Castle Super Beast - CSB 281: Dried Pasta Is a Fidget Spinner For Your Mouth

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

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["Sailor Moon Theme"] All right. This is going to be a quick one. Hey, so get this. The wife told me that if the podcast goes too long, she's going to start sending you things from that folder she has. No, no, no, not the folder. We're going to go quick. We're going to go quick.

You insisted that you're like, hey, you're good to go. So it's like, okay, we'll go. Yeah, but I am good to go however, I would like to report that the That the coronavirus is for real not a fan Not a fan. Hmm. If I could quote one of the great orators of our time Cardi B coronavirus coronavirus Shit is getting real she did yeah that she was right that's that yeah okay so the that sucks cuz you know there's various I was

saying last time that it's like, oh, hopefully it's the one that people have been getting for two, three days and then they're gonna forget. So it is, it is that one. But this is my first rodeo. Okay, so yeah, that's not a good feeling. So the obvious follow-up question is, hey Pat, you look sound and feel like shit,

how about the rest of the family? Paige got ahold of PaxL Livid because of her autoimmune stuff. Okay. Which is the anti rona drug. And we just called 811 on the phone in BC and they just gave her a prescription after a couple questions. Okay. And so she is doing better than me now.

a couple questions. Okay. And so she is doing better than me now. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Um, the baby doesn't give a shit. Okay. Baby doesn't give a fuck. Okay. Like every now and then he'll be like, and then go back to playing with his toys. Pretty sure the fucking dog has it. I, maybe I, that dog gets all antsy if you don't walk him every single day I have not been able to walk him at all for like five days and he is just He's just left somewhere in the whole time somewhere in the middle of 2021 I feel like I read somewhere somewhere that people were asking. Can my pet get it and it was like they totally can yeah Absolutely, but it's like it does it but like it doesn't like express the same

way. Like it was ultimately not a big totally. It was just not a totally different disease for them. Yeah. I know this this bulldog that's always bouncing around has been lethargic, lethargic, like a regular bulldog for like a week now. Okay, so okay. Well, aside from that, I'd like to imagine that you can hear the baby's immune system like wide powering up. Well, it was really very... So the baby got it first and it was very quite obvious that he was very ill because he couldn't sleep which is one of those things his parents,

we got to dodge for most of his infancy, is that he's actually been a really good sleeper. But for that first four or five days, just like somebody's got to be up with him the whole night because he's just like having a time of it. And that's rough because we're sick. But he's doing fine now. He doesn't give a shit anymore. Hell yeah. Okay. Well, rest assured, we will be outy real quick and keep that folder zipped up. It's, it's, it's... Yeah. Okay, anyway, let's do it.

What's going on? So, right off the bat before jumping into bigger things, I got a chance to watch an old old movie by I guess today's standards from the year 2022.

Oh my God. There was a film released called The Menu. Oh yeah. Did you hear about it? I've heard about it. I've seen little bits and pieces of it. It's got, uh, it's got that, that, that bitch with the eyes. Um, Anna Taylor Joy.

I really wish I could remember her name ever instead of just going, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that bitch with the eyes. Super distinct face. Super distinct face. And Ray Fiennes. Which I then got to play that funny game of like, hey, punch mom, take a guess at how to say this dude's name. And she's like staring at it. She's like, is it Fiennes? Is it not what it's supposed to be? And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, not the last name. And she's like, what?

Yeah. No, but anyway, so it was actually her recommendation because she saw it a couple years back and was like, hey, I think you'd like this. You should check it out. And then I had multiple people also go like, hey, I think you'd like this. You should check it out. And I'm like, now that I've seen it, I'm like, oh, okay. Yes, I can see why. Because it is a It is a dark. I mean, it's a it's a horror movie, but like there's dark comedy elements to it. I suppose

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I would describe it as Kind of like a horror movie with knives out like like kind of humor in it about a like, like kind of humor in it about a restaurant that is essentially a Michelin rated restaurant. And yeah, it's really it's quite a fun watch. And I guess I don't know, like, if that's all you need to hear if you're interested in that and you don't want spoilers or so. I'm not going to get too far into anything. But as someone who's been like, hey, let me go to a... If I'm going to visit a place or whenever I visited another country and stuff, I'm like, hey, let's see if we can get into one of these fancy places and try it out, you know? And fortunately, yeah, Punch Mom and I have been able to eat at least four times at one

of these fancy schmancy places. And the way that it's depicted in this movie is it's super duper accurate because they got all the real people that do that. And it's quite hilarious to see them just take the piss out of this because it is true that like, especially when you're looking places that are Michelin rated, right? So the Michelin tire company, the place that like that

with the Michelin man and stuff, like there's a whole goofy thing about how they went from, they sell tires, but also we want you to go places with them, so let's come up with a reason for that. And so they started going and raiding restaurants that are worth driving to. That gimmick really kind of spiraled wildly out of control, didn't Michelin?

It really did. And they still have the Michelin Man, and he looks like fucking Stay Puft. But it's just now their Their name is associated with you know, haute couture like like fine dining and and not necessarily Very similar to what happened with guinness In the world record just spiraled totally out of control. A million percent, yes. So now you go to these places and you kind of get what will often be like, besides just

being usually a place with a nice view and seat and stuff, you're going to get like a big list tasting menu of instead of a plate of something for dinner, what's going on? You're turning purple. I just saw the absolute most perfect response to this discussion of this movie in the chat. It's from AMCQ51 who says, I've only eaten fine dining once,

and it was weird alien shit that tasted like nothing. So I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. It is weird alien shit that tasted like nothing so I can tell I'll tell you what I'll tell you what it It is weird alien shit. It does not taste like nothing it tastes like stuff But it's absolutely true that what you get is like like seven plates or so Brought out with all and it's all about the presentation so that we want plates kind of thing And it's usually just like yeah, it's a strange version of a thing you recognize, right? So they have like, they make reference to the fact

that it's like, oh, there's a lot of things that are just like snow. A lot of things are foams. A lot of things are bubbles, creams, you know. One place I taste, one time I I had tomato snow and they basically used the tomato and and the machine that makes it into a snow consistency and you're like, yeah, that that tastes like what if snow was made of tomatoes? And there's a lot of stuff like that.

That's just like really like like they're Doing like an experimental thing with some sort of idea or concept or whatever the case is so They they're kind of just taking the piss out of a lot of that now every Now and then with like those those things you'll get brought out something that's just oh that's just really fucking good, right? do you you'll get like a piece of meat that's just, oh, that's just really fucking good, right? You'll get like a piece of meat that's just like really, really well done or something with like, you know, a dessert and a cream and some kind of chocolate thing

that'll be like, it's a really good thing, but you're getting like, you know, one or two bites of it. And then that's about it, right? Wow. Yeah. So there's a lot to fucking take a piss out of. I've seen the cheeseburger scene. Yes. Okay, okay Which speaks to me directly in my in my chest There's a there's a buildup for that and the way it's done and why it's done that way. It's within context that it's it's big but the overall thing is kind of just yeah like watching as the highest

and gimmickiest versions of like these types of plated things is just lost on an audio on a room of diners that are just complete fucking idiots that you know or whatever like the whole thing it's taking the piss out of the whole thing right it's part of this like food culture it's like listen I just slaved with a science textbook and a bunch of machines to create a brand new type of food and then I brought it out and you asked me one can I substitute the milk for soy and two what if I sprinkled gold on it? Oh, OK, the gold shit.

OK, that is like the complete other end of the spectrum. That's like a hilarious level of like, we got you suckered in here, and you actually are willing to pay us money. We can flash some diamonds and, hey, look over here, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, and then charge you like 300 bucks, bucks for like a garbage cut of steak because there's edible foil around it that ruins the cut. Right? The gold shit is a hilarious, awful, insanely like a transparent scan. Do you know what one just makes me laugh so hard? You ever seen these these videos these people at these fancy restaurants with the sommelier walking around and the sommelier has this

gigantic glass tube of wine they're holding Stuck with their thumb and they just hold it over your glass and open up their thumb I have it and it's like why don't you just pour a glass of wine just right over your fingers into my glass Fucking disgusting, but it's fancy. Yeah now now here's the thing though I could just pour a glass of wine just right over your fingers into my glass. I've never seen that. Fucking disgusting. But it's fancy. Yeah. Now, here's the thing though.

It would be disingenuous to say that like, yeah, fuck all that hottie totty nonsense bullshit. It's all garbage. Because it wasn't. There was some incredible shit that was like, yo, that tastes really fucking good. Right? There were a couple things where like I ate it and I'm like, oh, there's like a first taste and then like a second taste and then like a third before you swallow it. I'm like, huh, how do you do that? That's crazy.

That there's like, it's almost like when you have, you know, it's almost like when you have like, oh, you know when you have like a warhead and it's sour, but then underneath it's sweet. And then imagine there was like some cream in there. It's like almost like that effect where where you have something that like has complexities to it that's like, that's really fucking good, right? But there's definitely some shit that is like, what the, this is the biggest eye roll in the world.

And yeah, they're taking all that to task and so on. I feel like in addition to that, of course, is just yes, there's the idea of like, can you just make some real fucking food, please, you know, at the end of the day. And while that is kind of like this like this star sterling example of just like cutting through the bullshit it feels as if like High culture like fine dining and all that Even if this is a criticism you're making of it of like, where's the real food? Fuck all this like snow foam air shit food, fuck all this snow foam air shit. There are still places that go, hey, we're presenting on this fine menu just a basic ass plate of lasagna or a basic burger or something like

that. It's essentially what Anthony Bourdain was about, going and finding street food and then telling you what the deal and story was behind it and stuff like that. They kind of do that anyway. So in a way like the critique of this of this fine dining culture subsumes all criticisms into itself because it can now everyone who's in this culture must die. Because it can present the same thing as a part of itself as a part of it the culture in a way, you know. Whether deconstructed or not. But yeah, it's but it's fun. And it's especially hilarious. Like if you've you've been to one of these places and have seen this type of menu. In the end, I'd say like in for these places, I think the

the route to go is if you're going to do one of these, probably just go and order a plate of like a meal as opposed to maybe the full on like thing because it's interesting to try like, I suppose, like once or twice, but like there's definitely like a lot of nothing that comes with some of them. And then you show, but then sometimes it's great. You never know. You never know. Right. It's all depends on who that Michelin raider was at the time and the place and so on. But then sometimes they'll be like,

yo, this place does burnt barbecue and it does really good fucking barbecue, go eat there. And you're like, yeah, that's great. Smokehouse fucking ribs. I'll be honest, I'll take a person's like in-person recommendation for food over the fanciest, most qualified food critic, like 10 times out of 10. Yo, the hot dogs over there are really good.

Okay, got it. I'm going. Versus, did you see? And Jean-Jacques said, and it's, well, at this point too, you also know what you like and don't like when it comes to food anyways. Like, at this point, you know, at near 40, you're pretty sure what your tastes are and aren't. So, if there's something that you've never, if there's a flavor you've never tried before and you're, like, hitting that for the first time, that might go either way. But in some cases, I've found it to be cool, but like yeah

It's a toss-up if you order a plate of something that you like, but you know that You're getting it from this particular place. It does it a certain way like a certain kind of steak again or whatever the cases Yeah, then it's like then at least you know that you're getting a meal that you will probably get portions That'll be at least yeah A meal that you will probably get portions that'll be at least filling. Yeah You know what I think of when I think fine dining I think about that fucking burger place called M2 or whatever that was next to Concordia University. That was like $78 for like a mediocre burger and then I think about that fucking place I don't even remember the name on the end Navec, built that was next to the gas station, like one block from the metro, that had that fucking freak thing called the Monkey Burger that was 12 patties and was uneatable.

And I'm like, I know which place I'd rather fucking go. And the thing is too of course is that there's all this fancy dining shit includes a lot of categories as well because one of the places that's very famous here in Montreal is Aupiers de Cochon, right? And the pig's foot as it were. And that's a place that's highly recommended and highly rated and so on and is very popular. But it's a cafeteria style loud mess hall of a restaurant. Like you're just going in and getting a tray and sitting down at a random like not fancy table and they're

bringing out stuff like they have like a chicken in a can with some juices as one of their dishes and everything is kind of presented very mess hall kind of ladle style. But the taste is good, you know, and that's the whole point, right? So anyway, that all that aside, if you've got any curiosity about that style of culture and all that shit, it's a fun movie to watch. It's also hilarious because the inspiration for it was from a person who went to a like, you know, a Michelin rated like fancy restaurant that involved going, taking a trip out to an island to eat in this location and then you spend a couple hours there. The person who went out was really claustrophobic and also the writer was also an anxious person

and was super freaked out by the prospect of, I don't know anyone or anything here and I'm just getting, I'm just trusting. Exactly. I'm just trusting you to bring me out to this island to eat. But the fear makes it taste better. The implication, right? The implication of this restaurant, it runs on the dentist system. So yeah, anyway, the menu is good shit for that. It's also kind of wild and hilarious because it was released in 2022. It's smack dab in the middle of COVID and there's like full on references to it. So like any things that, I don't know how many,

how much media was released in that timeframe that is directly referencing it in that way, but in the future, that's gonna be a wild one to be like, oh yeah, this happened within this two year period where it was. It's kind of strange. I have not personally encountered many forms of media that reference corona even happening at all, despite taking place in modern day.

