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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Game and Former Show, a

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weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us each

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and every Thursday for a discussion on the latest gaming news, reviews,

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and exclusive reveals with Game and Former staff and special

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guests from around the industry. I am your host, Marcus Stewart.

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I am joined by the Newshound himself, Wesley LeBlanc.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, I'm COVID free this week.

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Speaker 1: Let's go Hell yeah, appreciate you trucking through last week.

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I was listening to the show and you sounded fighting

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for your life.

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Speaker 2: Honestly, I did listen to it back and I was like, oh, yeah,

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he definitely, he definitely has COVID. I I felt decent

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enough to record, but I sounded like way worse.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, glad you sound better this week. You know

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sounds good. You know him, you love him? Are newest higher?

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What his velvety voice, mister Eric Van Allen, Hello, velvety,

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velvety voice. I've never been told that before. No, you

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got that, Belvis.

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Speaker 3: Usually I get told I have a face for radio.

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So that's that's a nice little compliment to get every

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now and then.

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Speaker 1: It's like, I like to think some of the hottest

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people on Earth working radio.

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Speaker 3: Honestly, they do meet your local radio co hosts, you know,

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while it still exists, while radio is still around.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and we've got a special guest making his first

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appearance on the game and former show Freelance or Extraordinary.

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You can find his work at en Verse and Rolling Stone.

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Mister Hayes Mattson, how are you hello?

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Speaker 4: I'm good, Thank you for having me. Ah, absolute pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Honestly, absolutely. What are your thoughts about the state of

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appearance in radio? Do you think I think we've hit

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a new high in terms of attractiveness? And where would

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you rank each of us on that list? Just putting

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you on the spot right away.

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Speaker 3: No no, no, no, no, no, no no no no.

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Speaker 2: You're just gonna say, like, what are your thoughts?

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Speaker 1: What are your thoughts? What are you thinking?

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Speaker 4: I think I listened to local radio a lot, and

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I agree that hot people are on the radio, honestly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking about the the Cuba Gooding Junior Movie Radio.

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Speaker 3: Actually okay, yeah, yeah, classic two thousand threes finess I

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think it was that year.

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Speaker 1: But yes, we've got a big show today. We're gonna

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be talking with Hayes and Wesley about Fantom Blade zero.

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You guys took a trip all the way to China,

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which is still pretty wild to go play the game.

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You guys got to go like a cool ass event, Wesley,

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and I think Hayes you were there for this two.

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You guys went to the Great Wall of China and

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nothing went wrong. It sounded like it was just a

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completely smooth journey to one of the literal world won.

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So we're excited to hear all about that. I'm gonna

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be talking about a cool little game I played recently

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called and Roger, and then we're gonna round out the

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show with us going down our most anticipated games of

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twenty twenty five, the remainder of the year, starting pretty

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much from now throughout December. We got our handy dandy

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release calendar up, which you can find on gameformer dot com,

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and we're just gonna be shouting out some stuff that

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we're personally excited about and maybe what we think you

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guys should maybe keep an eye on. And yeah, it

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would be a very fun show. But before we get

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in all that, if you want to support Game Informer,

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the best thing you can do is subscribe to Game

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Informer magazine, which is what we're known for. We've been

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making video game magazine since nineteen ninety one. If you're

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watching the video version right now, you can see Wesley

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and Eric holding up our two issues that we put

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out since Game Informer came back. We got the Borderlands

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four issue. We've got our latest issue, which is for

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Vampire to Masquerade Bloodlines two. As we've said over and over,

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this isn't the Game and Former magazine. If your grandpa

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or your dad, this is brand new, better paper. It's bigger,

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the covers are glossier. You can hug it like it's

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your own child, much like Wesley is doing. And look

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at this, look at the beautiful artwork inside. It's an amazing,

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an amazing piece of print that we put together ten

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issues a year, and if you would like to have

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those issues delivered to your door, you can go on

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Game Informer dot com slash subscribe. Our standard pricing is

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generally seventy dollars for ten issues. It gets to the

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physical and digital issue, or if you are overseas because

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we only shiftedmestically in the US unfortunately, you can get

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the digital issue just for forty five dollars annually. There's

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generally there's sometimes sales prices that I won't list right

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now because it changes all the times about a time.

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If I were to say a certain sales price, it

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might not be there by the time you listen to this.

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So I'd say, go to Game Informer dot com slash subscribe.

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See what's going on right there, right now. But if

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you enjoy Game Informer, we urge you to subscribe. And

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also five percent of every subscription goes to Saint Jude's

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Children's Hospitals. And not only are helping us, but you're

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helping a lot of sick kids. It's a really great cause.

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And yes, we appreciate the support as always and as usual, Yes,

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without further ado, Wesley Hayes, you guys went to China,

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what like two weeks ago or however long it was ago? Uh? Yeah,

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how was the how this happen? Anyway? Because I don't

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have all the trips I hear in the game industry

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of people being flown all over the place, China is

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the one that really you see pop up a lot. Hayes,

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I'll start with you, how how was the trip? Have

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you been to China before? And how was it?

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Speaker 3: Uh?

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Speaker 4: No, I've never been to China, and I before then,

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I'd actually never been outside of the United States. So

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this is my first international trip, and it's a big

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international trip to take. You know, we'll talk about it more,

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but it was. It was fascinating, Honestly it was. We

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spent a lot of time in Beijing and then a

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couple of days in Shanghai, two very different cities. Shanghai

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is very like, technologically advanced, and Beijing felt very traditional,

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I think old traditional, like not in a bad way,

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but you know, food was phenomenal, probably some of the

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best food I've had in my life. Since I've gotten back,

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I've told everyone that, like, I don't think I can

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have Chinese food for a couple months because I'm just

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going to be extremely disappointed by whatever I eat. We

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went to the Great Wall, we saw the bund in Shanghai.

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We went to Phantom Blades MOCAP studio. I was absolutely

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one of the most fascinating behind the scenes looks I've

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ever had in a game.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's why you guys were there. Primarily was

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to go to a big event hosted by is it

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S Games, the developer of a fanom Blade zero they

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had this giganme like thousands of people showed up at this.

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I think Wesley and your previews. You have a big

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preview and a travel log again our upcoming issue of

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the magazine talking about this, and looked like it was

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in a big like steel mill or something.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a it's called park. Yeah, it's a

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like decommissioned iron factory that's like a megacomplex. It's like

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multiple square acres of land, and it was the ho

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it was host to like the two thousand something early

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two thousand Olympics and the twenty twenty two Winter Olympics,

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and now it's like a it still stands like it's

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still an old iron factory you can tour, but they

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turned it into the place of this gigantic S party,

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which yeah, we were there for like a preview to

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preview the game, but we were there alongside hundreds of

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content creators and influencers and then like up to two

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thousand members of like the public, just like Chinese locals

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who wanted to play this game. So it was less

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that we were there on like a preview trip and

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more that we were invited to an event equivalent of

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something we'd have here like in the States. It was

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a pretty nuts.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm curious about what you guys played, because

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I played the game last year in Games Calm, and

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it was about, I think, like an hour demo. It

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was kind of it was like in a section where

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you just killed a few enemies and then got to

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a boss at the end. I couldn't tell you much

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about like just the environment because it was kind of

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just like like it didn't stand out, not that it

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was bad, it was just like, oh, you're like in

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a Chinese environment and you're fighting for a temple, and

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like I think that I took away to most was

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just like how good the combat felt and how great

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the animation was loved, Like, how was the demo? Like,

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did you guys enjoy the game?

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Speaker 2: I'll let you go forays.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, oh sure, Yeah, so the demo you played, I

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played that at GDC. This demo. If you saw the

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Year of the Snake trailer, which has like the Disciple

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boss where you're fighting seven different disciples, that's what this

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demo is. But it's the entire level leading up to

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that boss, which apparently this level is a side area

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in the game. They've said that multiple times that this

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is completely a side area and optional and all that.

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But you got more of a sense with this demo

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of the structure of the game. Like we've seen the

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combat a few times, but here we got to see

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kind of the level design, which is very inspired by

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Dark Souls. Its Souls like level design kind of grafted

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onto a high intensity Devil May Cry kind of combat system.

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So it's not a Soul's like, but it has souls

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like elements to it.

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Speaker 1: I think it's an important distinction. I think a lot

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of the trailers gave the impression of a Soul's like

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and when I played it at games Calm, I was like,

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oh no, this is much closer to like a regular

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stylish action game.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're actively He's the director Soul Frame, who me

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and Hayes both talked to which Soul Frame. Which is

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Soul Frame. Yeah, and this is before Soul Frame was

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announced by the war Frame.

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Speaker 3: Okay, I was going to ask, Yeah, he's not situation.

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Speaker 4: He's not like.

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Speaker 2: Grafting onto this new ip quickly. He's like, but no,

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he he's very like intentional with like we are inspired

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by souls like level design, not like to a degree

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of like copying. It's very inspired, but like, we actively

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do not want our game to feel like playing a

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Soul's Like in terms of combat and challenge, Like you

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are supposed to feel like a badass martial artists who

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is incredible at what they do. There is some challenge.

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And then somebody told me in my interview which I

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can't remember if it's in my feature, that's going to

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be an upcoming issue. But like for him, he says,

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it's kind of silly, and maybe he's talking of other

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developers who knows that for a team who's developing their

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first like Triple A game, because this is you know,

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they mostly do mobile games and this is their first

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big breakthrough Triple A game to try to do a

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Soul's like because the souls like requires like trust from

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the player and you have to earn that. You have

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to earn the ability to be like, I'm going to

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screw you over and over and over, but I promise

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the reward at the end is going to be a

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sense of accomplishment that you can't get in other games,

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which is what from Software is mastered. And he's like,

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we're not going to do that. We don't have the

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trust of players. Yet instead, we're going to focus on

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Chinese martial arts and making you feel really cool while

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defeating these enemies in very glorious fashions.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the premise of this game? Exactly?

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Speaker 2: Like, that's a great question. Who knows't We didn't get

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to find out anything really about the story.

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Speaker 4: I do have a little bit of insight into this story.

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It's the point they haven't talked a lot about yet.

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But essentially, you play as a character named Soul who's

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this like martial artist, very inspired by like heroes from

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Wusha films, and you're in this like decaying world and

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Soul has only a number of days to live and

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he's trying to take down some kind of assassin organization.

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But the big thing I know about the story is

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that when I talked to him a GDC, they showed

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me these three pillars for the game, where it was

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level design inspired by Soul's likes, combat inspired by Devil

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May Cry, and a cinematic story inspired by Resident Evil

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and Alan Wake. And when I talked to Soul frame

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this time, he said that the inspiration there is a

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tinge of horror. It's not a horror game, but like

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Resident Evil or Alan Wake. There are like horror vibes

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to it, so it's kind of this decrepit world what

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they call. They've coined the term kung fu punk for

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their kind of world and their esthetic, where it's steampunk

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mixed with traditional Chinese martial arts and kung fu and

241
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things like that. So essentially, you're playing as a character

242
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who has days to live trying to take down some

243
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kind of shadowy assassin organization in a Wusha inspired setting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and for those that don't know what wusha is, like,

245
00:12:57,279 --> 00:13:00,440
it's a specific genre of martial arts film. The easiest

246
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shorthand is probably Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in terms of

247
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the most well known. Definitely popularized it here. Yeah yeah,

248
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so like yeah, kind of like Chinese martial arts, but

249
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with like a lot of kind of fantastical elements mixed in. Yeah.

250
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Speaker 2: Something also fun about the games, not story really, but

251
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the protagonist is also named Soul. Yeah so okay, I

252
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love it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, really good. Actually, this Phantom Blade zero is based

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on a mobile game that s Game made called rain

255
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Blood like a decade ago. It's the Soul was the

256
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main character there. It's the same world called the Phantom

257
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World but it's this game has kind of allowed them

258
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to fully deliver on the vision that they had with

259
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that mobile game.

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Speaker 3: I feel like we're seeing a lot of that recently

261
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with mobile games specifically moving into premium products. A Dungeon

262
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Fighter was doing it, a DNF whatever, Grand Blue has

263
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been doing that.

264
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Speaker 1: Honor of Kings or even just mobile developers getting more

265
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into the triple A space, especially in Asia and over. Yeah,

266
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like Stellar Blades probably maybe the best example of what

267
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I did.

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Speaker 2: A one of my last features in our old gi

269
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era was like a big wide swath. Look at like

270
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South Korean development, and it is a lot of mobile

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developers who are like we have we've kind of reached

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our limit in the mobile market, and a lot of

273
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players over there are moving from mobile to consoles and

274
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PCs now. So instead of like relying on mobile market,

275
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we're going to continue our mobile games and build these

276
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console games, which Japan has done for years. Obviously Japan

277
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is their game development scene goes way back. South Korea

278
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is starting to do the same and now talking with

279
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Soul Frame and he has a lot of industry friends

280
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obviously in China, he said, like the same things happening

281
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in China's like a lot of these teams are. They've

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made money on mobile games, they're ready to to push

283
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for new audiences and new limits on console and p see,

284
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and that's what we're seeing happening here. Yeah.

285
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Speaker 3: Interesting, this is a premium game, right, This is not

286
00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:09,480
any like it is what you would traditionally consider like

287
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a box, you know, buy at once play it sort

288
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of thing, rather than a free to play gotcha style

289
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anything like that.

290
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a single player action RPG, and PlayStation

291
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is partnered with them. I don't think publishing is the

292
00:15:25,039 --> 00:15:27,120
right word. I don't know if they're publishing. Soul Frame

293
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was very cautious. He just kept saying partnered, So like

294
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PlayStation has partnered with them. I don't know if it's

295
00:15:33,039 --> 00:15:35,759
part of the that Hero project, which I know is

296
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like another of.

297
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Speaker 4: The specific China Hero project. But PlayStation is marketing it

298
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:44,279
to a degree because it was revealed during a state

299
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of play. It was like the close out trailer in

300
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a state of play.

301
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Something that I learned from talking to him was

302
00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,600
this game has it's got a lot of excitement behind it.

303
00:15:55,639 --> 00:15:58,759
I think one that has to do with like Blackmith,

304
00:15:58,799 --> 00:16:03,200
Wukong's six Last year, you know, multiple million copies sold

305
00:16:03,679 --> 00:16:06,320
and like a lot of eyes on the Chinese game

306
00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,279
development scene now and people are kind of looking at

307
00:16:09,279 --> 00:16:10,960
this game as one of those, like one of the

308
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:11,759
next games.

309
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:11,879
Speaker 1: To do that.

310
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Speaker 2: But he told me, like when they announced the game,

311
00:16:15,039 --> 00:16:17,840
when they revealed the game in the PlayStation showcase, he

312
00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:21,000
did not know, like they did not realize that was happening.

313
00:16:21,039 --> 00:16:22,720
And then it happened, and he was like, oh, we're

314
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:25,480
not like close to being done, and people are very

315
00:16:25,519 --> 00:16:26,480
excited about this game.

316
00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:28,960
Speaker 1: He asked me to send them a trailer.

317
00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:34,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, like they get yeah, they get launched to this

318
00:16:35,559 --> 00:16:37,960
like main stage. And then I can't remem if it

319
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,799
was him telling me or maybe he told you Hayes

320
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:43,399
at a different maybe a GDC, that the same thing

321
00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:46,399
happened with the Game Awards. Was it two years ago

322
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:47,159
or this recent one.

323
00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:49,919
Speaker 4: Uh, I can't remember if it. I don't think it

324
00:16:49,919 --> 00:16:51,399
was last year. I think it was two years ago.

325
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:54,080
But they had a trailer at the Game Awards and

326
00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:56,039
he said that and they closed the show. Yeah, they

327
00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:57,720
sent the trailer in, but they didn't know where it

328
00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,000
would appear. They just thought they'd be in the show.

329
00:17:00,559 --> 00:17:02,559
And then the game War's happened and they were the

330
00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:05,880
big closeout trailer and I was like, oh, okay.

331
00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:09,000
Speaker 2: And so like, there's this team of what I think

332
00:17:09,079 --> 00:17:12,279
forty ish people developing this cool kung fu punk game,

333
00:17:12,759 --> 00:17:15,759
and multiple times now it's been like grand staged in

334
00:17:15,759 --> 00:17:18,759
front of the world and they're like and people are

335
00:17:18,799 --> 00:17:21,400
clamoring for it, and they're like, whoa, We're just we're

336
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:23,200
just making our game. We didn't know we were gonna

337
00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:27,880
be like continually pushed up this way. That said, though,

338
00:17:28,559 --> 00:17:30,920
good on this team, because like they're rising the occasion, well,

339
00:17:31,039 --> 00:17:33,680
at least what I've played so far. I'm I am really,

340
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,160
really really stoked about this game. It's easily one of

341
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:39,160
my most anticipated for next year, even though they haven't

342
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,559
said when it's coming out. I definitely don't think it's coming.

343
00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:41,839
Speaker 3: Out this year.

344
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:44,920
Speaker 2: It's a good it's a good action game.

345
00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:47,039
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also, like, I want to touch on the

346
00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:49,200
animation because that's something that was a big sticking point

347
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:51,480
in some of your writings, and it even when I

348
00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:53,079
played it last year, and that was something I was like,

349
00:17:53,079 --> 00:17:55,440
this looks so fluid, and I like, I don't know

350
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,480
if I automtically assumed it was mo cap, but it

351
00:17:57,559 --> 00:18:01,279
was like like apparently they actually got a bunch of

352
00:18:01,319 --> 00:18:07,279
like legitimate like martial artists in the MOCAP studio to

353
00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:09,720
capture all the movements for the characters. And you got

354
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,319
to do a bit of that too because you also

355
00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:13,880
also a Chinese martial artists.

356
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:16,599
Speaker 2: Don't know, people know, Yeah, as a Chinese martial artists. Uh.

357
00:18:16,839 --> 00:18:18,519
We went to Shanghai and they we went to their

358
00:18:18,519 --> 00:18:21,519
MOCAP studio and yeah, they had like ten or eleven

359
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,799
uh men and women who were just like these incredible

360
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:28,359
martial artists like doing stuff. They had like the harnesses

361
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,240
all the way to the ceilings and like the things

362
00:18:30,279 --> 00:18:31,960
around their waist where they could spin in the air.

363
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,839
They're doing like flips over each other, doing like the

364
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:37,720
parallel leading spinning over. It's it was the coolest thing

365
00:18:37,759 --> 00:18:41,759
they're just having literally, yeah exactly. And then that we'd

366
00:18:41,799 --> 00:18:45,240
see like on the screen it appearing like in game,

367
00:18:45,319 --> 00:18:48,519
you know, in like a gray scaled flat environment development.

368
00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:51,680
And yeah, basically like everything you see in the game,

369
00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,240
all the the animation. I don't want to say all

370
00:18:54,279 --> 00:18:56,759
of it, but I imagine like ninety nine percent of it

371
00:18:56,839 --> 00:18:59,200
is mo capped to a degree where like, oh, if

372
00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:02,039
Soul's performing move, somebody performed that on a sound stage.

373
00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:04,519
Those enemies jumping off that horse and doing a flip

374
00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:06,839
in the air, whatever, somebody performed that on a sound stage.

375
00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:10,839
And like you said, what you get is this incredibly fluid,

376
00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:16,079
sick looking animation that is seems like it's I think

377
00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:17,839
it's like a I don't want to say New Frontier,

378
00:19:17,839 --> 00:19:20,319
but like it's somewhere the action genre could go, because

379
00:19:20,799 --> 00:19:23,480
it really does add this whole new level of authenticity

380
00:19:23,519 --> 00:19:27,000
where you're like wow, like, especially knowing what I saw

381
00:19:27,039 --> 00:19:29,839
in game people performed. It just adds this crazy level

382
00:19:29,839 --> 00:19:32,319
of immersion where it's like, yo, this is real, Like

383
00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:34,240
people did this and I'm doing it now. This is

384
00:19:34,279 --> 00:19:34,720
so sick.

