The Besties - Scarlet Nexus is 2021's Overlooked Gem

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

You might not have heard about Scarlet Nexus, the anime-forward action-roleplaying game released this month. Let's change that. The world's best friends discuss one of the best games of the summer. Then they make time to brainstorm an ideal Nintendo Switch 2 and answer your questions, like, "What is the Breath of the Wild of movies?" Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

California lag. California lag. Welcome to the new era of the besties where California lag is going to be making this a much more thoughtful discussion as we wait for the bits and bytes to get across the internet to Chris Plant. Oh boy. Hi, I'm here. You did. I think you're exacerbating it now with your

thoughtfulness i think but here's the here's what we need to do plant um you need to just come in with like hot takes that are not connected to what we are saying you just like you've got to become like the the wild man it'll be wild man and the beave and griffin and it'll just be you'll be like the the loose cannon that just comes in and doesn't really listen to what we say just blasts in yeah if if we start to break up or things start to feel a bit disjointed just start yelling about near and it'll be a pretty much a seamless experience for the listeners i feel like boop boop boop and joe kazooie went poopy all right and see that's the kind of stuff that people love there are too many people listening to us now for us to bring this kind of energy to the table My name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week.

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. Feels good to mean it. Feels good to say it and to mean it. Welcome to the besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a game of the year show that goes all year long. It's a book club for video games. Russ isn't here, I could say whatever i want it's a video game club and just by listening you are a member and we're so happy to have you here as we talk about a brand new entry in this grand canon we call video games that's something i experiment this grand canon we call video games this is the latest entry in that

grand canon of all video games and it is called scarlet nexus chris play it what is scarlet nexus oh wow that's a tough question how about this anime action rpg set in kind of a future city where i don't you're fighting like demon things with telekinesis and psychokinesis psychic psychonesis is that right yeah that's what they call it for sure yeah listen everybody has their own powers and you use your mind powers to fight demon monsters that's it that's it that's all there is to it you did great chris i don't know why you doubted yourself i never doubted him uh yeah it's scarlet nexus we're gonna get into it right now on the besties here we go a bad name for a video for a video i like it can we put oh really i like it i think it's a good video name for video game i feel like nexus we need to ban from video game

titles i feel like it's a word if you what is scarlet i maybe i haven't played far enough in the game to find out what the scarlet nexus is is it oh yeah shit i'm only like i'm only a couple hours into the game i should be up front i'm loving it but i'm still early in it because i have moved across the country this past week right i assumed the scarlet nexus is so when you are in the world imagine imagine a real uh a real a real future world and then the majority of people in this world have uh uh mind powers that allow them to see effectively augmented reality overlays right yes and one of those overlays it from what i can tell is a dark red pipe or like ethernet port that plugs into your spine and i assumed that is the scarlet nexus because you're connecting to that and then later in the

game pretty early on actually you have the ability to share powers and i was assuming that it's through connecting through the scarlet nexus i'm sure there are a lot of people who are much further in the game right now yeah we're like it's just internet for brains yeah that's awesome yeah it's basically basically brain internet uh this this game is fucking wild y'all and it's it is uh i i will admit to knowing nothing about it until i popped that disc right into my game station and pressed that big green power button and went on a journey i did not know anything about it i was like a child and uh it is such a wildly ambitious thing that i'm surprised that more people weren't sort of talking about it uh yeah i i very much enjoyed uh this this uh title in many regards and much less so in other

uh also important regards oh that was really good juice yeah well i don't want to tip my head too much okay this looks okay let me just say this if you're someone like me this game may look like very much not your shit yeah okay and it and i think that it it's because i feel like it it looks unless you're actively playing it it looks very much like a jrpg like it is anime it is anime forward i would say that's yeah it's and it looks i think very much like a jrpg uh unless you're actually playing it in which case you realize that it's basically an action game um but the action is a little bit more here's what i would say and tell me if this this rings true to you guys it's a bit more methodical and tactical rather than necessarily like twitch reflex based devil may cry it ain't it ain't sure there's a like for instance there's