It feels like the majority of things are gonna just kind of Pretend that it didn't really happen. The only one that I can think of that I like saw was in Infinite wealth. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay Yeah, so like part of the story part part of the like the fact that this was, yeah, restaurants got fucked over during COVID like heavily by the, you know, by the lockdown. And that's actually part of the what's going on and what is in there. So yeah, it's a fun one. And it, yeah, it's a, I'm like, I'm trying to think of like, what, what, whatever the category is for like, like, it's a horror, but like, there's like little, like rooting for the villain.

There's like Wes Anderson music playing, you know, behind the wipeouts that are occurring basically, you know, like, like that thing. So, basically. You know, like that thing, so. Yeah, anyway, the menu was fun. All right, beyond that, I did a stream for Mecha Break. And yo, Mecha Break seems very alpha, but very good. It's really fun. It's interesting to have the contrast of that right

after Marvel Rivals as well as like another team shooter. And right before 2XKO. Yes. A lot of these alphas. But Mecha Break, the ask is quite wild of what they're asking you to do, the speed they're asking you to play at, and the overall situational awareness is the highest of all, I would say, these recent things I've been trying out. So they've made a decision at some point, do we want it to control very feasibly and understandably

for the average person? Or do we want the robots to go as fast as it feels like they should be able to go? Yeah. They chose that second one. That decision was fucking made. So yes, first off, all the designs in there are from Jinnia Ishigaki and Takeyuki Yanase. So that involves basically, if there's any robot ever that you liked, chances are one of these two names was behind it. They worked on literally Metal Gear's-

Robots. Xenogears Metal Gear Solid Revengeance Xenoblade Chronicles Some Ghost in the Shell stuff got a bunch of Gundam stuff Die Buster Gou Gai Gar Outlaw Star Escaflowne. It's it's there. They've designed all the great shit. So Really good names that are that are important and the really good names that are important. And the kits you're seeing off the different mecha as well

are reflective of that. So I ended up spending most of my time with four of the many. There was a whole lot of them, actually. Surprisingly large list for the type of game of, I guess, your champions equivalent. But I went with the Tricera, which is basically your heavy arms, giant walking, four cannons, bastion mode kind of turret support. And yeah, that thing is like, hey, we got a payload mission. Cool. Sit on the payload, transform, bzzz, daca daca, you know? But what's fun and what's really well done

about it is that there's little things where you have a fairly simple kit of three or four abilities. There's no alts in the game. No, yeah. But when you transform, for example, with the Tricera from tank, from regular mech to like turret mode, there's a parry window that you knock back anything coming at you.

Yeah, it's a full second of even more invincibility than usual. Right, so like you get these little things of like, oh time your transformation for like a little extra defensive play right here, you know? There was the Panther, which was a fast melee, you know, drill in one hand, sword in the other. Oh, but you can switch weapons if you want a shield exactly and Shield allows you to parry or block and if you have it to sword you can do a combo and while that combo is charging

Hold down the drill button in your other hand and when that's maxed out you get a nice slash slash slash Gig a drill breaker. That's a kill, you know But you got to get in there, right? There's the Welkin, which was just a big old Zaku style, big beam ax, and it puts a box down. Is that the one with the ax? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it puts the box down, so nothing gets in,

nothing gets out for a couple seconds, perfect. That one might be the most overt reference. That's from like the original Gundam It was Rambo Rawls fucking Zaku called the goof I mean, it's the goof without the the yeah without the blue and the and the tentacles but you know, he's he's swinging that axe you're spinning you spin to win and You know, he's swinging that axe, you're spinning, you spin to win, and deny the point capture. You know, if you have to observe- He's got the box, right?

Yeah, anytime someone has to like grab the flag or like capture the objective or destroy the objective, they have to get real close and press the triangle button. And in this case, you just deny that for a couple seconds and that might win the entire game, you know, so Yeah, that's no zaku boy. That is the line. He says I'm glad literally says that I'm glad to see that Thresh's box from league is like escaping into more games

Because the the the ability of I have put you into a cube that you cannot leave Mm-hmm, and you're stuck in here with me. It's just super fun Yeah, you can't get in if I have to protect but if you are in you're not getting out Real fun, and then you just go And that's it, you know and Then there was the the other one one I tried was the sky raider which is hey you like Starscream? Do you like do you like Macross?

Then guess what? Turn into the plane and now is way faster than I thought it was so this is where the game gets nuts because you Turn into a plane and you're now playing ace combat in the middle of a team shooter. Against the other guys who turn into planes, but if any of those aren't around or you took them out, now you're just doing dive bombs against characters that don't know you're there because you're gone by the time your missiles fire. Yeah, you're like you're seeing the damage indicators from a full circle around you and you're like I can't possibly what the fuck and it's blasting off. And the way lock on works in this is it is not a hard lock on. This is not Ace Combat where the camera will follow and snap to keep you in view. It's going to basically be like whatever is in your large reticle is going to take a couple seconds,

depending on the weapon, and when it locks on, you can fire and it's guaranteed to hit then that target. As long as it's now within this big circle. Yes, but you have to manually keep that circle where you gotta paint your targets, right? I think the most interesting thing is that the LCS targeting takes like a full second to lock on any target So it's weapon dependent Yeah, you know, but like, you know, it's not instantaneous

Because I was picking up robots and firing away. I'm like, why the fuck am I not hitting? Oh, I have to literally wait Yeah until I acquire the target. So apparently so that's old ace come old Armored core lock on system, right? Yeah, so that that's there and like, you know speaking of our armored core, of course like a lot of this game Feels like it in terms of like the the camera placement and boosting and dodging to the left and right and up and down So that like it feels like the camera can't keep up with the speed of the robot like that's a really fun feeling It feels as if they put speed juice and design first and foremost And then when we'll figure out the rest and then we'll figure out the rest later. Yeah, I didn't even play

What is this about a rail? Yeah, okay. I didn't even know what the genre was. I thought it was PVE until the last second, you know? Like when it loaded in and you know, you make your character and go in and shit and it's like oh yeah, loading you into an online match. And I was like really? Oh okay, huh. And it's like you're straight up doing team shooting.

It's basically like, yeah, you take that kind of lock-on and gameplay and juice of like armored core. You take like some of the, I'd say like the type of kits you get on characters in Ambon, you know, the Gundam X versus Maxi Boost on, but it's way faster than that. And that game in particular, and Virtual On, have an element of them to like, you have a short boost meter

that means you're gonna have these movement bursts and then a cooldown. And you're gonna land, and then you're gonna do a fast action lock-on, do a melee zap-zap shoot, and then everyone's gonna pause and have a cooldown and you kind of have burst go burst go and here You just go for a while your fuel you need to You need to boost a lot before you need to regenerate. Yeah, it gives you you know, which is again That's that's more like a c6 right? You've got the

You know full 10 seconds, in some cases I would say, of like high speed robot action before you've gotta stop and let it come back in and let it cool down. Some of your big offensive actions are gonna take up more than that. But you have the ability to like boost in, fuck up an enemy and boost out.

And like if no one else catches you, you can do that clean. There's cool shit in there like the Inferno has the ability to do, it has that evasive action which is basically just the Gundam F91 after images where it like, you know, it like it dashes out of place and you see the image of where it was and you can do that multiple times creating like diversionary targets. That shit is so just cool to look at. And yeah, I love seeing that being like, hey, yeah, you know, legally distinct, we fucking design that shit. We can do what we want. Fuck you. So you know, you get you get

things that are not that everything looks a little similar to something you kind of know, but it's still, like, got its own pieces and bits and elements and flair to it, because, again, these folks know what they're doing. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with that. The comms voice was pretty active. Stratum shatterers, active stratum shatter stratum shatterers available stratum like okay that that should probably torn because like the game's entire audio visual interface is going for to absolutely flood the fucking screen and

airways with shit because supposed to look like a goddamn anime right so I want I want my menus exploding off everything But the announcer in particular was just like yeah Shut up, and it seems like you can turn them off in some menus. You know or some places, but In any case though the overall yeah, really fast really fun If you're down with breakneck speed team shooting and the fact that like you're like that's In the sky and it's gone. Fuck it. Okay, I'm fighting over here dealing with this and then Every like the like the team shooter

I learned in in overwatch and then eventually in apex that like, you know, you should kind of roll together and Fulfill your roles and do the objective as a team. No, that's not happening here. Everyone is doing everything in all directions. You just got to. Good luck. And like, oh, someone's got. Sticking together as a team doesn't make any sense

in a setting in which you can cross the entire map in like four seconds. Three seconds, exactly. It's like, where's the, who's got the flag? Over there, cool. I'll hit the one corner, take this dude out, I'll be back over there in a second. Yeah, everyone is moving at that speed.

And like, you know, jets chasing each other. Like if you get, play a game of fucking capture the flag and drop it off at the objective with someone who just turned into a fucking jet and is zooming across them like, good luck, you know? But like, if you can keep them in the frame long enough, you can drill up to them, but it's so fast.

One of the things that I thought was fascinating was I played against, what was the super heavy one, with all the guns, what's that one called? The Tricera. Tricera, right. So I played against the Tricera and I was like, whoa, that's a lot of firepower coming out of that turret, which is mostly invincible, except from the top. So that's fine. And I was like, that just seems really good. And then I played as I think it's called Falcon, the one that's just star screen just the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's the bullet jet and then there's the beam jet, right? I'm like, wow, this seems really good. And then I played as Tricera and I discovered that its physical controlling turden turning radius is in fact really bad. It can't keep up in the turret. It's terrible. But even out of the turret, it's actually like turning your robot is still physically pretty bad. Yeah. And then I'm like, oh yeah, no, there's a couple of these, these faster types that will just zip around

this turning radius. And that's how you deal with the damage output and survivability, because it can heal itself really well and just stay alive while doing a ton of damage, but it cannot keep up with the movement, you know? I don't know that that is going to be enough of a balance to everything. Didn't feel like enough, but it's there.

And if a player is, it's kinda like, you know, if someone's really good at headshots, and they're playing, like in Rivals, if you're playing Hela and you're great at headshots, you can't nerf that. That's going to be amazing no matter what. And similarly here, if you're great, then the balance is not going to be a perfect rock, paper, scissors, foil. Let me tell you something.

Something to keep in mind when we were playing Marvel Rivals, when we were playing Mecha Break, and definitely when we were playing 2XKO, is that balance is not final. No. No, no, no. Everything in Alpha is subject to change, of course. It's funny to see the word Alpha being used for its actual purpose and not for some bullshit trailer at an award show. Yeah, all of these are early. Mecha Break was fun. I enjoyed the fact that you can go in

and customize your details quite a good bit for colors and stuff like that. Seems like they know that, you know, hey, this is not a full on armored core level of like build your own shit, but it's a team shooter so there's got to be roles, but you can still go in and do a lot. Haven't seen, we don't know what the micro transactions are going to look like so that's

always a pending asterisk of course. We know a little bit. The loot boxes are in the game right now. You just get them from whatever and it's parts that you can replace on your robot that give small like two or three percentile buffs. And yeah, you can put three accessories into a given limb and and you know, tweak things or so on and yada yada. But yeah, overall, you know, it felt felt pretty fun and felt like a different kind of team shooter. And it scratches a big old mecha itch as well.

