,

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and I was kind of like looking at this game

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in previews of like, I don't know if they're able

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to deal with the content that they're biting off here

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or that they have the follow through for Ash, And

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for the first thirty hours they kind of don't. There's

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a lot of like general, hey, this is bad, but

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it doesn't get into like why it's bad or explaining

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what it thinks to the people who are who are

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you know, causing this in Joe, and the game kind

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of feels like it doesn't have teeth in a lot

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of ways for the first quarter of the game maybe,

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And then as you get further into it and they

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really start to delve into the two major camps in

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this election, because the game is all like running this

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election and how similar the ideals are, but how vastly

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important the differences are. Then you start to see like, oh,

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Atlas really thought a lot about this, and it becomes

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like a sociology and political like examination of what it

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actually means to believe these different things, and it really

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interrogates both sides and opinions, which I thought was really refreshing.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the battle system, and the battle system

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is Michael. He said it borrows a lot from SMT yep,

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and I.

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Speaker 2: It basically is press turn as far as right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. The thing I enjoy about it is that

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it feels like for folks that haven't checked out SMT

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in their or familiar with just your regular decular turn

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based stuff or personas of the past, it feels like

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persona Turbo just because you can just kind of like

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there's there's like a certain cadence to it where you

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can kind of just button through to everything. How did

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y'all feel about the archetype system? And for persona heads

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out there, these are basically your personas and being able

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to share that amongst the party and kind of like

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make up for deficits or like maybe make the most

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terrible team comp.

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Speaker 2: It is funny that you can like change anyone to

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be anything you want, because I think there's a trade

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off there. I think it makes the protagonists less interesting

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because being the fool being able to switch between all

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the personas that you collect over the course of a

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persona game or you know, summoning demons a SMT. I'm

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a little less familiar with that, so I won't be

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talking about that series as much, but being able to

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have all these different options and combined with the one

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system of being able to just hit weakness after weakness

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in persona game is very interesting, and so the protagonist

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is a little less interesting. But being able to make

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your allies basically whatever you want, they clearly excel in

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a given path. Whatever they start as is what they

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will be better at. But you can change your team

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comp however you want. So maybe you just really like

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a character and you want them to go in a

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different past, so you basically give them a job like

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traditional RPGs have done, like Final Fantasy has done, so

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you can make them where you want, and that makes

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them more interesting. I think it's a balancing act there

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with the job system at least, and I think it

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plays into the press turn as is presented in here,

284
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because it does make it so that you can use

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the same character in multiple turns. You can do some

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interesting stuff with that that you're If you're kind of

287
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like me and you are more familiar or only familiar

288
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with Persona, it's gonna feel different. Not necessarily I would

289
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say even better or worse, but it feels different in

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a refreshing way, especially if you have been playing a

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lot of persona games like I have been recently.

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Speaker 1: Jess Michael. The further you get into the game, how

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much more complicated does the combat get?

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Speaker 4: It gets it gets hard. But I don't know that

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it's any more complex, I guess, is my thought. I

296
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don't know, like or do you disagree, I'm trying to.

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Speaker 5: I think the two like drawbacks for the combat that

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I had were when you are specing into these different archetypes,

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which are really cool. They have preset requirements for you know,

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Magic Seeker requires you to be a level ten Mage

301
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and a level twenty Seeker, and each character eventually unlocks

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their own unique sort of final class, and you have

303
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to have pretty high requirements in different jobs basically, but

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you don't know while playing the game which jobs those

305
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are going to be. So towards the endgame, at a

306
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situation where I unlocked, you know, all these different characters

307
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final classes, but I've been specking them into the long

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job class basically, so I just had to grind these

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these sort of dungeons to level them up so that

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I could unlock their final class. And that's like the

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one mechanical thing that they don't fully explain to you that, well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like, what's one area. I think that there's

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there's definitely room for improvement because this is the first

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time that they've done this kind of system. I mean

315
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Digital Devil Saga has there's a lot of similarity to

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Digital Devil Saga, which I imagine like not as many

317
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people played, but the I think it's a it's a

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really interesting system and it's fun to mess around with

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when you start specing certain characters into their jobs and

320
00:17:53,079 --> 00:17:56,559
thinking about party synergy because now it's not like my

321
00:17:56,759 --> 00:17:59,839
party is stuck to a certain number of elements or

322
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like okay, like this character covers electricity and physical and

323
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this character is more fire and healing. Anybody can can

324
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do anything, and you can inherent skills from other jobs

325
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that you that you've leveled up, so you can There's

326
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a lot of flexibility, and I think that's important because

327
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the tougher bosses in this game have either specific gimmicks

328
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or they have no weaknesses, or they have they have

329
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like barriers you need to they have hoops you need

330
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to jump through in order to actually damage them. So

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there are certain bosses that are there. They're more complex

332
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than I've seen from other from other Atlas bosses, and

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I think it puts less emphasis on like, oh, I

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just need to have these certain elements covered. It becomes

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less and less about like, oh, this enemy is a

336
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weak to electricity. Everyone's gonna get their electricity spell and

337
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we're just gonna hammer away for eight turns because I

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can get an extra turn every time I hit that weakness.

339
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There are a lot of bosses where you have to

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think about debuffs and protecting your self and thinking steps ahead.

341
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So and they give you a lot more tools. So

342
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I think that the tool set that they give you

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through the archetype system gives way to more complex strategies

344
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because you have to do that if you're going to

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beat a lot of the some of the end game bosses.

346
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The game does get pretty hard if you if you

347
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keep going out of like a steady pace without like

348
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necessarily grinding or anything, the bosses will be challenging. And

349
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I like that about this game that you know as

350
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:27,599
maybe they're trying to cast a wider net because they

351
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:30,599
are doing a new ip, but they've really kept the

352
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level of challenging and almost up the complexity compared to

353
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Shinmagami Tense, which you know a lot of us who

354
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play SMT look at SMB like, oh no, that's the

355
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:46,920
hardcore RPG. That's what that's what the real motherfuckers play, right, babies.

356
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Speaker 5: I talked to some people that were guiding this and

357
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they were like, oh, yeah, if you put it up

358
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:53,880
to hard or put it down to easy, they don't.

359
00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,519
Enemies don't get more or less health. They just are

360
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more aware of your weakness and target it more frequently.

361
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Speaker 3: And enemies are smarter too, they know they know what

362
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you're against.

363
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I just linked in chat. But this game can

364
00:20:07,079 --> 00:20:09,039
kind of be bullshit in the way that SMT is

365
00:20:09,079 --> 00:20:13,160
bullshit of Like I uploaded a clip to Twitter where

366
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just four minutes of me not being able to move

367
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,640
because my entire party was charmed, and so whenever it

368
00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,160
was all turned, we just attacked each other and then

369
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we all died eventually.