like combos there's dodging right So it gets kind of halfway there. But the dodging does not, this is getting a little technical, but the dodging does not cancel out of animations. So it can feel, it's not like you're reacting in a split second. It's more like the attack is going to come in a half a second, and maybe I should be prepared for that. So it's not that sort of like split second kind of twitch action gameplay from like a bayonetta or as you said it definitely

yeah it's a bit more but it is an action game um where you know that but that skill level is important real quick story context um yes before you go too much further into the combat so uh again i'm on pins and needles by the way go for it i'm i'm not gonna try too much further into the combat. So, again, the world... I'm on pins and needles, by the way. Go for it, plant. I'm not going to try too much. The world... Hey, you're much like the developers of Scarlet Nexus in that regard. Hey, hey, hey.

I like the story. I like the story. I just can't completely understand it. The story, from what I can tell, is a future world is being overtaken by these evil demons from i don't know alternate dimension or something like that you are um a new recruit and you are you've been scouted by this like militaristic division that fights these things and keeps them out of the

others the others suppression force which is such a good name yes um and you can choose uh early on between uh a woman or a dude um and i i assume that you have to play both versions of the these stories to actually get the whole story of the game which you know you know i love having to replay the game yeah that's your shit that is kind of my thing from what i've heard once you finish campaign you can basically new game plus your way through the other one. So it's not quite as punishing as other titles that try that. And, yeah, so each person on your kind of group in the ODF? Is that?

OSF. There's suppression force. Suppression, yes, not defense. Each of you have a unique power. So the character that I started with had electricity, mind powers. There is effectively precogs. And then you, kind of the tactical thing that Justin's getting at, you can brain connect with your party members and then kind of like take on part of their power so sorry i actually i lied the main character i had didn't have

electric power she can just general move things with her mind but then she absorbed the electric power of her teammate very early in the game right the two characters the two main characters effectively have the same powers they have melee combat actually uh kasane the female main character has like ranged attacks i believe uh but that isn't important uh but they both have this sort of psychokinesis uh that that allows them to throw things around with their mind because so the combat is very much like two halves and you have the psychokinesis power half where you can either just like chuck something at somebody or yeah and then there are these like special context sensitive uses of the power where you can like grab a crane from the sky and tear it

down and smash it down on somebody's head uh which is very very satisfying every time uh but you chain that together with your melee abilities and basically the way you chain that together is when you are you know hitting with your with your melee attacks and then you use your your pk abilities you jump backwards which you can use to kind of like put some distance between you and the enemy and then you can follow that up with a melee attack which makes you dash forwards that's that's there there's there's more to it which largely comes from the uh the the mind connect like uh power sharing thing but like there's not a whole lot more to it it's really about sort of chaining your your attacks with your psychokinesis which gets more complicated sort of the more you have like an ability grid yeah the ability

is actually very meaningful like you yeah for sure that really adds more you have like an ability grid. The ability grid is actually very meaningful. Like you, that really adds like, it's like an air, like big stuff on there. It's not just like percentage points going up. It's like, there's an air dash.

There's another attack for your combo. Stuff like that. Yeah. Remind me of the latest God of War game where it's like, you're not, yeah, you're not, it's not just like your attack gets stronger.

It's like now your shit like flies around in the air and you can do like a bunch of more wild stuff with it. The one other big layer that I've seen so far is there are elemental, I guess, buffs and debuffs. Yeah. Yeah, so Yuito is the character I started with. I'm assuming you started with Kasane because I did not start out with the characters you mentioned. And Yuito is paired with a pyrokinetic

who can basically buff your your weapon with fire for a limited time which you can then hit an enemy with a lot to set them on fire or hit them with a little bit if they're covered in oil and wicked set them on fire and so you have to use that to sort of exploit the different the different weaknesses interesting in my first boss fight i i partnered with a dude who has electrical powers and we fought uh a water creature that when you got soaked with water you couldn't dodge anymore um and but if like whoever was soaked also took on more electric damage so i mean it's all pretty straightforward but it it works very well yeah and that's where like the sort of jrpg

meets uh character action game stuff like where the where the the the rubber meets the road there like there's not there's not a lot of you're not pressing a lot of buttons super super fast especially compared to a platinum games title but you do have to you know keep to keep these more RPG-ish elements in mind while you're playing through it. It does a, I would say, and I would very, very carefully make this comparison, but it does a somewhat of a Persona-style thing where you can make those shared abilities that you borrow from your teammates stronger by increasing your bond level with them, which is not nearly as in-depth as the confidants from Persona 5.

