Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to Game Spot After Dark, Episode
Speaker 1: ninety one. I guess it's technically after dark because we're
Speaker 1: recording in the morning this time, trying to It's been
Speaker 1: a busy week, you know, a lot going on at
Speaker 1: Game Spot, but we're still here to make time for
Speaker 1: all of you and the podcast. I am your host,
Speaker 1: John Laczek, I'm sorry to say once again, and Lucy,
Speaker 1: we're not able.
Speaker 2: To say sorry for being the host again.
Speaker 1: Well that too, I mean, yeah, you're great, oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: But it's it's okay that I'm here because I'm also
Speaker 1: joined by a wonderful guest to help make this podcast
Speaker 1: excellent once again, I'm joined by Michael Lame. What to
Speaker 1: Do Baby? Returning? Is Ben Jenka?
Speaker 3: Is this the first time we've gone after dark? On
Speaker 3: the opposite side, I think, like from because it's the
Speaker 3: morning the earliest suspense.
Speaker 2: I think so, I think so, I mean, no after dark,
Speaker 2: what happens after dark? It's morning time this morning, I.
Speaker 3: Mean this is I can't believe you full circled it
Speaker 3: to a morning show.
Speaker 1: Also, Hi, and for the very first time, Evan.
Speaker 4: Langer, Hello, Hello, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Any of you who have listened to our spoiler cast
Speaker 1: for our Persona episodes might be familiar with Evan Big
Speaker 1: Persona boy.
Speaker 4: This is true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the rumors are true. Yeah, it turns out.
Speaker 2: Noah, he had some hesitation that He's like, wait, am
Speaker 2: I I.
Speaker 4: Thought I hated Persona? No, Persona sucks, Margana, get out
Speaker 4: of here. Wow.
Speaker 3: Wow Evan.
Speaker 2: Evan is a lovely person and I'm glad to have
Speaker 2: him here and I miss working with him, I miss
Speaker 2: seeing him in real life. So yeah, that's that's my
Speaker 2: testimonial of Evans, so everyone could trust us.
Speaker 1: My review of.
Speaker 2: Evan Langer is like a nine point five out of
Speaker 2: ten ship.
Speaker 1: The point fives.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know what I'm saying, Like you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Like you know what I'm saying, Like you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: I know, I know exactly. Yeah, Yeah I got you.
Speaker 4: I got you totally, you know.
Speaker 1: Like graphics, like you know, that's like a nine, and
Speaker 1: then like audio, Yeah, the.
Speaker 2: Viewers tilt, you know, reviewers till I give a ten.
Speaker 2: The sound I give a ten. Graphics are probably a nine.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll live with that. I'm good with that. We
Speaker 4: can sell a lot of copies with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Evan, since it's your first time on, we're
Speaker 1: going to be doing the Dayton Oh Boy, It's morning,
Speaker 1: the Chris from Dayton, Ohio segment, the music.
Speaker 3: Chris.
Speaker 1: There we go. All right, Evan, why don't you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about yourself, what you do here
Speaker 1: at game Spot and some of your favorite games.
Speaker 4: Well, hello again. My name is Evan Langer. I'm a
Speaker 4: video producer here at Game Spot. I started as a
Speaker 4: video intern almost two years ago, in June twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4: I've been here ever since. Turns of what I do,
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a ton of stuff over the years.
Speaker 4: I do a lot of like the Nintendo stuff for
Speaker 4: video preview review features. Done a lot of stuff with
Speaker 4: my boy Kurt, which do I love working with. I
Speaker 4: did true fiction when we did Save State the news show.
Speaker 4: I was the editor for Generation Next. I used to
Speaker 4: Live Switch the podcast, so we did that in the office.
Speaker 4: I'm sure there's plenty of other things, but I won't
Speaker 4: waste more people's time. So there's a bunch of stuff there.
Speaker 4: What I like playing, I guess I kind of already
Speaker 4: said it, but Nintendo, Nintendo First Party Games, the first
Speaker 4: system I ever owned, was a Nintendo GameCube and the
Speaker 4: first game I ever owned was the win Waker, and
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure my life trajectory has been set at
Speaker 4: that point. So yeah, usually whenever there's like a Nintendo
Speaker 4: first party game, I'll check it out. As we said
Speaker 4: at the top of the podcast, Persona, I do love
Speaker 4: Persona lot. Persona five Royal is my second favorite game
Speaker 4: of all time, behind Winwaker. Recently got into Yakuza thanks
Speaker 4: to the three people on this.
Speaker 3: Podcast, the fives.
Speaker 2: He's a young crime boy over here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm still new to it, but over the course
Speaker 4: of Quarantine, I've played through Yakaza zero through seven in judgment,
Speaker 4: all very very fantastic and uh yeah, I mean other
Speaker 4: than that, I also like Sony's first party stuff. Most
Speaker 4: people call it playing a movie. I like the fact
Speaker 4: that you're playing a movie. Yeah, is there anything more
Speaker 4: I should say?
Speaker 2: I just want to say that Evan has done everything.
Speaker 2: He's done everything well and it's uh, it's yeah, that's
Speaker 2: that's my boy. That's my second testimonial.
Speaker 4: Right, thank you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate because you were talking about like true true
Speaker 2: fiction and like like actual like production like stage production
Speaker 2: or like shit like that. I'm like, oh damn, I
Speaker 2: almost forgot that. That's how far you go back. Because
Speaker 2: Evan's a young boy, We're like, what you're like twenty two,
Speaker 2: twenty three, and I'm like, you've done it all already.
Speaker 4: So thank you, thank you, well star. You can thank
Speaker 4: specifically the founder and former host of this podcast, Jake Decker,
Speaker 4: who took a chance on me and gave me a
Speaker 4: ton of opportunities. So forever, thankful to that man for
Speaker 4: putting me in the position I am today. So yeah,
Speaker 4: all right, out to Jake.
Speaker 1: Oh righty, Well, why don't we just move right onto
Speaker 1: what we've been playing. I guess I'll start just because
Speaker 1: I don't have too much to say. I've been playing
Speaker 1: more Reternal Hot Game this week is the hot game
Speaker 1: this week. Our review is up. You can go check
Speaker 1: it out. It's from Mike Epstein, who gave it a
Speaker 1: nine out of ten.
Speaker 2: She goes read that sharp, yeah, sharp review as well.
Speaker 2: I help edit it, but yeah, that fool was spitting oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you should also go check out the video review,
Speaker 1: which I edited and I thought, I think it's pretty good.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't have much to say outside of
Speaker 1: what I said last week other than damn, that game's
Speaker 1: still real, real good. It looks great, it sounds great.
Speaker 1: I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm all worried. I'm worried it's gonna
Speaker 1: get passed by because it's a it's PS five only
Speaker 1: it's coming out, you know, right before Resident Evil Village,
Speaker 1: before Mass Effect. You know, all these other games are
Speaker 1: coming out. It's seventy bucks. Seventy bucks, which you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not one to debate, you know, game game value
Speaker 1: versus cost. I do think it's you know, it's a
Speaker 1: fantastic game. Like, if it's the game interests you, it's
Speaker 1: it's worth the money. But that is not in substantial
Speaker 1: chunk of change. So I absolutely understand if people are
Speaker 1: hesitant to check something out, especially a new ip like that.
Speaker 1: But if it does interest you and you have a
Speaker 1: PS five, I really do think it's worth checking out,
Speaker 1: either now or down the road, maybe when it goes
Speaker 1: on sale. If you're you know, not sure at the
Speaker 1: moment ary, you already got your money devoted to other games.
Speaker 1: Because it really I do think it's it's something special,
Speaker 1: like house Mark is just absolutely knocked out of the
Speaker 1: park with it like it. It feels fucking fantastic, It
Speaker 1: looks great. This is the kind of game you want
Speaker 1: to put headphones on, you want to get that that
Speaker 1: tempest three D audio going the the dual sense, Like
Speaker 1: it's a good showcase of the p S five, I
Speaker 1: would say, which I think maybe like that That's kind
Speaker 1: of my hope is that. I think I think people
Speaker 1: with PS five or maybe have they been itching for
Speaker 1: like a good next gen uh next gen game to
Speaker 1: really show off what their their systems can do. And
Speaker 1: this is definitely definitely one of those games. So yeah,
Speaker 1: if if that uh that roguelike structure like interest you
Speaker 1: if you're into sort of like creepy alien mystery kind
Speaker 1: of you know, like it's got it's got that deep lore.
Speaker 1: Phil Hornshaw, who's game spots like Lore boy, he loves,
Speaker 1: he loves, he loves spitting about like Destiny Law all
Speaker 1: the time and he's he was like, dude, like you
Speaker 1: gotta beat. I got talked about the lore in this game,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh shit, okay, all right, so uh.
Speaker 2: Phil Lorshaw, Yeah, that's what we putting now. Ten page
Speaker 2: things for Eddie's like a quick edit on this destiny
Speaker 2: lore thing. I open it up, I'm like this motherfucker's
Speaker 2: oh my god, and like I don't understand ship, but
Speaker 2: you know what, it's well put. So that's you can
Speaker 2: trust Phil on your maternal lore.
Speaker 1: You can.
Speaker 3: You can when you read hell of books, you get
Speaker 3: all the lore.
Speaker 2: Yeah he's wild sci fi nerd as well. He is
Speaker 2: he is, so yeah. He he also has been playing
Speaker 2: it and loves it. So yeah, I really can't recommend
Speaker 2: it enough sick. Yeah y'all y'all were trying to convince
Speaker 2: me last night, or you specifically trying to convince me,
Speaker 2: and I think, like I want.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I talked about how like I don't know.
Speaker 1: I uh, I want some I want some ship. I want.
Speaker 2: I want I want a game where I can blow
Speaker 2: ship up. But I need I needed. It needs to
Speaker 2: be it needs to be cerebral on some level because then,
Speaker 2: like I was talking about how I would play Call
Speaker 2: of Duty to like bloll shit up. But then it's
Speaker 2: like I don't really have to think about Call of
Speaker 2: Duty because I'm that good at that game where I
Speaker 2: don't have to really think about what I'm what I'm doing.
Speaker 2: I just natural reaction as boy, you know the vibes.
Speaker 2: But once once my mind is turned off, then my
Speaker 2: mind so starts wandering. I start thinking about other things,
Speaker 2: and I can't have that when a playing game it
Speaker 2: needs to needs to like grab my full attention. But
Speaker 2: it seems like Returnal is challenging in a way that
Speaker 2: it is very it is very.
Speaker 1: Mental and uh in some in a big way. I guess, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And like I said, like you put on like the
Speaker 1: headphones and like the sound design is just like you're
Speaker 1: you're in it. You are you're in that game. And
Speaker 1: I mean when when that combat gets going, you have
Speaker 1: to pay attention because it is like wild, like there
Speaker 1: you get to these like really big combat arenas where
Speaker 1: there's been so many times that I've died just because
Speaker 1: I like focusing on like the ten enemies in front
Speaker 1: of me. But then there's like this guy like teleport
Speaker 1: and he just comes and right from behind and gets me.
Speaker 1: So like you you have to be just like constantly
Speaker 1: paying attention to your to your surroundings and kind of
Speaker 1: like you know, on the move, Like if you sit
Speaker 1: still for like even a moment, you will die. So
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a game that is just is
Speaker 1: just demanding your attention at all times when it comes
Speaker 1: to like the combat, like paternal Sketch covered. Oh all right,
Speaker 1: then why don't we move on to Michael? What have
Speaker 1: you been doing this shit?
Speaker 2: So I poured my heart out about Near Replicant last week,
Speaker 2: and that's all I fucking think about is Near Replicant.
Speaker 2: That game fucked me up. I've said as much last week,
Speaker 2: but it's it's almost the same feeling that I got.
Speaker 2: I talked about this last night when we were just chilling.
Speaker 2: Is that back in twenty seventeen when I played When
Speaker 2: I finished Persona five, like I was, I was in
Speaker 2: a mood where I couldn't play anything else because my
Speaker 2: mind is like preoccupied where trying to just trying to
Speaker 2: process the Persona five experience, And so I played. I
Speaker 2: played Near Automata in in twenty seventeen, but I couldn't
Speaker 2: play it right after. I tried playing it right after
Speaker 2: Persona five, and I was like, I can't. I'm not
Speaker 2: thinking about I'm not thinking about this game hard enough
Speaker 2: in this moment. So I'm gonna put this off and
Speaker 2: I'll play it later. And I eventually played in Near
Speaker 2: Automata later that year, and it was my second favorite
Speaker 2: game of twenty seventeen. But right now I'm in that
Speaker 2: mood where I've finished Near Replicant and like I can't
Speaker 2: play anything else because that's the thing I'm thinking about,
Speaker 2: And if I try playing another game, I'm still thinking
Speaker 2: about Near Replicant. It's like, yeah, so the closest thing.
Speaker 2: So this is what I did in twenty seventeen. After
Speaker 2: Persona five, I played Persona four Golden and that was
Speaker 2: the only game. This is the only game that would
Speaker 2: that can capture my attention in this moment. So I
Speaker 2: feel like it's the same thing. So I'm replaying Near
Speaker 2: Automata right now and it's fucking wild. I think I
Speaker 2: may have talked a little bit about this on the
Speaker 2: last episode, but noticing a lot of a lot of
Speaker 2: things I didn't notice before about Automata that that are
Speaker 2: connections too, and you're Replicant, Like you go to the
Speaker 2: desert in automaal and the machines in the desert are
Speaker 2: wearing the masks and wearing the capes, and they have
Speaker 2: the face paint of the people of Facade, which is
Speaker 2: the desert area, and your Replicant, and there's also a
Speaker 2: side quest in there that is where the machines are
Speaker 2: exactly replicating the the culture and the practices of Facades.
Speaker 2: So if you play Near Replica, you know that the
Speaker 2: that the people of Facade have a they're governed by rules,
Speaker 2: and they have like hundreds of thousands of rules, and
Speaker 2: it's kind of it's kind of a parody about you know,
Speaker 2: overburdens of laws and rules and regulations in a society
Speaker 2: and also the shit, but the machines are are imitating
Speaker 2: that in a way that's like that's a direct connection,
Speaker 2: Like holy shit, like I didn't, I wouldn't. You would
Speaker 2: never know about that connection and if you hadn't played Replicant.
