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Speaker 1: Welcome back, everyone to the Game Informer Show, a weekly

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podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday

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for a discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and

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exclusive reveals, alongside Game and Former staff and special guests

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from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts today,

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Alex van Aiken, and today I'm joined by Kyle Hilliard.

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Speaker 2: How you doing, Kyle, Hey, sleepy, it's snowing again. We

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had a day of warmth and now it's snowing again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you know, we had our first false winter,

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which one Eric Van Allen will come to learn that

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we have multiple of those before spring. What are y'all

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doing up here? What do y'all? This is crazy? This

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is wild. This is I think last year I counted

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three false springs last year before we finally hit real spring.

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It's a false spring, like like for a moment, the

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weather's like, oh, you have tastes, you get like a

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little tea, you like sun?

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Speaker 2: Well, back to Darles, you like going outside without a

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jacket on.

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Speaker 1: You almost thought I'll do with vitamin D gummies and

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now right back to him. Yeah, you know it's it's

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a respite, so I'll take it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's what you do.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna have a good show today. We're gonna

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be talking God of War Sons of Sparta, which is

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the new two D Metroidvana I believe set in that

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God of War universe. It's out now. Our Kyle's got

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the new Nintendo Switch Virtual Boy.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna be checking that old Virtual Boy as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, as well as Eric's Paranormal site review, which is

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a very cool, very highly rated now mystery game. And

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then I want to talk about Cairen because I'm I

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love that game. So it's gonna be a fun show

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this week. Of course, before we get into it, I

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do just want to say, if you are wanting to

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support the show in a real big way, please consider

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picking up a copy of Game Informer magazine. You can

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get yours a Game Informer dot com slash subscribe you

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can get ten issues a year delivered to your mailbox.

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Great quality paper, great honestly, every every issue has like

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banger features and this new one is no different. We've

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got Double O seven first Light on the cover right now.

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And yeah, we're really I've been really enjoying seeing all

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the features in there that we've got one on Love

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and Deep Space by Nicole Carpenter. We've got a lot

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of great stuff in there. But that's a great way

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to support us. If you don't, I know that that

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ships to us only. So if you're looking internationally to

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get a physical copy of our magazines, you can go

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to your local newsstand and they should be there. If

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you can't, you can definitely inquire, and yeah, it's a

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great way to support us. Get a physical gaming magazine

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in your hands. Of course, we also have digital versions

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of our magazine available for cheaper at gaminformer dot com

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slash subscribe. Guys, let's get into it, Kyle, I want

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to hand it off to you. Tell us about God

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of War Sons of Sparta, a game that Shadow dropped

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during last week's PlayStation State of Play, and I actually

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haven't heard much about it online at all, which leads

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me to believe maybe it isn't the best. But I'll

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leave you to correct me if I'm wrong.

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Speaker 2: It's it's it's mediocre, politely, all right, it's got it's

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got some it's got some pros, it's got some cons. Okay,

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it's I'm working on the review. Uh so I'll have

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a proper score review on site, hopefully before the end of week.

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Hopefully by the time you're listening to this. It's it's

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on gameforma dot com, but it's it's a Metroidvania and

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it in it it's Krados as like a teen. His

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brother's eleven, which is funny because demos.

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Speaker 1: Amos is his brother. Right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he feels older actually when you play the game,

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but they keep talking about how he's eleven years old.

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I don't know exactly how old Crados is.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: I used to work with a youth group many many

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years ago, and there was an eleven year old that

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had a full fledged beard and was balding, and I'm like,

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what are you eating? That's that's it was crat no exaggeration,

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it was why Benjamin stuff right there. That's awesome. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to alarm you, Alex, but I think

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that was just an adult posing as an eleven year old.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, totally.

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Speaker 2: Group is that's where the kids hang out? Yeah, no,

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but it's so Yeah, it shadow dropped. It was interesting

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they announced it was it was kind of an odd

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thing in the state of play, which we talked about

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last week, but it was like, Hey, we're remaking the

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God of War trilogy. Aren't you excited about that? Here's

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the original voice actor. We don't have any game to

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show you, but he's here.

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Speaker 1: Oh.

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Speaker 2: By the way, we did make a full fledged two

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D God of War prequel TC cars in his back

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is as as adult Credos, and it's like a full

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Metroidvania in here. You can have it right now. And

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that was that was shocking and surprising, and as as

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a long time God of War fan, like I was

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there day one for God of War one, you know,

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like I have played every game at launch, including the

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very underplayed pre smartphone God of War mobile game God

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of War Betrayal. I even played that one.

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Speaker 1: You've been in the trenches.

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Speaker 2: I've been in the trenches, man. But I love this

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sort of world and sort of fiction and narrative and

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story of God of War. I like seeing Credos' life.

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You know, this is he's had a really devastating, heartbreaking

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life and it's led him in a lot of interesting

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directions and you know, like encountering a lot of gods,

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and so I am quite enjoying the part of the

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game that is, Hey, here's Credos as a kid, you know,

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like a young Spartan trying to like you know, sort

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of be on track to become a leader at Sparta.

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And he's like and he's hanging out with his brother,

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and the dialogue is good because from what I understand,

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like the you know, the the Sony Santa Monica writers

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are involved with the game. They didn't fully hand over

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the game to a third party developer. But then the

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actual game is like just south of solid, Like it

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is a pretty underwhelming metroid Vania and just in terms

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of general design, and the combat is like just a

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lot of rolling behind enemies and hitting them with your

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spear as much as you can. I haven't really even

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had a lot of success of like diving into like

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you know, the sort of the strategies and the counters

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and stuff like that. It's just like it's not it's

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it's not great. I mean, yeah, this is this is

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really damning praise it's not even praise. This is really

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damning thing to say. But I think it is the

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weakest God of War game if you don't really count

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that sort of no ca a mobile game, which I

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think you kind of like can't count that, you know.

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Speaker 1: I guess I'm curious. You know, this is a prequel

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and I am not as familiar with I didn't play

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the original God of Wars like I got in on

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the series with the remake or like the reboot or

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absorbs in twenty eighteen and really enjoyed that. But I

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you know, I I've watched cutscenes, I've I've been there

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for I know there's like, you know, some big cultural

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moments that have happened with God of War, and you know,

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I used to watch X playing that kind of thing,

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so I would like, you know, absorb like in general,

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you know what was happening with the series, But as

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somebody who doesn't know the whole story of how Kratis

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comes to become a god, what does that look like

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in this game? Like are you encountering deities and in

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gods and monsters or are you just fighting dudes?

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Speaker 2: You are fighting monsters, like you're fighting cyclopses and gros

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and Greek monsters and things like that. Yeah, but the

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gods is interesting because you get kind of like gifts

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from the gods, like you get you know, your double

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jump is from Nike and stuff like that, you know,

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and it's and there are conversations, which is where the

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game is the strongest. Between Credos and Demos's brother, who Damas,

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is interesting because like he's always been in the fiction.

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He primarily appeared in one of the PSP games. But

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I mean this might shock you to learn that he

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has kind of a sort of a tragic relationship with

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his brother as well. Yeah, nothing in his life goes

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well for Credos, but yeah, like there's these conversations between

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Crotos and Demos where they're kind of discussing sometimes, like,

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you know, how do we feel about the gods, and

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Credos is like, well, I you know, I think I

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think they're helpful. I don't know. I don't really trust them,

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but I don't I don't know, I don't know what

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to think, you know. And then the God of War

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one is where you know, everything kind of goes to

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hell or Credos like literally.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like my understanding of the story is his family

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is killed, his ashes there, their ashes are bound to

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his skin, and that's why he's so pale, and maybe

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he somehow becomes a god from that.

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Speaker 2: The tragic the tragedy of the original God of War

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is that the gods tricked Credos into killing his family. Okay,

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Creatos is the one who killed his wife and daughter

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because he was like on a mission from the gods,

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and he understandably was very upset by that and betrayed

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by the gods, and that's why he went on a

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rampage to start killing gods. And you kill Aris, the

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God of War at the end of the first God

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of War game, which is how you sort of earn

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that title. Like it was kind of a twist at

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the time the game was called God of War because

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you were going after the God of War. But then

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like at the end of the game, you realize, oh,

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that's me. I'm you know, dag yourself, I'm God of War,

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you know. Yeah, and uh, and then there's more to

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it than that, you know, in the second games that interesting,

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but yeah, I mean, so this is a period of time.

