Castle Super Beast - CSB 288: MOUNT WOKE: The F.A.R.T. Queen Meta

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Download for Mobile | Podcast Preview | Full Timestamps   Go to http://shopify.com/superbeast to sign up for a $1-per-month trial period. -- Go to http://factormeals.com/castle50 and use code castle50 to get 50% off your first month and 20% off your next month. -- Click this link https://boot.dev/?promo=CASTLESUPERBEAST and use my code CASTLESUPERBEAST to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev. Terry Bogard Is Okay!  A Metaphor For Racism Kojima Will NEVER Explain Closet Woke Gaming Honkai Enters The F.A.R.T. Meta Watch live: twitch.tv/castlesuperbeast Stellar Blade x Nier Automata: We will gladly say yes to anything for money. The Day Before Devs Seemingly Resurface and They're Asking for Your Money Again Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves Reveals Street Fighter Additions Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact Game Delayed for Rollback Netcode A STEAM PAGE HAS APPEARED FOR GUNZ THE DUEL FRONT MISSION 3: Remake || TGS 2024 Demo Gameplay Death Stranding 2: On the Beach – TGS 2024 special stage event summary, footage State of Play 2024: Ghost of Tsushima successor Ghost of Yotei announced for PS5 Alan Wake 2: Lake House DLC Fear the Spotlight Towers of Aghasba - Gameplay Trailer | PS5 Games Dynasty Warriors: Origins Monster Hunter Wilds Lego Horizon Adventures Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered Fantasian Neo Dimension Dragon Age: The Veilguard Astro Bot - Speedrun and Special Bots Free Add-On Trailer | PS5 Games The Midnight Walk - Reveal Trailer | PS5 & PS VR2 Games Hell is Us - Gameplay Reveal Trailer | PS5 Games Metro Awakening - Release Date Trailer | PS VR2 Games ArcheAge Chronicles - First Announce Trailer | PS5 Games Palworld is out on PS5 Hitman World of Assassination - Announcement Trailer | PS VR2 Games Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1-2 Remastered - First Reveal | PS5 & PS4 Games Lunar Remastered Collection - Announce Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge DLC

["Sailor Moon Theme"] There we are. Good afternoon, Woolley. How are you today? Yo yo, not too bad. How's it going? I did not watch Mr. McMahon yet. Neither did I. Okay, we're safe for now.

I heard that he said I don't regret filming it, and I guess that's all. So he put out a statement that was I don't regret taking part in this documentary, but they use their evil producers tricks to create a narrative that wasn't real. And I hope you remember that there are two sides to every story. But isn't it like I don't regret taking part in this documentary that my former people had the okay to sign off on and ultimately, you know, like it's an official approved release. It's supposedly like, so I just saw someone in the chat said they leave out a ton of horrible shit that you did.

Yeah, isn't it like- I'm like, it's only six hours long. Like, how much, how long do you want it to be I'm like I can I don't fully know but I my understanding was that this was like sort of not official but like official approved in that it's going to do what it can to like there's there did there's the official company distancing but I'm sure there's a level that they're not gonna that they're still gonna kind of try to I had heard that it was supposed to be like a puff piece

but then all that rape shit came out and they were like well we kind of really gotta give that some attention cuz We're all gonna look like frauds Yeah, and so what does the end result end up being like it's it starts as puff and then it becomes takedown But so controversial why is it controversial is it because of crime? Yes Maybe I mean, you know the the the the the wild stories of cookie crumbs and blowing out quads are

like the iceberg who knew that the Vince McMahon iceberg of all these insane stories we thought were the bottom actually no there's just a giant giant chunk of ice under the water that's just rape who knew that's wild. Yeah, apparently everyone. Yeah, actually, okay. Gotcha. That's the other So this is apparently like tons of people so that's that's I guess what the the thought would be is like yeah If you're going to like release something and then give it the okay the okay needs to be well We've created our distance, but it can't further incriminate anyone else that's still a part of the organization and affect the image and such. So that's kind of what I heard on it.

But I don't know. Anyway. Hey, so like, hey, this is going to be strange, but I actually want to make an addendum to a conversation we had last week because we were talking about the FF7 and FF16 sales stuff. And I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw a mutual of mine, Chris Wolfhardt, make the point that like, hey, nothing is ever going to sell as good as it did in 2021. And my brain took a second and go, oh yeah, right. The pandemic. Like I, we've literally completely

never brought the ad up once at all. But yeah, no, nothing will ever, ever sell as good in the games business as it did during 2021 and 2022. Yeah. The thing is that because that conversation wasn't just FF7 though, it was also FF16 to 15. Yeah. You know, and like 16 is so much more acclaimed and improved over- Yeah, and recent as well. But we were comparing rebirth to remake and it's like, oh, it sold more than double. It's like, well, yeah, everybody was at home. At the end of the day, that conversation was just like, there are a bunch of factors that

all mix into why that did. A melange. So what's up with you, man? What have you been up to this week? So yeah, not a ton. The main, of course, meat and potatoes there. Terry Bogard is out. I've been playing a lot of Terry Bogard I posted a picture of someone of an Akuma

Disconnecting during my level 3 super like 20 minutes ago. Was it the big one? It was not the big bang. Okay, it was it was just a regular level 3 super in the corner so Yeah, I I really do appreciate that like, not every guest appearance in games gets treated with like the utmost respect, but there are some standouts when you feel them. Sometimes they're just here. Yeah. It's like, hey look, we took a couple of our existing assets, cobbled them together, and there's your weird version of the character you recognize in our engine.

Yeah, I think Tekken really went above and beyond with its guest characters. Okuma just worked on a completely different universe, and then Noctis was like, no, we are actually going to integrate all the stupid magic shit. Yeah. Tekken really did put a lot of love in there. I think as well, one of the best comparison points for a long time was Shovel Knight, because Shovel Knight shows up everywhere.

That's a fucking traveling hero. But Shovel Knight in Rivals of Aether, in particular, That's a fucking traveling hero, but shovel knight in Rivals of Aether in particular had the most amount of love put in by comparison to a lot of all these other cameos that you Kind of are like holy shit. Well, everyone else was phoning it in you know And so all that to say that Terry Bogard is yeah one of those you those. We've talked about the amount of shit we've seen from him in the trailers and everything, but now that the full package is out and we kind of have the top view, it's insane, man. Terry feels like just a masterfully crafted little gift.

I remember when we saw the power dunk is a target combo. It's not like a move, It's it's a target combo Like oh, that's kind of a bummer and now how often are you gonna hit power dunk and the answer is actually all the time It's his best meter this combo if you just frame it and if you yeah you get to just you You get a specifically timed version for a little extra damage there and like that you have these other little things as well where you know when you do his his OD fireball and it goes and it burns you out so you

spend all of your all of your meter to do that. His he go instead of going like power wave power wave he goes into his old Fatal Fury 1 voice clip power wave you know they they they just they're grabbing little things in there. They've even put a secret super in, you know? Yeah. So you've got... His old really awful motion. SNK motion required. Yeah, you need to do a quarter circle back and then half circle forward and press like heavy punch and medium kick at the same time Yeah, and then he and he does the same like super super He does power geyser punches the ground but instead of the it's shooting out at an angle towards your opponent

It shoots straight up which is like hitbox is the same though Yeah, it just looks like the old style version of the move, you know, so it's like it's just there for the for the swag It's just there for the you know, the nostalgia. There is even a tiny little Tease in there So Terry's got the target combo where he jumps into the background and he changes the lanes just like fatal fury and it sucks Yeah like Fatal Fury and it sucks. Yeah. That target combo sucks.

You have to. And it feels like they're going lane changing's dumb guys. Come on. So like you can only do it after you hit your opponent. You cannot do it while they're blocking. So like if you're going to choose to do that, you're giving up on what could be a better combo, you know? His taunt as well where like his forward taunt he kind of tries to go into the background and does work

And he goes no line here. All right You know But yeah, no, that's that's that I went in and I put him to Japanese mode as well cuz you got to get immediately You gotta get the Yeah, like I don't want He's not Terry to be the strangest man from Florida ever I mean, he sounds he sounds totally fine in English, but like you want your Terry Okay, I

Want a Japanese man who doesn't speak English's idea of America man Yeah, the only thing is to is like over the years there's been different line readings of are you okay Buster wolf and it's never this is not a good one it's never quite the yeah it's not always the same like the first one is my absolute favorite because it's that are you okay Buster wolf and he's very chill and relaxed mm-hmm kind of like and like there's like I think KOF 2003 where he's like, are you okay? That's wow. Like dude relax relax relax. Take it easy. You know, you can get it out there

I want that like hold on to the wolf, you know drag that line out, but I like the long the long loud Are you okay? You know But um, yeah, that's all really just fun and stuff. And we'll get into his gameplay in a second. But I wanted to call attention to his World Tour and story mode implementation because those, there's a thing that they're doing that makes all of these appearances make sense.

And so, the memes are like, makes all of these appearances make sense. And so the memes are like, Kyo Kusanagi, forgotten in the dust, dead forever. Sorry, Kyo. You're right. SNK has abandoned their mascot man, or he's never been, or whatever. But here's the thing, it actually makes complete perfect sense if you follow the history of the crossover between these two companies. Well, I mean, Terry and Ryu are cousins.

They were made by the same people, directly. Yes, there is that, right? The folks that left from Street Fighter 1 that went to form the Shin Nihon Keikaku, or whatever it is, the word the word but whatever the SNK corporation god keikaku's fucking brain rot is in forever all according to plan but um no anyway the the the the the cool aspect here to the whole Terry inclusion is so we kind of looked at it went oh yeah he's a brother he's been there from the jump what an awesome character great pick etc right same kind of

entered same kind of thing is like you have him showing up in a fexel fighting ex lair and smash brothers you know and stuff so they everyone recognizes the fucking the homeless pizza delivery guy you And I love that dude. But when you do his story mode, and you see how it's him running into Ken and it makes fucking perfect sense because Capcom versus SNK won, right? The original. Yeah, drew match of the century. A millionaire battle? No, no. Millennium fight 2000. Yeah, Drew Match of the century. Millionaire battle?

No, no, Millennium Fight 2000, and then CVS2, Millionaire Fighting 2001. Anyway, in that, you have Kyo and Ryu matched up together. They have the intro together where Kyo has the fire, throws it at him and goes, oh, you're not afraid of my fire? And Ryu's like, let's go. And he's like, all right, bring it on, round one. And then in the kind of setup, you would then have, there's like an MP3 file on the OST of like the two of them fighting and such. Ryu would then win, Terry jumps in, beats

Ryu, throws the hat out, Ken jumps in afterwards, picks the hat up, Sora-yo, tosses it back to him, we get that awesome moment, everyone goes, ah shit, perfect, right? And you then look at SVC Chaos as well, where the intro has Ryu and Kyo facing off against each other, and then there's artwork of Ken and Terry fighting each other.

So- Yeah, cause it's black and white versus red and blue. So it was always like, exactly, so it wasn't like Kyo and Iori or like Ryo or Robert or anything. It was always specifically these two face each other and then these two, you know? And then Mr. Karate's over there and Akuma's over there. Exactly, exactly, right? So the fact that Ken and Terry are linked up there, it makes perfect sense so that when you see in his ending in the story mode now, Terry's walking through South Town or Metro City and then he runs into Ken and Ken is like, oh, whoa, what the,

is that you Terry? And Terry's like, holy shit, Ken, damn, you don't look so good, you know? And it's like, all right, let's, how about, it's been like what, 20 years? Hey, let's fight, you know? And then Terry beats his ass and is like, okay! And then Terry, and then Ken's just on the ground like, oh, you know, like he's all like dejected.

And Terry's like, whoa dude, you all right? What's the matter? Your fire is usually much harder than this. It kind of felt soggy. And Ken's like, Yeah, I got a lot on my man. And he's like, Oh, well, yo, we're the same kind of fighter. I believe in you. You can get back up there and I'm sure the next time you can get that fire as hot as it usually is. He's kind of like, it's not my business to ask, but whatever's bothering you, I believe in you and stuff.

And picks him back up and has that little moment. And Ken's like, yeah, you know what? You're right. Thanks, man. And he gets up and he hands him the hat back. And so you have that perfect little reference to that moment. And then they're like, all right, see you, man. And it's like a nice little homage to their original encounter.

So we were talking about what would happen with the new Fatal Fury game. And it was like, oh, it'd be a perfect time for them to continue this crossover thing now that the two companies are talking again. And hey, how about Luke or someone to get in there to be like the face of the new franchise No the storyline between Terry and Ken continues because that's who's showing up in his game now Respectively also Ken's so much more popular than Luke. Yeah, but I mean you'd also think Ryu right you would be a clear possibility Ken is so much more popular than Ryu But it's it's it's like because this is the Terry game It makes perfect sense for it to be Ken that shows up as the guest, you know

And I would love to see if his storyline there was like yo, thanks for the pep talk man, you know like yeah, it's similar to how like When we're talking versus it's like Ryu is the one like like clutching like grabbing hands with Cyclops. Yeah, yeah. And you know, and if this was like a KOF guest or something, then you could expect to see Kyo and Ryu having their kind of, you know, their interaction. But this is very specifically like these two and the history of them across these multiple games. And then of course Mai and Chun-Li also have a ton of artwork and moments of them together in their history. There's literally like the first like showdown piece of like them just like titty to titty, you know, like facing off like what? And so that needs no explanation that of course if Terry and Mai show up here,

then Chun-Li is gonna need to go over there, you know? So, yeah, they're actually going for a kind of rival narrative pick instead of just who's the most popular representative of the franchise. And I love that shit. I love the idea that we get a through line from all the way back in 2000 till now. So, yeah, fun stuff with there being a little storyline there. So yeah, fun stuff with there being a little storyline there. In World Tour mode, I don't know if you saw it, but Terry has not learned his lesson. I am probably never going to load up World Tour mode again, but I do know what you're talking about.

Yeah, so you show up and kind of smartly they've put Terry behind a special festival day where you have to select it because it's like, let's say for some reason something ever went wrong between these companies and they had to remove any licensed things. They could just take this one special. I don't think that's what's going on. I think it's just... But he's not integrated into... He doesn't fit into the Naishaw storyline.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, they definitely made it like he's not integrated into the normal world mode. You have to go pick him on a specific menu, you know and That scenario system. Yeah, they kind of have a You you celebrate the knockout festival aka kof By wearing a hat, you know, and then you go find a couple people Interestingly, there's some cameos in there Franco bash is hanging out or like fake Franco Bash is, fake Franco Bash

is hanging out. Yeah, there's, I forgot his name but the the monk with the the big straw hat as well. You know like there's a bunch of like obscure picks chilling around you know but you then have Terry pull up and, you know, your character takes a swing, John World Tour does his best. And yeah, he easily dodges that shit. In one case, he kinda like leans past and then smacks that ass and sends you back over, you know? So of course, it's just like, aw shit,

Terry not fuckin' beatin' the allegations, dude. Terry, keep your hands to yourself unless you're fighting a okay that that that that that oh man um yeah and and you know then you eventually go to the pow pow cafe where they do a little fun like 3v3 system to homage like KOF as well so fun stuff you can you can meet fake and then real eventually like Blue Mary, Joe Higashi and you know you got your Andy outfit and dude there as well. So man can we just get a CVS game already? Like holy shit.

So the problem with that, because I know a lot of people have went, oh look all this is happening. This clearly means CVS is coming, right? Okay. No. But how do you do that and you make another game in the middle of two companies trying to push their Own thing and not fuck up your own push like if you're sprites if you're trying to go back Go back to sprites to do expensive Shut up like the idea of like yo we got to do CVS 3 I'm like and here I could be a million percent wrong And they could just be like yeah, fuck it. We're gonna do it, but I just think that because of the way Tekken also had this problem of like Tekken not doing cross street fighter because we're trying to push our game

And you're trying to push your game and then we're trying to push seasons and like there's no way to squeeze in between there and Not kind of interrupt the thing we're trying to do is that's all great and shit. Do it though. Oh, I want it. Yeah. So that's kind of what I think the problem is, is that fighting games have become these long seasonal releases and it's much more feasible for both companies to be like, how about we guest in each other's games so you don't fuck up our bag and we don't fuck up your bag and we get a bit of crossover flavor without having to fully... We're probably going to see characters jump over here and there and there and here for

a while instead of a proper... It makes more sense economically. And here's the other problem. What if the crossover sucks? What if it's Street Fighter X Tekken? What if it didn't have enough time or attention because it was the third priority and What you get is an afterthought and it's like, oh no now now not only was this a failure that detracted you know, it just like

Yeah, it dies on the vine even sooner and like you just you know You want these games to live up to the legacy especially they need to have the right amount of attention and time put into them to be so that doesn't seem to be a threat anymore and it's not for any particular reason I don't think it's just like of all the the fighting game characters that have crossed over from one to the other in the past couple of years they've all been treated like royalty. Like starting with Akuma and Geese and I mean Noctis isn't from a fucking fighting game, but like guest characters of this type are treated like beloved, beloved icons.

