Castle Super Beast - CSB312: Bad Things Happen When Jars Are Involved

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Download for Mobile | Podcast Preview | Full Timestamps Metaphor Refantazio Spoilercast (ends at 1:15:52) 1000x Generational Trauma You Never Want to Hear English Coming Out of the Kitchen Split Fiction: Hazelight Has Yet To Miss Ranking Devil Triggers Watch live: twitch.tv/castlesuperbeast Go to http://shopify.com/superbeast to sign up for your $1-per-month trial period. [FATAL FURY: CotW] Open beta #2 incoming!📢This time, the man with the griffon mask, Tizoc, joins the playable roster for a grand total of 9 fighters!🐺...But that's not all! TRAINING MODE will also be available! I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream - Console Announcement Trailer | Nightdive Studios Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM has announced its next game, espionage RPG Project C4 SILENT HILL f | Official Reveal Trailer (4K: EN/ESRB) | KONAMI Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine III announced GodOfWar showrunner Ronald D. Moore confirms two seasons are greenlit at Amazon - He tried to play the games but stopped when he couldn't figure out modern controllers — "I'm not a gamer" Sony's making a new Starship Troopers film, separately from its Helldivers 2 movie Square Enix sues dev they hired to make new Front Mission game that they canceled who released a mech game using assets/game design from canceled game Ubisoft reportedly considering fresh business to own Assassin's Creed and other big franchises, co-owned by others like Tencent

["Sailor Moon Theme"] Hello. Did you beat metaphor? I beat metaphor. Can we talk about metaphor? Yeah, can we talk about metaphor? Alright, hold on, metaphor all right hold on hold on hold on Okay, let's go All right everyone we're gonna talk about metaphor refantasio

Here comes the spoiler cast so I cannot believe that That the main villain hold on hold on hold on hold on give them a second to leave give them a second give them a second to leave this is a very big game that that literally you're the only person I know that actually beat it everyone I know that plays these games it's long it's very very long so people shit people that I know love these games still need a minute to get through it. It takes so long. So yes

And that was because I like went Super hard on it I would do like a fucking six hour stream and then I would help put the baby to bed and then Fucking go back at like 10 30 p.m And I do until like 2 in the morning and I was going at what I felt was like a reasonable push For this especially for this week and it was still the insane Atlas we are never letting you go You know vibe and and so anyway, so let's you know

It's really funny about that vibe is that it does feel like it is a marathon But like you look at the dates and like oh, it's four months Yeah, I guess it'll be like way shorter But what I what I actually feel and that like, you know, Punch-Mom came through and was like, did you beat it yet? And I was like, no, that wasn't that wasn't even, you know, that wasn't even the beginning of the farewell tour. It's like RPGs are, you know, every genre has gone through the thing where, you know, people that have been playing them their entire lives need higher and higher bars set for each entry.

And now if you're not splitting it into three giant, giant things, you get this kind of like persona bar where atlas RPGs are going to just be more and more. And like to recommend this, it's a very good game to tell people that you're gonna be spending minimum 100 hours. Right? This is a great Christmas present game.

It's so demanding of your time. And for this to be going into adulthood where responsibilities mean you have less and less time is nuts. It's nuts that the group of people that were like, I have a ton of time and I'm in high school or I'm in college, you know, that we were playing like Persona a while ago, are now who's buying these things but you have less time than ever, but they have to hit a bar that's higher than ever of your time.

It's so long. The ultimate like game as length argument that I can think of right now is that if I got a video game for Christmas and it was the one video game would that last me my entire Christmas break I mean right atlas games will okay and then some so okay so here's the thing to play it at the breakneck speeds that like I'd say you make it through or like shmup god pat this is the fastest I've ever played a game it's unhealthy it's an unhealthy

amount required right no Elden ring was the fastest okay and here's the thing consider somebody who who has like a job that is not able to play video games as part of that job yeah it's unreasonable it's unreasonable for someone to work a normal. Let's do the math on this. The average person after work or whatever is gonna have a fucking what, an hour, two hours of like video game time a day. If they wanted to dedicate that time

in their life to video game, right? Yeah, when I was trying to get through stuff, that would be a realistic depiction of it, I'd say for me. Or there was I was trying to get through stuff, that would be a realistic depiction of it, I'd say for me. Or there was friends who liked to crush achievements, get through everything. They'd be able to put in three, sometimes even four if they stayed up late. Okay, but let's say you get an hour and a half a night, if you want to be reasonable. Now, you're not going to do that every single night. No. Let's say you do that every other. That's 100 days. say you do that every other that's a hundred days

Yeah, like right there. Let's say it's a hundred days scratch a few weekends where you say, you know what this Sunday? I'm gonna throw my whole Sunday at the game. Okay. Yeah, and you know what happens? your wife Why don't we go? You know like that sounds great, honey. I would love an antique chair. I can't sit in. Yeah, responsibilities do start to kick in.

Anyway, so all that is understood. That is a fictional scenario. But the point- Totally fictional. Not at all real, based on reality. But the point remains is that it's insane what they're asking, but I'm not complaining about the quality All right, so full. Did you see the part of the game that they cut? Did you see it with your eye? Where you go to a bespoke famous location and fight one boss fight and oh yes, yes, yes Yes, the fucking school that they're building

Okay, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Fuckin school that they're building Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. I school and then yeah And you don't enter Okay, so we can talk about we can talk about it There's a couple different angles for this to certainly as a as a video game There's what's going on with it like with the just just asset, you know, usage in the way it's built. But what I mean, I was scribbling notes down as I was going through it, especially like for this last part, because I thought I had it figured out and then I didn't.

And then the the closing like rush that final month really switched up what I kind of thought was going on with the game. Okay, so for one, right? And I feel like they've left, as much as this is, it's the most political game that I've played out of Atlas. No, no, it's not. It's a metaphor. I don't, I know that I feel like whenever I say these things, someone will go like, bro, Persona 1 though, or an SMT game I haven't played, and I'd be like, yeah, okay, fair enough. But-

No, no, this is the most. This is the most my far 100%. Of the five that I've played, right, this is now the sixth. This feels like the most. And with that, it is also like, them, yeah, it is also like, uh, them. Yeah, it's, it's that it's them going, it's their version of like, you can't go disco Elysium hard, but this is as hard as we can go within within the context of where we are

exactly within our own system, within our location, our time, space, you know, uh, whatever placement. Um, it's also like not just necessarily narratively, but there's also a, sorry, politically, but there's also a narrative bent to it because there's been an ongoing problem in fiction for a long time, which is it's incredibly difficult to write a charismatic villain that people don't end up just fawning over to the point where their own ideals shift their perspective. Yes, the first time you, the first time you.

Tony Montana and Walter White and shit like this. The first time you encounter a villain where you're like, the villain is debatably right, where people are going like, this person did nothing wrong, and you're like, ooh, I like that kind of villain way more than cartoonish evil. Yeah, but then you get this one, and you think that's what he's going for?

No. Nah. Nah, fuck it. Take it a step further, right? And it's interesting how you can have an RPG play out where the twists are not even really huge twists. They're all very foreseeable. The only major real one is like the

reasons why the villain is doing what he's doing. But let's hide. Actually, I think they've gone really far with like anti twists in this game in that motivations and methods and you know, Machiavellian things. I mean, there's some good ass twists in there. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But like the single biggest twist of the whole fucking game to me was that Lewis was him. Like assassination attempt followed by boss fight followed by fall through the fucking thing. No, I'm okay. Really? Oh, you just you just lived through that? Yeah. Are you serious? I mean, I so for me, I kind of I looked at that and I'm like, that's the Griffith in you. That is just dragging you through

sheer determination to the finish line. You know? Because how hard you believe in your ideals determines how far you can go, right? Your convictions are your real life bar. Yeah, bitch I lived, but no, your convictions are your real life bar. You know? I do have to give them props for having a second villain whose motivations have no depth at all.

Which one? Adachi would be the first one. Oh, yes, yes, yeah, okay, right, right, right. Right, it'll get to, Lewis, why are you doing this? Because everyone was mean to me when I was a baby. No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to say no depth there. I disagree with that part. But I think, though, just backing it up a little bit, the fact too as well that every time they make a point here,

you can feel like in P3, 4, and so where you have a personal revelation and then you kind of internalize it. And you spend the rest of the game kind of revisiting those topics from moment to moment, but you kind of leave that resolution where it was, where you're facing your true self, happens, and then you go on to solve the external problem in a way.

In this case, I feel like even after you solve the problem, they spend so much time being like, hey, listen, just because people believe in you, because you fought and saved them from a big evil, does not mean they agree with your ideals, right? The happily ever after as a concept is not gonna suddenly switch on just because the sky turned blue.

And they spend a- The kaisme is like the most peak of that in this game where you go through his thing and you deal with the you gif and their racism and all that and the kid and it's so sad and then you still play through most of the game where he's like I don't like those fucking cat boys on this shit. Yeah yeah yeah which I mean and you know you have it's such a trope But I love it is that that moment of you know, Basileo being like hey old man You sure you want to die next to a fucking catboy? He's like

I'll deal with it. I'll deal with it. Okay One Humans Human beings beings are panic attacks. To be a human is to have a panic attack. Yeah, that's right. It is anxiety exploding out of you till it gets externalized in a completely unfamiliar, unknowable, insane form.

And that is like the- It's a metaphor. Yes, right. Having a panic attack, having anxiety, to that, when it explodes out of you, it turns you into a titan. That's already, that's already like, that's a fantastic metaphor. It's, you know, starting there and, that's already like,

that's a fantastic metaphor. It's, you know, starting there and basically looking at it like, you know, obviously, like, I think we have, you know, there's a line where it's like, nature used to be man's biggest threat, you know, but then eventually it became fear and it became internal things, you know?

And I would say that like that a lot of fiction have talked about fear and hatred as these things that are, they poison the mind and a lot of our fiction has been about going against that. Anxiety in particular is a very specific and modern flavor of that because it's not the same as just hatred and just fear. It's a very specific flavor. And at one point, Galaka says, it's a mixture of hope and fear at the same time. And I'm like, oh, that's a really good way to put it, you know. So I like that that becomes like a focal point of what the game is dealing with to the point where like it's literally the currency of magic. Oh no, I'm being attacked by Anui.

Oh, oh fuck. I mean, like Anui almost implies like disconnection from it though, right? Like this is this is being way too engaged and being unable to see outside of your own shit. There's and then and overall, like I feel like, you know, as you're kind of having you're getting towards that those those final months. This is one of my favorite contexts for the side, the super mission, the your your your kind of side super boss dragons integrated into the primary plan into the private into the thesis statement of the game. It's it's a really great way. And into the thesis statement of the game.

It's a really great way to introduce that, right? Because you start putting together basically, OK, to me, at the very least, my interpretation of the events are the thing that they keep repeating, strive towards fantasy, right? My reading on that is that there's no perfect democratic utopia that doesn't exist. Reading about it in this book in this way, and you're like, hey, that's kind of like our world.

That's fucking crazy. That's not a utopia, right? There's no ability in striving towards the impossible idea because you are creating a positive world and helping as many people on the way to that impossible goal, right? So I feel like that is what they're getting at. And there's a couple of points where, like, okay, you're keeping that in mind and going

forward with things. And then the sort of the tower quest, and then the dragons and then the final one is a really interesting like, okay, if that's your thesis statement, let's like argue against that, right? Let's steel man it. Let's go, well, it can be, you can reach greater heights, you know, and become something more and overcome your trials, right? But the whole final drag, the whole final dragon bit, the conversation they have at the end is like, okay, but just because you're inspiring hope in people, like, don't, like, what's the difference between that and like complacency believing in someone that can do the job for you essentially? And like the questions that it asks right up front,

like your character, your party almost goes, shit, he's got a point. Like they kind of buy into it. And then it's only after beating it that they're like, no, no, no, no, no, just because someone can do it for you does not mean that you just need to sit and let that happen, right? Being autonomous, being self-determining is super important as well to this. So yes, face your inner fears and all that and overcome your anxieties

and other people can help you with that. And you can rely on others to show you that. But don't, when you're relying on them, don't mean, don't have that be like, I'm gonna sit back and have them drag me out of it. I can't help, I can't get out of it myself if I'm not moving waiting for someone to pull me out of my shit.

I was really glad that the game had an extremely extended epilogue that goes into this in more detail where it's like, listen, the city on the hill is a metaphor. It's it's supposed to be a striving goal that you can never quite never reach it. Right? And so the entire epilogue is you going to every single person you have ever met going things are definitely

better than they were during the election, but there's a lot of work to go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna take a really really long time and we may never do it, but boy, howdy, I'm gonna give it a shot. The world is slow to change. Um, things are all these issues that we're dealing with are way more complicated than again happily ever after, you know? Um, and what's the line? There's, yeah, yeah, there's that bit where right at the end of that, that super boss, the true enemy is the mind that refuses to see the complexities in the world around them. Right? Yes, you can black and white things, but,

but like, if you are like trying to, if you are trying to, if you're trying to look at this in a way where you want to not just see this type of suffering cycle over and over again, acknowledge that it's more than, the people that are looking at Luis and being like, nah, I wanna believe in that though. I have something inside of me that's like, yeah, that's easy, that's simple.

I am the right person to, I need to be on top And whatever it's gonna take a while to root that kind of shit out. You can't just what like hand wave it away, but overall March towards the Unreachable city on the hill march towards fantasy and like landing somewhere in between that in reality Is pretty is a pretty good place to be in the meantime now It just aim for the moon and you'll land among the stars. But then it's like, okay, but hold on a minute, pause.

More is like, I am offering you reality. The one that you, the player, knows. You can take it. Nothing's wrong here. It's fine. Just take it. It's good. That'll do, right?

What a great psych out. What a great psych out from the player only. Like, Will is not super psyched out by modern day Shibuya, but we are. And then you're further psyched out by the fact that you look at it a little more closely, and wait, it's wrong. All that text is gibberish.

But here's the thing, for us, the player, right? What is more comforting than escaping into the world you know as a Japanese college student playing a JRPG? Like escape into the inside world you know of comfort where it's safe and nothing's crazy is happening and it's not dangerous and you can just believe in this closed off thing. Escape inside when the outside world gets too scary and just believe in nothing,

and lock it down and don't let the outside world, and like, nah, you gotta reject that shit obviously. But it's like, the fact that it's done through the lens of the player is Particularly powerful I Also like it's such a basic simple trick But I can't believe it's it fucking still works when earthbound asks you to put in your name and you fucking do and Then it yeah, and then when and then they take a minute, but when they come back around to using it, oh fuck, it's me, what the hell?

Long smile later. And that same thing here where you're like, oh, what the, I put my name in? When did I do that? Oh fuck, right, a million years ago. Right at the beginning. That's really well done. I love, so I feel like, yeah,

they responsibly address material, and then like, take a minute to just go point by point on each of these struggles and go like, yep, we're going to keep working on this. That's how you actually epilogue a story and then you mow the climb down, right? On Luis, your twist, quote unquote, it's the, it's, it's so simple because it's him the whole way through, but it's like survival of the fittest, the big war, strongest survive plot world or whatever. I gotta say the survival of the fittest guy actually really actually surviving cause he's

the fittest for 99% of the time, was very refreshing. Yeah, yeah. But it's also, again, it's a world that you know villains usually want because they're like, well, I'm strong, so I'll thrive. But I want this twisted version of like, yeah, power might makes right and just make the world all about that. And so there's a really clear metaphorical thing with Lucifer and the SMT series in that like he looks

like he looks he acts like Lucifer his ending for the world is the chaos ending for every SMT game which is like what oh if the tough people will fucking thrive in this monsterized utopia how about him taking off the fucking crown? Oh, you mean the clamor face? Lewis? You know, the horns, yeah. Lost my mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I lost it. Yeah, yeah. But the bit where, it's just like, what's the simple thing that you're like, that's different here? What's your twist? And it's like, oh yeah, he still wants a world of these insane anxiety monsters popping off everywhere. But the idea is those who are strong, not physically, but of will, can overcome it and do what you did and fight your way through on your own to the other side and find determination.

He is basically Senator Armstrong. The strongest survive, but like, it's like, okay, I understand that it would be unfair to say that like granny needs to fight off a demon. So it's not that, it's granny needs to be internally strong enough to quell the demon inside, right? And furthermore, why am I wrong? This stupid fucking staff has been taking away

their anxieties forever. They were supposed to feel that shit. I'm just giving you back everything that was already yours, you know? Of course, you wanna talk about your metaphors, the crown literally taking the weight of everyone's pressure, right? Everyone laying their anxieties on it, taking the blame, so to speak.