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It's it's weird because it's like the game is framed

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by Credos telling a story to his daughter Calliope about

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when he was a kid. So you have basically a

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version of the world that takes place well before God

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of War one, where he was a dad for the

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first time, he was a family man, and he was like,

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you know, here he is spending time with his daughter

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and telling a story about hey, here's here's when me

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and my brother got into some crazy shenanigans. And like,

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as someone who really enjoys the sort of narrative God

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of War and the characterization of Credos, I liked that

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part of the game. I like that story. I like

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seeing more from Calliope. Like Calliopes like appeared like in person,

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so to speak, in like in God of War, Chains

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of Olympus on PSP, Like he found a version of

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her in hell and had to like literally separate her

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himself from her, and it was actually really heartbreaking and

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well done. So it's like it's cool to see that

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version of Creatos again after spending so much time with

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what is ostensibly his new life, you know, like he

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had to leave that life behind. It didn't exist anymore,

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and that's where he you know, got into the North

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Norse pantheon and treys and stuff like that. So like

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it's as someone who's been investing in God of War

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since the beginning, it's it's fun to see that. But

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like it's the game is just is just south of okay.

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Like the like it's it's just like a really mediocre

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metroid vania game, which is tough in twenty twenty six

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when the genre is flourishing and there's so many amazing

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versions of it, like The Hollow Knights of the World

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and things like that in the recent Prince of Persia,

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which I love, Like it's hard not to play this

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game and be like, Prince of Persia did this better,

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which is funny because the Spartans are literally a war

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with the Persians in the sort of.

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Speaker 1: Pess of the game. It feels like with with metroidvenas

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these days, you know, a lot of criticism for the

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most part is like you know, a more nitpicky, like

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does choices, you know, and and really you get into

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a lot of the like tackling of the themes because

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that's really where like the genre has kind of expanded into, like,

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you know, interesting themes like with you know, oppressive religion

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in Holly Night Silk Song and you know, stuff like that.

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And so it's interesting to hear from a a first

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party Triple A you know backed game kind.

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Speaker 3: Of like with asterisks, right, like yeah, with an asterisk,

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but like funded by by Sony, not hitting like the

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fundamentals when you've got all of these indie teams that

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are kind of nailing it, which is very interesting to me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, But it's like it's it's cool for God

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of War fans. It's like a it's like a decent

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like like subdecent Metroidvania game in a world that I like,

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you know what I mean. It's like it's like, yeah,

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I don't think those games shouldn't exist. I'm glad that

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they went after it and had this idea that they pursued,

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and and and it's cool in that way. And it's like,

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in that way, I would be like, yeah, if you

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like love God War and you've played them all, like,

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I don't think you should skip this one. But maybe

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if you're like a casual God of Orphan or you've

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only played the recent ones and you you know, aren't

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really like you have a higher standard for this genre,

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which which which we all do. You know, if we're

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like hardcore gamers, like, there's a good chance you've played

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and loved at least one really great Metroidvania and this

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isn't a great Metroidvania. It's just not.

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Speaker 1: I know, I know you're still finishing the game and

256
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figuring out your score. I'm just curious for the sake

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of our conversation because people can go and probably read

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your actual review when they're listening to this. But like

259
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what currently today where you at score wise with this?

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If you had to, like, you know, boil it down

261
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to like a window, is it like five or six

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something like that?

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Speaker 2: It is between that six and seven zone, like six

264
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five seven. It's kind of where I'm where I'm at

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right now, which could change, you know, go check out

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to you see where I landed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting? And how long I'm curious have

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you spent playing it so far?

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Speaker 2: I'm in?

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Speaker 1: How far would you.

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Speaker 2: Say, or you are I'm like nine or ten hours in,

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maybe even up to twelve I'm not I'm not sure exactly,

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but it doesn't feel like I'm sprinting towards the end,

274
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if that makes sense, right, Like if I had to guess,

275
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I would say I'm probably like seventy percent through, maybe

276
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sixty seventy percent through at like between ten to twelve hours.

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So I don't know how long it is, you know,

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I don't know how substantial it is.

279
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Speaker 1: Well, one final question for me, what has been the

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most fun enemy to defeat in this game.

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Speaker 2: I mean the introductory ones, because you just kind of

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pull them and move on, you know, like there's not

283
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like that's the combat's kind of underwhelming.

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Speaker 1: I'm not really Yeah, there's not a ball cool boss

285
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fights are that like do interesting things.

286
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Speaker 2: I mean, there's been a couple of cool boss fights,

287
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but like, I mean not really. Man not to be rude,

288
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I'm sorry, you're being real.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric, I'm curious, like what your thoughts are. Interest

290
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level is on Sons of Sparta pretty low, to be honest,

291
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I feel like I'm a little burned out on the

292
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two D Metroidvania these days. There's kind of a high

293
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bar for it, just because there's so many of them around,

294
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and there's such a good variety and quality of them

295
00:15:19,039 --> 00:15:22,519
around that you got to do something really interesting to

296
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catch my attention. I've got a backlog of some really

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good ones, like ender Lilies and stuff like that that

298
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I like to get around to at some point, So

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I think for Sons of Sparta would have had to

300
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do something really novel and unique. And I'm already not

301
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a huge gout a war fan. I don't really have

302
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a lot of nostalgia for the series or anything I

303
00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:45,159
did like twenty eighteen, but that was about it. So yeah,

304
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I just don't think this is the one for me.

305
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I think this is one of the games that I'm

306
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trying to be better in the year twenty twenty six

307
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and be like I will let some things fall into

308
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the background and let other people who are more interested

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on gistaff the banner for it. So unless we get

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to this.

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Speaker 2: I do with you guys for all multiplayer games.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, stay tuned for Paranormans, say discussion later in this

313
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:16,080
podcast episode. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, Sons of Sparta. I'm like,

314
00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,080
it seems like it's for a very specific subset of people,

315
00:16:20,159 --> 00:16:23,679
people who like two D metroidvanias like God of War

316
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and just want something in that realm. But it also,

317
00:16:26,919 --> 00:16:30,240
from the sounds of it, is not really doing anything

318
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:34,240
absolutely like you gotta see this. It's it's doing something amazing,

319
00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:36,679
and it's hard to say that in this day and

320
00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,759
age and this genre specifically, you do have to really

321
00:16:39,799 --> 00:16:43,159
like stand on the shoulders of giants in some ways

322
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to just stand out. So yeah, yeah, I have a

323
00:16:46,639 --> 00:16:48,720
theory that like when you shadow drop a game like this,

324
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,279
you're on this shadow dropping it to really make a

325
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,360
huge splash and like really take people by surprise or

326
00:16:55,399 --> 00:16:57,519
that you're like, hey, maybe let's not like throw this

327
00:16:57,600 --> 00:16:59,440
one out the previews and let's just like try to

328
00:16:59,759 --> 00:17:02,679
see if we can generate some excitement through a stealth

329
00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,079
drop to make some sales. Shadow drop is a marketing tactic.

330
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,880
It is, and it is I think in a lot

331
00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,720
of ways it can help drive excitement for something, especially

332
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,200
if you kind of want that rising tide of also

333
00:17:15,279 --> 00:17:19,119
announcing the God of War remakes and having everything out

334
00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:22,799
there ahead of time. But it is part of one

335
00:17:22,799 --> 00:17:25,680
of my larger favorite things that's happening in games right now,

336
00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,680
which is publishers being a little bit more lenient and

337
00:17:28,799 --> 00:17:31,359
lending out their ip to to third party studios to

338
00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:34,599
do cool things with and so in that realm, I

339
00:17:34,799 --> 00:17:36,200
support it, and I think it's cool.

340
00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:38,160
Speaker 2: But I'm glad they try.

341
00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:39,599
Speaker 1: This is a good well. I think it's just the

342
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,400
subject matter is not really doing it for me. Yeah,

343
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,119
that's fair. Well, Kyle, I want to kind of toss

344
00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:50,880
it back to you to talk about the Virtual Boy,

345
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:59,400
which is another, I think maybe more niche game that

346
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:02,119
you have a lot of Fatisa generous, not a game

347
00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:07,880
a game system. Rather, Yeah, why why why the Virtual

348
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,319
Boy in twenty twenty six. I have zero interest in

349
00:18:10,319 --> 00:18:13,920
this thing. I think it's silly that they are publishing this,

350
00:18:14,559 --> 00:18:16,400
but I want to hear it from somebody who is

351
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:18,880
number one, played a lot of Virtual Boy and has

352
00:18:19,319 --> 00:18:23,000
an original Virtual Boy. Yeah one is this worth picking

353
00:18:23,039 --> 00:18:26,119
up if I don't care about Virtual Boy? Like, is

354
00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:29,799
it is it somehow like revelatory in nature or is

355
00:18:29,799 --> 00:18:34,160
it just a toy that is going after your nostalgia

356
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:34,880
of people like you?