And I just between, like if I had to choose between getting the half-baked crossover game in between the seasons of the active thing on both sides or the both games getting a lot of love put into their guest characters, I prefer the latter, you know? Well, I mean, no one wants anything when you put the two sides as one being beloved and the other being half-baked, Wooly. Of course. It's not. But I just mean that the in, like, especially fighting games and the way they're released

has changed so much that it's, you know, I think Cross Tekken was like one of the last examples of like how that can go wrong, you know? If they were like, yeah, willing to be like, all right, there's an empty space here and we're gonna clear the plate. Like NetherRealm, for example, you know, port one out. We wanna talk about Half-Based. Yeah, but like because of the way they release things,

like, and they're putting out their own, you know, like MK and then Injustice or whatever, they could do their like, all right, we're going to put both games aside and make an MK versus DC Injustice crossover thing again if they wanted to, because it's on their own schedule, you know, but. Same thing with Marvel versus Capcom. Yeah. So that's how I feel about the whole like modern crossover concept.

But it is very, it's close as it's ever been. And you know, taking the director's, you know know words into account as well they're like yeah we'd we'd love to we just need to figure out when and how and stuff you know is nice to know that like we're back in the the the buddy buddy you know kind of like times of both of these companies I am surprised as well. So when it comes to the gameplay with Terry, he is not dominating like Akuma and Bison did. He is not this like, pick him and collect your wins. He is a good, excellent all-rounder character with no outrageous strengths. Yeah, he's a good Shoto.

Terry, are you okay? He's okay. Is he the best Shoto? No. Is he the second best? Maybe, but probably not. I would say not. But he takes some work, and he's got some tools that you got to learn to use properly But like it's yeah, you got to earn it And he is weird that is that is a benefit for him is that his shit is all weird in Street Fighter's context Yeah, there's a lot of stuff. He does that like, you know is

Is fake so to speak and what and what I mean by that is, it's kind of tricky, but there's an answer to it, clearly. But yeah, he is kind of interesting and fun in that, because his fireball is on the ground, it goes underneath other characters' fireballs instead of clashing with them. So you kind of get this little, oh, we're not just gonna sit here chucking at each other

and kind of seeing who interrupts the rhythm of that. If I'm winning and we're both hitting each other, you got to do something, you know? And yeah, the fact that his like heavy fireball is like very safe and plus and lets you kind of get stuff started. It's it's it's it's fun to see like, you know, him have these like unusual situations where he gets advantage, right? Instead of having a button or so that gives that to him, he's got to hit the tip, tip, tip of his burning knuckle or the tip, tip, tip of his moves.

Yeah, I definitely am playing Terry and I'm getting this like, oh these all these new situations because his stuff doesn't perform Quite as expected or they don't fit within the mold perfectly and it's definitely not the emotion I felt when I loaded a bison and it was just like No, you have to do little things with Terry like No, you have to do little things with Terry like after you land his tackle, then you have to perfectly time doing his crack shoot kick. And you can do a simple untimed version of it that hits you twice and then you can end your combo. But if you wait for the exact right moment, you get three hits, which allows you to do

a bigger ending follow up. I'm going to say don't go for the three hit version. It's really hard. And if you drop it, you drop the whole fucking thing and it's a, don't bother. If you feel like you're the type, if you're feeling particularly plucky and you know that you're an executionist to some degree, then do what you got to do, get your timing right. But I know, yeah, it's frustrating to go for the fancier one and then lose it all. But yeah, he's a character that has these little things like that, where if you're really on point, especially in the

corner, he's got some really great juggles and stuff. But yeah, to do things that are massively, massively damaging, you're putting yourself into burnouts because you're doing the power dunk one, two, three. You're doing a lot and spending all your resources. He's just not touching you the way Akuma damaged Marissa. Marissa is kind of becoming this weird, she was the damage character, but now there's so many others that can do her damage. I mean she's the damage character, but she's just not as good as the other two or three damage characters.

Yeah, and then they're like, how about other people can do that damage? And she's like, aww, but what am I supposed to do? I think the balance changes that went along with Terry's patch were so funny because they're like they nerfed Bison's scissor kicks by like a little bit, a little tiny bit. Did they change his stupid damage? No. Okay. So this one's a little inside as we're talking, you know, what the fighting game changes, but his scissor kick is a weird example of a move getting buffed and nerfed at the same time. and it's

not quite clear why. And I think they figured out what was going on. So beforehand, when Bison did his scissor kick at you, he'd always push you back too far to be able to do anything. You'd be so far away if you blocked it. You'd be totally safe. Yeah. You can act first, but you can't really reach him because he spaces you out He pushes you out. You know so what they did was they made it so it's like okay He lands closer to you But the bot his hurt box the thing that you can hit to punish him is smaller also further away from you So you're like wait a minute you made him land closer, but I can't hurt him closer

What's the point of that? Why would you do both? And it turns out it's just so that the things that were going to hit him earlier are more consistent. Exactly, right? So it's like if you are able to touch him, you can touch him and not have him fall out of your combo. That's all they were going for.

And then they did some stuff. They're like, hey, we're sorry about GEEF You know They changed his his little knee that he could like keep he could like absolutely pressure you from even without just for free it properly Yeah And like JP's auntie Arrol is now back to not exactly what it was But anyway, they made some changes that were like, yeah, we went too far. Sorry pulling it back But anyway, they made some changes that were like, yeah, we went too far, sorry, pulling it back. Might have gone too far in a couple places.

Not with Akuma or Bison though, no, those were, we were definitely at the right place with those. But Rashid. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people didn't get anything at all either, which is like, I've kind of expected more there, but I guess, you know, we'll see. But anyway, all that aside, it is real dope as well.

I love the, like, again, talking about love, it's like the fact that Terry gets a different behavior based on both costumes, his jacket or his hat toss, is like, I love that, you know? I love that you have, yeah, just completely unique intros and wind poses for both of those. And I don't know where else that would be a thing, but it would be great to see more of that, you know, more unique stuff based on the way they look and everything. Dunno what his third costume is gonna be. I was wondering, like, are they gonna grab one of those weird Falcoon designs for maximum

impact? You know what they should do? You know what they should fucking do? They should put him in Ken's gi. Oh my god. A Jeff Bogart outfit of his dad. Sure. Um, I mean one look he has that's technically a little different is his Fatal Fury 1 jacket. It's like a long sleeve red jacket, you know? Nah.

But I imagine- Oh, people in the chat are saying basketball fit. Basketball would be fun. With the hat backwards, that would be a lot of fun. Yeah. He does turn the hat backwards when he does the dunk after all, so that would be real cool. There's some artwork of that.

But yeah, anyway, so it's just kind of fun in the end to see like okay The idea of we're going to make the DLC character always be the strongest is now not confirmed to be the case You know the guest is not allowed To dominate in the same way that I mean that makes sense that bison and Akuma were able to but But Akuma and Tekken was like a weird weird situation Yeah, they well so I guess there's different ways to think about it, right? It's like do you roll out the red carpet and say yes You own this game and then eventually we'll come back in and nerf and touch this

You know, or do you just go like a guest can never be allowed to be that great? I think it'll be depending on. I wonder if they made Terry really, really good and were like, the way we built him, if we add one more frame on this, he's busted. And if we tone it down, maybe. His standing hard punch, right? It's like an incredible his standing hard punch right it's like an incredible incredible hard punch other than the fact that it's stubby I can imagine like well what if we lengthen the hard punch oh no it's too good now yeah no he's not like he doesn't have the hard punch that Luke has for example which is the fucking party starter you know but instead they made it so that his medium punch reaches first but like you have to spend a lot of resource to convert afterwards, you know

I think I think it's just a basic thing of just like yo Akuma is really popular. He's the most popular Everyone loves him. He's these the fucking I like Akuma. He's the badass, you know, like Ed Shoto from back in the day Yeah, and so he's gonna be strong. That's it You know And I think dictators and bison's a charge character and charge characters are hard to play So they should be the strongest in every game that they're in No matter what Yeah, so I think it's I think it really is just that simple and I don't imagine that like

My or Elena is are gonna be too terrifying, but there will always be one thing with the character that is like, that has to make you go, what the fuck when you see it. Let's just wait until we see the healing target combo. Healing. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You have to. Did you know if you hit this target combo, she just heals.

She goes, a little bit. She gets a little bit of life back. Yeah, a mini-heal. There always has to be something about the character when you see the trailer that makes just heal a little bit she gets a little bit of life back yeah you know there always has to be something about the character when you see the trailer that makes you go what the fuck are they doing to get your interest and yeah we'll see you know I'm hoping for Mai she does like one of her eight dive kicks I hope that they... Mai is a character that like doesn't exist in Street Fighter outside of like maybe Vega like claw.

Have you all diver? Yeah. Yeah. I mean she still has her like ground, you know, the fans and then. But she's up there. She's up there a lot. Yeah. I think if they give her a lot of air mobility that could be very fun and like it's fun.

Yeah. I like I like I, you know, I mean years ago, I remember like talking to you about this, but like I like I I mean years ago I remember like talking you about this but like I like Dong Hwan in Mark of the Wolves I like characters that spend a lot of time in the air and get cool shit you know back in Capcom versus SNK 2 there's a character Mackie who had an air 720 and if you landed that you're a god Because you spent all your super bar and you did a fucking 360 it's like the board. It's like a zangief landing the air SPD the air spinning-pile driver except It's the ultimate call-out. You know I love that. I love I love characters with tons of air options. You know so

Yeah, let's see what they do for her But yeah, Terry's fun So there's a little bit of that And Yeah, you know Again, not a ton else So, again, not a ton else. Made it, I'm still in the middle of the Steel Samurai case in Ace Attorney. So I can see these cases.

Yeah, those cases start to really pick up steam. Yeah, they're padding out. They're padding out. Man, I mean, we'll talk about the news, but it really is interesting that literally everything that I take a look at or touch comes right back around. It is, it is becoming absurd. So they just announced the Phoenix Wright anime, you know, oh, I mean, like just out of nowhere like, oh, hey, look at that, you know, oh, there's other things that are, you

know, we're seeing, I mean, shit in fucking dead space that just happened. And even things that- Dino Crisis. Dino Crisis. I think it's getting re-released. Dino Crisis on PSN, right? And even things that I've just discussed or mentioned. I'm like, hey, I think two weeks ago is when I said like, oh yeah, I was thinking about

checking out Legacy of Kain. And they're like- They're like, like well here you go You asked here you go. You know so yeah, that's fine I thought for sure that the day after you finished that ff9 playthrough They were gonna announce the remake of that game I felt it I felt that that and like I felt that like just hanging up here ready to drop at any time And it just didn't didn't occur I mean, there's just a little sometimes there's a little like energy towards like hey

No one's talked about this thing for a while and everyone seems to really like it I've always wanted to play that let's pop that in and then lo and behold you know that was the same exact sentiment at someone's office Hey, you know what you can't really buy dino crisis anywhere. Should we do that somewhere? Why the fuck not you know I'm downloading the HD fan updated texture version you know out there, so yeah um And but of course it doesn't know it doesn't work out when it's like hey, you just missed it, but But of course it doesn't know it doesn't work out when it's like hey, you just missed it, but it's fine I'm like, you know, whatever I'll take it as is so the hell they even they're there like there's now some footage of the

front mission three That just dropped as well, right? Oh my god That looks terrible Yeah, I didn't go through all of it. I just kind of... It looks awful. What's happening? So for whatever reason, they didn't include the music in any of the demos, but all the

animations are totally weightless. And it's just lost all of its charm. Oh no. And it looks terrible. Like unless they redo all the animations I would be like just play the PS1 version. Well shit. Like seriously. And then the second game was like machine translated. I remember that. So it's second game was like machine translated. I remember that. So it's like- I remember that bullshit.

Yeah. Okay. I gotta go check that out because I saw there's 26 minutes of footage. So I haven't seen, but like there seems to be a lot. I was definitely thinking, oh, when that drops, I'd love to touch it. But they have totally half-assed that whole series. It's really, really really depressing. Yeah fuck Okay

Well, I mean I guess there's always the original if push comes to shove there is always the original But But yeah, anyway, so you know that that we'll see what's happening with this Phoenix Wright anime I'm I'm kind of like they announced it and I was like Didn't that already exist no I'm shocked wait It's not it did it's not a new anime. Oh, I'm sorry. What did they announce? Okay, I'm confused at what was announced. Oh it did exist. I'm not crazy. Oh

It was a 2019 anime. So what are they announcing? Okay? Well then never mind. I was completely mistaken by what I saw oh So what are they announcing? Okay, well then never mind. I was completely mistaken by what I saw. Oh, it's a recap video? Oh my god. So they announced nothing. Okay, that's great. Never mind. My mistake. I apologize. And yeah, in Chippanoe at Shadow of the Earth Tree, just went to the other side of the Shadow Keep and peaked my head out the door and then this motherfucker riding a boar just rushed my ass. So let me tell you.

So did you beat that dude or did you? First shot. Okay. So that dude was one of the nerfs that came down because he was one of the bosses that people were like that you need to fix this. Oh yeah. You don't need to nerf it. You need to fix it.

And the basic deal was is that he would... So everybody either beat him first try or struggled really horribly because what happened was is you'd see the cut scene and then he'd be like over there and then he would rush you, right? And you would be in the room and the cut scene would end and he would rush you. No, no, no, no cut scene. He just rushed. Well, it used to be he would rush you so fast that you had like one second to fucking roll out of the way or he would pin you to the door. Like he was like, he was coming at you. And he would start further away during the first attempt.

Okay, so what I had was looking through the door, I was like, what is that what I'm looking at? I can't tell. And I took a step to the side to look around the spear that's blocking it, and as soon as you do that, like the music starts in the door locks and You're just going like oh You know I can't look yeah

No, he was like so all the bosses in Ertree like rush you and which is kind of cool actually He was like too close to the door, okay? So he would rush and you'd be like, hey, oh, and he could trap, he could do his charge move and trap you in the doorframe. Oh no. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Cause what happened was again, it was like, it was fine. I managed to do it. And the afterwards I was like, whoa well look at this giant arena. This is clearly a big important fight That just went quickly, you know He had the same type of arena with the weapons and everything as your is like a Godfrey or you know like

it was a Yeah, it just it I didn't quite realize that it was even a remembrance boss You know so so you said you came out the back of the Shadowkeep So there's like three exits out the back of that fucking building for oh Jesus Christ all I wanted to do was just like figure out the water thing just just draw Yeah, I just want to drain the water and then see what's down there And then like it branches into three different directions

I go fuck off everybody. This is Wait, there's one two Three Is there I found I found three paths right so I found you go from the the eastern side of the Shadowkeep into, you find an elevator to the western side, or you go down into the water and then you go underneath to the Grace Tunnel, or you go out to where Gaius is. It was just like, okay, okay, I thought I was just clearing up loose ends and I'm on a path now, you know.

That area is both super complicated and, oh no, there's a fifth one. And it also exits out into like the most zones of any location since like Firelink Shrine. Mm-hmm. It's, it's, I didn't realize there was gonna be a fucking intersection. And two of them are actively hidden? And yeah, the, the fire knights that are in there are always real. Those enemies are always real. They never stop being real the entire time. They just don't stagger.

They don't give a fuck. Again, you're looking in the water and it's like, what is happening in the... It's an ulcerated tree spirit. So that's the worst part of that. That is the most awful part of the whole... Because it's breaking up the tree and you're, oh, what could yeah could it be like I got like a decent look at it yeah fucking all sorry yeah come on and I was like you know maybe there's a chance that this will be a fun underwater variation where it'll try to attack me on land or something you know and like ream no of course not fuck off you're fighting the same I will I will say though that at that point in

the in the fucking game when the ulcerated tree spirit like Walks up. It's a fucking joke like it is no threat, but then you kill it and then another one attacks And you're like guys We get it it was supposed to be in Dark Souls 3 you recycled it forward You're very proud of its animation, but now we're hitting that point of repetition where you're like does the joke become funny again? You know like when you when you commit so hard that everyone stopped laughing are we now Andy Kaufman? It's kind of funny Like you kill it and then you get a second one and and you're just like yeah Yeah, I can't I kind of them like I'm almost starting to root for more like I just I

Can't believe the audacity of these fucking assholes to take the same enemy and make you fight like a billion of them It's it's nuts, dude Yeah, I I love I'd love to hear the full story, you know Recycled enemy like is it someone that's just really proud of their work Besides that part. Is there something to it? That's like are we trying to create a new poison swamp? You know what like there's got gotta be an element of this where Miyazaki is is is Smirking as someone is like walking in going, you know, I think we can I think another one actually would be so I was talking to some friends last night about Elden Ring and

There was this feeling of like so okay is it too big and Miyazaki says yeah because they did that interview where they're like we're definitely not gonna make the next one as big as Elden Ring and you can feel that it's too big because just just cut out every redo of every mini boss and above, and it's still one of the largest games I've ever played in my life. Oh yeah. Now the thing is that I always hold the end of the spectrum of too big and bad to be too big and bad to be the way I felt walking around a mortal shell where you had just massive expanses, the third area in particular, that had nothing going on in them. Here it's massive, but there's always something of interest.