Speaker 2: So I'm expecting a lot more things like that. But
Speaker 2: just to straight off the bat, I think so I
Speaker 2: haven't I think about I think about Near a lot
Speaker 2: I have since I played Automat in twenty seventeen, But
Speaker 2: I think now I have a much I have a
Speaker 2: lot more life experience, I have a different level of
Speaker 2: emotional maturity, and I pay attention. I'm paying closer attention
Speaker 2: to smaller things now because back when I played in
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, it was okay, I'm going to finish this
Speaker 2: game in a span of four or five days for
Speaker 2: Game of the Year. Oh shit, this game is like
Speaker 2: one of my favorites in recent memory. But in doing so,
Speaker 2: you kind of get lost in the sauce a little bit,
Speaker 2: and like the finer details, kind of you're likely to
Speaker 2: miss the finer details, especially if it's a first experience
Speaker 2: in a particular franchise. So this time around, I'm picking
Speaker 2: up everything. I'm taking it slow. I'm doing a much
Speaker 2: many more, many more side quests. I'm talking to all
Speaker 2: the NPCs. I'm not trying to rush through the game
Speaker 2: like I did a decent chunk of side quests back then.
Speaker 2: But now it's kind of like I'm I'm taking my
Speaker 2: time because I want to, and the finer details matter
Speaker 2: a lot more to me. So yeah, that's it's been
Speaker 2: a really weird experience in that regard, but it's it's
Speaker 2: the only thing that I can do, Like, that's the
Speaker 2: only thing that's gonna that's gonna fulfill me in this moment.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, And I've listened to the soundtrack so
Speaker 2: so much so now I'm hearing those songs play again
Speaker 2: now and it's like, oh, this motherfucking song, like let's go.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. It's yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 2: Something to replay that game, and in a very very
Speaker 2: different context. I think that, like I said before, like
Speaker 2: Near Replicant is kind of this this tent pole game
Speaker 2: for me, where like I can, like I understand myself
Speaker 2: a little bit better afterw having played that game. And
Speaker 2: then so with that mentality in mind, I think that
Speaker 2: I have I have a different, if not better, understanding
Speaker 2: of what Automata is trying to say or at least
Speaker 2: how that game makes me feel. It's a lot more
Speaker 2: complex in that regard. So before it was like Yo,
Speaker 2: sad sexy robots. Oh damn, this is this This shit's
Speaker 2: sad kind of philosophical, but I feel like, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: sad sexy robots, but it's a lot more personal. I
Speaker 2: feel like this experience is very it's a very personal experience.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's that's what I've been up to, and
Speaker 2: that's what I would continue to do, because damn, that's
Speaker 2: just like yo, men will literally not go to therapy
Speaker 2: and instead play sad video games.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, sometimes sad video games are are better than therapy.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, but I'm not not not going
Speaker 1: to get therapy. It's just you know, that's just low
Speaker 1: key expensive. Yeah, so you know, is my therapy.
Speaker 2: Speaking of that, I think that a little probably a
Speaker 2: little bit after this podcast goes up, I'll have my interview.
Speaker 2: I have recently interviewed Yoko Tara for his his press
Speaker 2: rounds for Near Replicant. This fool, this wool pulls up
Speaker 2: to the Zoom meeting and it's like squarreenis it's like
Speaker 2: the translator the squaren xpr from US and Japan. And
Speaker 2: this fool pulls up and his Zoom avatar is Kermit
Speaker 2: the Frog, like an animated an animated Kermit the Frog
Speaker 2: that animates when he's talking, and like his his head
Speaker 2: movement so like I can tell he's like gesturing and
Speaker 2: moving around as I see the Kermit the Frog neck
Speaker 2: like stretch and his mouth open, and I'm asking questions
Speaker 2: like yo, yeah, telling me about Kaye, telling me about
Speaker 2: a meal, telling about like your design philosophies and all this,
Speaker 2: like you make it sad video games? Like what does
Speaker 2: that say about you? And I'm looking at this goddamn
Speaker 2: Kermit the Frog avatar? Tell me about human existentialism, and
Speaker 2: I think it's like the Funnies shit, because so on
Speaker 2: brand for him, say, I feel like that it.
Speaker 3: Has to be that way. That's the most It's the
Speaker 3: only way cannon Wait could play out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like he's not gonna wear the emal helmet
Speaker 2: on on a zoom call.
Speaker 1: So what's the next?
Speaker 3: The next best thing?
Speaker 1: Kermit the Frog? You know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, Yo,
Speaker 1: this this fool God damn dude. That's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite memories of Game spot with you is when we
Speaker 1: got to uh do the Yokatara interview for Let's play.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we like did a little let's play and and
Speaker 1: then like we were very professional. We were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be very professional about it. And then like
Speaker 1: after it was over, we were both like, oh, could
Speaker 1: you sign our copies? Like we just immediately like switched
Speaker 1: to like fanboy, like yeah, oh can we get a photo?
Speaker 2: And oh yeah that was so funny. I remember that
Speaker 2: exactly because we brought our copies of the game to
Speaker 2: have them sign. And the funniest ship too with that was
Speaker 2: like he he he went on a lot about why
Speaker 2: he like doesn't like making public appearances, and I think
Speaker 2: he's he said as much in like past interviews, but
Speaker 2: he kind of reiterated a lot of that when I.
Speaker 1: Talked to him.
Speaker 2: But yeah, in that Let's play, if you'll watch it,
Speaker 2: it's like he he's he's like present in on camera
Speaker 2: during the during the intro wearing the meal helmet, but
Speaker 2: he can't wear it like the entire time. So what
Speaker 2: ended up happening is TAKEI Satauta from Platinum, who is
Speaker 2: uh who is also on the Less Play, would anytime,
Speaker 2: and then Yo Katar was off camera speaking into a microphone,
Speaker 2: and then Tatasan would just like move the move the
Speaker 2: meal helmet. When when Yo Katar was talking and I thought,
Speaker 2: I was like the cutest ship ever, Like, oh God,
Speaker 2: I love it, and the thing is like that Let's play.
Speaker 2: I was like wild nervous because I was still new
Speaker 2: to hosting, Like at that point, I had only been
Speaker 2: doing scripted things, and I'd been on like a couple
Speaker 2: episodes of The of the Lobby at that point, but
Speaker 2: I'd never done like here is a well he's live
Speaker 2: to tape, but here's like a you are doing let's
Speaker 2: play with a big name developer. Two of them. Actually
Speaker 2: you're on your own, have fun, and like shouts out
Speaker 2: to Mike Maharty for the boy, Mike Mamharty for like
Speaker 2: letting me take up that opportunity because he was like,
Speaker 2: I think you would be better to do this, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, shit, say less man. But that was
Speaker 2: that was a huge learning experience and I'm really really
Speaker 2: thankful that I got to do that, even though you
Speaker 2: could tell like this like oh, he's feeling it, he's
Speaker 2: feeling it. But yeah, y'all should keep that. I still
Speaker 2: think about that to this day. That was one of
Speaker 2: the coolest things I've been able to do. So yeah,
Speaker 2: near Man, y'all should y'all should play that?
Speaker 4: And I have not played any near I apologize, But
Speaker 4: should I start with Automata? Should I start with Replicant?
Speaker 4: And now the replicants a thing because it came first
Speaker 4: in a way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's I've been getting that question a lot
Speaker 2: through folks on Twitter, which is really good question. I
Speaker 2: hadn't really thought about it until recently. So what I'll
Speaker 2: say is that I think Near Automata is the better
Speaker 2: will have leave first timers with the better impression, especially
Speaker 2: gameplay wise, So and also it's on game Pass and
Speaker 2: you could probably cop it for about like thirty bucks maybe,
Speaker 2: so it's it's it's cheaper as well. So I would
Speaker 2: in that regard, I would recommend near automotive. But I
Speaker 2: think that replica like it also depends on what you're
Speaker 2: looking for, because I think replicant is such as a
Speaker 2: stronger emotional This is a high bar too, because near
Speaker 2: automatave is a strong emotional hook too, but it takes
Speaker 2: time to get there, whereas near replicant will grab you
Speaker 2: story wise and emotionally like like off the rip, like
Speaker 2: it's very you'll get to those, you'll feel that a
Speaker 2: lot sooner. Because the thing about near automotive is that
Speaker 2: it builds towards that and like kind of leaves that
Speaker 2: breadcrumb trail to then hit you towards the end, whereas
Speaker 2: near replicants like, here are the characters, here's who they are,
Speaker 2: here is their personality straight up, and then now this
Speaker 2: this band of misfits is fucking shit up. So I
Speaker 2: think that so I would recommend your replicant if that's
Speaker 2: more of your vibe, or if that's more of what
Speaker 2: you're looking for. I would also recommend Replicant first if
Speaker 2: you're already set on playing both, because the connections that
Speaker 2: you will make are or the Yeah, going from replicant
Speaker 2: to automative, I think that there's you'll get more, you'll
Speaker 2: get a little bit more out of it, and that
Speaker 2: like the references especially, So.
Speaker 1: I would go fifty to fifty. But I don't know.
Speaker 2: I would maybe try automative first. See if you're vibe
Speaker 2: with it, you probably will. But yeah, replicant is what
Speaker 2: or what you would what I would, what I did,
Speaker 2: or I would recommend people's play automatave because it's a
Speaker 2: better impression, then play Replicant, then replay automat and then.
Speaker 1: Start to make those connections. I see you play as.
Speaker 2: Shit three times, you know what I'm saying, including all
Speaker 2: the other playthroughs that you gotta do.
Speaker 3: Then you go hit up all three dragon Guards because
Speaker 3: you're in too deep and there's.
Speaker 2: No hopeful I'm gonna I'm gonna lets I'm gonna do,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: Uh let's play stream of Dragon Guard three. Got a
Speaker 1: daddy near.
Speaker 3: I miss a flipping coffee dad's voice.
Speaker 2: Uh so, yeah, I do too.
Speaker 3: I mean I also miss his attitude. Uh looking back
Speaker 3: at some of the line differences, Yeah, uh, it's it's
Speaker 3: bigger than I thought it would be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So if y'all are familiar, like maybe we talked
Speaker 2: about this a little bit already, but the original Near
Speaker 2: had the father main character, and he's voiced by Jameson
Speaker 2: Price who's Sodirosakra. But also, uh, it's a very it's
Speaker 2: a very different vibe because like brother Near is like
Speaker 2: your he's like your kind of shy ish boy, your
Speaker 2: anime boy, your shy anime boy, and then he eventually
Speaker 2: grows up into being your your your anime boy with
Speaker 2: an attitude. But then with Daddy Near, he's just like striped,
Speaker 2: like an old tired dad. He doesn't have time for
Speaker 2: anyone's bullshit, but he ends up being like he has
Speaker 2: like the heart of Gold sort of thing where he's like, ah,
Speaker 2: I'm tired.
Speaker 1: Of this bullshit, but I'll help you anyway.
Speaker 2: And he has some really really good lines and delivered
Speaker 2: extremely well. I think he fits into the mold like
Speaker 2: really really well in terms of like the group dynamic,
Speaker 2: because they're all they're all so they're all so different,
Speaker 2: and like I think Daddy Near stands out more within
Speaker 2: the group, whereas I feel like brother Neir is more
Speaker 2: of like an avatar for you.
Speaker 1: To project yourself, whereas Father Near is his own character
Speaker 1: in many ways. I remember that being such a like
Speaker 1: a big point for like critics at the time when
Speaker 1: that game came out, Like people were like like who
Speaker 1: were like huge anime fans or maybe were like a
Speaker 1: little tired of certain anime tropes, were like really liked
Speaker 1: like Daddy Near as like a character because he felt
Speaker 1: like so fresh and different. And I think there's like
Speaker 1: one reviewer in particular who is like talking about like
Speaker 1: just like yeah, like I love that, Like there isn't
Speaker 1: some like spiky haired, whiny emo boy as a protagonists
Speaker 1: in this game. Everyone in the comments was just like well, actually,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm because I've I've only I'm still working my way
Speaker 3: through Replicant right now, and I can see some points
Speaker 3: from when I played the original Near that could be
Speaker 3: different because of being not dead Near, and I'm excited
Speaker 3: to see that stuff. But man, uh, speaking of voice actors,
Speaker 3: because I played it so long ago when I was
Speaker 3: dumb and never like registered and stuff. Whenever I hear
Speaker 3: Grimore grimwore of Weis's talk. I can't not hear uh Illogan,
Speaker 3: storm Rage or Akahiko anymore. Oh yeah, uh that's really.
Speaker 1: Messed me off for uh Ocera.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The voice actors are wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my.
Speaker 2: God, the performance like near replicant. I like when I
Speaker 2: look back and listen to the banter between them when
Speaker 2: you're when you have the full group, it's it's it's incredible,
Speaker 2: Like this is near sound like the it sounds so natural,
Speaker 2: and everyone is like an extreme version of whatever character
Speaker 2: they are, Like Kaye is fucking off the rails, Grimmar
Speaker 2: Wess is sassy at shit, and Emil is just like
Speaker 2: the most wholesome boy. So they're they're they're on the
Speaker 2: ends of their own spectrums so much so that they
Speaker 2: that they're just like it's like no other game. I
Speaker 2: don't think many other games have like this sort of
Speaker 2: group dynamic where everyone is like so vastly different but
Speaker 2: works so well together and shouts out to shouts out
Speaker 2: to the voice actors who read like they redid their
Speaker 2: lines and like the original one is still extremely good,
Speaker 2: but redoing it has that the extra edge that you
Speaker 2: that you want out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's because I got to compare a little bit
Speaker 1: in the in the uh graphics comparison that we did,
Speaker 1: and Uh, there are definitely some cases where like when
Speaker 1: when they redo lines, you could tell like either like
Speaker 1: their heart's not in it or they maybe like forgot
Speaker 1: how to like do that character and like it doesn't
Speaker 1: quite have the same punch sometimes, but not the case
Speaker 1: in this like it felt like it felt like, Okay,
Speaker 1: these these voice actors like still know like how to
Speaker 1: deliver these characters. Which yeah, like you said, it's just
Speaker 1: a testament to them, Ben, I feel you on the
Speaker 1: Persona thing. I'm I'm that guy who like because like
Speaker 1: Persona is like all just like a lot of very
Speaker 1: prominent voice actors who do a lot of like Jerrpugs
Speaker 1: and anime, but because Personas like one of like the
Speaker 1: the like formative games for me, I just like compare
Speaker 1: all those voices to those. I'm that guy who's like
Speaker 1: this is a lot like Persona. It's so it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, Kane, like that's just Resay, Like gramar Vice
Speaker 1: is just Akihiko Boyner, that's just Yoske. Like I'm just
Speaker 1: I can only hear Persona characters. Please help me.