But you can text with them and send replies. Yes, you brain text with them with your brain phone, which is, honestly, this is a sidebar, but the augmented reality brain link stuff is probably my favorite thing about this game like it is uh it is inarguably fucking sick when you are walking around the city and you see like ar shit everywhere like advertisements and like notices and street signs are all just like neon floating in the air like it is a really, really very cool idea.

And they explore it like so thoroughly. But this bond system is like, you go on enough missions with somebody, you talk to them enough times, you can give them gifts, you know, and sometimes they'll really like the gift and that will unlock like a bond mission with them that will jump them up a level. You have a team team bond level two based on like how strong your individual bonds

are and if you like you know power if you hang out with the pyrokinetic a lot and do enough bond episodes with them then their their pyrokinetic power that they share with you will get stronger um so it's like it's a it's a cool system but it's kind of a, I don't know, jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none thing, because it does not do that as well as other games with similar sort of social link style systems. It's pleasurable and not that tough. It's pleasurable and not – and if you're kind of – it's more of a challenge of like keeping a bunch of plates spinning because eventually you get like, you have a meter for your power. You have a meter for like your,

I think they call it a brain gauge where brain gauge, sorry, brain gauge, brain gauge where it's like, basically like a power up kind of deal. Like you, you know, you do enough attacks or whatever, and this fills up, and then you get a cool red mask.

And then there's like other meters for your teammates' abilities and how often you can link with them. And it's more like there would be times where, like, I'd do an entire fight, and it'd be really hard. And it's like, oh, I forgot that I have, like, electrical powers just bound to this thing. I should have remembered that dude just standing like, put me in, put me in. Please, i can help you uh i can make you invincible um but it's all i think it's all

very pleasant where this thing really like fell apart for me and where i was like i can't i did the the story is i mean the best it they go hard there's a lot of it it's not incomprehensible and like i don't know how far you all it's very difficult to talk about where we are like at individually i've seen like i've i want to say like i mean i've seen a whole lot of story i don't know how much of the story i've seen but i've seen a whole lot of it and it does not, it is sort of like belligerent in its inability to make any of it scrutable. Like to someone who is just like, this feels like the fifth season of an anime where you're like coming in

halfway through like, who, what, why, why are, why are they treating me? Like I know who all these characters are they're all dressed the same these are so hard to keep track of and like the concepts it is just

like churning out new ideas and concepts like constantly and giving you very little time to sort of like get acclimated to them and like a lot of it just feels like there's times when like there's sort of like some elements of like shifting alliances if i could put that very generally uh and there are times when like people who are very much not uh sort of aligned with you in are like texting you like what's up you want to get some udon noodles or what it's like completely inscrutable um i really found that to be a momentum killer for me like i think that the action is is fun and i like the upgrades and the way the powers interlink is cool but i just that it the story is like really tough to to

it was tough for me to uh to get my teeth into my My defense to the story, and I think you are right to feel how you feel. I think the combat and everything in this game, I would recommend to practically everybody. I think the game game part of it is just pretty universally fun. I don't know what happened to my brain, but about two or three years ago, and I'm sure near played a part of this enjoying anime stories like this especially in games just completely flipped a switch in my brain and i feel like i go into these games knowing how i guess how to meet them on their own terms um yeah and i and i appreciate them in a way that i in the past i just wouldn't like in the past this game for example does a thing that even here i still don't know why they

do it where the very first thing you see is like five minutes of story from a character you don't see again for hours um and it just it doesn't seem to have to do with anything and that's incomprehensible to me and then the next hour and a half is just tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of exposition I mean Justin's right you meet I don't know a dozen characters and learn their