Of course, Gundam Evolution was really fun. I really enjoyed that as a mecha team shooter too. I love the fact that this one is in third person. That's really, really fun. And yeah, and I think Gundam Breaker is also coming out as well and such. But as far as all of these cool zone of the enders, speed, ace combat, and armored core, and all these little things, being there, the fact that it's a team shooter, I think,

sets it apart from a lot of those because you don't usually end up getting that, you know, and felt like it would be a lot of fun. I just could also see the skill ceiling being above my fucking pay grade. Like I write, I'm like, oh, I can't like I felt it by and perfectly trace, you know the enemy I Felt like maybe the time for me to have played this game was ten years ago. Hmm Right, like I also feel that like people this is a game where someone on a mouse It will just annihilate someone on a key on a controller

I like to play my third person games on a controller as if I was playing an old game from a couple generations ago. I would like to play this one on console and turn that cross play off. Boy, boy, are people going to just murder it with mouse. Yeah, it's nuts. I would say that with the exception of those super heavy characters, even the mid, even the one you start with, that's basically just a Gundam. It is very much just a Gundam. The default Ryu of the mechas you start with are asking you to be like, hey, this is high

speed movement, this is high speed action, you're going, you're going, you're going. There's something extreme about how much it's built for mouse and keyboard because nearly all of the primary melee weapons live on the robot on the robots left hand to coordinate with clicking the left mouse button but on controller you're clicking the right trigger R3 yeah yeah anyway so Mecha Break was dope. Yeah, some episodes are gonna be going up of that and again, hashtag sponsored. These are sponsored opinions. And then yeah, 2xKO. Not mine though. I didn't get paid. I think it's great. 2xKO, the Alpha Lab is out for a little bit here.

And now you had hands on time with this before. Touched it for a little bit at Combo Breaker, touched it again. But how long are we talking about with that? I mean, an hour, maybe a bit more, you know. Yeah, no, I played like 15 hours of this thing just over the past couple of days I'm sure you have as well Yeah, I was able to do two streams and then just do a little bit of practice, but

it's Shocking how the thought was oh Rising Thunder Into right you know easy to press, easy accessible buttons. You've got no worries about doing a quarter circle motion or anything because it's all one button inputs for specials. Bro, I don't know what the hell they are thinking. I think the game is hot right now.

I think it's super juicy. I think it's got like it looks great. It plays great. The net code is great. I don't understand the idea or thought process behind. Let's make everything super, super easy inputs. And they did, they totally succeeded for that. And then made a tag game in which I have seen Echo, Echo has an infinite.

Yasuo has a touch of death. Darius has a touch of death Darius has a touch of death. Oh man. I think you allow we has a touch of death but only if you have like a tentacle out like People are getting to deed Instantly Within seconds of the beginning of the match so so I think the thought process is, hey, we want this to be, yeah, have the simple

inputs so that people can walk in and not have to worry about learning the move list. It should be as easy as it is to click on your ability in a league game or press the keyboard button to do your ability. It should be as simple as that to do it in this game as well. And to be fair, touches of death in League are also totally a thing. Ah, interesting. I didn't know that. I see. Okay. Like it is kind of on brand for Yasuo to be able to kill you if he touches you. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. That's the source material right there. Well, yeah, it seems like, so everyone heard that and they're like, okay, understood,

we understood the assignment. And they're like, what else? And it's like, yeah, just make it a fighting game, make it fun. It's like, okay, cool. And so with the approach they took here, it is absolutely super low floors to walk in on, low floor, you can do all the things you want to do right away. That auto combo fuse that they have also is really strong. Yeah, yeah.

You actually- It does good combos. And you- As auto combo. It lets you switch between, so the auto combo fuse they added lets you do, you know, like you can press light, light, light, medium, medium, medium, or heavy, heavy, heavy to do a full auto combo, Dragon Ball style, but it lets you switch in between the button strengths while you're doing it and they have different enders and there's a utility there, you know, for sure.

But the skill ceiling is so sweaty and unexpectedly tight that I'm like, I can't believe you're asking this of the player in a game that was be presented as like, oh yeah, no simple inputs. It's like, and the thought process is one that, I mean, obviously it's an alpha. So shit like, you know, and like literally I want to say Sean, one of the battle designers on the team, the guy we spoke to, really chill guy was was talking about how, yeah, the intention is not for there to be TODs or for unskilled damage. Like, Ahri's assist currently is insane.

It's super busted. It's so fucking broken. Oh, man. So the thing is, in every game where a character jumps out and does a diagonal projectile, whether it's Amaterasu in Marvel or Vegeta, it's the right, the Cold Star or the da da da da da da da. It's the best. It's such a good utility to have of like stall your opponent in the place at a weird angle

that's not a straight line. They can't cleanly jump that way and lock them down and then just carry on, do what you want. On top of that, it OTGs. On top of that, you could use it twice if you use the two times assist, and on top of that it doesn't scale. So it just melts you right now and you get locked down insanely, right? You have the fact that like to do basic combos with most characters, it's very straightforward. You can do, you know, light, medium, heavy, launch, jump, light, medium, heavy, and then super.

Then the special that brings them to the floor. Yeah. And that's pretty universal. You can even get a little more out of certain characters that get like a ground bounce, you know, like Echo can spike you down and then keep it up for a little bit more right into a super. So, but, but the, and it's, and they're real combos, they're decent. It's not like there's anything to it that is like, that is viable, you know? But if you want to get that little extra juice, if you want that little sauce glazed on top of your meal, you got to do a little thing on top of your meal, you got to do a little thing that might require a micro walk, right? You might have to do a micro charge or in a Laoist case you might have to do both while doing a really early perfect frame, not perfect frame but like early tentacle attack. So what's happening here is essentially to

get the little bit of extra damage out of these characters if you want to play like Like the the the best with them a fit like top efficiency You have to do these little inputs that are very demanding You know and it's interesting that they put that in the game But as someone who's like I'm like, okay, let me try out one of these. And Illaoi in particular, she's got like light, medium, you know, or medium heavy. And then you do tentacle, then you walk, micro walk, which means walking for just a little bit.

Just a bit, like, just walk forward for like a couple frames tops, and then do a charged leaping attack, but you don't charge it all the way. You charge it more than not at all, but less than full. And then you have, and like the full charge is also very, very quick. So it's a really precise input, precise hold.

And if you do those two, you can get the combo to continue. It took a while for me to be able to be like, okay, I think I feel it. This is not gonna be something I can pull off in the heat of battle. It's asking too much, right? Maybe, and, but you don't have to do any of those things. That's, no.

But you get good results out of even the most basic stuff. I will say though man I don't know what I actually want them to change because I'm playing a lot of Darius. I'm playing a lot of Braham. I'm playing a lot of Illaoi So the big the big characters, which I'm really happy there are three big characters in this big body big bodies. Yeah and one of the things that really stuck out to me is Darius has a, uh, a grab super, but it activates on hit where he grab, he smashes his accent to you and then he goes into a, a command grab, essentially the off the ground one.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I was shocked because I kept running into situations in which they were on the ground and I'm like, this isn't going to work. And like, sure enough, it would pick people up from like any scenario. And in terms of juggling, I'm like, the character is like always available to bounce around. So barring some very specific situations like it's

super it's very loose and lenient yes I noticed that as well so Darius can do like a shoulder tackle that bounces you off the wall and in a lot of games you will get like one wall bounce one ground bounce one OTG per combo yeah like it in Street Fighter 6 like you're sitting there doing your combo routing and you're like Oh, did I use up the juggle point for this? Yeah. Yeah Yeah I mean am I gonna swing at them and it's just gonna pass straight through them because I used up all my shit Not in 2x ko I can do whatever about some awful wall and do it again

And if they have yeah, if you have enough time to do it if you have enough time to get over there Then you can finish off the combo, you know And so like that's super cool And it really feels like this one of the only fighting games ever played in which I'm like doing basic shit They go. Well, what would happen if I did this instead and I'm getting my own. Yeah Oh my god, it works. Yeah, and Then I played against an Ari echo to oh yes the team that team did a

58 hit combo on me that lasted for 40 seconds and I'm just like What the fuck it it's that's too long so they have that's the team right now and yes they've made it clear that it's like hey that's not gonna stay the same that's that's right who long but um you know with these with these absolute wild anomalous shit that people are getting and going crazy on and the dirt of his echoes, mixups, all of this stuff. I definitely, I'm like-

Echoes self busted, dude. The fact that his super hits on counter and on hit. But I think it's important to say that this is a fun ass video game. Oh, absolutely. It is very fun. It has the juice. It feels really fun to play. It feels immediately like yes, everything you're trying and doing is kind of like working

out even if you're just doing like moving around doing basic stuff, calling in your partner. And I think as well, like because it's one partner, and it's not like the full team of three and stuff, I think a lot of the, you know, we've talked about how wrapping your head around a team of three might be a lot for some folks. It's easier to focus on the one, you know? And I think as well, the things that are like really dirty left, right moments

and things that are meant to like, oh shit, which way do I block and stuff, are they're baked into these characters and they're baked into some of the assists. moments and things that are meant to like, oh shit, which way do I block and stuff are they're baked into these characters and they're baked into some of the assists. You can zip past them with Yasuo and then snap and go the other way. But there's a fun thing that starts to happen where that little snap sound, the handshake moment, your brain gets trained to immediately when you hear it, like assess and switch my blocking direction. Right?

Like it's like it becomes a little mnemonic. Like you hear it and you're like, oh, change up. The game is something else is happening. It's almost like a WarioWare moment, you know, where it's like, oh, we're playing, we're playing the game and change something else is going on now, you know? And, and if you pick the ability to do two of them in a row then you're like you have to get ready a second time but it's this it's this it's a really fun moment of like Read update quickly what's happening? The situation is no longer the same. Which way am I facing? Which way are they?

It's a it's a really fun little thing That gets to be like real fun when you're doing the duos, right? So I mean, Reggie played the duos bit and like, yeah, having the left right getting in on your opponent shit is a fun way to play. And like you have to burst for each other. You have to assist by jumping in on your own timing. You know, so you have to feel when the right time is to support the person you're playing with. It was really, really unique and I never definitely. Yeah, that's a new, it's a new experience. The fighting games is having that feeling in duos. Garfield, you had burst. I also say like maybe this is non sequitur, but I'm really impressed with the lobby system. Yeah, I think it actually has a remarkably strong lobby system in that

spectating is free. Yes, that's the thing. As soon as we saw the little lobby characters walking around, I saw people posting going, we need to get rid of this fucking system. I understand because that sentiment is true that lobbies with the cute avatars walking up to the arcades arcsis started that and like that was really great. It was a fun thing, you know, has had varying degrees of success, but when it goes badly, it sucks and it makes it a problem and it takes extra long and all these extra issues occur. But like, at first it was like, oh, that's a fun little novelty, right? And then you kind of see that being like, Hey, guilty gear, accent core is actually just going back

to no, it's just going to with like, press matchmaking and it'll find you somebody and then that's it. It's just a series of menus keeps it simple. It's a very pure streamlined experience and you know what, it fucking works and it takes two seconds to get playing. So that's obviously what people are positively wanting and fondly harkening back to. But you walk up to a cabinet in the lobby in 2XKO, and you stand there for a second, and then it's like, oh, you start spectating the match that you're standing next to. And that's really cool. You know, um It's and then you there's a one on the screen in the room where the couch setup is

That's the main room and you're like, oh, yeah, look, that's the main that you can just go watch that one You know Yeah And when you go up to the when you go up to the the main setup and you look at the top of the screen You can see how many people are spectating right your. And then when you queue up to go fight somewhere, it'll just find two people that are free and it'll be like, hey, run over to this machine if you want to go play and you can do that. Or you can just stand at any other machine and play as normal.

But yeah, it's like the lobbies in Street Fighter VI, but that spectating thing is really really really cool like that adds a lot to it and it was very fun to use. I think as well you know eventually once the matchmaking element is put into play then you're not gonna have these crazy things of like hey I'm gonna I've never played a fighting game before and now I'm getting touch of death by a fucking Sonic Fox setup. Like, that's- Yeah, y'all can have a new Elo hell to go with. Yeah, I mean, well, you know, like, okay, the alpha's not gonna present a proper tower of heaven to strive yet, you know? But for now, just being able to get in and press some buttons and feel your way through

this game, It's feeling really fun. What I was really surprised by is how absolutely bare bones everything outside of the fighting itself is. I really thought that there would be like more along because it's been worked on for a while. So I kind of thought that like, oh, like the menus, the HUDs and some of the, you know, that front end stuff would be like a little more, I guess, complete, but it really does feel like it's super early, alpha as it says.

So there's no release date on this, not even a tentative one, right? Yeah, I have a feeling in my heart. So there's no release date on this. Not even a tentative one, right? Yeah. I have a feeling in my heart. I have many feelings in my heart, which I'd like to get to later. But more importantly, the first feeling is I think this alpha that they put together for us to fuck with is definitely not all they got.