Speaker 4: I'm the exact same way with PERSONA five characters. I'm like, yeah, like, oh,
Speaker 4: that's uh, that's On and that's Regi and that's so Jiau.
Speaker 4: Same thing.
Speaker 1: There is more ghana I heard recently in a game.
Speaker 1: I forget what it was, but I remember just being like,
Speaker 1: is that more ghana? Is that more ghana?
Speaker 2: I love Cassandra le Morris so much. She's one of
Speaker 2: my favorite. My top three voice actors are Laura Bailey,
Speaker 2: Cassandra le Morris, and Aaron Fitzgerald. Those are that's that's
Speaker 2: those those that's my top three. And uh so Cassandra
Speaker 2: Le Morris is Operator six oh in Near Automata and
Speaker 2: Operator six oh is so oh. I need to think
Speaker 2: of that, Like Operator six O is the wildly emotional
Speaker 2: one who's all up in two b's ear about about
Speaker 2: her crying about her life or whatever, and it's yeah,
Speaker 2: it's she's great. And that aspect of Near Automat also
Speaker 2: fucked me up. It was like, because now I I
Speaker 2: know the story, so a lot of the a lot
Speaker 2: of the aspects, like the emotional aspects of like the
Speaker 2: androids robot stuff. It's just it's it's unsettling in a
Speaker 2: weird way. But yeah, that's of shouts out the voice actors.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just bug Snacks. She was in bug Snacks. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one of the bug Snacks. I was just like,
Speaker 1: that's just that's morgana. It's Morghana.
Speaker 4: There's a the girl who works at Survive Bar with
Speaker 4: Solid Snake. That's also Cassandrale Morris. And that took me forever.
Speaker 4: I was like, I know this voice. I was like,
Speaker 4: I know this voice, and then I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 4: that's more Ghana. I get it.
Speaker 1: If you would play the English version of Yeah.
Speaker 4: Sorry, this is seven, the English dub of like It
Speaker 4: Like a Dragon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, speaking of voice actors, I think the
Speaker 2: last thing I'll say is I also been watching Yaske,
Speaker 2: which is the new Netflix anime about the historical black
Speaker 2: samurai from like sixteenth century. It's that just came out.
Speaker 2: I just I just started watching it this morning. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it's directed by and produced and made by Lashawn Thomas,
Speaker 2: and the main voice the main I've been watching. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've been watching the English dub because it's I mean,
Speaker 2: it's I think that there was a lot of effort
Speaker 2: put into the English voicing, but also because Lashawn Thomas American.
Speaker 2: So also from from the Bronx b X all day
Speaker 2: Oh ship actually hit my mic, but yeah, it's h
Speaker 2: I'm still getting into it still early on. I'll probably
Speaker 2: have more things to say about it later, but it is.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating because Lakeith Stanfield, who y'all y'all may know
Speaker 2: from from uh was what's that one movie he did
Speaker 2: that was really weird with the horses and ship, uh
Speaker 2: kind of low key spoiling Sorry to Bother You?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sorry to Bother You?
Speaker 2: And he was also in Judas in the Black Messiah
Speaker 2: as well as many other things too. But Lakeith Stanfield
Speaker 2: is incredible. He embodies this character extremely extremely well, and
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see where it goes. But yeah, still
Speaker 2: only spend more time with it. It's also it's animated
Speaker 2: by Mappa.
Speaker 3: Oh there you go.
Speaker 2: So in the soundtrack by Flying Lotus y'all, Fly Low
Speaker 2: oh my. He incorporates like a lot of traditional jazz
Speaker 2: Andese instrumentals, but if you know, fly Low Fly Loo
Speaker 2: does a lot of like ethereal trip hop and it's
Speaker 2: it's such a unique thing. I'm excited to watch this through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Ben keep that animate train going.
Speaker 3: Oh, I guess I was also playing near in between
Speaker 3: doing a whole bunch of other stuff, so I can
Speaker 3: kind of just bounce off of that a little bit
Speaker 3: and be like, Yeah, here's really good. I'm excited because
Speaker 3: I never really got around to finishing the game originally,
Speaker 3: so this is my kind of chance to to get
Speaker 3: back in there and do it again. But really liking it.
Speaker 3: It's still got music that makes me feel emotions, it's
Speaker 3: still got characters that make me feel emotions, and I
Speaker 3: still remember how to do the fishing quests, and that's
Speaker 3: what matters. Because I've been for like the last two
Speaker 3: nights that I've been playing it, I've just been like,
Speaker 3: just I'll just knock the fishing quest out. I'm in
Speaker 3: the village. I could just go and grab the stuff
Speaker 3: from like do it really quick. It's never real quick,
Speaker 3: and I never get back to the story. I just
Speaker 3: keep fishing.
Speaker 1: How far are you?
Speaker 3: Not as far as I need to be? Okay, I
Speaker 3: haven't caught up to where I left off. I'll leave
Speaker 3: it at that, okay, but I'll get there because I'm
Speaker 3: also playing at the same time. Speaking of fishing, uh,
Speaker 3: Fantasy fifteen I started it up, and I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 3: in there and I'm doing that. I'm on that sweet,
Speaker 3: sweet car ride with my boys. We've got our cold
Speaker 3: Coleman camping equipment in the back of our.
Speaker 2: Car and your cup noodles on deck.
Speaker 3: Yeah from cup noodles. Ignus is making pizza every night
Speaker 3: because it gives me like a three stamina boost. I'm
Speaker 3: into that. Yeah, But that game is excuse me, it's
Speaker 3: a it's a nice kind of relaxed game. Like I
Speaker 3: don't I kind of kick back every time I play it.
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't feel like I like every other
Speaker 3: Final Fantasy game I've played, I've been kind of like
Speaker 3: forward and engaged in it the whole time. Like seven,
Speaker 3: I'm I was moving through and I was on the
Speaker 3: edge of my seat during the fights, and even with
Speaker 3: like twelve, even though it was the auto program everything
Speaker 3: and that, I was still kind of like, you know,
Speaker 3: doing whatever. This is between like the just riding in
Speaker 3: the car to go places while you're listening to old
Speaker 3: Final Fantasy music. It's real kind of laid back time.
Speaker 3: And I kind of appreciate that because like in between
Speaker 3: doing like video stuff, I can just be playing the game.
Speaker 3: I'll be like, oh, I need to go back down
Speaker 3: to like turning this quest I've done, because I again,
Speaker 3: I keep getting sidetracked by side stuff in games i'm
Speaker 3: playing because I'm just doing fishing and hunting in that
Speaker 3: all the time. But uh, I'll just set the car
Speaker 3: to go or I need to go, and then I'll
Speaker 3: turn around and do work, and then I hear them
Speaker 3: all'll be like, ah, We've made it, and I can
Speaker 3: just get back into playing whatever it's neat. I don't
Speaker 3: think I'm far enough in it to kind of like
Speaker 3: say much about the story, but I'm still excited to
Speaker 3: get to the cool stuff that happens in it. I
Speaker 3: want to fight Garuda in for the final Fantasy fourteen version.
Speaker 3: I'm excited for that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and a catgirl shows up at it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh man, I can't. Why can't catgirls just
Speaker 2: be real? Is it too early to be talking about
Speaker 2: cat girls early?
Speaker 3: I'm not going to tell you. Yeah, oh man, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I like that game. I'm excited to play more when
Speaker 3: I have time, and I'm not playing another thing. But
Speaker 3: the thing that I've been dumping most of my time
Speaker 3: into is if Because of course, it's always it, uh
Speaker 3: and I can't stop playing it u though it's not
Speaker 3: like big new stuff though, it's just me still continuing
Speaker 3: to do Like we're on the last Savage version of
Speaker 3: the main raid set.
Speaker 1: Oh you're on now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? That fights so much more in the Savage version
Speaker 3: than it is in the regular version, and I kind
Speaker 3: of really love it. This is how it always goes.
Speaker 3: But there's a whole other phase that adds story stuff
Speaker 3: and it kind of makes me think about how I
Speaker 3: wish kind of that they didn't put extra story stuff
Speaker 3: in the hard versions of the raids, Like what.
Speaker 4: Can you can you hit?
Speaker 1: Hint at what what that is?
Speaker 2: Because I'm curious and I don't think I'm gonna I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna say who it is. But you literally
Speaker 3: fight an entirely different boss oh ship like you do
Speaker 3: the regular fight up to a point and then big
Speaker 3: character comes down and then you fight them al to Mesia.
Speaker 1: There you go, Thancrid Prime.
Speaker 3: Oh flipp I love the flippant the Savage version of
Speaker 3: the Dank because it's just it's chaotic all over the place,
Speaker 3: all our time, and there's no downtime between stuff. But anyway,
Speaker 3: approshudn't talked too much about about raid things because there
Speaker 3: are a lot of people who probably just like, this
Speaker 3: is done what you're.
Speaker 4: Doing, but uh you, I love your passion. I just
Speaker 4: I've never played the game, so I have no idea,
Speaker 4: like Fancred.
Speaker 1: What is this?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 4: I love it? Keep going.
Speaker 3: But outside of that, I've actually taken it upon myself
Speaker 3: to embrace the PvP uh in ZIV, which is not
Speaker 3: something normal people do. It's not it's not it's not
Speaker 3: great coming from like Warcraft or any other game with PvP.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's interesting, it's not like unplayable, but it's
Speaker 3: it's not the best. But there's a really cool set
Speaker 3: of armor that I can get if I continue doing
Speaker 3: like ranked arena stuff and if I get to be
Speaker 3: in the top one hundred on the data center, I
Speaker 3: win it. So I'm going to be beating people up
Speaker 3: until the end of whatever part of the season we're
Speaker 3: in and hope that I get that armor because it
Speaker 3: looks neat.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I touched PvP once then I was like, because I
Speaker 2: wanted to get like extra tomestones. Yeah, because the only
Speaker 2: thing left that that gave me like hello tomestones and
Speaker 2: before to upgrade, like before the reset, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what the fuck is this? Yeah, what the fuck am
Speaker 2: I doing? I was running around and people were like, hey,
Speaker 2: you're supposed to be at point D. I'm like point
Speaker 2: dse nuts, Like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.
Speaker 3: They went this weird route where they're like, let's not
Speaker 3: do like capture the flag or a game mode that
Speaker 3: inherently makes sense when you step like into wherever you're at.
Speaker 3: Let's do a giant fifty V fifty V fifty where
Speaker 3: you have to randomly grab points that are worth random
Speaker 3: amounts of points. And also when you kill people, you
Speaker 3: steal points from them. But also if you don't die
Speaker 3: when you're killing people, it makes you stronger. It's just
Speaker 3: there's a lot going on, and.
Speaker 2: You have a different you have a different action, you
Speaker 2: have a different move set. Also in PvP, you do
Speaker 2: what a fuck a lot of.
Speaker 3: Cool things with that layout, Like I love that your
Speaker 3: combo attacks are all on one button just moves one
Speaker 3: to the others the next time.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah, but.
Speaker 3: PvP is is fun with friends. I think you we
Speaker 3: used to bring like a whole group of like eight
Speaker 3: people in at one point and just kind of be like,
Speaker 3: let's run it and try to win stuff because there's
Speaker 3: a lot of cool awards in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I've just been doing doing a lot of raids stuff,
Speaker 3: doing a lot of PvP stuff, running the near raids
Speaker 3: because you have to run all of them again to
Speaker 3: upgrade your gear. And that's where I've been at with that.
Speaker 3: Play ZIV. It's a good game.
Speaker 2: Final Fantasy fourteen, not not Civilization.
Speaker 3: You can play SIEV too, but definitely play Final Fantasy fourteen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh right, moving on to Evan, You've been playing another
Speaker 1: big game that is out this week. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been playing the other hot new game, Snap
Speaker 4: Pokemon New. Where you photograph that you character?
Speaker 1: Why did you type it like that in the sheet?
Speaker 4: This is backwards Snap Pokemon New New Pokemon Snap.
Speaker 3: I thought this was going to be a judgment show.
Speaker 3: I was ready for the judgment show.
Speaker 4: I'll get judgment next. But yeah, so before I say anything,
Speaker 4: you should read our review on GameSpot dot com by Janney.
Speaker 4: It's very very good, very good. She gave an eight
Speaker 4: out of ten. She took the approach that like she
Speaker 4: played the original when she was a kid, coming back
Speaker 4: to it, full disclosure. From my point of view, I
Speaker 4: only played the original for the first time like a
Speaker 4: month ago in preparation for coverage of New Pokemon Snap.
Speaker 4: I'll be completely honest. I was rather disappointed by this game.
Speaker 4: I felt it was a little too rooted in the
Speaker 4: original Pokemon Snap. It tried too hard to kind of
Speaker 4: mimic what that game was, and for a game that
Speaker 4: came out twenty two years later on much more powerful hardware,
Speaker 4: I felt they could have done a lot more with it.
Speaker 4: The story in that game is like paper thin, and
Speaker 4: it does not conclude in any meaningful way. The whole
Speaker 4: game is presented like a visual novel style, with like
Speaker 4: two characters kind of standing there in front of textbox,
Speaker 4: and they do this, but it's like, I feel like
Speaker 4: it's Pokemon. It's one of the biggest franchise in the world.
Speaker 4: They couldn't do more than just like the same four
Speaker 4: animations over and over again in front of a textbox.
Speaker 4: There are some animated cut scenes, they're very few and
Speaker 4: far between, and there is some voice acting, but it
Speaker 4: only happens sometimes.
Speaker 1: Not all the time.
Speaker 3: Hold on, I'm gonna interrupt you. This is a very
Speaker 3: important question. I need you to answer it, please, Does
Speaker 3: Professor Oaks still say wonderful whenever you do a really
Speaker 3: good picture?
Speaker 4: Professor Oak's not in this game. It's a new professor.
Speaker 3: Does the professor say wonderful? I need to hear someone
Speaker 3: say wonderful and a really weird voice.
Speaker 4: No, he's I mean, he does have like little quip.
Speaker 4: He doesn't say wonderful, but he says little quips just
Speaker 4: like great job and.
Speaker 3: Like great job is good, but it'll never top the
Speaker 3: weird like wonderful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not that that voice has a very distinctness
Speaker 4: to it, which I also love. But this guy's more,
Speaker 4: I guess, just regular. He's not really that interesting in anyway.
Speaker 4: I know it's very unfortunate, but yeah, they all have
Speaker 4: like like there's this character Rita, and she's like the
Speaker 4: typical like he he like yay and that's all she does.