385
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:37,640
Speaker 4: And they've been doing that for years too. They've been

386
00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:41,240
mo capping for years. Their action director is named Master

387
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:45,000
Yang and he's he's a master in kung fu. He

388
00:19:45,039 --> 00:19:49,079
went to school in China for kung fu. And I

389
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,880
was told that they've been obviously I don't know to

390
00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:58,240
what degree, but mocap Works started in twenty eighteen, so

391
00:19:58,279 --> 00:20:01,400
they've been doing it for for a long time. And

392
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,759
like Wesley said, you know, every action in this game

393
00:20:03,839 --> 00:20:08,359
is mo capped, even like certain enemies, like flying enemies,

394
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:12,240
you know that's mo capped with a base and holes

395
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,480
are kind of filled in with animation where it needs

396
00:20:14,519 --> 00:20:18,000
to be, especially in fights like the disciple fight where

397
00:20:18,039 --> 00:20:20,640
you have seven different characters and it's hard to mo

398
00:20:20,759 --> 00:20:23,839
cap seven different people. So if you have characters rolling

399
00:20:23,839 --> 00:20:26,160
around or going in front of each other, things might

400
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,839
get blocked off. So it's all mo capped, but then

401
00:20:28,839 --> 00:20:32,039
there's animation layered in to kind of smooth it over

402
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:33,599
and fill in the gaps.

403
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:38,319
Speaker 1: And is oh, go ahead, you finish your thought.

404
00:20:38,599 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, Master Yang like he is

405
00:20:41,279 --> 00:20:44,319
working these men and women we had to go through

406
00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,480
like this little he taught us like the five base

407
00:20:47,599 --> 00:20:51,519
moves of Chinese kung fu, like the five poses, and

408
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:54,519
let me tell you a bunch of like journalists impressed

409
00:20:54,599 --> 00:20:58,359
and they're doing these Dude, we were sweating. I was

410
00:20:58,599 --> 00:21:01,240
drenched trying to do these moves, and he was not

411
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:03,599
like he's like him and his crew were not letting

412
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:04,559
other like they're like.

413
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:09,720
Speaker 4: Simple stuff, like the most basic basic forms.

414
00:21:09,279 --> 00:21:11,759
Speaker 2: And they're like getting onto us about getting our hands

415
00:21:11,799 --> 00:21:14,359
right and all this stuff. And I'm like, Yo, I'm

416
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:16,519
here for work. I'm not trying to work out right now,

417
00:21:16,599 --> 00:21:19,440
I am dying and you are pushing me stop.

418
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:22,640
Speaker 4: There were points where it was like, my legs just

419
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,000
literally will not move like that no matter what I do.

420
00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:28,599
Speaker 3: Like a fight at the end of this That's what

421
00:21:28,599 --> 00:21:30,720
it was, Like, What's what's happening here at the end, Yeah,

422
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:31,880
we're going to fight each other.

423
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,279
Speaker 2: Like what it was to eventually get in the mocap wires,

424
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:37,759
which I did, and I was not good at it,

425
00:21:37,799 --> 00:21:39,799
and I was I was so bad at it that

426
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,319
I didn't get to try a backflip, which if you

427
00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:44,319
were good enough, if you did the like first couple

428
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,160
steps correctly, like the matrix run through the air and stuff,

429
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:49,319
you could eventually move on to try the backflip. But

430
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:55,160
I could not get the matrix step down. And Master

431
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:57,279
Yang came up to me, and he through the translator,

432
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:00,640
was like tell him, uh, maybe we can keep working

433
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:04,440
on it and next time we can try. The next time,

434
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:06,680
just tell me I suck and I'll move on.

435
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:12,440
Speaker 1: Dude's trying to be polite. Let you down lightly. Yeah,

436
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,319
that's awesome, And I guess to wrap this up, you guys.

437
00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:19,400
Also because I I love hearing about this. You know,

438
00:22:19,519 --> 00:22:21,440
the game may not be a soul's like, but it

439
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,519
sounds like you had a soul's ish experience just trying

440
00:22:24,519 --> 00:22:28,359
to give to the Great Wall of China, which is

441
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,160
a one I'm super jealous of you because that's one

442
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:33,799
of my bucket list places. I'm really I'm jealous, but

443
00:22:33,839 --> 00:22:35,319
I'm very happy for you guys that you guys got

444
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:39,039
to go do that. But also, you know, Wes, I'll

445
00:22:39,079 --> 00:22:40,799
pass it on to you. It sounds like it was

446
00:22:40,839 --> 00:22:43,599
not as that is easy, and maybe it could have been.

447
00:22:44,799 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to pass on to Haes because I

448
00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:48,279
actually wrote about it in our issue, and I want

449
00:22:48,279 --> 00:22:51,119
to save my perspective. I mean, in my perspective is

450
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:52,960
basically the same as Hayes. We were together the whole time,

451
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:57,079
but yeah, take it away. It was as a crazy story.

452
00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 4: So we you know, we had like one day free

453
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,920
the trip basically, and we both agreed that like, from

454
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,759
going to China, I want to go to the Great Vault.

455
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,759
So we bought tour tickets the night before and then

456
00:23:07,759 --> 00:23:10,240
Wesley got a message that morning that was like, well,

457
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:11,759
the section of the wall you're going to has been

458
00:23:11,759 --> 00:23:15,640
closed because of like level red warning for geologic disaster

459
00:23:15,839 --> 00:23:18,559
or something, because there had been flooding in northern China.

460
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,960
So we tried to figure out a different section to

461
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,440
go to, and the tour guiy told us it was closed,

462
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:25,319
and we had someone called and they're like, oh, no,

463
00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:27,559
this section's open. It's not closed. So we spent the

464
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,480
day trying to figure out what section we could go to,

465
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:33,799
and we finally figured out it was open, but ticket

466
00:23:33,799 --> 00:23:36,759
sales would close at four thirty. So we got a

467
00:23:36,839 --> 00:23:39,680
d D, which is the equivalent of Uber like an

468
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,799
hour and a half trip, basically fifteen dollars. Everything is

469
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,799
incredibly cheap there, and so we got dropped off at

470
00:23:46,799 --> 00:23:49,440
the wrong place. We got dropped off at a visitors

471
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,839
center that was closed, so we didn't know where to go,

472
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,079
and we were trying to figure out. We were asking people,

473
00:23:55,799 --> 00:23:59,559
there's a surprise language party. Four. It was US two

474
00:23:59,599 --> 00:24:01,400
and two journalists.

475
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 2: Us to West Finlan at a gamer and Alejandro at

476
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,599
a what's the name of the site? Three?

477
00:24:09,519 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 1: Yes and Spain, Yeah, your RPG party.

478
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,799
Speaker 4: Yeah. So there's a surprising language barrier in China, as

479
00:24:15,839 --> 00:24:20,039
we both found out, like very very few people speak English,

480
00:24:20,079 --> 00:24:23,240
but everyone's very nice and willing to try and communicate

481
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:27,359
with you. So we're using like translation apps to talk

482
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,960
to officers and tourists and trying to figure out where

483
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,319
we're supposed to go. And there's this taxi driver that

484
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,680
overhears us asking people and he doesn't speak a lick

485
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:38,680
of English, but all of a sudden, he's like, come

486
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,799
with me, come on. He just starts waving to us

487
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:46,160
and he rushes us over his vehicle. Yeah, and so

488
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:50,039
like we're already, we've already bought in. So I think

489
00:24:50,079 --> 00:24:54,400
all of us are just like whatever, because.

490
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 3: Bill goes off in my like literally, if y'all can

491
00:24:59,519 --> 00:25:01,559
see our disc right now, it was like one side

492
00:25:01,559 --> 00:25:04,039
of the discord was like, yeah, let's get in a taxi,

493
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,559
and then Marcus and I are like, yeah, what is.

494
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:09,480
Speaker 2: Only ninety minutes up into the mountain.

495
00:25:09,519 --> 00:25:12,039
Speaker 4: It was a with like a real taxi with.

496
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:13,759
Speaker 1: A strange man saying no, no, no, come on in.

497
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, but we get in this car and this is

498
00:25:17,039 --> 00:25:19,079
this is the part. Like we get in his car

499
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,119
and he speeds off and he like speeds past these

500
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,880
officers at a barrier and he is like flying through

501
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,960
the mountain passes playing Mario Kart. He is laying on

502
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,039
his horn to get people to jump out of the way.

503
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:36,279
Speaker 2: Like literally he's on his phone watching like they don't

504
00:25:36,279 --> 00:25:38,319
have TikTok in China, but they have like an equivalent,

505
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:40,920
and he's on his phone like while driving, he's scrolling

506
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,720
watching videos like laughing, like this is it's felt like

507
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:46,400
out of a movie scene. And we're all just like,

508
00:25:46,839 --> 00:25:48,519
I don't even think I have a seatbelt on the back.

509
00:25:48,519 --> 00:25:51,240
I'm just like, you know what, Like we're here, We're

510
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:52,599
gonna see where this takes us.

511
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: Say, this is just crazy taxi.

512
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 4: But he gets us, gets us to the ticket window

513
00:25:56,599 --> 00:26:00,440
at like literally four thirty when it closes, and he

514
00:26:00,559 --> 00:26:03,279
jumps out and goes to the ticket window and like,

515
00:26:03,599 --> 00:26:05,240
I don't know what he said to them, but he

516
00:26:05,319 --> 00:26:08,880
convinces them to sell us tickets. And so like we

517
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,279
barely got in and we bought these tickets and we

518
00:26:11,319 --> 00:26:14,319
get up to the to the tram like the ski

519
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:16,519
lift tram, and they're like, oh, you gotta buy tickets

520
00:26:16,559 --> 00:26:18,400
to the wall, And at that point all of us

521
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,960
are like, whatever, it's cheap, someone pay. We'll figure it

522
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,920
out later. And we get up on the wall. The

523
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:28,839
whole thing man, and this like thick, thick fog has

524
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:29,359
rolled in.

525
00:26:29,759 --> 00:26:32,279
Speaker 2: So we're on the wall silent hill too straight.

526
00:26:32,079 --> 00:26:34,400
Speaker 4: Up but you can't see off of it. We're up

527
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,960
there for like twenty thirty minutes, and then the officers

528
00:26:39,079 --> 00:26:41,680
that oversee the area are like, oh, everyone has to

529
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,680
get off the wall. There's torrential rain coming. So we

530
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,200
had to walk down the wall like forty five minutes

531
00:26:48,559 --> 00:26:49,839
in this thick fog.

532
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:53,319
Speaker 2: And they're like yelling at us at every turn, like

533
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:57,279
there's officers everywhere, they have batons. They're like, we don't

534
00:26:57,279 --> 00:26:58,559
have time to really stop.

535
00:26:59,599 --> 00:27:00,279
Speaker 4: No trying.

536
00:27:00,319 --> 00:27:02,720
Speaker 1: Now, you don't know what you're saying, but you just

537
00:27:02,759 --> 00:27:05,279
sort of Yeah, we inferred.

538
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,039
Speaker 2: From others that the rain was coming, and we were

539
00:27:07,079 --> 00:27:09,720
also probably I really think we might have been like

540
00:27:09,759 --> 00:27:12,519
the actual last group reached the wall, uh, and we

541
00:27:12,519 --> 00:27:14,039
were told we're not gonna be able to ride the

542
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:16,839
lift down, which usually you do just ride the lift down.

543
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:18,359
We had to like actually hike down.

544
00:27:18,279 --> 00:27:19,400
Speaker 4: To walk like fifth and.

545
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's not like you're like, it's not and

546
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,880
it's it's stars basically like it's it's not stairs, but

547
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,000
it's it's so uneven and like you know, it's it's

548
00:27:32,039 --> 00:27:36,559
five hundred years old, and like, yeah, sometimes you're going

549
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,400
up massive hills. Other times you're you're trying to walk

550
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,279
down and you're doing that fast walk shuffle where you

551
00:27:41,319 --> 00:27:43,240
can't stop and you're like please don't fall, please don't fall.

552
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 1: Yeah.

553
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the whole time there's a dude behind us

554
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,240
who's just like laying on us to move forward. We

555
00:27:48,279 --> 00:27:50,480
don't have time to stop or like taking the sights

556
00:27:50,519 --> 00:27:52,119
because we have to keep moving forward.

557
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 4: But we did meet and it's just guys from Saudi

558
00:27:55,519 --> 00:27:59,039
Arabia that when we were got the taxi driver, they

559
00:27:59,039 --> 00:28:01,319
were also trying to get up to the wall and

560
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,759
they somehow made it too, and so we talked to

561
00:28:04,799 --> 00:28:06,680
them like, oh, yeah, we came. We came for a

562
00:28:06,799 --> 00:28:08,519
day to see the wall and then we're going back

563
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:09,480
to study at Rai.

564
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, wild trip. And then we reached the end and

565
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,039
then at the bottom of the hill at the base

566
00:28:19,079 --> 00:28:22,519
of the wallpart we were on the Bottling Wall is

567
00:28:22,559 --> 00:28:26,480
like this really cool but spooky town. It's like, I

568
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:32,559
imagine it's very torsty. It's dark outside. Yeah, there's neon

569
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,279
lights and lots of cool stuff, but it was it

570
00:28:35,319 --> 00:28:37,960
was dark and foggy and moody, and they had like

571
00:28:38,079 --> 00:28:40,920
sirens going because of like incoming rain and time to

572
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:42,440
get out of the town and that kind of stuff,

573
00:28:43,039 --> 00:28:46,200
and it was just crazy. They also had the KFC,

574
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,039
which I thought was funny, a cup of pictures of

575
00:28:49,119 --> 00:28:50,559
KFC because it was.

576
00:28:50,599 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 3: Like there when they built the wall actually exactly, Yeah.

577
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:59,599
Speaker 2: The kernel of the wall. Yeah and yeah, so it

578
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:01,680
was just like it was just wild. And then we

579
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:03,400
had to find a way to get back home, which

580
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,240
we did with a taxi or a d D or whatever.

581
00:29:06,279 --> 00:29:08,960
And yeah, it was definitely the kind of the kind

582
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,759
of trip that my bosses, our bosses would like have

583
00:29:12,799 --> 00:29:14,960
not if I would have told them as it's happening,

584
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:16,880
they would have been like, Wesley, you were not actually

585
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:18,960
allowed to do that. I mean, you were on a

586
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,000
work sanction trip. You were not going to go up

587
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,160
to a wall while there's flash floods ninety minutes into

588
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,200
the mountains. Do not do that, which is why I

589
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:27,720
did not tell my boss about this until after.

590
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 4: But it all worked out in the end.

591
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm on one hand, on one hand, I applaud

592
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,079
your go gitterness. I think that's great. On the other hand,

593
00:29:37,119 --> 00:29:38,720
we got to work on your self preservation.

594
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:41,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, I'm I'm very happy that you guys

595
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,160
got to see it. But I do feel like forgetting

596
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:45,680
a neck car.

597
00:29:46,039 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 4: If there weren't four of us, we wouldn't have done

598
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:49,920
some of these things, Like if I was by myself,

599
00:29:50,079 --> 00:29:52,759
I would not have done most of that, right. Yeah,

600
00:29:52,759 --> 00:29:54,440
But the fact that there was four of us we

601
00:29:54,839 --> 00:29:59,559
gave us solidarity, especially when everyone was like, you know what, hell,

602
00:29:59,839 --> 00:30:00,680
let's do it.

603
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're like, yeah, four of us are harder to

604
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:06,200
mess with than what.

605
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 1: No, we just learned basic stances, use those exactly.

606
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:16,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, walk, But yeah, that it was wild. It

607
00:30:16,839 --> 00:30:19,640
was the wildest work, you know, because when we go

608
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,160
on work trips, it's fun to like, you try to

609
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:23,240
go and explore the area you're in if it's somewhere cool.

610
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:28,200
And that's definitely the most wild, risky adventure I've been

611
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:33,799
on outside of work hours. But it was worth it. It

612
00:30:33,799 --> 00:30:35,319
was fun, it was really cool, and I'm glad I

613
00:30:35,319 --> 00:30:37,640
got to see the wall. And now there's a very

614
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:39,920
crazy story that the four of us have.

615
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:42,839
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, yes, you can keep an eye out for

616
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,279
our next unannounced issue of the magazine and you can

617
00:30:45,319 --> 00:30:49,839
read Wesley's full Phantom Blade zero preview and then his

618
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:55,839
rendition of this wild story. It's a pivot much like

619
00:30:56,319 --> 00:30:58,039
second to complete. Oh what that was?

620
00:30:58,759 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 2: Hayes has a lot of good coverage already. Yes that

621
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:05,599
people should go check out. Yes, absolutely, go to inverse

622
00:31:05,599 --> 00:31:06,079
dot com.

623
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,319
Speaker 1: Check that out. Man, the game I'm about to talk

624
00:31:09,359 --> 00:31:12,799
about probably couldn't be any more different than Play zero.

625
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000
But I played a very very cool little indie that

626
00:31:17,119 --> 00:31:20,480
dropped a couple of weeks ago called and Roger. Have

627
00:31:20,599 --> 00:31:22,759
you guys played or seen this game at all?

628
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,359
Speaker 3: I've heard of it. I know a lot of people

629
00:31:27,559 --> 00:31:31,880
who's uh tasted opinions I respect in the industry have

630
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,759
been saying, play this game and don't learn anything more

631
00:31:35,799 --> 00:31:38,920
about it, just go play it. Uh So I'm already

632
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,599
breaking one of those rules here now by being on

633
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:42,480
the podcast, but.

634
00:31:43,079 --> 00:31:45,359
Speaker 1: I will avoid because this game is going to be

635
00:31:45,359 --> 00:31:47,440
tricky to talk about in terms of the plot, because

636
00:31:47,519 --> 00:31:51,000
kind of the mystery of the game is what is

637
00:31:51,079 --> 00:31:54,920
actually happening here. So I'm gonna have to apologize if

638
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:59,440
I sound like I'm like talking around things, but like

639
00:31:59,519 --> 00:32:02,079
the Yeah, so it's a kind of like a visual

640
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:07,920
novel se puzzle game that reminds me a lot of Florence.

641
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 4: I was just Lawrence.

642
00:32:10,079 --> 00:32:13,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love Florence, and I had to look

643
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:15,559
up to see if this is the same developer, just

644
00:32:15,599 --> 00:32:17,880
because there's so many kind of like sort of the

645
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,920
game design. It's it's very similar in how they approach

646
00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:27,920
sort of gamifying their like really like personal interactions sort

647
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:31,240
of the the base premise I can give without getting

648
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,160
into any spoiler territory is that you it follows a

649
00:32:35,119 --> 00:32:42,599
young woman who is missing her father, and she comes

650
00:32:42,599 --> 00:32:45,000
home one night and there is a man in her

651
00:32:45,079 --> 00:32:49,400
house that she does not recognize and doesn't know what

652
00:32:49,519 --> 00:32:52,839
his deal is, and the guy is very being very

653
00:32:52,839 --> 00:32:57,039
insistent that they know each other, and there's some like

654
00:32:57,119 --> 00:32:59,200
sinister overtone like what is happening here? Why is this

655
00:32:59,279 --> 00:33:02,000
guy at like he knows me, I've never seen him,

656
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:07,279
and things sort of go from there. It's a very

657
00:33:07,319 --> 00:33:10,319
short game, like you can easily finish it in an

658
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:15,960
hour if even it's just three chapters. And basically what

659
00:33:16,119 --> 00:33:20,440
the game works is that it's got like a like

660
00:33:20,519 --> 00:33:23,119
the way they sort of like every scene is sort

661
00:33:23,119 --> 00:33:26,720
of its own playable vignette, and what I like about

662
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,720
the game a lot, excluding the story stuff, is how

663
00:33:29,759 --> 00:33:35,160
they sort of take actions like walking around or sneaking

664
00:33:35,319 --> 00:33:39,039
or even just like conversations and find really neat and

665
00:33:39,119 --> 00:33:43,200
kind of bespoke mini games to play to accomplish these things.