motives I mean the first and you're getting their ranks which I always love that where it's like here's something that means nothing to you this guy's a seventh seppuku, I forget the name of their, like, Serpentirion. Oh, this guy's a Serpentirion. I was like, ooh, a who worked at this company it's like you never get a character name without all of this just backstory that nobody again like if we were watching a movie that was made in america they just wouldn't do that it's just a different

approach to storytelling um yeah if i can be honest about my biases here I feel like and and where I feel like this I differ from near in this regard the way we do things on besties I know that like next week there will be a different game that I am playing so like I am probably not going to sink the 30 to 50 hours that is going to take me to like see this game in its totality and so I think that a lot of these stories if you're if you decide like i'm going all in on this it may not work for you in the sense of like a traditional western narrative but you can sort of like vibe on it in a way that like you kind of get it with near you know what i mean like or you can if you sink yourself into it deep enough you kind of like get it without

like concretely getting it and i I think because I know that like, I'm probably not going to do this whole thing. I kind of want the narrative to be more engrossing, like moment to moment, rather than just like a general vibe that I would eventually get if I, if I played the whole thing. See, I don't,

it's so funny because I am having the, I think opposite experience from the two of you were like, I do not mind a, you know, here's an, here's a, an anime with a huge cast of characters that, you know,

they're there. They don't give you a ton of time to like, get to know all of them before they throw a new character at you. That like ensemble style anime is like is is a for sure a thing uh and it can be a sort of tough tough hill to climb i think um but it that's that honestly is not what bothered me because i just kind of let it kind of let it wash over me if there was a new character and it was like this one has uh speed powers and pink hair and it's like okay that's the speed power pink hair one.

That's okay. I can hang with that. For me, it wasn't the story, because I don't know, I saw the story as an extension of this cool AR world that I just wanted to know everything about. For me, I think I've played maybe six hours, I want to say. like i think i've played maybe six hours i want to say um and the combat is it's already getting a little it's getting a little stale uh and i every time you know you get new uh powers or new like

teammates to to team up with that you know gives it a bit of a booster shot but like you said like this is a 30 to 50 hour thing character combat character action games do not go that long for a reason uh and so while scarlet nexus has like other stuff to keep you going like the you know the bond system and the story and all of the sort of jrpg trappings the idea of continuing to play this combat which i would say the game's major weakness is at least so far i have not fought that many different types of enemies there's the big vase with a bunch of garbage shooting out of it there's the bull one with the skull like there has not been a whole there's not been a surplus of different enemy types uh

and the idea of continuing to fight this sort of limited roster of bad guys for the next you know 30 hours does does not sound like something i am actually going to do um so yeah i i almost wish it was i i almost wish it was a little less ambitious because I think it succeeds at so much stuff. And it is endearing in the way that I like games to be endearing where you feel like you've stumbled on something, where you feel like, oh shit, this is really original and this is really, really cool.

It just feels like it's bitten off a little bit little bit more than it can than it can chew um i will say if i could give one and this is going to sound like contrary to what i was saying before and we do i guess need to move forward but uh i really like kasane as like the main character and i and you you played yuito right yeah kasane is like feels very uh here's I appreciate she was very deliberate as a character and there is like choices have been made and she is not just like a sort of generic stand-in where like a lot of games like this the central character is is a more of a cipher uh Kasane is like uh completely competent and like has zero patience for the structure that she seems to have been like deliberately put into this like militaristic structure uh she is constantly uh certain that

she is uh in the right and she usually is but i really dug that she's like feels very specific i don't know how yuito was she talks on it really the opposite oh yeah oh yeah yeah it's just he's a he's a he follows instructions kasane's cool i will just say like i i really liked that her as a character yeah i was i was shocked how much she spoke and i i that you've kind of put words to it for me hoops i i almost expected to like change characters at a certain point because I wasn't used to the protagonist I'm playing as speaking that much. Yeah. I'm used to just being like, okay, well, here's a, you know, shell that you inhabit. Yeah.

Here's the thing. This game rules. I think it's great. I think all the criticisms are valid. Here's what I'm going to volunteer as tribute to finish the game. And I will, I will circle back with you all and let you know like how it goes. Thank you.