Speaker 4: It's rather annoying after a while, but yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: the gameplay loop is just to take the photos. And
Speaker 4: I think the best way to summarize it is that
Speaker 4: if you looked at the trailers and you saw that
Speaker 4: gameplay and you were immediately sold, like yeah, you'll like
Speaker 4: this game. But if you looked at it and you're like, well,
Speaker 4: that looks interesting, but I want to wait and see
Speaker 4: if there's more. Like, no, there's nothing more. There's that's it.
Speaker 4: And I honestly found the gameplay loop pretty not fun
Speaker 4: after a while. It's the same courses over and over.
Speaker 4: And I made a video about this, which you I
Speaker 4: don't know if it's up yet, but it will be
Speaker 4: up soon whenever. This podcast well, I think goes up
Speaker 4: Friday morning. But the game is also very, very cryptic.
Speaker 4: The game does not do a very good job of
Speaker 4: telling you what to do to progress in the game.
Speaker 4: You'll like beat a level and then you'll just get
Speaker 4: like shot back to the menu, and there are certain
Speaker 4: things that you need to do to progress the game
Speaker 4: it doesn't tell you about, but then there are other
Speaker 4: things added later. It's really confusing, and I found myself,
Speaker 4: because you know, I played it before release, stuck so
Speaker 4: many times, and I was just like, what do you
Speaker 4: expecting me to do? Even in like the original Pokemon Snap,
Speaker 4: when you finished a level, like Professor Oak would give
Speaker 4: you a little thing being like if you get this
Speaker 4: many points, something cool will happen, or oh, if you
Speaker 4: hit this switch to unlock an extra path, something cool happen.
Speaker 4: This game doesn't do that. It's very very cryptic, and
Speaker 4: it adds all these different things over the courts of
Speaker 4: the game you wouldn't know what to do with. And
Speaker 4: I know Jenay had the same experience because we spoke
Speaker 4: about it. But yeah, I if you love the original,
Speaker 4: I guess and you want more of that, that's cool.
Speaker 4: But I mean, honestly, this is going to sound harsh,
Speaker 4: but like this could have been a GameCube game, like
Speaker 4: it could have been Pokemon Snap two on the GameCube.
Speaker 4: They didn't do a whole lot with it to make
Speaker 4: it take advantage of the switch hardware. It's still un rails.
Speaker 4: It's still like very preset levels with preset characters, and
Speaker 4: because all the characters are visual novel not animated most
Speaker 4: of the time, it's like, you know, you could do
Speaker 4: three D models on the GameCube. So yeah, I was
Speaker 4: rather disappointed by it. So that's kind of my take
Speaker 4: on it. You'll know if you want it is really
Speaker 4: where it is.
Speaker 1: Can I still go to my local Blockbuster and print
Speaker 1: out photos?
Speaker 4: No, unfortunately, but you can buy they're making that insta
Speaker 4: Stax printer. I forget the name of it, but making
Speaker 4: like they're making like it compatible with the switch. You
Speaker 4: can print your photos from your Pokemon Snap.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're right, Okay, that's actually kind of cool.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I'm I'm actually I'm still interested because uh
Speaker 1: I think there's just something about the like relaxing nature
Speaker 1: of the original Pokemon Snap that I want like listen into.
Speaker 1: I'm reading Jane's review, it's just like the the vibes
Speaker 1: of just like I'm just gonna take some cool photos
Speaker 1: at Pokemon. I'm like, yeah, I want to do that.
Speaker 1: I just want to hang out for an afternoon and
Speaker 1: take cool shots of Pikachu.
Speaker 3: And today I'm gonna get Pikachu on the surfboard again.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I remember as a kid, like you know,
Speaker 1: because because I didn't know to n sxfore, but I
Speaker 1: like over to a friend's house and play and like
Speaker 1: just like trying to like figure things out of like
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, I heard if you throw this
Speaker 1: into like the you know, if you if you lead
Speaker 1: the Charmander over to like the volcano, he'll turn into
Speaker 1: like Char's ard and he'll like you know, come out
Speaker 1: and stuff. And like I just remember like cool shit
Speaker 1: like that, like you know, like just sparking my like
Speaker 1: imagination and like wanting to like poke at it and
Speaker 1: find all like the cool little things. And even though
Speaker 1: it's maybe hasn't evolved or like done anything new, like
Speaker 1: you said, like if it still captures that vibe, I
Speaker 1: think that'll be enough for me.
Speaker 4: Yeah that I should say, Like yes, like the actual
Speaker 4: gameplay of the Photography, like it's still pretty much the
Speaker 4: same and it's still like really good in that respect.
Speaker 4: The way the game kind of works this time is
Speaker 4: that you unlock additional research levels as you go through
Speaker 4: the levels, so you unlock a certain amount of points,
Speaker 4: and when you unlock new research levels, it gives you
Speaker 4: kind of like new versions of the levels, and that's
Speaker 4: where you find some of the cooler stuff with the Pokemon,
Speaker 4: Like that's where you find the higher level photos. So
Speaker 4: it's not like the original Pokemon Snap, where like there
Speaker 4: might be something hidden in a level, like you might
Speaker 4: have to unlock the next version of the level to
Speaker 4: find something like that. But yeah, I mean the Photography
Speaker 4: gameplay is still exactly what it was, and like the
Speaker 4: new stuff they added, like the like little glowy orbs
Speaker 4: they're they're kind of like the pester balls in the
Speaker 4: original game. They're very similar, but like, yeah, they add
Speaker 4: some new things in there, for sure, and that part's
Speaker 4: still fun. But even kind of like you said, like
Speaker 4: after a weekend or like after and afternoon, like it's
Speaker 4: up to you, I guess if you really want to
Speaker 4: keep going with it, it's there's not a lot there.
Speaker 4: You're just going through the same levels over and over
Speaker 4: and over and over and over.
Speaker 2: All.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, what else have you been playing?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Evan hates Pokemon just like Howie hates Persona.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, Pokemon sucks.
Speaker 3: No, I mean no a.
Speaker 4: Pokemon's fine. No, the game is good. It's just I
Speaker 4: felt it was very bare bones and it felt very
Speaker 4: cheap in some areas, and for a game that's from
Speaker 4: one of the biggest franchises of all time, I felt
Speaker 4: they could have gone further with it. But it basically
Speaker 4: just does mimic the original a lot of ways. And
Speaker 4: if you like that, that's great. I mean, you get
Speaker 4: more of that, but anyways, I'll move on. I've also
Speaker 4: been playing the PlayStation five version of Judgment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now you're talking.
Speaker 4: Hell yeah, you can go check out on YouTube dot com,
Speaker 4: slash GameSpot or GameSpot dot com the video I did
Speaker 4: putting the two side by side. I know there's a
Speaker 4: lot of controversy around the lighting changes in that game,
Speaker 4: and I think I finished chapter two some like five
Speaker 4: or six hours into that game, So I think the
Speaker 4: biggest thing I'll not the biggest thing the way. What
Speaker 4: I'll take away from it is that the cut scenes
Speaker 4: I don't think look as good as the original because
Speaker 4: the original PS four version had a style to it,
Speaker 4: and I think that's lost in translation with the new
Speaker 4: lighting effects. But I think the gameplay looks a lot
Speaker 4: better when you're walking around Comrade Show in the day,
Speaker 4: Like the colors are really vivid and they pop and
Speaker 4: they look really nice. And the sixty FBS gameplay really
Speaker 4: helps too. So I think it's kind of a toss
Speaker 4: up where like I think the game plays very much improved,
Speaker 4: but the cut scenes kind of get lost in translation.
Speaker 4: But it also depends. I think like the cut scenes
Speaker 4: in the day look better than the cut scenes at night.
Speaker 4: I think some of the cut scenes at night look
Speaker 4: particularly dark. I've tried playing around with the brightness settings.
Speaker 4: I just can't find a good middle ground. Somewhere either
Speaker 4: like the brights look way too bright or the darks
Speaker 4: look way too dark. But you know, Judgment is still
Speaker 4: a fantastic game. It's not my favorite game in the
Speaker 4: Yakuza series. I think Judgment has it's a little slow
Speaker 4: at some points, and the tailing missions are not very fun,
Speaker 4: but I think the characters are fantastic. I played with
Speaker 4: the English dub, and I think the English dub like
Speaker 4: all the characters are matched extremely well to the people
Speaker 4: that they chose to voice the characters in English. And
Speaker 4: I guess the question is like, should you get the
Speaker 4: PS five version if you own the PS four version,
Speaker 4: I would say no, there isn't a free upgrade path
Speaker 4: and there's no reason to pay for the game again
Speaker 4: if you're playing it like on Stadia or Series X
Speaker 4: or S, definitely, And if you own a PS five
Speaker 4: and you're deciding which one to get, you might as
Speaker 4: well get the PS five version, cause I think they're
Speaker 4: both forty dollars at the same price. But yeah, that's
Speaker 4: kind of what I have to say to it, Like,
Speaker 4: there's no reason to pick a backup if you already
Speaker 4: play Judgment, But if you've never played Judgment, that's absolutely
Speaker 4: a good opportunity to do so. And I've only had
Speaker 4: the chance to play it in ten eighty because I
Speaker 4: don't own a four K monitor, but I'm sure it
Speaker 4: might look even better in four K.
Speaker 3: Is Judgment the only RGG game at Stadia?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, because the rest of them are the rest
Speaker 4: of the games are on PC like Steam.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was just say I didn't even think about
Speaker 3: that they have it on Stadia too, and that that's
Speaker 3: the only that's the only Yaka's an experience for the
Speaker 3: stadium people. Yep.
Speaker 2: Well you can search for it too on the search bar.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, thanks Google for adding a search bar.
Speaker 3: You go to their homepage. How many different things are
Speaker 3: there there? It's like two things. It's a logo in
Speaker 3: a search bar.
Speaker 4: I wonder, Yeah, I wonder if they had like a
Speaker 4: like an exclusivity deal or something like, you know, I'll
Speaker 4: put it on Stadia first, and then like maybe from
Speaker 4: a year from now they could put it on Steam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably like testing the waters. Yeah, there's interest on
Speaker 2: Stadia as well.
Speaker 4: But the nice thing about Judgment is it is its
Speaker 4: own entity. You don't necessarily need to play the other
Speaker 4: Octa games to know what's going on? So like, if
Speaker 4: it's not like a bad thing, if that's your Like
Speaker 4: if you own Stadia and you're like, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: try Judgment. Do I need to play yakcauz this year
Speaker 4: two six? No you don't, so I think that in
Speaker 4: that sense, it's fine, But like, I don't know, I
Speaker 4: never really jumped on the Stadia train.
Speaker 3: Same, it's big.
Speaker 1: Same, damn there is there is a stadium train, believe
Speaker 1: it or not.
Speaker 4: Stadiums.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: running really well, but it's there.
Speaker 2: It's it's existing search for things though, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you're you love to see more more people
Speaker 3: get the chance to play a good video game.
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely, yeah. And I mean the other thing too,
Speaker 4: is like if you've never played Yakaza and you're interested
Speaker 4: in Judgment, you totally should jump into it. You do
Speaker 4: not need to play any of the other ones. You
Speaker 4: can and you should. But if you're like, oh, I
Speaker 4: really like the Detective Angle and maybe you prefer like
Speaker 4: the English job over the Japanese audio, like, yeah, totally
Speaker 4: go for it. Play Judgment.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah.
Speaker 3: Judgment also has the tightest pants in the series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fact, yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3: Just gonna throw that out there for anyone who's on
Speaker 3: the fence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, takkigamy has he has a sweet leather jacket and
Speaker 2: he's got some six skinny jeans aid acid wash skinny.
Speaker 2: And if y'all are into if y'all are into Japanese
Speaker 2: pop culture, you'll notice that he is modeled after Takakimura,
Speaker 2: who is a famous actor in Japan. And uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I love myself some Kimu taku.
Speaker 1: So fine, fine, man, yes, very much, all right. Uh,
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about your last game? Or oh?
Speaker 4: Okay? I didn't know if we wanted to skip it
Speaker 4: for time, but I'm happy to talk about it. It's
Speaker 4: up to you, guys, I guess, uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, why don't you if you got something to say
Speaker 1: about it?
Speaker 4: Sure? So the last game I've been juggling amongst all
Speaker 4: the other releases right now, Shimma Gammi Tense three Knocked
Speaker 4: Her an HD remaster. Try saying that five times fast.
Speaker 4: The This is my first experience with the Shimmigammy Tense
Speaker 4: series because I've mostly just played the persona games. I
Speaker 4: was talking to Matt a Spinelli about it, who's our
Speaker 4: features editor here at GameSpot, and he was basically telling me, like,
Speaker 4: you know, if Persona is kind of like, let's go
Speaker 4: save the World, SMT is just very dark and just
Speaker 4: very like the world is ending and you have to
Speaker 4: deal with that, and it's very much that. Like the
Speaker 4: first thirty minutes of the game, you're just like, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna go meet up with my friends and they're like,
Speaker 4: all right, well, the world's ending. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: that's that's cool. I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you just by the way, you're gonna be a
Speaker 1: half demon.
Speaker 4: Yeah, They're like, you got to eat this parasite and
Speaker 4: become the half demon. And it's like, Okay, that's that's cool.
Speaker 4: I guess. You know. Uh, It's it's definitely a departure
Speaker 4: from Persona in that sense, just the vibe of it.
Speaker 4: But I do really like it so far. It's definitely
Speaker 4: a two thousand and three PS two game in its roots.
Speaker 4: But the one thing I do really want to talk about,
Speaker 4: which I found really interesting, is that for the HD
Speaker 4: remaster release, they added a merciful difficulty to make the
Speaker 4: game a lot easier for modern players. And I started
Speaker 4: the game on Normal, and I played it for a
Speaker 4: while and at one point, like I died and I
Speaker 4: went really far back, and I got really frustrated. So
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, I'm going to try the easier
Speaker 4: difficulty and see what it's like. And it's a huge difference.
Speaker 4: Like the game is way too easy at that point.
Speaker 4: You can basically just hit the auto button and just
Speaker 4: breeze through most of the I think there's just too
Speaker 4: big of a gap between Merciful and Normal, Like if
Speaker 4: you're playing Normal, you might be in for a little
Speaker 4: bit of a challenge, but if you play on Merciful,
Speaker 4: it's a little too easy. I turned it down to Merciful,
Speaker 4: and I've been kind of like breezing through the game.
Speaker 4: I was like, should I turn it back up at
Speaker 4: this point?
Speaker 3: So this is this is an interesting thing that for
Speaker 3: me I didn't realize until like a little while ago.