666
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,000
Like there's a sequence where you're trying to sneak from

667
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,240
this guy and you're like trying to hide behind a couch,

668
00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:51,839
and like I said, you're just it's pretty much like

669
00:33:51,839 --> 00:33:54,640
a point and click game where it's like, Okay, here's

670
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,599
some footsteps on the ground. If you click the footsteps,

671
00:33:57,599 --> 00:33:59,640
you'll move forward, but you're also trying to hide from

672
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:01,559
like his gas. You kind of have the time like Okay,

673
00:34:01,599 --> 00:34:05,240
if I click these footsteps, I'll move like a certain amount,

674
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:07,839
and if he sees me, then it's you know, game over.

675
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:11,199
Or there's like, well, the game is really big on

676
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:13,400
it's sort of like clicking and dragging things in really

677
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:15,840
neat ways, Like there'll be like little a little button

678
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:18,280
that appears a lot and it'll be like, hey, just

679
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:20,920
drag this button, and then by dragging this button in

680
00:34:21,199 --> 00:34:25,159
a bunch of wacky ways, maybe you'll sort of like

681
00:34:25,559 --> 00:34:29,159
have a conversation with someone and based on sort of

682
00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:32,880
the path that the no takes, it's sort of exemplifying

683
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,440
maybe the tone of the conversation. So if it's like

684
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:40,760
a very like maybe like tumultuous talk, the path that

685
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:42,719
the line takes reflects that, because it starts to get

686
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,400
a little bit more jagged or wacky, and it's just

687
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:47,079
sort of like in your mind you're like, oh, okay,

688
00:34:47,199 --> 00:34:49,440
like just because it's not there's no spoken dialogue in

689
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,719
this game at all, So it's all about just using

690
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,679
the gameplay to sort of give you an idea of

691
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,159
like I think I know sort of contextually what the

692
00:34:57,199 --> 00:35:00,480
emotion or tone is in this scene, and there are like,

693
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:04,719
you know, word bubbles, but there's just no voices and

694
00:35:05,199 --> 00:35:07,400
the Florence comparison because Florence did that a lot, and

695
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:08,639
one of the things I like about the game where

696
00:35:08,639 --> 00:35:11,559
it's like, oh, like, how do we sort of sell like, oh,

697
00:35:11,559 --> 00:35:14,119
these two having a conversation, But it's very awkward where

698
00:35:14,119 --> 00:35:16,039
there's like that cool minigame where you're trying to drag

699
00:35:16,079 --> 00:35:19,280
the word bubbles into the little slots and at first

700
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,320
it can't fit because it's supposed to be like, oh

701
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,639
it's they don't really, it's awkward, they don't know what

702
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:26,239
to say to each other, but then as they get

703
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:28,360
easy with each other, the word bubble start fitting in.

704
00:35:28,599 --> 00:35:30,119
It's a lot of that kind of stuff. Like there's

705
00:35:30,119 --> 00:35:32,800
a really cool segment where you're trying to escape this

706
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,800
guy and you're trying to get through a door but

707
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:37,599
you don't. It's like a series of like, Okay, I

708
00:35:37,599 --> 00:35:39,320
need a key and I need to turn it the

709
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:41,079
right way and I need to push through the door.

710
00:35:41,599 --> 00:35:44,000
And to sort of like create that panic that would

711
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,639
come from that, there's like a bunch of different dots

712
00:35:46,639 --> 00:35:48,480
on the screen and only one of them does what

713
00:35:48,559 --> 00:35:50,360
you need to do, and you're just clicking through all

714
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:52,079
of them, and the ones that don't work just kind

715
00:35:52,079 --> 00:35:54,599
of drop from the screen and you're just trying to

716
00:35:54,679 --> 00:35:56,800
find the one that actually does the thing you're in too,

717
00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:58,559
So you're like frantically clicking and you're like, I don't

718
00:35:58,559 --> 00:36:00,559
know if he's like right behind me, and I don't

719
00:36:00,559 --> 00:36:02,039
know how much time I may or may unhapp but

720
00:36:02,079 --> 00:36:04,559
I need to find the right one. Or like you

721
00:36:04,639 --> 00:36:07,159
have to remember certain sequences where it's like okay, I

722
00:36:07,559 --> 00:36:10,519
need to brush my teeth, and again they give you

723
00:36:10,519 --> 00:36:11,800
a bunch of dots, and it's like one of these

724
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:15,760
dots turned the faucet on, another one puts toothpaste on

725
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,840
the brush, and then another one, you know, does the

726
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,400
actual brushing. But they're moving around the screen and I

727
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:22,920
kind of have to try to keep track of which

728
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:24,599
one is which, and you have to do it in

729
00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:27,239
the right order. So again, it's just like this is

730
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,400
supposed to be challenging to her for some reason, So

731
00:36:30,639 --> 00:36:33,199
it's like effective in making you feel like this is

732
00:36:33,199 --> 00:36:36,239
a really basic action and I cannot do it and

733
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,519
it's taking me a longer, and again I'm trying. It's

734
00:36:39,519 --> 00:36:41,280
so hard to talk about this game without trying to

735
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:46,440
contextualize why things are like this. But again, that's one

736
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:48,159
of the draws of this game is like I think

737
00:36:48,159 --> 00:36:49,800
it does a good job of like right off the bat,

738
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,760
you're intentionally supposed to be very confused about, like wait,

739
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,400
what is happening here. You'll jump through like things are

740
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,599
sort of told out of sequence, or like you'll jump

741
00:36:59,599 --> 00:37:02,079
through differ diferent phases of this person's life, and so

742
00:37:02,119 --> 00:37:04,599
you're trying to piece together like, Okay, this is happening

743
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,320
at this time, what does this mean? And I think

744
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:08,760
it does go a good job where like the first

745
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:10,760
chapter is supposed to intentionally be confusing, but by the

746
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:12,599
time you get to like midway through chapter two, at

747
00:37:12,679 --> 00:37:15,840
least for me, I started to understand what was happening here.

748
00:37:16,159 --> 00:37:18,079
And I think it does a good job of like

749
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,199
not dragging it all too long to where you just

750
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:24,679
feel lost the whole time. And I think when things

751
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:28,039
do start to become clear, I think it feels really rewarding.

752
00:37:28,079 --> 00:37:30,239
And also even after finishing the game and I want

753
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:32,199
to go back and replay it, and I was hoping

754
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:33,880
to do it before this but just didn't have time.

755
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:39,119
It's like I got I'm pretty sure I got what

756
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:43,000
the game was going for. But even then I was

757
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,480
talking to my girlfriend who played it too, and we

758
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,599
were just sort of picking each other's brains, like do

759
00:37:47,639 --> 00:37:50,159
you think this is what was actually happening? And I

760
00:37:50,159 --> 00:37:52,480
think we're both pretty much right. But it is one

761
00:37:52,519 --> 00:37:53,960
of those games that it's kind of fun to talk

762
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:55,440
to someone and say, like, what did you get out

763
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,440
of this? What do you think was happening with her

764
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,199
and the guy, and sort of like just the the

765
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:02,719
journey they went on, it's apology if this all sounds

766
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,079
very scattershot, because again, this is a very hard game

767
00:38:05,079 --> 00:38:08,960
to talk about without being able to even even like

768
00:38:09,119 --> 00:38:11,880
lightly get into, like any of the story revelations. I

769
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,480
think things start to kind of unravel once you do.

770
00:38:16,079 --> 00:38:17,320
Speaker 3: I feel like every once in a while we get

771
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:21,320
a game like this Behind your Eyes or before your

772
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,840
Eyes Before your Eyes came to mind immediately as something

773
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:26,800
where that's also a game that you can probably be

774
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:29,360
in about an hour, ye and to tell you too

775
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:33,320
much beyond very very basic story setup, and even that

776
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,880
is kind of giving away some of the push and pull.

777
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:42,159
And I'm always I've made some enemies in the past

778
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:44,719
for my stance on I don't think we should be

779
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:49,599
as concerned about spoilers as people tend to get. But

780
00:38:50,159 --> 00:38:53,320
in this case, it's not necessarily a spoiler so much

781
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:57,000
as like the actual journey that you go on. It's

782
00:38:57,039 --> 00:38:59,320
important to inter it with an open mind, and to

783
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,760
inter itt with just kind of like being presented with

784
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,480
what's in front of you, the way that you crack

785
00:39:04,519 --> 00:39:06,239
a book for the first time. Maybe you don't read

786
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,679
the back cover and you can just kind of let

787
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:13,119
the story take you from there. I think, especially with

788
00:39:13,159 --> 00:39:14,960
the short game like this that can be really powerful

789
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,559
and impactful. I've really found that with story games Florence

790
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:23,280
Before Your Eyes Try to There was another one I

791
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:25,599
played recently that was also really really good. That was

792
00:39:25,639 --> 00:39:27,920
a short story based game, and it's killing me that

793
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,960
I can't remember it. But even something that I would

794
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,159
consider like medium short, like What Remains of Edith Finch,

795
00:39:35,159 --> 00:39:38,800
those can be really powerful sequences and really powerful little

796
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:45,119
games so immediately interesting those that might have been.

797
00:39:46,039 --> 00:39:48,760
Speaker 4: Even something like Journey kind of falls into that, right

798
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:52,679
or like it's hard to properly describe the experience of

799
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:55,639
playing Journey without actually playing.

800
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,400
Speaker 1: It, And I think it also depends on like everyone's

801
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:02,000
reaction to it will be different, so sort of like

802
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,559
what I take away from it might be different than

803
00:40:04,559 --> 00:40:06,599
what you guys might take away from it, just because

804
00:40:06,639 --> 00:40:11,119
I interpreted like maybe a mini game or a certain

805
00:40:11,159 --> 00:40:15,239
conversation a certain way, which will paint it in a

806
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:18,159
completely different light. So even like sharing what I would

807
00:40:18,159 --> 00:40:20,519
think about it might not be indicative of maybe what

808
00:40:20,639 --> 00:40:24,760
is actually going for. But yeah, like I think, like

809
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:26,079
I said, this is one of those games where I

810
00:40:26,119 --> 00:40:28,840
think going into it relatively blind is better. Even the

811
00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,079
Steam description doesn't really say much about it, like it

812
00:40:31,519 --> 00:40:37,159
doesn't delve much beyond what I just said. So it's

813
00:40:37,159 --> 00:40:40,800
only on Steam and Switch I played it on. It's

814
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,079
very much a point in clicking, like you primarily have

815
00:40:44,159 --> 00:40:48,840
a cursor and then occasionally sometimes you'll hit the buttons controls.

816
00:40:49,079 --> 00:40:52,719
Uh no, not on switch To. It's only on switch one,

817
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:54,840
like a switch one native game. So I played it

818
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:56,960
on switch To, and I had that thought of like, oh,

819
00:40:57,199 --> 00:41:00,679
but I tried it. It didn't work, So I'd say, like,

820
00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:02,199
you know, ideally, I guess you want to play does

821
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:04,239
the mouse but it's totally fine just using the joystick

822
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:07,079
to move the cursor around. It also does some like

823
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:10,880
some fun fourth wall breaking stuff where again I need

824
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:12,599
to play it again and see if there's anything to this.

825
00:41:12,719 --> 00:41:14,840
But like a lot of the chapters, or all three

826
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:19,360
chapters start with you going through what would normally be

827
00:41:19,519 --> 00:41:22,360
basic menu set up for a game of like hey,

828
00:41:23,119 --> 00:41:25,760
change the lighting, make sure you know the symbol is

829
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:27,840
barely visible, or hey, are you sure you want to

830
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,280
use this language? Do you want to turn the volume up?

831
00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:32,280
And they mess with that in a lot of really

832
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:35,079
cool ways that again I'm like, I, what why are

833
00:41:35,119 --> 00:41:38,400
we doing this? And yeah, like when you first do it.

834
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:41,039
Initially I was like, okay, like this is legit, and

835
00:41:41,079 --> 00:41:45,400
then things don't behave the way that you think they should.

836
00:41:47,079 --> 00:41:49,920
Speaker 3: Uh, that is an all time thing to do in

837
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:54,119
a video game, imo, Paranormo syites if you never played it,

838
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:57,159
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's got some really good

839
00:41:57,199 --> 00:42:02,360
stuff in that department. Man your cell on this game.

840
00:42:02,559 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 4: It's cool.

841
00:42:03,079 --> 00:42:05,000
Speaker 1: I think every I like, I say, it's only like

842
00:42:05,039 --> 00:42:09,239
five bucks too, it's pretty cheap. So yeah, was it in?

843
00:42:09,559 --> 00:42:12,639
Speaker 2: Was an inscription that looked at your files on your

844
00:42:12,639 --> 00:42:18,920
computer and like used images to like for something from

845
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:20,159
I thinking of a different game.

846
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 3: It maybe would have been. I mean, that's that's Daniel

847
00:42:23,519 --> 00:42:27,679
Mullens went to your Likeny Island did stuff like that

848
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:28,159
for sure.

849
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know A dokey doky Literature Club also did

850
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:33,199
that on the PC version, Like you had to go

851
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:37,039
into your say file, like your actual file folder to

852
00:42:37,559 --> 00:42:38,039
do a thing.

853
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 3: The hex from Daniel Mullens did that as well.

854
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:47,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so cool. Yeah, it's cool. I want to

855
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:49,119
play it again. I would like to write a review

856
00:42:49,119 --> 00:42:52,039
for it if I have time. But so you know,

857
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:56,079
TB D on that. But yeah, Ann Roger. It's out now.

858
00:42:56,119 --> 00:43:00,920
Like I said, switch Switch one specifically, and much like

859
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:01,719
four ninety nine.

860
00:43:02,559 --> 00:43:05,840
Speaker 3: Oh perfect, Yeah, that's perfect. I looked it up during that.

861
00:43:06,039 --> 00:43:08,880
It's from Tiery Hands Studio, who I'd not heard of

862
00:43:09,039 --> 00:43:09,440
me before.

863
00:43:09,599 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 1: I think they have one other game that they made

864
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:17,039
call check Case Time from twenty twenty three. Not familiar

865
00:43:17,119 --> 00:43:17,599
with it.

866
00:43:17,639 --> 00:43:20,639
Speaker 3: But that sounds familiar. I feel like I might have

867
00:43:20,679 --> 00:43:22,880
gotten press releases or something about it. But it's also

868
00:43:23,119 --> 00:43:28,000
published other under a Kodansha, which is really interesting. I

869
00:43:28,079 --> 00:43:31,679
forgot that they were doing some some publishing. So that's neat.

870
00:43:32,039 --> 00:43:36,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, alrighty from a game that has already come out

871
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,639
to the Games on the Horizon. We're jumping to this

872
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:42,800
section of the show where we're going to run down

873
00:43:43,639 --> 00:43:47,079
the release calendar for the rest of the year and

874
00:43:47,159 --> 00:43:50,960
shout out our most anticipated games yet to come. I

875
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,559
believe we're just sticking within the calendar of twenty twenty

876
00:43:53,599 --> 00:43:57,920
five year, which you know, there's plenty of stuff. I

877
00:43:58,119 --> 00:44:00,920
love this because I love like in your head, because one,

878
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,320
there's so many cool stuff coming out, and also it

879
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:06,280
reminds me of how quickly this year feels like it's

880
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:08,000
gone by already or it's like, oh, we're already a

881
00:44:08,079 --> 00:44:11,480
mid August, like we're already over halfway through this year,

882
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:13,480
which might be good.

883
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 2: Before we before we jump into that, I want to

884
00:44:18,119 --> 00:44:20,440
pop question, not pop question, pop quiz. I don't know

885
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:22,239
what it's for everybody. I want to know what, like

886
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,599
your your two biggest backclog games are right now before

887
00:44:25,599 --> 00:44:28,000
we look ahead, what games are haunting you? For me,

888
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:31,679
it is uh Death Straining two, which I need to

889
00:44:31,679 --> 00:44:35,840
play still, and probably Donkey Kong Binans even though it

890
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:37,320
just came out, but I can already tell that that's

891
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:37,920
it's gonna be.

892
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:40,480
Speaker 1: As so are these games we have games from started

893
00:44:40,559 --> 00:44:43,639
at all, or stuff that we have started but haven't finished.

894
00:44:43,599 --> 00:44:46,079
Speaker 2: Started but have been put on the back burner, games

895
00:44:46,079 --> 00:44:48,360
you haven't started, whatever, the games that are haunting you

896
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:50,760
when you think about games coming up and games you

897
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:51,239
still need.

898
00:44:51,159 --> 00:44:55,559
Speaker 3: To finish and from this year, yes, yeah, this year

899
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:01,760
we go my full backlog. There's my number one with

900
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,079
a bullet is Kingdomcome Deliverance too?

901
00:45:05,079 --> 00:45:07,559
Speaker 1: That's the one I really need to sit down and plagues.

902
00:45:07,599 --> 00:45:09,559
I know, like Wesley, you scored it like a nine

903
00:45:09,599 --> 00:45:10,760
point five, right.

904
00:45:10,679 --> 00:45:14,639
Speaker 2: That game is incredible and it's gonna go I don't

905
00:45:14,639 --> 00:45:17,079
know if it's it's not like a sleeper hit this year,

906
00:45:17,119 --> 00:45:18,679
but I can tell that a lot of people didn't

907
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:21,280
get around to it because it is truly an incredible,

908
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:26,519
like actual role playing game. Yeah, that I thoroughly, thoroughly loved.

909
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:28,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, like it's one that's gonna come up game of

910
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,920
the year. So it's like I need to absolutely get

911
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,559
to that. And also it just sounds cool. And then

912
00:45:33,639 --> 00:45:37,280
the other one, I guess is I'm slowly chipping my

913
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:38,719
way through it, but it's been so hard except that

914
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,719
just been busy with either work, games or just life stuff.

915
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:46,960
But I'm crawling through Claire Obskier Expedition thirty three, which

916
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:49,960
is the other like goaty contender, like I am. If

917
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:51,559
you want to know where I'm at, Like I only

918
00:45:51,559 --> 00:45:54,400
have four party members and I only recently got the

919
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:54,880
fourth one.

920
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:59,000
Speaker 2: Oh, got a lot of game going. Yeah, I mean

921
00:45:59,039 --> 00:46:00,639
it's not that long of a game though, so like

922
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:03,239
that's definitely way more doable. Kingdom Come is like at

923
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,480
minimum sixty five hours. I'd say, Claire Obscurt, you can

924
00:46:06,559 --> 00:46:11,480
roll on like thirty hours just mainlining probably what.

925
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:15,039
Speaker 4: About you Hayes Kingdom Come is definitely the big one

926
00:46:15,079 --> 00:46:19,239
for me, partially because I'm like the big RPG guy,

927
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:21,159
you know, and that's like the one RPG of the

928
00:46:21,199 --> 00:46:23,920
year I haven't played. But I also never beat the original,

929
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,760
and I stubbornly feel like I have to beat the

930
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,960
original before I play the second one. I know I

931
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:31,599
don't need to.

932
00:46:33,039 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 1: Kyle is going to crash through your wall like the

933
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,360
kool Aid Man to yell at you and say, play

934
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:38,280
the new fun thing.

935
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 4: The other one for me is South of Midnight, which

936
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:44,639
I know isn't that long. It's just like it's the

937
00:46:44,679 --> 00:46:46,719
game that I keep thinking every time I get through

938
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:49,519
a review, I'll play it, and then I get another

939
00:46:49,559 --> 00:46:51,920
review and I just I just don't have time. Yeah.

940
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:53,760
Speaker 2: I think I literally said this last week, but South

941
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:55,559
of Midnight is like my game of the year. Yeah,

942
00:46:55,679 --> 00:46:58,760
so far with the bullet and I'm on to occur

943
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:01,280
in South of Midnight kick because I finally just watch Centers,

944
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,000
which is, you know, same vibe, and now I'm reading

945
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:08,159
Ring Shout, which is another same vibe book. Fantastic so far.

946
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:12,760
I just love like South Americana like literature like that,

947
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:15,559
like black literature is so good and South of Midnight

948
00:47:15,679 --> 00:47:17,480
really is it's a treat.