Why does the king look like shit so bad? Oh my God, yes, he suffered personal tragedy, but he's just slumping around, willing to fucking kill himself at any drop of a hat. Yeah. It's like, oh yeah, he's kind of absorbing an entire society's worth of bullshit. And so that's why you have towards the end, the party is like, does Luis have a point? And they're like, yes, but still. He wants people to overcome their anxiety too, but he wants you to do it alone.

And having friends, fuck that bullshit. That's for losers, that's lame. Be strong on your own, don't trust other people. And of course, S-Links goes against the very fucking philosophy of that. I only wish in those moments that Will the protagonist spoke to Luis the way that Stroll or Galika is yelling at him. Yeah. You know, I wish that your silent protag, who's not silent.

He gets more of a personality as the game goes on. Yeah, but I mean, you know, you just want you want to hit those points and like challenge them rhetorically. Speaking of lines and shit too as well well Some of those some of the absolute bangers one Louis start Louis starting the fight with let it begin is a fire line for a final boss fight obviously the the academia theme like divine God Heaven remix is the greatest shit You know throwing in your your your divine, god, heaven remix is the greatest shit.

You know, throwing in your, staying sane in a fight, not bloody likely. Like getting your Seinfeld in there, always fun. But what I fucking popped off for is throughout the whole game, my favorite battle cry on the party was Hulkenberg Every once in a while when you go to her for all that we strive for right I fucking love that line It's the best line the entire fucking party has it's great. I get pumped up every time. I hear it and Having that then when you get to him get echoed and and Luis goes back with, for all that I believe.

I'm like, ah, they know. They know how good that line is because he has his own version of it. I love that mirror. It's amazing. How did the fight with Luis go for you? you. Okay. So my build was, um, yeah, I, I, I had, it took me to, I had seven days left before I was like, pretty much like, all right, hit the Coliseum up, waste time, you know? Yeah. Um, yeah, you, it, it, like, it looks like the math on it. You look at when you get there, you're like, oh, maybe I don't have enough. You definitely have enough to do absolutely everything. So by the time I unlocked print, so Prince is insanely busted and you're like, why would I ever use anything else?

Like switch over to your merchant if you need to make some cash, but if you need to make some, you know, to farm or whatever. I'm just gonna feed all my good abilities into Prince. But the moment I got that, excuse me, and then a stroll royal warrior, it was like, oh yeah, it's done.

Because each, like the joke, I had to slow down how strong I was to make sure I didn't miss phases of each fight, right? So I definitely should have done that. I remember. I definitely missed phrases. Okay, so did you miss the phase of Luis or did you miss the phase of Zorba?

I missed both of them. Oh. I also missed, I missed Luis, I had to be told while the credits were running that Luis has racist, racist attacks. Yes, uh, I didn't, he started one on me, but I stopped him before he did anything. I literally saw zero of them.

So what happened was, is that I had Prince, and Prince was fucked out. I had Juna on, uh, not Juna, I had Yufa on support. Mm-hmm. Which, which she could do everything. Then I had Heismei as a debuffer, and then I had Basilio for damage. And so what ended up happening is Basilio's turn would come up and he would use a one stock turn sync attack that would break the damage limit and give the boss a blunt damage weakness.

And then Heisme would debuff and then Eupha would buff Basileo and then Prince would attack and then Basileo would hit the weakness that he created in a one turn sync attack. And then when it was the boss's turn, the boss would target Heisme because I had every single thing on Heisme Going target me and he would miss and he would lose all the turns and it would be my turn again So that so that ability that that ability is really busted for sure Heisme's final ability you can buy it on a ring by the way and put that on your character, too So the dodge ring does the same thing that was pretty nice Getting high maze final royal fucking thief. It's it's a lot bad shit. It's so nice

It's the best ability in the game because it breaks every encounter and as a result They're like well you're gonna have to burn it. Yeah, it's so much each time. I was like okay. I have to get merchant up Okay, what do I got to work for it. You're gonna have to really work for it. Each time I was like, okay, I have to get merchant up. Okay, what do I gotta do? You gotta go, okay. Now you gotta go get fucking sniper up to get, oh my God, and then each branch, yeah, you have to invest halfway up maybe 10 different trees

of that to get to his. But I didn't. But yeah, there's a lot of shit that's broken in that game, like B.R.O.ken. Okay, so I was not, okay, well, two things. One, so with the racist attack, I didn't get to see what it does but I saw him go he basically started going like he started talking shit about clamor, I think and then He was priming it but then I just stopped him before he could do it

so what happens is is that he will talk shit about clamor and The next turn he will kill any Clamar party member on the field. Which is only Stroll. So you swap in. Okay. So it's supposed to be all the races are working together and that's why you have a member of every single race on the team. Because you have to switch them. You have to bring in people of other races that can cover the ground. He pulls out a race car and goes next turn. You have to bring in people of other races that can cover the ground.

He pulls out a race car and goes, next turn. You know what's funny too is the idea of like, well, I mean, Jesus Christ, like the races in this where you're like, oh, these are like, if you wanted to talk about like race where it's like things that people that came from humanity and stuff. It's like, yeah, okay, but then like the Yugi or that's that is literally another race, right? That is very different. When human beings talk about race, we're using the wrong word technically, because we're not, it were the same human race. We're talking about shade. So clines is the word, right? Like there's a there's

Cline. Okay. is the word, right? Like there's a- Klein, okay. Klein's is basically like, whatchamacallit, eco variations of the same creature, you know? And so that- Like most of it is like sunny weather or not adaptation. Yes. We tend to work the word race in when we start bringing in like, you know, the culture or the social more and the other aspects of it. Well, race is a construct to tell us that there's a fundamental difference here. It's like, it's not like dogs and wolves, it's like wolves and pugs. You sound like a realist right now.

I'm sorry, I'm getting too real. Pugs! You're sounding like a realist right now. Don't be a. I'm sorry, I'm getting too real. You're getting too real. Do you do in the lobby of Big Pug? But when you get a fucking, but when you get a bat creature standing next to you and you're like, that is the cool, that is my best friend, you know?

That is an actual race thing, but yeah, you have. And then you get, oh, what are their names? The Juna with the eyeballs and Alonzo. Oh God, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the shapeshifters, I mean. Yeah, the fucking potato liars. Yeah, I forget. But you get to see her little one for like her little blob for a second.

Lalafels, effectively. Yeah, 100%. We don't even show each other, God damn it. The Nidia, that's it. We're too, Nidia, Nidia, we're too afraid. Yeah, Nidia, yeah's it. We're too, Nidia, Nidia, we're too afraid. Yeah, Nidia, yeah. That shit is super fun. My build ended up being Prince with Almighty Boost

and Arcane Unity. Yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah, everyone, yes, do that. It's built, it's for you. It does Almighty. Get Almighty off of merchant, which is best on the MC and put it on it. All mighty all day. Like by the time you're hitting bosses

that are like fully resistant, I'm like, yeah, I don't give a shit, right? You put on, I put on the counter and magic counter. Cause like when those pop off, you lose all turns. And the crucial bit was that last item that you can pick up at the magic shop, the utilitarian manual, where double-text cost one turn. That's, that is insane. That is to infinity. I feel like that is an item that they should not have let you buy until new game. It's batshit

It's completely bad shit because I was describing Basilio do like giving himself damage like damage cap breaking Weaknesses into themselves because of that fucking thing. Oh, so for me what I ended up getting what for me? It was stroll. I hadroll with the utilitarian manual and then the beloved greatsword, which is the sword that buffs up synthesis, right? So fuck the high-end, final-end sword for him. The one that buffs your synthesis skills

triples their damage. And I- Yeah, of course it does. You know you unlock the 999 everything die synthesis with Prince, but it's like I was hitting 14k with Stroll doing Crimson Moon Sword Art, the amazing red one where you just slash the screen up like so Annihilated every single game fight. I I they wanted you to beat this game Right Atlas games like you can get into a problem with an atlas game and would you get to the end and you're like this Party isn't gonna do it. They're not gonna. Oh shit, right? So they gave you okay. Here's like

40 days to get your shit in order and Also, the final dungeon is just good. You could just level how long that's it. That's it No, it's a tyrant star tyrant star is How what do you want the game to be when you fight you? Sit here for as long as you want and go as hard as you want to. It's very simple, you know?

The autospawners actually come back when you leave. It just says, how much time you got? Where do you wanna get to, you know? And it's interesting because for all the challenges that you're deleting, there was that one dragon where it puts you down to 300, you know, where it's like you have like, you have the Poison Dragon,

Destroyer of the Stars, I think it was called, where it's just like, yeah, you're gonna have less HP, but who the fuck here cares? Hulkenberg is sitting in the back doing Holy Knight's Proclamation and shielding everybody and getting a turn back for doing it. Like we're not going anywhere. I if I was going to say one thing about metaphor as like a problem, if you go hard on it like I did, you get into a situation where like I broke the game before before 9-11. Okay.

Like, and the the I basically ran the game plan I described to you to beat Lewis from the events of 9-11 onward with like no change at all and nothing could stop me at all. Like nothing, like bosses were throwing out gimmicks and shit like that. Like no, they didn't have a chance. Yeah. So I noticed too that like I was, I wanted to stay on the build that I had and it was like, the game was like, yeah, but go explore, make other builds have fun. You know, it was cut so I switched off for the parts after 9-eleven up until the the inner sanctum, but Yeah, they chose the dates y'all. Oh, so it was so on purpose

Like the good old days before 9-eleven days before 9-eleven Hey, can I just talk about like a really really great lie that the devs told before this game came out like a great lie so the devs said When people ask hey, can I romance my s line you're gonna talk about romance? Yeah, and they said there are no optional romances in metaphor everyone. I can't believe it And so you play metaphor and you start going through every single characters s-link and they're right There are no optional romances Because they have decided fuck you. We are picking for you this time

They have decided, fuck you, we are picking for you this time. And it is the girl who, if you are Will metaphor, then she is euphemism. She's euphemism, exactly, exactly. And guess what? Last time y'all tried to shove me next to Yukari on that beach and I raged against it forever, this time around, you for rules, so that's great. I had no issues with it rules. So that's great. I had no sweet. I had no

issues with it whatsoever. The party is awesome. The party's great. And if you it's it's the best RPG party since like FF seven. Like if you every single character, they're all amazing. They're all good. It felt it was so strong. You know, even if you like you're like I like Juno more and Juno's like, Hey, I got something to confess to you. I'll tell you after the adventure's over. We'll talk about it another time. So even if you felt like putting your feelings out there, the game's like, yeah, it's not what we're trying to do right now.

You know, no, man, everyone. I said it when I first got Heisme, but I was like, I can't, like, I'm so compelled by his quest, by his plot, by the fact that he has like, amazing wisdom that he drops, he says shit, I wish, I wish Heisme was there for like, every other RPG that I've ever played. I totally agree. He's so, he's so incredible. Ugh.

It's like, he's like, I know where you're coming from. I get it. But like, he fucking just, he talks you down, man. Yeah. And like the whole time too, when Dellen Basilio were hanging out, I was like, I know what's going to be is one of these cat boys. Please be Basilio. Please be Basilio.

Because he's just, he schooler. You know, I like I dug it. I dug his visvibes more and I'm glad I won that bet. like a 60s, 70s, like British fashion style. And like I dig it, but for some reason, Dell was the one where I'm like, like instead of being its own, like take on like a style of fashion in a new setting, I look at Dell and I'm like, that dude is trying to be one of the Beatles. Yeah. And the fact that he has like a Liverpool accent, like doesn't help.

Aggressively. They are aggressively looking like 60s, 70s fucking UK, Brit, pop dudes, for sure. Yeah. Like I said, he's a tiny Paul McCartney god fucking what are the brothers that the the British brothers that have the famous song and then they split up and now they're coming back together and then they fucking die whatever doesn't matter okay it's easy top no That wasn't even that's not even remotely. That's not even remotely oasis oasis oh My god. Yes. I was just like fucking like, you know, I'm like here comes oasis like 70s coded

But no between the two That was that was great and I loved it when, you know, I started putting, I started pushing Basilio towards pugilist and then like, and you know, martial artist and like when you pick that archetype and get into a fight with him and he's like, I love this path.

This is the perfect style for me like it He keeps saying it over and over like you did it you did it you picked the right one And it's like you did pick the right one because this is gonna be part of his final requirement. You know It's weird to me how the game Balances the classes or sorry the archetypes in that well this guy's gonna join the party really late so he's not gonna have the built up archetypes that the other characters are gonna have so what we're gonna do is make each starting archetype more and more busted right out the gate.

Yeah. You get Juna and you're like this is busted then you get Yufa and you're like no this is busted and then you get Basilio and you're like, I don't even have to use my fucking brain here. Why even bother investing in other types when I can just invest in masks and power through with Masked Answer? Like, or the summons are just multiversed. I gave Juna like the mask wizard,

the Mask of the Wizard, and it carried me like the whole game Yeah, I threw I threw healer on her, you know It's great I Don't know if you had this but that fucking cat in Academia that gives you a reward the first time you pet it, and then never again for the rest of the game. 150 fucking hours later, you're just like,

oh, he knows he's so cute. And I'm like, why did you give me a reward the first time? Why did you fucking- Because petting cats is cool. Of course, but then now it's in your brain. You're like, oh, maybe this, you know? And like, this is a game where if you use the bathroom on the right day, you might get a luck bonus.

If you fucking. Oh, did you ever figure out what the specific rules for that were? Every five days, every five days. Yeah, right. That's too far. It's, but it's like. That's, you're gonna. That's not good for you.

Uptooshness, right? You know, it's, so that's the thing is I'm like, oh, there must be a trick to the cat and the reward off the cat will be based on when you go or whatever, it's like, no, no, you just get the one. And now you're gonna install a mechanic you'll never use again in the person's brain. So yeah, you talk about the cut dungeon

that is the magic school, right? Or it's like, oh yeah, like they walk up to it They look at it in the background and then a dragon drops in front of you, you know, and you're like no Don't go in there. We didn't finish it. Yeah. Yeah But don't do it but but and then and at the same time too like this whole thing of like this is our own new Franchise this is its own new place, you know metaphor is a new ip. Oh, that is, you know You don't have to compare it to Soul hacker trickster persona master like fucking

That's devil summoner dragon grace shinjuku You've been playing this game Like in a vacuum, right? Yeah Do you know how far it goes with the Shinjuku dungeon? I Mean beyond seeing it for what it is. Oh, okay. No, no, no, no, wooly Okay, so I started to delve deep into the dungeon where it goes to Shinjuku and I'm like, wow, it is nuclear apocalypse again. They literally cannot help them. Yeah, I'm waiting for the Minotaur at the bottom of this. Like they

cannot help themselves. It has to be this. But then you get to the Shinjuku dungeon. Metaphor is not an SMT game. It is an Etrian Odyssey game. That is the final dungeon of Etrian Odyssey 1. Oh! That is the exact layout. Oh my God. That's why it's so fucking mazey and complex. Etria.

Okay, because on Etria, I was going like the air. I kept, you know, I looked at E-H-T as like a scrambled the and then I was like, I can't. Yeah. Cause in Etrian Odyssey, it deals with a similar apocalypse in which a tree grows from the bottom to like society. Okay. Okay. So Etrian Odyssey 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be built on that island in the future. Oh my god. That's what the FOE system is. Like cause that's why you have to deal with them in the grid and they move with you on the grid because that's how it works in Etrian Odyssey.

That's why the bouncing ears are moving. Yeah, okay, okay, and there's doors and shit. Because that is the most complex map to navigate and it takes a fucking while to get through all those floors. Because it's a different game's final dungeon. Gotcha, and when you look out the windows, you're looking at SMT4. You know?

Well, no, you're looking at Etrian Odyssey Untold. Oh, is it also like Fallen Shinjuku City? Yes. Oh, I see, I fall in Shinjuku City? Yes. Oh, I see, I see, I see, gotcha, okay. This is what I mean, like they literally cannot help themselves. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Like Atlas, Atlas believes there will be a nuclear holocaust and that demons will happen. Okay, yeah. But it's also that like we're gonna give you the nods and we're gonna give you the things and you're like, okay, that's cool, you're gonna to summon, you're going to summon fucking Jack Frost. I'm like, oh, there he is. It's yeah. So that's, that's all fun. But I do feel, I do feel that like the way this played out too is that it feels like this is a different, this is a start

of a new franchise though. Like this feels like I didn't get the feeling of this being a one-off. I felt like this is going to be a revisited thing. And you can, I mean, at the end they literally ride off into the sunset to fantasy lives on you. And yeah. And then they say, Hey, what about that other country that you're going to across the sea? Are we ever going to go there? Maybe one day I mean the the meant the the motivations are a ton of they're very reasonable It's like yeah, the world did not see you kill the monster They just saw you win

So you should probably go actually inspire them or at least meet them so that they are not a faceless king, you know I think there's something amazing that this game does and Final Fantasy 16 also does, where it's like these cataclysmic world altering events are actually taking place in somewhat isolated continents of a larger world that doesn't know what's going on. Well, this whole game deals with one election. It's one election of one country, you know? You have to imagine the fucking, the Canada of this world just looking down and being like, what the fuck is going on in November?