370
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Speaker 3: Right, Yep, that'll happen. I'm glad that. I'm glad that

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they that Atlas did not forget its roots.

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Speaker 4: So but yeah, yeah, no, I think you. I think

373
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you are right. I guess when you said complex, I'm

374
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:39,880
thinking like almost confusing, because I feel like it does

375
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:42,960
a very good job of having these building blocks and

376
00:20:43,039 --> 00:20:45,279
just kind of slowly like, Okay, now you know how

377
00:20:45,319 --> 00:20:47,720
to do this, and so if you you know, I

378
00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:49,559
don't know. There's a lot of synergy and a lot

379
00:20:49,599 --> 00:20:54,240
of flexibility, and I think that it just works really beautifully.

380
00:20:54,279 --> 00:20:58,759
I was obsessed with the archtypes. I can't talk archtype system.

381
00:20:58,799 --> 00:21:00,960
The only thing that would have made it better is

382
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,440
like some Final Fantasy ten to two costume changes.

383
00:21:04,519 --> 00:21:07,640
Speaker 1: Yes, I would have been a hop not okay. I

384
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:12,519
know the age range of people on a podcast when

385
00:21:12,559 --> 00:21:17,680
someone will bring up Final Fantasy ten two and everyone's like, yeah,

386
00:21:18,319 --> 00:21:20,880
that's the right demo, that's the right demo. We're going

387
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:24,240
for millennials, jail. Yeah, did you want to.

388
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:26,559
Speaker 2: Talk about the overworld part of the BATL system in

389
00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:27,160
this segment?

390
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's that's probably the best place to talk

391
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:31,960
to talk about.

392
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:33,559
Speaker 2: It's not I want to checko it, but yeah, I

393
00:21:33,559 --> 00:21:35,359
did want to bring it up because it's one of

394
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,200
the things that I would say is actually a negative

395
00:21:38,519 --> 00:21:43,359
for me. Is okay, So people who maybe haven't played

396
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,680
the demo, if you've just seen the trailers and stuff,

397
00:21:45,839 --> 00:21:48,880
may have been confused, like I was about Okay, they're

398
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:52,200
doing some like action RPG hacken slash stuff on the overworld,

399
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:55,319
but then it transitions into turn based How does that work?

400
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:59,359
And so what happens is it's basically a consolidation of

401
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:03,759
things that Sona has done, especially in five, a combination

402
00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,480
of being able to take out enemies that are weaker

403
00:22:06,519 --> 00:22:09,359
than you, being able to ambush enemies to gain advantage

404
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:11,880
in battle. So turning all of that into one cohesive

405
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,839
system that they present as action RPG adjacent. What happens.

406
00:22:16,079 --> 00:22:18,960
You know, use the phae vision I believe it's called Gallica.

407
00:22:19,039 --> 00:22:21,559
Your little fairy will tell you if an enemy is weaker,

408
00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:25,720
same level or a higher level than you, blue yellow, red,

409
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,119
And so if they're weaker than you, you walk up

410
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,519
to them and you know, press square basic attack, you

411
00:22:30,599 --> 00:22:32,920
just kill them missingly, get some XP, move on with

412
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,079
your life. If they're at the same level or higher,

413
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:38,480
that's when it gets more complex because it turns into

414
00:22:38,519 --> 00:22:41,440
a system where you need to lock onto the enemy,

415
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,519
break their like guard meter, and if you successfully do so,

416
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,319
you will basically ambush as you would in persona game.

417
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,000
You will gain advantage. And it's even stronger here because

418
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,119
the enemies will straight up have the stun effect on

419
00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:57,519
them four up to two turns. My problem is maybe

420
00:22:57,559 --> 00:23:00,880
just an expectation of mine. I'm a big character action

421
00:23:01,279 --> 00:23:04,799
game kind of person, and by EXTENSI I love action RPGs,

422
00:23:05,519 --> 00:23:09,759
and this feels like kind of a clunky implementation of that.

423
00:23:10,559 --> 00:23:13,319
I know it's not they're not going for action rpg,

424
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,119
but it feels a little too in the middle for me.

425
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,680
It doesn't feel like action RPG, but also doesn't feel

426
00:23:18,839 --> 00:23:22,920
menu driven, and so it's actually maybe it's a small

427
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:24,319
thing in the grand scheme of the game once you've

428
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:26,359
been playing for eighty two one hundred dollars, but it

429
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,440
just feels wonky to me to be exploring a dungeon

430
00:23:29,799 --> 00:23:32,279
and kind of have to like press this attack with

431
00:23:32,279 --> 00:23:35,240
a little a little bit of input delay. Sometimes the

432
00:23:35,319 --> 00:23:37,480
character doesn't go quite where I want them to to,

433
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,960
like actually hit the enemy. Sometimes the camera gets stuck

434
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,480
on something when you're like locked onto an enemy and

435
00:23:43,519 --> 00:23:45,759
it doesn't know what to do, and then you get ambush,

436
00:23:45,839 --> 00:23:48,440
And like I think Michael was saying earlier, if you

437
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,799
get ambushed in this game, you're getting fucked up, yeas

438
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:55,079
beat Yeah, So that can be really annoying. But I

439
00:23:55,079 --> 00:23:57,160
would say in the grand scheme of things now that I'm,

440
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:59,720
you know, more in the over twenty five hours in

441
00:24:00,279 --> 00:24:03,559
it's not super intrusive, so it feels more like a nitpick.

442
00:24:03,599 --> 00:24:05,480
But it was something that was really bugging me in

443
00:24:05,519 --> 00:24:06,880
the early parts of game. I don't know how the

444
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:11,359
rest of you feel about that half ish of the combat.

445
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:16,480
Speaker 4: I love it because it totally allows you to I

446
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,440
don't just like cheese your way through certain things, like Okay,

447
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,599
so I went into one dungeon and there was minotaurs

448
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,759
everywhere and they were kicking my ass, and so I

449
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:30,359
switched to having my protagonist be a thief, which if

450
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:32,359
you're a thief, you have throwing daggers.

451
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:34,119
Speaker 3: So if you hide behind.

452
00:24:33,839 --> 00:24:36,519
Speaker 4: Walls and just throw daggers at things, you can get

453
00:24:36,559 --> 00:24:38,799
them to be ambush and then you can run into

454
00:24:38,839 --> 00:24:41,279
battle and you can take them down way easier. So

455
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,359
like little things like that, or even if you know,

456
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,640
there's a part end game where I was just like

457
00:24:46,079 --> 00:24:48,079
grinding up stuff so that could hit all of my

458
00:24:49,079 --> 00:24:53,039
party's like final archetype, and I was just running around

459
00:24:53,079 --> 00:24:56,000
an area with the throwing knives. I literally just would

460
00:24:56,079 --> 00:24:58,720
switch to that just to solely have those, and I

461
00:24:58,759 --> 00:25:02,079
was just running around just and just leveling up. It

462
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:02,799
was fantastic.