I appreciate that. I could see myself coming back to Scarlet Nexus when I have more, more time to, that's the other thing is like, I don't have a ton of time for video games these days. And so this, this one is a commitment. This is one that you're going

to have to put some time into um but yeah i would be curious to hear if it is worth it i'd be curious to hear if the combat keeps if the combat stays fresh for the you know considerable runtime of of the game from from what i've heard heard. The, I don't want to. Okay. Yes. I, I wish I knew where you guys were. It's really hard.

There are some interesting ways that, you know what? I think also it could be the dual characters. Cause Cassandra does some really wild stuff with her telekinesis, like surfing on an oil tanker into, into bad guys, which is very cool. Scarlet Nexus is the game.

We've got so much more show though for you. Don't go anywhere and we'll be right back. Y'all, did you see the news about the new Nintendo Switch? So it's not real. I guess it is a new Nintendo Switch in the sense that all the nintendo switches in the stores right now are new to me because i don't have them how about you explain how it works and then then i have i have a big question for you after that oh yeah sure sure sure uh it got big it got a better screen it's got oled the one you got now has just led and

that makes me want to barf. Your ugly Switch has just LED. It doesn't have the O on it. Do you know what the O stands for, y'all? Oh, baby, good pixels. Organic. Oh, I thought it was, oh, PlayStation Vita did this like a decade ago. This is a living screen.

It's an organic light-emitting diode. It's organic. You got to keep it watered. You got to dump algae intoitting diode. You gotta keep it watered. You gotta dump algae into the speakers. It's alive. You watch it. It's watching you. Oh. It's alive. Oh, it's got

the speakers are a little bit beefier. And check this out. Wider kickstand. Yeah, for all the times that you're using that functionality. For all the many many times i've used the kit i will say this i have had time to use the kickstand on my switch a few times and every time i have the thought of this sucks shit that's a pretty that's a pretty shitty

kickstand so you know big big big big props to uh to nintendo um it's so everybody was just which pro it ain't right like people were disappointed they thought it was gonna give you 4k when you play it docked at your house they thought it was gonna be i don't know run faster jump higher it didn't do any of that so i wanted to to come to both of you and see what you would do say you you're running Nintendo, congratulations, and you can make the Switch 2 of your dreams, where would you go with it?

Here's the thing about Nintendo. I want to install. Here's the theme. If Nintendo has this slogan, it is this. Nintendo, we will never give you what you want but you will want what we give you yeah that is this is nintendo in a summary right like i this isn't what i wanted like i wanted something that would increase the power of the Switch to where it would be like, I wanted like, you know, better power of it.

So that like I would play games on the go and it would feel like a better experience. Where right now it still feels like a very much a second class experience compared to even like, and you know what? I think what has honestly hurt the Switch for me a lot is how good the remote play options are on PlayStation 5. Yeah. And that makes it much harder. And Steam Link. Steam Link is, like, really very tight these days, too. It's very rare for me to be, like, getting the Switch out.

That said, like, screen looks really good. I don't know that I need, because this would be my third Switch switch i don't know that i really want or need a third switch um i'm trying to feel like what would i'm trying to come up with like what no no no i i think i think i have like a version you said you you you never want what we say it say it one more time for everybody. Nintendo will never, and I mean this, will never give you what you want, but you will want what we give you. So what if the Nintendo Switch 2 is just a magic mirror that shows you your most traumatic moments in life, but in doing so so you're given context that makes you appreciate the moment you're in wow that's something i mean it's not a game console and also it that plays doom yeah oh does it got doom on it has to it also plays um there is a gap between the switch and the switch light uh i i have both and if i'm just putting around the house uh i i like the or you know traveling or whatever i like the switch light

i like the form factor of it i like the weight of it uh i think i think it feels good i i pretty much exclusively play shit on the switch light but you, I can't dock that and connect it to the TV. I find the Switch to be a little, like, clunky in handheld mode. It doesn't feel particularly great for me. Like, it feels kind of, it doesn't feel tight in the way that the Switch does, because the Joy-Cons, you know, inherently can come off. There is like a bit of give there that I don't find very enjoyable. And also, it's a really, the Switch is maybe one of my favorite pieces of gaming hardware of all time. I think it's fucking great.

