The Besties - THERE'S TOO MANY GOOD GAMES OUT PLEASE HELP

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

This episode is just wall-to-wall, chock-a-block full of new and upcoming games! We're talking Armored Core 6! Fae Farm! Blasphemous 2! Stray Gods! Just, like, too many for one episode, but we done did it anyways!Also discussed: YEAH, YOU WANT THOSE GAMES, RIGHT? SO, HERE YOU GO! NOW LET'S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM!, Doomsday Hunters, En Garde, Baldur's Gate 3, Unlock!, Robodunk, New World 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!

Guys, I wanted to, I do a lot of characters on other shows. I've never really had a besties character. And I was thinking for these Roundup episodes that I could have a character who you're presenting the games to for his approval. Oh, cool. His name is Dr. Ludo Von Games. And he would be like, you'd be like trying to delight him with your selection of games. Okay, I'm imagining a sort of Baron Harkonnen sort of floating like pleasure god.

Yeah, I was picturing more of Robin Williams' character in AI. Yeah, and here's the hook, right? If your game delights him enough, he consumes the game. Right, yeah. Where does the game go? It's gone. You understand? He doesn't want to share games with other people.

If a game delights him, he consumes it so it no longer exists. Does he have an excretory system? Yeah, does he shit the games out? Yes, he shits out game awards, actually. Oh, okay. He shits out BGA. It kind of sounds like maybe this is a horror, sci-fi horror Jeff Keighley. Yeah. No, Jeff Keighley is sewn to his butt.

Okay, I don't like that so much. Are you talking about like a centipede sort of thing? Yeah, like a human gamipede. Gamipede might be a better name than the Dr. Ludovon games. We're going to workshop that. And the voice. be a better name than the dr ludo von games we're gonna workshop that and the voice um did you all see i i i'm bringing this up even though i didn't necessarily see it uh that someone crashed jeff keely's gamescom uh presentation um like just ran on stage and apparently acted a fool and then

later jeff keely tweeted something along the lines of uh the person who interrupted our showcase uh will not be a problem again and everyone was like did you kill jeff did you jeff first of all stop interrupting jeff keely's show yeah this is the second time it's happened the second time it's happened cut The second time it's happened. Cut it out, fucking nerds. Stop it. He's trying to work it. That goes double for you, Joseph Ferris. Especially. You think you're so funny? You think you're so fucking funny.

Well, apparently Jeff's out here killing these people, so don't even think about it again. Watch your back, pal. Shrine, have I arrived late? My name is Professor Ludovon Game. You had to steal Justin's character. Sorry.

That was me. That was him. Yeah, I know the best games of the semester. My name is Griffin McElroy. I know the best games of the semester. My name is Christopher Thomas Von... Christopher Thomas Von Plant? Thomas Von Plant! I Christopher Thomas von Plant?

I'm Thomas von Plant, and I demand your games! Don't care! It's Chris, and I know games, and there's Frush. Here he comes. My name is Frush. Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment.

This is Video Game Club. Just by listening, you, my friend, have become a member. We have got a great grab bag. I came up with a name for this. Nobody else liked it. Hidden gems. Nobody said it was. They said that other people would already use that, which I've never seen it before. But okay.

What about if you pronounce gems like games? Hidden gems. Hidden gems. Hidden gems. Welcome to our hidden gems. Precious gemstones. Chris Plant, what are games? Oh, so games, it all started with Tennis for Two. The military was deep in figuring out how to blow up the world,

and then they realized we can use these machines to play tennis. And then cut to Armored Core 6, which we'll talk about after the break. We're talking about a lot of games. Plant, tell the people what we're talking about at the top and then it'll encourage them. Don't tell them the

games, though. That's the big surprise. You want me to tell them all the games? That's what I do at the end of an episode. That's at the end. Okay, here are three games just to three words from the titles of the games i'm gonna whet your appetite here we go three words doomsday ooh fey ooh gods nice that sounds good we're gonna talk about that and so much more right after this that sounds good we're gonna talk about that and so much more right after this

Doomsday Fagod sounds like the sickest fucking game ever it does sound really really good cool let's start doing it because we have a lot of shit

to talk about okay and not a lot of time because we we only give us so much tape to record the show with is it Armored Core 6 time?

yeah I think we should talk about Armored Core 6 this game we're gonna do an episode about it right? we're gonna just bounce off of it because it's out today to show with. Is it Armored Core 6 time? Yeah, I think we should talk about Armored Core 6. This game. We're going to do an episode about it, right? Yeah, we're going to just bounce off of it because it's out today,

the day this episode comes out. Can I tell you, so I've had this code a little bit longer than folks here, just a little bit. And I went on a journey that I feel like

a few other people on this team have already gone through now, which is you start the game and you go, hmm, I don't know. And then you get past the first boss and you're like, eh, you know what, maybe.