357
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:37,960
Speaker 2: Absolutely do? You do not need to purchase this thing

358
00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,559
or engage with it in any way. I Yeah, I'm

359
00:18:41,599 --> 00:18:44,319
kind of obsessed with the Virtual Boy, just as like

360
00:18:44,319 --> 00:18:47,799
a long time Nintendo fan and like being you know,

361
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:52,000
the age that if I had like income as a

362
00:18:52,079 --> 00:18:54,200
kid and I could buy whatever I wanted, Like I

363
00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:55,960
bought a Virtual Boy, you know, because I was like, well,

364
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,599
clearly this is the future, and I was, like I

365
00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:00,440
was young, and I've just kind of always been obsessed

366
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:04,119
with it as like this. I mean, Nintendo is so

367
00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:06,960
interesting and creative. We all have our qualms with Nintendo.

368
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,920
They're a ridiculous company that does silly things, but like

369
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,119
they really do try to do weird things, and the

370
00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:16,799
Virtual Boy was like maybe the sort of apex of

371
00:19:16,839 --> 00:19:19,400
that of like we have this like crazy idea that

372
00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:21,279
we're going to go all in on and we're going

373
00:19:21,319 --> 00:19:24,440
to invest a ton in it, and it is I

374
00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:28,480
mean without a doubt. I mean Nintendo's biggest failure by

375
00:19:28,559 --> 00:19:31,160
like a wide margin, like they that thing was like

376
00:19:31,279 --> 00:19:34,200
off you know, the store shelves, like within like two

377
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:36,039
or three months or something like that, like they canceled

378
00:19:36,039 --> 00:19:37,599
a whole slate of games because it was just like

379
00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:41,279
this did not work, oops, you know. And so I've

380
00:19:41,279 --> 00:19:43,759
always been obsessed with it as like what is otherwise

381
00:19:43,799 --> 00:19:45,759
a company with like a really great track record, like

382
00:19:45,759 --> 00:19:48,079
even though we you which is like maybe second place

383
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:52,240
for like the worst you know, Nintendo console in terms

384
00:19:52,279 --> 00:19:54,079
of like you know, sales and things like that. And

385
00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,319
what I'm saying is like that we still like there's

386
00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:58,640
a great system with great games on it, like you know,

387
00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,079
like they they just some times it just doesn't work.

388
00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:03,799
And and so I I my wife bought me a

389
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:05,359
Virtual Boy a couple of years ago because like I

390
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,079
would always look at them on eBay. It's just this

391
00:20:08,279 --> 00:20:12,400
curio of like I can't believe this thing happened, and

392
00:20:12,519 --> 00:20:14,200
I and I got one. She got one for me,

393
00:20:14,279 --> 00:20:17,480
and I played through Virtual Boy Warrio Land, which is

394
00:20:17,519 --> 00:20:20,599
like a great two D side scrolling Warrio game. It's

395
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,640
like genuinely a good game. Every other game I played

396
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:25,759
on the Virtual Boy is like hot garbage that like

397
00:20:25,839 --> 00:20:28,000
has like a frame rate of like half. You know,

398
00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:31,400
it's like it's like hard to play, and like nothing

399
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:34,599
really stands out to me other than Warrio. But all

400
00:20:34,599 --> 00:20:36,480
that to say is like the reason I'm like kind

401
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:38,799
of in love with this thing is I like Nintendo

402
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:42,359
sort of embracing their bizarre history in moments like this,

403
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:47,759
And and also it's like this is such a unique, specific

404
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,759
type of game that like only existed like truly for

405
00:20:51,799 --> 00:20:54,680
a matter of months. There was only this one bizarre

406
00:20:54,759 --> 00:20:58,480
way to play it to truly experience it, Like I mean,

407
00:20:58,599 --> 00:21:01,240
I think everyone's kind of upset that they just didn't

408
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,599
port these games to three DS, Like that feels like

409
00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,720
the best, Like that would have been a better platform

410
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,519
for it, frankly than the Switch. Honestly, I would have

411
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:12,319
rather played those games on on.

412
00:21:12,279 --> 00:21:14,519
Speaker 1: My Would the three DS be a better platform to

413
00:21:14,519 --> 00:21:17,319
play the games than a Virtual Boy? Yeah?

414
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,200
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, how absolutely, How.

415
00:21:19,039 --> 00:21:22,640
Speaker 1: Would you do that? Would you book open the three

416
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:24,440
DS and then just kind of like hold it up

417
00:21:24,519 --> 00:21:26,839
to your eyes to get like the split vision of it,

418
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:27,920
like the just the three D?

419
00:21:28,839 --> 00:21:30,400
Speaker 2: Yeah do you did? You forget that the three D

420
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:31,279
S has stereoscope?

421
00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:33,640
Speaker 1: It has stereoscopic three D? But then what do you

422
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:35,559
put on the bottom screen? Does it just say like

423
00:21:35,839 --> 00:21:40,119
look up there? Stupid? Like the menus it's a black screen.

424
00:21:40,559 --> 00:21:43,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, look at whatever they did for the Game Boy

425
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:49,240
Pokemon S. But but yeah, so, like I I'm fascinated

426
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:51,640
by just like historically, like it is like my favorite

427
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:55,720
that and the Phillips CDI like, you know, nint mash up,

428
00:21:55,799 --> 00:21:57,599
Like those are the two sort of things that I

429
00:21:57,599 --> 00:21:59,880
love about Nintendo history that I'm always like, like what

430
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,160
happened there? And so for Nintendo to put in this

431
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,680
colossal amount of effort to make Virtual Boy games playable

432
00:22:07,799 --> 00:22:11,119
in exactly the way that they were designed to be

433
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:15,480
played is like I think, frankly kind of amazing. Now

434
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,759
that being said, sitting down and playing a Virtual Boy

435
00:22:18,799 --> 00:22:22,720
game is an unpleasant experience that I don't recommend to people.

436
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,519
Like It's like I played through a bunch of not

437
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:27,839
through I booted up a bunch of the games, like

438
00:22:27,839 --> 00:22:30,400
I was excited to try, Like I played through Virtual

439
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,400
Boy Warrior Land, which I contend is like easily the

440
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,640
best Virtual Boy game and is like you could totally

441
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:38,599
play that as a fun two D warrior as like

442
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,119
it is a solid warrior game, and I'm and like

443
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,359
if they if you played it outside a Virtual Boy,

444
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:47,480
you'd have a great time. But like you know, booting

445
00:22:47,519 --> 00:22:50,640
up like Telerope Boxer, which is like you know, punch Out,

446
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,720
but like with like stereoscopic three D and like there's

447
00:22:53,799 --> 00:22:56,880
like a red alert is kind of star Foxy, but

448
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,400
it's like it's all wireframe and it's like a possible

449
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,720
to parse. They have Tetris three D, which like seriously

450
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:06,079
has a frame rate of like two. Like it's like

451
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:08,480
it just it's like I kind of get what they

452
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,519
were going for, but it's like it doesn't really work

453
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,240
and it's but I just I just like it, man,

454
00:23:15,319 --> 00:23:16,440
I like that it exists.

455
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 1: This is the sense Fit's like, I mean, it's the

456
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,680
sort of thing you can only make when you have

457
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:23,920
just made the switch and become like one of the

458
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:28,319
most insanely profitable like video game companies like you're you're

459
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:33,079
riding a high. You're doing very well, the Switch is selling,

460
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,359
and you're you're coasting off the success. Why not make

461
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,720
a virtual boy? Why not do this thing? So, I

462
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:46,160
I know, Switch Online Expansion Pack is required to access

463
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:52,519
the Virtual Boy catalog. There's also two skews for virtual Boys,

464
00:23:52,519 --> 00:23:57,000
the ninety nine dollars like real, real version of the

465
00:23:57,119 --> 00:23:59,319
you know, the new remake of the Virtual Boy, and

466
00:23:59,319 --> 00:24:02,599
then a cardboard version, right m that is. Yeah, it's

467
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:04,160
a sensibly cheaper.

468
00:24:04,519 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is very labo esque yeah, which which and

469
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,839
it functions the same way LABOVR did, where it's like

470
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:13,920
you actually put your system in there and there's like,

471
00:24:14,519 --> 00:24:17,480
you know, two mag basically two magnifying glasses in there

472
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:19,079
that kind of like what you would have in a

473
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:21,559
medical quest headset or something like that. Like you made

474
00:24:21,599 --> 00:24:23,480
it any kind of you literally hold it up to

475
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:26,359
your face like this and play it. Yeah. I don't

476
00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:29,279
have the cardboard one. I actually I purchased because I'm

477
00:24:29,279 --> 00:24:32,480
part of the problem. I purchased the proper Virtual Boy,

478
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:36,680
But I do I do actually think that the cardboard

479
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,039
one might actually be the more comfortable way to play,

480
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:42,400
because like you can just kind of like hold it

481
00:24:42,519 --> 00:24:43,920
up on your face and kind of be where you

482
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,400
want where the If you're playing with the proper virtual boy,

483
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:47,920
you kind of have to like sit at a table

484
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:49,400
and it's really it's uncomfortable, you.