463
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,160
Speaker 2: Okay, I just unlocked Deef, so I'm maybe maybe I'll

464
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,079
like that a little bit more actually having an arranged option.

465
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:10,839
Speaker 4: Yeah, the arrange option is so fun.

466
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, Sean, you just gotta just just do a

467
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,079
good old drive by in a fantasy.

468
00:25:16,319 --> 00:25:18,559
Speaker 2: Well. I mean that's what I like about Persona five.

469
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,400
I think it was introducing Royal specifically where Joker just

470
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,839
like rushes through the dude and it's like a monochrome

471
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,039
you know screen where he just mess those people up

472
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:27,759
and just get the rewards. I like that a little

473
00:25:27,799 --> 00:25:29,799
bit more than you know, just whacking them one my

474
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:31,720
scepter and getting like too cold.

475
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,559
Speaker 1: A major huge thing in a lot of Persona games

476
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:43,160
is your supporting cast on top of your main protagonist. Folks, friends,

477
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:47,240
how did we feel about the party and the subsequent

478
00:25:47,319 --> 00:25:51,200
social bonds you wind up doing with the gang? Damn?

479
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,640
Speaker 5: It's probably the best artless characters have ever been, like

480
00:25:56,359 --> 00:26:01,240
overall when it comes to consistency, because I don't think

481
00:26:01,279 --> 00:26:03,200
there's a single one of those characters that you have

482
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,640
a link with that doesn't have like something that genuinely

483
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:11,240
affected me. I think the highlights are definitely Maria, heis May,

484
00:26:11,559 --> 00:26:19,200
and and those characters come through as like some of

485
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,799
the best characters of the year in video games. And

486
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,759
they're like even Maria as like a kid character, which

487
00:26:26,839 --> 00:26:30,960
are so usually just these very like dull and plain

488
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,359
and way too innocent, and but the shades that they

489
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,440
give to her as a character, and like the competency

490
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,559
and the fact that they don't talk down to her

491
00:26:41,559 --> 00:26:45,400
in a lot of ways and makes that character incredible.

492
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,559
And heis May is like one of the most heartbreaking

493
00:26:48,759 --> 00:26:50,440
side stories that.

494
00:26:51,079 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 2: Precious Boy's great.

495
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, my rat my rat man.

496
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 5: Who is he?

497
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,559
Speaker 1: What is he in the mouse?

498
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,759
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, we see, yeah, we see he's a bat

499
00:27:03,799 --> 00:27:05,200
mouse yeah, bat mouse.

500
00:27:05,519 --> 00:27:08,119
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.

501
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,759
Speaker 3: The I mean, it's the case with any any persona

502
00:27:11,799 --> 00:27:14,440
game with their social links or confidence, is that all

503
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,599
of them are supposed to be vessels for you to

504
00:27:16,839 --> 00:27:19,279
kind of understand various aspects of the story it's trying

505
00:27:19,319 --> 00:27:22,799
to tell. But more so than any other game because

506
00:27:22,839 --> 00:27:25,920
you're not necessarily tied to like this Arkana system where

507
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,400
the it's like, well there's twenty cards in a tarot deck.

508
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,480
We got to have this many social links. So I

509
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:37,759
think stripping down away, stripping down or stripping away a

510
00:27:37,799 --> 00:27:41,480
lot of the a lot of the tenets that are

511
00:27:41,519 --> 00:27:43,599
tied to persona kind of gives them the freedom to

512
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:46,000
be more efficient. And you see this in how you

513
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,519
go about your your calendar days. But I think specifically

514
00:27:49,519 --> 00:27:51,720
for the social links this or for the for the

515
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,480
bonds and followers, it lets them focus on fewer things,

516
00:27:55,799 --> 00:27:58,000
go more in depth, and they're only up to rank

517
00:27:58,039 --> 00:28:00,359
eight so each story, but you get feel a little

518
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,039
bit more purposeful, and then the.

519
00:28:02,079 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 5: Time you visit them, you will level them up.

520
00:28:04,039 --> 00:28:04,759
Speaker 1: You will level up.

521
00:28:04,839 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know that's very important. It's not persona where

522
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:09,759
you need to have a specific persona equipped and that

523
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,240
you need to get You also don't even need to

524
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,319
get dialogue choices right to get more points with them,

525
00:28:15,799 --> 00:28:18,079
because you yeah, you just get a currency as a

526
00:28:18,079 --> 00:28:19,559
bonus if you say something that they like.

527
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: Yeah.

528
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,599
Speaker 3: So they strip away a lot of the a lot

529
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,000
of the things that are kind of that can be

530
00:28:25,039 --> 00:28:28,240
frustrating and not even and like metaphor is a lot

531
00:28:28,279 --> 00:28:32,119
more clear in communicating your progress, whether it's your social

532
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,519
stats or if it's your social standing with the characters.

533
00:28:34,839 --> 00:28:36,279
So it kind of cuts out a lot of the

534
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:37,839
a lot of the fluff, a lot of the mystery.

535
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,799
So it's very straightforward. It's a lot more efficient, and

536
00:28:39,839 --> 00:28:42,720
I think because of that, I finished all my bonds

537
00:28:42,799 --> 00:28:47,119
like well before the final dungeon without a guy because

538
00:28:47,119 --> 00:28:49,279
we're reviewing the game, so there's no guides out there,

539
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:52,920
and I think that speaks to how much more streamlined

540
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,319
this game is. But through that, you get to see

541
00:28:55,359 --> 00:28:57,519
all the characters all the way through, and there's some

542
00:28:57,559 --> 00:29:00,200
really really special ones obviously, like has May being a

543
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,759
party member. Of course you want to like see his

544
00:29:02,799 --> 00:29:06,400
story all the way through in his social bond, but

545
00:29:06,559 --> 00:29:10,400
like having that context for his tragic backstory and then

546
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,960
having him in your party, like you know, it all

547
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,079
feeds into that, and like that's the case with anybody

548
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:18,359
else but my precious war Boy. The first time I

549
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:20,480
cried in this game was on his Rank eight scene.

550
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,039
That's that's the first one that got okay and.

551
00:29:23,279 --> 00:29:25,039
Speaker 5: Me and Jess we talked about this a little bit

552
00:29:25,039 --> 00:29:27,319
before the game came out, but like the localization is

553
00:29:27,319 --> 00:29:30,519
so fucking good for when you consider that this is

554
00:29:31,279 --> 00:29:34,200
a game being developed in Japanese primarily, and then it's

555
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,000
being translated into English, and then they're working it into

556
00:29:37,079 --> 00:29:40,720
like this old English at the same time. And then

557
00:29:40,759 --> 00:29:43,200
it's the lines that they come out with, the fucking

558
00:29:43,279 --> 00:29:46,000
bars that some of these characters have, like they go

559
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:50,319
so fucking hard, and I can't remember the Heisme one,

560
00:29:50,359 --> 00:29:53,559
but it's it's I'll try to pull it up if

561
00:29:53,559 --> 00:29:55,279
someone else wants to talk about it for a little bit.