And it's the thing I play most of. But those Joy-Cons need a real serious refresh. They need a real serious refresh. That would be the main thing for me i feel like even more so than the nintendo is not playing the power game they never have been which is fine but like i do want it to feel but i don't like the way the buttons and on i on the joy cons but i never i have not touched a my actual switch i got one um i i kept mine around for like we fit or like other application not we fit um i was gonna say what ring fit sorry yeah and other applications where

you like need to be able to detach the joy cons but like i haven't touched it in over a year i i exclusively play uh the switch light i've never i never dock never did before the switch light and certainly don't now yeah but i would like it to just feel a little bit better. It still feels... I get... Now that I'm an old man, I get Carpal Tunnel, and it is very much exacerbated by the very un-ergonomic Switch setup. I feel like...

Yeah. So a different sort of form factor, maybe lighter. Here's the thing. I think the screen's good. And I know that there are lots of people for whom that is a very important thing. I think the screen's fine. I think there's a lot of AAA games that get ported over to the Switch that look like dog shit and run like dog shit because they are trying to fit 50 pounds a game in a 20-pound bag. But I'm even willing to put up with that for me like

on the technical end i would love a bigger a better battery a bigger better battery would be nice and you know i would like games to load a little bit faster that's it those are the only two things that i would a better form factor that that you know i can also dock it basically something sort of between the switch light and the Switch Now that I can dock that feels good, better battery, and game load faster. That's it. That's all. It's weird. I just don't know who would.

It wouldn't have taken much, right? Like, in the internal thing, even the mildest upgrade in terms of, like, you heard the loading times on like the new, the Tony Hawk one and two are like pretty bad on the switch. Even like a small enough increment, the incremental increase, like to ameliorate stuff like that, I think would have been enough where I would really seriously consider it. And it's, what's weird is like with all the rumors flying around before this came out

about a more powerful switch, like it seemed like a lock. I mean, it's really shocking. There were so many things going around about like, it's going to have fucking 12K, baby. There was so much going around that seemed pretty solid from a rumor. It had to be the chip shortage, right? It has to be, yeah. Everything about this, for people who don't know, because of the pandemic, there's a massive chip shortage right like that everything about this and for people who don't know because

of the pandemic there's a massive chip shortage and it's why a lot of tech like electronics are more expensive or they're harder to come by right now like your ps5 and this feels like they effectively had the shell for the nintendo switch pro and they're like well we're shipping it no matter what so if they're yeah even if we don't have these weird chips. That actually makes a fucking ton of sense. It's weird. The chip shortage, like, there's cars that are just sitting in factories that, like, can't be finished because of this chip shortage.

So, like, it is not going to go away anytime soon, which is a – maybe that explains this thing. Maybe they were kind of holding off to see if the supply chain would loosen up a little bit and they would be able to do this different version. Maybe that's why these conflicting reports have been sort of flying around, which would also explain why we found out about this, what, three weeks after E3?

And at like fucking 9.30 a.m. on like a Tuesday just out of nowhere it's the one thing I do like about Nintendo is like they do have an appropriate air of humility when they're posting up a complete air ball like this is nothing this the time should indicate to you that this is nothing

we're sorry it's not what you wanted but you will want what we give probably still probably still will buy it yeah we have we have some readers mail uh okay but first i wanted to issue a correction uh justin said that nintendo was never in the power business and they published nintendo power from they exclude they explicitly were 2007 yeah but they are definitely not anymore, right? That's true. It was transferred to the future US. I live in the now, baby. There is only now.

This is the only moment that exists. Not since December 11th, 2012 has they been in the power business. Y'all, I got some questions for you about Scarlet Nexus. Are you ready?