Like, we have guys looking at the country with the telescopes and they got flying cities and shit over there. What do you think is going on over there? Fucking November 4th I see a giant face floating over America. Like, we're like, what do you guys have to like, oh okay I'm going back to bed. This is crazy. You know? It's one nation. It's simply one place. Yeah. I love, cause okay, I don't know how quickly you pieced it together, but I mean obviously more is fucking Hidola, Thaea, Leis Yeah, it's like that much that much I'm looking I'm like just look at him look at his hair Look at every like yes that that is the most obvious. Well, that's that's not even it

That's not even like it. It's that like Thomas Moore wrote utopia and hit load deus is the fucking king in utopia Aha, aha. Okay. So it's like like it's even more obvious on top of didn't catch that reference Okay, and there's a character named hit load deus in Final Fantasy 14. Oh, yeah, which also has to do with utopia interesting. Okay It's a metaphor. I didn't catch those name the sources on those name references interesting um, I like that, you know You deliberately obviously don't spend too much time out with the king or so because you know You need to make sure that these these twists quote unquote as obvious that they're gonna be make sense

The one with the prince the moment they like, you should pretend to be him. I'm like, all right, that's it. You're not even trying anymore, game. You know? Like, you know? But, um. Come on. But the whole bit where it's like, it's like, okay,

so just in the same way that the prince is like, that you are, that Will is the second, the magical cast off, you know, the, the mirror double. You have more who is like the mirror double of the king, but Mor is from his fucking hipster days when he was a young beatnik. This is what I looked like when I fucked your mom. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, oh, this is the one who was rizzed up.

I was killing it, man. I was killing it. Right? He pulled up motorcycle diaries. He pulled up any fucking swooned The Elden princess Eddie and he jumped in the libraries, and he was like talking all that world revolution We got a fight. We got to change things you know like he was so full of piss and vinegar And he still got the beret on sideways. I'm like ah Of course, it's not the old king with the fucking brrrr.

Yeah, this is my idealized self. This is my best me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That more is the one who fucking laid the pipe down. It is wild to me. It's like, man, okay, so wow, Forden was behind everything. I was like legitimately shocked that he was behind every part of every problem he was involved in each step yes and like all these different threads always get back to a cut scene where he's like yeah do it yeah and well the well that is extra impactful because the game opens on Luis stabbing King in the chest! The first thing you see is, die old man! Fucking die!

On top of that, I love that we got, like one of my favorite parts of the ending into the final thing is you get to see, like, okay, Fordin's dead and we've established that he was behind it all, right? But like, they keep saying like but like the king could have like stopped him at any time Right and so you get to actually see cutscenes of ford and be like yo, so I'm gonna just take political power away from you and Hathloday's like I don't even care man do whatever 100% your fault, but it's interesting because like he in say in the same way

He's very much like Luis and that's why that moment where he saves you and he's like not just give up dude he's coming from the same place because he's looking at it like both Luis and Hithlodeus are looking at it like revenge is pointless because the system is broken. And like, yeah, I can fucking solve my own grief, but that's not the problem here. I wanna fix it at a larger, more macro zoomed out scale. So going in- And the word fix is doing some very heavy lifting. Yeah, yeah.

So that's it. So it's like in the same way that it's like, yeah, Louise could go kill all the people that burnt down the village, but what the fuck does that accomplish? Same thing where Hithlodeus is like, yeah, it's the mind, you know? And so I'm going to force democracy as a system upon my death is a pretty interesting premise and set up like bit. I didn't know that was a part of

the game at all, you know? So like, uh, that was probably the biggest like twists that I was like, oh shit, there's a, there's a death game thing happening here, you know side note when the King's magic is protecting all the Entrance and you're high up in the ranks does it ever it it never applies to you the protagonist as a player Because you are consensually fighting with every enemy that you're encountering No, it does there is two instances with every enemy that you're encountering. No, it does. There is two instances.

That shithead with the dog attacks you. Yes. And dies. Yes. Like, dies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's also the boss fight that you have with the monk in the very beginning, Godot.

Yeah. Where if you attack him, you just die. Okay, okay, yeah, so I never. the monk In the very beginning Godot. Yeah Where if you attack him you just die, okay? Okay. Yeah, so I said you can't attack So I yeah, I never attacked him in that one Okay, that was part of the system because but I was wondering I was like in gameplay Did they did that was there ever a moment where anyone attacking you to to make it so that once you've hit a certain ranking that This situation is kind of unlikely to come up. Yeah, okay. Okay. Because that's my whole... I'm like, when you're high ranking and running through a dungeon, why can anything even touch you? You know?

Oh, people will point out in the Opera House and you're going through the Opera House, they will only target you. Yes. Yes, for sure. Because they can't target you because they'll die. But, I guess guess up until that point Nothing else that you're fighting counts. I suppose no well you're fighting non-human You're fighting humans or animals or other bits people that you engage to duel with on equal terms Congrats to Atlas for creating another Nanaco that's pure and awesome.

Oh, she's so good. And the archetype she gives you and the bonuses she gives you are the best. Yep, cooking, cooking. I mean, what? Speed cooking and flat experience bonuses? Sorry, percentile experience bonuses? Yes, please.

Also, I'm gonna just go make infinite MP heels now and The game is now a joke because I'll do my best since the items I brought into the final dungeon I looked at them and I'm like, there's nothing like there's nothing there's literally yeah my characters I'm like, I built myself like 50 somas. Mm-hmm Like who can stop this? Yeah, so no, Maria. Amazing Nanaco too. Good job. Nailed it. Perfect. Awesome. And you get to hang out with her mom sometimes when you go down

there. You sure do. And she's all right. You sure do, and she's all right. I will, and to that end, I was like, I hope, because I was, I'm like, surely there will be a moment when you're doing the final attack and you have to think of all your bonds, right? And it's like, not exactly, but I was waiting to have that one where you go through all of them,

and then the last one is gonna be Greus. But there's no big Greus moment. I was hoping for a real Greus moment right before. The only thing that you get there is that in the final battle, you have one of every single race on your team except for I forget the name, but Gries's race

Parapis should have been no no he's a parapis. He's a parapis. No Gries is not a parrot. He's one of the older guys He's a rogue Shit okay, okay, okay, okay, So it's like it should have been everybody. Right, okay. But he didn't get to be there. He represents them. Yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, well, I mean, it's a little thing, but I was waiting because they give you Gryus's

memento in your inventory and looking at that every time I'm scrolling through my items, I'm like, they're going to do something. But they didn't really. But I mean, they talk about them enough. They talk about Alsace throughout the dialogue. But yeah, excellent. Absolutely fucking excellent. What a good what like all nitpicks are nitpicks they are Very minor like this could have been done like like and also this this game Really doesn't feel like it needs a a royal treatment. No, it doesn't at all Really doesn't feel that way at all It feels totally complete. Yeah, no, I mean, I heard that there's a new game plus dragon or something like that.

Oh, dude, new game plus is not worth playing. It's, I mean, it's a million years long, so I'm sure. You can, but there's one boss. You can increase the difficulty as much as you want. Yeah. But for people like us who did that to the game on normal You can't make that game system hit you hard enough Mm-hmm because you've broken it. Yeah, I went up to like like doing the rule doing the dragon towers I picked the hardest one first it seems and like the the fairy is like

Why would you pick this one first in the dialogue? It's an Atl Adrien Odyssey character. Ohhhhh no shit really? Yeah. Ohhhhh. Jack told me but yeah that's straight up a character from Adrien Odyssey. That's cool. That's cool. Okay. That's kind of why she talks like she's from a she's not concurrent to the location that you're in.

Well yeah she's throwing out her these the eyes and vows, but she's also going you fucking scrub You know Bitches speaking of of that though Did you catch the hilarious moment where the prince wakes up and Will's voice for like three lines has a British accent There's a clip of me blowing out my microphone, just screaming. Like, no! He tries for three lines and then immediately gives up.

Like the next scene, the camera cuts. It's so funny He was so British for just a second and it makes sense You know given the world and everything and then the voice actor just went and then Settled into his body correctly and then lo and behold right why does Moore sound American? But Heath Lodeus sounds British? You know? And so when they come together, there's that moment where like, more towards the end starts getting a little more British.

But no, they throw it away too. And so it's like when your mind is wiped, when you're a Brit and your mind is wiped, you become American. I mean, obviously. Obviously. That's so fucking crazy. Default settings for English are just American. Incredible. Absolutely incredible that they tried and gave up within the same scene twice with two different characters.

What a fucking game. What a fucking game What a great game um The first one the first video game to get on that Bathwater juice while while the the memes are hot right Striking well. Oh yes. Yes, that's right. Yes, you're right. There's a mission where it's like hey go bath water quest Go you go take a fucking Steve go take a dip Prince you it'll be awesome. Sell me your bath water Okay

I'm like when did this game get written mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No they knew they knew I'm not gonna for a second believe They didn't know you know she lost like crazy dollars on that. I believe it. Because she was like running a foul of some kind of food safety thing and so for every bottle she sold, the fine was more than what she was selling it for. Oh man. So she like lost a bundle on it.

Oh my God, yeah. No, just seeing that mission pop up right there, you know, in the last bits, I'm like, yeah, okay. Perfect. Did you... So yeah, I guess when you said you ran out of things to do, I guess you like, you would hit up the Coliseum and... I had done literally everything.

Everything. Okay. It had, I want to say like 13 days to go. And so I went to bed for 12 days. Even like the optional storytellings and- All of it. Oh wow, wow. Absolutely all of it.

Okay. Interesting. So I guess if you, yeah, okay. So if you spend, not only if you single day every dungeon, but if you farm to like insane strength So you remember the bottom of the shinjuku dungeon? You remember how there were three auto spawners in one room? Yeah. Yep. Yeah, you can you just sit there Okay, you can uh, yeah, you can put a podcast on and really fuck that game's difficulty curve So I I did a little of that, but I stopped when I got bored.

I stopped when I, you know, I kind of went, okay, I'm done. Luckily, I have a brain that can just ignore boredom. It's repetitive enough. Fair enough. I played Monster Hunter games. Yeah, pardon me. This is not what I expected Persona 6 to be, but it's fucking phenomenal. And

I think we still have a person. Of course, we do. Of course, we do. I'm being cheeky. I'm being cheeky. But but in terms of like, the last time we talked about those games, and it's like, okay, you've got again, the personal growth, and then p five, you've got the the society and like, the nail that stands out and then harmonizing with the group. And this time around, I'm like, okay, Atlas, you're getting a little more comfortable. You know, you're getting a little more comfortable standing up and talking your shit. It feels like metaphor was written, taking in mind complaints about persona 5. Right! Right! That's yes! A lot of like, particularly like western opinion on that story was, guys we have to change

society at a fundamental level by integrating ourselves correctly into society and defeating those who don't integrate correctly into society, which is like the opposite of its stated thesis. And metaphor at the very least goes, I would like to change society for the better. That's hard though. It's going to be hard though. Yes, man. And I kept thinking of, I remember from years ago when you were mentioning that bit about different schools of thought and the, I think it was like therapy in a Japanese context. Oh yeah, Eastern versus Western context is change yourself to fit the world or change the world to fit yourself.

To fit yourself, yeah, right. And that bit where it's like, oh, well, turn inside to you and see what you're doing wrong and how you can better fit into the tapestry. And so, yeah, a lot of that, I thought I was thinking of that while going through this. And I was like, no, this game is definitely swerving back the other way from where

P5 with the whole, no, fit in, though. Society's fine. This is going like, no, no, no, no. There's shit that should change and it's okay to call that out and it's okay to want to work on improving that. Don't expect it to happen overnight. Recognize that that lady on fucking Sunlum Leo road.

That main street piece of shit. Oh I love her. Even after you have handed her the world and she's like I guess you eld a piece of shit. What has the world come to? Don't touch me. You know and you're like what the

fuck. Yes right. She is a part of the world too. And that you need to, you have to acknowledge that she's gonna be standing there, no matter what you do, going, ah, what the fuck is that gross elder prince up to today? You know, while you breathe air and continue to live.

And everyone around her is like, I don't know, lady. Society has definitely been a little bit better than it has been the Odeus The can elder yeah the the also that that the whole bit with Like it there were moments where this game like my eyebrow raised with the whole Orochimaru extreme forgiveness any percent clear. You know, I was like, and like Martira cleared that for

me. The whole, the whole, the whole, you know, Martira quest line was like, okay, no, we're good. I really loved the naivete of the party kind of being put on display where she's executed on the spot and I'm and and people are like what did you fucking think was gonna happen here she just admitted to like like slaughtering an entire town's worth of children feeding feeding children to monster like it's the most horrendous thing you can it doesn't she's being nice and contrite though. Like, no, get the fuck, that's crazy.

But then there's those bits where like the Alonzo quest, right, where it's like, oh, that feels bad for the piece of shit that fucking was orchestrating it here, you know, and he pulls his twists and he, you know, he pulls it off. I totally died Yeah, he pulls it off in it and it works, but it's still like on the way there. It's like your poor mom, man You know yeah, your mom's your poor fucking mom dude. You know fucked up not great I

Like I like that that the non-party members You know like people with the portraits that pop up each time, you talk to Brigida for the first time, I'm like, who the fuck is that? What are you about? And she's like, I'm an arms dealer, and if you say generic RPG answers to me, I hate you for them.

You get no mag for talking basic shit to me. You better say what you mean. Also, if you tell anyone about my puppy, I'll fucking murder you. I'm like, okay. Okay, cool. Sounds good. Also most of the remaining quest is going to talk about how much I hate being part of the war economy, but also I'm going to use the war economy to genocide everybody who touched my dog.

Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah. Drebben. She's Drebben. 100% right. I'm going gonna get him. I'm really surprised. So I'm really surprised that Edini wasn't anything there. I really thought he would be because yeah back when you were asking, well I mean we touched on it last time where it's like Eupha joins the party, Edini doesn't, but Edini fucking looks like his grown Naruto ass is gonna join your party. Yeah, he's gonna be the king of Etria Right and he's gonna invent Etria an Odyssey easy on the eyes that one. He's gonna do a bad job Teach setting up a history program for their local school because by the time you get to fucking Etria an Odyssey ain't nobody knows

by the time you get to fucking Etriot Odyssey, ain't nobody knows what's going on in that dragon dungeon. Another one, another British haircut character too. I wonder, I mean, I think suffice to say that, well, Etriot Odyssey is a different team, right? And then they teamed up with Persona Q to make those over, yeah. Because every other one of those references were all like, this is our shit, but that's from a different one in particular. But it's still Atlas. Yeah.

Batlin's great, Batlin's great. Batlin's great. What a good crier. He's fun from the jump, but I didn't expect him to be anything but just a really cool voice. Turns out he's fucking a solid. I love him.

Yelling at the crowd of yelling at the crowd Toward they like all the way through to the end like that's a real one Yeah, no everyone everyone that you just kind of chill with What you call it Martira dude bar Bardon Am I getting that right no anyway Yeah, Barton Barton. Anyway, um... Yeah, Barden. Barden, yeah, Barden. Yeah, even him, where it's just like, that crazy fucking baby murdering shit was so insane that I am gonna overcompensate on security. I feel like...

Super understandable. I feel like people in my chat were too hard on Barden. Nah, dude. Because, because, like, you get to, like, rank seven and eight and you're like, he. Because, because like, you get to like rank seven and eight, and you're like, he's like, I am creating a fascist police state for everyone's benefit. And it's so obvious that it's a bad idea. But you have to, you've been like months removed from like,

well, what drove him to this? Oh, that shit! Did it happen right under his nose? Do you remember the baby conveyor belt crushing machine that was happening right under his watch? So no, I completely got that. And the fact that multiple times in his quest line, you, the protagonist, gets to be like,

yo, dude, chill. And he's like, ah! I'm like, no, no, no, I completely understand. That overreaction is what happens When you're when you are getting over the fact that a baby crushing machine has just been discovered in your city You know, especially since you were the safety inspector for the baby crushing God yeah That's it that's it, you know, oh yeah that game's great Oh god, yeah.