949
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:19,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, good game. At least that one's like said, it's manageable,

950
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:23,119
like it's like, yeah, twelve to fifteen hours or so. Yeah.

951
00:47:23,119 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 4: I think I'm gonna try after I get through the

952
00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,039
August rush of reviews, let's try and ship back that one.

953
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:34,039
Speaker 3: Okay, but you Eric, I think for me this first

954
00:47:34,079 --> 00:47:36,519
answer feels a little bit like cheating because it is

955
00:47:36,639 --> 00:47:38,880
an old game that has been on my backlog forever

956
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:42,239
that just got an HD version, but Bravely Default I

957
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,119
would like to actually finish that one out. I've always

958
00:47:45,119 --> 00:47:48,320
heard really good things about it from people who love RPGs,

959
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:52,079
love job systems and all that, so I am one

960
00:47:52,119 --> 00:47:56,480
of those people. So you're remaster, yes, yeah, the Bravely

961
00:47:56,519 --> 00:48:02,639
Default Flying Fairy HD whatever it's called. It's yeah, something

962
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:05,280
I figured there might have been like a remastered or

963
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,679
maybe like a storybook edition somewhere in there. I don't know,

964
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:11,679
but yeah, it's really good so far. I really enjoyed it,

965
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:13,880
and it just keeps being that game that I play

966
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,639
for a bit and then new game comes up and

967
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:18,960
I disappear, and then I have to come back and thankfully.

968
00:48:19,039 --> 00:48:21,880
It has some pretty good mechanics for getting back into

969
00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:24,119
the game, but I always kind of have to refresh

970
00:48:24,199 --> 00:48:26,400
myself on everything I was doing and get back in.

971
00:48:27,039 --> 00:48:30,719
And then the other one is Despelotte, which was a

972
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:35,280
soccer football depending on you know, where you come from,

973
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:40,039
a game about just kids playing soccer is my understanding.

974
00:48:40,199 --> 00:48:43,480
Speaker 1: But it's like, so I play this, and that's also

975
00:48:43,519 --> 00:48:45,960
a very short game, like an hour or two maybe,

976
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:51,199
but yeah, it's like set in Ecuador during the I

977
00:48:51,199 --> 00:48:53,599
think like two thousand and one, and it's like, I

978
00:48:53,599 --> 00:48:56,679
guess during that year that was like Ecuador had like

979
00:48:56,719 --> 00:48:59,519
a crazy run in the World Cup that kind of

980
00:48:59,519 --> 00:49:01,440
like ignite I did the country. I'm like, oh my god,

981
00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:02,920
this is the best we've ever done. And it just

982
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:06,079
became this cultural moment and sort of like that's the

983
00:49:06,079 --> 00:49:09,239
backdrop for this story of this kid that is like

984
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:13,280
really into two soccer slash football, and you're sort of

985
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:18,360
like living his daily life throughout one week, going through

986
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:21,400
his stuff. But that's kind of like everything of it's

987
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:25,119
kind of painted with the kind of hysteria of how like,

988
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:26,639
oh my god, we might get to a World Cup,

989
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:27,559
what does that mean for us?

990
00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:32,360
Speaker 4: And it's really interestingly it's juxtaposed against really huge political

991
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:33,719
upheaval in the country too.

992
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 1: Yes, so like.

993
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:38,119
Speaker 4: That's happening, but you're seeing it through the eyes of

994
00:49:38,159 --> 00:49:41,119
like this big soccer event, because he's a kid and

995
00:49:41,159 --> 00:49:42,159
that's what he cared about.

996
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:45,599
Speaker 3: There's another game that came out last year that was

997
00:49:45,599 --> 00:49:47,519
also on my backlog that I still haven't got around

998
00:49:47,519 --> 00:49:50,880
to you. I think it's called nineteen twenty one A

999
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,840
Deep Slumber or something like that, but it was it

1000
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:57,480
was similarly a game that was about everyday life during

1001
00:49:57,639 --> 00:50:01,719
political upheaval. And I I always really like those kinds

1002
00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:03,960
of games. They're really fascinating, especially if they exposed me

1003
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:06,880
to just a piece of history that I'm not personally

1004
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:09,239
familiar with and like put me there. Like that's the

1005
00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:11,119
thing that games can do, right, is put me in

1006
00:50:11,159 --> 00:50:14,039
the middle of those things and helped me experience them

1007
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:19,280
with context, with world understanding around it. So Desplote art

1008
00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:21,800
style alone already had me in. And then the idea

1009
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:26,559
of incorporating culture, sports, place and culture all that kind

1010
00:50:26,559 --> 00:50:28,280
of stuff within a place of the world that I'm

1011
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:31,679
not very familiar with all sounds fantastic. So that's that's

1012
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:34,480
one that has been on my radar, and a good

1013
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,119
friend and very good writer, Moys's Taveris wrote a great

1014
00:50:37,159 --> 00:50:38,840
piece on it over at Digital Trends if you want

1015
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:42,079
to check that out, and basically sold me on, Yes,

1016
00:50:42,119 --> 00:50:45,719
I need to play this before the year's out. Alrighty, well,

1017
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:47,360
now that we've set our picks, I'm gonna ask all

1018
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:50,000
of you to find a knife because we're going to

1019
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:52,239
make a blood pact that we're all going to finish

1020
00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:54,639
these games by the end of the year. Okay, just

1021
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:57,360
very like Tom Tom sorry, Huckleberry Finn style. We have

1022
00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:00,480
to reconvene in December and see who is who was

1023
00:51:00,519 --> 00:51:08,440
finishes probably the easiest. Yeah, I My my tastes, as

1024
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:11,800
I have learned, is that all of my games are

1025
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:15,199
on one of two ends of the spectrum. I love

1026
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:19,119
a good like eight hour or less game, and I

1027
00:51:19,159 --> 00:51:22,280
love a good sixty hour or more game, and everything

1028
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:27,880
in between whatever wasted. You either got to put time

1029
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,519
into this or just like you know, an evening or

1030
00:51:30,559 --> 00:51:32,840
two into this, and anything in between, like what are

1031
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:36,360
we doing here? Which is weird. That's where clear Upscure

1032
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:37,760
was kind of strange for me, where I was like, oh,

1033
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:41,000
that was a moderately paced, nicely you know, measured out

1034
00:51:41,039 --> 00:51:45,119
game that felt weird to me, but I know I

1035
00:51:45,159 --> 00:51:47,000
look out in that way so bravely default. I don't

1036
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:49,079
think it's two it's.

1037
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 1: A long.

1038
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:52,800
Speaker 2: It can be.

1039
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:57,360
Speaker 1: The end game gets pretty there's a twist in a

1040
00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:58,840
way that I didn't like. At the time.

1041
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:01,519
Speaker 4: You think it's ending, and then it's like, oh, I

1042
00:52:01,559 --> 00:52:02,960
have twenty five more hours.

1043
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:07,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, let me tell you I've played. I'm so familiar

1044
00:52:07,519 --> 00:52:11,559
with it. Yeah. I love a good Tales game ending

1045
00:52:11,559 --> 00:52:13,880
where it's like, oh, we're done. No, we're not, We're

1046
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:15,639
not even close to done. What are you talking about?

1047
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:18,960
And decided we should do that.

1048
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,000
Speaker 1: Okay, Well with that in mind, well, uh, I guess

1049
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:25,360
we'll maybe take turns going around a horn, just the

1050
00:52:26,159 --> 00:52:27,920
just shouting out some stuff, and you know, if there's

1051
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:30,679
a if we say anything that anyone else also is

1052
00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:34,119
excited about, we'll sort of chime in. Since I'm the

1053
00:52:34,159 --> 00:52:36,920
captain of the ship, I will start as offt And

1054
00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:39,719
it's a game that comes out pretty soon at the

1055
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:41,159
end of the month. And I don't know if I'm

1056
00:52:41,199 --> 00:52:45,079
necessarily as much excited about this game as I am

1057
00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:49,000
just extremely curious about it because it's been, it's been,

1058
00:52:49,199 --> 00:52:52,320
it was now so long ago, but it's a lost

1059
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:53,519
soul aside.

1060
00:52:53,599 --> 00:52:56,880
Speaker 4: That was my first yeah yeah, So.

1061
00:52:56,840 --> 00:52:59,440
Speaker 1: It comes out August twenty ninth. For those that don't

1062
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:03,320
notice game, it's what we would call like it was

1063
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:08,119
like weird Devil May Cry Final Fantasy fifteen, where the

1064
00:53:08,119 --> 00:53:13,719
protagonist looked almost suspiciously like knock this, like legally distinct

1065
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:17,840
knocked this. And this was originally developed by one guy

1066
00:53:18,079 --> 00:53:21,079
in China and it was supposed to be for PS four.

1067
00:53:21,199 --> 00:53:23,159
So this is how long ago this was announced, because

1068
00:53:23,159 --> 00:53:24,400
I don't think the PS five I need to be

1069
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,880
announced yet. And apparently the story was that he was

1070
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:29,800
making this game by himself in his old time, put

1071
00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:32,840
out a trailer that looked extremely impressive, especially for a

1072
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:36,119
one person studio, and it caught the attention of Sony,

1073
00:53:36,159 --> 00:53:39,519
who then reached out and basically formally took on the

1074
00:53:39,559 --> 00:53:42,119
game as a publisher. And I believe he has since

1075
00:53:42,599 --> 00:53:45,880
kind of like been given a team or recruited a team,

1076
00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:48,480
but it's not just him anymore. And it was one

1077
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:50,840
of those games where you would hear about it once

1078
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:52,320
in a while with a new trailer and then it

1079
00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:54,480
would disappear for like a couple of years, and he'd

1080
00:53:54,480 --> 00:53:56,280
be like, whatever happened to that game? And then out

1081
00:53:56,280 --> 00:53:58,960
of nowhere, it would resurface with a new trailer and

1082
00:53:58,960 --> 00:54:01,360
they're like, man, look out as based his action is

1083
00:54:01,400 --> 00:54:04,840
and this guy has like a weird floating like crystal

1084
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:08,199
dragon buddy that helps him out in combat. I still

1085
00:54:08,199 --> 00:54:12,159
don't know what is actually happening story wise, it just

1086
00:54:12,199 --> 00:54:15,519
but as a stylish action Sikoh, I'm like, yeah, this

1087
00:54:15,599 --> 00:54:18,119
is this is the stuff. I like, this looks cool. Hope.

1088
00:54:18,119 --> 00:54:21,679
Speaker 4: I actually followed this game very closely over the years,

1089
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:26,079
and funny enough, it was directly inspired by the trailers

1090
00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:29,960
for Final Fantasy fifteen, because I remember following the developer

1091
00:54:30,039 --> 00:54:32,480
Yang Bing when he announced it and he said, like,

1092
00:54:32,719 --> 00:54:35,239
I watched the trailer's Final Fantasy fifteen and I wanted

1093
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:37,960
to make a game, and so that was kind of

1094
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:40,800
the basis for it. And then he got signed onto

1095
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:44,480
the chiny Hero Project and founded Ulta zero Games. And

1096
00:54:45,639 --> 00:54:49,800
I'm fascinated to see what that game even is because

1097
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:53,239
it's very Final Fantasy inspired and very Devil May Cry inspired.

1098
00:54:54,280 --> 00:54:56,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was supposed to come out earlier this year,

1099
00:54:56,159 --> 00:54:58,880
but it got one last delay into its current date

1100
00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:01,559
of August twenty nine. It's like, I like to think

1101
00:55:01,559 --> 00:55:03,960
it's close enough now where it can't possibly be delayed again,

1102
00:55:04,199 --> 00:55:07,199
but stranger things have happened. But yeah, I just want

1103
00:55:07,199 --> 00:55:09,559
to see what just what is this like? Is it

1104
00:55:09,599 --> 00:55:12,000
good as like well the years of development kind of

1105
00:55:12,039 --> 00:55:14,119
show will it feel like a game from its time

1106
00:55:14,719 --> 00:55:16,639
or will it kind of will it post a genre

1107
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:19,760
forward in any interesting ways? But uh, yeah, that's that's

1108
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:21,760
my first one. How about us?

1109
00:55:23,239 --> 00:55:28,840
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with Final Fantasy Tactics the Evilist Chronicles.

1110
00:55:30,360 --> 00:55:32,880
It's tactics, it's you know, you know and love it.

1111
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:35,079
It's a blow up game, and I'm very excited for

1112
00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:39,039
Square to finally be doing something with it. I fall

1113
00:55:39,119 --> 00:55:41,599
on the side where it's not like exactly what I

1114
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:46,800
wanted necessary remake. Yeah, I actually kind of wanted an

1115
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:49,079
HD two D remake, which is like you know, old news.

1116
00:55:49,119 --> 00:55:51,440
At this point, it's every game Squaren makes I want

1117
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:54,320
an HG two D remake of and I'm not like

1118
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:59,280
super sold on the like visual changes necessarily, but there

1119
00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:01,599
is the old still play, like the old classic way.

1120
00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:04,039
I just hate that you have to do the new

1121
00:56:04,159 --> 00:56:08,119
art to get all the new uh like features in

1122
00:56:08,159 --> 00:56:09,800
the vo and stuff. I wish I was like a

1123
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:11,880
button you could turn the art on and off. Sure

1124
00:56:12,159 --> 00:56:15,480
that said, I mean these games are great and I'm

1125
00:56:15,519 --> 00:56:18,719
excited to play them again on like modern consoles. There's

1126
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:20,679
not much to it. I just love Final Fantasy, I

1127
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:23,920
love tactics and take anything. I need people to show

1128
00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:26,599
up and support this game, even if you don't have

1129
00:56:26,639 --> 00:56:29,599
any interest in playing it. Please for us for the

1130
00:56:29,639 --> 00:56:31,719
tactics siccos please we need more.

1131
00:56:32,599 --> 00:56:35,599
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you think they'll do DS games? Anyone talks

1132
00:56:35,599 --> 00:56:37,360
about like A two and stuff?

1133
00:56:38,239 --> 00:56:39,639
Speaker 3: Oh? I love A too, I hope.

1134
00:56:39,679 --> 00:56:43,320
Speaker 4: So I just played through A two like I beat

1135
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:44,000
it a week ago.

1136
00:56:45,599 --> 00:56:48,000
Speaker 1: Oh they won't.

1137
00:56:48,079 --> 00:56:49,400
Speaker 2: They probably won't, I hope.

1138
00:56:49,159 --> 00:56:50,159
Speaker 3: So I would like to.

1139
00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:53,280
Speaker 4: They did say in my interview the director said, my hero.

1140
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,960
He said that they want to make more tactics games

1141
00:56:57,000 --> 00:57:00,639
and they think it's viable. But it all largely depend

1142
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:05,199
on how this remaster does. Enthusiasm behind it.

1143
00:57:05,119 --> 00:57:07,599
Speaker 2: Will this game reach square Enix sales?

1144
00:57:07,639 --> 00:57:09,719
Speaker 4: Expit exactly? They have to prove.

1145
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,639
Speaker 1: So I guess we're not getting one. Then I guess.

1146
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 3: I have a feeling that if we were to get

1147
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:22,920
more tactics from just from Square in general, they'd probably

1148
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:25,920
sooner return to the well of Triangle Strategy or do

1149
00:57:26,039 --> 00:57:30,639
something with Asano versus this project. But I would love

1150
00:57:30,679 --> 00:57:32,480
to be proven wrong. I am always happy to be

1151
00:57:32,559 --> 00:57:35,840
proven wrong. I just I need this to happen so

1152
00:57:35,880 --> 00:57:39,239
that way the Tactics ups well continues, and eventually Atlas

1153
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:41,559
will have to remake. Should make me tense, a Devil

1154
00:57:41,599 --> 00:57:44,599
survivor one of the greatest tactics games ever made. It

1155
00:57:44,639 --> 00:57:47,920
has to happen. You're running out of games to remaster Atlas.

1156
00:57:47,960 --> 00:57:48,559
Speaker 1: I know you are.

1157
00:57:48,639 --> 00:57:53,639
Speaker 3: I'm keeping it tally, how.

1158
00:57:53,559 --> 00:57:54,280
Speaker 1: About you, Hayes.

1159
00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:57,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Tactics would have been my pick, But my

1160
00:57:57,320 --> 00:58:00,280
other pick is actually Trails in the Sky first after

1161
00:58:00,559 --> 00:58:05,719
another remoke. I am, as Eric knows, I'm a huge

1162
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:08,840
Trail sicco and it's it's a series that's hard to

1163
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:11,960
tell people to get into because there's ten games and

1164
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:14,840
they're all one hundred hours long, and it's like it's

1165
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:16,280
worth it. It is worth it.

1166
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 1: But yes, former editor and RPG enthusiast Kim Wallace, I

1167
00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:23,559
would talk to her because she was a big Trails

1168
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:26,679
person and would be like swear By like, it's one

1169
00:58:26,719 --> 00:58:28,679
of the best, like low key series out there. You

1170
00:58:28,679 --> 00:58:30,679
should get into it. But also it's not the easiest

1171
00:58:30,679 --> 00:58:32,639
thing to get into. Is there's so many one.

1172
00:58:32,519 --> 00:58:35,199
Speaker 4: Of the best stories in video games, hands down, But

1173
00:58:35,599 --> 00:58:38,920
that's what you say. First Chapter is going to finally

1174
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:41,800
give people like a full remake of the first game

1175
00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:44,199
and a really good entry point because the first one

1176
00:58:44,239 --> 00:58:46,119
is you know, I still love the first Trails in

1177
00:58:46,159 --> 00:58:49,079
the Sky, but it is dated. It is clearly dated.

1178
00:58:49,199 --> 00:58:52,519
So I think Falcom has come a very long way

1179
00:58:52,559 --> 00:58:55,880
since then and integrating a lot of the lessons they've

1180
00:58:55,960 --> 00:59:00,760
learned and updates, and they're really surprisingly league or just

1181
00:59:00,760 --> 00:59:05,079
animation that they have now. I'm just I'm so excited.

1182
00:59:05,119 --> 00:59:07,760
It's it's an all timer of a story. That game

1183
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:10,280
made me cry multiple times, and I will probably cry

1184
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:11,880
again in the remake, I'm sure.

1185
00:59:13,239 --> 00:59:15,760
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is the safe like I can if

1186
00:59:15,800 --> 00:59:16,760
I want to get into the city.

1187
00:59:17,079 --> 00:59:18,920
Speaker 4: This is where you start the place. There is now

1188
00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:20,159
a definitive.

1189
00:59:19,639 --> 00:59:21,039
Speaker 2: How many games this is it?

1190
00:59:21,199 --> 00:59:22,039
Speaker 4: You play this game?

1191
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:24,440
Speaker 2: How many games after this remake do I need to

1192
00:59:24,440 --> 00:59:25,280
play to be caught up?

1193
00:59:25,519 --> 00:59:29,199
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, there's two. There's two Sky games. The

1194
00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:30,039
crossbel Game.

1195
00:59:30,119 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Sky, Well, no, there's three Sky games, right,

1196
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:33,400
it's it's.

1197
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:35,920
Speaker 4: FC SC and third I'm saying after.

1198
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:40,480
Speaker 3: Oh, after that yeah, so two so three in the

1199
00:59:40,559 --> 00:59:44,760
Sky Chapter four and Cold Steel yeah.

1200
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:47,679
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then there's Reverie Steel.

1201
00:59:49,679 --> 00:59:49,800
Speaker 2: Right.

1202
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:51,519
Speaker 4: Then there's two Daybreak games.

1203
00:59:51,599 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1204
00:59:52,679 --> 00:59:53,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, twelve.

1205
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 4: So if you want to be updated for Trails through

1206
00:59:55,480 --> 00:59:58,679
the Horizon when it comes out in January, you need

1207
00:59:58,719 --> 00:59:59,480
to play twelve games.

1208
00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:06,440
Speaker 2: That's that. Ten and one that looks like Forbidden West.

1209
01:00:06,880 --> 01:00:08,559
Speaker 3: Took me a second, but I got there.