Speaker 3: But there are a lot of RPG fans out there
Speaker 3: who don't like doing the combat, and it seems like
Speaker 3: such a simple thing to like know about. But I
Speaker 3: didn't realize like what extent it was too until I
Speaker 3: was talking to my roommate about it, because I'd recently
Speaker 3: started playing j RPGs, and I'm like, yeah, I really
Speaker 3: like kind of working stuff in persona. I like being smart, Like, ah,
Speaker 3: they're afflicted with fire, use win do bonus damage. It's neat, right,
Speaker 3: And he's like, you know, I don't want to waste
Speaker 3: my time with any of that. I just want to
Speaker 3: do the social stuff and see the story and get out.
Speaker 3: And it sounds like that mode is less of a
Speaker 3: curving the different occulty and more of a thing to
Speaker 3: appeal to the people who are just like I just
Speaker 3: want to get my story and not worry about doing
Speaker 3: the combat, which could be a good or a bad thing.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's the way I kind of see it too,
Speaker 4: is that like it's a long game, and if you're
Speaker 4: just mostly looking for the story, like you said, like,
Speaker 4: this is a great opportunity to just like truly experience
Speaker 4: just the story, You're not like, well, do I have
Speaker 4: to commit sixty seventy eighty hours to this game. I
Speaker 4: don't know how long it is because I haven't finished
Speaker 4: it yet, but I know we'll only talk about like
Speaker 4: an early part of the game. But yeah, it's it's
Speaker 4: it's a little too easy. But yeah, I mean for
Speaker 4: people that just want to experience a story. This is great.
Speaker 4: This is a great opportunity to play this game and
Speaker 4: just truly get through the story. And I know there's
Speaker 4: I know there is multiple endings in that game. So
Speaker 4: this is also a good way too to just like, oh,
Speaker 4: I want to experience all the endings. I can go
Speaker 4: back and just kind of breathe through those ending sections
Speaker 4: again if I don't know when you necessarily start the
Speaker 4: path towards any different ending, but I would assume it's
Speaker 4: a lot easier this way.
Speaker 1: Well, right on, all right, Well, I guess time to
Speaker 1: move on to our topics for the week. All right,
Speaker 1: and we're back with topics. We do not have that
Speaker 1: much going on, but there is one thing that appeals
Speaker 1: to all of us here, and that is that related
Speaker 1: to what Evan was talking about earlier. Judgment. Uh, there
Speaker 1: has been a tease for Judgment Day, which is not
Speaker 1: Terminator too related, damn it less unless where you gotta
Speaker 1: go too's getting getting the terminator license.
Speaker 2: Yes, terminator and wow, love to see it.
Speaker 4: Make it like a dead soul's or you just like
Speaker 4: kill a bunch of terminators.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, they've they've they've done like that before.
Speaker 1: They could, I think it would fit. It turns out
Speaker 1: Modum has been a terminator the whole time.
Speaker 3: But no, this is a teas for May.
Speaker 1: It's just called Judge Day, and uh, they're they're pretty
Speaker 1: cagy on what it's about. Obviously it's got something to
Speaker 1: do with Judgment the video game, because I think on
Speaker 1: the actual website itself they show like footage of Judgment
Speaker 1: and you can see like an image of Commerci in
Speaker 1: the background. They're we're not sure what it is yet,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people are speculating that it is
Speaker 1: a Judgment too, mainly because it's still rated pending at
Speaker 1: the bottom. And if this was something like a Judgment,
Speaker 1: you know, like Steamport or something like we were saying,
Speaker 1: they would hopefully be rated. Also, it'd be kind of
Speaker 1: weird if they like just put out the game on
Speaker 1: other platforms and then make like a whole big deal
Speaker 1: out of a day thing just to announce like a
Speaker 1: Steam version like that'd be super weird. So it's probably
Speaker 1: something bigger.
Speaker 3: Say. The The other big tip off that it probably
Speaker 3: is a sequel to is they've had that contest going
Speaker 3: on every day where you retweet this tweet that they
Speaker 3: put out and it enters you in for a contest
Speaker 3: and they tweet you back saying if you want or not,
Speaker 3: And each one always has like a small, like six
Speaker 3: second clip in it. And I don't know how many
Speaker 3: like yakasa people you guys follow on your Twitter timeline,
Speaker 3: but I see like eight or nine of these a day.
Speaker 3: There are videos in those clips that don't exist from
Speaker 3: regular judgment. There are completely new scenes that we've never
Speaker 3: seen before. So take that however you want.
Speaker 4: I guess it's interesting too because in those at the
Speaker 4: end of each video it gives you like like a
Speaker 4: letter and a number thing, and the ones that are
Speaker 4: from supposedly the new game or a bunch of asterisks,
Speaker 4: so it's like they're definitely teasing something there.
Speaker 3: Things removed they're dangerous, too hot to handle Judgment day.
Speaker 1: That figured since we're all here and we're big, we're
Speaker 1: big Yakaza fans, we're big Judgment fans. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about what we would like to see out
Speaker 1: of a judgment too, Like what are you guys like
Speaker 1: hoping for both like story wise, mechanically, Yeah, you got something, Ben,
Speaker 1: I want.
Speaker 3: I want Yaga Ko to go and clear out ghost
Speaker 3: gaunted houses together. Okay, all right, I want them to
Speaker 3: bust ghosts like they bust all of the bad gangsters
Speaker 3: and people on the streets. Where's this coming from, the
Speaker 3: fact that they've got just a really good dynamic And
Speaker 3: someone mentioned it to me at one point, and I
Speaker 3: really think that the dynamic would work really well as
Speaker 3: like a ghostbusting.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're not wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm into it of detectives, and I want
Speaker 3: that more than most things.
Speaker 1: I want, uh no, more tailing emissions please? Yeah? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I don't know, this is kind of
Speaker 4: a I guess a soft answer, but like I would
Speaker 4: just want more judgment. I think that the way that
Speaker 4: the story unfolded in the original, and like how it
Speaker 4: was like this unfolding mystery until you eventually got to
Speaker 4: this point where like everything tied back together, I thought
Speaker 4: was just like really well done for a detective mystery.
Speaker 4: And I was like, yeah, just give me another one
Speaker 4: of those, just give me more.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was even surprising for a Yakuza game, where you
Speaker 2: you sort of expect expect that kind of shit, but
Speaker 2: like the the the big reveals and like the true
Speaker 2: nature of what was happening was. I think they did
Speaker 2: a really good job of keeping it kind of keeping
Speaker 2: it still mysterious. Even by the time that you see
Speaker 2: all the information, you're kind of like, oh wow, I
Speaker 2: didn't I didn't see that. So but yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that definitely definitely hit hit hit that kind of thing again.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, total.
Speaker 3: I think, uh, realistically, i'd also kind of want to
Speaker 3: see I mean, realistically, of course I want to go
Speaker 3: stuff always, but realistically I think I want more uses
Speaker 3: of using evidence you find till I can deduce things.
Speaker 3: Because I was like, we're gonna get put into like
Speaker 3: court cases, I'm gonna be able to like yell things,
Speaker 3: Phoenix rite status. It's gonna let me do all the schools.
Speaker 3: And there's like one time when you get to do
Speaker 3: like some questions a in a courthouse and I was like,
Speaker 3: that's okay, I guess this is fine and need to
Speaker 3: do it, but I want I want that.
Speaker 2: I definitely feel you on that because the most of
Speaker 2: that stuff was for bonus like experience points, but it
Speaker 2: didn't have an effect on the story. But I mean
Speaker 2: the way rgg's the their storytelling has never been about
Speaker 2: like branching paths, So I like, I would wonder how
Speaker 2: they would incorporate consequence of like whether or not you
Speaker 2: like if you maybe if you get different scenes. But
Speaker 2: I imagine they wouldn't want to or they I don't
Speaker 2: think they would do something where you get different results
Speaker 2: in the story. But maybe maybe that's something they're gonna try.
Speaker 2: That would be fucking dope.
Speaker 3: I'd imagine just do it like they do it and
Speaker 3: Doug and Rappa, where if you pick something, there's like
Speaker 3: three sentences where it's like, oh no, that can't possibly
Speaker 3: be it, and it makes you a choice again yeah,
Speaker 3: like Phoenix, right, and it's still Yeah.
Speaker 4: What if it's like Red Dead where it's like you
Speaker 4: could be a good detective or a bad detective and
Speaker 4: you liked on a.
Speaker 3: Slider bad detective yogamy, Yeah, you just beat up people
Speaker 3: and flipping what is it deer's in his sleep, which
Speaker 3: he got the evidence, but at what cost? My pants
Speaker 3: are too tight and my sight was too short?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like what if you know, at the beginning of
Speaker 4: the game, you're like looking for evidence on like camera,
Speaker 4: like if he did it, and then you know you
Speaker 4: talked like that. One guy's like, oh yeah, the security
Speaker 4: camera deletes every seven two hours. But if you're like
Speaker 4: beat him up, and it's just like you just beat
Speaker 4: you've become bad.
Speaker 3: Every dialogue option just has to beat him up option. Yeah,
Speaker 3: in the middle of questioning someone and you're like, I
Speaker 3: had it with this, just punch.
Speaker 2: It's like you're on the verge of just breaking through
Speaker 2: with new evidence, like actually, you know what, I've had
Speaker 2: enough of this.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be jazz.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then like you know, maybe like uh, you know,
Speaker 4: like at one point, Will like ditch. He's like I
Speaker 4: don't like who you've become, and like you're left on
Speaker 4: your own and.
Speaker 2: The battles are harder because you don't have your partner. Yeah,
Speaker 2: why you know what I'm saying, that's that sounds like
Speaker 2: a difficult development task.
Speaker 4: But you know what, Yeah, that's true. I'm fine with
Speaker 4: just another straight narrative. More judgment, give me more judgment, me.
Speaker 2: Too, combat systems dope. I really I really like how
Speaker 2: Yogamy functions in comment because he's so acrobatic, so doing
Speaker 2: the flying kicks and all that shit. I'm like, yeah, well,
Speaker 2: these are the vibes right here. But also I'm like, yo,
Speaker 2: they're gonna get They're gonna get Takyo Kimia again, like
Speaker 2: that foils. I imagine that was kind of an expensive
Speaker 2: thing because his likeness is not cheap. I'd imagine that
Speaker 2: boy is. He's like one of the most popping actors
Speaker 2: in Japan, so they could bring him. I mean obviously
Speaker 2: gonna bring back Yagamy. I don't know if they have
Speaker 2: like a lease on his likeness the lease, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: have a lease on his likeness. There's there's also another
Speaker 2: there's also like there are I mean, the Yakus has
Speaker 2: done this before, but they use.
Speaker 1: The likeness of a lot of Japanese actors. Yea, they
Speaker 1: like I forgot his name.
Speaker 2: I think it's ah the the your your boy who's
Speaker 2: also a he's kind of a dirty detective, but he's
Speaker 2: super health.
Speaker 1: You mean judgment, Yeah, because he did a bad thing.
Speaker 2: No, that was that's homor yeah later replaced also that
Speaker 2: whoever that was our Pierotoki. He didn't really do a
Speaker 2: bad thing. He had definitely has some coke and it's like, ah, fuck,
Speaker 2: y'all got me. I hate see it, but yeah, Abe,
Speaker 2: like he's also a Japanese actor. He's in the he's
Speaker 2: in the show that I'm watching called Oral Boros, which
Speaker 2: is basically a live action version of Judgment. Really, so
Speaker 2: that's that's pretty dope. It's like, Oh, because I watched
Speaker 2: that show, I'm like, that is a guy from Judgment.
Speaker 3: I know him.
Speaker 2: He's playing the same type of character as well. He's
Speaker 2: like the slightly suspect but dirty detective who has who's
Speaker 2: doing the right thing?
Speaker 1: Uh So that that's that's my guy.
Speaker 3: Wasn't.
Speaker 4: The reason there wasn't karaoke in Judgment was because like
Speaker 4: paying for like that that actor who did yagam to
Speaker 4: like sing would have just been like way too expensive,
Speaker 4: so they didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's he's like a legit performer room so
Speaker 1: probably no karaoke because I say it's like bring karaoke back?
Speaker 3: Is a real performer. Have you not listened to his
Speaker 3: actual band?
Speaker 2: But he is grandfathered in because he is the face,
Speaker 2: he is the voice of the franchise.
Speaker 3: Yes, you're right, but also I don't want to downplay
Speaker 3: that that man, yes makes shit happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree with all you guys. I think
Speaker 1: the big thing I would like to see outside of
Speaker 1: like yeah, like more you know, like courtroom stuff more
Speaker 1: like decision making and the investigation stuff would be I mean,
Speaker 1: I would hope that they would expand outside of Comrocho.
Speaker 1: Like you know, Judgment took place entirely in there, and
Speaker 1: I think it worked very well for that that story.
Speaker 1: But I would love to see them branch out. I mean,
Speaker 1: this might be out of rgg's wheelhouse because they do
Speaker 1: kind of just sort of like kind of like urban
Speaker 1: metropolitan areas. But if you want to do like a, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to head to like a small countryside town
Speaker 1: with like a murder mystery happening, you know, maybe like
Speaker 1: or some kind of ship going on, like you.
Speaker 3: Know, have RGIG make deadly premonition O.
Speaker 2: A A A then then literally.
Speaker 1: Like a small town. I'm like, murders.
Speaker 4: York.
Speaker 3: I can't believe we've abandoned.
Speaker 1: Him, Damn York and Yakami.
Speaker 4: What if you can go to Yokohama and there's a
Speaker 4: side quest where you can help a certain yakuza and
Speaker 4: his gang of RPG players.
Speaker 1: Of the Budding Businessman.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a holdings company.
Speaker 2: Holdings Company is was caught for tax evasion.
Speaker 3: I needed to get him out.
Speaker 1: I fully expect there to be a there's got it.
Speaker 1: They got to do some sort of crossover, right, Like I.
Speaker 4: Mean, I know, I know Judgment they were trying to
Speaker 4: like make it separate. But yeah, maybe now that like
Speaker 4: like a dragon is also taken off in the West,
Speaker 4: maybe they'll be like a little cute thing in the
Speaker 4: corner not or something right like, yeah, because there's are
Speaker 4: there any outside of just comorocho, Like, are there any
Speaker 4: references to Yakuza games in Judgment?
Speaker 2: Total clan is right, yeah, but you don't need to
Speaker 2: know about the there's a isn't there a sub sub
Speaker 2: sub story with.