That's it, that's it. Oh yeah, that game's great. It's fucking great. And I can't wait to recommend it like with a million fucking disclaimers because it's like this is a game you might never finish with your normal time as an adult, but give it a shot. There's two disclaimers, right? It's long and you can't drop it for a while and come back. When you drop it, you have a two week countdown before you come back and the archetype

system just goes in your brain. Yeah, you need to stare at that archetype system when you come back and the archetype system just goes, bwuh, in your brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you need to stare at that archetype system when you come back for a while for sure. What I will say is if I were playing this pre-YouTube and on my own time, I would play until I hit a Luis plot point and then get hooked back in. And then, you know, and then that's your trajectory slinger is every time you have a Luis date coming up, you know?

So, yeah. Date with Luis, oh, if only. I mean, I was, again, I was like not, I would not be surprised if they speed ran a eight tier relationship with Luis right before the end. You know, like I'm ready for anything like that. Like the villain gets his own relationship with you to discuss the difference in your philosophies. I'm down. You know, why the fuck not? I feel like like Lewis is too much of a transparent psychopath for that to work. But like too many of those conversations

would just be like, I think we should stop using orphans for airship fuel. And then his response would be like, why? And how am I going to get across time for my meeting? But okay, that whole thing where he's like such a really convincing sociopath, right? And then we talked about it last time. You find out here that it's like, that wasn't just from birth, that's self-imposed from trauma, because PTSD turned you into that, right? He decided to become that person because fuck other people and fuck other things. I have my ideals and just me and that's it. It's a self-imposed sociopathy.

At the same time, he is given maybe 50 different opportunities from every single character that ever talks to him to walk it back even a little bit. Even a little bit, yeah. Right up until the moment of his death. He's like no Yeah, no This is how I want to do it right full speed ahead How about fucking walking through town and seeing all of his best generals being like yeah, I got off the ship

Like at some point you're like yeah No, the only ones that stayed are all just monsters now, you know It's like it's like a character that is standing there going I have reached the apex of my personal growth I don't need to grow anymore. And how do I know that because you can't beat me up Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Like if I if I need to have more personal growth I wouldn't have survived this ridiculous assassination attempt would I? You can't touch Griffith. So you're wrong and he's right

It's that simple Mm-hmm, and then yeah, you go from Lucifer form into you know, the the human the shattered mask You know, and then of course cutscene only The the king archetype you know yeah, I Mean I was wondering if we were gonna do a Luciferio not Luciferio. What was it called Lucifer? Yes, I believe P5, you know, fucking tanking top of grid like that. You know? Yeah.

I mean, it's the whole airship, so you're fucking huge in that cut scene. It's not clear because you're in the sky and there's no. Satanael, excuse me, Satanael. Yeah, that's the one. But you know, you get the point. You get the point.

He's not Lucifer, though. No. Wink. Okay, that's just about all of it. There's it is. It's such a good game. Such a good game. Go play it and fucking... Mark your real calendar off. Well, you can't recommend people play it inside the part of the podcast that's the spoiler cast. No, I suppose not. That play it inside the part of the podcast. That's the spoiler cast No, I suppose not that doesn't make any sense. I'm glad you played it then how about that? All right, let's take a break What else happened this week? So?

for me for you for me I Played a little bit more cyberpunk and I got to some pretty cool missions. There were a number of nice missions. It was one of those ones where I got a bunch of calls in a row and playing them and I watched as people popped off one after the other for each call. Was like, hey, V, call me back. Some cool shit over here. And everyone's like, oh, shit. And. And yeah, you know what?

I'll talk about it in this order, because this is actually going to be relevant for the next subject. But I played Dream On, which was like the super creepy couple that you're basically waiting for them to hand you a Superman suit. Or waiting for the husband to put on the Superman suit actually. Oh, oh I see.

And that was a pretty solid one. Just a good bit where you kind of know there's no solving this in any way that's going to make anyone feel good. But that- Well, it'll probably make one person feel good. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, the quest does not go that way, but it sure did feel like it was.

And yeah, I know it turned out to be way more fucked up than that, right? In the end, it was Night City. Oh goody. In the end, it was Night City. Do you know the one I'm talking about where you? Nope, no idea. Oh shit, okay.

Basically, you meet up with this couple, and they're like politicians. And there's a whole like, mayor assassination plot going on. And you're trying. It's the one that introduces you to the cool buddy cop that you also hang out with for the hunt. And anyway, long story short is just this sequence of discovering Manchurian candidate style programming being a thing that you can do remotely to just

remotely wipe and program people's minds and in this case politicians who you want to elect, you know, cool It's one thing to have them be corrupted on your side and be in your pocket It's another to literally just program them to be the person that is in your pocket, you know, okay And yeah prepper prepper horrors that come with that and And yeah, prepper, prepper horrors that come with that. And then the other two, yeah, the other two, there was The Hunt, which was a, is so far my favorite side quest in the game. You basically, the cyberpunk turns into seven

for like 20 minutes where you use brain dances to like, try to figure out the key fight, like there's a killer. And you got to figure out like what's going on with them from childhood where the trauma happened, what created the monster. And then you fast forward further in time to like what they're up to now. Where is Buffalo Bill's house? Where is the well? Where are the people? Where is the victims being kept? And you got to track it all down and down to like to the most recent like here is the victims crawling out from the barn. You know, go get there. And like you pull up and it's, yeah,

the whole thing is just a really awesome tense plays out very much like a detective thriller slash buddy cop movie as you know, you're trying to track down his nephew who's like fallen into this, fallen into this killer's hands. But the way that it's done is you're reading through a series of emails of basically him getting groomed online and pulled away slowly. So it's proper slime. It's a really, really good tense quest as you're like,

it feels very against the clock though, I don't know. I mean, you never know how, sometimes that clock is hyper scripted, sometimes it's not. But in this case, I really, really enjoyed how that played out. And it reminded me of any one of those movies where you're like, okay, call the cops, but they're not gonna get there in time

You know and let's let's let's break in and like are you gonna find the yellow king midway walking into the cave? You know, or is it are you just gonna find more bones? What do you like what phase of is this act two or actually the king in yellow? Like themed or you just referring to true detective. I'm just referring to True Detective, right? I'm referring to like- Because I'm fucking- you tell me something's got King in Yellow shit in it. I'm fucking there. No, it's more along the lines of like anytime you have spent the movie piecing together the serial killer's clues, you know, and you eventually get the final one that is like, we got his location and we know where the victims

are being kept. If we get there fast enough, we can possibly save their lives, you know? And just, yeah, a little bit of that energy. It was really, really good. And then the big one that had a lot of groundswell is Sinner Man. Have you heard of Sinner Man? You heard about Sinner Man?

People talk a lot about Sinner Man. People talk a lot about Sinner Man. Because that is real interesting. And I think it took a second for me to like, I'm like, what's, why are people popping off so hard about me playing this quest? And it was like, oh, because when we first played Binding of Isaac and I had that reaction to the intro, that is something.

Yeah, Binding of Isaac attacked you. So that had a certain energy to it, which in this case, let's see if that gets revisited. And here's what I'll say is that the proposition I think the, what it poses in terms of like, you know, the context of religion in Night City, right, is something that there's a discussion there. Is even religion safe from Night City's human dysmorphic society? No, no it's not. I was certainly having none of it. I mean, the character you meet gives you very little to lean into deliberately,

and makes a proper repulsive dude. And I think, the one thing I heard from people is that like you can just like blow them away on the walk up to the quest and like end it there. But like for the most part, once you're on the ride, you're kind of just locked into the ride, you know? So here and by the end of it, I guess I was kind of like, I wish it wasn't so on rails while bringing this discussion up, right?

In some ways, Sinner Man is like a Serbian film. Let it sit. Let it sit. Okay. I wish my dog was here. Okay. I know. So when the government is so thoroughly corrupt that your death can be as commodified as your life You have to question what the fuck is faith what is ethics what's morality? What does all that mean?

What's the point? What kind of life can you live in a world where beginning to ending? Every aspect of it can you live in a world where beginning to ending every aspect of it can be packaged and sold? Right? In this particular case... I don't know, man, who I'm talking to weekly to describe every part of our lives for financial gain. I just don't know. Right. Because sometimes I eat cookies and then I play with my baby and that seems pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. And you and that bit where it's like, okay, the most horrendous parts of a Serbian film are to be filmed and sold to the highest bidders who want that premium entertainment, right?

That primo, mm, those BDs with the real feelings. Gotta get the real, real feelings. He believes his bullshit, and that's why, that's why this recording is worth so much, you know? The more- This actually makes perfect sense. The more diluted, the better, right? Very, very interesting.

I wish that once the quest started that you weren't just on rails and then out because it feels as if like you don't fully get the ability to chew on that concept because you kind of have to play it out in, like either you get off the ride or you go where it's taking you kind of way. And I think as well, I know I've seen like some feedback where some people that are like, people that currently still have faith are very shook by that quest. It's kind of like hitting Ava and hitting your first JRPG biblical analogy, going,

oh my God, the blasphemy, this is crazy. It takes it really far because it's a fucking horrendous character. You can blaspheme pretty hard in a cyberpunk scenario. Yeah. And you have that mother who is in the, you know, you have that mother of the victim who's like horrified at the entire thing and the fact that it's like stretching it out in this way. And she's just, she has a very real,

get the fuck away from me. But all in all, I think like what I was like, I, you know, what I was hoping for is that like, you know, that Kotor moment of like, yes, I, you know, what I was hoping for is that like, you know that Kotor moment of like, yes, no, yes, lie. Right? And, and like, you can, like the version of that, I guess is the, it's the like, don't release the tape or so. But like, I wished, I wish there was more to all of that.

Once you were kind of locked into the studio and that sequence kind of played out the way it did, and then you kind of walked out, I was like, yeah, that dude's pretty reprehensible. I don't really feel two ways about that. I feel like the reflection on Night City says obviously a lot, but in terms of the actions of the quest and the crucifixion and all that playing out, it's kind of like, yeah, fuck

this guy, who cares? Like inhale, exhale, take your next breath, keep moving. What are we doing here? That's kind of where I landed on it, you know? But, I can, but yeah, but it obviously had a very lasting impact for many, and I think more for the implications of what it says about the world, perhaps more than the, like, the blasphemy aspects of it. But yeah, that's the takeaway I kind of had with it.

Right. Most of what I hear from people talking about Sinner Man is just abject shock at the events that take place. Yeah. It's fairly Mm. Yeah. It's, it's fairly extreme. Yeah. I... I, I don't, I don't, I didn't find that, I didn't find that to be shocking.

I kind of just, it's like you're on the ride with a horrible person and, um, the commodification of, of his death and what, yeah, like, like that. Sort of. But, you know, again, like I think I think that there's I think that could have been played out in a way where again, you could have you could have branched it more. There could have been more options. It could have been a little less locked into the path. You know, I just I don't know what to say. And I know that anyway, whatever, like some people, I've seen some people that are just like, it was boring.

I hated it. I've seen some people be like, it was the best cost in the game. But regardless, that's how I feel about it. What was quite kind of interesting though is in the next game a thousand times resist Yes, it's interesting how like hitting some of those moments and getting at some of what Sinner man was actually touching on in a completely different context, but But a thousand times resist which I've beaten now, which is Just a walk and talk game,

engages with its point more and allows more, allows you time to chew on and it allows you freedom to examine some of what it's getting at with this same kind of thing we were just talking about. The end of A Thousand Times Resist did more of what I was kind of thing we were just talking about, the end of A Thousand Times Resist did more of what I was kind of looking for out of this kind of discussion. So I'm not gonna spoil A Thousand Times Resist,

but I will say that- Because that is a narrative fucking game. Yes, the whole thing is the experience of going through it the first time and a second time for details. But in conclusion, now that we're done of going through it the first time and a second time for details. But in conclusion, now that we're done, and it turned that, you know. Oh, you're done, done. Done, done, yeah.

It was a longer game than I thought. It's very good. It's really well written, and there's a lot of interesting things being said about the subject matter, which is the parental cycle of trauma. Oh yes, generational trauma. There's a lot of that going around.

Yep, yep, what you pass on, you know, what you developed in and what you push forward to the future. You know, there's a lot of ways to examine that subject. This does a really, really good job of it. In particular, a differentiation between the what is internalized automatically from the moment you're born, that you have no chance to avoid or separate from yourself. Like even despite your best efforts, like if you were born in Blighttown, when you approach anybody,

they're gonna get a toxic bar that's going up. Like it's just, you're like, yeah, sorry, I was born in Blighttown, you know? What do you want from me, man? What I will say is that it is a slow burn. The first moments of the game, like the first 5% start very strong. Okay.

From about five to like 40%, the pacing slows down and gets bad. Oh yeah. And it's some narrow, and the thing is it's mainly discussing with your meeting characters, you're talking and you're moving forward in it. So you're just walking through a large garden area and you're meeting more characters,

you're developing the world. But it unfortunately, in this kind of middle part, it like it slows down in a way that I was not enjoying as much. And there are definitely like, there's enough going there with the characters that, especially the ones that you're meeting and that you like. And the mystery is there's always a, what the fuck is going on? There's a strong- Yeah, but how long are you just stuck in the,

what the fuck is going on state? So you get reveals of answers to that. But you know those moments where something might like reveal a whole bunch and then empty its hand and then pick up a new hand and you go, well, what's in that new hand? Right? This game doesn't do that. This game will reveal one card and then like still hold the rest and then reveal one at a time while picking up new ones as you go. It never wants to show the whole hand. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. What I will say is moments that last with me that I remember strongly are the ones where there's a huge

info dump and then recontextualization of events. And those happen here, but while they're happening, new obtuseness is being introduced at the same time, is I guess the best way to describe it. I see. Now around the 40% mark, that shit gets really solid, right? Oh yeah. So there's a moment where we're kind of talking about how you get near Automata and if you start playthrough B

and you're like, oh, it's the same game. There might be a bit of a feeling of like, oh, well, I guess I do, is it just the same thing again? That's a little bit different here. There's a little bit different there, but it's not really like. But one of the main things is in Automata, It's just the same thing again. That's a little bit different here. It's a little bit different there, but it's not really like. But one of the main things is in Automata,

if you love the combat, the combat can carry you forward through that second very similar playthrough until you start hitting playthrough C, D, and E, and then shit goes crazy, you know? And then, you know. But here, you're not getting that gameplay, it's just talking to people.

So when those pacing moments dip, that you feel them really brutally, right? That solidness that picks up around the 40% mark carries all the way through. And I would say when you get to the finale, that last 90 to 100, it's excellent. The finale is fantastic. So how much would you describe in the game's total runtime is like pushed through time?

About half of it. That's rough, man. That's a lot. The thing is, is there's an asterisk there, which is if you love some of these characters a lot and are charmed by them, you can, that you can, the gravity of that will pull you. Do you know what I mean? Like it depends on how much you like the cast. I will say that if you're, if you're digging them,

like I was digging the cast, I wasn't super locked in until much, much later. I was digging the cast and that made the pacing feel the way it did. And then, you know, getting full reveals, understanding motivations, getting the multiple angles of what they're about and why they're doing what they do makes me go, oh, fuck, okay, I'm really interested in finding out more about, you know, where this is going and why and what's happening here. But overall, it's, yeah, it's still a, it's a short, it's a, you know, for being longer than I thought,

it's still a pretty short game and worth experiencing. Just know this, that you're playing a visual novel with walking in between. And yeah, you're gonna, you know, that push through moment, our phase of it, it really depends on if you, you know, if you love the characters you're seeing and you're just like, I just wanna know more

and I'm all in on them, then you won't feel that. But if you are like me, then you do feel like the weight of like, all right, now we gotta hit this other side of the garden. Okay, let's go through this sequence. How long is the game? I mean, it's 10 chapters, and I think if you're not let's playing it, you know, and doing fucking

inception episodes, probably like 10 hours, maybe. Oh, okay, that changes the context, because I know you've been playing it for a while. Yeah, and there were certainly 13 Sentinels moments of like going and watching myself play it to piece together the timeline and what's happening. But you know, way faster if you don't care about talking to everybody and seeing everything and like fully doing it.

But if you're just beelining for objectives, you can do it much, much faster, certainly. But yeah, still very good. In particular, the closing chapters of that game, it drops its thesis statement and then asks you some real, real shit about in that cycle of trauma that gets passed on from generation to generation,

like you choosing that you wanna somehow stop that and like, or improve it or be better than it or do whatever the case, what do you choose? What is, what do you choose to keep? What do you choose to release? You know, is there anything to gain from even the shit that like bothers you the most, you know? I gotta tell you, as somebody with a baby man and who may or may not

Have some generational trauma The vast majority of it is like hey Yeah, I'm not gonna do that one Yeah, it's like 99% it's like, hey, that was the wrong call. Not that one. Yeah. There's the part that resonates the most with me is there's a, I mean, I'll probably, I don't know.