It's the Breath of the Wild feeling, right? Something of interest and you go towards it and then there's shit going on. Um What I feel like contributes to the problem So it's it's it's it's I know that and we all love a nice big world to just get lost in I sure do sure do Willie. I wish there were more Dead ends to just like feel like you've closed up chapter You know, so the DLC is actually really good at that. Almost all the zones dead end out. They eventually, but when you hit that point, like I did in the East Shadowkeep,

where you're like, actually, this is the furthest thing for you. You thought you were cleaning up the side of the- Well, the Shadowkeep is like a secret hub. Yeah, you thought you were cleaning out the side of keep is like a secret hub Yeah, you thought you were cleaning out the side of the place of the legacy dungeon You already went to turns out you were at an intersection, you know of a legacy dungeon you're in a roundabout and You know when you get to the bottom of the fissure and then it's like okay and of cave turn the fuck around You know you got to the top of the peak with bail end of dragon section

Yes, and those parts are very reminiscent of Demon souls right yes We're a Demon souls like hallway ends and goes turn the fuck around you did it and like you are done with the mine level You know dr. Wiley logo is now available And and there's a little bit of just like, okay, I can I can feel like accomplished a little more frequently. And so I just wish I got that a little more from some of these paths, you know, like not even to put them on rails per se. But like, if you if you kind of know that you're walking into an intersection and each of those intersections is going to lead to further branches, it's great for the wanderlust, but when you do

not get that eventual sense of accomplishment, if you just happen to pick five intersections in a row, you get exhausted. You're like, I just got to stop here. I can't take any more. I can't keep track of all these threads. I feel like from software, dramatically, and I mean dramatically underestimated how many people were going to go everywhere other than where the grace was pointing them. So like I feel like their design process was that most players were going to follow the line on the map that the map showed them and then if they hit something that was too

brutal or turn their head and saw something really cool that they would go towards that but everyone I've talked to use those grace arrows as like a don't go there until you've got until you're done vicinity because they've spent the last ten years training us to do the, you know like literally go explore elsewhere lest you miss really cool shit um So yeah, like it's it's become the the expected thing to go like a decade of the opposite lines that auto fail if you walk into a room in the wrong order exactly You know or teleporting if you sit at the wrong grace with the wrong time

You know or teleporting if you sit at the wrong grace with the wrong time You know like it's we know how obtuse that gets and you're afraid of walking through the wrong door And then exactly or killing the wrong boss and not advancing this and that you're saving it for like okay now I know we're gonna move forward after I've sufficiently looked around the area and clear cleared that out and by taking that approach is what burns you the fuck out on all these branches. I have like a different complaint to make about Shadow of the Erd Tree and it's very specific and that is like after playing through both obviously and I played through Elden Ring again right in front of the Erd Tree. I like Erd Tree considerably more than base Elden Ring and like I wish I could go to the main menu and have it like start shadow of the Erd tree as like a different menu option. Interesting.

Like I you can mod that in obviously just mod a character that has all the bell bearings and just, you know, teleport over to Moog. But the weapon variety in it alone and the enemy variety is huge. So you've done base game like two and a half times now, right? So I only have my one run, which was all over the place. I don't know what the game is like when you do a linear user path one as designed and expected. It actually sucks really bad. Like getting a file, like playing Elden Ring, incredible. Getting, I'm using air quotes, getting a file ready for the DLC is terrible because you go, I need this spell bearing, I need this spell bearing,

I need this spell bearing, I need this spell bearing, I need this spell bearing. I need these key items, I need these key talismans, I need these key spells. And then you just start ping ponging to all the things, going down like a mental checklist, and only killing the things you need to and it's just really really unsatisfying Who interesting? Okay?

Feels like yeah, somebody in the chat said it's like a shopping list Okay, and DLC wise What's white what do you like that's different I Like the general encounters I think that I think there is a huge huge amount of Elden Ring that is those catacombs that are not super good and yeah there's been and the DLC is like do you want four of each catacomb and they're all really big and interesting?

True, they fixed that problem. And you also get way more types of weapons in the DLC The game also has like the weird problem of like well, it has a scaling system. So you can start the DLC anytime. Well, um You still have to beat Moog who is for real and also Well, um, you still have to beat Moog who is for real and also There's no merchants in the DLC to buy any of the smithing stones and they give you them at random and Kind of still expect you to have a maxed out weapon So you kind of still have to do most of the base game anyway I I like I think in base game, areas that are not just like legacy dungeon per se, but like

the southern peninsula, for example, where you're like, it's an island, you can ride around and do everything on it and then scrape that shit and then you're done. And I kind of was like okay I it felt satisfying to put a giant check mark on the bottom of the map you know at a point mm-hmm and then here in the DLC and I'm enjoying it but motherfucker I wrote a little complicated well I wrote into Rao and I'm like, I actually went like an hour or two into Rao and I was like, this is not what I want to do right now. I did not mean to sign up for a legacy dungeon on the overworld in the outside that is just

taking, like it's so big and it's going everywhere and I'm like, fuck this, I want it to go clean up some loose ends, I'm literally stopping halfway through. You know, or less. So, would you like to know a secret? Sure. You know how when you get to a From Software game and you get to the Anor Londo equivalent area where you fight the big cool thing,

sometimes the guy that was used in previews or the thing that was being shown off like Hornstein and Smoag or the Looking Glass Knight or what have you. And then the area right after it is like wildly terrible by comparison. Like everything after Anor Londo, or the Shrine of Amana,

or the entire snow area in Elden Ring, that's raw. Hey, you beat Mesmer, now go to the penultimate area, that sucks actually. And it's also that big It didn't have to be so big So Rao is is not just really huge. It's also super complicated because it has an entire interior

That is just the catacombs Yeah, it's a mess the The area sucks. The last area though is awesome. Good stuff. Yeah. I came in with the checklist of a couple things and I was like, oh yeah, let me peek out in this direction. And then saw the little pathway over the row. And then I was like, let me continue peeking my head in. And then that peeking my head in feeling lasted an hour and a half. It's not a peek. It's not a peek.

You know? I'm like, am I in a legacy dungeon or am I on the overworld right now? Like what am I? No, you're in an overworld. What are we doing? And then a fucking giant shot an arrow up my butt and I was like, I'm out of here, fuck this.

Yeah. I'll come back later. That was, when I got there, I was like, I had a big sigh and I was like, I kind of just want to beat it. The snow didn't bother me that much in base game. It was a different pace of things. But it's a lesson learned after, again, we talked about Shrine of Amada and stuff. And yeah, Adorlondo, I mean, it's but it's a lesson learned after like, you know, again, we talked about, yeah, Shrine of Amada and stuff. And like, yeah, I don't know, I don't know, I mean, still, it was like, it's pretty but empty, you know, ultimately, but then the but then the library and such as you as you

you come through the library is like the winner out of all those postgame areas, but Tomb of the Giants and fucking at the Dragon Ass Lava Town are just fucking terrible. Um, so yeah, they just kind of, anyway, it seems like there's just some things that they're just like super committed to, you know? And if you make it to Rao sooner than later, I suppose, then that's a, I don't know, I feel like that would be a burnout risk you like I feel like I'd be like

I'd need to look at it and go what's this full area? Okay, cool Let me let me save this for the end, you know Well, the other thing is that route was like tough as fuck like the the the area is Like it's it is like the second to last in the game the DLCs progression. Okay, okay. Yeah So anyway, yeah, just what I went past the what the other way around past Bonnie Village and started doing all that so Cool I also do appreciate that like yeah after Gaius. It's like alright here you go appreciate that like yeah after Gaius it's like all right here you go well cuz you it's and it's and it's not because of Gaius it's because you're in a really cool

important place but I also sure but I also think it's because it's like hey from here on out step it up you know she's just coming at you hard so you know you deserve to get a little stronger. Anyway, so yeah. So you know my complaints about the bell bearings and Elden Ring space game on replay, like you have to beeline to them? It's going to feel that way for the Shadowtree fragments on replay of that DLC. Where you're like, well, I'm more than 50% weaker unless I go down

this checklist of scavenger hunt because I don't feel like going through every single dungeon and open world area ever again to scrounge for all of them. So I want to shout out as well the the the shadow tree avatar where I feel like they have and maybe in my opinion they have they've probably perfected the annoying surprise there's more boss at with that fucking thing dude I loved it really felt like okay. I see what you're doing This is your classic. Oh it ain't done. Fuck you. There's more right? But because well one like even lore wise you're fighting avatars all over the base game But this one's a sunflower so and it's but it's like because we're gonna put them all in the same place because why wouldn't the shadow tree have its own avatars makes perfect sense right and

You have that first form that you just you evaporate and then it pops back up but like Each time you have to get like that fuck you surprise moment you can repost the last one to do some starter damage on the next one and the last one to do some starter damage on the next one and Then even when it comes back out and annoys you the third time around You're seeing the move list change, but they're adding like and they're adding like these extra things with each phase But the last third version where you're like, oh my god, really? We're doing it a third time It's like yeah, but it's fucking tired and it's I thought I was doing something wrong

Huh? How'd it go? Like I thought like you said, I evaporated the first form. And then the second one wasn't that too much trouble. But when I got to the third, I was like, I had this feeling of like, I'm not doing something and you're not killing it. And it's just going to keep getting back up. Right, right, right. I was worried about that, but I noticed it was, well, one, the music changes. And then two, it starts being really slow and beat up in that third one. And that's when I went, oh, okay, no, wait, hold on. It's not just fighting forever. You know? And because it's doing its final, like, big attacks, but they're all followed up by collapse into exhaustion, it felt like a slog that you were actually hurting the thing. And like, the endurance wasn't just to annoy you, fuck you, no, that's it. You know, the progression across each one was enough to feel like you're you're getting it, you know and and

For anything like that up to that point where you know, I mean whatever four Kings five Kings Any fights where you just like even the snail that pops out at the end I thought I have fought the God tree duo and gotten through five gods God tree. It's our godskin Yeah, yeah, right like I Where you're just like this is just it's fuck you it ain't done yet And there's no there's no twist except for that like lol die right where I'm like no like it Feels so much better if you if you feel like each one has something to it You know and I'm great ape is still the all-time best of this genre.

The beat-up Sekiro fucking- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's- no, it's nice to get that feeling of like, it's gonna start doing its cheapest shit now, but ooh, I have it on the ropes. That's it. When the fresh Godskin duo pops pops up you don't feel that no, you're just like oh, they're spawning in another pair You know and this beat this one down to exactly and the difference between giving the player that feeling of like I have them

On the ropes is like your motivation Evaporating and rolling your eyes pa it, and standing up to stretch, you know, versus like, oh shit, we got him, let's go. And that's just, it's a simple little thing you can do with the same concept of the idea, you know, and so yeah, the Ertree avatar, the Shadowtree avatar, like they fucking figured it out, and I loved how they did that. It makes me really excited for the next game they put out that is like a normal size. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, take all these lessons and just put them into a game the size of Dark Souls 1 How soon just how sick would it be if like Miyazaki goes I finally done it. This is the dream game and It's like a modest 60 hours You know that's modest Like it's like yeah, it's just a really tight You know experience that's just like yeah, it's just a really tight experience that's just like, yeah, we did it. I think the irony is that I think I have played less Elden Ring than I have Dark Souls 1 or 2 or 3, because it took me so long to beat Elden Ring and the DLC that I was never like, oh man, I could just do it again.

Whereas with all the other Souls games, I'd beat it and I'd be like, yeah, I could do another one right now. I could just start right the fuck over and do it again. Yeah. I mean, what I want from every Souls game and ultimately, I guess, I whatever I have my own thing that you know People know what you all know about where I always feel like why replay when you can experience a new thing that it whatever but I Always do feel like I'm like I want to experience this boss and I want to go to the memory of just this boss You know And the older games that's a lot simpler bonfire ascetic

Or whatever right or or just like dude. Hey, I want to fight the adjudicator and demon souls. Okay, give me a half hour Sure. Yeah, or just go fight you like yeah. Yeah. Yeah You know and and that's and even we got when I was talking about like Sekiro as well It was just like yeah, just let me go to a list and just go, that, let me hit the great ape again. Because I want to fight Moog again. I want to fight the, you know what I mean? I want to hit my highlights where I'm just like, yeah, this was the funnest fights, the millennia and such.

But I don't necessarily feel like rolling through K-Lid. That's not doing it again. Doing all of that open world stuff again when you already know where everything is and the exploration aspect is done is very, very, very harmed. So I was thinking about why I feel so strongly about that compared to like a Skyrim or New Vegas or something like that and it's because the world is just a violent shithole that has no one in it that talks to you or is your friend and there's no real like narrative dialogue or anything like that right like I like going into New Vegas and just wandering from place to and there's no real narrative dialogue or anything like that. I like going into New Vegas and just wandering from place to place

because then I'll get to a town eventually and I'll talk to people. I'll be like, oh, whatever, right? Kaleid is just a violent attack zone. Yeah. Yeah, there's a difference to games where you get to take a load off. You never do quite get those in these games You can talk to people I guess a little bit or you know Or anytime you walk into like one of the two or three areas where it says like hey no fighting You know, you're like, okay, we're gonna have a conversation for a minute

But yeah, I guess you know when push comes to shove if I ever really do feel like it I'll just go PC mod and get my own boss rush going. But that's all I ever really want out of these experiences is I want to redo some boss fights. I don't really feel like I want to redo the journey as much. So anyway, chipping away at that. So yeah, that's pretty much it. This week is gonna be a bit short. I'm gonna be not here. I'm gonna be gone for the weekend,

but I'll be getting in, I think, yeah, a Phoenix Rite and a session of Elden Ring. And I'm going to be doing a metaphor sponsored stream as well. When's that? I think possibly, I think I'm going to put it for next week or after this one. But going to be checking that out as well. Didn't try the demo out, so I'm not too sure but I heard there's a lot of Oh is the the sponsored stream of the demo? I don't think so. I think it's the main

Well, then you'll have to wait. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. So but I've been told that there I what we're gonna talk about the demo in a just a minute peak peak magic racism in just a minute. Yeah so anyways wooly versus on twitch and YouTube for more of that Hey, I gotta use the bathroom before talking about my week. All right BRB. Yeah, hey we're back So let's think.

Pat, what did you do with your week? Well, man, everybody wants to play fucking Space Marine. So this past week I had Mandalore and Duck Punk over on the show, and just shooting the shit and playing fucking Space Marine 2 co-op. And the takeaway, I think it was Duck that said it, was that it just feels, it kind of feels like the same kind of thing as Monster Hunter, of like, you just want, hey, hey, what are you guys up to?

You want to log in and get some Space Marine out? Okay. you want bang it you want bang out a couple co-op missions or like helldivers Yeah, very very similar Wonderful guests hilarious guys. I had never met or spoken to duck punk prior. He seems really cool. Puck duck What punk duck? Have I been fucking that up? I call them Ed most of the time because he prefers that spoken to DuckPunkPrior, he seems really cool. Puck Duck. What? Puck Duck. Have I been fucking that up? I call him Ed most of the time because he prefers that. Either that or Duckie. My bad, brother.

But yeah, and this week, Paige and Bricky are gonna be playing Space Marine 2 Co-op. That's on Wednesday? God, I need to actually look at the the the schedule. Yes, Wednesday over on Peach Saliva. It's really so one of the nicest things about getting to know Duck is that I did not know he was crazy about Monster Hunter and it has been a long time since I spoke to somebody new who was like hey hey did you follow the TGS did you see all the stuff? I'm like no actually I don't follow that anymore it's I don't I know I don't have the time he's like if

I see cool greatsword shit do you want me to do you want me to send it to you on discord? Yeah yes actually I would actually really like you to do that. I appreciate it. He's in there. Thank you. SirMeow's husband as well, Boo, is super in there. Like, there's, yeah, there's some Monster Hunter fiending going on. Okay, well, it looks like I figured out some people that I can bug about Monster Hunter once more. People in the chat are complaining about a sound, but I didn't hear anything.

Hmm. Weird. A loud noise, but I didn't hear anything. Did you? You didn't see me react. No. Okay. I think, sorry, I think that might have been me adjusting the mic, but...