562
00:29:55,279 --> 00:29:57,279
But there's some quotes that are just incredible.

563
00:29:57,759 --> 00:30:02,079
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that, oh no Osen says, I think

564
00:30:02,079 --> 00:30:05,279
that the biggest change obviously. I mean I don't know

565
00:30:05,359 --> 00:30:08,319
a lot of SMT. I've played a little bit, but

566
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:12,720
like between persona and metaphor is obviously you go away

567
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:15,799
from like this real world high school setting, and I

568
00:30:15,839 --> 00:30:19,839
think that that just helps so much, which is weird

569
00:30:19,839 --> 00:30:23,200
because I love Persona, like I genuinely like I love Persona,

570
00:30:24,359 --> 00:30:28,559
but it's so refreshing to play this game where one

571
00:30:28,559 --> 00:30:31,920
of your cam like Holgenberg very much implied to be

572
00:30:32,039 --> 00:30:35,160
like probably late thirties, early forties, like she's significantly older

573
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,240
than the rest of the party, you know, And like

574
00:30:38,319 --> 00:30:40,319
that's how it is with Heismee too, Like Hisme is

575
00:30:40,319 --> 00:30:44,400
a father significantly older, and there's just a lot of

576
00:30:46,119 --> 00:30:48,240
I don't know, just different age ranges, and it doesn't

577
00:30:48,319 --> 00:30:51,359
feel like some of these social links are just there

578
00:30:51,519 --> 00:30:54,480
to be like a romantic interest, which is funny because

579
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,440
I was totally like, I love romantic interest in games

580
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,440
like give me that boyer where like yeah, So whenever

581
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,319
I heard that there was no, you know, no Wai Fu's,

582
00:31:04,519 --> 00:31:06,079
I was like, well, I don't I don't know like that.

583
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:12,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know where you lock it down.

584
00:31:13,359 --> 00:31:15,039
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I was like, oh, I don't know, like

585
00:31:15,079 --> 00:31:17,640
I kind of like that aspect, And then while I

586
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,359
was playing, it was like, holy shit, this is so

587
00:31:20,519 --> 00:31:23,799
much better actually, because there's still like chemistry between the

588
00:31:23,839 --> 00:31:26,599
main character and a couple of the other characters where

589
00:31:26,599 --> 00:31:28,319
you're like, oh, like that could be a thing in

590
00:31:28,359 --> 00:31:31,759
the future. But it doesn't feel like it's all consuming.

591
00:31:31,799 --> 00:31:35,400
It doesn't feel like you're talking to like, okay, like

592
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:37,599
I love, I love what is Itfumi is? Is she

593
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:38,400
the chess player?

594
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 2: Five?

595
00:31:43,519 --> 00:31:44,519
Speaker 1: There? Yeah?

596
00:31:44,599 --> 00:31:49,799
Speaker 4: So it's like it doesn't feel like you're just like

597
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,279
doing these stories because you're like, oh, this character is

598
00:31:53,359 --> 00:31:54,680
kind of cute and kind of interesting.

599
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:55,440
Speaker 1: I almost see you.

600
00:31:55,759 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 4: Like it's it's just all so much more meaningful and

601
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:02,960
ties into the thematics and really, I mean like Brigita, right,

602
00:32:03,119 --> 00:32:05,799
like gorgeous love her, love of my life. But also

603
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,839
it's not like you're going to her as like this

604
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,960
older romantic interest. You know, you're you're going to her

605
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:18,680
because she's she's going through a lot, you know, and

606
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,279
she's been through a lot, and god, just some of

607
00:32:21,319 --> 00:32:24,599
the things that like, she she affected me so much

608
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,119
with some of the things that she would say. It

609
00:32:27,319 --> 00:32:30,960
just about how life can make you very closed off

610
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,240
if you let it, and very jaded and kind of

611
00:32:33,279 --> 00:32:35,039
seeing her try to pull herself out of.

612
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 1: That was, Yeah, so good, she's there.

613
00:32:38,279 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 3: There's a there's a lot of the bonds feel very natural,

614
00:32:42,039 --> 00:32:43,799
and I think that's what makes them, makes the characters

615
00:32:43,839 --> 00:32:46,880
stand out, especially if you're coming from this. You know,

616
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:48,799
we played like how many fucking persona games at this

617
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,480
at this point, So it's hard it's hard to be surprised, right,

618
00:32:51,759 --> 00:32:55,440
But I was surprised by because again, like you're not

619
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:57,240
interacting with these characters, are like, oh, I want to

620
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:58,920
be their friend. It's like you're kind.

621
00:32:58,759 --> 00:33:02,039
Speaker 2: Of you, You're they're they're treating they're teaching.

622
00:33:01,759 --> 00:33:03,359
Speaker 3: You a lot about the world as you as they

623
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,720
walk through it with you, and so like Brigitta is.

624
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:08,599
Speaker 1: Kind of a parallel world.

625
00:33:08,599 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 3: She like runs a weapons shop and she's like, if

626
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:12,799
I could have it my way, I wish this world

627
00:33:12,839 --> 00:33:15,200
wouldn't have weapons, But this is the reality in which

628
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:17,599
we work with work in, and this is my trade.

629
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,640
So I'm kind of like stuck in. This is what

630
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,720
I have to do, and there's no real real escaping

631
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,119
and it explores that in a in a nuanced way, honestly,

632
00:33:28,559 --> 00:33:30,279
And so I think that that is one way in

633
00:33:30,279 --> 00:33:32,839
which this game kind of demonstrates like, oh, it's you know,

634
00:33:33,079 --> 00:33:36,119
it does understand these complexities. And then I won't say

635
00:33:36,119 --> 00:33:38,400
who the character is, but there's also one that focuses

636
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:42,359
on like religion as an institution versus faith, and I

637
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,640
think that's such a good vessel for exploring the Sanctish Church,

638
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:49,119
which kind of dominates the kingdom in which this game

639
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:53,200
exists in. And so you have this church, this institution

640
00:33:53,359 --> 00:33:55,839
that is all powerful throughout the kingdom, but then you

641
00:33:55,839 --> 00:33:57,559
have like the social bond where you kind of like

642
00:33:57,599 --> 00:33:59,720
see it on the ground level and then kind of

643
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,440
see a lot of different like and like supporting characters.

644
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,359
Their faith is tested in some really interesting ways, and

645
00:34:07,519 --> 00:34:10,000
the game is very smart about like saying it doesn't.

646
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:11,599
It's not about like, oh, it is religion bad, is

647
00:34:11,679 --> 00:34:14,679
religion good? Or is having faith purposeful?