Maybe I'll talk about this at some point or a little bit. One of the tattoos I'm planning to get is something that is basically emblematic of, there's shit from my childhood that I absolutely hate, that drives me crazy and pisses me off and is always going to feel immensely negative inside of me. But undeniably, if I did not, if I ignore it and pretend it didn't happen, I wouldn't be who I am. So there's shit. and pretend it didn't happen, I wouldn't be who I am.

So there's shit. I think about shit like that all the time. Yeah. And it's not religion. I know the obvious thing is to go, Willie talks about religion. It's not religion. I'm not talking about that. I think about that shit all the time.

And it's, do you remember? This is such a strange poll. You remember a Laggan hen? You remember right in the big bombastic, you know, super robot thing of viral yells out, I'm glad for the events that brought me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you'll daydream about like, well, what if I could go back in time and do things differently? I'm like, the sequence of events that brought me to here as I am now are really specific.

Yeah. I don't think I would ever be able to get to this good spot if I was trying to do it on purpose. Yeah. It's really weird, but it's infinitely interesting to just think about that, you know? And it's something that I feel like is like, oh yeah, that's forever.

I'm processing that one somewhere in my mind at all times, you know, indefinitely. It's... There's a moment, like, there's something like that that happens in Vagabond that is my favorite moment of my favorite manga. That is why I'm so in love with that story that is exactly this subject, right?

It is like a moment where the character, where Musashi takes the worst shit he's been through and like figures out how to use part of that to better what he is now and then acknowledge that part that existed and then try not to be haunted by it. That resonates very strongly for me. And with that backstory bias, this game basically goes into a really fucking awesome discussion about exactly that.

Let's look at everything on the table that you are and go, what does it mean to push this forward to the next generation? What does it mean to get rid of it? Imagine you're near automata, like we're sent, we're key, the data, you know what I mean? That you, that gets sent out and type of thing. Like, okay, we're collecting all the experiences,

but what if we audited that for, for, for posterity? What does the auditing process look like? It was fucking great, you know? So that to me makes the, the ending of the game absolutely stellar and worth recommending. And I say this with heavy, heavy fucking bias towards that subject matter. Right. Honestly, I find it fascinating when you deal with like, you know, any type of thoughtful narrative that's dealing with a totally, a form of social experience that you are genuinely,

completely, totally unfamiliar with to the point of having difficulty rendering empathy because you don't even know enough about it to know what to feel with. Oh, yeah. I mean, do you or anyone you know have family members that were in the Hong Kong 2019 umbrella protests? Probably not. I'm going to go with no. I'm going to go with no on that. So let's take a minute to learn a thing or two about that as a jumping off point and then push forward in time. Deeply personal, deeply, deeply personal experience for the creator of this game, for sure. But yeah, Thousand Times Resist in the end, that's what all the stink is about. And it's very well written. Really enjoyed that.

So that is what we pretty much did on the channel. Yeah, it took a quick look at the Rage of the Dragons steam re-release and the Marvel vs. Capcom collection. Children of the Atom, God bless that animation. It's so fucking good. It's so fucking good. I love it every time. It's one of the weird cases of like the sequels had the animation get worse over time because

there were more characters. But the first of those fighting games, x-men children or the atom game It was it was the best looking one whole versus series where every versus game looked kind of worse as time went on Except for the new new characters in in Marvel to yeah, everyone lost frame Marvel to has like a bunch of characters to look like trash Mugen frame standing still, you know, but yeah, we took a look at some of those. So those are gonna be coming out this week frame standing still, you know? But yeah, we took a look at some of those, so those are going to be coming out. This week on Saturday, we're going to be taking a look at Iron Saga Versus. That's a sponsored stream. It's a mecha fighting game. You're going to get your Mazinger Z. You're going to get your Getter Robo. You're going to get all your favorites

coming together. And you like robots, so this is a good fit. I am a fan of the mechanical humanoid, especially the large ones. I like getting into them. And I like when the life rings start revolving. So yeah, come check out Iron Saiga Versus. We're gonna yuck it up in that for a bit. Thank you to the team for providing.

And beyond that, oh, go check out, I got a little plushy campaign going. Oh, I saw. Yes, makeship.com slash petitions slash wolves dash in dash the dash lab. If you want to get a little Wools plush, there's a little Wools with a little arcade stick, that's also gonna be plush.

It'd be super sick if it was a real one. And yeah, if you wanna get one. Fortunately, the amount has been pledged and it immediately hit that amount right away, so it's happening. If you wanna get one, go head over there and uh yeah. I should get one for goofs. Get one so that boost can chew the fuck out of it. Oh he doesn't do that. Oh okay. He the only thing he does is he sucks blankets. Okay. Everything about that dog is like sad, cute, pathetic.

It's like, does he chew bones? No, he just sits on his blanket, goes. All right, fair enough. At the very least, you can toss me across the room and keep the stick on its own, if you'd like. So I think I would probably just bring you up to talk to you as a prop. I think I hate that one the most actually.

Yeah, okay. Hold on, I'll pledge $2 to Dan. I think I hate that outcome more than any others. Pre-order. That's not a fun bit. Oh yeah, express checkout with PayPal. Fuck yeah. I don't like how this has turned. Thanks for reminding me.

I think I dislike this more than people talking about jars. Oh, come on. That's not even upsetting anymore. Well it's just, it's not even practical really. I mean practicality was never the goal. Like, what about moisture evaporation? What about loss over time? What about aerialization? Anyway, I just, I don't know that a jar

would do anyone any good in this context Look Look, you can go check out the little plushie if you'd like and I'm not gonna tell you what to do with it. You can do whatever you want Okay That never really happened right Patrick that thank you, Patrick. Thank you for making a pledge to bring this product to life. Did that ever... Was that... Pledge helps this creator know that they're on the right track. Was that real? Their community wants this character to come to life. Was that real? Was that ever real? The Jar ship? Yeah. Oh yeah, it's real

a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Let's back up. Because there's multiple... Are you talking about one man, one jar? No. I'm talking about MLP jar. Because I saw that. No, no, no. I'm talking about MLP. That was real. I've seen that. I've seen that. That was real. I'm talking about MLP jar. Oh yeah, no. People do that all the time. That's that's absolutely You can go ask Justin Wang about that he does he does documentaries on the jars He's the jar master, okay got it in fact I think he's done documentaries on both the jars were talking. Okay. Okay. See this is one of those bits words Like you know the internet osmosis brought the energy, but I didn't know if it actually was a thing that happened.

I'm gonna type in Justin Wang jar. Does anything wholesome? There's Jar Man, there's the jar, the pony jar update. There's an update. Nothing wholesome on the internet has ever involved a jar. Interview. He has an interview with the Jar Man. Nothing wholesome, nothing wholesome involves a jar. It has never happened once. What about pickling?

And brining. Yeah, but Sometimes people- What about high-end confiture? People pickle gross things, right? Like cucumbers? people pickle gross things, right? Like cucumbers? Well, anything that's not a cucumber, you know? What about radishes? Pickled eggs. What about onions? Yeah. What about kombucha? See that? There's fucking pickled eggs and pickled fucking fucking there's science labs with pickled fetus In it. Oh, listen, listen, listen, I think brine and and pickle juice is disgusting. I'm just telling you That People use them for non nefarious purpose jars and bad things name a fucking worse combination Serious purpose jars and bad things name a fucking worse combination

All right, so yeah, so that by the way to anyone who needs to know this Make sure to fill the jar with water. It will increase its tensile strength I I can't tell people cuz that was his mistake do you know that that's that's that's why that happened didn't didn't didn't put it wasn't filled water didn't pour enough water yeah yeah it was an empty jar that time there you go yeah already what the fuck is happening? You can catch the Iron Saiga stream on Saturday, but yeah, that's pretty much just going to be it for this week over on Woolly Versus, on Twitch, and on YouTube. Okie dokie. What up?

So I played some Monster Hunter GU, who cares. I played some Kingdom Come Deliverance too, who cares. That's just pure peasant amazing shit. It's incredible. What's actually important is that Monday was Page and I's anniversary and so we played Split Fiction, the new Joseph Farris joint. Is it a bop it's so much better of a bop than it takes of course unbelievable of course there you go it is it is I knew it man it is incredible when those trailers when those trailers

those trailers didn't really pop for me but I was watching I was watching them and I was watching as people were like, yeah, I don't know. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. It's who's making it. It's who's making it. They've never fucking failed. Every one of those games from Brothers Upwards was great. I'm like, whatever they showed, I'm like,

I believe you're going to make an amazing co-op game. And lo and behold, they fucking did. So that game puts its foot on the gas and doesn't let up for multiple hours Like like it is go go faster more game more gameplay for hours It the number one thing that it has over it takes two is it just plays like a way better game is it just plays like a way better game. Like all the different types of games that you're playing, they all play like really, really well

and feel really, really great. Every different way to co-op in unique, interesting manners from stage to stage. Fast too, like really, really, really fast. Like you are playing each sequence for like 10 minutes. And the way they break it up is so genuine and so perfect because like the first big level is like primarily sci-fi, right? So you're doing your cyber ninja stuff and you'll do like here's the wall, here's the segment where one character has to move boxes around the environment and the other one has

to run on ceilings and do platforming, right? And then you have ten minutes of like, oh no, it's a chase sequence where one character's driving and the other character's on the gunner, right? And then it's like, oh, here's a side story. And what's the side story? Okay, you're gonna play a fantasy game because it's the side story of the sci-fi level and the sci-story will be Journey. It's just going to be Journey. It will be Joseph Harris going, would you like to play Journey right now as a co-op game? And you go, yes, yes I would. Okay, that's a good, yeah, co-op.

And then you go back to sci-fi and now you're doing like crazy in the sky, flying car platforming while one character is like fighting a boss and the other character is doing puzzles in the sky, flying car, platforming, while one character is like fighting a boss and the other character's doing puzzles in the background. Okay, now we're gonna do side story. What's the side story? It's Banjo-Kazooie with pigs that can fart so hard they fly.

Okay. So you're gonna play this like dedicated Banjo-Kazooie level. Like, and just ping pong, ping pong, ping pong. Go, go, go, hell yeah. Like that the whole time. So fast. So it's already admirable that Haze Light is dedicated towards keeping couch co-op games alive. And that on its own would be like a noble thing to be like, yeah, I love it. But the fact that they're crushing it with each one is just, that's fantastic. Like it's amazing.

I like Paige was like squealing and delight. And I was just like, ah, like the whole time. It was it's amazing. Because, yeah, like the the, you know, well, I mean, Brothers was something different, but that was still just like, you know, with one player taking both and you're having a good time doing the experimenting with the way they they play, you know, with one player taking both and you're having a good time doing the experimenting with the way they play, you know, simultaneously.

A way out, obviously, like just pretty straightforward, but premise and narrative. Right up until the plot twist you saw coming. Yeah, yeah. Right up until the game just turned into a very different type of game. The game changes,. And that is actually insanely exciting. Yeah. But it's like, it's not that complex. It's just very exciting.

That's it. Right. Yeah. It just does it really well. And I would say that like, yeah, the last time around, you know, it was like, let's have a like a fun little kids adventure. But the main thing is like, let's have a fun little kid's adventure, but the main thing is like, let's do a bunch of co-op things that nobody else is really doing. And once the idea's done, cool, next. Explore this one gameplay element for as much as you can

in this one stage and then discard it and fucking start over next stage. That's really cool. I felt like, uh, like it takes two was almost like a test game for split fiction because it takes two, it takes two is a lot more like thematically consistent because it's about divorce and working together and yada yada. Uh, but like actually playing it, wasn't all that exciting. Split fiction does not have as strong of a thematic push,

but actually playing it is like thrill house. Like you're just like, oh, the whole time. Though what the story is about is that you, as an unpublished author, are going to a big tech company who has told you that they're going to help publish your new books but then when you get there they feed you into a robot that's supposed to steal all of your ideas. Oh no! Oh no, not the robot! Oh that's yeah, okay, which feels well time that's quite apt. Yes interesting Yeah, I this is the kind of game that obviously I'd like it'd be fucking absolute gangbusters to start right now, but um

Timing wise I gotta look at a lot of things and figure it out You know, but I super want to play just put it on the list for later then because it is is Good very good game It's like I just like we came away from it like sweating and just like that's emerging Just one one sesh of like couple levels. Yeah, just one session so far We went through like the entirety of the first sci-fi level so it feels like There will be four Large scale stages, which would be sci-fi fantasy sci-fi fantasy gotcha, okay, okay?

And then if you're if your preference is the other one well don't worry when you're playing the sci-fi level the the little side Stories will be fantasy based when you're playing the sci-fi level the the little side stories will be fantasy based when you're playing The fantasy ones the side stories will be Sci-fi based okay. Yeah, so I know I'll come back around to this for sure Um, I think I'm just gonna hammer out some cyberpunk for now. It's it's it's a big game. It could use it sounds good, you know The other thing that happened to me this week is that I was like, you know what? I think I've played enough of Monster hunter GU I think I'm gonna switch my streams over to Monster Hunter rise

Because I never got all that far into rise the switch one. Yes. Yeah dogs. Yeah, I Never did any of the Sunbreak stuff. Okay, it's been a really long time and The Sunbreak stuff is the best stuff in there. So yeah, why not? And my chat really seems to really enjoy playing Monster Hunter, but older Monster Hunters. So yeah, you know what, let's do it. So I started to test out Rise.

I was like, wow, Rise is crashing like a lot. That's weird. It's crashing like a lot, huh? Like every quest, every single quest would crash. And then I told Paige that and she's like, you know, I forgot to tell you, but the other day I turn on the computer and I went to go do something and it blue screened and then it just blue screened after it restarted and then it blue screened after restarted again

And eventually it just turned itself off and I'm like, oh, oh That's not good. And then it did that to me also Oh, this is this is poor This is poor And I'm like because I have the CPUs that can be affected by the rust. So I'm like, ooh, ooh, you know what I should do? This is the house computer.

Yeah, this is the one in my home. You know what I should do. So I have my hard drive that I have, my portable hard drive that has all the stuff I need to put on a new computer. So that I pull my thumbnails for the channel off and shit like that. So it's like, oh, I can just reset this anytime, right? So I'm like, all right, I got a USB key and I get Windows 11 on it and I use the media

creation tool and I plug it in and I do a complete, 100% clean Windows install. And I'm like, alright, good. So it's booting up to desktop after a completely clean Windows install, and it blue screens when it starts to download the very first Windows update. Then it restarts and blue screens before I can gain mouse control. It does it five times in a a row and I'm like, okay Let's hit that. Okay hit that bios This is now outside of my

Level of expertise. Okay, cuz I could go in the bios. Yeah, I would not know what to do from there. Okay Aggressive safe-moding and then piece-by-piece diagnosis basically. So, yeah, I had already priorly done safe-mode and stuff like that. And I look back and I'm like, you know, I've actually, I've talked about this on screen, I've had a lot of trouble installing drivers

on that computer. Like, I go to install driver, it just says failed. Oh, okay. So I'm worried that it's the rust. So we popped the computer in the car and we brought it to PC Man, my local PC guy. And I was like, can you fix my computer? And he said, yeah, I'll take a look at it. And I was expecting to get a phone call saying, well, your CPU is fried. You'll have to RMA

replacements or buy replacements and that would take this amount of time. Oh my god. No, he called me yesterday on my show and he was like, hey, your computer's done. I'm like, really? What'd you fix? Replace one part? And he said, I'm not 100% sure because I did a lot. Okay. Okay. So then I, the reason why the podcast is late today is I went down there and ended up talking to him for quite a while over what he had done. And he explained the sequence of events that he did where he basically cleaned it all out,

went to the BIOS, did every single option to the BIOS he could possibly think of as a technician, checked every single component separately, ran diagnostics, and then he loaded it up in an offline secure environment, installed Windows, and then installed every Windows update to date separately followed by a reboot. And then all drivers for every part of my computer separately via a reboot, after reboot. The cleanest install. And said that is probably horrible overkill, but I wanted to be sure. And now it works and it's set my house and it's working just

fine and he gave me, there's a folder on my drive that is all the things he installed and they're subdivided into folders in the order in which he installed them. Okay. Thorough. So that if I ever run into any issues, I just do that again. No new parts. Nope. Awesome. That's cool. He's like, yeah, this fan is dead. I'm like, yeah, I know do that again. No new parts. Nope. Awesome, that's cool. He's like, yeah, this fan is dead.