In the demo, this is from Armored Whale. I got some questions for you about Scarlet Nexus. Are you ready? Yes. In the demo, this is from Armored Whale. In the demo, I enjoyed the combat, but thought the still image talking head style cut scenes really messed with the flow. How does it hit you after spending longer with it? Do you want to explain what Armored Whale means here? Yeah, basically the dialogue is very rarely

done in um like you know pre-rendered cut cut scenes uh it is the very visual novel style uh i mean it's extremely visual novel style in that like uh most of the time during scenes it will jump between kind of panels uh and then you will have still images of your you know main characters that that pop up and deliver their their their dialogue all of which i believe is voiced um so i mean if that's not your jam if that that's in the panels you're you're wearing the outfits that you customized too, which I was surprised. I assume that those are like locked, but no, I guess they're running an engine. So it's good.

Yeah, there's fashions. We should have said that. There's accessories and fashions and many things. There's also a great, we keep jumping back. There's a great conceit, which is that the save system

is just a guy that is following you around and sort of chronicling your your your journey but is like like trying to be super stealth about it trying to be very secret like we don't have to say anything other than what we absolutely need to say check your brain mail and you'll check your brain mail and you'll have one from him like just be fucking cool about this, okay? Which is delightful. He also early on was like, just so you know, I don't know if you saw the message, I can't loan you money. And that's because I'm air.

What? It's awesome. The game is really weird. This actually goes to another question we had from Chief Godzilla Officer. Yeah, I got a cue here. Was it necessary for them to name an enemy Saliva Santa? Yeah, it was. Yeah, they needed to do that. And the more you play, actually, you will learn that that name is integral to the plot.

This is from Luffy. I thoroughly enjoyed Scarlet Nexusxus what other games would you recommend for someone who would like to enjoy more games that are similar in style to scarlet nexus whether it's storytelling action gameplay etc the very obvious one here is astral chain um if you have not played astral chain on switch they are very very very similar um and i i think if you enjoyed scarlet nexus you will really dig astral chain if you want something a little more soulsy code vein is very much in this uh should i play that would i like that griff code vein i mean bud we played it for monster factory and it didn't seem like you liked it um well i was just watching it though that's

true that's true um i don't know it's fun like that it's it's okay it's uh it was not my cup of tea but uh it's it is well regarded by a lot of people so uh i don't know um yeah i think code vein this game reminds me a lot of code vein so that's that's, if you like Code Vein, you'll probably like this. A final question from Brian. People always ask what is the Citizen Kane of video games, but what I want to know is, what is the Breath of the Wild of movies? Yo. I know, right?

I mean, whoa. Right? Dang, though. I'm gonna say um wild with reese witherspoon oh i'm gonna say i'm gonna say that's a great answer thanks yeah it's got wild right in it and she breathes in it bill and Ted because it features wild stallions. That's fair. That's fair. That's fair.

Thank you. There's not a great answer to this question. There really is. Video games and movies is different. I feel like it's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Oh, yeah. Damn. It's possible. It's not that.

It's pretty. It's kind of like that. I'm going to say Waiting to exhale because it's like breath. It's like breath. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Have you all been playing anything else? Yeah. I haven't been playing Breath of the Wild.

I want to hear about it. Oh, you want to hear about it. Are you still on Breath of the Wild, Chris? It's a long game. I guess so. Cut us a slack. He's only had 18 calendar years to finish it yeah it's fair uh just what are you playing uh you know what i played actually uh that i really very much

enjoyed still playing rogue book very cool uh this obviously um i tell you what i liked a lot was overboard yeah baby i was gonna bring that up too did you play it yeah man yeah it's good as hell i don't even know that's a wild game i don't even know what to compare it let's like let's let's let's set it up okay it's a ankle game if you know that studio very text heavy i mean interactive novel story, but much more interactive than you would traditionally think of with like a quote unquote visual novel. So basically, here's the bitch. You're a woman named Villainess, I think is the name. Yeah.