Oh. Apologies apologies sorry about that anyway sorry to sorry to kneecap a current current flow the main other thing that I did this past week was that I played the metaphor refontasio demo where slurs invented? listen listen This this requires context Context context one. I was sponsored by atlas to do a tweet campaign, which I almost won I almost won that royal tournament social media campaign Bruce Green beat me by saying no taxes, which I can't beat that. Nobody can beat no taxes. But they sponsored me for that Twitter campaign. They also sponsored

me to play the demo and they are also sponsoring me to put out a video next week. Was it phrased no taxes or was it phrased taxation is theft? No, it was no taxes ever, only free video games games. I was like that's tough to beat gotcha I personally ran on a I hate fire alarms. Let's ban fire alarms, which everyone agrees that they are not helpful And they're useless. It's pretty annoying when you hear a beep in the background of No, I'm just talking about like living in a in a large apartment building where the fire alarm goes off every time some dumbass Smokes too much like close to their alarm. And everybody has to evacuate and there's no fire.

But my point that I'm making is that I'm being very heavily sponsored by Atlas with multiple different projects. So before I talk about metaphor, keep in mind that Atlas and me are friends now. Like this. Kissy. Kissy friends. So the funniest thing about metaphor, and you asking me if slurs were invented, were invented is that part of the brief, the things not to do or say, one of them is racism. Now you know what they actually mean. What they really mean is don't go on an insane fascist tirade with the fucking Atlas logo on your stream right okay okay now now hold on are we allowed to use metaphors listen listen so with that I do it with that like five minutes of the game's start a elf is referred to as knife ears. Ahhhhhhhhhh! It is, it is, and by the time you are done the opening cutscene like intro, you are watching

dog boys being hung for nothing. Oh my god, okay, okay. Like like it is it is It is a full-blown like racial hierarchy society in metaphor now we I rolled through 16 with some fucking you know with some bearers and That was you know there was a lot of content there was there was a lot of content yes There was there was there was there was a lot of content. There was a lot of content, yes. There was. There was some juice there.

I'm curious. So this is immediately then. It's really fascinating because I've been talking to people about it and looking at people talk about it. In the metaphor demo, you find out that your main character that you're playing is known as an elda, which is the tribe that doesn't have overt animal or elf characteristics. They don't have dog ears, they don't have like a weird skin tone that's like a non-human skin tone, they don't have cat ears, they don't have like a weird skin tone. That's like a non-human skin tone. They don't have

Cat ears they you know, they don't have ram horns, whatever They're what you would look at and see as a normal person. Okay as such they are the most hated by society of all the tribes and this Like this shows itself like all the time like when you walk through the hub like the main town there are voice clips of passerby's going you an elder like gross Jesus Christ okay there is a minor side quest in which you need to go buy medicine for someone's sick daughter And it's very it's a super classic

JRPG like trope right except you have to buy it from the church and the preacher there explains to you Listen, I'm not even supposed to talk to you because you are banned by my religion, but just because I'm a cool guy, I will sell you the medicine for 10 times its cost. And your character goes, that's bullshit, and he goes, listen, I'm doing you a favor, really. I shouldn't even talk to Elda, so really, I'm actually being really nice to you. Your existence is banned? Yes.

Elda are the only one of the tribes that exist outside of the game's state-sponsored religion. But are you banned from my site like what no there are religious minority? And so it is taboo to interact with them at all okay, okay? So like yeah, no, it's it's it race politics all over the fucking place All over right away right away, and it's very in your face Okay, like there's a very long conversation that I did not pick up on the fact

that the reason why the conversation is happening with a shopkeeper is because they scoped you out because they don't want you next to their store. Oh my God, okay. Wow. Yeah, so. It's a metaphor. Yeah. Well, running around Tokyo in any of the persona games ain't gonna necessarily have that happen. No, not really. Can't take on this type of

issue in the real world. It's a metaphor, Don't you get it? There's also a real element of this being like... Okay, so metaphor is not a Shin Megami Tensei game. No. It is not. It is also not a Persona game. It is not. No. However, they really want you to know that it's made by the creators of Persona 3, 4, and 5. And the main character looks like Aegis and Makoto's baby. Hairband, hair color, the eyes,

even down to like, what is essentially headphones. The second character you get looks just like you, Narakami, and he's even from the sticks. The third character you get is German Mitsuuru. Like, like it is it is overtly a like, hey, sure, it's not persona, but this persona though. Sure. But but Simon Belmont is like Yagami Right so art styles are art styles. What about like? actual you know like

Monsters and and affinities and well you see Billy There's one type of monster that is above all others and that is those Dastardly humans the humans that I remember reading that in the concept. Yeah, those horrible Disgusting humans what an interesting play And they're all freaks. They're all like absolute like complete like nonsense creatures And there's a lot going on with their visual presentation. Like in the anime cutscenes in which humans are depicted, all characters and environments are in 2D

except for the humans which are in 3D. Like to add to their other worldliness. Okay, okay. It doesn't have- Biblically accurate humans. Yeah, you're not going through Pixie and Jack Frost and Pyro Jack and

Unicorn and Bicorn as your starter enemies. It is proper, unique, fantasy enemies such as a big snake or a evil crow or some skeletons. With one exception, when you go into the class system, which is called archetypes, not demons and not persona, it's a much more traditional class system where you pick a class for your

character and you level that class up and they get new moves. And you can switch it back and forth on anybody. It's kind of closest to Final Fantasy Tactics system, honestly, where you have like a job and you can carry like a couple abilities over from any of the jobs you have unlocked. So like all party members can do any job? All party members can be anything. Wow, cool.

Okay. The only difference is that party members will start with like default like stat growths. So like the first guy you get, he tends towards physical, for example. And when you go into the archetype list, and you see, hey, what kind of archetypes we got in here? Well, some of them are called Devil Summoner, and Soul Hacker, and Persona Master and whatnot.

And I believe in... Not related. Definitely not related. And also like Jack Frost is somewhere in the game. There's a trailer out that shows like the Persona Master can like summon Jack Frost as their ability. Wow. Summon Jack Frost as their ability Wow So it is it is very much like a like a like an atlas Like a like almost like a versus game of all their concepts together

It's it's really interesting it's also um I Don't know I don't know what they were thinking. I don't know what the fuck they were thinking They put not like a seven and a half eight and a half hour long demo I think they're thinking our full game is gonna be stupid fuck you long we can afford well They're saying it's about as long as persona five, but it also has a postgame. Yeah, well, that's stupid. Fuck you long right so You can transfer the save forward Right so um you can transfer the save forward Which is important because I have spent seven and a half hours recording footage for a video I'm making and I haven't beaten the demo, and I don't think I'm gonna bother

Okay There are Optional Dungeons in this demo I saw some people describing that there's like there's some secret ones in addition to there's a secret dungeon in this demo in this demo man the car that's ridiculous the confidence to give you fucking eight to ten hours of game on Demo to be like yeah, this is a taste. That's wild

Okay, I'm typing something to you right now Yes, yeah, yeah, I heard that yeah, that is ridiculous There's a lot um Also it happens to be like super slick and super smooth and the interface is gorgeous and whatnot. It's why you show up. We got to see. The music is incredible. I just learned a little bit ago, I thought that the lyrics of the combat theme, they were singing in

Latin because that's what you'd kind of expect, but it doesn't sound like Latin. And I went and looked, it's Esperanto. S-per-anto. Damn. They're singing it in fucking Esperanto. Holy shit. Ronto and fucking Esperanto holy shit After after bringing that back shoutouts to Dracula flow we are going back into Esperanto again That's hilarious For those who don't know Esperanto was a language that was developed

Fairly recently that was developed first of all that's weird. It was the it was developed, first of all. That's weird. It was developed. Yeah. It was created. By the UN, I believe, in order to create a language that all humans can speak, that you can learn no matter what language you speak on the planet. Turns out creating languages for people to use is actually a completely useless proposition because you need native speakers to use the language to teach to other people. But it was like the whole thing was that it takes less than two weeks to learn it and so it's supposed to be easy to pick up no matter what your thing is.

Yeah. Anyway. So the demo is huge. It's super slick. It's essentially Persona 6 in a fantasy setting. During the demo process you unlock the daily life simulator, which is do you want to go to a dungeon? Well you have to rest at night. If you don't do that you can go out into the town and you can talk to people and increase

your social stats. And your social stats include the one that's of most interest to me, because you're going to try and become the new elected ruler of the kingdom. One of your social stats is tolerance, which you level up by dealing with the various tribes. You have to build your tolerance. You have to build it up! your time you have to build it up You know you don't have it by default. No, no, you're starting. Yeah, you start low Yeah, huh? And you don't have social links you have

Bonds that go from level one to ten and as you level those up blah blah blah in your in your natural state Yeah, you're intolerant You're highly intolerant. That's right Okay Okay It works exactly as you would expect in persona Like there's a little side quest about like hey, maybe if you learn to cook your wisdom will go up You know

It's it's really cool I Seem to like it. That's the Sorry is it that's listen. That's we're gonna start somewhere. It's really depressing. Yeah, okay All right What else I want to talk about for it? It's uh Yeah, so they have they have fixed every problem I could ever have with any of their battle systems with this one Every every minor for like actually I genuinely genuinely, the changes to their battle system is the most interesting thing.

So in an SMT game, you are fusing demons for your party, right? And then you skill inherit, and then you're kind of trying to manage your fusions together through the demon compendium. And it can be a little cumbersome. And some games, you don't get to pick your skill inheritance. In this, and in Persona, it's like, hey, do you want to switch Persona? Well, OK, what you do is you're in a fight.

You go, OK, do I have one of my 10 have a fucking wind weakness? I'll switch to it and do the wind attack. And then I can all out attack everybody. So first of all, neither of those systems are used and it is press turn from SMT. It is. It is proper, like mean as fuck press turn. Did an attack get nullified? Everyone loses their turn. Oh shit, okay. Kind of thing. And the way that it works is in your party menu, you pick your archetype before a fight. You go, I wanna be a mage or a healer or a warrior

or a seeker, whatever, right? And that's what you roll into in the fight, and that's what you have during the fight. That's what you have for the whole fight. You're not switching in the middle of a battle. You are, you're coming in as what you came in on. But you can choose between any of those at any time. It's a relatively small unlock cost. And as you level those archetypes up, they learn new moves. And when you switch to an archetype, you can choose to inherit anything from anyone. So if I was, let's say I choose healer and healer

starts with Hama and a heal spell, right? I could choose to spend some of the summon currency to give them the wind attack. Is it using the same nomenclature by the way? Hama is what it's called when you do a light attack. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There are slightly, slightly different names. So like instead of Dia, it's Day for a heal spell, which results in the healing spell in that game being spelled D- which is really really funny you know before DEI there was Latin but anyway oh my god but basically you build up your your roles like it like a job system instead of constantly switching back and forth. If you do switch to one, level something up and then switch back to another, you keep

your progress in each of those things? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you're just kind of picking- So you could be like, hey, I want to level up warrior just to get to the part where they get like critical up and Then go back to mage and then just inherit critical up from warrior And you're not switching in battle But now everybody in your whole party can is fully accessing the class system at all times

Okay, so basically there's a bunch of skills to unlock in multiple directions, and whatever you unlock you keep, even though you change directions. Yeah, okay. Yeah. So like when you go to Healer, all you have is the Healer skills, except there's a slot for inheritance.

And as you increase your bonds with your followers, from rank one to three to five to whatever, you unlock the advanced versions of those jobs. But you only get to take one thing with you. I don't know for certain, but I believe that the advanced jobs have more slots for skill inheritance. Okay.

So in the end, you're going to have a very customized team. Yeah. Also, oh you unlock more slots? Great, great. Fantastic. Also, every job, sorry, every archetype has your main character attack differently on the field. Ooh, okay.

So in metaphor, you start start with a sword, right? You don't have the sneak attack or single stab you would normally have in a Persona game. You have a three-hit combo. And that's because if you wanna do a sneak attack, you have to get to an enemy and hit them with your combo until they're stunned. And then when they're stunned,

you have the squad attack them and then you start a random battle with them. Oh, you mean like on the overworlds? Yes, I mean on the overworld. Your action button. Oh, okay, okay. Yes, you are like, it almost kind of feels like Dynasty Warrior.

Like you are roaming around the overworld and you are attacking enemies as if it were an action game. Oh. And if you stun them, you get to jump into a random battle with them losing their full first turn. Okay. Now how in depth does that overworld combat? So I didn't think it was in depth. And then I found out it actually really was. So, here's a couple of things.

So Seeker starts with a sword. You have a three hit combo, right? Well, your party will also join in on hitting enemies when you're doing that. So that's cool. And also, enemies that you can't stun in one combo will attack you back, and then hitting you with their attack is what causes an ambush.

Okay, so if you take any damage you get ambushed. Which is why you have a dodge roll. So on tougher enemies, if you want that first turn, you have to fucking fight them like an action game for a little bit. To earn the RPT. To earn your free first turn. Fucking checkmate showdown over here interesting So okay, that's how seeker works

but if you switch to May if you switch to healer right you have a you have a piddly little staff right just piddly little staff Well every time you kill an enemy with that, your whole party heals. And then you switch to mage. And mage? Kill an enemy as in like during the RPG battle? Oh, no. Sorry. I skipped a part. If you're three levels higher than any enemy, they auto die to your combo. Earthbound. Let's go. Earthbound rules.

Or Yuji's thing. Hell yeah. Delete. They auto die to your earthbound Let's go Earthbound or a huge ease thing hell yeah Delete so like as soon as your three levels above ever all enemies of normal strength will just auto die Awesome, and they tutorialize it, too There's a whole section where you go through and they go listen beat up these dogs And you just fight the dogs like it is dynasty warriors Okay beat up these dogs and you just fight the dogs like it is dynasty warriors. Okay. That's great. And someone asks, do you get the rewards?

You absolutely get the rewards. And then you switch your character to mage and instead of having like a swing or like a rod attack, mage does a fucking ice AOE around itself. And when you kill enemies, even auto kill enemies on the overworld, it regenerates MP per hit. So there is a class that they give you right away that allows you to regenerate your MP to full

by just killing generic mobs on the overworld. Whoa. OK. So you are going to be one-daying. Which class? Every dungeon. Mage. Okay. It's one of the first ones you get.

And is MP treated as limited a resource as it usually is in these games? Yes. It's still. But you can just get it back now. By switching to that class and just doing it. Yeah. Okay. So all of the different archetypes will make your attack

have different properties on the Overworld. When you mentioned Ryuji just now, is that something from Royale specifically? Well, Ryuji had a thing in Persona 5 and Royal where if you maxed out his social link, you would just auto kill people that were below a certain level. Okay, okay, okay. Don't remember, maybe I below a certain level. Okay, okay

Don't remember I didn't do it anyway. Okay, but yeah, no So it is it is like probably my favorite type of like job system in an RPG Which is like set classes that you level up and get really strong and you can you know add a little juice to it The whole party can change it and it has a really exciting overworld combat section that both cuts down on time massively and also can improve your chances in the fights. Wow, that's a really interesting thing. Yeah, I've gotten to the first game running around persona 3 and like stabbing your fucking sword or spear out and trying to hit the little mucks was always like oh

god um shit didn't make a noise again I heard that sorry okay there's a hard a little beep that's weird okay um yeah let me fix this I don't want to I don't want that to happen something's up with the wire. Sorry BRB Okay So um, yeah, it seems cool. Yeah, they've gotten better at those things and like running around Fucking Naruto running through SMT 5 and slashing shit. I was like, okay, cool. That's fun You know, it's fast and whatever but ultimately it's still just like, okay, cool, that's fun. It's fast and whatever, but ultimately it's still just like, do you start at an advantage or disadvantage and adding a roll and combo thing to that, that sounds pretty cool.

That's interesting. It feels pretty cool. Yes. Also, it makes sense as to how you can expect people to blow through so many dungeons in a game that has a time limited like a time limit when Once you get strong enough for parts of that dungeon. There's nothing in the the the floor that will even trigger in a battle I wonder if this is like shit that we could look at and go like they're testing the grounds for a p6 No, it feels like all the other games were testing the ground for this

No, it feels like all the other games were testing the ground for this Hmm like that's that's how it comes across. It is a brand new franchise ultimately. Yeah, yeah, you can take all your lessons here Okay, I'm here. This is this is functionally persona six Yeah It's a metaphor. It's a metaphor. You get it? It's like a simile, actually. Yeah.

Or an analogy. So there's one thing that I didn't go into, which is the thing that surprised me the most, which is your character talks.'re a person they're a person yay they have they have their own dialogue they don't talk that much awesome but when you choose an option they respond with their voice and they act in cutscenes fun they are a character fuck yeah it rules actually it's it's way better give me a dick Just just role play a person. Don't don't insert.

Love that. They also have a real name depending on where you live. So every country has a different like every language has a different default name. Oh, you don't choose your, you don't enter your own. Oh no, you absolutely do, but if you choose that you don't wanna do that, there is a default name that it will choose for you, depending on your language. So like, in English, the character's canon name is Will.

In Brazil, it's Pedro. In Germany, I think it's Victor. Okay. Cool, that's fine. I mean, it gives you the option to say, I don't wanna name myself. Well, you also name yourself. Oh, you still have to do that, okay.