I'm like, yeah, I know that fan is dead. Okay. Because the limits of my abilities are like, yeah, like again, hit the bios up, do an aggressive piece by piece diagnosis, but like once something isn't working, like that's where I'm like, I'm not gonna try to fix this,

I'm doing a part replacement, you know? Yeah, and so here's the thing, if I had done the part replacement, I would have had the same problem, but had spent more money on parts. Right, because that wasn't the problem. The problem was not the part. The problem was some,

well I mean, the problem was a compound of errors that I had made in the maintenance of my computer. Right, okay. Because what often ends up happening in most cases is if you can take the part out, put it in a different computer, and see if it fucking does the same shit, then you go, well, it's that, and then you go replace that. So yeah. Okay. So what was interesting though is that I called him on the phone to describe the problem And he was like you better bring that thing in I don't think I don't think I can fix that on a house call

Right am I okay, so I bring it in and I walk in the door and it was hey the streamer And I'm like that's right. He's been to my house Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, and he's like yeah, this fan is dead. I'm like, that's right. He's been to my house. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, this fan is dead. I'm like, yes, you disconnected that fan. He's like, I did. I'm like, yes. Yes, you did. Actually, you're at my place doing a house call and you you disconnected that fan and then we shot the **** about, you know, **** while we discussed the computer and yeah, very cool guy. Super helpful. Cost

me like 200 bucks. Mm-hmm That's it that this person. This is a lost art now what you're you know what you're describing It feels as if more and more an honest computer mechanic. Yeah, it feels like shits built to be tossed and repurchased You know, yeah, but sometimes it just It's it's like if I just replace parts. I just have the same problem repurchased, you know? Yeah, but sometimes it just, if I had just replaced parts, I'd still have the same problem. No, sometimes it's just like, yeah, do the cleanest, cleanest reboot, reinstall, re-everything.

Yeah, and tweak things to be nice and whatnot. Good stuff. And then the other thing is that he updated my BIOS and then was like, hey, you have another computer like this, right? Okay, here's the BIOS information you need to update that BIOS. I'm like, thank you. It's very nice. And then we held hands a little bit.

There you go. Because it was a good moment. There you go. Do you also have that feeling where as you're trying to solve the problem, you hit a point where you're like, you know, if I spent the rest of the day, I could maybe fix this, but I'm an adult and I have a disposable income, so I'm going to just... Well, for me, it's always like, listen, If I run into a type of problem, can I fix this in the time it would take for me to make out the equivalent cost through my own labor?

Like yeah. Is it a better idea for me to go stream and just have a man who knows what he's doing help me? I just something like in the heat of the stress, there's always a part where I'm like, nah, I'm out. I could, I could, but I'm out. I don't want, I don't want this anymore. I don't want to do. These are all considerations, but do you know what the real consideration is? I want to work on this problem to the point where when I have to ask a man for help, it's not like, oh, okay, yeah, no, I got this,

in like two seconds. Right, right, right. I need to work on the problem to the point where when the man comes to my house to help me, he doesn't think I'm a baby. Yes. He's like, oh, yeah, no, this is a problem a problem And here's the thing is if somebody opens up the hood of a car we can't do shit But if you open up a computer we can kind of sound like we know what we're talking about

Therefore this is one of the few times where you get to be like hey, honey come listen to this or whatever Just like yeah, so you know I was taking her around back there pulled out the power supply fix that fan You know there's a lot of dust got the dust on it was checking how the Ram is clean Okay, whatever you know it's like for example I had a toilet that was like running you know like the handle was a little fucky And so it was like kind of just running constantly, and I was like ah so I you know I popped it off I turned the water off, and I'm fucking with it. I'm like I Don't know how to replace this part like, I don't know how to

replace this part and I don't even know where to get this fucking part. So the plumber comes over and goes, oh yeah this happens all the time and he fixed it in like two minutes and and like he worked at it enough that it didn't make me feel like a little baby. Because if he had walked in and gone and like put turn something and gone, it's fixed. I would have been like, Oh, I guess I'm stupid baby idiot. Oh, yeah, no, my version of that is I'm making three trips to Home Depot in the same day. Because the oh, it was the wrong fucking nut. And that nut doesn't fit on this piece

and the back of the toilet needs that specific kind and you got the plastic version but it needed to be the metal one and just like hitting up that same aisle while it's not happening but I'm imagining the person working at the paint booth is just kind of watching me walk back and forth in, out and then an hour later back in again like what do you need an adult no I

never told you what happened to my keys so I went to my local hardware store because I needed I you know I we moved in and we were just like you know we don't have enough copies of our keys. You know, like I had like a, I lost my full thing of keys scare and was like, oh, one of those we don't have a replacement for, you know? So I went down there and I'm like, hey, can I order some sets of keys? And the new kid who was being trained was like, well, I have to learn how to make keys, so I'll do them.

And I'm like, well, I have to learn how to make keys, so I'll do them. And I'm like, okay. And so he busted me out like, you know, three, four sets of keys. He's like, here you go, man. Great. And then I brought them home and then I tried one and it immediately got jammed in the lock. And had the door stuck locked. Oh no. Fuck. And I had to get a fucking, I had to get like pliers, not pliers,

I had to get a wrench. Yeah. And fucking get a hold of it and like, oh man, that sucks. Yeah. And I was like worried that it was going to snap off in the fucking lock and then I went back there and had like, do you know when you're having an angry tense conversation in which every emotion in the conversation is being contained within you only? So like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm mad enough that I could scream because I almost got locked out of my house because I got bad keys. But like the kid is like 18. And it was literally it's I think it might have actually his first day on the job.

And it was literally it's I think it might have actually his first day on the job and like the the other guy Was probably supposed to help him more than he did So like this is the type of accident that can happen. Yeah, but like I'm like Losing my mind Because my my shit almost got fucked up. So I'm like hey So I'm like, hey So I need replacements for these keys Because I almost got I almost So if you could redo them or maybe have one of the more experienced guys do them because the last set was a little off, I would really appreciate it.

Like, you know, like it's just like screaming to burst out, but you know, doing so would be wrong. And you're kind of just being emotional and like a baby about it the red check Well, you shouldn't have set me out the door no with fucking keys you weren't 100% sure on man But it was his first day at Fritz and it is my first day. You know just yeah Well, look, yeah. Well, look, you know, you didn't like, I mean, if you're like the door locked and my baby is in there, you know, it's like. Well, then I would be like, I need to talk to a manager

because I need restitution for my smashed window. Like, yeah. Because, you know, like. We're talking about a different situation, but okay, damn. Right. I was like, um, but yeah, split fiction is great. And make sure old guy who doesn't look like he wants to talk to you instead of smoking makes your keys. Like the guy who's in work off of his smoke break, like most of his time is spent smoking outside And he's come in to make your keys, that's the guy you want

Oh no, so this is the same rule that applies to Waffle House Where like when you walk up to the Waffle House You want the chef on his smoke break who looks pissed that you're walking in Who outs his cigarette and then goes, oh fuck, and goes inside. If I go to a restaurant and I see the cooking staff and it doesn't look like any of them have been arrested, I should probably leave. Yeah, yeah.

Like listen, the back of the house staff should have maybe been to a little bit of jail. Right. Yeah. Like, like, listen, the, the, the back of the house staff should have maybe been to a little bit of jail. Right. Right. To make their cooking skills really excellent. There's a, there's a sous chef. And if you ask for like, where, if he can find other things he can probably provide, you know, yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about yeah aside from that it's it's basically been it's basically been fucking around in Monster Hunter GU and the kingdom come deliverance oh my PC is gone you never want to hear English coming out of the kitchen. You want to hear every other language coming out of that kitchen. Hell yeah. Absolutely. I do have a small baby update, which is, you know, man, they grow up so fast. You're just speed running through all these phases. But this phase, this is a fucking good one.

So we're desperately trying to instill good manners because that's important for society. So we're on the please and thank you battle. Okay. Right. Now he's very little. So please and thank you are usually actually just the hand signals. Right. So like tapping on your chin is please and tapping on your chin and outwards is thank you. Right. But we're still trying to get the words out. So hey little man, do you want your milk? And you go ah, ah, ah, give it, right? And

you're like no, hey, we ask please. And so he'll touch his chest like this, go pa. You know, okay, good, great, here's your milk. Can you say thank you? And my little guy is trying to say thank you but instead he goes deet do so you give him his milk and this tiny little guy like wobbles away. Yeah. Resist the urge to keep it at Deet-Doo for as long as possible. Oh no, no, no, no. I- I- Me and Paige are gonna be saying Deet-Doo to this kid for 20 more years. Oh. Remember? Remember when you weren't even two years old and you would take your milk and you would go Deet-Doo?

I remember. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I remember. Okay, okay. No, that's fine. What I'm talking about is like Okay, cool. I'll have the car back by 10 D2 Like and you just never even correct it Yeah But yeah, that that's what's going on over here. As for the show this week, this might be the most fucked up scheduled week I have ever made. I changed my schedule. I posted it like eight times because everything would go wrong and things would move and appointments

would be reminded and then the computer died and then all sorts of things. And now I'm changing it again because there's a sponsored stream coming up this week that just came in at the last minute. But tomorrow I'm going to be checking out the Future Games Show. Okay. Which is at 1pm Pacific. Hold on, let me check. It's the Future Games Show. Is that a 1 p.m. Pacific? It better be Because that's the time that I think I was doing it It's gonna be hosted by Jen English and no one north Okay, yeah one p.m. Pacific

And we're also gonna do more monster hunter later in the week though I'm not sure which monster hunter it is at this point because I'm flip-flopping all over the place And I'm gonna be doing a sponsor stream is at this point, because I'm flip-flopping all over the place. And I'm going to be doing a sponsored stream of a game called Once Upon a Puppet, either tomorrow or the day after. Okay. That's over at twitch.tv slash patstairsat. As you said that bit about good manners,

it just reminds me of the line, the metaphor, it's like good hygiene is important to communal living I think sure yeah every time you use the bathroom it's just a little like yeah that's why you got to do it wash your butt shit don't change till you get up and wash your ass that's what grandma says you know it's really funny to me, Woolie? Every time I stream lately, someone comes in the chat and goes, hey man, are you going to cover a test in screen shadows?

And I just like, nah man. Nah, I'm good. Yeah. Nah, I'm good. Yeah. No, I'm fine. There's a deep, deep need inside of me to find out what's going on with Yaskay as someone who has been... Apparently you don't get to play as him for a while. For 20 hours or so. Yeah, I heard.

Yeah. Apparently you don't get to play as him for 20 hours or so. Yeah, I heard yeah, I heard yeah Yeah, but I've wanted a yasuke game for so long Play me for so long now neo neo. Yeah. Yeah, but you know, but I mean like yasuke on main More so, you know This seems like a massive waste of time This seems like a massive waste of time. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Like, it's one of those things, like the idea that, sorry, after you.

No, I'll see, but I have a deep curiosity inside of me to know what's going on with him in this game and how that goes, you know? We'll see. There's something about, like, I had to know, oh yeah? What did you find out that it wasn't worth it? What? about like I had to know oh yeah what what did you find out that it wasn't worth it you know I'm kind of just like maybe yeah are they gonna make that that armor from the um the statue of from the photo of of him with the with the leather you know and stuff I don't know I don't know anyways if I do I'll be

doing that in my own time you know so I'm not fucking subject I gotta take a quick break I gotta feed the dog dinner beer be all righty let's take a quick word from our sponsors I love sponsors don't you booze this week the podcast is sponsored by a little boozy Yeah, yeah a little boozy man over here. Yeah Wipe me down It's it's too on point This week the podcast is sponsored by Shopify. Cha-ching.

That's the sound of... Cha-ching? Yeah. No, Shopify. That is the number one checkout on the planet if you are trying to figure out how to get your e-commerce off the ground, if you want to figure out how to open up a shop, if you want to... Well, I can't even fix my own computer. How am I supposed to figure out e-commerce?

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slash SuperBeast Thank you Shopify Thanks Shopify All right, what's going on this week Couple of left field announcements That I took note of one Yeah, the city of the wolves beta Sorry city of the wolves open beta number two. Sorry the what city of the wharves?

Thank you open beta number two. Sorry, the what? City of the Wharves. Thank you. Open beta number two is incoming. This time, including Tzok. Fuck yeah. And Training Mode. Now we're talking. We both got the number one thing we wanted out of the next beta.

They've... The number one feature, as demanded. Yes, Training Mode and the Griffin mask, which I prefer that, I have to say. I can go either way on it. I love both of them, but it's like, I also love King of the Dinosaurs. Yeah, but that's what I mean is like,

I like King of the Dinosaurs as a wrestler name, and I feel like the Griffin mask is like a wrestler name. You know like that's a that's a personality I Think them putting out a second open beta for the city of the wharves is really smart because They were cooking a little bit with that last one But they were also not cooking a lot with parts of that last one I mean they were whipping up a fucking a Michelin rated meal with the gameplay yeah but the ability to get that meal to your house was a very very bad porter service

how are you gonna get it to my house? Oh, my cousin Jerry's gonna drive it over. Really? Are you fuck, not, ooh. If you show up in person, you're gonna get a great meal, but if you're get it. But the COVID, I want you to deliver it to my house, please. But it turns out you gotta get it ordered and delivered, and the delivery service is poor,

even though the meal is great. That's the problem. I got to say, Wooly, I don't know when I started doing this. I started doing it a while ago. There is like, it's a different pronunciation. It's like regional or Canadian or whatever, but calling something poor, that's one thing. Calling it poor is like, ugh, ugh. So you have been- You're really putting the thumb on the scale with that you've been doing that I love you've been yeah you've been doing that for about 15 years now and I don't know anyone else

that does it so it's a youism but I know what you're talking about because you are the one that does it I like it I think it works I think it works. I think it works well for me. I believe there's a chance at some point in the future, kind of like how Raiden and Big Bear are the face and heel of the same character. There might be a fallen Tzok man unmasked that we get to at some point, but I hope we never see his face. I feel like it would be blasphemous like King. He's gotta die in the mask. King doesn't have a face. No, no, there's an underneath there.

Guess what, Leopard Man. The moment you put the mask on, it's permanently grafted to your head. And if you're an orphan who gets raised to be that, then it's like a symbiotic relationship. Yeah, your identity was subsumed into the King mask. All your words become roars, but everyone still understands you. It's my favorite part of that. Yeah, so that's going to be... When is that happening City of the Wharves it's happening next weekend

So That's going down if anyone wants to get hands on on Fatal Fury City of the Wharves and you know That game is very fun. I suggest if you get a chance at it y'all check it out I would really like it if they tuned up that net play. That would make me really happy. It's, again, you got a fucking shitbag delivery man working for a really good restaurant that just opened up in your neighborhood.

You know, like this is an actual, this is a perfect analogy, you know? Like you really wanna eat there. It's not the food that's the problem. It's the state that it arrives at your fucking door at. Did my delivery driver eat some of my fucking fries? This time around, you're getting the ingredients so you can try cooking it up a little bit at home, too

um alongside this Night dive studios off the top rope with the i have no mouth and i must scream console port announcement trailer Yeah, I gotta tell you about it, by the way, man. You know what, Dive Studios? They're alright. Yeah.

Now, a head- They're alright. A head-scratcher of a pull, except for if you remember me bringing up this game a couple months ago, because the amazing circus put it back on the radar for a whole new generation of kids when the creator basically said that that series is inspired by I Have No Mouth, which then led to a massive spike in information, including people going back to our old LP and like... Why so much noise about I Have No Mouth now?

Because of the Amazing Circus, that's why. And people that are like, yeah, this is cool, but why do they keep talking over it? And it's like, oh, modern day versus yesteryear. So I'm looking at this trailer. Is Harlan Ellison still alive? No, but the voice and samples are. It's just a port. It's not a remake. They're using the old recordings. They're using the... Oh, they're using the old recordings.

Yeah, no, they're just, they're just, yeah. Bro, that is a mouse heavy fucking game. I, I'm interested to see... It was also jank as hell. It sure was. I went through some trouble getting that to run properly. So did I use Scum? I feel like I used something like ScumVM to get it running or so. It was from way back. But anyway, if you ever wanted to know, yeah, now's your

chance to get a crack at it. And the author of the book is the narrator, is the voice of Am, the hateful computer. And he puts as much hatred into it as he wanted there to be because he couldn't cast anyone to do that. Yeah. Hey, this guy, he's not angry enough. There's not enough venom. There's not enough hatred. Fuck it. Fuck it. I'll do it. Hey! Shout outs to the word, Nano Angstrom. I like it. It doesn't mean anything, but you know it means real small.