No, no, definitely. This is all that's clean enough to put in there. That character select screen in particular, having like a weird T shape is like in the in the character profile thing. Not not this care slide is like, oh no, there's definitely going to be a lot more here. Yeah. They this is this is you know, the and yeah, I'm sure the the build that of course We're looking playing at is like a quite a while old

but Just in terms of like the again like not the not the once you're on character select screen and like the training mode Full features really good a lot of stuff there. The lobby thing, like we said, they worked that out. It's there. Hilarious settings menu for controllers. That is debug as fuck. And that is where I'm like, everything that is the front end of the game, everything that is like where the music is not playing, where you have the select your character. You know, everything prior to that is real, real like early feeling. And yeah, I guess I just I was like, I thought like we would get a feel for like a menu that would be I mean, they might go with that that same style and look at everything

towards the end. I think what we're going to get is probably a more fleshed out version of what's there. But yeah, some of the just a lot of placeholder assets, a lot of placeholder stuff, you know, with the tabs, you're kind of scrolling through creating your quick little avatar, etc. But it's clearly those are not the priorities right now. The priorities is making sure that the game is really fun and feels good. So you can see that's where all the focus was. With this, I would have felt the game, I probably would have felt, I was like, oh, we're probably gonna see this game coming out, you know, middle of next year,

was my thought prior to seeing how early this was. Now I'm like, nah, keep, let's, we're going past that point. Feel like winter of 25? Yeah, late, late. Q425 at the earliest is my heart. I just, because you just kind of assume- I don't under- go ahead. I don't understand what is taking this fighting game so long. Honestly, honestly, I really, really think that it's like spending an exhaustive amount of time making sure that it feels and plays tight. It plays and feels like a Japanese fighting game, feels and like plays tight, you know?

It plays and feels like a Japanese fighting game, not a Western one. Oh, it definitely does, yeah. And you know what I mean? Like, think about that. I do, but. Because there's not a lot of examples of that. It feels and plays like a Japanese fighting game. I have, so now we're over to where I feel my other feelings about this game, where I look at the roster that they've given us and I look over at them talking about, man, it

would be really hard to add yordles to the game because of their small hit boxes. Yordles are those little furry dudes that look like a furry Yoda. Yeah, yeah, little mascots. Timo is one of those. And I look at what I'm looking at at the roster we have now, which is the safest six-person roster imaginable. And I, as a goof, went out and expanded that out to the safest 16 person roster imaginable, and threw that up on Twitter,

and was like, this has the potential to have the freak list less roster ever to have just all normal humies freak list less roster ever to have just all normal humies with like a full eight or nine characters that are from the TV show. So we were spared the Jinx zoning game in this build. We sure were. Thankfully.

That's gonna be a nightmare when it comes, I'm sure. But the interview that they did talking about how they choose their characters from EVO was a really good one, actually, because they basically said it comes down to two criteria. And it's exactly what I was hoping to hear. It's what are we currently not hitting in terms of play style? And what are we currently not hitting in terms of the character themselves? You know, and like the goal is basically if they're like whatever we are currently, whatever there's already a version of, we're going to try to get something else going,

play style and character design style as well, and just keep it as, you know, as unique as possible going through that roster. So like, I totally get that, and so like, Illaoi is probably the best example of that because she has a super weird play style that is a great, like I played Illaoi in League and she's a great translation of her style. Really annoying area denial shit with the tentacles into this.

And I'm just like, there are so many weird characters in League that have super strange kits but there are also like 25 like mid carries that are like the same guy Like what I was like how many muscle bommies are there right because not many it's pretty much just still out Okay, well that's covered, that's done. Now, I remember when I started out, when I played that Runeterra, right, there was, I remember there was like a Darius-like card, and then there was another Night Guy card. Oh, the other Night Guy that I put on my list of worst roster imaginable, you mean Garen?

Is that who the other night guy is? Yes, Garen. Okay. Okay. Now, I don't know what their kit difference is, but Garen is, I can tell you right now, do you know Whirlwind in Diablo? Oh, the spinning attack? Yeah.

Okay. Whirlwind in Diablo goes to Whirlwind in Warcraft 3, which goes to Whirlwind in Dota, which goes to Garen. Gotcha. Garen does Whirlwind. Okay, well, based on the interview, it sounds like if Nightguy is taken, we're not going to prioritize putting other Nightguy in. Yeah, but guess what?

Guess what? His sister, Lux, is one of the most popular characters ever in terms of skins. I've heard that name before. I have heard that, I've heard Lux before. Yes, that's a name, that's true. Now, what's her kit? She does light stuff. She throws like a bomb out and explodes.

You can, hold on. Okay, well, it's fine, it's fine. Yeah, you know, you can just describe it, that's okay. Cause it's like, just are we, what are we? He has a beam. Okay, where are the overlaps? Basically, they're like, let's take the Venn diagrams of this roster and the moveset and the character designs

and make the circles as far apart as possible. And I don't hate that philosophy because you're going to get your Timo in there because that's fucking. Okay, so you okay. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I understand them saying that. And I understand your agreement with that because that is also what I want. However, they have also not shown even one weirdo. If they were talking about this and they had shown off Timo or Fiddlesticks or Nautilus or Kane or Aurelius or Senna or whatever I'd be like yes Okay, we can we'll have a bunch of weirdos in there or kinch or singed or whatever

Bra I'd be like oh, yeah, I totally agree with you. That seems really cool, but it's all normies Braum is weirdo adjacent and in not even Braum is weirdo adjacent and not even? No! Braum is like, like I can't believe they put the eight world warriors in every game. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so you got some weird monster freakos that barely can be conceivable as fighting game characters to go through here. I think... Yeah dude. Yeah. Like a lot. Well, think of the one with the weirdest kit. You might get that.

Lamb. Lamb. Sick. No, is lamb the weirdest kit? I don't know. Because you know what they, this is basically, remember how they're like, remember how Shuma Gorath came to be in Marvel, right? They were flipping through and they're just like, we'd like, okay, we got the Avengers,

the main characters, the popular ones that you have to go. Let's get some fun shit in there. And they're flipping through the cards that Marvel gave them. And they're like capes, capes, tights, capes, capes, capes, that! That thing, what is that? Get that in, you know?

And yeah, I would love to imagine that they kind of are flipping through and doing that. There's a balance, of course, because people like Vi and people like Jinx are brands. Yeah. So here's the other problem. I didn't even get to the second one. So arcane came out and then we're getting arcane season 2 and Including just the characters that are in arcane season 1 and season 2 Would fill up most of the roster and I am very like It doesn't sound like it it doesn't sound like it. It doesn't sound like it It seems as if if you're gonna get a little fuzzy mascot that puts traps and bombs everywhere

That's a we mean Heimerdinger the guy who's in our cage. Yes, sure. Okay, that's a possum there, but there's more than one of those, right? Yes, yeah, there's like 30. Okay, so you're gonna you're gonna get one of those but that's not the same type of freak as the undead necromancer thing That's gonna throw armies of the dead at you and use summoned control characters I would love if they put that guy in there You know and and then whatever zombie control puppeteer is gonna be is not gonna be Yorick. Yeah, it's not gonna be the same as

is gonna be, is not gonna be. Yorick. Yeah, is not gonna be the same as this other weirdo that has multiple modes that it can switch into. Oh, Wooly. This has the largest, most interesting roster for fighting game characters possible. The possibilities. But I would like to see one weirdo before they actually sell me on that.

I wanna see one character who's either too big or too small. Like when I look at Braum, I look at Braum's head almost touching the life bar, and I can immediately remove like 10 characters off the roster possibility because they're much larger than Brawn. So do you want like a Kusari ghetto style samurai showdown red freak monster going,

yeah. Like you want like the complete odd this is barely a fighting game character like blitz tank style thing to be playable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. thing to be playable. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be fun. That'd be a whole lot of fun. You mean blitz crank? The gigantic robot that's been in league for like a decade?

So I mean, I meant blitz tank as in the fucking tank. Yeah, I know. And you said that and I went, yes, obviously. And then I realized you hadn't said blitz crank. but blitz you had actually said blitz no but blitz crank was on my list of fighters that I that I thought would be fun picks in this want I want to model this so bad and we're not gonna get a right super mad about and I think like and you know to go back I mean I think if if there's, you have room for that, right? What else did I have on there?

Volibear? Volibear was on that. Yeah, there's a couple of, there's possibilities. There are a lot of- Thresh. Thresh is, if Thresh is not on that roster, it will be weird. Thresh has been super popular and is really old and is in tons of the other media like Runeterra and the RPG. And his kit, he's the first hook kit person. Okay.

I originally called out for Illaoi when I was taking picks, so that worked out. And then I also was saying Master Yi, but it seems as if that's covered, right? Master Yi can go to hell. That's covered, that ground, that territory is taken, yes. Beyond that. So like, it's funny, because Vi, that territory is taken, yes. Beyond that. So like, it's funny, cause like Vi hasn't been shown at all,

but she's gonna be on the roster. For sure. She's the main character of the fucking show, and is also a big old punch lady. I think, and like, and if there is, if you're like, yeah, when it's like, okay, what martial artist style character would be good? There's Lee Sin is another possibility for like a fighting thing

There's Shen and Lee sin and if they pick Shen the other ones not sucks. The other ones not showing up, right? That's that's Yeah, I think you know they should place in instead of Shen. You've got some coin flips, you know, and then What was the other ones I had Riven Riven Riven is a shoe in Riven has a as a install kit. Okay, that's different from other stuff. There you go Yeah No, Riven's entire gimmick is that she's putting pieces of a sword together and getting stronger and stronger over the course of the match. Absolutely perfect for a

fighting game that has a that has no other overlap with the character style. Perfect. Yeah, big sword, do stuff. And Udyr? Udyr? What was his deal? Which one's U-D-Y-R? Yeah, no, it's like I'm rolling through my list. Dude with, um, he looks like a barbarian kind of guy. Oh, fuck those two guys. There's Udyr and then there's Tryndamere. Oh, okay. Stances.

Yeah. Okay. Well, in any case, all this to say that, like, yeah, if there is, you know, if there is something that's taken, then, like, you probably are not going to get the other. Yasuo has a brother, right? Yeah, he has a brother that's also on the roster, which is just Yone, I think his name is. Oh, okay.

Okay, yeah. So there you get it. Yeah, he's just evil, Yasuo. Yeah, no, no. No Ryus and Kens. No Akuma's, you know, we're getting, we're getting the Venn diagram overlaps a far apart from each other.

There's also another character that's about time travel. That's not Echo. Uh, huh, okay. That will definitely not get in because he's like an old wizard. Well, look, I'll say this, like, I'm gonna, like that's what they've said they're they're gonna be using as their their their guiding philosophy you know and so we'll see but I I trust that to mean

freaks are coming. That sounds I don't trust it when I have seen one freak. Okay yeah that sounds like freaks inbound. There's a free trade. Ever since they announced this game, I have taken a weirdly, even for me, a very intensely strong stance of if Teemo is not in this game, this game sucks. It's, there will be,

there will be a button pressed and a crank pulled and like that episode of the street fighter cartoon The guard the gates will open and a bunch of monsters are gonna go And they're just gonna rush the stage Just it's fascinating because this this game has the potential for like the best and worst roster ever so like I don't really care about Evelyn, for example, but the idea that the four KDA members would all make it in is possible. But I don't think all four of them deserve to get in.

Yeah. And I think as well, what you'd probably see is I could see there being an internal rule of sorts where it's like, there's like schedule one, to use drug terms, there's schedule one characters and schedule two, you know? And I think it's like, okay, so there's unavoidable overlap with like, I don't know, just like hot girl and hot guy, you know what I mean?

Like in terms of character design. So in that case, they'll probably be like, if we're gonna get a very low variance score on, you know, their, how much they look different from the rest of the cast, then we're gonna go for their kits gonna be real wild and out there. And then they'll probably be like, I imagine, I imagine somewhere they'll be like, almost like riot vetoes, where

it's like, this character is a brand character that must be in no matter what, you know, so like, I would like to see more Kaiser in there, because he's really big, but I think he's too big. work Kaiser in there because he's really big but I think he's too big. Make it work. Make it work. Abigail, Kusari ghetto. Let's tank. Make it work. You know. But yeah, I think that's what they've said about it. And this is going to be like, this is the wild thing because you know when it's trying to figure out what Mortal Kombat characters are gonna show up? It's a roster dwarfing that size, except it's full of people that people give a fuck about.