485
00:24:49,519 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: Like really crouched down to Yeah, like what's the the

486
00:24:53,599 --> 00:24:56,000
Zelda enemy that's like is the red Heads or whatever?

487
00:24:56,079 --> 00:24:57,160
The kind of like hunch.

488
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 2: Over and like, yeah, they were the that they were

489
00:25:00,519 --> 00:25:01,720
inspired by versus they.

490
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: Need a monitor arm or something for this thing. I'm

491
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,119
sure somebody's gonna make a mod so you can have

492
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,240
like your monitors, your desk, your your podcast microphone, and

493
00:25:12,279 --> 00:25:14,599
then you could have your virtual boy mounted deer desk

494
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:15,079
as well.

495
00:25:15,759 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 2: I wouldn't mind. I wish they because they really were

496
00:25:19,799 --> 00:25:22,240
I pulled. There's a video on our social media channels

497
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:23,920
where I kind of I put them side by side.

498
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:25,880
I had my original one that I that I pulled

499
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,000
out and like compared it to the new one and

500
00:25:28,039 --> 00:25:30,279
it's identical. Like it's like they I don't know how

501
00:25:30,319 --> 00:25:31,839
they do it. I don't know if they just keep

502
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:36,000
those like blueprints around and they just like were able

503
00:25:36,039 --> 00:25:38,160
to send it back to the factory to like just

504
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:40,880
refill the mold, so I don't I have no idea

505
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:42,880
how that works, but it is like one to one

506
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,559
the exact same, and I I do wish they had

507
00:25:46,799 --> 00:25:48,960
like set it up so you so you could strap

508
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,440
it to your face. Honestly, like it would be more

509
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:53,519
comfortable if you could just strap it to your face.

510
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,319
Speaker 1: That was going to be my thing was. I don't

511
00:25:56,519 --> 00:26:01,039
think the like Oculus Quest version of this is necessarily

512
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,400
possible because pick up your switch to. If you're listening

513
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,160
to this podcast and and you're at home and you're

514
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,920
near your switch to, please lift it and then place

515
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,319
it directly onto your face and feel the heft of

516
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,880
that console, because like the switch to is heavier than

517
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,000
the Switch one, and not by like massive degrees, but

518
00:26:21,039 --> 00:26:23,880
it is a heavier piece of hardware. And you can

519
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,279
do that with to be fair to play Virtual Boy,

520
00:26:27,319 --> 00:26:28,960
you can you can do switch one as well.

521
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that doesn't but your point still absolutely stands out.

522
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,599
It's like a little heavy, heavy pieces of tech. I

523
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,720
do actually is it heavier than the Meta Quest. It

524
00:26:37,799 --> 00:26:38,160
must be.

525
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 1: I've played for hours on the Oculus Rift s and

526
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,799
that thing was heavy as hell. But they have like

527
00:26:45,839 --> 00:26:48,519
a lot of straps to like because there's always usually

528
00:26:48,519 --> 00:26:51,039
the back strap and then maybe like a top of

529
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:53,680
head one the top head, Yeah, there is. I always

530
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,359
thought they should have got like a chin strap in

531
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:56,799
there that you could lock in to kind of like

532
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,319
secure the jaw line, you know, and get like a

533
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,680
real ergonomics support going there. You already look ridiculous. What's

534
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:05,559
adding one more strap? Yeah?

535
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,319
Speaker 2: Usually you look cool when you're playing v R right.

536
00:27:08,599 --> 00:27:10,680
Always once you get you got that strap there, that

537
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,680
would it would be all out the window. Yeah yeah,

538
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,440
but yeah, no, I'll the Virtual Boy is is weird

539
00:27:16,519 --> 00:27:20,119
because like I, I don't know, I can't recommend it

540
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,079
to anybody. It's not fun to play. It's not like

541
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,599
there's this crazy awesome video game here that like you

542
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,720
missed out on because the Virtual Boy didn't take off.

543
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,200
You know, though we'll say Warrio is very good, but

544
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,079
like I, I just I'm a big fan of like

545
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,920
you can only play this thing this one way. You know.

546
00:27:39,039 --> 00:27:40,960
It's like why I like the playdate with the with

547
00:27:41,039 --> 00:27:43,799
the crank, cause it's like we are designing around this

548
00:27:43,839 --> 00:27:46,200
specific thing. I was talking about it on mind Max.

549
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,119
It's like it's the reason I was so adamant that

550
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,880
I had to go see Avatar at an Imax three

551
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,440
D with the high frame rate. You know, it's like

552
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,759
there's it's like this the only place to do that.

553
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,880
And like it's crazy to me that Nintendo figured out

554
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,160
a way to make it so that, like you can

555
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,079
play exactly how the Virtual Boy was back then, with

556
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:08,599
all of its flaws, you know what I mean, Like

557
00:28:08,599 --> 00:28:12,279
like I'm I welcome that and and and to and

558
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,160
potentially maybe on something positive here, like it does work,

559
00:28:16,519 --> 00:28:20,559
like it is stereoscopic three D well before that became

560
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,039
something that you could have in the home truly, you know,

561
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:25,160
like before there was that little stint of three D

562
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:28,119
televisions in the three DS of course, like this was

563
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:30,799
it ninety five or ninety eight or something like that,

564
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,519
Like they had you there were stereoscopic three D video

565
00:28:34,559 --> 00:28:38,160
games and like that's that's cool. That's it didn't work

566
00:28:38,279 --> 00:28:39,640
very well and it gave you a headache, but like

567
00:28:39,759 --> 00:28:42,319
they were going for it, and it works again. It's

568
00:28:42,519 --> 00:28:45,160
it works exactly as it did, which is cool to me.

569
00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:46,559
Speaker 1: I think it's neat you still get headaches.

570
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 2: I haven't played enough to experiment, but I'm presuming, yes,

571
00:28:53,039 --> 00:28:55,440
every Virtual Boy game that you start up. The first

572
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,119
thing that happens is it says, hey, do you want

573
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,319
us to pause automatically for you every like ten minutes

574
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,799
or so, Like they built that. That was a requirement

575
00:29:02,839 --> 00:29:05,279
for every Virtual Boy game that it was like, we're

576
00:29:05,279 --> 00:29:07,759
going to force you to pause playing this thing. And

577
00:29:07,799 --> 00:29:09,599
it's like, you can turn it off, but it always

578
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:11,440
asks you every time, which is so tough.

579
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,079
Speaker 1: There's a message at the start of hit indie video

580
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:18,279
game Mouthwashing that says, I hope this hurts, and I'm

581
00:29:18,359 --> 00:29:22,200
so happy that now Nintendo and Mouthwashing have something in common.

582
00:29:23,519 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 2: It's so funny. Yeah, that's basically what it's asking. Yeah,

583
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:30,720
so I like it, but it's like it is a

584
00:29:30,799 --> 00:29:35,240
flawed piece of history that is not like like it's

585
00:29:35,279 --> 00:29:37,279
it's less like look at this cool Nintendo thing we

586
00:29:37,319 --> 00:29:39,359
missed out on, and more this like, look at this

587
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,359
kind of terrible thing this company did that usually has

588
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,640
a pretty good track record. Don't you want to see

589
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,960
what that looked like? Don't you want to see your

590
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:49,680
favorite director's worst movie?

591
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 3: You know?

592
00:29:50,839 --> 00:29:55,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, for ninety nine dollars for plus plus what another

593
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,240
fifty or something for the expansion pass, you get the novel.

594
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:00,359
Speaker 2: Of course, the tile and all you know.

595
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, man, hmm, well, let's take it quick.

596
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:07,319
Speaker 2: You're buying it now?

597
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was me. That was being a

598
00:30:09,519 --> 00:30:13,839
quick break. They'll go buy the virtual car. Yeah, let's

599
00:30:13,839 --> 00:30:15,640
take a quick ad break. We'll come back and talk

600
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,680
about games that we are really enjoying, including Paranorma Site

601
00:30:20,079 --> 00:30:23,359
and Cairen. We'll be right back right after this, and

602
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,920
welcome back to the game and former show, Eric. I

603
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:29,559
want to toss it over to you. What the hell

604
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:35,279
is Paranorma Site? The mermaid the Mermaids Curse? I got it.