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 1: And they make a they make a cure you joke
Speaker 1: where they're like, oh, the last guy, you know, he
Speaker 1: had big shoes to fill, and you know is like,
Speaker 1: oh man, that sounds really hard. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'd be able to live up to that guy. And
Speaker 1: it's like.
Speaker 2: You got you got the fish pouch and the cute
Speaker 2: fisher boots.
Speaker 1: For any fisherman. Yeah, soup hat yet.
Speaker 4: I the p S five version of Judgment, I would
Speaker 4: imagine the others have all the d l C from
Speaker 4: the PS four version, so like you get all these
Speaker 4: little statues of like onometio and like Harka on stage
Speaker 4: and I put them around Yogamy's office and dance.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know if you guys mess with the
Speaker 3: DLC for that game much, but they make Yogamy dance
Speaker 3: and then he gets health back, and it's my my
Speaker 3: favorite implementation of like a DLC healing item i've ever seen,
Speaker 3: Like they actually cut out parts from uh the best
Speaker 3: one is from a Oh God, why can't I think
Speaker 3: of the name? Am awful Majima's best song to karaoke.
Speaker 1: And over the over the top, to the top.
Speaker 3: Yeah, their actual dance dance moves cut out of twenty
Speaker 3: four Hours Cinderella that you can make Yogamy do with
Speaker 3: the healing items. You can literally make him in the
Speaker 3: middle of the street just like do a like a
Speaker 3: front flip and then wiggle his finger like the finger
Speaker 3: ship and it's it's wonderful. If you have the remastered version,
Speaker 3: please don't sleep on checking out those items. Uh yeah.
Speaker 3: Also another thing that they should get in judgment to.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be real difficult. I'll probably take a lot
Speaker 3: of hours of dedicated work and and and making sure
Speaker 3: it's fine tuned and everything is great. But I want
Speaker 3: more Kao shirts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want Kao shirtless.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, he's next Tojo guy. He's got to
Speaker 3: get his shirt off all the time.
Speaker 2: Did he ever take a shirt off in judgment?
Speaker 3: Maybe we need more shirts for Kaido to wear so
Speaker 3: we can rip them off more.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, then your Ben is Ben's on points
Speaker 1: well go.
Speaker 3: I literally rolled out of bed into my chair for
Speaker 3: this podcast.
Speaker 4: I've always loved when they like pull like the suit
Speaker 4: jacket and the shirt off just by doing one single
Speaker 4: arm motion and everything just comes off in one sweep.
Speaker 4: You don't have to like take the jacket off and
Speaker 4: then pull up the shirt.
Speaker 1: It might be uh, I might be giving away a
Speaker 1: good idea here, but I've always wanted to make a
Speaker 1: montage of every single time they do that.
Speaker 3: I was literally about to say the best Yaka shirt ripoffs, because.
Speaker 2: That's like a thirty minute video.
Speaker 3: I mean there's good ones with him also, like you
Speaker 3: can put in there. There's also in the middle because
Speaker 3: the six were like here you rip your shirt off
Speaker 3: and has a wet suit on underneath with a snorkel.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, you put that one in there.
Speaker 3: Uh. It's also just like the one in uh judgment
Speaker 3: at the beginning when he rips off his homeless person
Speaker 3: outfit and just his beard and everything is gone.
Speaker 1: It's he's got sweet leather jacket and skinny gan. It's like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this fool is wearing layers.
Speaker 4: That's what I was thinking of, because that's when I asked, like,
Speaker 4: did Kait not take his shirt off? It was that
Speaker 4: scene when y'all gi me pulls off his homeless personal
Speaker 4: because I knew they did that in the game. I
Speaker 4: knew he did that arm motion. I just didn't remember when.
Speaker 2: I gotta use that animation for God Juice, that animation
Speaker 2: for all you can r.
Speaker 1: Gg way, nothing wasted. All right, We're gonna move on
Speaker 1: to some listen air question. Okay, so if you want
Speaker 1: to give a send us a listener question, you can
Speaker 1: hit us up at after Dark Podcast at redventures dot com,
Speaker 1: or you can join our lovely discord. We have a
Speaker 1: channel there where we people can submit questions. If you
Speaker 1: want to join our discord, you can always hit me
Speaker 1: or Lucy James up on Twitter. I'm at John Lake
Speaker 1: Psyche and Lucy's at Lucy James Games. All of our
Speaker 1: questions today come from our lovely discord. I'm going to
Speaker 1: start with the first one. We're gonna try and hit
Speaker 1: a couple that we weren't able to hit last week,
Speaker 1: as well as some new ones. This is from Trilins,
Speaker 1: who says, do you have a controversial, controversial remake slash
Speaker 1: and next gen version of a game that is your
Speaker 1: way to play the game instead of the original? I e.
Speaker 1: Metal Gear Solid three came out on PS two, but
Speaker 1: you could play it on three DS.
Speaker 3: I have opinions about both of those games.
Speaker 1: Particular, Okay, I want to hear that.
Speaker 3: Uh Meddle Gear Solid three on the three DS is
Speaker 3: even though it lets you crouch walk for like the
Speaker 3: first time ever in the entire series.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it like borrows from like four, right,
Speaker 1: It's like it did, looks like it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it came out after four. I think it came out
Speaker 1: after four.
Speaker 3: Either way, it's great you can crouchwalk and Meddle You're
Speaker 3: Solid three, But that game is inferior to every other
Speaker 3: version of Metal You're Solid three because it is a
Speaker 3: three D game where the main character is stereo blind,
Speaker 3: and that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: I say it.
Speaker 3: I say it all the time in the office it's
Speaker 3: my go to joke for it, and I have to
Speaker 3: say it on the podcast because it's just the thing
Speaker 3: that I do, and I'm sorry, but you can't do
Speaker 3: that shit.
Speaker 2: God damn, this has got opinions anyway.
Speaker 3: I hope the delivery worked for that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, it's good, yes, yes, excellent. I'm actually
Speaker 1: kind of struggling to think of like a controversial version
Speaker 1: of a game I play.
Speaker 4: I don't know if this is controversial, but the first
Speaker 4: thing that came in my head was ape Escape on
Speaker 4: the Loose, which is the PSP version of the original
Speaker 4: ap Escape. I've never played the original ape Escape, but
Speaker 4: I was also talking to Matt Spanley about this and
Speaker 4: he was talking about how like the voice acting is
Speaker 4: a lot better in the original than the PSP game,
Speaker 4: and I was just like, well, I just know the
Speaker 4: PSP voice is better. So I don't know if that's
Speaker 4: considered controversial, but that's one where it's just like, I
Speaker 4: like the PSP version a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe maybe for Twin Snakes. Anybody no played it.
Speaker 3: I've never heard of.
Speaker 1: Twin Snakes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, played the ps one version.
Speaker 3: We I love that we actually managed to play through
Speaker 3: that whole thing. In the office.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a good time.
Speaker 3: It was a very good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, twin snakes, it's worth experiencing. But I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's better.
Speaker 3: The real messed up thing is I've I realized during
Speaker 3: that playthrough that my memory of lines that I quote
Speaker 3: is from that version of the game and not the original,
Speaker 3: because I've played it so much, so I'm more of
Speaker 3: here quoting the one that I like less.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 2: Maybe this is a tricky one, but I feel like
Speaker 2: we've talked about this many times before, but Persona three
Speaker 2: Portable might be the I don't know if I I
Speaker 2: reckon God damn it, Persona three Portable only if like
Speaker 2: only to play the female main character, because she's she's
Speaker 2: the best Persona protagonist, But you lose obviously, we've talked
Speaker 2: about how you lose the sort of the presence because
Speaker 2: you can't you don't walk around in the cities and
Speaker 2: all other stuff. You kind of lose that, and that's
Speaker 2: one of the best aspects is kind of living in
Speaker 2: that world and you just kind of move a cursor
Speaker 2: across a map instead, which doesn't hit the same But
Speaker 2: god damn it, if the female main character ain't the
Speaker 2: best in the series and the music that comes along
Speaker 2: with it. I would I'm so close to recommending Persona
Speaker 2: three Portable over any other version of Persona three, But
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Man, that's a good that's a good answer, because I
Speaker 1: feel the exact same way, and like I never know
Speaker 1: what to say whenever someone's like which version and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: it's like do you have to you have you have?
Speaker 1: You have?
Speaker 4: You have a minute?
Speaker 1: Like can we sit down?
Speaker 3: We need that FBS remake with the with the lady
Speaker 3: protagonist in it, and then just ship that and then
Speaker 3: make that like never have to worry again.
Speaker 4: Make that like Strikers. So when you're going through uh,
Speaker 4: what's I forgot the name of, when you're going through Tartarisk,
Speaker 4: it's just Striker's gameplay because I started fast and like, man,
Speaker 4: tartarist is not fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'll you stick with it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I ended up putting it down because a
Speaker 4: Pokemon snap and judgment some T three. But yeah, it's
Speaker 4: like I like the story so far, but it was
Speaker 4: just like the gameplay loop. I was like, Nah, this
Speaker 4: is a that's in this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you should play it on easy. It's it's it's
Speaker 2: almost kind of like the the SMT three thing that
Speaker 2: you were talking about that normal is sometimes like you
Speaker 2: can you can beat it on normal.
Speaker 1: I play it on normal.
Speaker 2: It's fine, but there are some like really you might
Speaker 2: run into some roadblocks and some cheap uh gameplay elements,
Speaker 2: And I think that bumming it bumming it down the
Speaker 2: easy makes it a little too easy. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, I think Persona is such a Persona three
Speaker 2: is such a good story experience that I think that's
Speaker 2: the better way to go.
Speaker 4: Well, I also just hate that you can't control your party. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: they do their own thing. It's just like, well, of
Speaker 4: course I'm gonna put it on easy, because if I
Speaker 4: put it on normal and they screw me over, I
Speaker 4: have no choice.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Persona three is uh, it's it's got,
Speaker 3: It's got a lot of really cheap stuff in it.
Speaker 3: Thinking back on it, which I still love it the most,
Speaker 3: is still my favorite one that I've played.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also yeah, yeah, from a gameplay perspective that, yeah, you
Speaker 2: can control your whole party in Persona three portable.
Speaker 1: How about that that's true?
Speaker 3: What would that be like? Would be like if Mitsar
Speaker 3: didn't cast Mary Karen all the time, Karen, imagine.
Speaker 1: A damn all right, Michael, would you like to read
Speaker 1: the next one?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: God, damn this fucking question, Ken Levine said in a
Speaker 2: Ken Levine said in a cup clubhouse room. First off,
Speaker 2: First off, that is those are some wild words to
Speaker 2: start something off with Larry Fox thirty two, you are Wyland.
Speaker 2: But you know what, I'll read the rest of this question,
Speaker 2: Ken Levine said in the clubhouse room. I don't know
Speaker 2: why it's so funny to me that video game writers
Speaker 2: are graded on a car?
Speaker 3: What the fuck is this?
Speaker 1: Okay? Would you agree?
Speaker 2: Also, even with games celebrated stories like Last of Us,
Speaker 2: are they actually good or just good?
Speaker 1: For video games?
Speaker 4: I think you just need to look at Persona and
Speaker 4: Yakuza and you can already see that games can tell
Speaker 4: incredible stories.
Speaker 3: I don't know about it. It's clubhouse nonsense, but I'll
Speaker 3: tell you right out, flippid. Last of Us Part two
Speaker 3: wasn't even the best revenge story game that came out
Speaker 3: that year, and people slept on the real the real winner,
Speaker 3: which was Shark Game.
Speaker 1: Shark Game Man.
Speaker 3: Has a better revenge story than the Last of Us
Speaker 3: Part two? Will you do accept it?
Speaker 1: Did I will tell you the ending of Man Eater
Speaker 1: left me shook.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's one of the smartest, really most well
Speaker 3: written games I've played in so long, with so much
Speaker 3: to say, and it actually has a great revenge story
Speaker 3: that works out better than the last of Us Part
Speaker 3: two play Man Eater.
Speaker 1: That that came gets into this some like wild like
Speaker 1: uh like snarky, but just like on point, like messaging
Speaker 1: about like social social commentary, capitalism, the destruction of the environment.
Speaker 3: Profited off of shark fins. Go eat them off with
Speaker 3: a golf course, literally eat the rich, do it?
Speaker 4: Damn you know. It's I guess kind of a side tangent.
Speaker 4: But I went to like a preview event for Man Eater,
Speaker 4: like right before the world closed down, and it was like,
Speaker 4: I wasn't I didn't really get into it because it
Speaker 4: was just like the pressure of like being there and
Speaker 4: a bunch of stuff going on. But like I posted
Speaker 4: a gameplay clip of that. I think it did like
Speaker 4: a million views, and I'm like hearing you guys now
Speaker 4: that it's out say all these really nice things like
Speaker 4: maybe I misjudged it, Maybe maybe I should get another shot.
Speaker 3: You gotta look at it. Face value, it's not difficult
Speaker 3: to kind of dismiss the game where you play as
Speaker 3: a shark that gets electrical fins. You don't expect, you
Speaker 3: don't expect to have smart things come from that, but
Speaker 3: you should. It's good. It's good time.
Speaker 1: Damn, that's that's a good show.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I would say I think I sort
Speaker 1: of just like naturally, like think this is a weird
Speaker 1: argument to have because to me, it's like it's not
Speaker 1: that they're graded on a curve, it's that, like I
Speaker 1: think just video game stories are naturally have to function
Speaker 1: and like be formatted differently, you know, like is sort
Speaker 1: of the thing they have to exist in their own medium.
Speaker 1: And like maybe where it's easier to draw that comparison
Speaker 1: is like when when a game is more like trying
Speaker 1: to aspire to be like a different medium in terms
Speaker 1: of its story without like properly taking advantage of like
Speaker 1: the medium of video games, because it's like you couldn't
Speaker 1: tell the story of PERSONA five in in like a
Speaker 1: in any other way. I think they try and tell it.
Speaker 2: You can't even tell it in an animal anime, doesn't
Speaker 2: it doesn't hit well.
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe I would go that far.
Speaker 2: But like this, like the act of living in that
Speaker 2: world is a part of its story, Like you what
Speaker 2: the actions that you were doing with your controller in
Speaker 2: the way in which you interact with that world is storytelling.
Speaker 2: And that like like you said, it's it's not better
Speaker 2: or worse, it's different.
Speaker 3: Is a great example. But even more so, there are
Speaker 3: games like bring it back to to Near you literally
Speaker 3: can't do near in any other genre, like that ending
Speaker 3: in Automena. I can't speak for the stuff and replicate
Speaker 3: because I haven't gotten there obviously, but that that ending
Speaker 3: is not possible in a book, It's not possible in
Speaker 3: a film, it's not possible in a spoken traveling bard tale.