No, no, the game looks you in the eye and goes, hey, Wooly, what's your name, Wooly And then it goes, you'll name it at the bottom of the text that says you will name the protagonist later. Ah, earthbound. Okay. Sure. Little bit. Sure. Little bit. Little bit. Yeah, no, that game looks cool. I'm gonna play a bunch of it. I can't believe I didn't fucking beat the demo. So I was originally planning to be like, Hey, you know what? Forget the demo. I'm not even I'm not going to bother. I'm just we'll just start the beginning of the game the day the game comes out. And now I'm like, if it does that, I'm not even going to get to the fucking new shit by the end

of that week. Like if I start on the Friday, it comes out. So I'm going to be playing through the demo this week on Friday and Saturday. Does the demo start at the beginning or does it like throw you? Demo starts at frame one. Press start, go. Because it carries your progress forward. Save progress? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Nice. So people out there are like just like getting to the point or in the in the final dungeon you have available where you can auto kill all the enemies because they're so over leveled and over leveling Fucking further in the week. It's gonna take for the game to come out So there's gonna be a bunch of people that are just gonna fucking blow through that early game with massively fucked up overgrinding characters.

And that's fine. This thing's gonna be so fucking long, dude. It's gonna be so long. So you want to hear something really crazy? They don't care. You want to hear something really nuts? They give you the calendar. They give you the calendar.

It's on the menu as soon as you get it. The game's only got four months. Oh There's a calendar system happening. Oh, yeah, it's the same. It's the same thing They're actually you go to sleep and wake up and move. Okay. Oh, yeah, it's it's the same system But it is it is four months From June to October I think Ten yeah, June October. Yeah, oh so

Hmm, okay, cuz I guess like in an SMT game where there is no calendar It's like you're not going to bed and waking up and going back out to a new you're just grinding those dungeons You're moving forward in the fucking story and going to new locations. Yeah but I guess here this implies that there's a Home base that you are gonna be departing from you know what man somebody in the chat said well. There's no school so It'll feel longer and like you know that's a decent point Every day is Sunday In metaphor because you don't have to go to school.

Okay. So then there's outside of actually running to... Because you know, persona, you have your dungeon and day and then outside of that you have your activities. Is it drawing a hard line between those things here as well? Okay, so some of what I'm about to say is stuff that I gleaned from previews It's not from my own personal experience in the demo. Okay, right So in the demo you hang out in the main city and it works identically to a persona game Do you want to go do something that increases your social stat or do a dungeon during the day if you did the dungeon? Then you got to sleep at night because you're tired if you didn't Do the dungeon you can do social stuff at night like exactly the same system, right?

The difference is is that in the in the main game when you finally get your creepy leg ship I forget a gauntlet runner. I think it's called I forget what it's called, Gauntlet Runner, I think it's called. You have to travel to various parts of the country in order to progress the story and do side content. And if you have to go anywhere that will take you longer than a full day, the social stuff instead becomes hanging out with the people on your ship. Ah, okay, okay, okay. So that's your base, yeah. Okay, cool.

Interesting. Well. I feel really bad, because I'm planning to play the game on stream, and the amount of times that I just went, it's like a metaphor was like. It's an allegory It was so it is a family of a homonym

Yeah, yeah, it's it's too easy Actually reminds me I will not be streaming it I will be recording it offline and uploading some shit straight to YouTube. So you fucking- did you forget which fucking promotion you're doing? Well no. Cause I always go- Yeah you're doing the same thing I'm doing! You're doing a video! Well yeah, but I always go I'm just gonna stream it and then usually it's not an issue but this time it was. So- No yeah, no this time they want a video for the release.

Like, I don't know, stream, fuck it, I don't know. So anyway, whatever, so yes, it'll go straight to the queue. Yeah, one last thing, because this is something that I hemmed and hawed over. So you choose your stats on level up for your main character, like an SMT game. Okay. It gives you one free level, and then it says,

hey, where do you want to put a second point? And you have to kind of make the decision, do I want to make a strength guy? Do I want to make a speed guy? The way that stats work is when you have an archetype and you use it, like say you switched to warrior, it adds the warrior stats onto your existing stats. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Say you switch to warrior it adds the warrior stats on to your existing stats. Okay. Yeah

Yeah If you've if you've been pushing strength the whole time then yes, it will do more damage and strength, right? But like there's always going to be a base minimum stat for everything so you don't have to sweat it too bad But if you do want to sweat it too bad You don't actually have to use any of your stats on level up. You can bank them. You can bank them for as long as you want. Whoa.

Okay. And then you can just go on your next level up. It's like, do you want to use two points or three points or four points? You can leave the level up screen without spending it. Yeah. And you can just go into your character's profile on the main menu and be like, you know what? I would like to use my points now Okay, I've decided that I want my main character to be a magic focus guy. Let's let's let's push me

No, even though you can change jobs. You can't respect those though. I bet you can't yeah, okay I I would imagine you can't I would imagine you can't. And other party members, they'll start with very, very obvious stat spreads that are like, listen, this character starting with their two highest are strength and endurance. So you could make them a mage if you wanted, or a healer. The game won't stop you, and they're still gonna have

a base level effectiveness, but they'd probably be a little more effective if you made them a knight. Or a warrior. Well, I'm curious to see if everyone can be anything. It's like, yeah, so if you take the white mage and make her start stabbing shit, or vice versa, you know, how much is that gonna fight you with the, with the...

Well, it depends. So like one of your party members has really high endurance and really low magic attack, right? But if you put the, the mage job on them, they'll do less damage than another character's mage, but they'll have a lot more HP than the mage class would normally have. So at a certain level level it'll balance out But like the idea is like if you make them not the thing they're supposed to be there'll be a bad version of that thing Yeah, I know it means there'll be a slightly less effective version, okay?

Cool, yeah, I think the only two stats that would matter is like strength and magic because they just affect attack power Okay Yeah, no this this game's got a lot going on. Oh, it also has, Christ, it has the Mass Effect Codex. Whoa. Okay. Because there's so much, because it's not taking place in the real world. You already know how things work. Brand new lore, brand new setting, a lot to establish.

So a keyword will show up in red in a dialogue prompt, and that means it's been added to your codex. And you click in on the right stick, and it goes, hey, listen, you want to learn about what a parepis is? That's a dog boy. Yeah, OK. Do you want to know what an elf is? Do you want to know how magic works?

Well, because shit. I mean, I saw someone say it's a five-day work week, right? There's no weekends. The calendar is different. Well, because shit, I mean, I saw someone say it's a five-day work week, right? Like there's no weekends. The calendar is different. Yeah, maybe. I didn't get that far. The demo only gives you three free days. Okay.

Because yeah, like if we're talking about an entirely different thing where like everything you know about the structure of the world system is different, then it's like, okay. Well, yeah, codex button is mandatory for sure. Cool. Yeah, no, that game seems cool. Okay, well yeah, codex button is mandatory for sure. Cool. Yeah, no, that game seems cool. So yeah, I'm going to be trying to beat the demo. I should be able to beat it.

I already got through most of it, so now I know how to do it good, right? There's a fucking optional boss in one of the mandatory story dungeons that I didn't even realize was a real fight. I thought they're like, sneak around it. It's dangerous. I'm like, okay. I'll later find out like, no, no, that's a real boss. You can totally fight that. God bless. So yeah, that'll be Friday and Saturday will be the metaphor demo. And then on Wednesday, I'm going to be over at twitch.tv slash Pete's saliva, hanging out with Bricky and Paige, playing Space Marine. I'm gonna be over twitch.tv slash Pete saliva hanging out with Brookie and Paige plan space marine

God bless transferring your progress forward Mm-hmm. Oh and Sunday this week over twitch.tv Pat stars at is the silent hell to remake That's this week I'm titling that stream, Let's Try to Be Fair. Let's Try to Be Fair. Yeah, I think the worst outcome would be not having much to say. I am not worried about that. would be not having much to say. I...

Am not worried about that. Okay. I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be plenty to say. Okay. All right. Let's take a quick word from our sponsors. I love our sponsors. Today's first sponsor is Metaphor. I love Metaphor.

You should go buy it. Actually, this week the podcast is brought to you by Shopify. Cha-ching is the sound of a sale when you make it with Shopify. Yeah, that is the all-in-one commerce platform that can help you upgrade your business and Take it to the next level so Yeah, if you're if you're kind of like us and you started out doing one thing and then eventually At some point unexpectedly you found yourself going from talking about a whatever Farts in front of a microphone.

I don't know what we're talking about. Right? And then eventually you're like, oh shit, we've got to sell things to people. Then you've got to figure out how to get a store front up. You've got to figure out how to get a cart and how people can check out and how to get things shipped to people and how to track where it goes and how it gets around the world and all these little aspects and elements to it. You want to get Shopify, the home of the number one checkout on the planet. It is a very, yeah, it's a well-known useful commerce

platform that'll help you at all stages of your business if you're just getting started with your first couple sales or if you're hitting that millionth sale as well. If you're blowing up, it's the perfect platform to blow up with you. Yeah, award-winning support around the world as well. They've got the highest conversion rates on your shopping cart as well. They've got the highest conversion rates on your shopping cart as well and it is yeah particularly useful. I know I besides the fact that it was helped us get our shirts up and up and running. I also have noted that

they're particularly useful with the they have a little shop app that you can track things when they're on their way to you, and I find that particularly nice to know when things get dropped off. I really like that app. Yeah, it's handy to be like, oh yeah, this is coming in today, okay, cool. You know, there's a lot of times. Thanks for the heads up, buddy.

Yeah, there's a lot of times where I lose track of things like that. So those are all particularly useful bits and such. So, yeah, very handy. Those are all particularly useful bits and such. Very handy and they are behind some of the largest chains and working businesses that have great product online. If you've heard about Aloe or Allbirds or Skims, they're powering those businesses as well. So what you want to do if you're looking to upgrade your business and get the same checkout

experience that we're describing here, sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash superbeast, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash super super beast to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash super beast. Thank you, shop. Thanks, Shopify. This week, the podcast is sponsored by Factor. That is the healthy meals that you can get straight to you and save your time, save your headache, save your money, save a lot of stress that doesn't need to exist. And in particular, get good tasting food that is actually healthy for you.

If you are... Is it better than just eating handfuls of Cheerios until I fall asleep? I mean, you can do that and suffer the consequences. I don't know. I may... I would say everyone suffered the consequences for that decision. I don't know about you, but I know that like I have a thing I've noted about my body at this point.

When I have way too much sugar and fall asleep, nightmare is guaranteed. That is so wild, man. Guaranteed. I can 100% confirm I can give myself nightmares if I want to. Let's sneak some sugar into Wooly's food and then film him while he's asleep and see what happens.

It's bad. If you wanna see me fighting ghosts, then just get my insulin way up before falling asleep. Yeah. I think it's just the way my body's processing it and it's just active and my brain starts getting active and everything is like going, going, going. I think it's also because I've been trying to eat healthier that I've been removing sugar from my diet in a lot of places.

So I'm much more sensitive to it. So that can get tricky sometimes and this is where, yeah, Factor has dietitians that are approving and making sure that each of these nutritious meals are good for you. So if I'm trying to do them something like that and keep track of my calories, there's calorie smart options. If you're going keto, there's keto options. Gourmet Plus, vegan or veggie as well are all there. You've got 35 meals to pick from each week, plus 60, over 60 add-ons to choose from as well.

So, you've got all the flavors and options you could want. You'll never get bored of that many. And again, the fact that they are healthy for you and you can make them in just two minutes is fantastic. So yeah, they've got some nutrient rich smoothies as well that are pretty solid. And I, as someone who is trying to get that into my, I'm trying to, yeah, the smoothie thing in particular is like becoming very useful because it's like, I don't have to question how many calories it is. I don't have to question exactly what I'm getting. If I have something like that in the morning, it's a very clear

thing I'm noting down that it's always going to be the exact amount and I don't have to do any guesswork with it. So that's kind of important too as well if you're starting to be more conscious of this stuff. So yeah, check it out. Get yourself set up with the ready to eat just in two minutes meals straight to your door. Head to factormeals.com slash castle50 and use code castle50 to get 50% off your first month and 20% off your next month. That's code castle50 at at factor meals dot com slash CASEL50 and you're gonna get 50% off your first month plus 20% off the next.

Get in on those shakes. Do it. I love you, Factor. Thanks, Factor. Love you factor. Thanks back in there And this week castle super beast is sponsored by boot dev if you are really Computer stuff is hard, and I'm scared you should be it is an Daunting world out there if you're trying to learn how to code. But the trade off for learning how to code is you can get yourself a really good ass job. Like a real job, not like this stupid thing that I do? The median salary for backend developers in the US last year was over 100K according to Stack Overflow. So programmers have a lot of potential to, you know,

get you can like you can line your shit up and do really well for yourself. It is always unnecessary talent. I feel like anyone that any team that I know is trying to get an idea off the ground needs to have a good programmer behind them. And if you're one of those people that's got like your own ideas and concepts and you want to put it all together, you know, you can, there's a lot of programmers that have like learned how to get art and music done kind of after the fact and with that ground, like base level of talent, they've been able to execute ideas on their own. And it's always incredibly impressive to see. And even if it's not that, even if it's just like joining and being a useful programmer as well,

if you're trying to get better at it, or if you're looking at this as a career path, then this is where boot.dev comes in handy. It's a really cool website that's set up to help you learn Python and Go programming languages. And yeah, it's set up like an RPG. So if you're starting out and you're learning, instead of kind of just reading through dry textbooks and, you know, doing it the long and unstimulating way, they kind of have these progress points

that you go through levels, you try out challenges, you defeat bosses, you complete quests, you earn XP, you level up. There's a leaderboard as well. And each of the levels as you progress through them gives you these different programming challenges you have to overcome and try out. There's tips as well that can help you.

There's a 30 day no questions asked refund policy, a free demo you can try out with interactive features, and a really active Discord community you can check out as well if you ever get stuck on some of the coding challenges. So yeah, learning to code is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes time. And if you develop the fundamentals then you can you know get yourself a solid job in tech but doing it in a way that's gamified and really fun is a great idea and yeah checking it out and seeing how they've set it up at the at boot.dev has been pretty cool so you can click the link in our description box and use

our code castle superSuperBeast, and you'll get 25% off your first month or even your entire first year if you choose the annual plan. So, yeah, you're going to want to go to boot.dev, slash, question mark promo equals CastleSuperBeast, and then you use the code, CastleSuperBeast, and you'll get 25% off your face first payment on boots dot dev Thanks boot dot dev Thanks boot dot dev All right There has all right. I'm gonna take this away

There's a big piece of news that we should have put into what are we playing but no it's news instead News that we should have put into what are we playing but no it's news instead Boletro is fucking out on your phone shit heads. Goodbye everybody podcast over Broke the fucking Google payment system when it fucking launched on the Play Store man and Then fucking Jimbo. I saw him on Twitter Just going like having a freak out because it's the top paid app on the Play Store. So guess what? It's really fucking good.

And it's better than it is on your computer. So I've I don't know if you have you been playing with a controller or a mouse on your. No, I've been playing with my hands. No, no on on the original version. Oh, the original version. Oh, I've been playing on with a mouse Okay, cuz like I thought I would do is that I have my time back back when the boy was a potato when he was in Potato form I would just crookify him in my arm here Right, and he'd be just a little tiny potato and then I would just you know use my mouse

Okay, but now now he can turn and look at the TV and all that So he'd know Bellatros on the TV since he stopped being a potato, so I still think that's I mean I do prefer a by a bit like my ability to play on the PC I had just used the mouse so it's the least amount of movement required to just use one hand. There is that, like, because I was playing with the pad and stuff, and in this case, the conversion over to touch pad, still gotta hold the phone admittedly.

However, the system they've changed by having you drag things to areas of the screen to sell or buy or use is fantastic. It's awesome. Fucking-tastic, man. It's great. Real quick, it becomes instinctual very quickly. Yeah, you just kind of, anytime you're in the shop, you drag something to the top of the screen to sell it or to the right to buy it.

Society is over. And then tap and hold to get your description You know and the rest is just fucking ballad room. That's it I know there was a bit of a confusion kerfuffle as well when it went up because there was like in-app purchases But I think it was just turned out to be the free demo can be converted into a full version. Yeah, so Yeah, yo, hey now that the mobile version is out Jimbo you need to vampire survivors this and just fucking put out Like a micro DLC every like fucking two months and people go. How do you keep putting out more? It's crazy Just make up 400 new jokers. Oh

God oh Jesus So I think so I started playing just to mess around a little bit there I still want to I want to get my nan inf on the base game first I'm starting I'm trying I'm trying to accomplish Nanin Which is the when you break the score and you can and like the thing that it displays is score and you can and like the thing that it displays is Nan Yeah, it's like fuck it. I give up the math. It's hard. Well, so it Apparently it turns out it turns out that it stands for not a number exponent infinity

Right, that's what Nanin means Yeah, which is awesome. Like literally like we've lost the plot We've the games just like listen It's gonna crash if I keep running these calculations Great stuff. Um, I've got my I've got my strat, you know, I've got my tech going and I'm trying to work on getting that set up But uh, yeah, yo fucking go go get ballot roll on on on your phone. It's just the ultimate time waster. It's done It's the best. It's the best ultimate time waster. It's done. It's the best. It's the best.