648
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 1: Whatever?

649
00:34:15,119 --> 00:34:18,800
Speaker 3: Like it doesn't. Those are very basic questions, and it doesn't.

650
00:34:19,039 --> 00:34:19,840
It goes past that.

651
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,559
Speaker 4: Yeah, it assumes that you have already made up your

652
00:34:22,599 --> 00:34:25,719
mind on that. Like it's it's just examining it in

653
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:31,039
different situations and kind of more nuanced conversations.

654
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 2: It's not even try hyde. It's it's making an analog

655
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,679
to Christianity, and like examining is you know, this being

656
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,199
a very dominant thing in the world, you know, is

657
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:45,159
this always? Yeah? No, no metaphors in this game at all.

658
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:48,440
Speaker 3: I think it's really funny this game is called metaphor because.

659
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,039
Speaker 2: It's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot on these things.

660
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,320
Speaker 5: Extremely I do think that a lot of that is

661
00:34:55,519 --> 00:34:57,800
able to do that way better in this game because

662
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,599
of the structure of it, of having a main villain

663
00:35:00,679 --> 00:35:04,360
who you know from the beginning and kind of instead

664
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,360
of the persona thing of it's almost like episodic in

665
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:09,800
a lot of ways. There are segments of this game

666
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:11,639
where you go to different areas and you spend time

667
00:35:11,679 --> 00:35:16,039
in different areas, but there is a very clear overarching no,

668
00:35:16,199 --> 00:35:20,159
this is the person who you're fucking with, and you

669
00:35:20,199 --> 00:35:25,280
want to deal with them real badly because they fucking suck. Yeah,

670
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,039
having like the ominous government man who you never see

671
00:35:29,119 --> 00:35:31,800
until the final ten hours. In like a lot of

672
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:35,000
Persona games, they just say, no, fucking this guy, this

673
00:35:35,039 --> 00:35:35,880
guy sucks.

674
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 2: Yeah at the last moment.

675
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:41,639
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I would say. That's what I was hoping

676
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,280
it would not do. I was like, man, if you

677
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:45,280
just end up fighting like God or something like, I

678
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,039
get it. But I was that I wouldn't do that

679
00:35:48,079 --> 00:35:51,360
because like Lise is just like this little Griffith bitch

680
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:52,000
that I love.

681
00:35:54,119 --> 00:35:57,199
Speaker 2: And I tell you from the opening cut scene before

682
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:00,519
you press start what your goal is. It's yea, I

683
00:36:00,559 --> 00:36:01,159
love it.

684
00:36:01,199 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 5: Yes, And like they wind up playing with it in

685
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,320
some cool ways too, because they do something which is

686
00:36:07,679 --> 00:36:10,559
like it's fun that they there's a whole section where

687
00:36:10,559 --> 00:36:12,960
you're like, oh, am I doing something else in this game,

688
00:36:13,079 --> 00:36:15,239
like is the something else that's going on?

689
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:20,039
Speaker 3: And then they're like, nah, yeah, yeah, I guess since

690
00:36:20,039 --> 00:36:22,920
we're talking about characters, I guess I didn't really, it

691
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:24,960
wasn't until like I really sat down for like a

692
00:36:25,039 --> 00:36:28,920
day after finishing the game, when I really appreciated Luis

693
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,400
as a character, Like not that I like him in

694
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,159
terms of like, oh that's my guy. That is not

695
00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:37,800
my guy at all, but I think because.

696
00:36:38,119 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 2: Him in the next election, he's like he's kind of

697
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,320
a JoJo's villain. You know, he's got charisma where it's like, ah, right,

698
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:46,039
you're a good villain who I liked.

699
00:36:46,079 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 3: Is a very good villain that I that is offered

700
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:53,960
levels of complexity that is saw all the way through

701
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:58,079
the game at various points, so it's he's it's a

702
00:36:58,199 --> 00:37:00,679
very consistent villain. I think Atlas has kind of had

703
00:37:00,679 --> 00:37:04,039
that problem in a way because I think like with

704
00:37:04,159 --> 00:37:08,119
Persona five, it's like flavor of the day villain as

705
00:37:08,119 --> 00:37:09,599
you go from one thing to another, which is good,

706
00:37:09,679 --> 00:37:12,960
which I think works for that game. Persona three kind

707
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,159
of waits till the very end to like show its cards,

708
00:37:16,639 --> 00:37:19,519
which works for that what that is, But for metaphor,

709
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,559
I think this is a very uh this is like

710
00:37:22,639 --> 00:37:26,119
a great like this is a great execution that is

711
00:37:26,199 --> 00:37:29,840
consistent that kind of drives You're like, this is a

712
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:33,840
villain who drives you throughout the entire game and your

713
00:37:34,079 --> 00:37:37,880
relationship with that villain, like you never really know where

714
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,840
you stand, and that's such an interesting part, like oh,

715
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:42,920
what's the next happen? And you think this is gonna happen,

716
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,440
but then it kind of changes into this and so

717
00:37:45,679 --> 00:37:48,679
it's it like it it compels me.

718
00:37:49,599 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 5: Yeah, And he's really good at like presenting his case

719
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:54,199
in a way that a lot of ORPG villains aren't,

720
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:56,760
where like even if the game is like no, he

721
00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,880
is objectively fucking wrong and we dislike what he's saying.

722
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:03,440
He is very eloquent and like the performance is graceh

723
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,599
and he's just like you can tell yeah, yeah, you

724
00:38:06,639 --> 00:38:08,199
look at him and you're like, oh no, this guy

725
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,119
is fucking captivating, Like I can see why people follow this.

726
00:38:11,039 --> 00:38:12,360
Speaker 2: Guy right, very creous.

727
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, like I would join that cult.

728
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 2: I think all of this is because it's very important

729
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:22,639
to point out the main character is not you. Your

730
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,000
main character is a character who has existed in this

731
00:38:26,119 --> 00:38:29,920
world and has their story that you are influencing, but

732
00:38:30,119 --> 00:38:32,199
you are not them. And I don't know how it

733
00:38:32,639 --> 00:38:35,039
exactly all this plays agether, so don't ruin it if

734
00:38:35,079 --> 00:38:39,360
there's something there, but yes, you are technically someone in

735
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,920
this game, and the protagonist is someone else. And because

736
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:46,039
the protagonist has you know, we we obviously have things

737
00:38:46,079 --> 00:38:49,159
like Joker in Persona five having the backstory that sets

738
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,679
up for everything, but otherwise fairly average, you know, teenage

739
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:57,960
kid and the MC in this game having the background

740
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,760
that they do. Simply having the race that they do

741
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:03,960
and the way that everything weaves into that and how

742
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,280
they are such an underdog in this story is what

743
00:39:07,599 --> 00:39:11,320
allows all these things to happen because you are guiding them,

744
00:39:11,639 --> 00:39:14,840
but they have their own voice, literally and figuratively. They

745
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:18,199
are voiced for like the first time is fantastic. It's

746
00:39:18,199 --> 00:39:20,840
not just like you know, battle grunts and stuff. It's

747
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:25,360
nice to see the person who you are guiding interact

748
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:27,760
with all these other characters as if they are all

749
00:39:28,039 --> 00:39:30,079
real people. Because that's when the Atlas has always been

750
00:39:30,079 --> 00:39:32,519
really good, as like making these characters that feel real

751
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,000
and finally your main character feels real as well, which,

752
00:39:36,119 --> 00:39:38,800
by the way, were on the topic, why did everybody

753
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:42,079
name the protagonist Jan Jan? Of course?