1210
01:00:08,719 --> 01:00:12,679
Speaker 1: I got there. It's legend. I've always wondered this because

1211
01:00:12,679 --> 01:00:17,400
it's the same developer. Legend of Heroes. That's its own thing, right, Yes,

1212
01:00:17,519 --> 01:00:20,119
that's not okay. They don't intersect with each other at

1213
01:00:20,119 --> 01:00:21,440
all or anything like that. That's its own.

1214
01:00:21,519 --> 01:00:25,639
Speaker 4: Legend of Heroes is like the franchise, and Trails is

1215
01:00:25,679 --> 01:00:26,800
the sub series.

1216
01:00:28,639 --> 01:00:29,079
Speaker 1: What happened?

1217
01:00:31,119 --> 01:00:33,280
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1218
01:00:33,320 --> 01:00:36,519
Speaker 2: I see, but back right now.

1219
01:00:36,519 --> 01:00:39,079
Speaker 4: To be quite honest, none of the games before Trails

1220
01:00:39,079 --> 01:00:40,400
are really that worth playing.

1221
01:00:40,639 --> 01:00:45,559
Speaker 3: So some of the older heroes are kind of very

1222
01:00:47,039 --> 01:00:49,719
like they show their age, but you know, there's there's

1223
01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:50,639
something to be found.

1224
01:00:50,679 --> 01:00:52,559
Speaker 4: I do wish they would like update them in some

1225
01:00:52,599 --> 01:00:58,719
way because they had awful localizations. That's that's the one problem.

1226
01:00:58,840 --> 01:01:04,000
Speaker 1: We'll wait for another another big remake those Eric, How

1227
01:01:04,039 --> 01:01:04,559
about you?

1228
01:01:05,480 --> 01:01:09,159
Speaker 3: So I have like two games that would put is

1229
01:01:09,280 --> 01:01:13,480
my my top two for this year right now, we've

1230
01:01:13,519 --> 01:01:17,840
had a very RPG stacked go around right now. Uh

1231
01:01:18,039 --> 01:01:24,079
So I will move my like one point two five

1232
01:01:24,280 --> 01:01:26,639
down and do my number one with the Bullet. Because

1233
01:01:27,119 --> 01:01:29,280
I talked earlier about games I love on the spectrum.

1234
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:32,679
I love like smaller our count or large hour count,

1235
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:35,599
and I'm not sure there are many games I've put

1236
01:01:35,639 --> 01:01:39,920
more hours into, at least single player wise, more than

1237
01:01:39,960 --> 01:01:43,199
Slay the Spire. So Slay the Spire too, which is

1238
01:01:43,239 --> 01:01:47,079
currently set for an ambiguous twenty twenty five date if

1239
01:01:47,119 --> 01:01:49,360
it does come out this year, is going to be

1240
01:01:49,400 --> 01:01:52,280
my number one. The Bullet. I love the first slave

1241
01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:56,119
Slay the Spire. I think it is the best deck

1242
01:01:56,159 --> 01:01:59,199
builder out there. I think if you want to understand

1243
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:03,119
deck builder, roguelikes just the design space in general, Slay

1244
01:02:03,119 --> 01:02:06,679
the Spire is a foundational text in that regard, and

1245
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:11,800
the idea of doing a sequel, I imagine is daunting

1246
01:02:12,079 --> 01:02:16,159
for the team at megacrit But I cannot wait to

1247
01:02:16,159 --> 01:02:19,360
see what they do with it. I think there's so

1248
01:02:19,480 --> 01:02:22,159
much space to explore that has been explored already by

1249
01:02:22,320 --> 01:02:25,679
fan mods and additions to the game, the addition of

1250
01:02:25,719 --> 01:02:30,360
the Watcher and stuff like that. But I love Slay

1251
01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:32,320
the Spire. I just I don't think there's many other

1252
01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:34,440
games out there that can match it. And there's so

1253
01:02:34,519 --> 01:02:36,480
many games that have tried to do what Slay the

1254
01:02:36,480 --> 01:02:40,320
Spire does and just end up showing how masterful Slay

1255
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:44,360
the Spire is as a game. It's hard to like

1256
01:02:44,440 --> 01:02:48,119
talk it up because it's ultimately just you're climbing a tower,

1257
01:02:48,239 --> 01:02:50,920
you're finding enemies or making choices on a branching path.

1258
01:02:51,559 --> 01:02:56,639
But the simplicity begets the like just depth of how

1259
01:02:56,679 --> 01:02:59,239
much you can do, how challenging it can be, how

1260
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:01,920
much it makes you think about all the decisions decisions

1261
01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:04,480
you're making and the bill crafting you're doing on the fly.

1262
01:03:05,159 --> 01:03:08,320
It's it's a wonderful game. So yeah, I want Slay

1263
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:10,039
the Spy or two to come out and just wreck me,

1264
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:14,679
just mess me up and just ruin all future plans.

1265
01:03:15,840 --> 01:03:19,199
Speaker 1: Okay, I guess for my next one. Man, this is

1266
01:03:19,239 --> 01:03:23,039
tough because I'm like scrolling down some you know what

1267
01:03:23,239 --> 01:03:30,679
I'm gonna go with, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection. I'm combat fan.

1268
01:03:30,719 --> 01:03:32,920
It's my favorite fighting game series, and it's one of

1269
01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:36,840
my favorite franchises just in general. I've been playing it's

1270
01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:40,119
literally since the first game hit arcades, and I've played

1271
01:03:40,639 --> 01:03:45,239
all of them, even the crappy spinoff adventure games. Anything

1272
01:03:45,239 --> 01:03:47,840
Mortal Kombat. I'm just want to get my hands on it.

1273
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:50,199
I love this idea of just bundling a lot of

1274
01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:51,800
the old games and a lot of even tho the

1275
01:03:51,840 --> 01:03:56,039
obscure handheld games, which I've never played those into one package.

1276
01:03:56,079 --> 01:03:58,599
This is by Digital Eclipse. This is like, it's not

1277
01:03:58,880 --> 01:04:01,719
technically part of the gold Man series, like the making

1278
01:04:01,719 --> 01:04:05,000
of Karatka and Lamas off the Jeff Mencher story, but

1279
01:04:05,039 --> 01:04:09,280
it's it's in that vein because it's got the interactive documentary,

1280
01:04:09,400 --> 01:04:12,440
which I'm excited to watch. It's got like Ed Boone

1281
01:04:12,440 --> 01:04:15,920
and John Tobias back together, which was pretty wild to see,

1282
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:19,760
and then talking to some of the live action actors

1283
01:04:19,800 --> 01:04:21,960
from like the first three Mortal Kombat games. It just

1284
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:24,679
going through the history of the series, but it's bundling

1285
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:28,000
MK one through four multiple versions of them from the

1286
01:04:28,079 --> 01:04:32,519
arcade versions to like you know, Superintendo Genesis, PS one,

1287
01:04:33,199 --> 01:04:37,760
you know sixty four. Most recently, they announced that MK trilogy,

1288
01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:41,920
which is my might be my favorite two D Mortal

1289
01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:45,079
Kombat from net era, like it's to me it's the

1290
01:04:45,079 --> 01:04:47,760
best version of three and it was probably my peak

1291
01:04:47,960 --> 01:04:51,679
of like fandom during at least the nineties, as well

1292
01:04:51,679 --> 01:04:54,880
as like GBA games like the like Deadly Alliance for

1293
01:04:55,000 --> 01:04:58,400
gbas in there, which is crazy and apparently we still

1294
01:04:58,440 --> 01:05:00,920
don't even know what the full pack it is because

1295
01:05:00,960 --> 01:05:05,400
I interviewed someone from Digital Clips during Summer Games Fest

1296
01:05:05,639 --> 01:05:07,840
and ats like, oh, no, we haven't announced everything that's

1297
01:05:07,880 --> 01:05:10,599
in here, which was evidence because they announced trilogy after that.

1298
01:05:11,039 --> 01:05:15,320
So I did ask them explicitly, like are any of

1299
01:05:15,360 --> 01:05:18,840
the adventure games in here, like Mythology, sub Zero or

1300
01:05:19,039 --> 01:05:22,519
Special Forces? And he kind of gave me a KOI

1301
01:05:22,719 --> 01:05:26,559
like maybe, you know. So it's like I would love

1302
01:05:26,599 --> 01:05:28,880
to have those. Those are terrible games, but I would

1303
01:05:28,880 --> 01:05:32,559
love to have like a modern way to play them.

1304
01:05:32,719 --> 01:05:35,239
So yeah, just as a Mortal Kombat sicko, I think

1305
01:05:35,239 --> 01:05:37,800
that's it's such a cool idea for a bundle, and

1306
01:05:37,840 --> 01:05:40,239
I'm super excited to see what that full lineup of

1307
01:05:40,280 --> 01:05:53,440
games looks like.

1308
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:54,639
Speaker 3: Yes, I thought that crashed seconds. That's really weird but

1309
01:05:54,679 --> 01:05:55,360
well timed.

1310
01:05:56,880 --> 01:06:00,760
Speaker 2: Speaking of crashes, my next most anticipated game is Garfield

1311
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:02,239
to Garfield Cart two.

1312
01:06:02,159 --> 01:06:03,039
Speaker 4: All you Can Drift.

1313
01:06:03,760 --> 01:06:09,239
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm not, I'm not excited.

1314
01:06:12,440 --> 01:06:14,440
Speaker 1: They were like, well, this must mean something to him.

1315
01:06:14,880 --> 01:06:15,039
Speaker 4: I know.

1316
01:06:15,079 --> 01:06:16,880
Speaker 2: It's like I could probably go into this and they'll

1317
01:06:16,960 --> 01:06:17,480
they'll take it.

1318
01:06:17,519 --> 01:06:20,519
Speaker 4: If you have some emotional connection to Garfield, I'd buy it.

1319
01:06:21,599 --> 01:06:25,039
Speaker 2: I'm a big Garfield guy. No, I'm actually gonna go

1320
01:06:25,119 --> 01:06:27,599
with the game that I bet has a lot of

1321
01:06:27,599 --> 01:06:29,559
people have not heard of, which is great because that

1322
01:06:29,679 --> 01:06:31,760
I want to inform people of it. We are game performers.

1323
01:06:32,119 --> 01:06:34,880
It's called Blood Thief. I have a ride up on

1324
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:38,760
it on an upcoming feature because I spoke to the

1325
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:41,639
dev behind it and it is my favorite game of

1326
01:06:41,679 --> 01:06:44,440
the recent Steam Next Fest back in June. It is

1327
01:06:44,559 --> 01:06:49,960
a p S one esque like Neon White type game.

1328
01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:51,239
I don't know what you want to call those, but

1329
01:06:51,360 --> 01:06:55,320
like the first person, ultra fast, ultra kill like runner

1330
01:06:55,360 --> 01:06:59,119
type games, but it's set in like dungeons and medieval

1331
01:07:00,280 --> 01:07:02,000
medievals is the easy way to say it. But for me,

1332
01:07:02,559 --> 01:07:04,639
the demo takes place on a lot of rooftops, so

1333
01:07:04,679 --> 01:07:06,840
it was very It reminded me a lot of Brandon

1334
01:07:06,880 --> 01:07:11,039
Sanderson's Misborn series, which tragically does not have any video

1335
01:07:11,079 --> 01:07:15,119
game about it and should. It is a hyper fast

1336
01:07:15,199 --> 01:07:18,199
first person game where you just need to advance through

1337
01:07:18,199 --> 01:07:20,159
anyone that's in front of you, and it's like a

1338
01:07:20,159 --> 01:07:24,119
one hit, one kill type situation. And what that means

1339
01:07:24,199 --> 01:07:27,280
is every speed run through a level, because it is

1340
01:07:27,280 --> 01:07:30,360
basically speed running, similar to like Neon White, is actually

1341
01:07:30,360 --> 01:07:33,400
like a puzzle and finding the optimum route through a level,

1342
01:07:33,480 --> 01:07:36,199
whether that's like you know, kicking this guy and then

1343
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:38,599
dive sliding forward so that you can launch up and

1344
01:07:38,599 --> 01:07:42,559
then teleport to this guy, knife him and continue. And

1345
01:07:42,599 --> 01:07:44,440
the cool thing about it, like the fun twist, is

1346
01:07:44,440 --> 01:07:47,480
that your health is constantly depleting your blood which powers

1347
01:07:47,519 --> 01:07:50,840
your moves as well, so in a very doomsque way,

1348
01:07:51,199 --> 01:07:53,239
you can't like hold back. You need to get in

1349
01:07:53,239 --> 01:07:55,280
there to survive. You need to like get up in

1350
01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:58,880
front with the action and kill and it's just so

1351
01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:00,880
so good. The demos of on Steam right now. I

1352
01:08:01,000 --> 01:08:03,519
urge anybody interested in these types of games to try

1353
01:08:03,519 --> 01:08:05,760
it out. But it's coming later this year, and it

1354
01:08:05,840 --> 01:08:09,920
is far and away my favorite game I've played on

1355
01:08:09,960 --> 01:08:12,800
Steam next Fest and it's one I'm like continually excited for.

1356
01:08:13,639 --> 01:08:15,719
It is so good and that the visual style is

1357
01:08:15,719 --> 01:08:17,840
really cool. I can't emphasize how PS one it looks.

1358
01:08:17,840 --> 01:08:19,880
Speaker 1: It's awesome. Yeah, the game, what's cool is a demo?

1359
01:08:19,960 --> 01:08:21,079
Still love like the people.

1360
01:08:22,279 --> 01:08:25,079
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's a it's a public demo, and

1361
01:08:25,079 --> 01:08:27,680
and the dev told me that it's like the last demo,

1362
01:08:27,760 --> 01:08:30,640
so like it's the most it's the final demo for

1363
01:08:30,680 --> 01:08:32,600
the game, so it'll be the most like true representation

1364
01:08:32,640 --> 01:08:35,119
of what to expect because he's been very public about

1365
01:08:35,119 --> 01:08:38,359
the game's development since, you know, years back, putting out

1366
01:08:38,399 --> 01:08:40,640
like pieces of the game for people to try and

1367
01:08:40,680 --> 01:08:43,119
tweak and and yeah, very excited.

1368
01:08:43,359 --> 01:08:47,159
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah the game. That's super COOLO excited for that. Hayes.

1369
01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:50,000
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think my second one's got to be Mina

1370
01:08:50,079 --> 01:08:54,399
the Hollower Yacht Club's new game, the Shovel Night developers.

1371
01:08:55,279 --> 01:08:57,880
Shovel Knight to me is like one of those like

1372
01:08:58,000 --> 01:09:02,000
Mount Rushmore of indie games kind of game, and Miana

1373
01:09:02,079 --> 01:09:04,319
the Hollower just looks and I played the demo too,

1374
01:09:04,359 --> 01:09:07,359
and it's just fantastic. It's like their take it's almost

1375
01:09:07,399 --> 01:09:09,840
like their take on like a traditional Zelda, right, but

1376
01:09:10,399 --> 01:09:13,199
they've integrated so many interesting mechanics where you have like

1377
01:09:13,520 --> 01:09:15,680
you have a whip like in Castlevania, and you have

1378
01:09:15,840 --> 01:09:19,279
the HP restoration system like in Bloodborne, where you attack

1379
01:09:19,319 --> 01:09:22,079
to gain HP back, and you have that dig mechanic

1380
01:09:22,079 --> 01:09:24,600
where you can go underground and pop back out, and

1381
01:09:25,039 --> 01:09:28,119
there's just so many interesting things happening in that game.

1382
01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:31,479
Not to mention like the art style really evokes like

1383
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:36,680
those GBA Zelda games, and I just I love how

1384
01:09:36,720 --> 01:09:40,880
it looks. I love the soundtrack is incredible. I so far,

1385
01:09:40,960 --> 01:09:43,359
I love everything about it. It's one of those few

1386
01:09:43,399 --> 01:09:46,520
games that, like, even before I played the demo, I

1387
01:09:46,520 --> 01:09:49,760
could look at trailers and be like, that's probably gonna

1388
01:09:49,760 --> 01:09:52,079
be in my top five games of the year. I

1389
01:09:52,079 --> 01:09:55,119
don't usually say that about a game beforehand without having

1390
01:09:55,159 --> 01:09:57,600
played it, but this is the one that I'm like,

1391
01:09:58,279 --> 01:10:02,079
this looks so much like my jam in every single

1392
01:10:02,239 --> 01:10:03,199
imaginable way.

1393
01:10:05,199 --> 01:10:07,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really. I played the Switch demo that they

1394
01:10:07,399 --> 01:10:10,439
released like a week or two ago last week. Yeah,

1395
01:10:11,119 --> 01:10:12,920
and yeah, I had a blast with it. Also, it

1396
01:10:12,960 --> 01:10:15,199
just looks nice on like a big switch to screen,

1397
01:10:16,039 --> 01:10:18,920
which it was pretty treat but yeah, yeah, pretty much

1398
01:10:18,920 --> 01:10:21,399
echoing everything you said, like I love how Zelda it

1399
01:10:21,439 --> 01:10:23,079
is and also a little bit of Castlevania and there

1400
01:10:23,279 --> 01:10:25,640
just maybe like the sub weapons stuff reminds me of Castlevania,

1401
01:10:25,720 --> 01:10:28,399
but like digging around stuff, like there's some cool like

1402
01:10:28,479 --> 01:10:31,520
environmental puzzles and like obstacles that seem to be designed

1403
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:31,960
around it.

1404
01:10:33,039 --> 01:10:35,279
Speaker 4: I think it's nice to like because you see a

1405
01:10:35,279 --> 01:10:38,439
lot of games that are like inspired by two D Selda,

1406
01:10:38,520 --> 01:10:40,479
but you don't see a lot that try and do

1407
01:10:40,560 --> 01:10:45,079
something like genuinely really unique with that that format.

1408
01:10:47,640 --> 01:10:50,920
Speaker 2: We have a really good documentary on our YouTube channel

1409
01:10:50,960 --> 01:10:56,680
shop about having the followers creation. Two cool things about

1410
01:10:56,840 --> 01:10:59,720
the game and the documentary is it was like a

1411
01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:02,079
side project or like a solo project that someone of

1412
01:11:02,159 --> 01:11:05,600
the studio was working on and now Yacht Club Yeah

1413
01:11:05,880 --> 01:11:07,800
saw it and they were like, Yo, this is so cool.

1414
01:11:07,800 --> 01:11:09,880
We're going to make this our next game, which is

1415
01:11:09,960 --> 01:11:13,319
very exciting. And something really exciting to me is like

1416
01:11:13,359 --> 01:11:15,399
you said, hey, Shovel Knight is like it's so good.

1417
01:11:15,479 --> 01:11:18,039
It's I feel like it's kind of behind the renaissance

1418
01:11:18,079 --> 01:11:20,079
of indie that started back in like, you know, ten

1419
01:11:20,159 --> 01:11:23,039
years ago now, but they haven't put out a game

1420
01:11:23,119 --> 01:11:27,479
real well, they've put out some you know, new stuff. Yeah,

1421
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:30,319
and like I'm so excited to see what Yacht Club

1422
01:11:31,159 --> 01:11:34,319
has taken from the landscape in the past decade. Like

1423
01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:36,600
they were looking, they were watching, they were seeing what

1424
01:11:36,640 --> 01:11:38,840
games were doing, Like what what have they taken from

1425
01:11:38,960 --> 01:11:41,920
the past ten years of game development and created with

1426
01:11:42,079 --> 01:11:45,279
mina super exciting, awesome.

1427
01:11:45,600 --> 01:11:46,520
Speaker 1: Eric back to you.

1428
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:51,359
Speaker 3: My number. My close runner up was Octopath Travelers zero.