Okay, a lot of shit from this week in particular because there was the state of play. So just to go outside of the state of play first. And we touched on a few things on the way here. So we touched on Frontmake. Front Mission 3, the TGS demo footage. And we touched on a few things on the way here. So we touched on FrontMake, FrontMission3, the TGS demo footage. Boo.

I want to go take a look. That sucks, because I, yeah. Because I've been super duper looking forward to that as like wanting to get through that. I've been talking about wanting to do a regular one for a while. So we'll take a look and see. Also, there was, we touched on as well,

like City of the Wolves is getting Ken and Chun-Li as guest characters. And that's cool. We'll see how they handle the Christiano Ronaldo matchup We'll see not too sure how that's gonna go And and and that's all fine and dandy Minor little little thing as well on fighting games, but hunter hunter and then impact Was supposed to come out

later this year but it announced it's going to be delayed till 2025 because they're adding rollback hey that's weird that they hadn't what well they said they said they're delaying the game till next year to add rollback and to that I say sounds good have a nice day that's why we're no problem take it easy why were you gonna every game that fucking company puts out already has rollback netcode why were you even that's weird well so because it's not necessarily direct arcsys, it's Boushi Road, right? Aiding in Boushi Road. Ah, okay.

And in a lot of cases, the publisher will determine how online and shit like that is handled. See Dragon Ball Fighters. You guys should add rollback netcode to that Hunter Hunter game, that's what I'm saying. Well, it's like, they finally anticipate the same noise that is made about every other game. And then I'm sure when they go to Evo and stuff,

and people walk by and try it and go, y'all put enroll back in, right? And they'll be like, uh-huh, yes, sure, and make a note and bring all that feedback back to the devs. So yeah, great, good stuff. Take your time, add it, make sure it works. And maybe also, well, I don't know, we'll see, I guess. But boy, those kids are real stubby in that fucking game. Kind of feels like when you're playing as Gawndor

or Killua. A little bit. It's like beautiful Joe, you know, little, little small limbs. They're tiny little nubs. They're tiny little kids. So but yeah, no problem there. I don't know how much of a story or what is going on here. But for some reason, a steam page has popped up for Guns the Duel. And I don't know if you remember, but I've talked about Guns the duel and I don't know if you remember but I've talked about guns the duel quite a few times as

one of the fucking most awesome games for movement ever from an era of the internet long ago Guns the fucking duel was an awesome game that just had you shooting and sorting in an arena and you could fucking butterfly off walls and shotgun or Uzi or whatever and its downfall besides some like bad monetization was just the amount of cheating was so fucking out of control. It was rife with cheaters. And then there was also that level of like soft cheating almost where it's like okay so I'm not doing an instant infinite health

and wall hack and my gun deletes you cheat. But I did change all my textures so that everything is gray and like faded out in the environment and only the players are like visible and dark. You know, and you're like, oh my. My experience with Guns the Duel was like so... Like I'm so sick of Gun the duel really because I remember playing Max Payne one which was an incredible game and Being like oh man. It's really cool. How Max Payne one feels like the matrix and Every time I would say that out loud Somebody would go man. You know what's really like the matrix

Yeah somebody would go, man, you know what's really like the Matrix? Guns the duel. Yeah, because you had characters that could do the Trinity wall run as a part of the game. But besides people saying that in an annoying way, did you ever get to try it? Yeah, I'm not impressed. OK, well. I never cared for it at all.

I genuinely never saw what the big deal was about it at all. Well, it's really fun. Dueling was really cool. Making different builds with different types of guns and different swords and finding the right movement to fight people was a whole lot of fun. It had really, really fast kind of like snap aiming and moments of Midair dueling that was really sick and a time when there was that didn't really exist in a multi-player context Yeah, I know. I just I remember like playing it and be like I this there's nothing here that makes me want to play this over

Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament or Day of Defeat or Counter-Strike? Yeah, so I could wall run and third person wall kick off into taking somebody out and then are slashing them and keep it going. That's way more, I love that more than, you know, like FPSing in a lot of cases. Oh, you know what? I'm watching footage right now and I I'm like you know what it is I believe That your feet in a shooter should be glued to the floor. Oh, I hate that that's boring that sucks

That's why I love Titanfall so much That's why battlefield bad company too is the best fucking shooter of all time my favorite thing about Titanfall is how little your feet stay glued to the floor There we we, we are diametrically opposed. You know. Yeah. Yeah. No, I like people in the chat. No, I like my shooters boring. I want my shooters to be boring as fuck. I mean, you know, my my my neuron activated when I saw the double eject grappling hook kill in Titan. Titan falls an exception because Titan fall fucking rules. But that's the thing. But the but it rules because of the the ingredients, you know, and some of the some of those crazy movement ingredients were long ago seen in Guns the Duel.

In particular, like doing wild shit like again, yeah, butterflying off the walls was so crazy. You just you just you just fucking you Mega Man wall jump your way through a stage where the verticality of the stage mattered as much as the actual layout horizontally, you know. So but yeah, and then and then, you know, like there was the cool shit you could do where you could like do the Trinity run off the wall.

Like as cool as that was, it was also like, well, now you're on a path that can be. Yeah, it's very DMC too. It was like, you're actually not gonna use the wall run all that much. You don't wanna telegraph yourself for that long, you know? I remember when you were telling me I'll have much you don't want to telegraph yourself for that that long you know I Remember when you were telling me about multiplayer

PvP in Warframe right and you were talking about how like it's not intended for that But like they're the most exist and in it movement is like the most important thing yeah, it's also like fucking terrible like it's also like fucking terrible. Like it's terrible. Okay, well, I can't speak to anything about war for like, like guns. Okay, good warframe PVP is bad enough that if you were to play it, you would understand why I'm not interested in guns the duel because warframe pvp is like the worst of all worlds It is remarkably terrible on every level yet. The pve is so good Yeah

Wow, okay. It's it's crazy It's crazy how bad it is. Okay. Well, yeah, this is a just surprise thing. So it seems as if it's like this might not even fully be a North American release of sorts. It's confusing. It says like languages are not supported on the Steam page.

Yeah. English language not supported. Like I don't, like I saw this, got posted, and I don't know that we have any info as to why this is happening. But either way, it's an old game that had its servers died off and that was it. And then I think there was like a pseudo sequel that came afterwards that was just not even remotely

the same at all. Like there was like a Guns 2 thing that kind of, I remember people were not too happy about. But Guns the fucking Duel, uh, that's a throwback. That's some good shit Uh, uh, I I really hope we get a chance to jump back in there because yeah, I spent I spent a good a good I don't know how long it was it might have been just like A summer a heavy summer and then like some months afterwards, you know?

But like I was in there with some friends back in the day. We don't talk about guns too, fair enough. Guns too? I remember hearing people just hate that fucking thing. Yeah, yeah. Like just hate it. It was also, Guns the Duel was also pretty fun because they had some cool artwork, you know? I don't remember if it was like, Hyungtae Kim specifically, but it was like that style. And like some

really cool like, yeah, like trench coat fucking, you know, manhwa character designs., yeah, that popped up. Um, and then, uh, just a bit with, uh, Stellar Blade Cross near Automata. Um. Like, I saw that trailer and I'm like, oh cool, they're bringing costumes. And they're like, then they show the Stellar Blade 2B chick in, like, the fucking amusement park area. I'm like, oh, no way. It's a thing. It's like a real thing. The thing that that like the thing that is

stylistically, you know, taking after the original thing is now straight up pairing up with the original thing. And we just we're putting it all together so you can goon while you goon. Hey, listen, hey, Willy, I have a question. Do you know why they're doing the crossover with Nero Automata? Yes, because according to the official Nero Twitter account, they say, we will gladly say yes to anything for money. So like 2B has been everywhere. 2B is like one of the most crossovered characters and if

you were ever like why is that and it's cuz the people who made Nier Automata are like give money though. Yes no fucks given. Yoko Taro is quite clear. That's great. Yes. That's money. Money and she's yours, whatever you want, anybody. Reminds me of John Carpenter getting asked, hey, would you ever direct another Halloween movie? And it's response, like, if they paid me for it, yeah. But the real underneath of that is if they paid him what he thought he was worth

to direct another Halloween movie. Right, right. Well, I mean, speaking of paying people and acquiring money. Money dollars. Yeah. Let's say we take some of that to be money and we get it over to the folks that made the day before because you know they just had a rough start but fantastic is looking for a second chance you know bro they fucking covered their tracks running

away off of that game like like the vacuum behind them to like erase the fucking yeah man like oh so yeah can't have another bite at the scam Apple because you're right you're right if I use my words and then you go, damn, I'm gonna reach for my wallet right now. Right? You know, what like- Oh my god, it's a Kickstarter? Are you fucking- Of course it's a Kickstarter.

Oh my god. Sometimes the scumbag leaves town forever and you never see them again. But sometimes they put a mustache and hat on and they come back in the back door you know and hey you know this is a fucking this is a double scan all right so we we we talked about this one some time ago but um there was a game called the day before that was being released by a company called Fantastic, and they crowdfunded, and basically, there was a lot of shit leading up to this Kickstarter that was looking pretty dodgy. And in the process, there was a number of things

that were starting to come to light, including unpaid workers and trademark disputes and fucking yeah, like overall as well quality just being like shit. And the whole thing led to people being like, okay, so this is just a scam, right? And then the game launched in early access. And then when people got their hands on it and basically saw how bad it was it shut down immediately and they just they kind of just disappeared people got their refunds on it but it was this wild moment where they replied this is our first big experience, shit happens. And then they disappeared.

So they have since now come back around, they're starting a Kickstarter. And yeah, the core principles are now honesty, transparency and professionalism. And so the goal is to kickstart a new project and see if they can make some money. And you tell me what you need to do to have you leave here in a brand new Toyota. What can I do to put you in a new Toyota today? Just you say the words you know what are we looking for APR financing well trust is the is the basis of all relationships so Come on the wolves are at Old Gil's door bro. Nah man you ran away before.

Steam had to refund those people. Which means Valve had to fight it out with fucking the devs right? And so they're on Twitter going everyone got their money back it wasn't a scam. What are you saying? Dude that wasn't you! That was Steam gave the money back it wasn't a scam what do you say that wasn't you that was steam gave the money back okay so bro we just have come on overly ambitious goals at a low a low indie budget without triple a tech or experience embellished marketing which we deeply regret. So yeah. Anyways. Embellished.

Embellishment is one of those fun words where you can exaggerate. Hey, Pat, it wasn't 10 years ago. It was only two years ago. Okay. That was an exaggerate. My brain said really long time. Embellished is like, listen, I have the best cake for you. Oh, it's a store bought

McCain deep and delicious. Oh, that's a bit embellished. But embellished can also mean we have a fully functioning game for you. It was fun to play. And then it's not, it's not, it's not at all. It's a broken piece of fucking shit. It's technically accurate to say you embellished it. Technically. Well, this is one of those times where each of the tweets that came out announcing the studio's new project were just like fucking hit with those community notes. Like literally just warning potential scam. Like you know, before you consider giving fantastic money, remember that they lied about the state of the day before to investors, volunteers, and the gaming community with some links to some videos and such.

Anyway, at the original time of writing, they had made about $100 of the $15k they're looking for, but it seems as if it's growing. You get the word out there to enough people, and some people are like, you know what, man, I do want to be in a Toyota. Everybody has their own choices to make. I would recommend, whoever is listening to me, you're gonna do whatever you're gonna do, right? I would think very hard and long about not doing anything regards to this game. I usually think about not doing it. Well the fun part about, you know, projects

where you don't quite know what the fuck is happening on Kickstarter, if the game does complete and come out, then you can always do that after it's out and good and exists. Yes. I would recommend purchasing the car that exists as opposed to investing in the production from... Yeah, like maybe you were like, I don't know about Shovel Knight. I don't think WayForward can do it. And you know what? I'll buy it later when it's done. And then

Shovel Knight came out and has been out for years and years and years. And if you wanted to play Shovel Knight, you'd be like oh, people like that game. I should buy Shovel Knight. And you could buy it and then you would have it and it would be real. Okay, but what if WayForward took the money and went to Tacoma? I mean, they could do that. They could do that if they wanted. And then held their hat out. Okay. All right. Well, excuse me, Yacht Club. Yacht Club, my mistake. They split right before that. I always get it so confused. Okay, so yeah, all that aside,

the other thing was we got to take a look because TGS is happening, Death Stranding 2 on the beach introduced a bunch of new Kojima bullshit. Hey, do you wanna have a photo mode? Sure, what if it's a Kojima-esque Hey do you want to have a photo mode? Sure. What if it's a Kojima-esque photo mode? What does that mean? Well it means you don't want to take photos of the characters do you? Who would want to do that? No you want to

take photos of the actors behind the scenes! What? I think- No I don't! I think I think it's been long enough that Kojima's like, Hey, are they still mad about the Beauty and the Beast system from Metal Gear Solid 4? Does anyone remember? No? I do. Ah, shut up! We're doing it again! So you can fight the bosses in MGS4 and then go into photo shoots with them because they're all like models, you know, and they have this kind of secret mode to it.

They're like, yeah, let's just do it again. Let's just do it again. It's fine. Fuck it. Something like violently parasocial of including the actors messing around for the photo mode so you can take photos of the actors in your video game. I mean the fun bit about that is like the recordings of people just kind of improvising just making noises going like hahaha yeah like hey whoa hey put that in the game I'm a genius.

Like that was content me just going like Anyway we got introduced to tar man George Miller Hey, do you guys like movies I got my movie friends I put my movie friends in the turn you fuckin' I put my movie friends in the look at my movie friends Hey Guillermo del Toro was here and I like his movies You know who else's movies are like this guy? Ah damn, Kojima wants to be in Mad Max 3 man Or rather Fury Road 3 Um, yeah, he's in there And that's you know, it's cool. Does this thing. Doll man

who we saw is just I guess so this is your like you got to have your Mimir or your what was his name in lollipop chainsaw? Kevin? The boyfriend. Yeah, something like that. You know, you gotta have your little just like little puppet man, little fucking thunderbolt, or not thunderbolt, thunderbird puppet hanging off your shoulder. Yeah, obviously. So, Doll Man is that. And we saw him in the trailer as well with the lower frame rate as well, right? He's got like some of that spider verse frame rate going And then yeah, then we got into a couple scenes with tomorrow and rainy Just

The most just the Kojima names we're really getting to experience a career being defined as how far can a creative go in a situation where no one is even imagining the case of telling them no. Right? Eventually Kojumbo's going to release like Megalopolis and you're going to be like Kojumbo's gonna release like Megalopolis. And you're gonna be like, Kojumbo's gone too far. Has he? Or is it never enough?

Is it never enough? It might never be enough. He spent an entire career building up the momentum to never be told no. Why start now? And yes, I heard that thing is insane. I'm curious. We are rapidly approaching where the phrase,

Kojima is a genius, may or may not be farce, depending on who you're talking to. Because like, Doll Man, oh my God. Yeah. I can see a situation in which someone is going, I can't believe how incredible doll man is and then either like making fun of doll man or actually being legitimate about doll man But has he missed

Yeah There's there's some misses I have some definite qualms qualms qualms qualms is fair qualms is fair has he missed I don't think he has missed and because of that he gets to continue doing whatever the fuck he wants That's it. That's why You know that's that's exactly it trust there is always qualms, but he has not missed That's it man. yeah, that's why When are they gonna show off snake man and elect man and Guts man for death stranding to hey, I like I think it's cool that heart man can fall anywhere anytime and be okay

They gave him a little catch suit to be like when he's about to when his heart shuts down He gets like frozen and out of the exoskeleton saves him Mm-hmm. It's great And let's see who who gets to drop the Oscar-winning performance this time around you know I Did not think it was going to be fucking diehard man. I really didn't. Right at the end, just, oh.

At least this time around, I know when I see these little moments happen, like you have that moment where fragile, she kinda goes like, yes, now I'm only fragile in name only, and then the little hands light her own Cigarette and then the tear comes down, you know Or like heart man like collects the tear and puts it into it and I'm like right now You know don't stop and try to figure out any of that

Because even in the moment with contexts you will still not understand nor will you ever let it rock you might let's all You will still not understand nor will you ever let it rock you might let's all let's all take a step back and remember The reason why the enemies and Evangelion are angels is because I know thought it sounded cool That's it yeah Christian mythology don't think too hard. It's cuz angels is a cool name. That's it Any time like Christian mythology still holds power over folks, and so when you fuck with it, it's like, woo! You know, it's the same thing in like SMT worlds, or any of these games, right? You, woo! There's a little naughty, little, ooh! To it. Lucifer, oh! You know what I think is different about Kojima?