754
00:39:42,639 --> 00:39:45,159
Speaker 4: Okay, I always name my Atlas protagonists the same thing,

755
00:39:45,199 --> 00:39:48,599
which is hero with an I though I think.

756
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:50,840
Speaker 2: Your hero, Yeah, Hero protagonist.

757
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, Les, it asks you for two names, Yes,

758
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,199
it does. Yeah, So I did lex and then Lexi,

759
00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:02,519
which wound up that's funny.

760
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:04,840
Speaker 2: I know what Michael did, but I want to tell

761
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:05,440
the audience.

762
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 3: Yeh, good old Charlie Took who lives on yet again.

763
00:40:11,199 --> 00:40:12,599
Speaker 1: The Ultimate Time Traveler.

764
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:17,519
Speaker 2: I went with Cyrus because it sounds like a masculine

765
00:40:17,559 --> 00:40:20,239
forum of iris and the main character has heterochromia, so

766
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,960
I thought that was loo at you. Sean also got

767
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:26,599
blue hair like Cyrus from Pokemon Diamond Pearl, so if.

768
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:33,159
Speaker 1: It the nerd uh folks friends were nearing the end

769
00:40:33,159 --> 00:40:35,079
of our time here. But but I just want to

770
00:40:35,159 --> 00:40:39,079
talk real quick about story in this game, and uh,

771
00:40:39,199 --> 00:40:42,239
you know Persona games there, they all got their stories,

772
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,079
they all got their metaphors. But since this game is

773
00:40:44,119 --> 00:40:47,800
called metaphor, do you think since you three have landed

774
00:40:48,199 --> 00:40:50,800
or finished it, and Sean you're still in the process

775
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,800
along with me, does it stick the landing? Does does

776
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:57,360
it hit the metaphor? We've joked around that it's incredibly

777
00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,239
on the nose, But like the messages that the game

778
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,280
has to tell it, does it land well? Has it

779
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,400
resonated with y'all? Is it affecting y'all? Have you found

780
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:11,559
yourself crying? Afterwards, we'll go around the room. Jess you first,

781
00:41:11,559 --> 00:41:12,880
if if you are, you're ready.

782
00:41:13,559 --> 00:41:13,840
Speaker 2: Yes.

783
00:41:15,599 --> 00:41:21,039
Speaker 4: The answer I guess to everything is yes, it's so good.

784
00:41:21,199 --> 00:41:25,639
I just I think that I grew up in my

785
00:41:25,679 --> 00:41:27,920
favorite games or like Final Fancy seven and then Final

786
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:31,480
Fancy nine or like two of my all time favorite games,

787
00:41:32,639 --> 00:41:36,079
and part of the reason for that is just how

788
00:41:36,679 --> 00:41:40,960
deeply empathetic they are and how rooted they are, like

789
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:45,280
just the context I guess surrounding them and metaphor is

790
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,079
like that it reminded me in so many ways of

791
00:41:48,119 --> 00:41:51,000
playing those games that I grew up playing, and like

792
00:41:51,159 --> 00:41:54,280
just just like the way, like the storytelling, the way

793
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:57,559
that you have Like sorry to like draw this parallel,

794
00:41:57,559 --> 00:42:00,599
but it's like, you know, I said that Luis is Griffith,

795
00:42:00,599 --> 00:42:02,880
but he's also like a very seph Roth character, right,

796
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:04,960
Like it's a very like Cloud and seph Roth thing

797
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,360
where it's like each one of them has an idea

798
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,639
for how this place should be fixed, and they share

799
00:42:09,679 --> 00:42:12,960
a lot of similarities, but the way, like the things

800
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:16,920
that happened to them completely altered, like what they think

801
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,559
they need to do in order to reach that utopia,

802
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:23,440
and so I don't know, it's just it's very compelling.

803
00:42:23,519 --> 00:42:26,719
It brought me back to those games that raised me,

804
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,440
and in that sense, like it did have this really

805
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,480
big emotional impact on me in a way that a

806
00:42:33,559 --> 00:42:35,519
game has it in a long time. Like my game

807
00:42:35,559 --> 00:42:37,480
of the year last year was Balder's Gate three, right,

808
00:42:37,559 --> 00:42:43,039
and that's a phenomenal game, and I loved every second

809
00:42:43,079 --> 00:42:45,480
of playing it, But it's not something where I walk

810
00:42:45,519 --> 00:42:47,480
away from it and I'm like, oh my gosh, I

811
00:42:47,519 --> 00:42:50,360
want to be a better person, Whereas like I played

812
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:53,599
Metaphor and it just touches on so many things where

813
00:42:54,519 --> 00:42:56,480
like I don't remember who I was texting, but I said,

814
00:42:56,519 --> 00:42:59,280
it's like going to therapy where you hear your therapists

815
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:01,400
say something and you're like, yeah, like I know that

816
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:03,800
that's common sense, but if you hear it enough times,

817
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,760
and if you hear it delivered eloquently, there's just like

818
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:08,840
one of those times it just hits you and you're

819
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:12,000
like that is right, and like I know that inside,

820
00:43:12,119 --> 00:43:14,280
but I needed to hear somebody else tell me that

821
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,639
because I felt alone or like I felt I don't know,

822
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:20,679
so and like That's how it was for me. Is

823
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:22,840
I just I was playing it and it would say

824
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:27,719
these things and sometimes it's cheesy, sometimes it's cliche, but

825
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,400
then it just it'll just pack a punch and you're like,

826
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,800
holy shit, Like I have become a jaded thirty year old.

827
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,400
And you know, I remember when I was idealistic, and

828
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:40,559
I remember how games moved me at one point, and like,

829
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,719
I like, this is what games can be and I

830
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:44,119
love that.