1429
01:11:53,079 --> 01:11:56,640
Octopath Traveler too, is one of the most underrated RPGs

1430
01:11:56,760 --> 01:12:00,800
the last five ten years. Easy. I think anybody who

1431
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:04,600
is going like turn based is back because Claire Obscure

1432
01:12:04,720 --> 01:12:06,880
is like, you need to play Octopath. You need to

1433
01:12:06,920 --> 01:12:11,279
go play Octopath. Trust me on this. It's I was

1434
01:12:11,359 --> 01:12:13,359
not a huge fan of Octopath Traveler one. I've said

1435
01:12:13,359 --> 01:12:15,800
as much. I thought it was an okay game that

1436
01:12:15,880 --> 01:12:18,640
had some neat ideas, but ultimately didn't really live up

1437
01:12:18,640 --> 01:12:20,920
to its concept or some of the things it was

1438
01:12:21,000 --> 01:12:25,079
drawing on. Oxopath Traveler who solved all that and then

1439
01:12:25,199 --> 01:12:29,039
some with its path actions, with its storytelling, with the

1440
01:12:29,159 --> 01:12:31,279
character writing, individual characters that I think are some of

1441
01:12:31,279 --> 01:12:35,560
the best RPG party members in any RPG. Again, like

1442
01:12:35,760 --> 01:12:40,319
in recent memory, characters like Partiitio and Castie and Temenos

1443
01:12:40,479 --> 01:12:44,920
are just so incredible. I love Oswald, the bulky Black Mage.

1444
01:12:45,039 --> 01:12:48,239
I love that we get like a bear black mage

1445
01:12:48,279 --> 01:12:51,560
who just like got buff and he got jail body

1446
01:12:51,720 --> 01:12:53,960
and then just came out and started casting spells. I

1447
01:12:54,000 --> 01:12:58,680
love that for him. And so take all that. Now

1448
01:12:58,680 --> 01:13:01,199
you've got Octabath Travelers, which seems to be kind of

1449
01:13:01,199 --> 01:13:07,039
a reconstitution of ideas and stuff from Champions of the Continent,

1450
01:13:07,079 --> 01:13:10,560
which was the Octapath Traveler mobile game. It seems like

1451
01:13:10,600 --> 01:13:14,720
they're Square isn't being super upfront about what is being

1452
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:18,279
reused versus what is new outside of a few new

1453
01:13:18,319 --> 01:13:22,359
features and mechanics, but it seems like it is repurposing

1454
01:13:22,760 --> 01:13:25,560
some aspect of that into something new, which I think

1455
01:13:25,600 --> 01:13:28,039
sets a really cool precedent for Square. I would love

1456
01:13:28,079 --> 01:13:31,319
to see Near Reincarnation come back in some way because

1457
01:13:31,960 --> 01:13:34,600
that's kind of a really big entry in the Near

1458
01:13:34,680 --> 01:13:37,239
series when it comes to the lore and it being

1459
01:13:37,279 --> 01:13:38,159
gone sucks.

1460
01:13:38,399 --> 01:13:42,359
Speaker 4: So some really good stories in it too.

1461
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:46,880
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, My former colleague and freelance writer Timothy

1462
01:13:46,920 --> 01:13:49,880
Mamblo has been posting a lot about it because he

1463
01:13:49,960 --> 01:13:53,039
is also an Octopath sicko and has done a lot

1464
01:13:53,039 --> 01:13:55,479
of writing about it, so URGI to check that out.

1465
01:13:55,560 --> 01:13:59,880
But it's I just love Octapath Traveler like like two

1466
01:14:00,079 --> 01:14:02,920
completely one meo. I already loved the style of one,

1467
01:14:03,199 --> 01:14:05,560
and it was the some of the other stuff that

1468
01:14:05,640 --> 01:14:09,239
just didn't hit for me, But with two it felt

1469
01:14:09,279 --> 01:14:11,239
like it came into its own and now Octopath Traveler

1470
01:14:11,319 --> 01:14:13,800
zero seems like it's really doing some cool stuff with

1471
01:14:14,199 --> 01:14:17,800
the concepts and the ideas of Octpath Traveler as a whole.

1472
01:14:17,920 --> 01:14:23,239
Just a very classic, feeling, forward thinking RPG that seems

1473
01:14:23,359 --> 01:14:28,000
really exciting, and I would almost dovetail this into this

1474
01:14:28,079 --> 01:14:30,640
is a twenty twenty six game, but it also then

1475
01:14:30,720 --> 01:14:33,439
gets me excited for Adventures of Elliott, which seems like

1476
01:14:33,479 --> 01:14:35,640
it's going to be very good from what little I've

1477
01:14:35,640 --> 01:14:37,279
played so far. We want to talk about Zelda games

1478
01:14:37,279 --> 01:14:41,279
that feel like they're evolving and moving forward, but that's

1479
01:14:41,279 --> 01:14:43,479
that's a twenty six game. That's a different story. Talked

1480
01:14:43,479 --> 01:14:44,319
about Traveler zero.

1481
01:14:44,520 --> 01:14:47,039
Speaker 1: Play that demo. You should play the demo.

1482
01:14:47,199 --> 01:14:47,920
Speaker 3: It's a cool demo.

1483
01:14:48,000 --> 01:14:49,319
Speaker 4: I think it's interesting with those demos.

1484
01:14:49,319 --> 01:14:50,319
Speaker 2: How do you feel about Zero?

1485
01:14:51,119 --> 01:14:54,039
Speaker 4: Oh? God, that I was just saying. I think it's

1486
01:14:54,039 --> 01:14:57,279
interesting with those demos that team Asano does that they

1487
01:14:57,760 --> 01:15:00,800
every demo they do, they take a bunch of feedback

1488
01:15:01,319 --> 01:15:04,000
and like directly say like, hey, we want your feedback

1489
01:15:04,000 --> 01:15:06,319
and we want to use it in the game.

1490
01:15:07,880 --> 01:15:08,199
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1491
01:15:08,319 --> 01:15:10,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, they've they've been really good about that. I remember

1492
01:15:10,319 --> 01:15:14,000
that specifically with Triangle Strategy there were like specific changes

1493
01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:16,199
that were made from demo to final game that I

1494
01:15:16,199 --> 01:15:20,439
think bore out very well. Yeah, Asana has been on

1495
01:15:20,479 --> 01:15:22,720
top of it lately. Wes, what were you asking?

1496
01:15:23,319 --> 01:15:27,079
Speaker 2: How do you feel about Zero? You make your own protagonists.

1497
01:15:26,399 --> 01:15:29,159
Speaker 3: In it, which is interesting.

1498
01:15:29,159 --> 01:15:32,239
Speaker 2: It's an interesting change for Octopath and the storytelling they do.

1499
01:15:32,319 --> 01:15:34,439
How do you think that's going to fare out?

1500
01:15:35,039 --> 01:15:38,439
Speaker 3: I think this is me assuming because one of the

1501
01:15:38,479 --> 01:15:42,640
shots that we see in the trailer for Zero shows

1502
01:15:42,640 --> 01:15:45,720
a bunch of characters, some of whom look a lot

1503
01:15:45,840 --> 01:15:50,279
like characters we've seen an Octopath traveler already kind of

1504
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:55,199
joining banding together in some big fight and spoilers, I

1505
01:15:55,199 --> 01:15:58,119
guess for some Mechanics and Ocpath travelers sometimes there are

1506
01:15:58,159 --> 01:16:03,000
big fights that involve the party, like the and I

1507
01:16:03,039 --> 01:16:05,119
think the way that game plays with party size has

1508
01:16:05,159 --> 01:16:07,840
always been really interesting, the way that you can do

1509
01:16:07,920 --> 01:16:10,600
kind of different runs. You recruit your characters and put

1510
01:16:10,640 --> 01:16:13,720
them together in whatever order you want. Theoretically, you could

1511
01:16:13,800 --> 01:16:15,680
beat the game with just one character if you really

1512
01:16:15,680 --> 01:16:18,800
wanted to, or you could go through and get everybody

1513
01:16:18,840 --> 01:16:21,920
and stuff like that. So I think the ways in

1514
01:16:21,960 --> 01:16:26,560
which they're doing that. Having the created character might not

1515
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:31,680
fully realize the whole eight stories coming together in the

1516
01:16:31,680 --> 01:16:35,479
way that Octabath Traveler one and two did, but might

1517
01:16:35,520 --> 01:16:38,520
open them up to other storytelling avenues and also might

1518
01:16:38,760 --> 01:16:41,199
kind of solve problems they would have run into bringing

1519
01:16:41,199 --> 01:16:45,279
in new stuff from both what they're making now and

1520
01:16:45,279 --> 01:16:47,840
what they're trying to incorporate from Champions of the Continent.

1521
01:16:47,960 --> 01:16:51,439
It's probably just something that might make life a little

1522
01:16:51,439 --> 01:16:54,079
bit easier, and if it does that, then it does that.

1523
01:16:54,159 --> 01:16:58,000
I think it's cool. I don't really dislike created characters.

1524
01:16:58,199 --> 01:16:59,720
I think the only thing I run into is when

1525
01:16:59,760 --> 01:17:02,000
they feel like they're just kind of there as a

1526
01:17:02,159 --> 01:17:06,600
placeholder for for you as a person, Like we needed

1527
01:17:06,640 --> 01:17:09,760
some sort of body to put in here, and we

1528
01:17:09,800 --> 01:17:13,079
didn't design a character or viewpoint or framing around it.

1529
01:17:13,119 --> 01:17:18,279
So we just have here's Billy. You know, he's he's

1530
01:17:18,479 --> 01:17:23,239
he's you. Essentially, I'm interested to see that. Yeah you

1531
01:17:23,279 --> 01:17:28,079
know who's not Billy. But yeah, Traveler Zero I think

1532
01:17:28,199 --> 01:17:32,159
looks really good and is also really soon. I think

1533
01:17:32,159 --> 01:17:38,239
that was the surprise of that showcase was early. Yeah, yeah,

1534
01:17:38,319 --> 01:17:42,239
that's that turned around fast, So I'm looking forward to that.

1535
01:17:42,640 --> 01:17:44,880
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's for my next game. I'm going to

1536
01:17:44,920 --> 01:17:47,640
swing for defenses here. You know what, you love it.

1537
01:17:47,640 --> 01:17:51,520
It's Metroid Prime for I believe. I believe it's coming

1538
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:53,439
out this year. I don't think it's getting delayed. I

1539
01:17:53,439 --> 01:17:55,880
know it's a point of contention with our friend's over

1540
01:17:55,920 --> 01:17:57,840
a giant bomb, but I'm in the camp that the

1541
01:17:57,880 --> 01:17:59,439
game is going to come out this year. I don't think.

1542
01:17:59,600 --> 01:18:02,840
I don't think I can slip again, honestly, because I

1543
01:18:02,840 --> 01:18:05,720
don't know what else Nintendo would have for the holiday,

1544
01:18:05,920 --> 01:18:07,800
which is when I presume it's gonna be coming out

1545
01:18:07,840 --> 01:18:10,199
at this point, maybe like a September and October well

1546
01:18:10,239 --> 01:18:13,439
probably does well. I don't know. Nintendo's weird they surprise us,

1547
01:18:13,439 --> 01:18:16,560
but like, yeah, it's coming out next month. Surprise, but

1548
01:18:16,640 --> 01:18:18,319
whenever it comes out, I'm gonna play the hell out

1549
01:18:18,359 --> 01:18:21,479
of it. I love Metroid, I love Metroid Prime. I

1550
01:18:21,479 --> 01:18:24,560
think Prime one particularly it's one of my favorite games ever,

1551
01:18:24,840 --> 01:18:27,600
and I think it's like viz for maybe the best

1552
01:18:27,600 --> 01:18:32,159
Metroid game with Super Metroid for me. Everything i've seen

1553
01:18:32,239 --> 01:18:34,880
A four looks awesome. The like new Psychic Power stuff

1554
01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:37,720
looks cool. I want to mess around with the mouse controls.

1555
01:18:38,079 --> 01:18:39,680
I've not gotten to plate it at all. I haven't

1556
01:18:39,680 --> 01:18:42,039
been on those preview beats for it, so I've just

1557
01:18:42,079 --> 01:18:45,079
had to live vicariously through our peers as they talk

1558
01:18:45,119 --> 01:18:48,159
about it. But it just looks like it looks it's

1559
01:18:48,199 --> 01:18:50,039
just what I want. It's like, yeah, that's a new

1560
01:18:50,079 --> 01:18:53,000
Metroid Prime game that looks nicer and runs at like

1561
01:18:53,000 --> 01:18:57,399
one hundred and twenty fps. Apparently that's sweet. Give it

1562
01:18:57,399 --> 01:18:59,359
to me. Like that's one of those games where it's

1563
01:18:59,359 --> 01:19:01,359
like a seems I have just don't talk to me

1564
01:19:01,520 --> 01:19:03,039
because I'm just gonna want to play it is like

1565
01:19:03,119 --> 01:19:07,000
leave me alone. So yes, fingers crossed that we get

1566
01:19:07,039 --> 01:19:11,680
a date soon. I just I want it.

1567
01:19:11,880 --> 01:19:16,000
Speaker 2: My next game is kind of not cop Out but

1568
01:19:17,439 --> 01:19:20,560
Drastic World Evolution three I'm not actually excited to play it.

1569
01:19:21,039 --> 01:19:25,800
But my nephew, who is nine, loves these games. They're

1570
01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:28,279
the first games he's somehow the first games he like

1571
01:19:28,399 --> 01:19:31,319
rolled credits on and beat his Drastic World Evolution two,

1572
01:19:31,800 --> 01:19:35,520
went back and played. One loves these games. Is so obsessed,

1573
01:19:35,560 --> 01:19:37,239
like it was a big deal when they announced this,

1574
01:19:37,359 --> 01:19:39,199
Like we I met up with him and we watched

1575
01:19:39,199 --> 01:19:41,640
the trailer together. He's so excited about dinosaurs. He can

1576
01:19:41,720 --> 01:19:44,399
name every single dinosaur on screen without even like needing

1577
01:19:44,800 --> 01:19:47,920
to be told. He's like a dinosaur fiend. And he's

1578
01:19:47,960 --> 01:19:51,119
somehow really good at Drastic World Evolution, which are like

1579
01:19:51,239 --> 01:19:57,079
not easy games, especially for nine year olds. I play strategy, Yeah,

1580
01:19:57,079 --> 01:20:00,760
they're tough. Yeah, And I just it's it's really cool.

1581
01:20:00,800 --> 01:20:03,359
This will be the first because two he played like

1582
01:20:03,399 --> 01:20:05,199
after the fact, this will be like the first new

1583
01:20:05,239 --> 01:20:07,640
game where like we get to go and hang out

1584
01:20:07,680 --> 01:20:09,640
on release day and like play it and I get

1585
01:20:09,640 --> 01:20:11,560
to watch them and I can't wait. I think it's

1586
01:20:11,560 --> 01:20:13,479
going to be so cool, and it actually it does

1587
01:20:13,560 --> 01:20:15,960
look pretty cool. I mean, I like dinosaurs. It's hard

1588
01:20:16,000 --> 01:20:17,760
not to be excited about dinosaurs.

1589
01:20:17,760 --> 01:20:20,760
Speaker 1: Frank, are you worried though, that your nephew is slowly

1590
01:20:20,840 --> 01:20:22,000
turning into John Hammond.

1591
01:20:23,159 --> 01:20:26,880
Speaker 2: He might be, but he I don't know. He has well,

1592
01:20:26,960 --> 01:20:30,199
John Hammond loved dinosaurs too, and my nephew has like

1593
01:20:30,239 --> 01:20:32,439
a very a deep love for animals, Like he doesn't

1594
01:20:32,479 --> 01:20:35,199
like when people squish bugs, he doesn't like animals being

1595
01:20:35,239 --> 01:20:35,880
hurt or anything.

1596
01:20:35,920 --> 01:20:36,000
Speaker 1: Like.

1597
01:20:36,000 --> 01:20:39,520
Speaker 2: He really really loves like nature and stuff and wants

1598
01:20:39,520 --> 01:20:42,239
to be a zoo keeper and like. So I'm hoping

1599
01:20:42,279 --> 01:20:44,239
that he he stays on the path of the true

1600
01:20:44,239 --> 01:20:46,880
and not the Hopefully capitalism doesn't get in.

1601
01:20:46,880 --> 01:20:52,119
Speaker 1: There he falls into a bunch of money. Then yes, yeah,

1602
01:20:52,159 --> 01:20:54,479
it's like I can play this game for real. Now,

1603
01:20:57,239 --> 01:20:59,359
all right, what do you have for your third Yeah?

1604
01:20:59,439 --> 01:21:05,359
Speaker 4: My third game, strangely a tactics RPG heavy section, is

1605
01:21:05,399 --> 01:21:06,399
a Demon School.

1606
01:21:07,479 --> 01:21:09,600
Speaker 3: Oh you stole my game.

1607
01:21:10,319 --> 01:21:13,880
Speaker 4: I'm a huge tactical RPG siko. But I also think

1608
01:21:13,880 --> 01:21:17,319
Demon School looks really interesting because I love the social

1609
01:21:17,319 --> 01:21:21,359
simulation of persona, right, I don't love that A lot

1610
01:21:21,399 --> 01:21:23,960
of games have tried to do that and do it

1611
01:21:24,000 --> 01:21:27,319
really poorly. So one of the things I'm always looking

1612
01:21:27,359 --> 01:21:30,920
for is when a game tries to do social simulation

1613
01:21:31,000 --> 01:21:34,199
in a really interesting way. I think My favorite is

1614
01:21:34,239 --> 01:21:36,359
Fire a Month three Houses, because it kind of inverts

1615
01:21:36,359 --> 01:21:39,119
it with you being the professor and your train and

1616
01:21:39,159 --> 01:21:41,319
your students, and it kind of was like a fun

1617
01:21:41,319 --> 01:21:44,399
inversion of Persona and Demon School. I think looks like

1618
01:21:44,439 --> 01:21:47,039
it could be kind of like one of those interesting

1619
01:21:47,079 --> 01:21:50,880
takes on social simulation and school life and stuff like that.

1620
01:21:50,960 --> 01:21:56,479
And the art style looks impeccable too. I'm hopeful. I'm

1621
01:21:56,520 --> 01:21:58,520
just I'm honestly hopeful that it's going to be like

1622
01:21:59,119 --> 01:22:01,720
one of the breakout hits of the year.

1623
01:22:03,000 --> 01:22:06,039
Speaker 1: Yeah. I played it at the mix during SGF and

1624
01:22:06,079 --> 01:22:08,079
I really had a good time. It's one of those

1625
01:22:08,079 --> 01:22:11,239
games I'd kept an eye on for like God, it

1626
01:22:11,319 --> 01:22:13,199
felt like that games is floating around for years now,

1627
01:22:14,319 --> 01:22:16,039
but SGF was the first time I'd gotten to go

1628
01:22:16,079 --> 01:22:18,560
hands on with it, and I was really impressed because

1629
01:22:18,560 --> 01:22:19,840
I like tax this game too, but it had a

1630
01:22:19,840 --> 01:22:23,520
bit of specifically into the breach and just because of

1631
01:22:23,560 --> 01:22:25,960
like the enemy is kind of like telegraphing their attacks

1632
01:22:26,000 --> 01:22:28,199
and you kind of have to plan around that, Like

1633
01:22:28,239 --> 01:22:31,079
you're pretty much just like plotting turns and then just

1634
01:22:31,159 --> 01:22:34,800
hitting the play button and seeing how things go and

1635
01:22:34,840 --> 01:22:36,960
seeing if you planned everything the way that you thought

1636
01:22:37,000 --> 01:22:40,279
you did, which I was a huge into the Breach fan,

1637
01:22:40,359 --> 01:22:43,000
so it was it was clicking those boxes for me

1638
01:22:43,039 --> 01:22:45,359
of like, oh okay, it's one of these. I like that.

1639
01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:48,800
Speaker 3: And yeah with the cool art direction like you mentioned before. Yeah,

1640
01:22:48,840 --> 01:22:50,600
I'm really excited about this. This is going to be

1641
01:22:50,640 --> 01:22:57,199
like perfect Switch game when it comes out. Yeah, all right, Eric,

1642
01:22:57,359 --> 01:23:01,720
what is your third I'm still mad. My Demon School

1643
01:23:01,760 --> 01:23:06,119
was much very good. Who could have guessed?