I think I'm into this. And then at some point you're just like, I think this is my entire identity. I'm gonna get these brand logos tattooed onto my skull. It's a journey. Has anyone else here played an Armored Core game before? Oh yeah, I loved it.

I've never played one. We used to be deep into it on the on the old playstation those were great yeah back when it was legal for games to feel bad just if you are not an armored core first of all this is a from soft game right and it i it does not feel like i I feel like every other FromSoft game kind of feels the same, right? Even Sekiro and... They feel like Souls games. They feel like Souls games. This does not.

This feels like a Platinum Games game. It feels fast and furious. And it is slick as hell and not slow. It is not slow and punishing in the way that well it can be punishing but it's not like tiptoeing around corners in sen's fortress it is like boosting forward at 300 miles an hour and dashing around like in a tonneau circus of fucking missiles flying at you while you like get in close to use your laser blade i want it i want i want to say that just to provide the

context because this is the only reason to have an old man like me and well everybody i guess on the show yeah uh from what griffin is talking about from it feels like a from soft game that is very much like a post demon souls like that's the that from soft from soft used to crank out a lot of wild shit other than like obviously these armored core games. There was like Ninja Blade. You guys remember Ninja Blade on Xbox 360? That was a wild like full bore hype like super hyper action game that was very that was very much in that the kind of mold you're describing. Yeah.

The last armor core game though was 11 years ago. Crazy. So like it is wild that they have gone this long without touching on this but holy shit like it it is it feel like i'm not that deep in i just started playing yesterday but i ran through like four or five sorties as quick as i could because i could not put it down. And now I can't stop thinking about it. It feels so good. It is the best feeling mech game I think I've ever played. It looks incredible. And as soon as you start to piece together like dashes and, you know, I roll with a mech now. The mechs are completely customizable. That's like the big thing with Armored Core.

And I've put together like a dual SMG with just like really fast little guy. And as soon as I got that going, it clicked for me. And it is just an absolute joy to play. Yeah, it's I found it slightly overwhelming at first. Plant gave me a few pointers to jump in. slightly overwhelming at first plant gave me a few pointers to jump in and now it's just like i'm just like looking through this inventory of like 20 things in the mech shop and i'm like huh i could these legs look pretty good and they're lighter and i can try that and you just like fuck around with new builds and then it it feels like a completely different game like how you're moving

around the world it's really pretty satisfying i don't like platinum games games it doesn't feel like that to me because those tend to be like very combo heavy this feels like an action game that i have like very minute control over every single aspect of how i play it yeah yeah it's very flow based we're like platinum games you're right with like having to memorize a combo yeah or learn those skills and devil may cry this is more like learning i don't know it's becoming one with the machine like yeah just having a sense of where to go it uh it is very lock on focus so like you point in the direction of an enemy and if you're close enough to like lock on you just have to pull the trigger and shoot you it's not like pixel perfect so really you're focused on maneuvering and positioning and and just absorbing all the

visual information that's being shot at you at like which is very intense yeah um it's it's super it looks cool and and really setting your build like uh the deeper you get into the game you will come across bosses or even stage designs where it feels impossible and then you will switch from a really light flying around zippy mech to a like actual tank and suddenly the game's you know easy peasy um we're going to talk about this game in a full episode um but yeah i, I'm glad that we, like, mentioned it up top because, gosh, it is, it's really, it's one of those games that it has some weak points, for sure. There are some levels that are Xbox 360 level bad. But, yeah, for the vast majority of this game i am just like so super addicted to it um and i'm currently stuck on the final boss which i think i will be oh wow

yeah you really have been playing this thing a lot yeah yeah i'm into it um i want to hear about blasphemous 2 because fresh is like i think fresh wants me to play this but knows that i will probably bounce off okay so blasphemous two obviously the sequel to blasphemous a game that i didn't realize this until this morning blasphemous one sold 2.5 million copies wow it's pretty outstanding for an indie game uh the original game was a metroidvania kind of inspired by um the aesthetics of holy week in spain which has like if you google it like very specific iconography like christian iconography that like attaches to that and so the developers who are based in spain made a whole game using that uh aesthetic and it ruled It was a lot of fun.