He'll never admit that it's only in the game because he thinks it's cool. Like, you know, you know that's why. But like, I'm looking at a screenshot of Tarr Man right now, right? And there's a Tarr Cat. There's like a magic Tarr Cat with Tarr Man. And why is the Tarr Cat there?

I bet you anything, it's because he saw a black cat with somebody put a Halloween decoration on him, and he was like, what if that was made out of magical tar? Oh, cool, but then he will start telling you about the fucking stick and the dinosaurs and all the fucking oil and shit. Because black cats are important to Egyptian lore. I could throw this, I could throw something.

It's lies, it's like because there's he comes up with that shit after because the link between cats and Egyptian lore when we go back we know that they have been sacred animals and they do the more and more convinced that he is writing his stories backwards. I don't think he has to, I don't think he has to explain it or I don't think he has to admit it because from day one it was like, yo do you want to be fucking Kurt Russell shooting at a Mecca? I do. That's it! Remember that movie?

That was cool. So like it's self-explanatory, right? Is this, like we talked about this? Well, well, and then in the middle of doing that if you can learn a thing or two about muff Then you're like, whoa real politics and real, you know FMBs? I didn't expect that! That makes me feel like this is more cool because he also It's like those guys that are like super into like the simulated Gunplay stuff in Japan where they get like the really really realistic pellet

Yeah, you know and it's like you're not gonna have real guns, but you can get really really close with these pellet guns though You know and just drilling that shit is like that's the fun in and of itself the simulation of it It's that it's one the cool robot thing has actual application and or resemble some real tech somewhere that you get that extra fucking geek boner going. It's overwhelmingly so. This feels like I encounter it anyway more with Japanese writers where the three that come to mind is Kojima, Araki, and whoever writes the fucking Zero Escape games where there's like a moment where they just pull back and go... Ushikochi? Maybe. I'm not familiar with their name but like they pull the camera back and go, you guys

want to talk about this stuff I read on Wikipedia last night? Did you know that Singapore is named after the lion? Did you know that shit is named after the lion? Did you know that shit? It's crazy. And then how do I take this wiki dive from tonight and last night and find a fucking pun for them? It's bordering on catchphrase for me now whenever I encounter this where I utter the phrase, have you ever heard of the Philadelphia experiment?

It really is though. I think, I think I nailed it though. When like at the very least, the part that's like obsessed with puns is because in Japanese, the multiple readings of words is a huge part of life. Yeah, it's a thing. It's a linguistic change and it's a cultural trope. It's humor. There can be jokes with the spelling of a name being read two ways, but there could also be philosophical meaning in, you know, this- Like, think about it. This is the shittiest example I can think of I think of ninja guidance II Yiba a Fucking title that means nothing to non-japanese speeders speakers sure means nothing at all

Sure until you find out that the word ya by means bad It doesn't mean bad yeah Guiden but the ninja is bad. Ah you can't Yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, there you go right yes Yeah, it's a metaphor. Thank you, Chet. It's a minute No, it really is just like it's looking at the English language and going how can we have multiple readings on this kanji? And it's like but there are none, Kedeo. Alright well then I'm gonna do it in English in the bluntest most insane way possible.

And we're like you mean the things we do in like fucking grade three? Yes, that is what I'm doing. Because I am a genius. Did you like it? I kinda liked it. Now listen to me. Did you like it? I kinda liked it. Now listen to me. Like a lot of the English characters names feel like they're deeper than they are when you're talking about it in a non-english language. Why is he called Die Hardman? Well, you see, there's a movie called Die Hard.

I was gonna say, it's not because I watched a Bruce Willis movie one time. Certainly not. It has something to do with gourds, actually. Yeah, definitely. The stick! The stick and the rope! Um... I can't fucking wait. You combine a stick and a rope and you know what you get? A harpoon! And you know what you use to kill harpoons with? Ocean animals. And the thing is, last time you were still, if you, amongst all that bullshit, you were

still just saving the world from nuclear apocalypse while fucking defeating robots and fighting cool dudes with superpowers. And now you're just fucking trucking. You're trucking and parcel delivery. We trucking out here with ghosts. Like Death Stranding is Dracula flow like parable, like stanza. You would think the gameplay would be the most complex insane action narrative thing ever and it's just nah ropes zip lines. Nah dude cuz cuz human connection persists throughout even the most bizarre and outlandish of

circumstance and people are always gonna need diapers and iPods so you got to get out there and truck it till there ain't no more ghosts. Also I would say that getting through those games, getting through Death Stranding, the horror, first the whole thing felt very horror, right? Because you're like the invisible fucking Satan zombies are gonna grab me and float me into the sky.

I better kill myself before they take me, right? That's proper horror and like now you're like, oh, we know the rules We know the end of Death Stranding the ghosts that are auto-kill nightmare ghosts from beyond the pale are like Like a construction up ahead sign. So like they're like they're banal exactly You know, and so I think we just have to keep everything as weird as possible because like when the scary is not there anymore, the weird is still like you're still reacting to it as opposed to having no reaction at all. You know, if this played off of more like scary threatening,

InvisiGhosts that we are not afraid of anymore, it wouldn't have the same hit as like, what the fuck is, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, I feel like he has to keep it weird to keep us reacting to it. Bro, Death Stranding has like a really special place in my heart because

it's one of the only games Kojima put out in which like one of the parts of the core themes is was like disproven within months of the game's release. Because scientists were actually actually there was a bonus extinction. There was there was another one. And so like that. But then, but deeper than that is like, I completely disagreed with the game's core theme to the point where I got like soft locked during one of the game's final encounters.

I feel like Kojima is almost the ultimate example of like the belief that art is anything that elicits a reaction in you Yeah It's the ultimate version of that Oh absolutely You have to feel something Are you feeling things? Anything

I'm feeling confusion Good Ah art Yes Amazing Is that confusion scary? Do you feel like a rope or a stick? What? Dude? Good, good, good, good, good. Like, oh, yeah, no, yeah, right. Fucking zoned right in on it. You know, like where other people are waiting and love it when their audience goes fuck. Yeah

Hideo loves when you go what? He gets a lot, but I get it the key he gets off on people going what I Thought I deactivated it loves it Loves that response. Oh God, all right That's Stranding 2 on the beach beach full of- hey before we move on i'm actually going to take another bathroom break if that's all right beach full of sandy that all aside um yeah state of play had a number of announcements had a number of announcements as well and uh there's a lot we can point out the things that are no more anything I don't remember anything that's weird

sorry for remaster I actually like that yeah we touched on that ghost of Yotai. Oh, you mean Ghost of Woke? Ghost of Woke-ass shit ruined in video games? Pretty cool. I'm curious about... I like that we're jumping forward in time. Three hundred years. Uh, different location. We'll see what's going on. New stuff. I liked it. That's cool. Do we have to do this every time? Is this forever?

This might be forever. I kind of hate that this is forever now. It fucking sucks that it's just forever. I don't have the wherewithal, man. Okay, so I brought this up very, very briefly right before the podcast and well, they just said basically what he just said right now. And I was like, but not actually because this nonsense is actually starting to already cannibalize itself. And to me, there is a before and after in the ongoing woke-ification and ruination of all video games, and that is Space Marine 2 hitting the too-woke Steam curator list. That is the turning point where it is now like,

there's no criteria anything could ever meet that would make these people happy. So, Willie, you haven't played Space Marine and you're not super familiar with 40K. 40K is like fascist jerk-off propaganda for the God Emperor of mankind God Emperor of mankind yeah it is it is it is so over-the-top that like cleanse the hair did you watch 40k painting videos hope your recommendations don't fill up with great replacement theory video like tutorial. Cleanse the heretics, you know, for the glory of mankind. Yeah,

yeah, absolutely. Right. And so it's like this we're like maybe a year away from every single game to ever release going on these types of lists. We're never gonna go back. It's never gonna go back. And like these people are just gonna get angrier and angrier and angrier and angrier as the world ceases to cater to them. Yeah, I guess.

I don't know how big are those Russian paychecks, man? What's going on? And the part that gets really funny is that I don't even want to use their name because I don't want to invoke their power. But one of the worst people about this nonsense actually really likes Ghost of Tsushima and wants to play Ghost of Yote, but the monster they have created does not allow them to be excited for Ghost of Yote. Because their social media presence is filled with people going no

No, this thing's everything is wrong and they're like, well, it actually is kind of cool though I'm like no and it's like you created this for yourself. You've narrowed it down so tight that nothing upfits in the definition You know, I mean like I guess you get to watch the, get to watch them keep that same energy on release and or play it angrily while frowning.

I think we are on the cusp of these guys playing woke games in the closet. Because the gameplay is sick. And then and like and like, like someone mentioning the main characters name or detail on the story of Ghost of Yote and people like, how do you know that? You play those woke games? Cl games closet closet woke is wild oh man yeah and then and then like let's all just stand let's just all sit here and like hug ourselves and feel the warmth of the countdown to a comment, either on this clip that you're going to put up or the podcast itself or a quote tweet of the podcast going, why can't

we just go back to the good old days of non-political video games like Metal Gear Solid and just fucking all that warmth, that fucking that heat bubbling up in your chest you know I like these rage against the machine guys should really just stick to the music you know it's those are the two right those are like the the funniest ones or like or like a system of the down is the other one. System of the down, yeah. It's just, it's just, it's just this like, it's this increasingly narrow worldview and it's like It's never gonna go back and also it wasn't even how it was

It's just it's just the first thing before I even knew the game existed was You know ghost of woke Tae or whatever and I was like, oh they announced this fucking hilarious They announced the Tsushima sequel, did they? That's cool, I guess. What's the issue this time? You know? Ohhhhh man, yeah. It's also doing that thing where the misogyny is getting so intense that it's coming off like incredibly gay. How so? Ugh, gross! Women! We just need games for men with men in them doing man stuff ah

I see I see Yeah, I mean The part that is always though in the back of my brain is that little thing that it's like okay But also if I say the dumbest shit now I can make some money on it. Right? Like there's the trick, right? There's the direct incentive to say the dumbest shit. So like if you were to go to jail now for some kind of crime, like some kind of like drug related or horrible sex scandal, you could just say, Hey, listen, man, actually, it was the secret shadow government that was

out to get me because I'm too fucking based you want some fucking nutrients and vitamin pills they're trying to stop me yeah yeah yeah yeah well anyway hey there's a a Ghost of Tsushima sequel. Cool, it's called Ghost of Yote, which first off, great naming convention, that's gonna go a while. Good job. It takes place in Hokkaido 300 years later. And it takes place in a time period in which that part of Japan wasn't Japan.

Yep. Yep. It was just the wilderness up north. Yeah, and I think too, we've been getting inundated with samurai games, but I feel... Well, actually, we're being inundated with one less samurai game in the near future. Oh You have the Assassin's Creed shit on the docket no what happened Oh Assassin's Creed shadow cancelled its TGS appointments and its show and is being delayed out to the end of February. Oh I Missed that I see

I Missed that I see So they they waited 17 years so that they could release in the year of the sequel to their competitor And fucking and team ninja wasn't too long ago either Yeah, no, they had a 17 year head start only for them to be sprinting past compliance failure to third place. I mean, it's, yeah, like they actually got there,

I suppose, but it's just surprising that they even did bother. The, what was I saying? Oh, yeah, so we are being inundated with samurai games, but the ghosts, I guess, this thing is just the fucking... just do you want to ride a horse through a flower field? Dude. Do you want to just have the wind at your back and let that rock with no huck? I want the wind at my back. Yeah. That's this one.

That's what I want. That's what this one is about. Yeah.'s that's that's what I want. That's what this one is about Yeah, and and that's clearly the they know that that's you know what else I want I want Mount Fuji in the fucking distance. I want to see Mount Fuji there So that but didn't they so they said Mount in the description hold on because they said it wasn't Mount Fuji But I'm like, but that's a big mountain. I don't give a shit. Yeah mountain. I live there I was like it's we're looking at a mountain. That's not Mount Fuji. It's Mount Yotai, you know Oh, whatever. Give me that give me that Yotai mountain as a as a herd tree I didn't yeah, I didn't know that there was a yeah exactly that you could that hope I know

I didn't know the Japan had more than one mountain. I'm sorry And it's snow capped and everything in the same kind of way and yes, it is basically a nerd tree, but yeah That is a Mount woke Why is that mountain so fucking woke, bro? Oh man, it's always fun to like see the exact like needle just pow. I've described, I think I talked about how like I remember breaking it down to me one time in conversation or just like it's really simple. You take one thing really simple you take one

thing and then you take another thing that has nothing to do with that thing but it has a vague link to it and then the link itself is not funny it's tenuous it's the thing that comes next to both of those things and linking these two that's the gold It's not layer one. It's the second Right yeah, it's the mountain itself being called It is worth it is pretty good Anyway all right good Anyway all right So yeah, um that you know not much to say besides looks pretty that's it. It's coming And that that game will be hot you get guns exist now Yeah, yeah, and I

Mean literally any weapons that were invented from the year 12,000 to 1600 which is a bunch definitely And then yeah a couple other things they showed What was it fear the spotlight That looked pretty cool looked interesting kind of had a I was a look at kind kinda similar art style choices to Crow Country a little bit, but like yeah, just third person angle on it, but yeah, seemed like an interesting survival horror concept going on there.

Dynasty Warriors Origins, which is like part tactical game? Sure. Apparently. You know what? Sure. Dynasty Warriors, another one. Yeah. Free DLC for Astro Bot. That's cool.

Dragon Age, The Veil Guard. So, do you want to hear something funny about Dragon Age, Veil Guard, Woolie? So I took a quick look at that trailer and I saw it was like a big dragon fight. And I was like, oh, that's way more action-y than I thought fantasy Mass Effect would look. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense for the context. I think it was funny that when I was talking about that trailer, I was like, I remember

Dragon Age Origins where if you fought a dragon It was like an apocalyptic nightmare and there's too many dragons in these new games And then as I said that a second dragon showed up in that fight in that trailer and I'm like, yeah, it's too many dragons That game comes out on October 31st comes out on Halloween Which is the same day the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster comes out. I heard. I saw that.

I saw that. It was like, yeah, the Horizon curse continues. But my only thing this time around is like, well, hold on a minute. That's not Elden Ring. You know what I mean? Yeah, but it's also just a remaster. Okay. Yeah, but it's also just a remaster. Okay, but like is Dragon Age like

I mean the impact of what Horizon fought. This is probably the most Handleable of those bad decision. No, it's a remaster man. It's a re-release It's a re-release going up against what might be BioWare's first good game in like 30 years. Okay, that was...see there's an embellishment. Okay, I think I think I think I didn't fully know what the bit was. I thought the bit was every time Horizon comes out, it gets dropped on the same day as like some monster of a game. Yeah, no, that is correct. Dragon Age is a monster compared to regular, regular, Horizon, let alone a remaster. Okay, okay. Despite the fact that neither of these games have had any cultural impact at all,

Despite the fact that neither of these games have had any cultural impact at all, Dragon Age has actually sold a really crazy amount of copies. And is there big excitement for this one? Because I thought it seemed... Everything feels very tentative. Everything feels low expectation, high hopes. I don't... I'm like, vibe check into the ether right now. Doesn't seem to be big excitement for a cool new Dragon Age game coming that will look like the best parts of the ones they remember.

I think there is a huge, huge spot for the first big RPG to come out after Baldur's Gate 3. And that spot is going to metaphor. Out October 11th! That's next week! There's a free demo! Your progress will carry over! Anyway, what was Bioware's last release? I literally don't even know.

I don't know. Scroll, scroll, scroll... It was not Anthem. There's no- Shut up! Scroll, scroll, scroll, come on. No way! Come on, come on, come on. Dragon Age of the Veil Guard Mass Effect Legendary Edition Anthem there's no scroll scroll scroll come no way come on come on come on Dragon Age the Veil Guard Mass Effect Legendary Edition Anthem okay wow wow yeah no they need a they need a they need a hit they need a hit bro wow this

is a really good example of me and you talking about how games take too long to come out because the things that people care about for Bioware are 10 years in the past. It was Inquisition into Shadow Realms, which then got canceled into Andromeda into Anthem. When's the last time Bioware put out a game that people cared about? Like, like in their chest? Like, people like Inquisition. I'm gonna be kind. Uh, well, that was 2014. That's ten years ago. That was 2014.

Okay, what about a game that everyone loved? That was... Mass Effect 3, 2012? That was Mass Effect 2 2012 that was Mass Effect 2 in 2010 2011 so the last time BioWare put out a game that was like a fucking dunk was 2010 on the Xbox 360 bro if Dragon Age and Mass Effect 4 don't do like big numbers that company is going to die so check immediately underneath you know you get Mass Effect 3, and then you get Warhammer Online, Wrath of Heroes, cancelled.