1644
01:23:06,399 --> 01:23:06,560
Speaker 4: Now?

1645
01:23:07,720 --> 01:23:13,880
Speaker 3: With that in mind, I huh, this is interesting. I'm

1646
01:23:13,880 --> 01:23:18,840
gonna float maybe one that bends the rules a little bit.

1647
01:23:20,960 --> 01:23:23,479
And this isn't so much as I think this is

1648
01:23:23,520 --> 01:23:24,880
going to be a Grand Slam. I just want to

1649
01:23:24,920 --> 01:23:26,760
see how this pans out. I want to see if

1650
01:23:26,760 --> 01:23:30,560
this becomes a ripple change or not in the genre

1651
01:23:30,640 --> 01:23:34,920
that it releases in. Uh two x KO is supposed

1652
01:23:34,920 --> 01:23:39,640
to hit some sort of open, closed beta access thing

1653
01:23:39,960 --> 01:23:44,319
this year. It seems like the release Cadence is hewing

1654
01:23:44,359 --> 01:23:47,159
towards what they did with Valerie, what Riot Games did

1655
01:23:47,199 --> 01:23:47,800
with Valerie.

1656
01:23:48,560 --> 01:23:50,960
Speaker 1: This is the Riot Games fighting game.

1657
01:23:51,279 --> 01:23:53,880
Speaker 3: That's the League of Legends fighting game. What was the

1658
01:23:53,920 --> 01:23:57,479
original name Project L like Project L, which I hate,

1659
01:23:57,800 --> 01:24:02,840
that was a better name I two x KO sounds

1660
01:24:02,880 --> 01:24:04,800
like you're going to go play NBA too ka.

1661
01:24:04,920 --> 01:24:05,640
Speaker 1: I've been saying this.

1662
01:24:05,720 --> 01:24:07,199
Speaker 3: I'm like, Yo, you want to go play some two

1663
01:24:07,359 --> 01:24:09,199
x KO. I'm like, that's a weird way to pronounce

1664
01:24:09,279 --> 01:24:11,279
NBA two K but yeah, let's go the like no,

1665
01:24:11,359 --> 01:24:13,680
we're playing League of Legends, And I was like, oh, okay,

1666
01:24:13,880 --> 01:24:17,279
Project Dell makes it sound like it's an underground fight

1667
01:24:17,359 --> 01:24:20,439
club type thing, like there's there's a bit more of

1668
01:24:20,479 --> 01:24:22,119
a vibe to it.

1669
01:24:22,319 --> 01:24:24,800
Speaker 1: I am sure. Have you tried pronouncing it twice co

1670
01:24:25,159 --> 01:24:26,279
and saying I feel like that better?

1671
01:24:28,239 --> 01:24:29,720
Speaker 3: No, I don't like TwixT code.

1672
01:24:31,359 --> 01:24:33,560
Speaker 4: That sounds like like a K pop.

1673
01:24:33,399 --> 01:24:38,840
Speaker 3: Band two times knockout. That's would just call it by

1674
01:24:38,840 --> 01:24:40,640
its full name extended.

1675
01:24:41,000 --> 01:24:41,479
Speaker 1: Uh.

1676
01:24:41,640 --> 01:24:44,960
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm really interested in two x KO because I

1677
01:24:45,000 --> 01:24:49,520
think it's taking a really different approach to fighting games.

1678
01:24:49,600 --> 01:24:52,479
It's a two on two tag fighter, It's from a

1679
01:24:52,520 --> 01:24:55,920
team that knows fighting games. It's got rollback neck code

1680
01:24:56,119 --> 01:24:58,600
from the jump, which most most fighting games do nowadays.

1681
01:24:58,640 --> 01:25:01,520
I feel like the the the era of convincing fighting

1682
01:25:01,520 --> 01:25:03,840
game developers that like rollback net code is a good

1683
01:25:03,840 --> 01:25:05,960
thing has finally ended and we are now living in

1684
01:25:05,960 --> 01:25:10,720
the blissful glory days. The golden hour of everything has

1685
01:25:10,840 --> 01:25:14,119
rollback net code now we finally accepted that we need

1686
01:25:14,159 --> 01:25:18,800
good online to play fighting games. But character wise, I've

1687
01:25:18,800 --> 01:25:22,119
played some of the previous open beta or open alphas

1688
01:25:22,199 --> 01:25:25,680
or whatever that they've had, and it's a really interesting

1689
01:25:25,720 --> 01:25:28,920
game coming from somebody who really likes tag fighters. I

1690
01:25:28,960 --> 01:25:32,640
grew up playing Marvel versus Capcom two on both the

1691
01:25:32,760 --> 01:25:35,600
Arcades and then on Xbox three sixty when that port

1692
01:25:35,640 --> 01:25:38,119
came over there. I love Dragon Ball Fighters when it

1693
01:25:38,159 --> 01:25:41,159
came out. Stuff like techn tag tournament has always been

1694
01:25:41,199 --> 01:25:42,960
big for me. King of Fighters has been really big

1695
01:25:43,039 --> 01:25:44,640
for me, even though that's not like a tag fighter,

1696
01:25:44,680 --> 01:25:47,359
that's like a sequence fighter. I don't know what you

1697
01:25:47,359 --> 01:25:50,279
want to call it. Capcom versus S and K two

1698
01:25:50,279 --> 01:25:52,399
another game in that style, But any sort of team

1699
01:25:52,479 --> 01:25:55,479
based fighting game has always been very appealing to me.

1700
01:25:56,359 --> 01:26:00,279
So I love the idea of League of Legends careters

1701
01:26:00,279 --> 01:26:02,199
because I'm also a League player getting involved in this

1702
01:26:02,279 --> 01:26:05,199
kind of stuff. What I'm kind of iffy on is

1703
01:26:05,520 --> 01:26:09,399
their initial launch model, which which seems a little bit sparse.

1704
01:26:10,279 --> 01:26:14,279
Ten fighters I believe at launch. Via is the most

1705
01:26:14,359 --> 01:26:18,199
recently confirmed one and closed out the starting roster. And

1706
01:26:18,239 --> 01:26:22,039
also some of the animations can vary wildly. They're the

1707
01:26:22,159 --> 01:26:28,159
VI level three super was getting some response on social media.

1708
01:26:29,119 --> 01:26:32,439
I wouldn't be surprised to see that one maybe tuned

1709
01:26:32,600 --> 01:26:34,600
a little bit later, because it's one of those ones

1710
01:26:34,600 --> 01:26:37,680
where if I'm VI doing the super, it's like ah

1711
01:26:38,000 --> 01:26:40,960
ah ah, and like the opponent is like off screen

1712
01:26:41,079 --> 01:26:42,720
then you can't see them at all, and they're just

1713
01:26:42,760 --> 01:26:48,000
kind of like yeah, yeah, yeah, where's There are other

1714
01:26:48,239 --> 01:26:50,720
super animations in that game that look fantastic. I love

1715
01:26:50,840 --> 01:26:54,720
Allowey's with the big monster consuming the character. I love

1716
01:26:54,760 --> 01:26:57,319
Broms where the poros roll in and attack. Like there's

1717
01:26:57,319 --> 01:27:00,359
some really good stuff in there. So but that being said,

1718
01:27:00,439 --> 01:27:04,159
League of Legends is a universe that, as Arcane showed

1719
01:27:04,199 --> 01:27:07,239
and as games like The Ruined King showed, there's a

1720
01:27:07,319 --> 01:27:10,479
lot to explore here. There's really great characters, really great designs,

1721
01:27:10,600 --> 01:27:13,439
really cool world building stuff that I think is like

1722
01:27:13,640 --> 01:27:16,840
ripe for exploration, especially within the bounds of a fighting game.

1723
01:27:17,359 --> 01:27:21,760
And I can't imagine not just getting tons of awesome

1724
01:27:21,840 --> 01:27:25,439
cool designs with everything from kind of your conventional fighters,

1725
01:27:25,520 --> 01:27:29,039
like you know, a set or a riven to characters like,

1726
01:27:29,560 --> 01:27:32,640
you know, what would Shako look like in a fighting game?

1727
01:27:32,640 --> 01:27:34,560
What would Timo look like in a fighting game? What

1728
01:27:34,560 --> 01:27:37,199
would Malzahar look like in a fighting game? I think

1729
01:27:37,199 --> 01:27:38,880
you can do some really cool stuff like that, so

1730
01:27:39,720 --> 01:27:43,399
I'm really interested in it. I also have to blame

1731
01:27:43,439 --> 01:27:46,000
Alex Manikin for getting me back into League of Legends.

1732
01:27:46,960 --> 01:27:51,880
He did this to me in twenty twenty five, the

1733
01:27:52,000 --> 01:27:53,520
year of Luigi.

1734
01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:55,720
Speaker 2: Twenty that's almost criminal. We need to have a talk

1735
01:27:55,760 --> 01:27:56,079
with them.

1736
01:27:56,359 --> 01:28:02,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's bad friends, right, he knows, he

1737
01:28:02,600 --> 01:28:04,159
knows this about me. He was like, you won't play

1738
01:28:04,159 --> 01:28:05,520
a League of Legends and I was like.

1739
01:28:05,880 --> 01:28:07,000
Speaker 1: All right, and here we go.

1740
01:28:08,760 --> 01:28:11,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but no, it's it's cool and I like

1741
01:28:11,600 --> 01:28:16,520
that that riot is expanding beyond the Mobay. They've been

1742
01:28:16,680 --> 01:28:19,079
trying so much stuff, and I feel like Tea fight

1743
01:28:19,119 --> 01:28:22,760
tactics really good. There've been some other stuff that they've

1744
01:28:22,800 --> 01:28:25,199
tried that seems to have varied. I love the single

1745
01:28:25,199 --> 01:28:27,399
player stuff in Legends of run Tara, their deck game,

1746
01:28:27,439 --> 01:28:29,000
but it feels like they're still kind of waiting for

1747
01:28:29,039 --> 01:28:31,439
the next thing that takes off at the level of

1748
01:28:31,560 --> 01:28:35,479
League of Legends. Maybe two x KO is it? Maybe not,

1749
01:28:35,720 --> 01:28:37,760
who's to say, but I could see this being a

1750
01:28:37,800 --> 01:28:40,319
big game and potentially having a big tournament at EVO

1751
01:28:40,479 --> 01:28:42,479
next year and stuff like that if things go well.

1752
01:28:42,560 --> 01:28:47,359
So the closed launch of two x KO is my

1753
01:28:47,399 --> 01:28:48,199
game number three.

1754
01:28:48,720 --> 01:28:52,840
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll do one more round here before we wrap

1755
01:28:52,920 --> 01:28:56,960
up the show, so make it count and you can

1756
01:28:57,000 --> 01:28:59,000
do this too. But before I say my final game,

1757
01:28:59,000 --> 01:29:01,880
I'm gonna just quickly shout out some honorable mentions. A

1758
01:29:02,039 --> 01:29:06,439
ghost of Yote excited for that keeper double Find's next game,

1759
01:29:06,760 --> 01:29:11,479
Love double Find, very interested in that game. Me know,

1760
01:29:11,560 --> 01:29:15,039
the Hollow Words one we talked about before, and then

1761
01:29:15,119 --> 01:29:19,119
stuff like out of Worlds two. Want to play that

1762
01:29:19,319 --> 01:29:21,439
Silent Hill f which you know I talked about in

1763
01:29:21,439 --> 01:29:23,760
the show before. But the last game I'm gonna choose

1764
01:29:23,840 --> 01:29:26,560
as my most anticipated game for twenty twenty five is

1765
01:29:27,039 --> 01:29:31,159
Ninja Guiden four. Love Me Some Ninja Guiden. As I

1766
01:29:31,199 --> 01:29:33,199
mentioned when we were talking about Fantom played zero. I

1767
01:29:33,239 --> 01:29:38,319
am a stylish action just fanatic, and I played this

1768
01:29:38,319 --> 01:29:40,560
at Summer Games Fest, and out of all the games

1769
01:29:40,600 --> 01:29:42,319
I played there, this was the only one where I

1770
01:29:42,479 --> 01:29:45,800
was genuinely bummed that I had to stop playing. Like

1771
01:29:46,079 --> 01:29:47,880
even sometimes when you go to events like this, if

1772
01:29:47,880 --> 01:29:50,680
it's something I'm having fun with, when they call time,

1773
01:29:50,800 --> 01:29:52,640
I'm just like, well, okay, you know, I can wait

1774
01:29:52,680 --> 01:29:54,560
for you know, when it's supposed to come out. This

1775
01:29:54,600 --> 01:29:57,239
is one where I was like so locked in. It

1776
01:29:57,279 --> 01:29:59,880
was like just as a Ninja Guiden fan, where I

1777
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:03,239
it's just like literally like the room melted away. It's

1778
01:30:03,239 --> 01:30:05,680
like nothing exists in here. I'm just going in here

1779
01:30:06,079 --> 01:30:10,000
as this little shaggy hair Ninja's you play a new

1780
01:30:10,000 --> 01:30:12,479
guy nim Yakimo and you're just tearing through dudes and

1781
01:30:12,520 --> 01:30:15,680
everything looks super nice, and I'm just like, yeah, this

1782
01:30:15,880 --> 01:30:19,159
is this is gaming right here. And also that is

1783
01:30:19,239 --> 01:30:21,520
it's just a cool meeting of minds because this is

1784
01:30:21,520 --> 01:30:26,000
developed by primarily by Platinum Games, with Team Ninja the

1785
01:30:26,119 --> 01:30:30,039
series developer sort of like overseeing it. And it's like,

1786
01:30:30,199 --> 01:30:33,039
oh again, as a fan of the genre, just couldn't

1787
01:30:33,079 --> 01:30:35,079
be better. Like I love Platinum's work. I'm a huge

1788
01:30:35,079 --> 01:30:38,479
Bandeta guy, love Metalview Rising, Team Ninja again, I love

1789
01:30:38,520 --> 01:30:42,159
the three D Ninja Guidans and Neo and all their stuff.

1790
01:30:42,199 --> 01:30:43,880
So it's just like, oh, this is a dream come

1791
01:30:43,960 --> 01:30:46,399
true for me and what's cool about the game is

1792
01:30:46,439 --> 01:30:51,159
that it is simultaneously like it feels faithful to Ninja

1793
01:30:51,159 --> 01:30:52,840
Guide in a way where like, if you didn't know

1794
01:30:52,920 --> 01:30:56,039
Platinum was on this, you probably wouldn't immediately guess it

1795
01:30:56,439 --> 01:30:59,079
because it behaves the way if you're a fan of

1796
01:30:59,079 --> 01:31:02,359
this game you would want. But as a fan of Platinum,

1797
01:31:02,439 --> 01:31:06,079
I can see the Platinum touches and just sort of

1798
01:31:06,159 --> 01:31:09,119
the the influences, like it's got the middle Gear Rising

1799
01:31:09,520 --> 01:31:15,600
Perry system, which is like pretty sweet. Yeah yeah yeah,

1800
01:31:15,640 --> 01:31:18,600
and then just other little like additions that they've added

1801
01:31:18,600 --> 01:31:20,359
to the game where it's like, oh, this this is

1802
01:31:20,439 --> 01:31:25,159
just this is peanut butter and jelly basically. Yeah. It's

1803
01:31:25,199 --> 01:31:26,840
like I don't really have much more to add other

1804
01:31:26,960 --> 01:31:29,000
than like it's just fun as hell. Like I like

1805
01:31:29,039 --> 01:31:31,000
I said, I played for like what was that like

1806
01:31:31,000 --> 01:31:33,159
thirty minutes I think we did, and I was just

1807
01:31:33,239 --> 01:31:35,880
like yeah, like nothing mattered again, like I said, it's

1808
01:31:35,920 --> 01:31:39,039
like this is just so much fun. So I'm super psyched.

1809
01:31:39,039 --> 01:31:41,079
I think this is and it's not too far away.

1810
01:31:41,079 --> 01:31:43,920
It's like end of September. I think it's pretty cool.

1811
01:31:44,640 --> 01:31:48,279
Early October, somewhere in October something like that. I might

1812
01:31:48,319 --> 01:31:48,680
be wrong.

1813
01:31:49,039 --> 01:31:49,840
Speaker 2: October twentieth.

1814
01:31:49,920 --> 01:31:52,760
Speaker 1: Okay, so maybe it's further away than I thought. But anyway,

1815
01:31:52,920 --> 01:31:55,479
it is my Halloween treat. That my my pre Halloween

1816
01:31:55,560 --> 01:31:56,720
treat will be Ninja Gag four.

1817
01:31:57,760 --> 01:32:03,680
Speaker 2: There's still plenty of time to play Rage Bound as.

1818
01:32:02,239 --> 01:32:04,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like halfway through that game is super fun.

1819
01:32:04,760 --> 01:32:07,319
And there's also that that Ninja Gay in Black or

1820
01:32:07,399 --> 01:32:09,960
Nina Too Black they came out earlier this year, which

1821
01:32:10,000 --> 01:32:10,880
was a really good remaster.

1822
01:32:10,920 --> 01:32:16,279
Speaker 2: If they came mm hmm, okay for my last game,

1823
01:32:16,760 --> 01:32:19,920
I'll do some honorable mentions Pokemon Legends z through A

1824
01:32:20,399 --> 01:32:23,399
Uh mostly just excited to see how that pans out.

1825
01:32:23,520 --> 01:32:26,880
I as boring as it is, like that performance needs

1826
01:32:26,880 --> 01:32:29,119
to work on that game. I will like that game

1827
01:32:29,159 --> 01:32:31,279
will ride or die for me on performance, which is

1828
01:32:31,279 --> 01:32:33,319
a very lame way to talk about games, but like

1829
01:32:33,840 --> 01:32:39,600
that's the state of Pokemon. I'm like, yes, yeah, I'm

1830
01:32:39,600 --> 01:32:43,520
also way more interested in than Arcius because I'm I

1831
01:32:43,880 --> 01:32:47,560
like a city environment over like a open world, you know,

1832
01:32:47,680 --> 01:32:50,960
rural environment any day, and the fact that it's set

1833
01:32:51,000 --> 01:32:53,960
like exclusively in Lumios is really cool. I think the

1834
01:32:54,039 --> 01:32:56,520
z through A tournament is a cool idea. And I

1835
01:32:56,600 --> 01:32:59,359
like that it's pretty drastic of a sequel in terms

1836
01:32:59,399 --> 01:33:01,600
of changes compaired Darcy. I think it's a really cool

1837
01:33:02,199 --> 01:33:04,479
thing for them to do, to change so much, even

1838
01:33:04,520 --> 01:33:10,720
though Arcis was like well received, ball x Pitvolver Digital's

1839
01:33:11,359 --> 01:33:13,439
big game coming this year. I think everyone needs to

1840
01:33:13,439 --> 01:33:16,800
play the demo. It's it's a roguelike brick breaker, and

1841
01:33:17,039 --> 01:33:24,319
it is as obsessive as it sounds. It's really really good. Yes,

1842
01:33:24,439 --> 01:33:26,000
And I know it's just the I'm same and it's

1843
01:33:26,000 --> 01:33:29,800
like just the demo. But my actual last game was

1844
01:33:29,840 --> 01:33:33,399
one that you already mentioned, Marcus and your little honorable mentions,

1845
01:33:33,640 --> 01:33:36,920
Ghost of Yote. You know, it's the easy answer. YouTube committers,

1846
01:33:37,039 --> 01:33:39,640
don't worry. We said it. I'm talking about it. You

1847
01:33:39,680 --> 01:33:41,399
don't delete the comment that says.

1848
01:33:42,079 --> 01:33:44,239
Speaker 1: Talking about it.