So this is gonna be the most cutthroat fucking list of announcements since a Smash game. I think that there's no way for anyone to be happy. Everyone's mad. Everyone's mad at every announcement and the comments are about to be fucking wild, dude. I think the characters they have in this alpha are really safe and people will go, yeah, okay,

I get why Yasuo and Braum and Illaoi would be there. But there's just so many of these that people care so much about that have no chance in fucking hell of ever getting in at all. And we have no idea how big the roster is. Are all? I made my fake list assuming 16. So you mentioned the World Warriors earlier and like when I look at like Echo I'm like yeah I've seen Echo in Arcane and I know he's in the music videos and stuff so that makes sense. Yasuo I knew about from way in advance

because I was like yo put the cool samurai that cool. I like him. The others, I don't know as much, but isn't Illaoi on the more obscure side? Illaoi was like, so they've had a lot of external stuff. So they've had Ruin Terra, and they also had that RPG of the Ruin King. And if you look at those, you can tell which characters Riot likes to use more. Okay. So if you see a character that's in League Runeterra and the RPG they put out, Ruined King,

they're probably gonna be in here. All three or arcane. Yeah, all Braum and Illaoi and I think everybody was in that. So Misfortune is probably going to be on the list. Oh yeah, okay, right. Her. I just remember when having a big discussion with the other FGC folks about what lead characters would make sense and their builds and kits and stuff. I remember Illaoi at the time,

this was a while ago, this was maybe over a year, a couple years probably. But it was, folks were trying to be like, oh, what was her name again? That big girl with the tentacles? I was like, oh yeah, Illaoi, Illaoi. Illaoi would be a good pick. That was kind of how the name came out. So I was like, oh, they didn't reach for it off the prime roster. It was a bit of a dig at the time.

So I was like, okay, I'm assuming she's not at the forefront. Braum, Illaoi, Yasuo, and Ahri are all in Ruined King. Okay. And that was like a solo RPG that came out a little while ago. I just dreamed of it. It's pretty good. Okay. But yeah, no, there's some clear favorites.

And then there's characters that like Malphys, the rock monster. Sorry, Malphite, the rock monster. I don't think he's gonna get in. I'm expecting there to be somewhere on that. I can imagine a character that's mainly good at being a teammate more than being an individual. Oh, that would be Kindred? Yeah, perfect.

I love that there's something for everything there on those builds, yeah. I think there's a character whose alt is defined by it doesn't allow teammates to die. It just does not allow them to die. Okay, okay. I mean, Braum has the shield ability, which is fantastic. But in terms of like you know covering

support like it's really just mainly about that right someone that can like buff you and do things to you and focus back and you know that'd be interesting but yeah yeah yeah I will see here but but either way to go back earlier in the discussion about like you know what they're going for and how they have a low floor but a high ceiling in the design of this game and how it feels and plays, I think the thought process- Feels like you better get ready to get your fucking ass kicked as well. Yeah.

I mean, there will be a filter, but matchmaking will kick in. The towers and whatever else they come up with. But I think the thought process, because Infil had a good thread on this too as well, but the thought process I think is that games that are fairly easy and accessible do exist, but they're also things where you can get interest in and the brand will bring a lot of that in. Dragon Ball is a good example. But if there isn't stuff there for people that are more familiar to go further into and stick with, there's going to be a bounce off within a couple months.

Right? So, yeah. So, Rune Terra, despite the fact that it's like kind of deprecated now, they're going to continue working on their single player rogue like mode that a lot of people really like. Because people don't necessarily want to play cards against their people, but they do want to play cards. And I can kind of see that here. It's like I would be very surprised if this thing does not have some kind of in-depth single-player Some I hope so. I really hope so. Yeah and

You know, there's like like Tekken had its like single-player Story and then single-player your avatar story world mode, you know Whatever they end up doing. I I would like it to be like a nice, you know, I mean, arcane does kind of set a type of like, hey, you can tell a story like this. And I don't know how the other League World Games do any handle their storytelling at all. But, you know, well, League doesn't have a story. It's just characters dropping in the league of legends doesn't have a story. It's just characters dropping in the league of legends doesn't have a story.

Yeah. And then they had a story and then they retcon the story to no longer exist. And it's a whole thing. So they just do whatever they kind of want. But I love I love how people go League does have a story. Then the next comment is they deleted it. And then the third comment is it did have a story then the next comment is they deleted it And then the third comment is it did have a story is the story is the story in? All the profile pages for the characters when you read their bios

No, not even will eat the the titular League of Legends no longer exists in its own setting whoa Okay, I think men described for me because I asked him about it during arcane that like the the the places that all of that game is taking place is just essentially like a secret wars rift dimension that doesn't even is true really. I think that I don't think that's accurate. Okay. I thought I was like anyway there's like a place that's just separate. No, they're countries. From that entire setting that was.

They're countries people live in. Well, but all this to say that yeah, the thought process is that like, if you have a game that has enough to chew on and enough for people that are like absolute freaks to stick with and experiment for people that are like absolute freaks to stick with and experiment with and do all the insane shit that Echo is doing is so nuts. It's real insane.

It's so insane. And like, and I think, and so the idea, the thought is like, okay, give people who love that, give lab monsters, give spectators, give everyone the wildest crazy, you know, like, like shit that is not going to be solved immediately. And that's going to ensure that longevity for people that are like fans of that, right, that'll ensure as well. And like with that longevity, there'll be really good players that'll stick around and keep that going. And I think they bring alongside a lot of other people who are going to be like, again adjacent, FGC-oriented. I'm

in, I can play kind of decently, and I like watching, and I like sticking around and stuff. And I post, I create content for this game. I keep it alive online. I keep the discussion going. There's a lot of value in the type of person who, you know, is like engaged to that, to that degree. And I think if there's things like that, and you're just like these events, then there's things that they sponsored tours and whatever, like that will at large attract more people to give it a shot, stick around, etc. There's going to be some people that are coming over from league that are just like, hey, it's the new league related thing.

Let's just touch it and see how that goes. But it is certainly true that if you can take a game like this and it doesn't have those little optimizations, those little extensions, those little things that allow you to swag a little bit more, it cuts off the top and then that cuts off the middle, which then eventually cuts off the bottom and it kills the game faster. So that's what they're trying to avoid. And probably, you know, by having these clips of like wild shit, crazy moments and people popping off and so on. It's like there's an interest that'll be gathered from that. It will also, of course, it's a decision

you have to make to say, by putting that in there, if anyone feels that they are not going to enjoy it if they cannot play at that level, that's not going to work out. If you're like, hey, I'm going to be Marlin Pie. You know what I mean? You're like, no, that's not gonna work out, right? Like if you're like, hey, I'm gonna be Marlin Pie. I'm gonna, you know what I mean? Like you're like, no, you're not. That's not, you know, but if you can look at it

and kind of be like, okay, these are not required and furthermore, you can still have fun without them. I, you know, then I think it'll be okay. But if this is probably a decision so that the game lasts years and not months. Yeah, well. I think it'll be okay. But if this is probably a decision so that the game lasts years and not months. Yeah, well, I get it. The other thing that I'm thinking of is like all now that I've played it in the games hot, like the game is very good. Clearly, like God, this is in balance this and whatever, right? I'm like, well, like, I've been playing a lot of Street Fighter

6 and they have like four characters a year feels really slow for that game. And the way that League handles it is there it's free, but they're constantly putting out new characters and they are constantly putting out cosmetics. By comparison, my current example that I'm spending a lot of time with is Street Fighter 6, which took like nine or ten months to put out a set of costumes. How long did that take for the costume threes to come out? I don't remember the exact schedule, but the side-by-side comparison Street Fighter 5 had a fuck ton of cosmetics and stuff out Yeah, at this point in time there were there were there was a lot There was a high pace and half of them were Chun-Li outfits

And so I look at like a league fighting game and I'm like I I So I look at like a league fighting game and I'm like, I wonder about the size of the roster and how fast they want to expand it. With it being a tag game, like we've talked about this before, where like tag games like feel like their roster is like a division of whatever amount of people you get to have on a team.

So like if you have a two tag system, it feels like the roster is half the. So like if you have a two tag system, it feels like the roster is half the size. And if you have a three tag system, it feels like it's even smaller. Because you're seeing by the amount of times you see you feel it faster. Yeah. And I'm just like 16 is like technically the minimum for a fighting game, but that would feel like crazy small, wouldn't it? It would. It would. But I also expect this game to... Okay, well, you know what? I can't say based on other, like, based on like Valorant or other games that they've put up. But like, I, the way League puts stuff out is, you know, there's just this insanely huge roster and then they just throw numbers on top of the pile over

time. If the game launched with a roster and then if the game launched with a smaller roster but then they had a constant stream of new characters incoming, that is like one approach or they can wait longer and put out a bigger initial roster and then have sparser releases. The incoming stream of character, how many lead characters come out at what pace Nowadays it's much less. Okay during it during he used to be like two a month. Okay. Okay. Jesus Christ Yeah, so so now it's like one every two or three months so the benefit of a frequent release like with stuff like that, which You know, this is just the way things are these days It is that like you get to be in the news cycle again, right? That was

not factored in initially with the concept of expansions and DLCs and things like that. But it did become very real that like, hey, what whoever is out for this game, it runs through the news cycle, everyone sees it again. They get another chance to be like, oh yeah, I should pick this up or whatever the case is. You might end up seeing like really big season passes of, or not season passes, but like really big annual release schedules. I also think as well, looking at the skins tab, did you see how the two optional skins they had were listed as like, oh, there's rarity legendary, right? That in my brain goes, oh, if you're putting these in and you're calling that with that

level of rarity. It's funny because that's the logic that League uses. Which implies a fuck ton of skins. Yeah, it implies that there's there's three types of skins colors, model change, and it changes your animations as well. So like in a in a fighting game context, it couldn't change your like normals, but it could definitely change the way your super look. Ah, okay. Or like, yeah, the weapon you're like normals, but it could definitely change the way you're super look. Ah, okay.

Or like, yeah, the weapon you're using, the appearance and the effect of the color. Yeah, I see what you mean, right. But that means there's plans for at least two costumes per character right out the gate. I mean, if the game is going to be free, I would say three, right? Like you got to make money everywhere that you can. If you're gonna monetize at every opportunity. And also just like League, the only two characters that have extra costumes in this alpha

are Ari and Yasuo, that is very normal. Okay. Can you customize things like the other cosmetic elements of the character? You know, wind poses, like, you know, intros, things? Not really. Not really. Okay.

Because if you, if like, you want it to take it to that level, which again, monetization takes it as far as it possibly can, you know, I could see there being, you know, like, hey, get this special wind pose, get these special three taunts, you know, or whatever, like just all these things because the game is free. Otherwise, they're gonna try to sell you whatever they can. I would not be surprised, you know. But yeah, the rarity being listed as legendary makes me think you're gonna have a fuck ton of costumes coming as well with each of those characters. So like, I expect just a steady stream of shit every month, you know, or so when this drops, at least for the first year or two, if the and then you know, maybe an adjustment after a certain period of time. And then, you know, maybe an adjustment after a certain period of time. In Wild Rift you can, the mobile one. Ah, I see.

Okay. That thing is so disappointing and so upsetting. So Wild Rift is League of Legends for your phone. So it's a much better version of league of legends. Like matches take half the time and the presentation on everything is a million times better and then they just canceled the console ports. The idea was that it would be on your phone and then, oh, it would all, it would also come to console so we could get league on the consoles and then they canceled it and it was like that first game is so much more fun than regular League.

Sorry bro, the 45 minute toxic experience is what we want to focus on right now. Oh man, yeah, it's funny how much people are just like the anticipation of the horrendous, horrendous toxicity that's incoming. I'm looking forward to scrub quotes going over time on this one, you know? Oh, it's gonna be. But yeah, yeah. It's gonna be good. Though I will say, I will say, seeing those guys, that picture of those guys, those league players chatting going, so is it normal to not have any fun when you start playing a fighting game and then two different guys just go yes It's like that's that's oh, it's so goddamn good alpha lab Being everyone at every skill level is just in the same room go and this is this this is all we're doing right now

No matchmaking whatsoever it that's it's brutal. It is brutal No way around it. But you know, they're being pretty uncompromising about where that ceiling and where that floor is going to be placed. It was kind of interesting as well when we kind of saw that new fuse with the easy input combos as well because it was like, you know, asking them, and everyone was like, oh, yeah, so you put in this newer fuse that like, it simplifies it even further. And they were like, yeah, like, the game is already simple with the inputs. But it just because you have simple inputs, it doesn't mean you can find the fun right away. Right? Yeah, what if you're like a two year old child? So that was the like, a fat that was an even faster way to find the fun and and to some

if you see the same logic in like oh yeah we've got classic in modern mode in Street Fighter 6 but beyond that we also have dynamic you know. Anyway good stuff there. So yeah that's uh that's basically the deal. Oh fucking yo, yo, bail, how about that? BAAAIL! In Elden Ring was a hell of a fucking cinematic fight. That was very cool. Curse you, bail! Curse you, bail!