831
00:43:46,519 --> 00:43:50,519
Speaker 5: X Yeah, I think I said it on Twitter, but

832
00:43:50,559 --> 00:43:53,159
like this game has a real anger to it. You know,

833
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,880
it has it's not willing, it's very willing to say

834
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,519
like what it thinks of certain people, and like it

835
00:43:58,559 --> 00:44:02,199
has contempt for people who have given up on, you know,

836
00:44:02,679 --> 00:44:04,800
hope in a lot of ways. The line I pulled

837
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,920
up from Hayes May's side story, it isn't said by him,

838
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,719
it's said by another character, but it's I don't know

839
00:44:11,159 --> 00:44:14,960
when it happened, but we stopped chasing hope. We've grown complacent,

840
00:44:15,119 --> 00:44:18,119
cling to the idea that is wiser to accept hardship

841
00:44:18,199 --> 00:44:22,159
than resistish and that like really fucked me up as

842
00:44:22,199 --> 00:44:28,159
someone who is very happy to look on the bad

843
00:44:28,199 --> 00:44:31,119
side of things or to be inactive and allow like

844
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:35,840
negative things to happen because it just seems like the

845
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,840
right thing to do. And this game, in a way

846
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:41,320
that like very few other games have ever done, kind

847
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:45,760
of motivates you and is a real direct dialogue with

848
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:50,079
the player, basically trying to get them to believe in something.

849
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:54,920
And it's aware that, like again, it's very aware that

850
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:56,880
it is in fact a metaphor. It's aware that like

851
00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:59,960
this isn't like the real world, but that doesn't fucking

852
00:45:00,079 --> 00:45:04,679
madam man, and that it can still have power outside

853
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:08,400
of ash, which I think is something really incredible that

854
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:10,360
they are that self aware with this.

855
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:14,039
Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's where you're at in the story.

856
00:45:14,159 --> 00:45:19,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just how it starts strong and it keeps going.

857
00:45:20,079 --> 00:45:23,760
I think the Persona games have an issue with their starts,

858
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:28,159
Especially after playing Reload this year, I realized that Persona

859
00:45:28,199 --> 00:45:31,119
three probably gets off to the quickest start overall. You know,

860
00:45:31,199 --> 00:45:34,360
five starts very bombastic, but it kind of then has

861
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:37,480
a huge exposition dump and not a lot happening until

862
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:41,039
you get through the first dungeon and metaphor. You know,

863
00:45:41,079 --> 00:45:43,159
if you play that demo, you you know you're playing

864
00:45:43,199 --> 00:45:46,159
the intro area, like allot of the tutorial there, so

865
00:45:46,199 --> 00:45:48,239
a lot of people probably already know this, but it

866
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,880
starts with just some heavy beats and it just kind

867
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:54,920
of doesn't slow down. You know, is a hero's journey,

868
00:45:55,159 --> 00:45:58,960
so you will have some ebbing and flowing, but man,

869
00:45:59,039 --> 00:46:04,119
the highs hit really high. It's just it's all so

870
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:07,320
well presented. The characters, like we already said, are incredible,

871
00:46:07,559 --> 00:46:09,679
and so even though I'm pretty early on in the

872
00:46:09,679 --> 00:46:13,000
grand scheme of things, I am loving the overall pacing

873
00:46:13,519 --> 00:46:17,639
of everything. I love how they are presenting what they

874
00:46:17,679 --> 00:46:20,679
want to say. They you know, they say it out loud,

875
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:24,400
they say, hey, we don't necessarily need to condemn something

876
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:29,639
straight out, but ask questions, you know, question is this good?

877
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:33,519
Is this okay? Is Like, like we mentioned with Luis,

878
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:38,079
even if someone's ideal is maybe on the right track,

879
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:41,039
it's about the approach and the fact that this game

880
00:46:41,119 --> 00:46:45,119
is constantly asking these questions is what is stringing me

881
00:46:45,159 --> 00:46:47,480
along so much. It's what's making me fall in love

882
00:46:47,519 --> 00:46:49,960
with the plot of this game, because it is this

883
00:46:50,119 --> 00:46:56,199
grand epic tale that again like having a main character

884
00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:58,800
who is on this journey, not just to you know,

885
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:03,039
by a bunch of high school drama stuff and then

886
00:47:03,119 --> 00:47:06,599
kill god. You know, as fun as silly as it is,

887
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:10,039
may sometimes too silly. No, this is a much more

888
00:47:10,599 --> 00:47:12,880
grounded as ground as you can be in a fantasy

889
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:17,760
world story of rising up through the ranks and overcoming adversity,

890
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,239
and the way they go about it, I just think

891
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,360
is absolutely fantastic. I'm loving it so far.

892
00:47:23,599 --> 00:47:25,800
Speaker 1: Oh my guy, Michael, him take us home. Throw some

893
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:28,639
knowledge of darts. Oh boy, the story here man that.

894
00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:30,920
Speaker 3: It's hard to follow up on all those things because

895
00:47:31,039 --> 00:47:34,519
all y'all are all right and cover various aspects, and

896
00:47:34,519 --> 00:47:36,440
I think that speaks to how much you can take

897
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:40,480
away from from this game. And I think I share

898
00:47:40,679 --> 00:47:46,960
similar sentiments as all y'all. But for me, it's there's

899
00:47:47,199 --> 00:47:49,239
there's a meta narrative to this game, and it opens

900
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,199
with that, and for a long time you kind of

901
00:47:52,199 --> 00:47:56,159
wonder where it's going, what it does with that. I

902
00:47:56,199 --> 00:47:58,840
think that's one of the more interesting aspects about how

903
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:05,239
this game does storytelling and how it is speaking to

904
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:09,039
you in various ways directly to you as the player,

905
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:12,960
and that adds a layer, that adds an extra layer

906
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:15,480
that not I don't I don't know if I've ever

907
00:48:15,519 --> 00:48:17,639
felt from a game before, because not only are you

908
00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:19,679
going through this fantasy world that has has a lot

909
00:48:19,679 --> 00:48:23,199
of parallels that are reflective of the worst parts of

910
00:48:23,199 --> 00:48:25,840
our own world, giving you the power to fight at it,

911
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:30,519
giving you the context to understand it, and compelling you

912
00:48:30,559 --> 00:48:33,119
in so many various ways as you reach the end.

913
00:48:33,599 --> 00:48:38,639
So in that extra layer, I think they're able to

914
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:43,119
cut deeper than I had expected. And by the end

915
00:48:43,119 --> 00:48:45,880
of this game, sat, I sat. I was playing as

916
00:48:46,039 --> 00:48:47,920
Lucy's place. I sat in Lucy's couch and I sat

917
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:50,559
there and I cried for an hour. And I think

918
00:48:50,599 --> 00:48:54,719
it has to do with man, it's really hard to

919
00:48:54,800 --> 00:49:00,960
talk about without giving too much away, but the way

920
00:49:01,039 --> 00:49:04,079
this game tells you that fiction can be powerful, that

921
00:49:04,159 --> 00:49:08,199
the stories you grew up idolizing, the fictional characters you

922
00:49:08,199 --> 00:49:12,599
grow up loving, like in a way a lot of

923
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:15,519
you know, I think a lot of people feel embarrassed

924
00:49:15,559 --> 00:49:17,679
to say that, like, oh, this fictional character or this

925
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:19,920
game I played, or this this hero and the story

926
00:49:20,039 --> 00:49:23,159
is that's my hero too, And it's like, well, don't

927
00:49:23,159 --> 00:49:25,679
you idolize like someone in real life or whatever, And

928
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:27,960
like no, I think that there are a lot of

929
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:31,039
fictional characters who have made me who I am. And

930
00:49:31,079 --> 00:49:33,400
it's really funny that this is coming from Atlas because

931
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:35,559
Atlas games have affected me in a very big way.