1849
01:33:44,680 --> 01:33:49,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ghost of Sushima is awesome, obviously, you know, it's

1850
01:33:49,399 --> 01:33:52,159
an old book. At this point, like I'm excited for

1851
01:33:52,199 --> 01:33:55,359
this sequel. I think what I'm most excited for is

1852
01:33:56,000 --> 01:33:58,439
so Ghost of Sushima was up against the open world

1853
01:33:58,520 --> 01:34:00,319
formula like that. That's kind of what it was tacked going,

1854
01:34:00,520 --> 01:34:04,439
was the tired formula that Ubisoft had kind of distilled

1855
01:34:04,560 --> 01:34:06,720
open world games into and I think it did a

1856
01:34:06,720 --> 01:34:08,880
really good job of changing that up and giving us

1857
01:34:08,920 --> 01:34:13,199
something different. Ghosts of Yota is cool because it's now

1858
01:34:13,239 --> 01:34:16,359
it's competing against itself as well. Like I'm I'm less

1859
01:34:16,359 --> 01:34:18,880
interested in how sucker Punch is going to break the

1860
01:34:18,880 --> 01:34:20,800
open world formula. They already did a really good job

1861
01:34:20,840 --> 01:34:23,439
with that with Sushima. Now I'm interested to see, like,

1862
01:34:25,159 --> 01:34:29,039
is Yota going to feel familiar and too familiar, too

1863
01:34:29,079 --> 01:34:31,800
repetitive and like because it's more Sushiamo, or are they

1864
01:34:31,840 --> 01:34:35,199
going to be doing something bigger, something grander, something different

1865
01:34:35,239 --> 01:34:38,279
to its open world to like distinguish itself in this series,

1866
01:34:39,199 --> 01:34:41,279
Because I'm honestly not in the mood for more like

1867
01:34:41,319 --> 01:34:44,199
Ghost of Sushi mood in terms of like what that

1868
01:34:44,239 --> 01:34:46,039
game is. It was. I really liked that game and

1869
01:34:46,159 --> 01:34:49,159
what didn't like blow my socks off, but I enjoyed it.

1870
01:34:49,359 --> 01:34:52,319
I don't necessarily just want another forty hour adventure of

1871
01:34:52,359 --> 01:34:55,079
that that is with just a different protagonist. I'm excited

1872
01:34:55,079 --> 01:34:59,000
to see what Sucker Punch took from games in the

1873
01:34:59,079 --> 01:35:00,520
last five years and they are going to do to

1874
01:35:00,600 --> 01:35:03,039
this formula to keep it interesting and why it warrants

1875
01:35:03,119 --> 01:35:05,279
a sequel That is not a direct sequel, but a

1876
01:35:05,319 --> 01:35:07,800
new protagonist in this series.

1877
01:35:08,039 --> 01:35:10,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm hoping it. The thing I most want from

1878
01:35:10,600 --> 01:35:12,920
that game is someone that really likes Soushi Mood but

1879
01:35:12,960 --> 01:35:15,079
didn't love it as much as most people. Is that

1880
01:35:15,159 --> 01:35:18,560
I hope it that really westernly vibe that that first

1881
01:35:18,560 --> 01:35:20,960
trailer has. I hope that wasn't just the trailer, Like,

1882
01:35:20,960 --> 01:35:23,000
I hope the game kind of reflects that.

1883
01:35:23,239 --> 01:35:25,840
Speaker 2: I thought that was like a cool sort of like tone,

1884
01:35:26,000 --> 01:35:27,119
like wild Western vibe.

1885
01:35:27,159 --> 01:35:30,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, like a wild West vibe that I hope is

1886
01:35:30,359 --> 01:35:33,520
actually like present in the game. It wasn't just like

1887
01:35:33,560 --> 01:35:36,279
a I don't know, like a style thing from the trailer.

1888
01:35:37,319 --> 01:35:40,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that is coming up soon October second. That's

1889
01:35:40,920 --> 01:35:41,560
like so soon.

1890
01:35:41,640 --> 01:35:45,800
Speaker 1: Actually, that's really yes. And we got to get through

1891
01:35:45,880 --> 01:35:52,359
Kingdom Come Deliverance too, Oh gosh. Yeah yeah, Hey, what's

1892
01:35:52,399 --> 01:35:53,119
your last one?

1893
01:35:53,239 --> 01:35:55,359
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you've you both have said most of my

1894
01:35:55,399 --> 01:35:58,159
honorable mentions, So my pick and my honorable mention are

1895
01:35:58,159 --> 01:36:00,680
going to be kind of curveballs. But my mention is

1896
01:36:00,680 --> 01:36:05,119
Sonic Racing Crossworlds, which I played summer game and is

1897
01:36:05,199 --> 01:36:11,000
like surprisingly fun. The racing feels really good. It has

1898
01:36:11,039 --> 01:36:14,119
this really fun like crossworld system where you change tracks

1899
01:36:14,279 --> 01:36:16,680
in the middle of a race. It has like really

1900
01:36:16,720 --> 01:36:19,960
deep customization of cars and not to mention, like I

1901
01:36:19,960 --> 01:36:22,199
can play as Echibond in it, i can play as

1902
01:36:22,199 --> 01:36:24,720
hot sun Amiku in it. I can play a SpongeBob

1903
01:36:24,760 --> 01:36:28,800
in it. It's just like everything. And then my full

1904
01:36:28,840 --> 01:36:35,640
pick is Damon x Machina Titanic Scion, Yeah, which I

1905
01:36:35,640 --> 01:36:38,000
feel like a lot of people probably haven't heard of.

1906
01:36:39,199 --> 01:36:42,359
The first Damen x Machini was like a really interesting

1907
01:36:42,439 --> 01:36:44,479
mech game on the Switch that had a lot of

1908
01:36:44,840 --> 01:36:47,000
I thought it had a lot of really interesting ideas,

1909
01:36:47,000 --> 01:36:49,800
but it felt kind of like underbaked in terms of

1910
01:36:50,000 --> 01:36:52,600
narrative structure, Like it just felt like it could have

1911
01:36:52,640 --> 01:36:56,199
been more and all regards, like, Titanic Scion looks like

1912
01:36:56,439 --> 01:36:59,119
that more that I wanted from the first game, Like

1913
01:36:59,159 --> 01:37:02,000
it has a much more narrative. It's art style has

1914
01:37:02,039 --> 01:37:05,199
been very much refined as like a really interesting mech

1915
01:37:05,239 --> 01:37:08,760
system where you're not like necessarily in a mech, you're

1916
01:37:08,800 --> 01:37:12,760
in like a armor suit mech kind of thing. And

1917
01:37:13,159 --> 01:37:15,079
that's a really interesting idea because you don't see a

1918
01:37:15,079 --> 01:37:18,399
lot of mech games where you have like the Iron

1919
01:37:18,479 --> 01:37:22,439
Man kind of suit instead of a standard mech. So

1920
01:37:22,640 --> 01:37:26,119
I think it just looks really cool and like I said,

1921
01:37:26,199 --> 01:37:28,880
kind of this forwarding of the first game that could

1922
01:37:28,960 --> 01:37:32,520
be really meaningful, and we just don't have enough mech games,

1923
01:37:32,640 --> 01:37:35,159
enough good mech games.

1924
01:37:35,640 --> 01:37:39,920
Speaker 3: Is it you suit a mech that's.

1925
01:37:39,960 --> 01:37:42,279
Speaker 4: In this game? I think it technically applies.

1926
01:37:43,880 --> 01:37:47,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never thought about it this hard, but now

1927
01:37:47,560 --> 01:37:49,760
I'm like, is suit mech?

1928
01:37:50,640 --> 01:37:53,439
Speaker 1: I don't know? I mean like iron Man like his

1929
01:37:53,520 --> 01:37:53,920
Iron Man?

1930
01:37:54,279 --> 01:37:55,319
Speaker 3: Is iron Man a mech?

1931
01:37:55,680 --> 01:37:55,880
Speaker 4: Yeah?

1932
01:37:56,439 --> 01:37:59,039
Speaker 2: Like Spider Man and mech in.

1933
01:37:59,199 --> 01:38:02,039
Speaker 3: But then wouldn't that be like Gundam. A Gundam is

1934
01:38:02,079 --> 01:38:09,159
just a really big suit, then some gun like logic

1935
01:38:09,239 --> 01:38:09,760
thrown at me.

1936
01:38:10,600 --> 01:38:14,039
Speaker 4: Fighter has like the Pacific rim style, where like they're

1937
01:38:14,279 --> 01:38:16,479
in these suits directly controlling this.

1938
01:38:16,600 --> 01:38:19,159
Speaker 3: They're in the like the vard suits doing the are

1939
01:38:19,199 --> 01:38:19,680
you put up?

1940
01:38:19,720 --> 01:38:21,800
Speaker 1: I think you're caught up on scale, like you're saying

1941
01:38:21,800 --> 01:38:25,319
if it's not like a giant sized thing, that it's

1942
01:38:25,319 --> 01:38:25,640
not me.

1943
01:38:26,760 --> 01:38:30,199
Speaker 3: I think it's also control scheme to an extent, like

1944
01:38:30,239 --> 01:38:34,239
do you have to pilot something versus it being an

1945
01:38:34,239 --> 01:38:38,119
extension of your natural bodies motor functions?

1946
01:38:38,439 --> 01:38:40,319
Speaker 1: You know. I think if we could do both. Like

1947
01:38:40,560 --> 01:38:43,000
Iron Man, he can send the Suit to do things

1948
01:38:43,039 --> 01:38:44,920
on its own sometimes.

1949
01:38:44,359 --> 01:38:47,039
Speaker 3: If he needs to, but doesn't like Jarvis do that

1950
01:38:47,079 --> 01:38:50,039
stuff or whatever. The replacement for Jarvis was.

1951
01:38:50,479 --> 01:38:51,439
Speaker 4: So by extension.

1952
01:38:51,600 --> 01:39:00,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, huh is Jarvis a part of him? Does this

1953
01:39:00,680 --> 01:39:06,880
Unit two have a soul play near automata?

1954
01:39:08,239 --> 01:39:08,560
Speaker 1: Yeah?

1955
01:39:08,680 --> 01:39:13,560
Speaker 3: Anyways, I don't know that's that's a tax taxonomical question

1956
01:39:13,600 --> 01:39:17,239
that I don't have the answer for. So Suit mech

1957
01:39:17,319 --> 01:39:19,279
I guess.

1958
01:39:19,479 --> 01:39:22,079
Speaker 1: Sure we'll go with that. Yeah, that's last game.

1959
01:39:23,439 --> 01:39:26,960
Speaker 3: I don't know. We're so deep into the podcast that

1960
01:39:27,079 --> 01:39:28,399
just like fried my brain.

1961
01:39:30,319 --> 01:39:30,560
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1962
01:39:30,600 --> 01:39:32,680
Speaker 3: For my honorable mentions, I want to shout out good

1963
01:39:32,720 --> 01:39:35,720
Night Universe, which is the next game from the Before

1964
01:39:35,760 --> 01:39:38,159
Your Eyes team, very excited for that. I want to

1965
01:39:38,159 --> 01:39:42,960
shout out Digimon Time Digimon Story Time Stranger, a game

1966
01:39:43,079 --> 01:39:45,479
that I was very surprised by at SGF ended up

1967
01:39:45,520 --> 01:39:47,800
being my favorite game that I saw at SGF. It

1968
01:39:47,840 --> 01:39:50,920
was very very good. I'm also very interesting blood Lines too,

1969
01:39:51,520 --> 01:39:54,920
because I am a longtime Bloodlines one fan and I'm

1970
01:39:54,960 --> 01:40:00,279
just really curious where it landed. Yeah. Yeah, you know,

1971
01:40:00,399 --> 01:40:03,079
after years and years of that development, shifting round and

1972
01:40:03,119 --> 01:40:06,319
going to different teams and going through different iterations. I

1973
01:40:06,399 --> 01:40:08,199
just want to know what it is at the end

1974
01:40:08,199 --> 01:40:11,840
of the day and how much that bloodline's name ends

1975
01:40:11,880 --> 01:40:14,359
up carrying into the final product. But I think for

1976
01:40:14,479 --> 01:40:19,000
my last big one, it's another ambiguous twenty twenty five,

1977
01:40:19,079 --> 01:40:21,600
I believe still. I checked the calendar and I think

1978
01:40:21,640 --> 01:40:24,640
this is still labeled as a twenty twenty five. I'm

1979
01:40:24,680 --> 01:40:27,359
like double checking it now and definitely not ramping at

1980
01:40:27,359 --> 01:40:33,279
the moment to make sure it is. It's coming soon

1981
01:40:33,319 --> 01:40:35,960
on Steam, so maybe I won't say though it was Witchbrook.

1982
01:40:36,920 --> 01:40:39,720
I believe Witchbrook is kind of ambiguous where it's going

1983
01:40:39,720 --> 01:40:44,079
to land, so that one is kind of up there. Yeah,

1984
01:40:44,079 --> 01:40:46,960
it's it's on our release calendar is twenty twenty five.

1985
01:40:47,079 --> 01:40:52,720
But I'm curious about that one because I think just

1986
01:40:52,800 --> 01:40:57,520
the idea of you know, somewhat magical living in a

1987
01:40:57,720 --> 01:41:01,560
community and going to a magical college and doing all

1988
01:41:01,560 --> 01:41:04,399
the sorts of you know, just kind of vibing and

1989
01:41:04,439 --> 01:41:09,239
doing magic stuff is like really appealing. I really want

1990
01:41:09,239 --> 01:41:12,000
to see that. I love the art style, I love

1991
01:41:12,039 --> 01:41:15,399
the way it's all laid out. I love that's coming

1992
01:41:15,439 --> 01:41:19,680
from Chucklefish. Obviously, this is not the next star to

1993
01:41:19,880 --> 01:41:23,159
that that'll be Haunted Chocolate tear down the line. But

1994
01:41:24,079 --> 01:41:26,840
I think Witchbrook has looked really promising, and every showing

1995
01:41:26,880 --> 01:41:30,359
that's had so far, it's looked like something that can

1996
01:41:30,399 --> 01:41:32,520
really stand on its own and do something really cool

1997
01:41:33,359 --> 01:41:35,399
and be even a little bit more than its premise

1998
01:41:35,439 --> 01:41:39,520
of just magical life sim So I think that one

1999
01:41:39,600 --> 01:41:44,800
has real potential to basically drop and completely dominate the

2000
01:41:44,840 --> 01:41:49,520
conversation for months afterwards. So if you're looking for a

2001
01:41:49,520 --> 01:41:52,840
sleeper pick, I think that's it's not even really a

2002
01:41:52,840 --> 01:41:54,720
sleeper pick. I feel like most people once they hear

2003
01:41:54,720 --> 01:41:56,800
about it and see it, they're like, oh, I want

2004
01:41:56,800 --> 01:42:00,159
to play this game right now. Yeah, So I have

2005
01:42:00,199 --> 01:42:01,960
a feeling that this one's going to be quiet until

2006
01:42:02,000 --> 01:42:04,720
all of a sudden it isn't, so that one's definitely

2007
01:42:04,920 --> 01:42:07,439
on my radar. Would be my last pick. Yeah, that's

2008
01:42:07,439 --> 01:42:10,000
another game that's been floating around for like feels like forever.

2009
01:42:10,199 --> 01:42:14,720
Yeah yeah, but okay, Yeah, that's a whole lot of

2010
01:42:14,760 --> 01:42:16,399
games for.

2011
01:42:16,039 --> 01:42:18,600
Speaker 1: Everyone to chew on there. We'll see how many of

2012
01:42:18,600 --> 01:42:21,279
them pan out, hopefully all of them. And yeah, we'll

2013
01:42:21,279 --> 01:42:23,880
be playing Nose as well as again Blood Packed. We

2014
01:42:23,960 --> 01:42:26,039
said we were going to finish our backlog games, so

2015
01:42:26,439 --> 01:42:29,520
we're gonna hold you like people watching are gonna hold

2016
01:42:29,600 --> 01:42:30,000
us to this.

2017
01:42:30,079 --> 01:42:33,920
Speaker 3: We trust the audience to keep us accountable on this.

2018
01:42:34,039 --> 01:42:35,680
If you at home want to do a blood pack,

2019
01:42:38,159 --> 01:42:42,159
hold your thumb to the screen and Miller messaging me like,

2020
01:42:42,159 --> 01:42:44,680
why did we get demondetized in the last episode. Don't

2021
01:42:44,680 --> 01:42:45,199
worry about it.

2022
01:42:45,399 --> 01:42:49,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I assure you, it's only for good reasons. Yes. Well,

2023
01:42:49,760 --> 01:42:52,119
that wraps up the show. Everyone, Thank you so much,

2024
01:42:52,720 --> 01:42:55,479
just for a bit of quick housekeeping. If you're listening

2025
01:42:55,479 --> 01:42:58,000
to this on audio, be sure to visit game Informa

2026
01:42:58,039 --> 01:43:00,800
dot com. You can also check us out on YouTube

2027
01:43:00,840 --> 01:43:02,920
at YouTube dot com slash game Informer, where you can

2028
01:43:02,920 --> 01:43:05,119
look at our beautiful faces as well as check out

2029
01:43:05,359 --> 01:43:08,800
all of our other video features, new gameplay Today, video reviews,

2030
01:43:08,840 --> 01:43:12,239
all that wonderful stuff. You can check us out on Twitch,

2031
01:43:12,279 --> 01:43:14,760
twitch out tv, slash game Informer. We're trying to get

2032
01:43:14,800 --> 01:43:17,560
some live streams up and going again, and you can

2033
01:43:17,600 --> 01:43:21,199
also reach out to each of us individually on social media.

2034
01:43:21,399 --> 01:43:24,760
You can find me on Blue Sky at Marcus Stewart

2035
01:43:24,880 --> 01:43:27,840
seven West can where can the people reach out to you?

2036
01:43:29,079 --> 01:43:32,720
Speaker 2: On Blue Sky at Wesley LeBlanc and you can see

2037
01:43:32,760 --> 01:43:37,520
my adventures on TikTok, which are in production at Wesley

2038
01:43:37,560 --> 01:43:40,760
the Blanc seven. I'm trying to be more active there.

2039
01:43:41,039 --> 01:43:43,119
I have not been active for a week now, so

2040
01:43:43,159 --> 01:43:46,840
I'm already failing. But you know, it's as it goes.

2041
01:43:47,760 --> 01:43:50,680
Speaker 1: We'll get there. Eric. Where can people find you on

2042
01:43:50,720 --> 01:43:51,239
social media?

2043
01:43:52,760 --> 01:43:54,479
Speaker 3: I don't do a ton of social media these days.

2044
01:43:54,479 --> 01:43:58,479
I mostly just randomly shout thoughts into blue Sky over

2045
01:43:58,520 --> 01:44:01,159
at smusy. So if you want to just see really

2046
01:44:01,439 --> 01:44:03,640
dumb posts and thoughts that I have at like two

2047
01:44:03,680 --> 01:44:06,159
in the morning, that's a great time to just go

2048
01:44:06,199 --> 01:44:10,079
find that and be rewarded for that. Yeah, find me

2049
01:44:10,119 --> 01:44:10,520
over there.

2050
01:44:10,600 --> 01:44:12,920
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and hey, first of all, thank you again

2051
01:44:12,960 --> 01:44:16,039
for joining us. Where can people find you online? And

2052
01:44:16,119 --> 01:44:18,479
please feel free to plug anything that year working on.

2053
01:44:18,960 --> 01:44:21,159
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you can find me on blue Sky for

2054
01:44:21,239 --> 01:44:25,279
social media at soul Fleet sol Fleet. Most of my

2055
01:44:25,359 --> 01:44:28,640
work will be on Inverse dot com, but in the

2056
01:44:28,640 --> 01:44:33,199
near future I will be launching a new newsletter. It's

2057
01:44:33,319 --> 01:44:36,760
RPG focused that's entirely my own, so keep an eye

2058
01:44:36,760 --> 01:44:37,119
out for that.

2059
01:44:38,680 --> 01:44:41,880
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Well, thank you for listening, guys. Everybody on

2060
01:44:41,960 --> 01:44:45,079
YouTube Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you enjoyed the show. We

2061
01:44:45,199 --> 01:44:47,840
love you so much and we'll see you next Thursday.

2062
01:44:47,920 --> 01:45:16,520
What a new episode of the Game and former show. Bye.