Solid of scale and harpoon. I'll pierce you with a hail of harpoons! Oh, it's great. So it's funny you mentioned like that'll get burnt in and I think Reggie started memorizing it, you know, by attempt five or so. I was too locked into the sequence where I'm like trying to,

I was too locked into the moves and trying to get around them. But either way. Yeah, what a fucking, that felt, it felt like an icon battle in FF16 taking place on a Souls game arena. I was waiting for the fucking 16 by nine bars to drop in. Oh, did you freeze? like bars to drop in. Oh.

Did you freeze? No, I'm here. You were gonna say what happened? I paused because you were gonna say something initially. Oh, I totally blanked out. Okay. Oh, that's that's a good sign. I was I was waiting for you to finish thought.

That's fine. It is also quite hilarious because running in there. It's like you don't see a summon sign at all until the actual fight starts. So there's two lies. The first lie is here's a finger, use this. And it's like you don't use this at all, right? Yeah, no, I don't know why they...

It could have been any item, but the finger makes you think you'll have to summon it like a finger. And it doesn't work that way, even though the other summoning finger did work a completely different way. And then second is when you walk in, unlike the other places where there would be that outside or so, it's literally just not there at all. So it's a double lie to get Egon in that fight, you know? But it was quite a pleasant surprise with just how fucking cinematic and awesome it felt

and everything that was going on in it. I feel it is a worthy mirror to Placidius Axis fight, which is also an incredible fucking King Ghidorah battle, you know, right? And with both of those, I have this extra thing of like, the fact that you can make a fight against a dragon still feel really cool and unique extra kudos because I'm tired of regular dragon fights you know we've done so many of them at this point that like that stands out and like wow you're you're taking and what's expected and still making it fun great great you got to have a better experience with that because they patched it sometime

in the past two weeks where you no longer, when you click like summon to an NPC, someone that's inside a boss arena. You have to confirm? You used to have to confirm. Oh. And it would start on no. Oh my God. So that arena, that fight starts with a bullshit thing

flying at you as well. Oh yeah. So you don't have the time. The only, so I remember, you know what stood out? You did not have to confirm on the fights in Radon's arena. Yeah, because you don't have time, man. You just, you gotta go. So that's the only time I remember that.

But the other places, it asked you and gave you the little preview screen. The Rinala fight, you call her in and it asks you, you know? So yeah, absolute bullshittery there, but a really great dragon fight. And, you know, of course, the looking at him, you're seeing the damage and the ripped pieces and you're like, oh, these two fucked each other up. That's- S0N3R0 Did you, did you catch that he still got two of Placidus X's heads, like, attached to his back? 3D I did not. No, I saw the ripped leg and I saw the

ripped flesh on the wings, but I didn't see that. S0N3 that. Yeah, so if you, Zulie put out a video on it and like yeah, two of Placidusax's heads are like in his back. Wow. I mean, it's really easy to miss because that fucker is huge and he's moving. You know, you're, you're, he's also like the most like we fought a lot of like, enemies past their prime in the souls and Elden Ring. And like, pale has one leg. Yeah. Yeah. Like he has like one working leg left. And that is it. Like I was wondering, I was like, Oh oh is Egon gonna be the full a hab reference with the peg leg And it's like no, but bail has one Egon has got pretty much nothing

Although his name apparently in Japanese is literally a hab Oh really yeah Straight up, so it's not even being clever about it. It's like no that's captain a hab. This is Moby Dick We're doing it So Is Egon missing one leg or both because you can't really see the in when he's on the floor It's very clear. It's covered up. You can't possibly see it only Zulik could if with with some some hacking but yeah, so just a fucking cool little cinematic fight

there and a, you know, if you put the, yeah, you put enough into it and it's like, yeah, you can fight a dragon and have a great time if that fight is unique and awesome. Every time I think as well, like there's a moment where the boss like goes off into the sky The music fades out and then comes back in with a brrrraaah Right when the phase is

I'm gonna die at the end of this attempt Love that love that Good shit. So yeah this week Gonna take a look see but gonna get some more Yakuza in there and probably some more of that Elden Ring. So I'll let you guys know. Take a look. The schedule will be posted on my Twitter at woolywolves, but the channel is woolyversus

on Twitch and on Twitter. Quick bathroom break. Okay. BRB. This week, the podcast is sponsored by Shopify. Uh, yeah. That is the all-in-one commerce platform to help you out if you're getting started on your business.

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There's only two things of note from my week at all. The first is of which is Paige has always been a pretty good typer. So she's like, Hey, I'll try out typing of the dead. That seems fun. I'm sitting here watching this woman just steamroll the entirety of the way through typing of the dead overkill while having a conversation with me and not even really paying attention. Hardest difficulty. Like it's nothing. And then she's like, you try it. You're good at typing. No. No, it's not and then she's like you try you're good at typing no No, it's not even wow did page have a typing class in in school. I don't I think she did but like more than that

It's ridiculous and I'm like well this is how Like I'm watching the typing speed and I'm like, oh, this is how page is Accidentally causing DMC 3rees million stab to come out on every input. Just like that was one of the stranger things of page playing DMC is that she would like get flustered and big man stab would come out on every input. Okay. And I'm like, I can't even do that on purpose. How are you mashing that hard?

Efficient mashings, there you go. Yeah. I remember I had a typing class in high school that was a little racer that ran on a pad and you had to type in the sentences and stuff. Typing of the dead, it's like names at first, but then it eventually becomes phrases, right? Oh, it's like names at first, but then it eventually becomes phrases, right?

Oh, it's tons of phrases right off the bat and overkill. It's really quite impressive. It's a good version of that game, though it's a little... And I hit Master Rank in Street Fighter. Congratulations! And I hit Master Rank and then got into the new master ranking system in which I am comfortably Right where they left me in that I keep winning and losing matches to just hang out there 1450 to 1550 elo hell Yeah, yeah, I was like, where's wooly at in this? And he's at 1509, right in the same exact spot.

I mean, I barely touched it this season, to be perfectly honest. You literally haven't. Yeah. You can see that. You haven't actually even done a single match in this ranking season, but whatever. Getting through Diamond 5 is the crab battle-ist situation where I kept running into the same 10 players as we were all stopping each other from ranking up into Master. That particular night?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was really, really funny. I think the- I fought a Rashid, a Luke, and an Ed, just those three guys, like maybe 60% of my total matches in Diamond 5 over and over and over. I think back when I did it, the feeling of the ELO swing set up and you know back and forth, like it felt pretty prominent but I don't know if it was just in my head or

not but it you know but it felt like every second match you're paired with someone better and every you know odd numbered match you're paired with someone worse or so so but again that might have just been coincidental at the time. It might have been but once I broke into master I saw two of those guys in master. So yeah. Good for you. There you go. There you go. I saw two of those guys in master. Oh, so Good for you there you go there you go And I feel a personal level of pride because I got bison all the way from plat to master rank without ever Going in a training mode once there you go by not a one time bison's pretty fucking good, isn't he?

He's pretty fucking good. He's pretty good You this I imagine there was a trajectory difference between him and GEEF. Ah No, actually, ah, I so the difference is is that I mainly just tried to do GEEF by myself Hmm without external sources because I've been playing GEEF for so long. And doing that, once the buff came in, I crawled into Diamond 4.5. And then with Bison, I did not know how to play Bison in Street Fighter VI. And then I went and checked out one Rufalmonger's Bison Guide. There you go. Yeah. That's the boy. And what I would do is instead of doing training mode is that in between my matches?

I would just pull up the bison guide on my phone. Oh, there you go. Okay watch that. Mm-hmm Yeah, that's right doing lab stuff by myself does nothing. That's fine I'll listen to a guy talk for hours. The point is information you got information. Yeah got information. That's all it is, right? Like, I talk about labbing and I lab because I'm bad at improvising. I'm literally just like, it's my entire life is the process of figuring out how to not improvise because of how poor I am at it.

No, Wully, you're great at improvising. You're doing it right now with your mouth. And this is because of how poor I am at it. No, Wully, you're great at improvising. You're doing it right now with your mouth. And this is because of the experience I've had repeating this action over and over and basically labbing until I got to this point. Boo! Right? Honestly, no, no, no, I legitimately mean this

because I have to rock lead kick that tree over and over until I figure out how to do it. I've said this many times, but you and Matt back in the day, you guys are witty and quick on the repartee and in a ways where I was like, I can't keep up. I can't think of what to say. I'm not funny enough fast enough. I can be funny if I come back to this joke 10 minutes later, but oh shit, they're going,

they're going, they're going. I'm like, that's too much credit. But it's, but it's real, but it's real. So like the process of improvisation is like, it's only after I repeat it until I basically get the variables out because I know what I'm looking at. Go look at me playing anything where I'm like popping it. The onboarding in Mecha Break, when I was playing it, you know, I was like, this first couple of matches,

I was like, yeah, this doesn't, my brain is not gonna take anything in. I was like, this first couple of matches, I was like, yeah, I'm this doesn't eat my brain is not going to take anything. I was also pretty quiet during that because it's really fucking intense. Yeah, it's that it's showing me a lot. It's asking me a lot. And like, there's a little bit of like, just fucking do it idiot that like is happening. And I'm like, yeah, I none of this matters until I can stop and go, all right, what does what?

And I feel that way about any video game that is not just like you know like a basic platform or of something like of some kind anytime it's like an action game with a lot of things going on and You gotta you gotta do it I Have to stop and do it piece by piece, you know, so that applies to everything so that that's kind of what it is But ultimately this is a long-winded way of just saying that information is what it is You know and and do do I get to say I'm good at fighting games You've always been good at fighting games no, but no no no listen listen listen

during like the the The back half of the first season of Street Fighter 6, I'd play fighting games and be like, oh, oh, I'm so bad at this. Oh, I hate it. Oh, are fighting games bad? And then after Gif got buffed and Bison came out, I'm like, no, wait, wait, I'm actually good at fighting games. You only get to say that you're good at fighting games now if you don't get out of them. I have a little badge on my name that says I'm good. If you're no longer getting out of fighting games, then yes, you can say that you're good. I just need to keep putting out characters that are really good that I like to play and

then fighting games are good still. That goes a long way. Doesn't it go a long way that the character that you want to play just happening to be really good? How much that carries that emotion? Now let's not talk about the diminishing feeling that you get when you realize that what was Master in 5 is now been lowered way lower. And the concept of legend and Grandmaster are like, you know, where that used to be. The there is like a definitive thing of like, oh, how many people live in the greats. Yes, yes. Yeah, the big mountain. The big mountain is right.

And it's like, well, Master Rank by itself is like top 5% at the minimum. And legitimately, it's honestly more of like, congratulations, you're no longer ruining the experience for everyone below you. Master Rank is so interesting is that it has an entire ranking set inside of itself for the full skill range. And it's like when I was dipping down into like 1450, I'm like, these guys are way worse than the diamond players I was just fighting. You'll see that's weird.

So what you'll see is really interesting because there'll be a large spectrum,. You'll see. That's weird. So what you'll see is really interesting because there'll be a large spectrum, but you'll see people who are absolutely terrifying, but they only have that one layer. And once you crack that one layer, there's nothing underneath it, right? There's a lot. Because you know how a lot of people, and I mean, everybody has an autopilot, right? There's that little like,

I'm just going to not think about what I'm doing right now because I figured out I have a combo and I'm trying to get that going and everything else is just kind of reactive here and there. There's a lot of Ken's that do that mix up with their kicks and that's all they got, but it's a really good mix. There's exactly some people are able to take that one trick, that one trick pony, all the way to the finals, you know? And, well, I mean, metaphorically speaking.

And you will notice that like, yeah, as soon as someone is good enough to see past that, they have nothing else and then they start dropping, right? I think Reggie called it the MR drop, the one you waterfall off, you know. But yeah, for the most part, you get a mixture of all those. And then there's people who are, to use the Sajam analogy, not particularly outstanding in any one place, but just have a fundamental basics coverage that's really good. So they're like, all right, you're not going to get me twice on any one given thing. I'm not amazing, but I have the ability to

adapt and figure that stuff out. And those people are, it's going to take a while, but they're destined to go much further because they're building up a solid base. That friend who he had who was great at one wrestling move in the first year, won his matches, crushed it, and SageM lost all his matches. And then in year two, he got better because he just built up a fundamental thing and he was able to start winning more. And that friend who had the one trick lost every single match in year two. So I'm kind of trapped now though. So because because I went and got a character to master I can't place any lower than diamond. That's what it does. Okay. And so I was like,

hey, you know, I still have a guile that's in the bottom of gold. Let me go try that out. And I'm like, oh, fuck, dude. I'm trash with everybody that's not Gif and bison. If I if Terry comes out and then they fucking force me into diamond, I'm going to spend like weeks getting crushed down into plaque. So knowing your ability, like, again, like I know that you've mentioned that the you're no, no labbing, et cetera, it's not your style. And that makes sense. It's for dorks with glasses.