605
00:30:35,359 --> 00:30:38,599
Speaker 2: This is one of these ad libs, mad libs, games

606
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:39,799
words they're making up.

607
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:46,599
Speaker 1: And pretending experience on. Hold on, is the name Paranorma

608
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:52,039
Site kind of goofy? Yes it is. However, every subtitle

609
00:30:52,119 --> 00:30:56,720
of the now duology of Paranorma Site does have significant

610
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,720
relevance to the plot of the game. This is No. Three, five,

611
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,279
eight for two days or whatever. Kingdom Hearts fans, calm down.

612
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 2: But I actually, I know I'm being rude, but I

613
00:31:07,279 --> 00:31:08,480
actually think it's kind of a cool name.

614
00:31:08,599 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: It is when you finish the game, like it's one

615
00:31:12,039 --> 00:31:14,880
of those ones that suddenly you have new appreciation for

616
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,680
why it's a really good name for that game. It

617
00:31:17,759 --> 00:31:21,680
really does work. Parentorm Site is as I said my review.

618
00:31:21,839 --> 00:31:23,799
Check it out on game offormer dot com. I'll spoil

619
00:31:23,839 --> 00:31:26,880
you right now. It's a nine out of ten. Is

620
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,640
this not quite seql? But it's the second game I

621
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:34,160
never thought we would get because twenty twenty three Square

622
00:31:34,319 --> 00:31:36,960
nicks in what Over on Actable got I have described

623
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,599
as the Blunderbuss of video games. It was launching out

624
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,279
at the time. You had games like Triangle Strategy, Voice

625
00:31:44,279 --> 00:31:49,359
of Cards, doo Field Chronicles. There's an action RPG somewhere

626
00:31:49,359 --> 00:31:52,400
in there I can't remember. Harvest Stella is one of them.

627
00:31:53,119 --> 00:31:56,079
Square was trying a lot of new stuff, a lot

628
00:31:56,119 --> 00:31:59,640
of new IP, taking talented people and just giving them

629
00:31:59,759 --> 00:32:03,039
free rained to go try something and then blasting it

630
00:32:03,039 --> 00:32:07,119
out like an old sixteenth century blunderbuss across the bow.

631
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,319
Paranorma site was kind of in this era of Square Enix,

632
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,559
and it is made by a crew of people who

633
00:32:16,599 --> 00:32:18,640
I'm pulling up the director's name just so I don't

634
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,480
get it wrong, because I definitely am prepared and bring

635
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,759
my notes to everything, but a crew of people who

636
00:32:24,799 --> 00:32:28,839
have worked on past mystery games that really we have

637
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,880
not had the opportunity to get a chance to experience.

638
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,680
I love vamping as I'm searching for something. No I know,

639
00:32:37,079 --> 00:32:39,480
I mean, I do want you to say the director's name,

640
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:43,799
because then your review you said like taking Takenari Ishiyama,

641
00:32:44,039 --> 00:32:45,960
who has worked on multiple I'm not even going to

642
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,279
try to get you into the history of where they

643
00:32:49,279 --> 00:32:52,720
have been with games in Japan, in mystery games specifically,

644
00:32:52,759 --> 00:32:55,160
but basically someone who's been making some really good stuff

645
00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:57,400
that we just haven't had good opportunities to experience over

646
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:02,240
here in the West. With Paranorma site, the team undersquare

647
00:33:02,359 --> 00:33:04,200
Enix over there got a chance to just kind of

648
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,960
do something wild, and what it created was what I

649
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,960
can really only describe as a classically styled adventure game.

650
00:33:11,039 --> 00:33:15,559
If you've played Famicom Detective Clubmo The Smiling Man, you

651
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,200
kind of have an idea of what this already looks like.

652
00:33:18,599 --> 00:33:22,200
You have a lot of moving between areas, talking to characters,

653
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:28,039
investigating things. You might be looking at something like a landscape,

654
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,240
a surrounding, or you might be talking to somebody and

655
00:33:30,319 --> 00:33:33,400
kind of questioning them in order on different topics or

656
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:38,359
investigating things that seem interesting. That's like Layer one. It

657
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,160
is functionally that and the gameplay mechanics, as I note

658
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,960
in my review, are deceptively simple in that way. I

659
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:46,480
think a lot of people look at a game like

660
00:33:46,519 --> 00:33:49,079
this and they say, well, don't you just go and

661
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:51,640
talk to people? Don't you just click on things? And

662
00:33:52,759 --> 00:33:57,279
what paranorm Site does is it shows how incredibly powerful

663
00:33:57,359 --> 00:34:00,960
and malleable this format can be. Do you have a

664
00:34:01,039 --> 00:34:04,480
question or are you agreeing with my person? I question.

665
00:34:05,039 --> 00:34:11,239
I've just realized that paranorma site is a what do

666
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:17,480
you call them? It's it's panorama site, but yes, there

667
00:34:17,519 --> 00:34:21,920
is also panorama is in there? Yeah, and that's like

668
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,280
you're investigating like panoramas, aren't you.

669
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 3: Yeah.

670
00:34:24,679 --> 00:34:26,559
Speaker 1: One of the really cool things that they do is

671
00:34:26,599 --> 00:34:32,519
they have these three hundred and sixty degree locations that

672
00:34:32,559 --> 00:34:34,719
you go to that you can kind of spin around,

673
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,880
and they're gorgeous. The artwork in these games absolutely gorgeous,

674
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,280
and the characters kind of stand out, like these two

675
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:45,559
D cut out models of hand painted or hand drawn

676
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,760
characters in these gorgeous vistas. It's a really cool look

677
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,639
that looks even better in the new game. The old

678
00:34:52,639 --> 00:34:54,840
game Paranorma site. The first one in twenty twenty three

679
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,400
seven Mysteries of Honjo was mostly set in a city

680
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,519
at night, so you had a lot of brutalists like

681
00:35:02,599 --> 00:35:07,000
gray urban buildings and dark corridors and hallways and things

682
00:35:07,039 --> 00:35:08,519
like that, so you didn't really get to see a

683
00:35:08,519 --> 00:35:13,159
lot of like color or like vibrant stuff come through,

684
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,440
and so it was really the characters that looked really good,

685
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:20,719
but the environments were all very drab and but by necessity.

686
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,679
In this one, it's set on a small island of

687
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:28,880
Kamashima off the coast in Japan, where a lot of

688
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,480
people make their living doing ama diving, which is free

689
00:35:31,519 --> 00:35:37,360
diving for shellfish and sea urchins, stuff like that, lobsters

690
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:44,039
and pearls. And basically you wind up at the center

691
00:35:44,079 --> 00:35:48,239
point of a convergence of curses where a lot of

692
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:53,239
weird things have all been happening that seem potentially related.

693
00:35:54,199 --> 00:35:58,559
A corpse is found that looks like a mermaid, a

694
00:35:59,199 --> 00:36:04,320
storm is off the coast. Kind of the main character,

695
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:06,320
I would say, or at least your focal point character

696
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,000
when you enter the story is a kid returning to

697
00:36:10,119 --> 00:36:12,599
the island five years after a tragedy, took the lives

698
00:36:12,599 --> 00:36:15,559
of his parents to try and understand what happened and why,

699
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:17,880
because he believes there's some deeper meaning to it, and

700
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,960
so he has started free diving to try and understand

701
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:28,360
what happened. And as you progress through this story, eventually,

702
00:36:28,599 --> 00:36:31,679
at some point you will hit a moment where you

703
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:34,079
get bounced back out and there's like a storyteller. If

704
00:36:34,119 --> 00:36:36,320
you've played the Dark Pictures games, you will kind of

705
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:41,199
be familiar with this narrator, very horror anthology style, and

706
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:43,519
he introduces you to the idea that there's a story chart.

707
00:36:43,559 --> 00:36:45,599
This has a flow chart. So if you've played games

708
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:49,760
like nine nine nine Virtues Less Reward stuff like that,

709
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,679
you'll Detroit Become Human uses the same model as well.