Command and Conquer, Generals 2, cancelled. That hurts. I wanted that. Inquisition, in 2014. Shadow Realms, cancelled, 2015. Andromeda, 2017. Anthem, 2019. So boy. 2015, Andromeda 2017, Anthem 2019. So I want to point out that Dragon Age Inquisition won Game of the Year at the Game Awards the

year it came out and everyone was like, what? But more importantly, in an interview with somebody who worked on Inquisition, they described Inquisition winning game of the year as the worst thing that has ever happened to Bioware. And I don't know if you remember that interview. No, certainly not. So Inquisition was the height of what's called Bioware magic. The Bioware magic, yeah. AKA.

Where it's all going to come together in the last six months. And there was a lot of staff on there that were like, thank God when this bombs They're finally gonna have to change how they run this company And that sold 12 million copies of the year. Okay. Okay. And then as a result they described it This is the worst thing that has ever happened to Bioware because Bioware magic became thing that has ever happened to Bioware because Bioware magic became like deified and that's how we got Anthem and that's how we got Andromeda. The antularian technique. Yeah.

Hey, this looks like shit. Don't worry. Right when you put that last batch of salt in right at the end, it's all going to come together. Kaboom. Yeah. Okayoom. Yeah, okay. Man, all right.

So, because I'm like, that's it. I was like, what I... I feel like the love for the best parts of Dragon Age is not being conveyed in the zeitgeist for the best parts of Dragon Age is the shittiest thing you could ever show in a trailer or gameplay presentation. The best parts of Dragon Age are like links the relationship. Hey, you seem like a weird fantasy alien. Do you want to talk about your weird dick? Yeah okay banging everything okay mass effect will literally never peak harder than talking to that Alcor and that Volus in your fucking office it was so good it was primed your brain for a universe of possibilities

Where the races were all so unique and interesting and so different from anything you would ever seen I didn't think you were gonna react with a breathless agreement Oh my god that room dude it sets your expectations so high so high They're the most interesting things man and to learn number number two for that series is like the three Conversations you get to have with Legion Everything Legion says in mass effect 2 is the most interesting thing in that game well, so well Well, no, I mean the the the interesting thing in that game well so well um well no I mean the

the the sovereign conversation in one oh yes we're good sovereign well sovereign's conversation is so good it kind of ruined that series of never delivered again it never never never never delivered it never got back it couldn't you couldn't possibly we've done this the unknown right but it's no it's the it's the moment that you go, the reason why the L-Core are so slow is because they have to make decisions about not falling to their death on their planet

full of fucking cracks and crevices. And that affects their politics and their behavior. And also they have to enunciate their fucking emotions. It's just so interesting. It's like, I've never encountered a race like this at all. And everything has feels so well thought out in this one conversation that you're like, man, if this is the universe, holy shit. And yeah, and then they're like, they're like bitching and complaining that they're two to an office and the human delegation

that's only been around for 60 years has a bigger office and now that's complete fucking bullshit and they're right it's total bullshit never again never again man when I you know like telling people about that game when I had only played the first one that's like one of the first things I bring up about it oh yeah dude you know about like you know there's this race where and then you go into the Alcor shit.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, anyway, so that yeah. So that's why I guess that energy or lack thereof is why I was like, oh, well, I guess this time around, the horizon thing is not as big a deal because it doesn't seem like anyone's particularly looking at this Dragon Age thing like it's going to be comparable to the other shit Horizon had to find. People would be really happy to have a good Bioware game come out.

People would be, I would, I would be really, really happy to play a good Bioware game. Yeah, but I mean, isn't that Torch past? You know? Did we not, like, is- We will see- Baldur's Gate 3 is- We will see in 31 days. Like, it fully, as an outsider here feels on Dragon Age Dragon Age

Was not made by people who made both the Baldur's Gate one and two and it was really good and Baldur's Gate three was not made by the people who made BG one and two and it was really good Someone says fully I got one more in me okay all right I understand it's been ten years I get it I I understand the I've got one more in me if sentiment if this game is any worse than like an eight out of ten get ready for the most violent doom and gloom perspective on Mass Effect 4 you've ever seen for anything. Like just legions of people just be like, who even gives a shit? Just rolling their eyes going, whatever, I don't even fucking care anymore. I hope that the new Mass Effect takes place in The

Mess. Or Themes. I think that they're gonna show off a Mass Effect 4 trailer and they're gonna be like, Shepard I can't believe you survived. And I'm going to just turn that stream off and walk away. And I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna just go lie down, install, install and lie down. I Cannot conceivably imagine anything that could be more disappointing Well anyway Good good times um yo hell is us. What the fuck was that? That was that was that looks interesting That was that was that looks interesting

It was a trailer with a dude in like a raincoat and like a sword with lights and weird Kojima visuals It was very strait. It was a strand game. It's a strand souls game. It was a a strand game called hell is us and I don't know what I was looking at but it looked very cool. That's Dark Souls but it's got a cool aesthetic. And apparently the company behind it made some Warhammer games prior. Okay what's the company let's see hell is us created by rogue factor and rogue factor developed made Mordheim City of the Damned Necromunda under hive wars I was sponsored to play that it was fine so this is way different from those is very different from that yeah, okay

Yeah, no just artistic visually interesting We'll see what the you know what it turns out to be but like it is it is a Looks like they're attempting a break and yeah, you know some souls looking things too, but Eyebrow raised interest piqued And yeah, you know, some souls looking things too, but eyebrow raised, interest peaked. The Midnight Walk seemed interesting as well, just kind of like a little cute platformer. Again, all art style design carrying that. Very much so. And then, you know, Power World at PS5 It's really funny to see the Sony being like we love power world while Nintendo's suing them

Great timing great timing Bunch of VR shit who cares and Shredders revenge DLC cool Mona Lisa and Mondo Gecko Yeah, I don't suppose Got that new hot horizon news, it's not part of the state of play. What was it? Oh, well, let's be let me pull up my My Information on horizon pull up my my information on Horizon. Let's see.

Gorilla Games is next project is reportedly the live service Horizon online project with Bloomberg saying Horizon 3 might be a ways off Fresh off a Concord. Hey, man. Do you want to play an online live service? Maybe MMO of horizon everyone's favorite industry plant This franchise Continues so it's making money. I'm assuming. All right, let's let's let's do this let's let's figure this out Horizon sales because the horizon sales numbers are actually quite high. It continues to exist and like it I'm assuming that this thing is somehow is just background successful I just I'm just not checking it out. So Horizon Zero Dawn has sold across all skews 24 million copies. Okay.

Which is very significant. Yes. What was God of War, for example, 1 and 2? Oh, that's a great question. Because that would be a nice comparison. Which one? God of War 2018? Yeah.

Yeah. I think that would be a nice... God of War 2018 sold 23 million. Okay. Okay. So it's approximately as big as God of War. Yeah, the main difference here is The bundles are being included in this number Cheeky sneaky But there's a lot of bundles that come with Horizon. As a result, it is impossible to tell the real numbers.

It's impossible. Oh man. Duck Hunt is one of the most influential games of all time So I played about halfway through Horizon Zero Dawn and I played a couple hours of Forbidden West. They're really good extremely well made slick cool games They they they're they're not fake. They're not bad, they're excellent. However, everything in the world has conspired to make them feel fake.

So they always release in the shadow of a game that totally dominates culture for months, right? Like Horizon Zero Dawn got like a week and a half to for people talk about it's before Breath of the Wild just dominated everyone's social media for a year. The joke is that it's always your second choice. Right? Elden Ring did the exact same thing to Forbidden West. I played Forbidden West like the week or two before Elden Ring. It was really solid. And I went, who cares though? Elden Ring's coming out across the map. So they're solid, but like you don't see the cultural, like everyone's talking about Horizon because it's exclusive, but also because something else just absorbs it, right? So that combined with the bundle thing, nobody knows if this shit is

popular or not. I assume they do fairly well, but they just make no impact, which is weird because they're in Genshin Impact and they're in Monster Hunter and they're in like Aloids crossed over with a bunch of stuff. And I also think the giving it the PC for the original version treatment is like you do that for games that you think are going to sell well that you can advertise the later one coming out. Right? So it's strange.

It's really, really strange and forced everyone's second favorite game does not feel like the kind of thing that is rife for live service monetization forced franchise yeah well I mean hey man Chinatown Wars Wei Shen that's what you want to play online Sleeping dogs, baby Yeah It's yeah, it's it's weird to hear that. That's what they're doing with it because again. I just I Didn't know how successful it was until you read those numbers off right now But I do keep hearing about it, and it does keep releasing and re-releasing so it must be doing you know what? You know what we can check

Horizon Forbidden West Steam We can check the Steam charts or which Sony has no fucky-wucky control over Um is can you check is there a way to see DLC for example? I don't I don't know those numbers are all super hidden But like if you could check something like that that'd be like so the all-time peak for horizon forbidden West on Steam is about 40k and as an average of about 4k

And I don't I realized upon looking this up. I don't know how that compares to other single player games. But it's still a PC port. It's a PC port that's asymmetrically released. Yeah. I don't think it's going to be as informative. No, it's got to be on release, you know, for that to actually be real. People are, so people in the chat who would know better than me. Oh, you know, let's compare it to Ragnarok. Ragnarok also just came out. That'll do it. Horizon, sorry, God of War, Ragnarok, Steam numbers, right? What's the all-time peak? For God of War Ragnarok. God of War Ragnarok a 35,000 player peak. So it looks like, and a 24 peak was 22, players right now 16. So

it looks like Horizon and God of War are like approximately the same. Counterpoint, it's funny to call Horizon a Psy-op. It's it's it's listen. You wanna you wanna you wanna get that's what I'm gonna do. You wanna get deep in the Psy-op nonsense. You wanna get in there. Let's get in there. All right. Do you remember when Horizon Zero? Sorry, when her right fuck? I hate the naming series of this fucking franchise. Do you remember when Horizon For horizon forbidden West came out and dudes were like why Aloy so fucking ugly why she looked like a man?

What if she looked like this and used like the AI whatsapp filter to fucking yesify her to have like Fucking big lipstick and fucking mascara and eyeshadow you remember that photo. Yeah version two of what they did for mirrors edge, okay? Alloy got the faith treatment Right so and everyone was like that's ridiculous that's stupid well, sir They've released a comparison of horizon zero dawn and horizon zero Dawn's remastered what? And it looks like this

It's a fighter! They put it on! Ah, damn, they actually did it, huh? Okay. They actually fucking did it. That's pretty funny. And then there's like, because I mean, there's things I don't know. I'm like, why did Peter change, for example, right? I don't know what that was about.

I don't know if that was ever explained. You know exactly what it was about. So it could look like Tom Holland. is that it? That's literally it. Oh Okay All right But it's not exactly though, but it's close enough So people don't feel confused that the character is Spider-Man compared to the Spider-Man on the TV.

Oh man, okay. Goddamn. Okay. And then here they actually went and did the fucking... Oh, that's great. That's great. I like that. Yeah, no, Horizon is...

It's the Killzone devs like they do good stuff. And like those games are really well made. I really enjoyed the time I had with Horizon that I stopped playing the day that Breath of the Wild came out. And I really enjoyed my time with Forbidden West until the day Elden Ring came out. Midwest until the day Elden Ring came out. Yeah. Like that's that's just how it is. Okay. Well, Horizon Gas then. Horizon Gas. See, the gas thing is different because people who play gas games are already playing their gas game

of choice. Possibly a their gas game of choice. Possibly a free gas game of choice. Yes. Probably. So like, I think it's really brave that Guerrilla felt like confident enough to announce World of Warcraft 2 coming out in a couple of years as the thing that will drop on top of their game the day of release. Can anything that's live service and not free survive at all?

Absolutely. There are two that can. World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy and those games still have giant free trials that get you in for free for a while yes until you eventually have to pay I was they will they will put the hook in for free to the point where in my brain they're not free games but they kind of are because you get to spend so much time depending how fast you play those games you could totally get into a Situation in which you'd never catch up. Yeah true destiny destiny destiny to and stuff was like a Well, it was one of those that's true. That's true. Okay

Let's take some letters Hey, if you want to send in a letter send to castle super beast mail at gmail.com That's castle super beast mail at gmail.com That's castle super beast mail at gmail.com, but hold on a second Make sure you're Make sure your letters aren't too woke or we may not read them. Oh boy You make sure that letter is based if you fucking send in woke mail bro, like I don't even see it You can't even see it. It's gone

Yeah, I know the yakuza like a dragon trailer came out on that flex doesn't look very good I saw that didn't have time to look at it, but it looks fine. It looks okay All right time to look at it but looks it looks fine it looks okay all right we got one coming in over here from James who says hello castle superbeast male back when Blizzard made good games and their standards were it's released when it's ready copies of their games came with what were called spawn versions that I remember this there were versions of the game with less features that didn't require a CD key to run for the purpose of allowing owners to play multiplayer with their friends without copies.

I recall a few games for the portable Nintendo consoles that allowed a similar feature. Certain GBA games let multiplayer with a single cartridge as long as you connected the link cables, and Nintendo games had an install that you could put on other DSs via Wi-Fi to play multiplayer. Any other examples of this type of design that you recall? I doubt that modern companies will practice this kind of permitting multiplayer with only a single copy, but do you think it should continue to become a more common or recent thing with current games? So the only thing I can think of in modern context is those are all great examples and I remember all of those. I did all of those with my friends. I had the DS copies that you would send via, you know, the, um, that to install for like multiplayer and the spawn keys on Starcraft and shit. We did all of that. When steam had the buddy bundles where you'd buy one game, but you get a second version that you could do. There's a very rare type of steam game that does that, so it takes two and a way out,

and Frozen Synapse all come as double copies. Those are great, and those are the only things I can think of in a modern context that are willing to do that with you. I don't know that there's anything else that would. The family system is like a platform kind of element. It's cool. I like the family account system. It's good Yeah

But something that's more along the lines of I'm encouraging you to get a friend and give them like a way to play with you This thing that's kind of gone by the wayside. Yeah, that's gone by the wayside because instead it's like the game itself is free But all the features that you would actually care about are paid. Mm-hmm, right? Yeah Jackbox does always have that grab your phone and play thing to it. There is that element, I suppose. I think it's interesting that the most famous example of this business practice was not mentioned in the email,

which is Doom. Doom's shareware, knee deep in the dead, the first full episode of Doom was fucking free. It was just out and about around, came in on demo discs. You could just get it. And then at the end of Knee Deep in the Dead, it's like, dude, did you think this was cool? Fucking send a letter to us at id Software and we'll send you the fucking rest of the two episodes in the mail Share where yeah, yeah, yeah, just give it to your friends. It's a demo go do whatever spread it around

I'm like doom got to do it because when you play doom and if you play doom in 1993 was it to 93? Doom in 1993? Was it 1993? You were just like, oh my fucking God, this is the fucking future. There's never been anything like this. Yeah, I'll mail a fucking check to some company to get two more episodes of this. I might be misremembering, but I think like Advance Wars on the original GBA had the No, I think it had link cable like a

Download to you like like soft version of the game But it also of course had just turn based like pass it around right so I believe you could play either or in that Yeah, man that shit was awesome in that Yeah, man, that shit was awesome. I Somebody people in the chat are pointing out the Delta rune is actually doing the shareware Oh, yeah thing first version episodes one and two have been completely free But the next batch of episodes are gonna be paid Damn copy it on top. Also people are saying it might release on Halloween. Please don't

I believe don't The willy you don't understand in my skeleton based household life is over When Delta room comes out I see I see You you don't You don't understand I feel like So far each chapter has been like a decent afternoon though. They're not that hard to Yeah, except chapter 2 was significantly longer than chapter 1 It was means chapter 3 will be significantly longer than chapter 2 and chapter 4 will be significant etc

I think of Phoenix Wright as a as a decent example Dylan from gotcha house says hey Pat and wooly a few weeks ago Honkai star rail released version 2.5 and that came out with a powerful new character called fex. I owe fey fey shall That's probably how you pronounce that. I'm gonna go with fey shall Fei Xiao. That's probably how you pronounce that. I'm going to go with Fei Xiao. After a few days of theory crafting, people have concluded that the best team composes of Fei Xiao, Aventurine, Robin, and Topaz.

Now popularly known as the F.A.R.T. team. People are upset that their new waifu is being regarded as the fart queen. This rules. I didn't know where this was going. This rules. No real question. Just wanted to give you this knowledge. You know what? Thanks.

Thanks. That's awesome. It reminds me of people who get super mad when you call Shadowheart shart. Shart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like just super mad. Hey man, Fart's meta. What are you gonna do? Fart Queen is meta. What are you gonna do? We're in the fart meta now. I'm out!