But you, at the beginning of the game, you murder your husband. Definitely. No question about it. Push him overboard on this cruise ship. And then you wake up the next morning and have to get to the end of the day, basically without being caught at the end of the day, there's going to be a sort of like that sort of parlor room, cozy mystery,

sort of like all the suspects are gathered in one place and you have to do things that keep it from getting pinned on you. I will give you one example of that. You in your room when you first wake up, you slept on the divan, right? That is in the room, but not in your bed. Later on during the day, a steward is going to come into the room. And if they see that your bed wasn't slept in, it's like more suspicious because you're going to claim that your husband was

in the bed all night or whatever your story is going to be stuff like that. There's also like items you can pick up and then maybe you find sleeping pills in your room and then you place them in someone else's room. But this, it's also time based. So like there's this certain window when this person will be in their room or they won't be. Or you can like lure them somewhere else by giving them some fake story. And it has to be consistent. And so like each time you play through, you can kind of have like goals.

There's like little miniature goals, like find out pieces of information. And those pieces of information are sort of persistent. So like, you know that this is something you already know. And if you've successfully sort of like done a chain of things, like a chain of events in a certain room, you can sort of speed through those

on a second playthrough. It's really cool. It's so cool. And I'm not, I know I'm probably not describing it very well, but it's like, it's such a fascinating, like clockwork sort of world

where like you, it really is like every little thing. It really gives the illusion of reality because it's so specific to this very small frame of time and this very specific location with these very specific people that it allows for. Like, you know, I bet if I was up there first thing in the morning when that guy gets up, I might be able to to kill him like literally push him off the boat and that would remove the suspicion later on the day because i don't have to like etc etc there's a bajillion different ways it could shake out there's not like one perfect run you're trying to get to hey listener the the person listening to the show right now uh you you i'm assuming you're the one who recommended it we played this game for like the past month. Yeah, we've been

getting this one a lot. Especially recommending it for Justin. We just want to say thank you because you were right. You were fully correct. I was about to go into like another cool thing, but I don't. Just play it. Like, play it. I would recommend this game to anybody. How about I'll get caught up on it

and then maybe we might be able to do an episode on it later because it's going to be a little slower later this summer. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. It'll be good to get a break from this breakneck pace of major video game releases we've enjoyed so far. Speaking of the other game I've been playing, and this is great news for everybody,

it has been just long enough since you first played return of the obri den that you've forgotten all the solutions oh so you can go back and play it again with fresh eyes fantastic congratulations i i got it on switch uh just because i was thinking about it i was like man i really want to play this actually i really want to play this game again but and i turn it on and it was like, hey, here's 60 people. I was like, well, I'm not going to remember 60 fates. Let's do this thing, baby. And it was just as challenging as the first time.

It took me a wicked long time to crack some of these codes. You know some of the stuff to look out for, but like, man, that game absolutely kicks ass. And it fired me up again for this genre that doesn't exist this genre that fucking lucas pope invented that doesn't even exist it's it's uh it's cruel in a way but it also made me realize that it's been a while since we talked about this game on this show and so there's probably lots of people that didn't play it the first time around and this is the best game so go fucking play it because it's it. Because it's a trip, man. It's a good game. He's doing one of that Playdate, right?

Isn't he doing a Playdate game? Oh, God. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, it's about like monsters in like a little box that you can like open up and look at them. That's fine. That's cool.

But, you know, I want the return of the return of the Obra Dinn. Justin, do we know what a plan for next week next week we are going to talk about zombies ate my neighbors uh that's coming up to the nintendo switch with ghoul patrol no we're not going to talk about that we're going to do a big roundup of games a big sort of like indie game uh you know we got a little bit of a slower period so we're not going to talk about that. We're going to do a big roundup of games, a big sort of like indie game. You know, we got a little bit of a slower period, so we're going to go back and find a bunch of like hidden gems for you to play and enjoy while you got a little bit of time. I'm very excited about it.

I got a ton of different stuff to talk to you guys about. It may be a good time for you to play Overboard, because I bet we'll probably talk a bit more about that. I don't know if Russ may be back next week so you know we can don't you nerds like the fact there's a

monster hunter game coming out this week it's monster hunter stories this thank you so much for listening we got a Twitter account it's at the besties pod

we've got a new besties t-shirt the time has finally arrived you can get a shirt that's sure to irritate rush fresh dick it says it's a video game book club right on it uh and you can get that at macklerymerch.com uh so so we hope you'll check that out um thank you so much for listening uh and to the besties be sure to join us again next week for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!