710
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,719
Sure yeah. You can then jump to the different focal

711
00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,960
points of other characters and start exploring their stories, what

712
00:36:59,079 --> 00:37:01,039
they are seeing, what they are doing, and how they

713
00:37:01,039 --> 00:37:03,960
are kind of disparate, and then connect back together and

714
00:37:04,119 --> 00:37:07,239
overlap with each other in very interesting ways, all the

715
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:09,840
while trying to solve the mystery of what is happening

716
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:15,119
and can you stop it? And I think this game

717
00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:19,119
is fantastic. I think it's really, really good. Like I said,

718
00:37:19,159 --> 00:37:21,199
I think it shows the power of what an adventure

719
00:37:21,199 --> 00:37:25,159
game can do because within all those seemingly simple things

720
00:37:25,159 --> 00:37:29,039
of going into a flow chart, exploring the outcome of something,

721
00:37:29,119 --> 00:37:33,239
bouncing back out, going somewhere else, learning new information, it

722
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:38,360
does so many cool little things that you don't expect

723
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,840
a game like this could do. There are files that

724
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,239
the game gives you, giant files about the traditions and

725
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,800
culture that are all based on real things. I actually

726
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,360
bought a book because of this game, because I wanted

727
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:52,000
to learn more about the backstory and the culture that

728
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:56,679
inform this game, about the Hiki, which is this classic

729
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,360
tale of a family that falls on hard times. They

730
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:03,199
were kind of like to fall on themselves, and a

731
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:05,519
lot of that then presents in the game as this

732
00:38:05,639 --> 00:38:08,679
really interesting backdrop, and it gives you tons of information

733
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,719
files that you can pour over and those become relevant,

734
00:38:12,119 --> 00:38:15,760
like it ties real world culture and real world history

735
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,360
and fiction into solving the mysteries in the game, and

736
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,519
you have to kind of think and apply knowledge and

737
00:38:22,559 --> 00:38:24,559
then it'll give you little fiddly puzzles. There's more of

738
00:38:24,599 --> 00:38:26,679
those in this game than there were in the preceding one,

739
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:28,760
which I think is a really positive thing of having

740
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:31,199
puzzle boxes or just little things you have to solve

741
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,440
and figure out how to use the environment to do

742
00:38:33,599 --> 00:38:37,280
cool things in It's a very tactle game, and then

743
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:39,800
the kind of last third of the game takes some

744
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,199
massive swings that really pay off and culminates in like

745
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:45,880
a very blue Prints puzzle where you have to suddenly

746
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:49,119
examine the game from a metal level and start thinking

747
00:38:49,159 --> 00:38:52,159
about the broader picture and what is really going on here,

748
00:38:52,199 --> 00:38:58,119
and it's it's sublime, it's really good. I think the

749
00:38:58,159 --> 00:39:01,320
first game, Seven Mysteries of Home in twenty twenty three,

750
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,880
was a really cool oddity. Like I said in my review,

751
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:06,960
it felt like it was a flight of fancy from

752
00:39:07,199 --> 00:39:09,039
a publisher that was just trying a lot of new

753
00:39:09,039 --> 00:39:10,320
things and seeing what's stuck.

754
00:39:10,519 --> 00:39:11,639
Speaker 2: That someone snuck it out.

755
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,599
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, someone managed to make this work.

756
00:39:16,199 --> 00:39:18,719
And so to see a new one announced in a

757
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:22,480
partner direct and then released basically what two weeks later,

758
00:39:23,679 --> 00:39:28,320
I'm so happy that the forces that be at Square

759
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:32,639
Nix realize that this is something worth continuing, and they've

760
00:39:32,639 --> 00:39:34,599
got a really good team in place to keep doing it.

761
00:39:34,679 --> 00:39:35,960
I hope there's more to come.

762
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 2: From it.

763
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,639
Speaker 1: I cannot express enough I think if you have ever

764
00:39:39,679 --> 00:39:43,920
been curious about adventure games, about what they can do

765
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,000
that makes them so interesting and not just a bunch

766
00:39:47,039 --> 00:39:50,000
of clicking on text and text bubbles and things like that.

767
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:52,320
This is a game to play. This is the one

768
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:56,639
you should check out. I really really like it interesting.

769
00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:00,559
About how long is it, I'd say it's probably about

770
00:40:01,039 --> 00:40:05,360
anywhere from ten to fourteen hours to get like to

771
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,440
the ending. And I would I would stratify that out

772
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:12,320
in that there's getting to what you would call kind

773
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,440
of the normal ending, and that's going to be fairly straightforward.

774
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,519
There's a lot of mysteries and puzzles to solve and

775
00:40:17,599 --> 00:40:22,119
things like that. You will be neurologically stimulated along the way.

776
00:40:22,519 --> 00:40:27,039
And then and then you have they tell you the

777
00:40:27,119 --> 00:40:31,320
game tells you, hey, that was an ending, like you

778
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:35,320
could stop there. But if you're like not cool with that,

779
00:40:37,199 --> 00:40:41,000
there's still some things you haven't really figured out yet, right,

780
00:40:41,559 --> 00:40:43,280
And that's the part that might take a little bit

781
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:45,360
of extra time that I would encourage a lot of

782
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:47,440
the people who've been playing early we kind of had

783
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,119
to put our heads together to solve some of these puzzles.

784
00:40:50,519 --> 00:40:54,599
And we are also broadly encouraging you to do that.

785
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:58,320
Guides are cool. Shout outs to guides writers. We love y'all.

786
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:03,559
But maybe try to either solve it yourself or work

787
00:41:03,599 --> 00:41:06,039
with people who are also in the process of solving

788
00:41:06,039 --> 00:41:07,559
it and try to put it together. Because the way

789
00:41:07,599 --> 00:41:09,960
it crafts those things is so cool. I would not

790
00:41:10,039 --> 00:41:13,039
want you to miss out on the aha moments that

791
00:41:13,119 --> 00:41:16,039
you get in what could possibly be another anywhere from

792
00:41:16,559 --> 00:41:18,840
thirty to sixty minutes to like several hours. I know

793
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:20,519
people who were on it for days who were just

794
00:41:20,559 --> 00:41:21,840
kind of like they would pick it up, they kind

795
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,000
of poke at it. I'm frustrated, walk away, come back

796
00:41:25,679 --> 00:41:27,679
do that. So that part I would say is like

797
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,079
your mileage may vary, but I think to just get

798
00:41:31,119 --> 00:41:34,119
to an ending point probably about ten to fourteen hours.

799
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,480
Speaker 2: The other really specific question I had was it's an

800
00:41:38,679 --> 00:41:41,880
M rated game. Yes it is? How it is it

801
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,599
pretty like it embraces that M rating pretty hardcore?

802
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:52,079
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's not it's not gory, but

803
00:41:52,199 --> 00:41:58,079
it is. There is blood. There, there is people dying.

804
00:41:59,119 --> 00:42:02,280
It is a horror game, and I think that is

805
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,760
maybe something I'm trying to stress a little less compared

806
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:07,360
to the first game. The first game had a lot

807
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,559
of there were multiple jump scares and things like that,

808
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:13,679
and just a lot of like scary vibes. Like I said,

809
00:42:13,679 --> 00:42:15,119
first game was set in the city at night and

810
00:42:15,159 --> 00:42:19,559
stuff like that. This one, The Mermaid's Curse, mostly is

811
00:42:19,639 --> 00:42:23,440
kind of more on the thriller side. There's maybe like

812
00:42:23,519 --> 00:42:25,920
a couple things that could be argued to be I

813
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,280
think there's one definitive jump scare, and then everything else

814
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:31,599
is just kind of you will be creeped out by it.

815
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:38,440
You will be in a sense of unease and kind

816
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:41,360
of that feeling of you are in a dark room

817
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:43,960
and you know that when you turn the lights on,

818
00:42:44,119 --> 00:42:47,440
it's not going to be a normal room. That feeling

819
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:49,840
sits with you in a few places. I think one

820
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,199
of my favorite mechanics in the game is there's a

821
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,800
section where you have a hand mirror and your character

822
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:58,519
thinks they're being followed. So everywhere you're going to all

823
00:42:58,519 --> 00:43:00,800
these different locations, you're pulling out a hand mirror and

824
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,239
kind of panning around to see if there's somebody behind you,

825
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:09,239
and it's it's really good. It's a really creepy it's

826
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,719
it's spine tingling. It's it's very good in that way.

827
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,360
But I would say there's not a lot of outright

828
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,360
jump scares that are going to make you leap out

829
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,400
of your seat or anything like that. Is much more

830
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:25,880
about the vibes. But I will say emorated language. I

831
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,400
think I remember there being a decent amount of language,

832
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:32,000
and then a lot of like blood, death, mature topics.