A couple other things. What else got announced? Silent Hill F. Silent Hill F got shown off. I did, I watched the Silent Hill F transmission. Directed by the, or written by the writer of Umi Neko. And When They Cry. The other one.

The Kill Yourself anime. The When They Cry series. Neko and when they cry the other one the kill yourself anime the when they cry series now Higurashi yeah so it's written by him and scenario done by him etc seems like it's like okay Silent Hill in a Japan setting seems to be a in the 60s proper Japanese horror like like visual guns picks up a pipe picks up as you know yeah I guess looks cool let's see what happens yeah to a couple things of note unlike other Silent Hill games on Steam this one has a massive forward before you click through to the game. It's not just scenes of violence and gore, it's also like views of characters of their

era and do not reflect the state of the company, like that shit. Oh shit. Okay, the, ooh, we're getting car the context is not supported by the company So that that game is going to have some shit in it Okay, the other thing of note is that the Silent Hill f transmission was an extremely Japanese style presentation in that they showed you the thing you came for first and then they had a 45 minute roundtable where they would bring out a dev and ask them a vague question in which the dev would just say we're working really hard

okay please look forward to it they would then bring out another dev and so how do you think you're going to stay true to Silent Hill well we have looked back at the old games and we are all steam ahead and we are working very hard. Yes. And like that for like 40 minutes. Yep. Staying true. Watch the trailer. Please look forward. Um, yeah. Anytime someone comes out and says they have a message in, in, in Japanese, there's like a special message, message announced. My only question, I guess, is like, this looks like it could be an interesting horror game.

Why even call it Silent Hill? Well, because, so they did this thing when they were talking and going in circles on their Silent Hill transmission in which they creatively rearranged things that happened into a new type of truth known as bullshit in which they said, well, Silent Hill has always been about Japanese horror sensibilities with Western settings. And I went, no, it's not. It's, Hey, we want to make a fucking Stephen King game. Let's make a fucking Stephen King game. Let's make the fog. So obviously, since it's been a Japanese series the whole time, it makes perfect sense

to cast it in Japan, which that's not a problem. That's a cool setting to put a Silent Hill game. Um, and the Silent Hill series has gradually expanded the influence of the town. Like it was the town itself. Then it was where you could send letters out to wherever James happened to be. And then in Silent Hill 3, it's one town over. And then in Silent Hill 4, it's two towns over. Yes, the Fog Everywhere system. Ascension, fucking whatever is happening there. Yeah. But the real reason is that he got the Higurashi guy to write it and he wanted to put it in a Japanese

I would have also accepted the answer to my question because wooly you might not have clicked play on the trailer if it didn't call Itself Silent Hill Well, that is also true If we're if it's gonna be so if we're gonna make a horror game by Konami, we should come around Is important. It's got that brand synergy on it. Yep, yep. And then you go, oh, are we gonna see like a Japanese version of the nurse?

Well. Probably not. You're seeing the like, you know, what's the word we call it, Satoko style, like long hair demon lady. So, you know, whatever her personalized old Japanese demons are. But I guess the idea of the, I mean,

can we say that if we see Pyramid Head with a samurai sword, it's safe to give up? Oh yeah, no that's not it. If you see Pyramid Head with a samurai sword it's safe to give up if you see pyramid head with a giant nodachi it's time to walk away oh fuck so there's like a lotus head freak and all that but that yeah no that that would be so cooked that would be so cooked. That would be so dumb. But look, because we're taking brand recognition and there's a limit, but perhaps Umineko guy

can do it. Yeah. No, I'm not too worried about it. Looks cool. Yeah. Don't know much about it other than some basic details. And that F is like musical note in nature, right? Yeah, but it could mean something.

It could mean friends. Or family. Or... F. It could mean many things. F-E-MAIL protagonist. That's right. Never had one of those. Wait, that's right never had one of those Wait, that's not true

Where they were like they were basically saying like Silent Hill has not been good to To females which came off like super strange like yeah, you know what Silent Hill does not respect women that is technically accurate I mean there have been you have played as girls in these games before yeah you know Heather Ashley was fine there's there's there's Heather there's Maria there's I have I have taken to just saying the word Heather Ashley because I can't I can't I don't I can't split I just think yeah there's that I'll never remember message Yeah, they're totally different kind. They are they are but unfortunately they're not even close, but unfortunately I I

Just a little like all I can't I tried and I can't you can dude you can it's very hard I'm gonna do something Yeah, that is that is that is a I guess something to keep an eye on there and as long as suppose the idea is if they come out and then Put a big Like hey, this is the writer it's someone who wrote things that you liked probably Then you can you can rest a little easier that you liked probably then you can you can rest a little easier mayhaps hey well I sent you a picture which character is that that's Resident Evil

4 see see how easy it is wait wait that's the character the character is Fuck dude! Oh come on! Yeah, that's... That's what that is. Oh no. Alright. They also announced... Space Marine 3. No shit. Nothing to show.

In fact, you click play on the trailer and it's just the artwork with music playing. It's just like, it's happening. This is like a massive no shit. This is very obvious. Space Marine 2 blowing up the charts, selling one shit zillion copies.

But why just make a fucking music play play thing video like just I edit and the announcement to his says like development has begun on it. It's like so early. Because it keeps people more excited to keep playing Space Marine too. It's so insanely early. I guess it's that quarter. Yeah man. It's March dude.

Don't go anywhere, investors. Stick around. Yeah. See how, you know how this is the most successful Warhammer game ever made by order of magnitude? We're going to make another one. When was Space... We're just going to make even more money. It's like, when was Space Marine 1?

Like, what's the time difference between those games as fucking, what, 10 years more? What are we talking about? 2011. Okay, yeah. That first one was rock solid, but it didn't set the world on fire. Fourteen years and then one. There you go. Space Marine should have gotten a fucking sequel years ago.

That game was great. But the world wasn't ready for Warhammer. They weren't ready for it. They weren't ready. Okay. Okay. Warhammer is in a better place now. Hmm. Um. We got a... I mean, right after we wrapped up last week,

talking about the the disco successors, Za'um came out and put out their trailer for Project C4. And you are not much to this as with any all of this news, you know, is just it's going to be the same thing like, be the same thing like, you know, nothing new to say except just, yep, the project, I believe is the one with the least amount of any of the meat from disco involved. It's the one that is like the most husk because it's the, the logo and the IP holders. But if I'm not mistaken, like there was a first batch of people that left post-Kurvitz and then there's a bunch of people

I believe that there's a falling out because they like, Kurvitz was like, yo, why you fucking sticking around? And they're like, because we got a paycheck, you know, we got to get paid. I got I need to pay my fucking bill, which is an understandable bit. But I think at this point, it's not. Wait, I need to pay my bills is not a bit. That is it. That is it. I'm trying a new bit. Yes.

I'm surviving. Yes. Surviving in Estonia. That is an understandable thing. But, of all of them, I believe that this is the most skinwalker of the companies with the least amount.

No, it's not. I'll tell you what. Do you want to see what's the most skinwalker? Have you seen Disco Elysium on Android? I heard there was a port that was happening. Did you look at it? No, is it out? Is it done?

There's no, but there's footage of it in their trailer. So do you wanna feel really conflicted? Is it a good port? It looks really interesting. Because it's not a port it's a translation The into artwork watched through new new artwork for various scenes But that's not the part that made me go like Like full visual novel, but the part that

got me and was like, oh shit, this might have something is there was a very short clip right at the end where they show you in Martin A's from like a street view panning the camera to decide where to go. Oh, with this like Google Street View thing? Yeah. Uh, I don't like that as much. And it's like this might actually be a cool way to play that game. I don't I don't like that part. It looks like you're gonna yeah, I guess you warp the thing and then click to the location. Yeah, that that's not

a thing. But the format change is interesting. That's an interesting way to do it. Yeah. Ah, man, what a fucking mess. What a goddamn mess. Like when reaction speed talks to you, the fucking stat head becomes like the full phone behind the text.

It's like that's actually pretty cool. That's smarter than just porting it and squashing all of it into a small screen. That is more effort than doing it that way. But yeah, no, the soul, the blood, the life, all of that shit. We'll see how this shakes out in a couple years. But this is definitely a, this is a, like beginning of Mighty No. 9 announcement, beginning of 3B's question moment

where I wish I could fast forward and see the noises I'm going to be making in reference to all of the shit that we're finding out right now. Josh told me that apparently Argo Tulik did a fucking insane nine-hour podcast talking about disco and I want to go check that out. Did he say anything? Yeah, apparently there's a- I was going to continue that questions and no, did he say anything? Apparently he says something.

He says one big interesting potential world spoiler for disco and then he stops himself and then- Oh, interesting. Yeah, and then goes, actually, I'm going to wait, let Robert tell you that if he ever needs to. It's not my story to tell. Oh, okay. But there's at least that bit that I was told about. So let's see here. What else did we find out? We found out, ah, have you been,

you heard about the God of War Amazon show? I've heard about it. I, so, the show runner. I don't think they can do a good job. Well, the show runner, Ronald D. Moore, has confirmed that they've ordered a second season. So they've ordered two seasons of it right off the bat. Hold on. Why does that name sound so familiar? Battlestar Galactica.

Oh, fuck. Oh, no. Right? Right? But here's the thing. But he also worked on Star Trek, didn't he? Here's the thing. He did work on Star Trek. In that interview, he goes, yo, I'm not a gamer. I couldn't figure out the controls. I tried to play them.

They're like, isn't that a, that's a big order, right? To be working on God of War. And he's like, yeah, I don't know. I tried to give it a shot. I don't know how to play these games. It's, they're not, it's not, I can't figure it out. And then... Oh, he wrote all good things?

Oh, shit. Oh. So I hear a lot of good things, obviously, about Battlestar Galactica, and you and various other friends of mine have had nothing but glowing. Oh, that is like a 10 out of 10 show for every episode,

except for three or four episodes from the end. So take that piece of information, and then take this part about, you know, he's like, yeah, the I'm not a gamer. This show originally had a separate showrunner and a separate set of writers and everything that all walked out. Two years ago, God of War Amazon had a huge shakeup when it was originally the person that's doing the Wheel of Time.

Yeah, I wouldn't want them to do that either. And they peaced out and then this got handed over to now Ronald D. Moore. So this was a complete replacing of the writing staff and showrunner. It's a salvage job that it's becoming now at this point. And the thing is, is that I'm not somebody who's like, if you're a talented writer and you've proven that, if you say I'm not into games and I couldn't figure out like the playing of it or whatever, that doesn't mean that you can't write a good story. Right. Certainly. No, because like you've created us a story is not necessarily tied to video.

No. And like it's very great. Right. You're you're you've been talented this far in other things that don't have to do with necessarily, you know, oh, you can play the games or not. But I would say that, say that I feel like being attached to the material to some degree means that you're going to care about it. It feels like it's taking on a job. If you're a writer and you're like, they handed me a gig.

Sure, I guess I'll take this on. I can probably write this character, as opposed to like, oh, yeah, I have a feeling and a connection with this material. And this is just, I don't know, I'm just standing out here fucking, just observing the fact that he's like, yeah, he's like, yeah, I don't really play these, I don't know. And that someone and he's taking over after someone else, you know, on the project, left. It's a bit of a weird like, yeah, that versus I suppose, like, right, Henry Cavill talking about like, yeah, that versus I suppose like, right, Henry

Cavill talking about like, how much staying faithful matters to him, you know, and how much he cares. It's like, you kind of would hope that that connection is there, you know. So I'm going over Ronald D. Moore's, you know, work. And there's a problem that you run into When you look for anybody who wrote on Star Trek And the problem is is that they let you do anything the fuck you wanted on Star Trek like What do you want to write this fuck it do it? So I'm like, oh

Co-wrote all good Things and House of Quark and First Contact. All right. Also co-wrote Star Trek Generations. Like every single writer on those shows has like, oh my god, that's one of my favorite episodes and oh no They wrote that piece of shit. Oh, wait. Did I see that one? I think I saw that one. Oh that one That's the one that's the one where fucking Picard and Kirk and Kirk, but yeah shows up right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I did see that one

Right Yeah, it shows up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, I did see that one. Right. Oh man, there's... But that was the whole point of it, right? It was like the captain's meet. That's the big deal. Yeah, you know what? That was the bad idea. That was the idea that tanked that whole movie.

On paper, that could be done well if they do it well. They had literally already done the exact same concept in an episode in TNG in which the gang gets to hang out with with Scotty And that episode was good and that episode was good because it was contained to a 42 minute runtime in which Scotty had three or four scenes Hmm so no four scenes. Hmm. So no, get to the end of the game and the current protagonist of the sequel has to fight the old protagonist bit. I'm talking about fucking Star Trek, man.

No philosophical battles. The whole fucking point of Star Trek is maybe you don't have to settle this in a fist fight. That's like the whole point. No, no, no. I obviously, I mean like Kirk and Picard having a fucking, you know, an argument, an interesting discussion. No, they don't do that at all. They don't do that at all. Okay. They don't do that at all. Believe me when I say, I'm infinitely more interested

in when the payoff of the two characters meeting is a banger-ass conversation more than an actual fight. Shout-outs to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, literally my favorite anime of all time. The only time I can think of that actually happening in Star Trek and it being really, really solid is the beginning of Deep Space Nine where TNG was still airing and TNG still had a couple seasons to go when Deep Space Nine started. So they had an episode in which Commander Sisko, who's running the station, meets Picard because the Enterprise is docking there.

And that was the first episode so that you could say, hey, look, it's the characters you know from TNG and they're interacting with these new characters from Deep Space Nine. And so the doctors chat a little bit, you know, like the passing of the torch because DAS9 is going to continue. And the reason why that was interesting is not just because they're very different characters. It's because Cisco hates Picard personally. Interesting. Because Picard killed his wife. Oh, shit. Okay. Indirectly through... And so those interactions are very weird and very tense and very aggressive.

Through captain decision making? No, when he was a Borg. When Picard turned into Locutus, he killed like millions of people, and then they fixed him, but the family and friends of those people are like, I don't care about that. Yeah.

When that dude was a robot, he killed my house. Okay, but that's a clear case of like mind control. So you know, it's not as it's not as like messy as it would be if he like made a call that resulted in that. But yeah, all right. All right. All right. No, he made a call that they probably actually been chill about it's like, it's tough. Sometimes you gotta sometimes you gotta feed someone to the warp engine to make sure that ship doesn't blow up Is their shirt yellow and and that's why Deanna had trouble getting her stripes. Oh Really oh that's yeah, there's an there's an entire episode about About is it Troy trying to get her her command pips for command instead of just being the therapist. And she keeps running the simulation in which the ship's about to explode. It's like Kobayashi Maru when it's like an engineering problem.

But she's always going on about ethics and stuff, right? Right, but here's the thing. The ethics of the situation demand you tell the engineer to go fix it in the poison tube that will kill him. Yes. Because it will cause the ship to not explode. Kobayashi. Because your ethical concern is the safety of everybody else in the ship. Right, right. Trolley problem in space. And that sucks.

Uh, well, look, again, you can get every life lesson you need from Star Trek. It's all in there. So I didn't, I don't know about the full interview, but at least the clip where this writer was talking, it's like, clearly you have the chops to write a good story and clearly you're not. He does have the chops to write a good story. You're not gonna take on a project

if you don't have anything to say or if you're not interested in it, you know? So there obviously must be a reason. But it is just kinda like, yeah, I guess you'd expect to kinda hear that kinda like, oh, but despite that, here's what I find interesting, here's what I wanna explore, look at, da-da-da-da, whatever, we'll see.

Either way. Now this is a little outside D-more's wheelhouse, cause there's not gonna be a lot of ships and sci-fi elements to this thing. But he does know how to write a good Socratic argument, which is a great place to put for a Greek set. For Kratos. Unfortunately, what's not a great place for Kratos might be Amazon. Oh yeah? Or Kiryu. Wait, Kiryu wouldn't be a great place for Kratos?

Amazon. They're not really doing it so far it seems. And Harry Dubois apparently soon. Did you see that insane quote out of Amazon in which they're like, we spent billions of dollars on Amazon gaming and it never registered as a blip to Steam? Every single person's reaction to that was like, wait, that was supposed to compete with Steen? It didn't even have an application. What the fuck are you talking about?