But I will say that you know enough about these games that getting any information you can to improve is enough for you to make it there for sure. Bison is gonna get touched because currently a lot of people are complaining about him. A lot of people are very upset at how incredibly strong he is so He's gonna get touched

I'm just I'm letting you know fair. I'm letting you know that right now if anything folks are really upset He deserves buffs Okay, well just just so you know it's that's That's coming down. That's coming down the pipeline, but Probably what'll happen is when he does get touched Terry will be amazing. You know yeah But yeah, yeah, I think I think The fact again you're seeing like you know the his damage output being like the best in the game and stuff like that I would be I would be totally fine with Bison

keeping every tool that he has but toning his damage down like very significantly. When you get the EX Psycho Crusher combo with somebody on the mine and they just evaporate, that's probably too much. Also Scissor Kick was never meant to be an uncharged move. Scissor Kicks, you just quarter circle, right? Yeah. So they used to be charged. And there's a delay that would be baked into that. So that the reason why a Sonic Boom is worse than a Hadoken.

Yeah, no, but it's a different move now. I mean, that's why he keeps the charges on the Psycho Crushers. Yeah, sorry. The reason why Sonic Boom is better than a Hadoken Drive is what I meant to say, is because you have to take a second to hold back. Yeah, but it doesn't do as much damage as Psycho Drive, so it's fine.

No, but the ability to pressure with the tip is it's fine I don't even know what you're talking. I don't know what I'm talking about man. Like like you're talking about it's good It's like it, it's okay. Hahahaha Hahahaha Hahahaha You let that fucking EX stomp on someone on the ground and just OTG them? Remember?

You played a Street Fighter game and you're stomping someone on the ground. Remember? Remember when Street Fighter didn't have that? I've never I've never got to be in this position in my whole life playing a fighting game character I have never life playing a fighting game character I have never you've never naturally gravitated towards the top tipist tier and been like not I don't I don't think I've heard you I like I don't think I've ever heard you downplay in that way no It feels super good. It feels really good. I can see why everybody does it. Damn, man. It's not just bison on that horse. That horse is carrying you around too? I think it was Sejam that was talking about it. It was like all these Ken players for like a year just going, Ken's not even good. Yeah, yeah.

Ken players for like a year just going, Ken's not even good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yes. It's always the classic, the Milly a down play, the down play. Yeah.

That's great. I mean, Potemkin has always been Potemkin. Yeah. And I think it's because I naturally go to all the grapplers and all the grapplers are almost always bad. So I've just been drowning in my salty scrub tears. I think Sara Bella was the attempt to rewrite history on that one and it's like... Yeah, but then you had to be playing Skullgirls.

But then, yes. Grappler's not always bad, it's just the player has to be fucking... You gotta be sick with it. You know? I mean they can nerf Bison once he's won like a major tournament. Well, I haven't seen that yet. So he might not, he's probably actually really bad. Yeah, all right, all right. Yeah.

Like bottom five. Minimum. Doesn't even have a projectile. Minimum,'t even have a projectile minimum, you know, yeah, I mean, you know someone just did a CPU level eight Won a major tournament yesterday, oh How about you shut the fuck up how about that, huh Even that was that the I mean I didn't hear about it. Oh must must not be a Was that the I mean I didn't hear about it. Oh must must not be a

WC how high that was so high right? No, all right. Don't worry about it. It's fine Don't worry All good Punks taking some time off good shit made more money than than Evo in one shot. I tell you what though Hey, hey people out there, if you're like, I can't get good at fighting games, let me tell you, I hit master rank with the baby over my shoulder and going through coughing fits from COVID.

You can do it. But yeah, the first thought I was having was that like, yeah, for me, it's just I do the repetition and stuff, but I also have fun with it. Fun can be found in a lot of places. That's the most important part. But getting some information, getting Rufalmonger videos has some tips. If you find a...

His tutorial on Bison is really exemplary. Rufal's cool. Rufal's a good guy. Yeah, he got some good stuff out there. And there's other places as well where if you find a player and you find someone that has some great explanations, there's a couple of resources really. In any case, there's times where a character gets invented and you can just like, we say X copy that or Shang Tsung it.

You know what I mean? Just like, oh, I'm going to use that I'm stealing that writing that down. Oh, I love mirror matches, dude Hmm, and I love mirror matches cuz every time I see mirror match they always do something to me and I go that works Oh shit nice that that huh yeah. Yeah, steal it, and then you just just take it and then other times you are going to go and trailblaze your own path if you're that type of player. 2XKO very much feels like it wants to enable people like that because the combo system

is so loose. I'm the kind of person who I have to like, not only do I have to practice, I've got to write it down to make sure that I'm like, Oh, I remember how to do this because in a couple weeks time, I'm gonna forget what I just learned. So I also make a note of it so that when I come back to it, I go, Oh, that's true. I learned how that this is that, you know. But yeah, I've that that that stuff's cool. So yeah, hey congrats and

Terry is gonna come fucking buster warping his way into this tier list real hard He's got to be good right like he has to be the best He's a guest character from a like a proper famous friendly franchise. He has to come in at least top five, right? I mean, Akuma was the absolute nightmare to Tekken when he showed up in that game, just out of sheer respect for the gravity of his arrival. I think it's absolutely wild that they put Akuma in and made him as good as he was as

a guest. Like he was so good. Uncompromising, full touch of death. Go look up Super Akuma replays to see him. Anyway, anything else? Nope. Nah, man. All right. Let's get into the news real quick. Just a couple things. Tango Gameworks lives. Tango has been revived by Crafton, the publisher of PUBG. They rehired everybody. Yep. So JoJo on Twitter made a post going in May when they announced the closure of Tango Gameworks and the end of Hi-Fi rush

Going, you know, please check out these people and it sucks that this is happening but you know, let's some great talent over here and then the next tweet and So it continues. So that is a very sensible acquisition And so it continues. So that is a very sensible acquisition. Because as we talked about when we reported on the death of Tango, the game was good, sold well, despite having no budget and being sent out to die, it outperformed expectations by just being really good and fun and word of mouth overnight created an IP that people cared about over out of nowhere and to watch that just die and get punished for the audacity of being a pretty cool new game was ridiculous. So hey, someone's like, how about we save that? Yeah, makes sense. Crafting is they own Blue Hole Unknown

World, Striking Distance Studios. And yeah, basically PUBG is the main thing and a couple other bits. But so Microsoft bought Tango, and then they used them to put out one game and then fired them and then just kept the Evil Within and there was a Ghostwire Tokyo IP. And the implication that it was like, oh, it's because Shinji Mikami left the company and they had no leader or whatever. Hey, let me tell you, that Evil within IP has literally zero value outside of the team that made it.

You could argue that it had zero value if Shinji Mikami was not involved. It's ridiculous and clearly just untrue that that's why shit shut down. So now, yeah, this is a possibility and it's the thought, so here they confirmed that Johannes is going to be part of the team as well, he's gonna be at the old judge there, but what is always a possibility when these things happen is how many other team members left to go secure employment elsewhere because they have fucking bills to pay. You know, like you when you shut down and then Phoenix a company back, there's people who understandably are like, that's cool. I'm already doing something else because that was May.

That was a couple months ago. And from what I can tell, they hadn't been kicked out the door quite yet or something because they were in the the article says they that the company was in the process of shutting down. Okay. Okay. Great. Great. Great. Great. Great. It appears that they just hired everybody. Fantastic. Okay. And they own the IP for Hi-Fi Rush So I don't think you need to be a fortune-teller to know that the sequel to Hi-Fi Rush is probably the first thing on the list Considering that's the only IP they bought that's what they said They're good. They're good

They're planning to expand the Hi-Fi Rush IP and it's like yeah the one that everyone liked that was a successful hit out of nowhere. The next game should be called Lo-Fi Jam. That's pretty good. I like that. And it rolls off the tongue. Yeah, someone said, go where, Woolly? And it's like, well, yeah, that's the fucking industry is in the process of getting ripped apart. And shit sucks right now if you're trying to fire, if you're trying to get hired somewhere else, you don't know where it's going to be safe. It's a really awful shitty time. But probably when somebody walks in, if they have a CV that is going to... Essentially, if somebody walks in with a CV that is like, hey, this person has the experience or whatever, yadda, yadda, yadda, and you pit people against each other like the fucking Ubi schools did here, then you can lower

the bar for what you're going to pay people and you can lower the and you can basically just have a crab bucket, let them fight and then whoever survives gets the job type situation occur. You can have the positions where people are like, hey, you are all experienced and you should be getting more than this, but because there's more of you, it's a buyer's market. So I'm going to throw one knife in the room. I'll be back in an hour. That's good news. That's good stuff. One of the other parts of the announcement is there will be no effect to the availability

of the game. Yes. It's going to be where it is. And yeah, great. That's awesome. The Hi-Fi rush was like my favorite new thing out of nowhere. So I should go back to it. It's like, oh, someone looked and said said you're throwing out this perfectly good meal that has been

Untouched that is still in the plastic wrapping that in fact won awards Myself then it was it was like George it was sitting on top, you know, it was sitting on top of the garbage I don't know if you've noticed but like a lot of smaller run games are just skipping the Xbox lately. Like we talked about it with Neo Geo Battle Call soon. No, SVC Chaos. Not Neo Geo Battle Call. That's a different thing. It would be really funny if Hi-Fi Rush 2 came to everything except Microsoft's platform. That would be funny. That also considering the tone, it would be very, it would not be out of the question, as somebody in the chat said earlier, that you could be going up against the evil video game

company, MacroHard. Oh, the game, the game that's all about the the industry and the bullshit therein. Yeah, yeah They we got this shit running on the switch, but now we couldn't figure it out. I don't know it just we tried Sorry Yeah, I think people have been saying it for a day now, which the final posh should be called Shilpetser. Shilpetser. Mm-hmm. Here's one.

I think you're going think you're gonna enjoy this one I might borderlands on track to be the biggest bomb in cinema history. Oh, yeah Okay, so there's a couple things to go through. Right? So first of all is the borderlands has a terrible story like borderlands is Like Borderlands is Got did they have a terrible story like the the second one is like it's passable and it has like a couple of hits Here and there but like Borderlands 3 was like has a story so bad that like the recommendation is to delete all the voice files Out of the game. So the story here. So there's a Borderlands movie if you if you happen to miss the Borderlands movie, if you happen to miss the release, the Borderlands movie is out. It's starring Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and so on. It cost $110 million to make and it has currently gained $8 million at the box office. When

you're talking about a over $100 million loss on a movie, you enter the realm of the largest bombs of all time. Do you want a more positive spin on one of the largest film bombs of all time? I mean, it could have been 200 million which is what's no but would you like some grade a uncut fucking cope oh oh oh you mean over it that Randy's yeah yeah yeah okay should I read this I'm gonna oh I can't I'm at the wrong quote. Okay, but the long and short of it is that There's now here it is So what you're saying is you like what my friends and I do with our Borderlands video games even more than what then you like

What's some of the biggest and best cast and crew filmmakers on the planet have done? I'm super flattered. We're working hard Extra hard for you on what's next. This is apparently in response to some Borderlands YouTubers who were shitting on the movie basically saying that. Yeah. So you just love Borderlands so much that a high quality movie just can't compete. Big, big, big, big huff. That's some strong copium. It's pure.

Yeah, so, you know, it's going to take a while before you lose as much as like John Carter did, which was over 200 mil to be fair. But the fact that it had that many people in it and like two thirds of the Jumanji stars even and such and it was not enough to carry it is kind of wild because it's also like someone said there's a Borderlands movie and I was like yeah I didn't even catch that that happened, that came out I remember the announcement I feel like I saw a trailer a long time ago and then it quietly released and that was apparently the budget on it and I think I'm assuming that was all to the names that were in it, of course. I think that you knew the movie was super doomed when you saw that Cate Blanchett was cast as Lilith and you're like, Cate Blanchett's fucking 55 years old.

Why is she playing a 20 year old in this movie? Oh is that what she's doing? Okay. Yeah don't you look so bad. What about Jane- Like Cade Blanchett's a talented actor. But this is like casting Ian McKellen as Wolverine. Just like grandpa has just got the claws out. Oh my goodness.

I like Jamie Lee Curtis but I don't know what, is it similar for her or was it? No, no, Tanith is fine. She's fine? Okay. That's fine. Okay. Kevin Hart playing Roland is really funny because Roland is a serious character that doesn't joke around at all. So casting Kevin Hart as him is a really smart and good choice.