833
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:36,480
Not not outright getting into anything showing anything. But I

834
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:38,559
would say this this is going to appeal to somebody

835
00:43:38,559 --> 00:43:41,719
who likes something like true Detective in a way, like

836
00:43:42,039 --> 00:43:44,519
I think, if if that's your sort of jam, if

837
00:43:44,559 --> 00:43:49,039
you like those kind of detective stories that have a

838
00:43:49,079 --> 00:43:52,360
hint of the supernatural or in this case, a very

839
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:56,480
strong seasoning of the supernatural, because it is there's there's

840
00:43:56,519 --> 00:43:59,360
supernatural things a foot in this in this game, but

841
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:04,360
also a really human center to it that's really you

842
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,639
kind of build up and then bell curve back down

843
00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:11,960
to this very tight story about people and places and

844
00:44:12,039 --> 00:44:14,320
how those are affected by the events around them that

845
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,199
are happening. It's going to hit a lot of those

846
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:22,280
notes for you. All Right, you sold me. I really

847
00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:26,000
want to play this. Yeah, It's easily one of my like,

848
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,679
I know, we're only in February, so it feels trivial

849
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:31,599
to start to talk about, like what's your favorite game

850
00:44:31,599 --> 00:44:34,079
of the year so far, But this is easily my

851
00:44:34,119 --> 00:44:36,960
favorite thing that I've played so far in the first

852
00:44:37,039 --> 00:44:39,440
two months of twenty twenty six.

853
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:43,159
Speaker 2: And listeners grain of Salt here. Eric has not tried

854
00:44:43,199 --> 00:44:45,159
Virtual Boy yet, So can.

855
00:44:45,079 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 1: You imagine paranorma side in the Virtual Boy? The things

856
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:52,360
we could do? Yeah? Wow, yeah, I really I like

857
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,239
this game. I would highly recommend that people check it

858
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:56,440
out if you like, if you like adventure games or

859
00:44:56,440 --> 00:45:00,280
you've always been curious about them, it's this is the one. Well,

860
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,239
speaking of our favorite games of the year so far,

861
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:09,320
I'm about to talk about mine. That is Cairn if

862
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:13,719
you're if you're unfamiliar. This is a climbing like mountain

863
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:20,000
climbing rock climbing simulation game in similar vibes to like

864
00:45:20,119 --> 00:45:24,480
a A Quop, not in like the comedic, you know,

865
00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:28,360
absurdist way, but in the way that you are moving

866
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:32,719
while while climbing. You are moving one limb at a time,

867
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:37,159
and it kind of like automatically sorts like which kind

868
00:45:37,159 --> 00:45:39,639
of limb you're you know, is going to move next.

869
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:41,599
There is a way to manually do that for some

870
00:45:41,639 --> 00:45:45,519
of the more complex climbs, which I'd recommend. But this

871
00:45:45,599 --> 00:45:52,199
is a story about a prolific rock climber who is

872
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:59,840
clearly trying to escape you know, relationships in life back

873
00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:04,920
home and kind of finds comfort in the isolation that

874
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,719
comes from being on top of a mountain where you

875
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:13,880
can't communicate with people. And Ava is the protagonist. She

876
00:46:14,039 --> 00:46:19,519
is trying to summit Mount Kami, which is a you know,

877
00:46:20,119 --> 00:46:25,440
fictitious ancient mountain in this in this game that was

878
00:46:25,519 --> 00:46:31,440
once kind of inhabited by by a people group that

879
00:46:31,559 --> 00:46:35,840
have you know, seemingly left to go back down to civilization.

880
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:39,480
There are remnants of those that people group that you

881
00:46:39,559 --> 00:46:43,480
find and it's a really fascinating game in that way.

882
00:46:43,519 --> 00:46:49,400
But I think, you know, mechanically it is excellent. It

883
00:46:49,559 --> 00:46:57,679
is unique and feels fresh. I love the process of

884
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:02,639
finding a line up a mountain and using my limited

885
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:07,840
pitons to climb my way up. And one really cool

886
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,199
feature in the game is that you can look back

887
00:47:10,639 --> 00:47:13,800
at your entire journey. You know, I'm close to the

888
00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:17,559
top of the mountain, now I've I have I chose

889
00:47:17,639 --> 00:47:22,079
not to finish the game last night and instead try

890
00:47:22,119 --> 00:47:26,760
to complete another challenge, and so with what I think

891
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:30,280
is like the true ending. But no matter, I can

892
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,840
go back and see my entire line of where I

893
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,920
have climbed, my entire journey to the game, all the

894
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:40,519
way back to the start of the game without e

895
00:47:40,559 --> 00:47:43,159
loading the screen, which is really cool. It's a really

896
00:47:43,559 --> 00:47:45,880
great way to kind of show like, you know, the

897
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:51,559
cartography almost of this mountain, and it's really really eric

898
00:47:51,599 --> 00:47:53,599
looks at you're about Deskales. I was just gonna say,

899
00:47:53,599 --> 00:47:55,679
I've also I've been playing this one here and there.

900
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:57,119
I don't know if I'm going to get around to

901
00:47:57,159 --> 00:48:01,920
finishing it, but it's it's the physicality of it is

902
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:04,760
something that really struck me because coming from a team

903
00:48:05,039 --> 00:48:08,320
this is the game Bakers who did Fury, the sort

904
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:12,760
of top down boss rush Arcadie action game, and then Haven,

905
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:16,960
which was a co op RPG about to run away

906
00:48:17,039 --> 00:48:21,440
Starcross lovers. They don't They take a lot of very

907
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:25,880
conventional things and then do very interesting stories within those

908
00:48:26,039 --> 00:48:28,760
genre conventions, and so in some ways this is an

909
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:30,559
oddity for them, and in some ways it makes a

910
00:48:30,599 --> 00:48:33,000
lot of sense for them to just tackle something like

911
00:48:33,039 --> 00:48:36,840
this head on, but I think this might be their

912
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:37,679
strongest game.

913
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:38,199
Speaker 2: For me.

914
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 1: I love Fury, so that's saying a lot. But like

915
00:48:41,039 --> 00:48:46,440
Karen has some really incredible moments of just like you said,

916
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:50,039
when you're on that wall and you're trying to climb

917
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:53,199
bit by bit, you're searching for handhold, you're searching for

918
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,719
just the little indentations and grooves that your hands can

919
00:48:56,800 --> 00:48:59,039
reach out and just dig into to try and support

920
00:48:59,039 --> 00:49:01,880
your weight as you climb further, and you're looking I

921
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,039
hate a moment when I'm just sitting there and I'm

922
00:49:05,079 --> 00:49:07,159
in a bad spot because I look over and I'm like,

923
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:10,800
that is just sheer rock face all around me, and

924
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:12,599
I don't know how I'm going to do this. And

925
00:49:12,599 --> 00:49:15,840
you have to find all these little ways to spider

926
00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:20,159
out and like grip in and climb up the spine

927
00:49:20,199 --> 00:49:24,679
of something and just do this. This really incredible work.

928
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:27,239
I would love to talk to somebody who actually climbs

929
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,119
to be like, is is this kind of the closest

930
00:49:30,119 --> 00:49:33,360
thing we have to a climbing sim because it's it's

931
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:37,639
pretty intense, it's pretty serious. It is you know, you

932
00:49:37,639 --> 00:49:41,079
you have to really balance your character's weight and all

933
00:49:41,079 --> 00:49:46,599
of these, Like the stamina system is invisible. It is

934
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:51,480
told through animation and sound, and you know if you're

935
00:49:51,519 --> 00:49:54,119
about to fall, there's like a vignette that starts to

936
00:49:54,119 --> 00:49:58,159
close in on Ava the character. And so you're wanting

937
00:49:58,199 --> 00:50:00,400
to like stretch as far as you can make it

938
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,559
as high as you can without using your limited pitons.

939
00:50:04,679 --> 00:50:07,039
You know you will find as you explore, you'll find,

940
00:50:07,559 --> 00:50:10,199
you know, more pitons. You can find scraps, and a

941
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:13,320
piton is like a body and jam into the mountain

942
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:15,599
to add like a balaz so that way you fall,

943
00:50:15,679 --> 00:50:18,159
you can kind of like catch yourself out fall all

944
00:50:18,199 --> 00:50:21,920
the way down the rock. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, And there

945
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:24,000
are times when you will fall and you'll fall far

946
00:50:24,039 --> 00:50:25,719
and you'll die and you have to reload a save.

947
00:50:26,039 --> 00:50:28,400
It's like, ah, why didn't I put a piton in there?

948
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:30,400
You know. And so it's a lot of like mental

949
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:33,960
fortitude required to climb some of these these walls. I mean,

950
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:35,599
there is one climb in the game that took me

951
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:41,920
fifty minutes to climb to get from one one saved

952
00:50:42,039 --> 00:50:45,639
the next, and it took me several tries because I

953
00:50:45,719 --> 00:50:48,719
ran out of pitons on the way up and so

954
00:50:48,920 --> 00:50:52,840
it's really about like pathing and studying the rock. And

955
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:56,039
there's some really great camera tools they give you and

956
00:50:56,159 --> 00:51:00,639
maps that you can find that highlight certain routes, and

957
00:51:00,679 --> 00:51:05,239
the game does an incredible job at rewarding your curiosity

958
00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:09,960
and your your exploration. You will find, uh. You know.