I liked the original Blast from this. I thought it was a little limited and didn't feel the best. But the aesthetic was like so unique that it kind of set out for me. They went ahead and made a sequel that addresses every issue that I had with the original game. And went even further it is one of the best 2d pixel games i have ever seen visually speaking like it's astounding and it plays fucking awesome like the combat feels fantastic most metroidvanias do not have great combat or the combat can be like a little limited games like hollow knight are kind of the exception can be like a little limited games like hollow knight are kind of the exception um but here they do uh the combat and like just it like is very crunchy and and counter base where you're blocking

and then counter attacking and um it just feels so fucking good but but mostly i think it's about just like the vibe and the aesthetic of it which again doesn't really look like any other game i've ever played you described it to me as like uh dark souls catholic it also looks like kind of like a castlevania 2d version of silent hill i don't know well there is a pointed pointy headed guy in this case he's a good guy he's not a triangle head but it does kind of have that uh grim look to it but then you'll be like you'll like see an angelic face coming out of like a holy cloud but then you realize that face is bleeding blood and you have to fight the face like that happens a lot there are cut scenes that feel like, I don't know how to describe this art style other than it looks like out of this world. Like that very sort of pixely,

almost sort of like MS Paint pixel art style. That's just for the non-playable cut scenes you mean. Yeah, and just for the cut scenes, but they're absolutely jaw-droppingly gorgeous. For the non-old folks, out of this world is a game, not just a phrase. I'm not sure a lot of people know that.

I appreciate that. That's true. For sure. Yeah, it's hard for me to really contextualize it because I know Griffin, you played a little bit of it, but I know Justinin griffin justin and plant have and um i i think at this point it's probably the first one sorry i think the first one i i remember it yeah i mean this i think there was a lot that kind of came out in

that sonnet like salt and sanctuary and stuff like that kind of came out at that same same moment yeah i think the second one is probably in my top 10 metroidvanias of all time list wow i i uh i bounce off a lot of these i bounce off of it a bit this game's hard as fuck and i feel like the progression hooks are not like uh immediately kind of understandable like Like you don't, uh, I, I,

I have played this game quite a bit and I have made some progress and I do not feel like I am any stronger or more like, um, able to tackle this world. But then again, like it's not like there is a, you go to the campfire and spend your souls to level up system right it's like you have to go find this painter and or this sculptor and give him this uh

statue piece that you found by uh sacrificing blood drops to this crying god woman like it's it's so abstract and weird and i'm sure if i stuck with it it would um it would it would click into place but it just it it it has not done that which is the same issue i had with the original blasphemous so like this is actually one that i'm looking forward to returning to when i can you know get a a helpful game fac open on my lap uh to to help figure that stuff out yeah i was able to play it and beat it this was pre-launched so i didn't have anything to look for but it also required like a ton of patience to be like i know that there will be a place to spend this currency based on the item description

so i'm just gonna like keep exploring this map and then when i found it i was like oh clearly now i can you know here's a a bunch more healing charges for my heal thing. Yeah. You know. So, you know, you can play it certainly with a guide. It'll make your experience a lot easier. But I have really, really enjoyed just like slowly but surely uncovering this game because there are so many nooks and crannies that are just like fucking buck wild awesome

next game yeah you want those games right so here you go now let's see you clear them that is the name of the game you want to say the name of the game yeah you want those games right so here you go now let's see

it is a game made by a developer called monkey craft that did uh katamari domicey re-roll and we love katamari domicey re-roll all right and klona fantasy reverie series um it's it's not a a massive developer i don't think it's published by d3 this is on windows and nintendo switch if you have Reverie series. It's not a massive developer. I don't think it's published by D3. This is on Windows and Nintendo Switch. If you have ever, like me, been served mobile game ads

where what you see is a... I'll give you an example where you see the treasure on one side and then there's pins that are holding the treasure up. And you've got to remove the pins so your adventurer can get to the treasure, right? It's like a puzzle. And then when you download the game, it's a terrible time-based strategy game idle thing.