Speaker 3: You have to like actually play that and experience it
Speaker 3: and do it, and it can only be done that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's why I say that that your actions,
Speaker 2: your your own physical investment in it is a part
Speaker 2: of that storytelling because like it's asking it's asking you
Speaker 2: something that you built, something that you you you own,
Speaker 2: it's asking you to do something very drastic with it,
Speaker 2: and then once you do, then you get the Then
Speaker 2: you get that narrative payoff. Then you kind of realize
Speaker 2: what the game is trying to tell you what it's
Speaker 2: trying to say. So I think that, And I mean
Speaker 2: there are cases in which games try to be like movies,
Speaker 2: and I think that's fine, that's not necessarily like things
Speaker 2: that hit for me, and I think those things can
Speaker 2: be very well done, and we've seen that many times.
Speaker 2: But for me, it's like it's like the games that
Speaker 2: hit different, like like the Personas, like the Nears, like
Speaker 2: the Final Fantasy fourteens, because like Final Fantasy fourteen, the
Speaker 2: reason why you get invested in that world, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a grand tale of like saving the world, but
Speaker 2: your personal investment in that and the like just the
Speaker 2: the way you interact and move with that world and
Speaker 2: the memories that you have of living in that world
Speaker 2: is is like that's how you get invested in its
Speaker 2: big moments. Those big moments matter because you live in
Speaker 2: that world.
Speaker 4: So it's just.
Speaker 2: I have I have no context for what Ken Levine
Speaker 2: said in a fucking clubhouse room, so I actually like,
Speaker 2: I can't really say anything about that. But yeah, this
Speaker 2: this the answer to this question goes well beyond whether
Speaker 2: it's stories. Game stories are good or just good for games.
Speaker 2: They're different and they are very powerful in their own
Speaker 2: right when they're done like correctly or when they're when
Speaker 2: they're done well.
Speaker 4: So and it's it's also like, because we were just
Speaker 4: talking about this with like Judgment, and like you know
Speaker 4: with RGG games, like would they do a branching narrative
Speaker 4: because they don't typically do stuff like that. I think
Speaker 4: those games like are on a very set cinematic narrative.
Speaker 4: All the cut scenes are framed extremely well. Sure, and
Speaker 4: that's a game that's like it very much is a
Speaker 4: movie in a lot of ways, but it still does
Speaker 4: it extremely well. I wouldn't, you know, like that's I
Speaker 4: think Judgment is one of the better detective stories I've seen,
Speaker 4: So in that sense, like I wouldn't I wouldn't be like, well,
Speaker 4: like you give Judgment a past because it's a video game,
Speaker 4: Like No, I think that game is incredible in its
Speaker 4: own right, and that game is a very set linear
Speaker 4: path that you go down to beat the story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like so yeah, you mentioned like Yakuza being
Speaker 2: Yaka's is very much movie like, But for me, it's
Speaker 2: like the Yakaza is so unique because the things that
Speaker 2: you do in that game also are attached to the
Speaker 2: wide emotional spectrum that it hits like it's goofy as
Speaker 2: hell and it's very serious. So like when you've beat
Speaker 2: no Bad Dudes in a really silly manner, in the
Speaker 2: very serious moments, it's like it's just it just makes
Speaker 2: sense because it's a video game, and that's that's the
Speaker 2: the tone, the attitude, the ethos of Yakuza. And also
Speaker 2: I think maybe this just extends to Japanese media for me,
Speaker 2: but I've noticed that, like I gravitate towards Japanese media
Speaker 2: because they're very good about like stripping down kind of
Speaker 2: the They often strip down what you what we would
Speaker 2: think as subtext and just make that shit very apparent,
Speaker 2: so then you can like move beyond just like oh,
Speaker 2: figure out like what what characters really mean and what
Speaker 2: the story really means. Like we're gonna tell you straight
Speaker 2: up exactly what the character is feeling, what the story is.
Speaker 2: But in a way that's like a deconstruction of trying
Speaker 2: to be I don't know, trying to be cryptic with
Speaker 2: your storytelling, and then you really get to the core
Speaker 2: themes of what that piece of media is trying to say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like with with with Yakuza, it's like I
Speaker 1: just I don't think it would it would be it
Speaker 1: would be good, like obviously, like I would enjoy it,
Speaker 1: but like it wouldn't hit if you were just like
Speaker 1: take all the cut scenes and put them together as
Speaker 1: like the movie.
Speaker 3: I've watched, it's actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: But you know, I go to but because for me,
Speaker 1: what makes yakas of work is like it is the
Speaker 1: ways it takes advantage of being a video game. Like
Speaker 1: the huge part of those games is like the environment
Speaker 1: is like the setting of Camarocho as like a character,
Speaker 1: and you get that by spending time in there, by
Speaker 1: walking around in there, and like it uses you know,
Speaker 1: the act of like exploring that space as a video
Speaker 1: game to endear you to that world and that setting
Speaker 1: and and kind of makes you feel the same way
Speaker 1: Cure You does about it, where you're like, ah, like
Speaker 1: you know, I can't stay away from this place, and
Speaker 1: you kind of get used to the town and all
Speaker 1: the different people and then stuff like side stuff like
Speaker 1: you can do like a Yakuza movie or even a
Speaker 1: TV show where it's like hey, in this episode, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, cre You's gonna go like to.
Speaker 3: The arcade, go to the arcade and do that, or
Speaker 3: he's gonna go for eight hours.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh, it's gonna go do a whole cabaret club
Speaker 1: thing for like five the.
Speaker 3: Cabaret club arc and the yakas anime though let's talk
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: It would totally be all over the place. But I think, like,
Speaker 1: because it's a video game and you have that like
Speaker 1: established language of like this is side content and it
Speaker 1: can be weird and it can be different. Like video
Speaker 1: games have that established language that makes that work, and
Speaker 1: players kind of understand that, and so you're able to
Speaker 1: play with that and like be more weird and experimental
Speaker 1: in a way that you really couldn't if you're in
Speaker 1: a movie. It would just be like tonally a mess
Speaker 1: and all over the place. So like it's even though
Speaker 1: it is being very cinematic and movie like in a
Speaker 1: lot of its presentation with its cut scenes, I think
Speaker 1: it still uniquely takes advantage of the medium of video
Speaker 1: games to do interesting things with its tone and its narrative.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also, Ken Levine, you're responsible for BioShock Infinite, So fuck.
Speaker 1: Out of here. Alrighty moving on, Evan, would you like
Speaker 1: to read the next one?
Speaker 4: Sure? I don't know how to say this person's name,
Speaker 4: but I'll read the rest of it. So I recently
Speaker 4: ended up using the body Recovery Squad services in Valheim
Speaker 4: and it was one of the best, most organized responses
Speaker 4: I have ever received when it comes to customer service.
Speaker 4: I suppose the question is have you ever had your
Speaker 4: appreciation of a piece of media increase after interacting with
Speaker 4: the fan base as opposed to the opposite, aside from
Speaker 4: the game spot after Dark Fans, And that was from
Speaker 4: Ian Chilada.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, that's a fantastic name.
Speaker 4: Perfect Well, thank you Ian for the question.
Speaker 1: I'm hunky, Michael.
Speaker 3: I feel like we might have a similar answer to this.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you want to say it like
Speaker 3: on a counter of three or something.
Speaker 2: All right, one to Final Fantasy fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go first if you want to, oh.
Speaker 2: Sure, like Final Fantasy fourteen. I think that is for
Speaker 2: an MMO, it's intimidating. I've talked about this many times.
Speaker 2: Is that you know MMOs are intimidating. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of there's a lot to handle, and there's a lot
Speaker 2: of pressure, especially in a multiplayer setting that if you
Speaker 2: go into a dungeon or if you go into a
Speaker 2: boss fight that you need to know what to do
Speaker 2: otherwise you're gonna get a flamed by the people that
Speaker 2: you're playing with. Final Fantasy fourteen community is at least
Speaker 2: in our experience, like I'm not gonna say one hundred
Speaker 2: percent across the board because if you, if y'all ever
Speaker 2: use party Finder in the high level content, it's just
Speaker 2: a little different over there. But like to get through
Speaker 2: the main content, like to get to the core stuff
Speaker 2: of what Final Fantasy fourteen is, I've almost had like
Speaker 2: one hundred percent success rate in terms of having matching
Speaker 2: with people who are supportive or at least like if
Speaker 2: you fuck up, they're like, don't trip, it's all good.
Speaker 2: Fourteen has uh like it it's low stakes enough. But
Speaker 2: but like the community is like, oh, you're you're you're
Speaker 2: playing this game for the first time. Yo, welcome to
Speaker 2: like one of the best games ever. And that like
Speaker 2: people are react very positively to having new players rather
Speaker 2: than like, oh you're new, but whatever. Like when I
Speaker 2: jump back into Wow recently, I was griefed a lot,
Speaker 2: and I think that because I wasn't I was just
Speaker 2: trying to figure things out again. But it just it
Speaker 2: felt it felt a little hostile from what I was
Speaker 2: used to jump into fourteen, Like everyone's like, oh, you're
Speaker 2: playing fourteen, yo, let me let me give you something,
Speaker 2: Let me emote to you, Let me like wave my
Speaker 2: my a, yeah, my glowing ones with you and h
Speaker 2: and cheer and celebrate that. Oh, new players here, this
Speaker 2: is cool. Uh, it's it's yeah. The community has been
Speaker 2: very supportive, and I think that that's helped me appreciate
Speaker 2: its world a lot. And I think that I think
Speaker 2: it comes down to two things. Is that the naw
Speaker 2: Kiyoshida and their community managers and the way they communicate
Speaker 2: with the fans is very sincere and very open, also
Speaker 2: very receptive to the fans, and I think that he
Speaker 2: has such a such a such a strong demeanor and
Speaker 2: setting the tone for what Final Fantasy fourteen is and
Speaker 2: what that community should be, so shouts out to them.
Speaker 2: And also I think that Final Fantasy fourteen's story is
Speaker 2: so strong in such a central point of the game
Speaker 2: that it's that story is center around very like being
Speaker 2: very empathetic and like, yeah, you save the world, but
Speaker 2: the way in which you save the world is a
Speaker 2: very it's a very intimate thing. It's a very personal thing,
Speaker 2: and it's and like it's storytelling. So I think that
Speaker 2: the people who connect with the game, who want to
Speaker 2: be there are invested in that that story, so they
Speaker 2: kind of carry that same ethos into the way they
Speaker 2: carry themselves into the community.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Final Fantasy fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess, just to add on to it, it's
Speaker 3: because as soon as I heard or I heard you
Speaker 3: read the part about the body recovery squad for Valheim,
Speaker 3: because it's that's an entirely like player run thing, like
Speaker 3: that's yeah, that's that's players going out of their way
Speaker 3: to go into a server and help you get your
Speaker 3: stuff back.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And everything that that Michael said is one hundred and
Speaker 3: ten percent true. The community makes the experience of playing ZIV,
Speaker 3: even for people who may have difficult times getting in
Speaker 3: there to play it, feel more comfortable and acclimate and
Speaker 3: eventually be like I feel good about playing the game
Speaker 3: with people I don't know, which is wild all into itself,
Speaker 3: and it's a thing you don't ever see because people
Speaker 3: who play games are bad most of the time. I
Speaker 3: don't know why. But the first thing that popped into
Speaker 3: my head when you read that was all of the
Speaker 3: player organized stuff that goes down in ZIV that people
Speaker 3: might not know about, like the there's a roving troop
Speaker 3: of like actual like it's like fifteen or twenty characters
Speaker 3: multi boxed called the Songbirds that will jump from server
Speaker 3: to server and will play full concerts in main cities
Speaker 3: on bards and they'll play like anime music, they'll play
Speaker 3: game music, they'll play anything you can think of. And
Speaker 3: it's great because all of a sudden, like you'll be
Speaker 3: hanging out doing your thing on the market board, you'll
Speaker 3: hear like is that the beginning to like the theme
Speaker 3: song from your name? Oh, shoot, what's going on? And
Speaker 3: before you know, there's just a giant group of people
Speaker 3: around these people playing music and it's neat and you
Speaker 3: don't see that in like any other game. There are
Speaker 3: people who in the housing district will build out entire
Speaker 3: like buildings to do like a cabaret if they want,
Speaker 3: they're inspired by Acazin they want to run a cabaret.
Speaker 3: They'll build out entire aquariums with like fish that you
Speaker 3: pay money to come in and see, and you get
Speaker 3: taken around by a tour guide and just it's wild there.
Speaker 3: I haven't done it yet, but I really want to.
Speaker 3: There's almost every other weekend on every data center there's
Speaker 3: like art parties where people who do really good drawing
Speaker 3: will post up in someone's house or something thing and
Speaker 3: everyone on the data center is invited to come in
Speaker 3: and hang out and talk with other artists and just
Speaker 3: draw characters that come in. And it's just it's a
Speaker 3: group of people just being like, hey, yo, I really
Speaker 3: like how you you dressed up your character. That's neat.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna draw it cool. How can I send it
Speaker 3: to you? Look at look at this cool thing that
Speaker 3: I did. How do you do that? And it's just
Speaker 3: it's people. It's people coming together and being really cool,
Speaker 3: and I like that. Yeah, it makes me feel good
Speaker 3: every time I log into ZIP knowing that's always going on.
Speaker 2: You come through limps of omensa lower decks and you
Speaker 2: know what you're gonna get. Yes, Yeah, there's I think
Speaker 2: the ways in which the game lets players be expressive
Speaker 2: and kind of do user generated uh stuff, is like
Speaker 2: it lets people be creative, and I think it's it's
Speaker 2: a it's an very inviting because people feel comfortable doing
Speaker 2: those sorts of things in the world. Of Final Fancy fourteen,
Speaker 2: So that's another thing too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, dang place, if please.
Speaker 4: You're I guess I know we've talked about Yakaza a bunch,
Speaker 4: but I guess I'll kind of use that one for me,
Speaker 4: as like that community of people who play Yakasa are very,
Speaker 4: very very invested in that series and people, I mean,
Speaker 4: for me, like with Persona, I only played Persona five
Speaker 4: because Joker was out of Smash Bros. And I was
Speaker 4: curious about that. But with Yakuza, it was just like
Speaker 4: so many people. I mean, it's true that like people
Speaker 4: who play that typically don't tend to shut up about
Speaker 4: it for a good reason. I mean, it's really good.