959
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:13,119
One thing that one key system is that you've got

960
00:51:13,119 --> 00:51:16,079
this backpack on and you're carrying you have to manage

961
00:51:16,079 --> 00:51:20,480
your your hunger, your thirst, and your warmth. So there

962
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:25,679
are survival elements at play, and you're you're keeping those

963
00:51:25,679 --> 00:51:30,320
supplies in your backpack, and so in order to to

964
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:34,199
access your backpack, you have to either be on solid

965
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:36,920
ground standing. You can be at your camp site, which

966
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:39,599
is kind of one of the systems at play with

967
00:51:39,599 --> 00:51:44,119
the save system, or you can if you like, belay

968
00:51:44,199 --> 00:51:46,679
off off of your your piton you kind of hang

969
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:49,960
there secure. You can access what's in your backpack, but

970
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:53,920
if you're actively mid climb, you cannot. And so it

971
00:51:54,079 --> 00:52:01,440
creates this this sort of like additional uh consideration for

972
00:52:02,039 --> 00:52:04,400
where you're climbing to do I want to use my

973
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:07,840
supplies right now? You know? And and there is a

974
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:12,039
cooking system as well that you know you are combining

975
00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:16,679
ingredients to make certain recipes. You'll find recipe cards in

976
00:52:16,719 --> 00:52:19,639
the environment that tell you, oh, if you know, the

977
00:52:19,679 --> 00:52:21,800
people that used to live here used to combine goat's

978
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:25,880
milk and you know, let's say rice, and you know

979
00:52:26,159 --> 00:52:30,840
the benefits are this, and it's you're slowly collecting a

980
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:34,639
catalog of recipes or recipe book that allows you to

981
00:52:34,719 --> 00:52:40,119
kind of you know, monitor or maintain rather your your

982
00:52:40,119 --> 00:52:43,840
survival bars and stuff. But it's not in a really

983
00:52:44,519 --> 00:52:50,239
effective and easy to grasp way. It's not you know, I,

984
00:52:50,079 --> 00:52:52,320
if you aren't a survival fan, I wouldn't this. This

985
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:56,000
shouldn't turn you away. It's not like a true, you know,

986
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,119
sort of obduse survival game in that way. It's pretty straightforward,

987
00:53:02,159 --> 00:53:06,719
but it requires you to make, you know, careful consideration

988
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:08,920
on what you're carrying, what you're willing to eat now,

989
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:11,599
what you want to say for later, and also ties

990
00:53:11,599 --> 00:53:15,920
into that reward vector for you know, exploring. It's really

991
00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:18,679
it's really well done. And what I haven't touched on

992
00:53:18,840 --> 00:53:21,199
and I don't want to spend too much time on

993
00:53:21,199 --> 00:53:23,079
this because I know we have a heart out soon.

994
00:53:23,199 --> 00:53:29,239
But the characters in this game are really human and

995
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:36,199
relatable and there are some incredible performances in this from

996
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:39,960
the voice actor behind Ava. There are other side characters

997
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:48,360
that you meet that have really complicated emotions and serve

998
00:53:48,519 --> 00:54:02,280
as like contrasts to Ava's very logical isolate, isolate, isolating thinking, isolationist.

999
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:07,239
Thank you, thank you. And there are just some incredible

1000
00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:13,480
moments in this game, I think, really moving moments. And yeah,

1001
00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:18,079
it's just it's an incredible work. I really really think

1002
00:54:18,119 --> 00:54:20,719
that the game Bakers knocked it out of the park.

1003
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:24,760
I think Miller, Matt Miller gave the game of nine

1004
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:27,039
two five on our scale.

1005
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:31,639
Speaker 2: When he while ago, Yeah I would I probably would

1006
00:54:31,679 --> 00:54:34,559
have pushed it up to like nine point five or

1007
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:35,840
you know up there.

1008
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:37,400
Speaker 1: It's it's incredible.

1009
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:38,000
Speaker 2: Uh.

1010
00:54:38,119 --> 00:54:42,440
Speaker 1: And so if you have any faint interest in checking

1011
00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:45,480
this game out, I really employed it to play it.

1012
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:48,920
It's it's something really special. I think it's a game

1013
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,559
that we'll be talking about for years, and it's something

1014
00:54:52,599 --> 00:54:56,039
I think that solidifies the Game Bakers for me as

1015
00:54:56,079 --> 00:54:58,639
like a developer, I'm going to keep an eye on

1016
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:03,599
going forward. Having not played Haven, I did play a

1017
00:55:03,599 --> 00:55:05,199
little bit of Theory. I think that was like a

1018
00:55:05,199 --> 00:55:08,960
PlayStation plus game back in the day, but it really

1019
00:55:09,039 --> 00:55:10,719
kind of solidified them as like, oh, this is a

1020
00:55:10,760 --> 00:55:15,159
studio I'm going to be paying attention to. And it

1021
00:55:15,199 --> 00:55:18,239
feels inventive in the way that Death Stranding did for

1022
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:20,320
me when I first played that, and how it approached

1023
00:55:20,760 --> 00:55:25,280
the act of you know, moving and hiking. I think

1024
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:30,760
Karen does a similar thing and is really rewarding to

1025
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:35,519
master and to conquer. So yeah, I love that game.

1026
00:55:35,599 --> 00:55:39,400
It's so good. I say this like so Complimentarily. It

1027
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:45,880
smooths out the play to metaphor line, like the thing

1028
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:49,320
you are doing is telling you. The story is telling

1029
00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:52,400
you that it's conveying the themes. It wants you to

1030
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,079
understand what is happening, and it wants you to do that,

1031
00:55:55,199 --> 00:55:57,119
not just through the game showing you a cut scene

1032
00:55:57,159 --> 00:55:58,559
and being like this is what the game is about,

1033
00:55:58,599 --> 00:56:01,719
but by having you experience it in that moment, like

1034
00:56:02,079 --> 00:56:06,000
the act of play is feeding into all this stuff

1035
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:08,559
that is going on in Ava's head and through you,

1036
00:56:08,679 --> 00:56:12,880
the player of If I just zone in and focus

1037
00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:15,480
on the wall, the wall is all I need. The mountain.

1038
00:56:15,599 --> 00:56:18,559
I will reach the mountain. I can't stop. I'm getting

1039
00:56:18,639 --> 00:56:22,719
so close. The mountain is I will conquer this, this

1040
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:25,400
is what I am, this is what I do, and

1041
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:30,639
it so effortlessly just feeds into that thing that I'm

1042
00:56:30,639 --> 00:56:32,639
sitting here. I was playing it, I was like, this

1043
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:36,360
is just this is game theory, like a great crash

1044
00:56:36,360 --> 00:56:41,840
course in understanding how play can convey those ideas so effortlessly.

1045
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:44,920
It's done so well and I would even play it

1046
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:46,760
just for that if you like the idea of seeing

1047
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:50,880
how the act of playing a video game can tell

1048
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:52,920
you things without the game just having to tell it

1049
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:57,079
to you. It's it's very good for that. It's really solid. Yeah,

1050
00:56:57,519 --> 00:57:00,920
highly recommend. I love it. And if you're looking, if

1051
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:03,760
you're like, how the how do I spell Karen, it's

1052
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:08,400
c A I are in Karen. But yeah, I think

1053
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:10,760
that's gonna do it. For for the podcast this week,

1054
00:57:11,199 --> 00:57:14,840
we have reached the end. That was a lot of fun, guys.

1055
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:19,440
I really enjoyed that episode. If you if you want

1056
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:22,280
to follow the career here on social media keep up

1057
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:25,039
with us in the meantime. You can follow Kyle at

1058
00:57:25,119 --> 00:57:29,400
Kyle Hilliard, Kyle M. Hilliard, Kyle Hilliard.

1059
00:57:29,199 --> 00:57:30,920
Speaker 2: Kyle dot com, Blue Sky.

1060
00:57:31,199 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 1: There you go. You can follow Eric at c Moussey

1061
00:57:34,039 --> 00:57:36,880
that's s e A m O O s I and

1062
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:40,159
you can follow me at It's Van Aiken on Instagram

1063
00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:43,679
and Blue Sky. Don't forget share the show with a

1064
00:57:43,719 --> 00:57:45,800
friend if you liked it. It really does help us

1065
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:48,960
out a lot. And don't forget pick up a copy

1066
00:57:49,239 --> 00:57:51,920
of Game Informer magazine by going to Game Informer dot

1067
00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:55,440
com slash subscribe. All right, folks, that'll do it for

1068
00:57:55,480 --> 00:58:24,360
this week. We'll see you next week. Have a good weekend. Goodbye,