It has nothing to do with the actual image that you've seen. idle thing it has nothing to do with the actual image that you've seen um or uh the the one where you're like piling up cash to climb over obstacles or whatever uh if you see these ads and then you get a fake game it's like a fake advertisement for a real game that is actually much more boring than you see this is a game that is based on those mobile games it's basically a parody almost where they have made full versions of uh like pin pull where you pull the pins to let the lava fall out and let your character get to the treasure or a number tower which is pretty cool you start out with a number attached to your hero, and then there's different rooms in this castle,

and each enemy in the room has a number. And once you kill the enemy, you claim their points, but you can only beat the other enemies who you have more points than. And there's, like, modifiers within the room. So you have to figure out, like, the right arithmetic sequence to get through the stage. All the levels are micro- they're timed you get like three stars if you do it like really quickly um they start out so incredibly easy that you can't

uh really really fathom it um the the it's really a fun idea and it's it's kind of hilarious to me i will say the biggest bummer about this is that it is not on mobile, which these are mobile game ads that they are parodying, and it seems really weird to not have this on mobile. It feels weird. They probably knew that they wouldn't make money on mobile with this. Right. Yeah.

It just doesn't feel as engrossing as I would like a like desktop pc experience to be like obviously i'm sure you can play on switch or on steam deck if you like but even that is like yeah maybe a bit more highfalutin than this sort of like primal i feel like gaming experience i feel like netflix needs to publish this on mobile because at first it's like oh apple arcade but i i'm sure apple doesn't want to be associated with garbage mobile games even if this is a good version of it it's a fun parody of of of garbage mobile games which i think is is pretty hilarious um i think it would also if apple had it it would it would also like uh be a sort of tacit endorsement of the fact that most mobile game ads are terrible are terrible and uh

it's all their fault uh but it's it's called yeah you want those games right so here you go now let's see you clear them uh it is uh a lot of people just refer to as those games do you still want those games um i have them now no no but i mean like now when you see those ads are you like no i know what they're doing? Yeah, I don't need those games anymore. I have these games. Yeah, no, that's true. And there's a gacha machine.

You earn coins for beating levels, and then the gacha machine will unlock nameplates so you can change your character's name to, you know, illustrious rookie or whatever you want to generate it to. But it's cute. It's worth checking out. I wish it was on mobile want to generate it too but it's uh it's it's cute it's it's worth checking out um i wish it was on mobile but other than that it's neat it's a good time to plug besties.fan our newsletter where you can find links to the games we discuss rather than trying to google the name of that game oh yeah sure um tell you what why don't we take a break a brief pause and then come back and talk about yes you

guessed it video games so i uh i've been really i was really interested to hear about stray gods um which is a musical uh i would say musical visual novel is probably the closest that i would say like that, that, that, that you're getting with this experience. I think it builds itself as a musical RPG, but,

um, I, I tend to think of something that has this level of interaction as a visual novel. I heard about from Montaigne who wrote the theme song for my brother, my brother, me, and has a, has contributed songs to the, to the contributed songs to the soundtrack of the game.

And it's got a lot of big names in the main roles. You got your Troy Baker, that's legally mandated, Troy Baker. The music is directed by Austin Wintory of journey and flow fame um and it's sort of inspired they mentioned uh the the episode of buffy once more with feeling where characters like start singing yeah uh sort of against their will the basic plot is that you are a young woman named grace who has dropped out of school and is kind of like muddling through life and then is accused of murdering a god, or this game calls them idols, and she is innocent of this crime, obviously. But when the god Calliope shows up, her godly powers pass on to Grace and

the powers of music and being amused and what have you. The other gods that are still around in this modern era, it's all like in the current time period and they are going to put her to death, but instead give her a chance to prove her innocence. So the way you do that is going around this town and having all these different like interactions with characters and trying to uncover the story but the conversations are frequently thrust into like a musical mode like where the characters are are singing rather than uh speaking with each other you know like any book musical it's it's really interesting it's pretty slow paced

i would say um it not a ton of like interaction. Is there interactivity in the songs themselves? Yeah. So as you're, um, there's like, and you're sort of choosing like who you're going to align with and making your sort of like more intense narrative choices, like during a song.