Yeah. Um, again, I think it's just, I think it's just, can we do the Jumanji thing again? But this time we'll do it without the rock. Anyway, we're going way up on this list. There's some, biggest bombs of all time is pretty fucking, because it's like, okay, John Carter, that stands out in I think our minds, we've talked about it more than once as like, whoa man, that's the amount. It's an extra big bummer, because John Carter's one of the originators of like space fantasy.

Sure. And just like. But the reboot just, meh. But it's like, you know what else is heading up on that list immediately underneath it? What's the Lone Ranger 2013? Like, I was like, that?

That was $240 million? That was expensive? Oh my God. Like I was like that that was 240 million dollars. Oh my god. What? It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. People who like I am of the okay. Hey, listen, I'm not an economist and I'm not a filmmaker.

I am of the opinion that a significant proportion of every movie's budget that when you see cost this much is Just theft it's just that because that's like is just look at I put 50 million dollars in my pocket That number makes no sense until you remember that Johnny Depp was in it And then you go. Oh, yeah, that's where that number came from. You know? Yeah, man, it's fucking wild. I mean, Spirits Within is still up there, you know? Spirits Within is up there if only

because it dramatically shifted the direction of all video games forever. Sure. Like it was a very, like if the gooch hadn't gone all in on Spirits Within, video games today would be different. Um, I would also, I would say that the, uh, the second movie they were going to make with those models would have been way cheaper. Oh yeah.

If that ever happened. Because they already had them ready to go. But sadly, yeah, you know, it just, that wasn't the- Okay, I see a lot of people in the chat just not knowing who the fuck I'm referring to when I say the Gooch I'm referring to Hinano Busaka Gucci creator of Final Fantasy and Evangelist of the spirits within

Sid was in there They found there was that there was a there was you know, yeah, it was played by that He's done by Dalton Sutherland. I think Yeah, and and then Titan AE Which is like yeah, you know that I like that is a that was expensive animation That was Don Bluth, but fuck me. I enjoyed it anyway You know, what's always fun is when they go, oh man, this movie bombed horribly.

And you're like, I've never heard of that movie once in my life. And they're like, it came out last year. I'm like, sure it did. Yeah. Don't you find fucking Adventures of Pluto Nash. Shout outs to my brother. Adventures of Pluto Nash Shoutouts to my brother

Anyway, I saw that oh man that deserved to fucking die Like I saw the Yeah here the 2015 movie pan And like my brain deleted that from existence like I had like a glass shadow Can't believe we're talking about Fucking the movie pan what? All right So godspeed Borderlands godspeed Randy straight to hell, we deserve. And speaking of adaptations, yeah, just the story.

The cast of the Yakuza TV show, Yeah Like a Dragon, did not play the games. They were instructed not to because we wanted to do our own version. And you know what? Hey, if everyone is like, we were just talking about Sir Anthony Hopkins, if everyone is like Anthony Hopkins, then this will be amazing. Do you know, did you hear the insane thing you just said? If everyone here is as good as Anthony Hopkins, we're all good. Yes, because one asked that we just covered this last week. We're like, hey, Anthony Hopkins says, fuck your stupid source material.

It's words on a page. I'm gonna do it. If they're all that good, then great. Someone in the chat said Fallout did the same thing. Fallout doesn't reuse existing characters. That's a nonsense thing to say. I'm very much I

okay actors will say this kind of shit and You'll go. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, you'll you're you want to really just work off purely the script and go from there and it's like And you want to expect the best out of people? but That's not what's happening. Because you can't, you know, I'm going to assume the guy playing curio is not a career criminal in his day to day life. Like for real. Right. So he's going to draw on his life experience and also every movie and TV show he has ever watched that deals with these types of characters. And parts of that performance are going to be reflected in the media that he's consumed outside of this project. And when you

go, I just want wanna do my own thing, you're never ever gonna be able to do completely your own thing. So it seems weird to explicitly exclude the only thing people might actually ask for you to draw on. So important distinction here is that he did say, I wanted to try them, but they had to stop me because they wanted to,

for the script, explore from scratch. So the actors were told not to play. Yeah, no, I get that. But like, so, I get that. Yeah. But like, I have so here's an idea. What if I don't know, the actor playing Majima is like, I decided to do like, you know, I'm reading the script, and I was really feeling like doing a mixture of like, a crazy guy. And you know, just to be zany, like the Joker.

And I thought that was really unique. And it's like, oh, do you mean the exact thought process that they came up with when they made Majima? To the point of even casting a famous Joker actor as Majima? It's like, oh, that was so unique. No, it wasn't because you just pulled the individual pieces. Like, specifically avoiding the source material is baffling to me, because you're just going to use something else as inspiration. That's not the source material.

Yeah, I mean, chances are they've seen old yak as a movies that are like, you know Just the genre that is not the not the the IP and such but hey, hey Again, all they have to do is be as good as sir Anthony Hopkins Like it's it's real. So just said that it's really and The only the only way that this idea would make sense is If they gave them a list and is like listen You may not have watched any films

About the yakuza that features any of the actors on this list Because all of them have been in a Yakuza game. So we don't want you getting influenced by any of these character portrayals. And God forgive you if you've seen fucking Takeshi's castle. No, can't, no, you can't do it. I mean, it's funny because like I expecting there to be an interview that was effectively like, yeah, I tried, but I couldn't possibly get through all the games. So we covered this or that.

And you know what I mean? If anything, it was too much to get through, but we did what we could. And this is our best effort given seeing like half the series or something like that. But yeah, yeah. If you've seen most extreme elimination challenge on Spike TV, you're not allowed to act in the Netflix Yakuza series. There's too much overlap. You might have been inspired.

I think when they say this, it is a cop out for complaints. When I hear these statements, these feel like previews for excuses. It is preemptive. And it does also release a lot of homework from having to be done. And a lot of hands can kind of like preemptively be raised up in the air. Yeah. In any case, yeah, he's a... I was... People are mentioning it here, but he's from Kamen Rider Drive, so we'll see. This thing is going to be a generic Yakuza story. And it's going to have none of the bits and pieces that are unique to that game series that will make anyone care at all. Bummer. Words on a page, you

know? That's who cares? They can pull it off and then we'll call him Sir Ryoma Takeuchi. It'll be great. Can you imagine telling the Kiryu actor that he has to figure out his own way to act through the one or two nonsense scenes they give him without the inspiration of like stoic excitement that Kiryu has for like pocket racer. It's just gonna play it flat. All right do I actually do I actually have to say slash s you you fucking clowns all right here you do okay you slash s you you fucking clowns. All right here you do. Okay, you do slash s Let's take some letters

Hey, if you want to send in a letter send to castle super beast mail gmail.com. That's castle super beast mail at gmail.com We got one coming in from Metaphys says dear Ebony and ivory I Metaphys says, dear Ebony and Ivory, I was thinking about my favorite genre of games and I realized that I was more drawn to the particular style the game is in as opposed to its genre. I used to like to say that I like quote unquote dark games, but I realized there's a lot of dark games that didn't pull me in at all with their style. Huge amount.

It's so broad. It's really broad. And yet games like limbo Hollow Knight and Elden Ring did pull me in on style alone. You could describe those games as dark, but it's a particular flavor. Thus I came up with despair as the descriptor for lack of a better word. It's not necessarily horror, Gothic or macabre, but it can have those elements. There's some required amount of whimsy that must be involved without blending it too far into silly. Does that make sense? Is there a better way to describe this style?

No, I absolutely understand exactly what it means. What do you think resonates most with you? In that exact same vein, for me, I'm saying joy, right? The whimsy, the joy of an art style with colors and the joy and then that being reflected in the music, everything about how the movement and things occur. Hi-Fi Rush, perfect example. It just overlaps with all the things that make me happy audiovisually and that's where I go for that. And then on the other side of that same circle, you've got Kirby. Kirby core. I'll tell you what, I don't know if it's particularly a genre or even a tone but if you if you if you add if you add a

Mystery hook to your prime narrative. I'm gonna be in there and I'm gonna go crazy for it like Elden Ring does not have that Elden Ring is a Do it go become king There's a who done it but you get that who done it like 40% of the way through. Yeah, whereas the DLC for Elden Ring like there's a very significant portion of that DLC where you're like what the hell what's Mikala's fucking plan? Like what's he doing? What's he doing leaving all his body parts all over here? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Someone's yelling, play Danganronpa, Pat. I think you'd hate Danganronpa.

I fucking hate Danganronpa. There's so much there that you hate more than there would be that you love. Danganronpa feels... That's an extremely inaccurate call if you know this dude. That's a really off call. Danganronpa, likeah feels and sounds like the guy that I wouldn't sit next to at the high school lunch table because he stank. It's like, I love it.

I think it's great. But I- Yeah, cause you're a fucking horrible weeb. But I can feel its energy and how threatening that is. Just the whiff of it is so- Dude, I didn't even make it in like 10 minutes I got to know I'm the best baseball player I'm the most amazed and like all right yeah no your version of that is is is zero scape without the

Sudoku that's that's what's your your your speed a hundred percent I get it. All right, and I, Somnium Files is also fantastic. Also, did you... Oh my God. Is Danganronpa the Skibbidi Toilet of Ace Attorney? Is that accurate? It is. It is. No, I mean, no, no, because it has Ace Attorney,

like, it has ace attorney ingredients But there's a there's there's there's I'd say that there's stuff that is very that's not a toilet ingredients The ingredients are there, but there's I would say that like the overall like genre death game thing feels more Definitive of what it is than the like genre death game thing feels more definitive of what it is than the lawyering gameplay, you know? The game, but like you- I tell you what though. But you're proving, you're solving cases

in a very same way, but this, but you're playing out a game that's a bunch of kids trapped in a death game. I tell you what, I tell you what about Danganronpa. Nothing is more exciting about hearing about a thing that you're not into than seeing people arguing on social media as to whether or not the ending of the third game just makes the whole series trash or not. That's like super exciting to see people just be super mad that it ended in a way that some people hate so much they regret their time with it entirely.

And you're just like, whoa, I'm winning over here by not engaging with this at all. Maybe. I will have something to say about that one day, but today's not that day. Yeah. We got one coming in from Chris from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Says, hey Chris, Dear Castle Spicy Mayo, you like ramen, right?

Talk about it. I like the noodles. So you know, it's funny because I think I only learned about ramen around college or so. I did not know about it at all. And my first experience was with pho. So Tonkani soup was all around the neighborhood where I grew up and it was really good

and that was my soup thing. So to me that's the default. The default is pho and then I learned about ramen and all that Naruto shit and then it was like, oh okay yeah I've had like real brothy noodle soup before but this one's got eggs in it, so I'm not down with that. And you know, I've had since then a bunch of different kinds and thick noodles, udons, etc.

But I think pho is my favorite and I think pho fucking blows ramen out of the water almost every single time I've had it. So all this noise about ramen when we should be talking about Tonkinese soup So, um, I also didn't know about ramen until fairly late. Like I was like 18 or something And the reason why is stupid There were kids that ate ramen in my high school lunch You know break like the whole of my high

school. But for some reason, all the kids that ate ramen in my high school just pulled it out of the packet. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Bite into it like freaks.

So I wasn't okay. And like it was a goddamn gigantic granola bar or something the bag of dollar store Like the dollar ramen thing yeah that I was thinking of the bowl that you get from the place in the you know They're the real thing or whatever from the restaurant that stuff Yeah, everybody had those and we and it would crack and the the crumbs and the put the tiny noodles would go empty you empty the salt the soup powder into the bag you crush the bag up and you eat them like chips it's weird affordable yeah I didn't even know you could make those into like a soup until like 18 very very affordable Yeah

But if you're talking about going to a place and getting a hot bowl put in front of you in a restaurant All day for all day now people people are pointing out that I in fact eat raw pasta, but that's different you see Because when I eat raw pasta, that's different you see because when I eat raw pasta I eat it one strand at a time it doesn't go everywhere okay but the consistency of raw yellow pasta like feels is great like it's gonna hurt your stomach more than no then the noodles would It's perfect. It's got that good crunch. Eating raw pasta. It can't be good.

It's got to be doing some damage. Eating raw pasta is like the not quite as unhealthy like pica obsession as like chewing straight through your pens. I was about to say this insanity that you're having right now, this take is clearly based on 100% texture. It's just a texture fixation. Yeah but you can't eat the broken plastic bits of your pen because that's not food. But you can eat the pasta Because it is food you're a fan of those Popeye candies

I'm not super little the little sticks the little pixie sticks that you crack open. Oh, yeah, those are yeah Hey, I just I don't know why but I feel like some deep something deep inside Yeah, dude dry pasta is just a fidget spinner for your mouth. Alright. Fuck, god damn it. I hate that I get it. I hate that that sounds right. That sucks. It really sucks how correct you sound right now. That bothers me. Fuck this. Thanks for watching!