932
00:49:36,519 --> 00:49:39,480
So for this game to reach out to me personally,

933
00:49:39,559 --> 00:49:42,639
it feels like reaching out to the player personally to

934
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:45,119
tell them this story and to tell them that it

935
00:49:45,199 --> 00:49:50,840
is okay to to embrace the fiction that like those

936
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:54,840
things that are core pillars to who you are, Like,

937
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,199
let that be power in your own life too, Like

938
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:02,880
it's these things and be moving as well. So there's uh,

939
00:50:04,559 --> 00:50:07,400
like there there's a there's an extra level to this,

940
00:50:07,599 --> 00:50:10,960
to this narrative, and I think it sprinkles that throughout,

941
00:50:11,199 --> 00:50:14,400
like it shows you like when you ever, whenever you

942
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:17,320
visit academia and you like check on the book next

943
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:19,519
to next to more and then it kind of like

944
00:50:19,559 --> 00:50:23,000
keeps minding. It's like, oh, you know this person named Michael,

945
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:27,280
you know they were they were they were once influenced

946
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:29,679
by like the stories of yours. Huh, I wonder what

947
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:33,400
that's about. And I think, uh, it's like a it's

948
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:37,559
a nice breadcrumb, it's a nice trail in addition to

949
00:50:37,599 --> 00:50:42,079
everything else that you're playing. So it's uh, it's very

950
00:50:42,079 --> 00:50:43,960
powerful in what it says about fiction. I say as

951
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:45,679
much in my review because I think that is like

952
00:50:45,719 --> 00:50:49,360
the most important part is in addition to like the

953
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:53,039
political messages, in addition to all the friendships that you

954
00:50:53,119 --> 00:50:55,280
make through the bonds and follower system and having your

955
00:50:56,039 --> 00:51:00,880
having such a strong RPG party, There's more to it

956
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:03,119
than that, and I think that is one of the

957
00:51:03,119 --> 00:51:06,119
things that put Metaphor above many of the other RPGs

958
00:51:06,119 --> 00:51:06,559
that I love.

959
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:11,440
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, folks, if that is not a ring endorsement

960
00:51:11,559 --> 00:51:17,760
to perhaps explore the metaphor of Metaphor refantasio, I don't

961
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:20,920
know what the fuck will fantastic game. I realize I

962
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,920
haven't said much about the game, but I'm just absolutely

963
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:27,559
giddy top to bottom experience with the game, the whole wrapping,

964
00:51:27,559 --> 00:51:30,480
the whole joint. I just love jumping into a battle

965
00:51:30,519 --> 00:51:35,440
and it says peril, Oh, dudet it.

966
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:39,000
Speaker 2: This is ui porn. It's so good, like you thought

967
00:51:39,079 --> 00:51:42,239
Persona five was good like this. Maybe doesn't have quite

968
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:46,639
the same style, but damn everything is moving, Everything has

969
00:51:46,719 --> 00:51:49,440
a vibe to it, like which is I'm not just

970
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:53,519
saying that because it looks good. It's important in is

971
00:51:53,679 --> 00:51:56,920
very important in a turn based RPG. Those menus that

972
00:51:56,960 --> 00:51:58,840
you were looking at for one hundred dollars, they better

973
00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:02,440
like damn good. And this game looks damn good. Yeah,

974
00:52:02,679 --> 00:52:05,559
like the Oh the other day, Michael, you might remember

975
00:52:05,639 --> 00:52:07,880
when you tweet that picture of Lucy's cat. Well, you know,

976
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,239
put the crossan emoji and I put the I put

977
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:14,880
the golden ratio in like sta. It's because I had

978
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:16,920
this game's you. I on the brain and I can't

979
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:17,760
get off my head.

980
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:21,360
Speaker 3: If you look, you see a lot of like sheepe shapeliness,

981
00:52:22,199 --> 00:52:23,559
Lucy's cat curled up.

982
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:24,559
Speaker 2: On the corner.

983
00:52:25,679 --> 00:52:26,920
Speaker 5: This game does a good cat.

984
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:29,280
Speaker 1: Oh, it does have a good cat. And folks, I

985
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:34,039
want you to see the loose Lucy's cat the golden

986
00:52:34,159 --> 00:52:39,400
ratio within yourselves, and perhaps give a metaphor refantasio a shot. Jess,

987
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,519
thank you so much for giving us your time. Lex,

988
00:52:41,559 --> 00:52:44,000
thank you so much for giving us your time. Sean thanks,

989
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:48,519
Uh we pay you to be here. Uh, Michael, him,

990
00:52:48,679 --> 00:52:51,639
my boy, my lad, thank you so much for being good. Folks.

991
00:52:52,039 --> 00:52:56,719
If you're listening watching live, stay tuned, because I I

992
00:52:56,719 --> 00:52:59,119
I want nothing more for my birthday than to inflict

993
00:52:59,159 --> 00:53:00,199
pain onto Lucy.

994
00:53:00,079 --> 00:53:06,920
Speaker 2: Speaking Lucy, She's gonna get blighted right after.

995
00:53:05,599 --> 00:53:08,119
Speaker 1: An emotional roller coaster. Folks, we start with the news,

996
00:53:08,119 --> 00:53:11,480
we hit you, we roll straight through your heart with metaphor,

997
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:15,000
and then we're just gonna deep dive it, nose dive

998
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:19,320
into whatever the Blaked crew has planned for Lucy James,

999
00:53:19,519 --> 00:53:22,000
thank you so much for tuning in to BombCast Revengeance.

1000
00:53:22,039 --> 00:53:24,800
We'll see you next week for another lovely episode. My

1001
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:28,199
birthday wishes for you at home to have a fantastic day,

1002
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:32,800
because y'all look grint fantastic. Keep recording. We're gonna clap

1003
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:35,440
after this, you at home. Pull up time dot Com.

1004
00:53:35,639 --> 00:53:41,840
We're gonna clap two metaphors, social links. Oh maybe maybe

1005
00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:45,400
this goes up in like the Mount rushmore of like

1006
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:54,280
DAPs or like handshakes and games with like the Bond. So, folks,

1007
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,760
we'll see you next week. I love you, good ju