So insane, so insane. It was so fascinating to read about this whole James Bond takeover situation to learn that like that deal and everything that was happening behind the scenes was because there was like one family that was just like, we control what happens with James Bond, like aggressively. And that's why it's been so that's particular and slow and deliberate when something comes out, you know, and one and like that one lady that was like overseeing it is is like has been telling them to fuck off for years. And now they finally just kind of gave up.

So shit was wild. I had no idea that's what was going on. But okay, I guess it makes sense if something like that is in the hands of a family that is like the only thing we care about is James Bond. We don't give a fuck about the bottom line or, you know, whatever, uh, quick flip overs or spinoffs you want to do with Halliberry. Um, all right.

So we get that. Uh, they also, so another announcement on the speaking and adaptations and all this, there is a new Starship Troopers coming from. You know, there's actually been a ton of Starship Troopers movies. There's been a lot of straight to DVD like wild shit out there, absolutely, including I think the third one where they got what's his name back

main guy pretty dude Casper van diem came back for that one, but alongside this announcement is that Neil Blanc camp is Working on it. Okay, all right. And I'm like, that's that? You got that? Okay, I'm looking at that. Mm, mm, mm. All right. Mm-hmm. My interest is peace.

Yep, yep. I'm curious. That's a name I trust. I'm curious about that. So he's working on it. Now, while he's cooking, what's interesting as well, apparently this is a more faithful to the original book version of things.

Oh, it's a redo? Based on the actual original sci-fi novel by Heinlein, which I don't know, but the original book I heard is like actually just fascist, and the adaptation in the movie was like making fun of that shit with the would you like to know more, obviously, and it was like the satire only came in in those movies, but like the book itself doesn't necessarily carry that is what I've what I've heard but I don't know I'm just

going off of what people have said so I you know I don't know how true that is it's is that it's okay some people are saying that's an exaggeration some people are saying it's half correct all right yeah I bet that's I caught I caught some people saying that so I'm like I don't know if that's the case, but I think here's the thing the book is the book is is Arguably satirical, right and it's it's the novel version of like, oh, you know, is this making fun of fascism or

glorifying? But there's room for doubt. But we live in a world in which if you look at Starship Troopers, the film, people also don't get that set tire. True, true, true, true. So I don't think a deft touch is what's required on this topic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Fucking oh my god sacred and terrible air, man. Oh god. There's this chapter where they're just talking about What do you mean the?

the the big film piece on the Nazi actually making fun of him was interpreted as a hero piece and everyone took it as an inspiration and got motivated by it instead of seeing it for, you know, the clown shoes depiction that it's supposed to be. Oh, it flew over their heads. They didn't get it. The subtext was lost and they took it as sincere. Uh oh. Uh oh. sincere. Uh oh. Uh oh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Right. If there's no room for debating the movie that we saw, but it still flew over people's heads, the books are going to be even harder to fucking pick that up on. I get it. That sucks. I'm seeing folks argue in the chat as to whether or not it is satire or if it's not proto-fascist

It's like that's not kind of the that's not really even the point My point is the general movie going audience can't even fucking understand that starship troopers is a fucking satire How the fuck are they supposed to actually appreciate? Any deeper themes? I know writers that use subtext or I thought I did. I can't tell. I can't. Oh, hey, it might just be text. I have an update. A last either last week or the week before I described some statistics on the general poor reading level and literacy rates among

our American friends. I then saw a massive thread that somebody who clearly knew better than me discussing it in which while what I said was technically correct, I was not aware that literacy rates among nearly all countries are similarly poor. So the actual takeaway is that no one can read. It's bad out there. I did catch that and I did catch others. Yeah, upon my initial skepticism of that info, as it turns out, it's poor. The level out there is poor. It's not the same as I don't know what these letters are, but it's rough. I can't hold two ideas at the same time, and I can't infer any context, and I can't infer any subtext. It's a world of where half

people are like the curtains are just blue I don't get it. But at the same time it's like we read words through using our phones more than we did as kids and that's true I didn't use to read my phone. Right and I didn't have a phone. You know and my parents generation like if you weren't reading a newspaper or choosing to go read a book You just weren't reading at all right? That's it. You know so that's why we had the deer system Drop everything and read you know I'm working on teaching the kid to read right now because like Yeah, I'm gonna have no non-reading child. Well the trick is have a cool ass auntie who owns a comic book shop I mean that that sends you books when you're a kid to get into cool shit that helps that helps a lot

She ruled she fucking ruled. She's the best That is cool. Oh yeah. Saved us. You know, it's like, hey you got a Bible, you read that! I'm gonna be like, hey you know what little Pat Jr. You can play as many of these video games as you want. As long as I get to go into the goddamn settings and turn voice volume down to zero. Ah, interesting. If you want to play your RPGs, you need to read these words, goddamn it.

Disco Elysium original cut. Yeah. All right, one last bit here. Well, okay, actually two things. I mean, there's not much to this one, but it's like, you know, the latest saga in the Ubisoft chapter is that they're reportedly considering creating a fresh business

to own the Assassin's Creed and other large franchises as Tencent might be doing a buyout. The Guimo family wants- This is desperate. This is super- Wants to maintain control of the company Ubisoft, so then why not create an umbrella thing for all the brand? And it's like, well, I've seen that before. I remember when Sega Sammy Holdings got created back in the day when those companies were coming together. But it's a bit of a strange thing where it's just like, why not just sell the IPs off Peacemule at that point?

You know, why even make the- I have to maintain control. But the name, like why- Sorry. I have to maintain the control. The dummy corp for it while the name Ubisoft has kept is a... It's strange, but okay. The company is going bankrupt and they're just spinning every plate they can to see if they can fucking just hold on for one more day. Maybe the thought is,

get the payout of the brands and the IPs being sold, but hold the name so that if you come back with it in some new weird form, you can salvage that recognition. Infogrames into Atari, never forget. If we put Pong in our logo, everyone's gonna think, Atari, Pong, it's them, I remember. Not that stupid fucking spiral armadillo. I'm talking to nobody, nobody remembers this shit.

I'm not even aware of what you're talking about. There was a really- I'm your best shot at recognition in this topic. Yeah, there was a really shitty game developer called Infogrames back in the PS2 era. Oh, I remember Infogrames, terrible. And then they were terrible, and then they rebranded themselves by buying the name Atari and then called themselves Atari.

I do remember that. And then they put the Atari logo and they put Pong on it and everyone's like, oh, Atari, yeah. Dude, I was like a 10 year old and I knew that was dog shit. Fucking. I don't know how people got fucking fooled by that. Skinwalker shit. I guess it's because they can't read.

What's the fucking fake Pikachu? It's that. Mimikyu? It's that, it's Mimikyu shit, you know? All right, the other bit. Mimikyu is cool though. Oh yeah. Oh that's, oh no, the concept behind Mimikyu is rad as fuck. Super dope.

Gra- I say Grahams because it's G-R-A-M-E-S. It's not games and it's not Grahams. It's not InfoGram and it's not InfoGame. It's InfoGram. Anyway. So apparently Squeenix started working with a dev to make a new front mission game. That front mission game got cancelled. And then the dev used the same assets from that cancelled game to release their own mecha game. Blackjack Studio released its own its own game called Mecha Rashi. And when you look, we have to look. Can you would you like to see a screenshot of some of...

I'm in the process of looking. Alright, here you go. So on the left is the front mission game they were working on. Oh my god. And on the right is the original brand IP, Mecarashi. Y'all are gonna get fucking sued. That's literally what this news article is about. Oh, wow.

The audacity is wild. Like, we, from behind the scenes, everyone I know in this industry, myself included, knows how much it fucking sucks when you work on a cool thing that gets canceled and no one will ever see it because it just gets buried, unseen, light of day, forever, you know, uh, uh, unaccessible. It's such a fucking waste of talent and time, but you can't, you can't, you can't do this.

This is crazy. Oh my God. It's just the, the assets and it's everything, you know, and I you know that the whole that the team was like, fuck them. We didn't waste our time. You know, you're gonna cancel on us. Well, fuck you. We'll show you what and it's like I, I legit, I legit can't believe what is happening with the front mission series at Square Enix. The first one was like kind of bad, the remake.

The second one has a ruined translation. It's ruined. It's machine translated. It makes no sense. They have two steps to get it right on the third. And the third one, all the footage looks really bad. Looks really, really bad. You had two tries to figure it out and then nail it. The asset quality is better and the lighting is better, but when the when the robots like punch each other, there's no there's no oomph to it. It looks super fucking weak and shit.

Well, yeah, so with this story, at the very least, lawsuit is underway and it seems Blackjack's to... This looks deserved. Yeah. I think it was... Are they located in China? Hong Kong. In which case it's like, well, yeah, they give no fucks. They gave no fucks. That's... They don't give a shit. What are you going to do? Sue me? That's that that might be gonna do sue me the audacity might be explained by the location of the company perhaps but God damn, that's crazy. Yeah I

Mean if you know, there's times where it's like This energy we laugh at it because it ends up usually being like, oh, hey, look, Bayonetta 3 suddenly has giant dinosaurs that you can control while you fight at the same time. Interesting. I wonder when that came into production, you know? Eh, don't worry too much about it. Yeah, and then that's how it usually goes, you know?

You have that little, oh, look at these features. Yeah, wow, they at these features. Yeah Wow, they suddenly showed up and they they're very different from what this was originally looked like but The brazenness man. Yeah. Anyway, it's literally no different at all Like it's not it's not even a different lighting pass like a job. It's like it's just exactly the same It is it is it is yeah, we'll fucking catch me idiot Try to catch me Let's take some letters castle superbeastail at gmail.com. All right, here's one coming in.

Hello, Patsworth and WuBoiVen. On episode 311, you were talking about not wanting to be cynical about games and how Pat learned to be cynical as a reaction to how uncritical he was and I wanted to chip in. I was a sweet boy back in the day. I had a, oh yeah, yeah. Drake is now legally the loser of a rap battle by the way. That's it.

That's all. He has now legally lost a rap battle. A judge said so. Yeah, that's it. All right, moving on. I had a seven year stint where I got burned by every game I was excited for in 2015. Fallout 4, 2016, No Man's Sky, which I took a day off of work for, 2017, Destiny 2, 2018, Fallout 76, 2019, Sekiro, I Can't Parry. 2020, Cyberpunk.

2021, Halo Infinite and Diablo II Remaster. It got to the point where my friends told me to stop getting excited at all because I was jinxing good games. If Elden Ring 2022 flopped, I was legit gonna stop caring about games. Have you ever had an Elden Ring like moment where you almost stopped getting excited

only for that to get re-invigorated No, never And the one of the things that I really need to point out is that I just listened to that list and there was like One thing about that list that really jumped out at me which was every single one of those Was a super large-, long in development, big budget game and most of them were shooters. It's the most screaming obvious problem there is literally- Two of them were from the same franchise.

Give a shit about indie games sometimes and also you don't have to play it on release. You can sometimes you can wait, you know, there's you don't have to be on the in the cult of the new on the bleeding edge sometimes and being only into triple-a will disappoint you so yeah that's that's that's there's your problem all Alright. Yeah, you should play. You should widen your scope. Yeah, somebody in the chat says go play UFO 50. I was about to literally say go play UFO 50. The words were forming and bubbling. It's like fuck all that shit, go play UFO 50 right now and make up for all those bad games With one really good one with all of them in it go get that that's that's your fucking homework

Okay, we got another one over here. Hello. No you get no funny names Nice rank the incarnations of devil trigger across the DMC series All right. I have. Two is the worst. Two is the bottom. Okay. Okay.

Stand out. Stand out favorites. Stand out favorites. The cut full Nero DT from four. Okay. With the hood. It's not real, but okay. Also the cut Dante shin DT from four were the two sickest designs that never

got used. And that's tragic to me because they're my favorite. The the sin the the shin did double trigger and full Nero from four. All right, counting what's in now, like honorable mention aside, I fucking love Nero 4 with the doppelganger ghost. I love that. I love that so, so much. With the stand is the raddest shit and it's a devil trigger. It's not the same devil trigger, but it is a DT. That is also my favorite. It's DT. That is also my favorite. It's the best!

That is also my favorite by far, by far. It's so cool! Because the sword swings aren't synced up correctly. They're spinning in opposite directions. There's a delay on some of them. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Matt, you know? Yes, 100.

Right underneath that, I'm gonna say Dreadnought. Yeah, Dreadnought's alright. I really like Dreadnought. If I had to go my number two, it would be Dante from Four actually. Okay. Because it's the one where he looks the most like he's just wearing his coat. Yeah, yeah. Three, I mean, Kineco three, you know, is also very like the coats right there.

I don't care for the Kinecos at all. Well, I'm fine. I would put them near the bottom. So here's the thing, like the bug stuff is more Sparta-ish, but it's not the coolest. The coolest shit is the, yeah, I'm with you. I'm like, I don't, I don't, I don't, like, I like them, but I don't love them

as much as I love the best, the ones I love the most, you know? But they're cool. And if you want Bug Sparta, this is the children of Bug Sparta. I completely agree. I like those ones I've listed, and you know what I'd even throw in above that?

So you said two is the worst, but what about Lucia? Remember the angel bird? I like her Lucia's angel bird DT thing. I thought that was interesting. She has an angel trigger, and I don't hate the way that looked. I thought that was cool. So that is a part of two that I'm gonna give its flowers.

DMC ones are fine, I guess. Yeah, they're, you know, they're. Actually, no, you know what, I'm gonna say that, I'm gonna say DMC two and then DMC one. Two one. That's madness. Three is above those for sure. You know, and then there's Sparta.

And did I see, I think I saw some fan art or something where it was Sparta, but the eyes were not like the super tiny ones on his cheeks. They were in like the dome up top and those were just a glowing like scar. It was like a weird different interpretation of him. And I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting, right? It was kind of like the alien head seeing like the,

the weird fucking inside skull bit where you're like, oh, a different take on it. I'm not too, not, not, not, I don't hate it immediately. Versus the weird squashed muppet face, you know? You know, I think I can solve this for myself very quickly. It goes Everything from four everything from five Then three then one then two

Yeah, but but like way Way out ahead is nero with the Nero with the stand is the fucking power gap. Way, way out ahead. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And look, Nero in five with his proper own, you know, fucking look. Still cool. It's cool. But him with the stand is unbelievable.

Yeah, there you go. I make, again, I pull parts out. I put Lucia up a little further. I put Dreadnought up a little further. The Kanekos are there. Again, you can't disrespect the fucking Kanekos. You can't. They're cool in their own right.

And the arm, blade, fucking sheath, you know. But it's just... I just don't like how skinny they are. It's a different proportion. It's a different energy and it's more bug. And yeah, I definitely am like, yeah, and it's more bug and I yeah I definitely am like yeah, I like them the less buggy stuff. I do like how every weapon has a slightly different one DMC one as well right like the yeah, they're very they are very slightly different in the colors change

Right Um, all right. Oh, wow. Yeah. You know what? You're right, Guy in chat. We didn't even mention Dino. His hair changes. So what's the next email? Good afternoon. Cocka, Wooly and Pat, I know where that's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The discussion last week on poor adaptations, with that I'd feel remiss if I didn't bring

up what is arguably the perfect case of an adaptation. Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Oh yeah. I'll include a link to a video that discusses and gives evidence over two hours, but I'll tell you in brief, I've heard about this for sure. I know what you're talking about here. That the benefit of the entire series being completed upon its adaptation, the animation studio was able to improve the existing material, because it was originally a novel, by reinserting events in chronological order that are told non-linearly in a dry textbook fashion in the novels. It creates much more- Oh, that's weird.

It creates much more drama and attachment to characters that end up dying over the course of the war. It avoids spoiling major events that the books take with the gravity of a historical event. I'm sure there are other adaptations that could be expanded on if you want to give this discussion another round, but in this case, I wanted to jog your memory on this classic and possibly improve the application as a masterwork, as it is a masterwork. It is a masterwork. You are completely right. This is a great exception to that case. And that's why I'm just saying, there's no absolute on it. That is a fantastic example of an improvement

via adaptation, but it's just not gonna be the rule You know, there's always gonna be an exception like When I said stop adapting things what I really said is if you're bad at making things don't make anything That's that's what I really wanted to say. Well, that's why I that's why my version of it is aren't necessary Right. Yeah, it's not it's saying that in a lot of cases Right? It's not it's saying that in a lot of cases very very bad versions of this thing are coming out because the brand is trying to push itself into a higher tier of medium. I think that if you are a bad artist, you should not be making discovery very quickly so when you start drawing and you're not good at it right away you should just quit Pat people that are not artists are making art what the fuck are you talking about what the

fuck are you talking about we're so far past what you're describing. That's terrible. All right. See you next week.