Speaker 4: Uh So for me, it was like I just saw
Speaker 4: this bombardment of people who were like gushing over this
Speaker 4: game and then like I started playing it, and then
Speaker 4: like I told you guys about it, and it's like
Speaker 4: that's great and it was the fun. It was a
Speaker 4: fun time, and especially like with like a Dragon and
Speaker 4: like how goofy and fun Ichiban is like there was
Speaker 4: a lot of wholesomeness around that. So yeah, I guess
Speaker 4: for me, like I took that leap with Yakiza because
Speaker 4: I've heard nothing but good things about it from that
Speaker 4: fan based. That community is no I mean, I don't
Speaker 4: know about it like a toxic side of the Yakuza community.
Speaker 3: It was just a big, big shout out. So it's
Speaker 3: a Yakaza fans that's one of the best groups of
Speaker 3: fans I think out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of love to give. I think.
Speaker 2: I think that's that's Like the thing about Yakuza is
Speaker 2: that people like genuinely have love for what that game
Speaker 2: represents and who the characters are.
Speaker 1: So I think that kind of leads the way for
Speaker 1: like people.
Speaker 2: It's funny, it's it's a fucking action brawler game where
Speaker 2: you beat the shit out of dudes all the time.
Speaker 2: And for the like, the main the loudest part of
Speaker 2: the fan base are the ones who who love the
Speaker 2: wholesome stuff and like do fan art and say really
Speaker 2: nice things about or just like kind of talk about
Speaker 2: its characters in very endearing ways and connect with the
Speaker 2: endearing side of things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally. My favorite. My favorite moment in any ACAA
Speaker 4: game is the beginning of three when you're like running
Speaker 4: that orphanage, like there's no action combat to it, and like,
Speaker 4: I love this very very much.
Speaker 3: More stressed old man trying to cut up an onion
Speaker 3: for curry and he can't, can't do it right. Kids
Speaker 3: are running around and.
Speaker 4: Then like there's that girl like on the beach and
Speaker 4: he's like, you know, kids like made fun of her
Speaker 4: at school because like you don't have real parents and
Speaker 4: like Ki, He's like no, like we're a real family.
Speaker 4: And I was like, uh, this is so wonderful.
Speaker 2: It's like those games. What those games have to say
Speaker 2: set the tone for everything else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, be spicy lended hands plays a please. I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna ask everyone to play a whole bunch of games
Speaker 3: on this podcast.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna We're gonna end it off with
Speaker 1: one last question, Ben, do you want to read the question?
Speaker 1: I have highlighted a little bit down.
Speaker 3: I don't think you see that a little yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I see it?
Speaker 1: Okay. Cool.
Speaker 3: Having heard people describe food as having good mouth feel, lately,
Speaker 3: I started thinking about what makes good button feel on
Speaker 3: a controller or related contraption. Which button, in your opinion,
Speaker 3: is the best and or most satisfying and gaming? Also,
Speaker 3: what is the worst and why is the answer to
Speaker 3: the l three stick button monstrosity? Off from any c
Speaker 3: is the worst.
Speaker 4: I hate the L three click button thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, big, big up on that. Uh. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: think of other bad buttons, least favorite buttons.
Speaker 2: Good buttons, all bad bad buttons, my favorite artists.
Speaker 3: Uh, I don't. I think about a lot of good buttons.
Speaker 1: Uh. You know what about the dual sense? The dual
Speaker 1: sense The face buttons are very sinky, is what I'll say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there are.
Speaker 2: They feel good to press. They don't feel good to mash.
Speaker 2: I play a lot of motherfucking Hotsimiku Project Diva Future Tone,
Speaker 2: and the dual sense is not great for that. It's
Speaker 2: I don't think the dual sense is great for fighting games,
Speaker 2: and I don't think it's good for rhythm games. It
Speaker 2: is great for everything else though.
Speaker 4: That's an interesting point. I played. I played Person of
Speaker 4: four and five dancing on my PS five. Maybe I
Speaker 4: should have tried it on PS four.
Speaker 1: Play that's where it's at?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, real nice and clickie this we got
Speaker 2: a du Shock three.
Speaker 3: This I found my worst button. It's not a button,
Speaker 3: it's the gosh dang deepad from the Dual Shock three.
Speaker 3: The worst thing I've ever had use in my life.
Speaker 3: You can't play fighting games on that if you.
Speaker 1: Do understand over the over the three sixty.
Speaker 3: I will take the three sixty deepad. It's mushy and
Speaker 3: it makes me feel like I'm not doing anything.
Speaker 2: There's weird spacing on the deepad too. It's like oddly space.
Speaker 1: Nintendo ruined, uh the industry when they they copyrighted or
Speaker 1: trademarked or whatever the end the snesty pad, because like
Speaker 1: that thing was so perfect and like no one else,
Speaker 1: like everyone has to make it like their own, like
Speaker 1: weird version. And I'm like, man, if only like we
Speaker 1: could all just treat up copy that deep pad.
Speaker 3: Every controller perfect Taube controller.
Speaker 4: I was I was gonna say, speaking of best most
Speaker 4: satisfying buttons controllers, I was gonna say GameCube like that
Speaker 4: big green a button.
Speaker 1: And like the n X buttons kind of being you
Speaker 1: know what I don't you know what I don't like
Speaker 1: on the GameCube though. I don't like the trigger. It's
Speaker 1: got this weird hollow like springy sound when you click
Speaker 1: it like control.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I like it in games like Mario Sunshine.
Speaker 1: The games built around the GameCube like GameCube controller flawless
Speaker 1: for all the games built for it, but like talk
Speaker 1: about the feel of that trigger, like.
Speaker 2: If you play multiplatform games like I played a lot
Speaker 2: of like The Goal of Not the Gold, the Double
Speaker 2: oh seven.
Speaker 1: Fire and play on GameCube.
Speaker 2: Yeah, with a love night Fire, but like the the
Speaker 2: triggers are a little weird for those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I could see it. I think, Uh yeah, for games
Speaker 4: that took advantage of like the what's it called the
Speaker 4: adaptive trigger where it's like you can push it in
Speaker 4: a little bit or not a lot like in that sense,
Speaker 4: I thought it worked extremely well. But yeah, I guess
Speaker 4: for a game that was also on like PS two
Speaker 4: and Xbox, it might be a little overkill.
Speaker 2: I think the most satisfying button feel has got to
Speaker 2: be like a good cherry MX red switch on a keyboard. Yeah,
Speaker 2: nothing more satisfying than a smooth, linear mechanical switch.
Speaker 1: Oh that sits good things.
Speaker 3: The feeling of pushing down on a a real good switch,
Speaker 3: trying to do a medal year quote and I couldn't
Speaker 3: do it. My mind is too for AZL.
Speaker 1: Still that's all right.
Speaker 2: In terms of the worst worst button, what was I
Speaker 2: gonna say?
Speaker 3: Fuck?
Speaker 1: Uh ship, I forgot damn it. I would say for me, like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh you know you finished? You got it?
Speaker 3: The the the joy Con analog sticks, Yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: not big on the joy Cons terrible.
Speaker 2: The joy Con analog sticks are the motherfucking wars. Never
Speaker 2: what I ever play a shooter using the joy Cons.
Speaker 4: It's so hell It's interesting because the pro controller is
Speaker 4: one of my favorite controllers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like controllers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't like whatever you want to
Speaker 3: call the thing on the three d S the analog
Speaker 3: on it. I don't want to say nipple right away,
Speaker 3: but I'm glad that you went for it for me.
Speaker 1: But like this thing, Yeah, the worst thing about it
Speaker 1: is if you like keep it I'm not sure exactly
Speaker 1: if it's like you keep it in like a like
Speaker 1: a moist environment too much like the rubber gets all
Speaker 1: like sticky. P three controlers do this as well, because
Speaker 1: he like it like absorbs the sweat and your fingers
Speaker 1: in it like comes back out and it gets all
Speaker 1: like sticky and gross. I have like a three DS
Speaker 1: it has like the the rubber on that thing is
Speaker 1: like worn off and it's all it feels discussed. That
Speaker 1: is bad button. Feel some bad button feel I love
Speaker 1: me a good sand wah fight stick button, like the
Speaker 1: CLICKI clack of a good a good fight stick. I
Speaker 1: love that there's a good it's a good feeling, and
Speaker 1: then bad feel is this is like not like how
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be. But when a when it when
Speaker 1: a button, when when the rubber on like a button
Speaker 1: kind of gets all worn down and then you try
Speaker 1: and click in and it doesn't click. It's just like
Speaker 1: slowly sinks like it's just it's the most it's it
Speaker 1: feels like it technically still works, but you're like, oh
Speaker 1: this feels awful. I hate it. Yeah, I feel you
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is that all our our do we get all our
Speaker 1: good bad button feels out?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I haven't like my Well, the things that come to
Speaker 4: mind for me are like the three D zero controller
Speaker 4: and the Intellivision controller. You never touched them personally so much.
Speaker 3: It's just like a phone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've never touched them, but I would imagine that
Speaker 4: those are not fun to play.
Speaker 3: Actually, Yeah, pushing the buttons on the intelevision controller don't
Speaker 3: work very well because they're like I don't know, I
Speaker 3: don't like break it open or anything, but it's got
Speaker 3: like because you put the overlay in it for whatever
Speaker 3: game you're playing, and then like it's it's like popped
Speaker 3: up like thin metal that you're pushing. It's it doesn't
Speaker 3: feel tactile. It feels mushy and gross.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well there you go. Didn't even need to got it,
Speaker 4: got it right, I'll say.
Speaker 1: Underrated controller. The Sega Saturn controller very good, especially for
Speaker 1: fighting games. You want good deep pad, like good fighting
Speaker 1: game deep pat out of the box, Sega Saturn.
Speaker 3: That was like designed for games. Thinking about it, it was,
Speaker 3: it really was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no one bought the thing, but damn Sega Saturn.
Speaker 1: You want to play some good fighting games, that's the
Speaker 1: get yourself.
Speaker 3: You play dark dark salty Blood behind the taco bell.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I love dark Sockers. We're never gonna get
Speaker 1: another one of those.
Speaker 3: Are never get a dark Sockers, never get a powerstone,
Speaker 3: never getting new melt. You are getting blood.
Speaker 2: We are getting a new MELTI blood, that's for damn sure.
Speaker 2: But we're never gonna get another rival school.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 3: You hate to see it.
Speaker 1: Damn I hate to see it, all right, everybody, Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna call it in episode. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining me.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: This has been a heck of a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: This is a good crew.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know you you're you're a good crew.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're a good host to thank you.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that. Thank you for letting us do our bullshit. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know, man, the adults are away and you know
Speaker 1: the kids will play. We'll play crime boys. Well we'll
Speaker 1: play Oh yes, Well that is going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode. Uh. As I mentioned before, if you
Speaker 1: want to hit us out for questions, you can always
Speaker 1: do it at after Dark podcast at redventures dot com,
Speaker 1: or you can join our lovely discord. We have a
Speaker 1: lot of great people on there hanging out. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just a wonderful community of people. And I just
Speaker 1: want to say to all of you in the discord,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys just being in
Speaker 1: there bringing good vibes, just talking about about video games
Speaker 1: and you know, whatever else comes to your minds. You
Speaker 1: guys are you guys are the real ones, and you guys,
Speaker 1: you guys make this job worth doing a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: but very much that's facts.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh, otherwise I think that's gonna be about it. We'll
Speaker 1: catch you all next time.
Speaker 3: Peace.
Speaker 1: Wait, hold on, no cancel stuff news. I need I
Speaker 1: forgot to have you guys all do your ship. I
Speaker 1: didn't do this last time either. I'm see I'm a
Speaker 1: bad house. Yeah cut us off. Yeah yeah, you guys
Speaker 1: say I'm a good house. I'm a bad host. Michael,
Speaker 1: where can people find you?
Speaker 2: People can find me and all of my bullshit at
Speaker 2: Michael p Hi. I'm on Twitter, uh and you can
Speaker 2: find my stuff on games dot Com of course I have.
Speaker 2: By the time this goes up, I'll have a feature
Speaker 2: on Neo The World Ends with You, the sequel to
Speaker 2: the World Ends with You, and I will also probably
Speaker 2: after probably on Saturday. Over this weekend, I'll have my
Speaker 2: interview with Yokutaro as well, So some interesting things happening
Speaker 2: there as well.
Speaker 4: Excellent, Evan, Hello, You find me on Twitter at Evan
Speaker 4: Langer ninety eight because I was born in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 4: You can check out the new Pokemon Snap videos that
Speaker 4: should be up on the channel now by the time
Speaker 4: this podcast goes up. Ones on the six biggest changes
Speaker 4: between the original and New Pokemon Snap, and the other
Speaker 4: is things to kind of look out for if you
Speaker 4: find yourself stuck because there are certain patterns and things
Speaker 4: you could do the game don't tell you about. So yeah,
Speaker 4: thanks for having me, John Luke.
Speaker 1: Of course, happy to have you on, and we'll definitely
Speaker 1: get you on for future episodes as well. Hell you anything, Persona, Jaquiza,
Speaker 1: Nintendo Zelda.
Speaker 4: Zelda, Yeah, all the way, Skytri's HD.
Speaker 3: Let's go.
Speaker 1: I can talk about that for a long time, all right, Ben,
Speaker 1: what about you?
Speaker 3: You can find me on Twitter dot com at Ben
Speaker 3: Jenka if you'd like to. That's fine, just publishing videos
Speaker 3: and playing games. I don't have much going on. I'm
Speaker 3: being honest. I'm just happy to be here and talk
Speaker 3: about the things that I care about with the people
Speaker 3: I care about.
Speaker 1: Oh, we're happy to have you, all right, and you
Speaker 1: can find me at John Legsypeke. You should go check
Speaker 1: out the Returnal review I mentioned earlier by Mike Epstein.
Speaker 1: Go to YouTube dot com, slash GameSpot or GameSpot dot
Speaker 1: com and check those out because it is quite excellent
Speaker 1: and I had a really good time doing the video
Speaker 1: review for that. Otherwise, you can just stay tuned because
Speaker 1: we're just I'm working on stuff for future games that
Speaker 1: are coming out that's all I can say. But you know, look,
Speaker 1: look forward, please be excited. There you go, and with that,
Speaker 1: now this is really the end of the episode. We
Speaker 1: could bring the music back, get it going, spind that
Speaker 1: back up and we'll see you all next time
Speaker 3: Y for real, Don Trante, Don Trante, Dom Frank, don't
Speaker 3: trumping