Yeah. And that will actually shift like the lyrics of the song or what the song is or who you're going to go with or whatever. And those are timed. Um, the, those are time decisions because they're in a musical. As somebody who like, I'm a big fan of musical theater. I got my degree in acting directing. Like I, this is something I think about a lot and have thought about a lot.

It's really cool. And some of the songs like musically are are uh pretty catchy i would say um the problem that they have and this is like i feel like i'm narrow casting at this point because it's such a specific thing but um when you do a song in musical theater like in the in the traditional like american book musical the idea is typically that the the character resorts to song when the emotions they have cannot be adequately like put out through spoken dialogue. You know what I mean? Like the emotions have welled up so much to a point where only a song makes sense.

And this game is using musicals and songs for a lot of exposition, which is weird because when you see that happen in musical theater, what you're almost always getting is an I want song that is, which is a term of art, where it's like the main character establishes their passion, right?

The thing that they want more than anything else that this musical is either going to give them or not give them, but we're setting the tone. And if we're doing a lot of story dump and exposition, it's usually in the context of like, this is what my world's about. Part of your world is like the iconic.

I think I want song, right? You know exactly what Ariel wants. The main character of this is not driven by, she's driven by on we. And I think that like, especially early on, she's driven by ennui and i think that like especially early on she's driven by ennui and then she's driven by trying to save herself from being executed by gods right neither of which are make particularly great fodder for for musicals um and so that tends to make a lot of

the songs feel kind of like weirdly mechanical it's why some movies they developed into musicals just don't function as well like high fidelity is a really good example they did a musical of high fidelity but like what does that character want um i don't know and neither does he so it's like a really weird choice for a musical yeah um that that is that that so that is what i was i was struggling with uh while playing this i feel like I've bloviated about something that only I care about. Oh, no, I would be shocked if that were true. While you're talking, that actually reminded me of The Artful Escape, which was a game that came out a couple years ago. It's a side-scrolling narrative platformer.

And, you know, a kid is like abducted and sent into space but at its core it's about him wanting to be like a rock star and his yes family not really jibing with that because i think they're more like uh folk music people yes and so you're right like his impetus is not survival it's more i want my passion to come forward. Yes, exactly. Exactly right. No, it's interesting. I'm definitely intrigued by this, but if you want to go in a different direction, Artful Escape is kind of trying to do something else in a different format, but also really neat.

Artful Escape is so pleasant. It's also got a, I was wrong, Michael Johnston is the lead character, but that game's got like Jason Schwartzman and Carl Weathers. It rules. It's a really good game. Alright, let's talk

about some real shit. No more of this biting parody or musical graphic novels. Right, gang? No, I didn't mean that. it's good i think people should check out stray gods i think so too i think so too it's really interesting i i was i was genuinely

interested in justin's uh i was too this is a fucking character i'm playing because the game i'm about to talk about could not be more further removed what's this character what's the character's name his name is fucking nasty mike okay go ahead and he likes he likes sorry what nasty mike likes doomsday hunters okay doomsday hunters it's a it's a it's a new roguelike uh twin stick shooter this can't be real i'm looking at the images this game looks absolute justin describe to me what it is that you are seeing uh this is like mid 90s binder aesthetics yes um like this looks like a line of toys where the ads are like they barf they fight they're like mad balls yes they look like mad balls it's very strong mad balls vibes i will say if you are looking at still images i don't think

it does it uh much much surface i think once you see these bad boys moving i think this game absolutely looks remarkable uh i've been playing it on switch it is on not good like regular games oh come on no no it looks really fucking good um no but you know how like real games this is a fun character that you like to play sometimes where you act like just because a game doesn't have three-dimensional sort of figures in them that is a bad vibe? I just think it's wild that we all decided that retro stopped at a certain point

and this is just always going to be the retro aesthetic. Give me like PlayStation 1 polygons. He's barely done that. There's been PlayStation 1 aesthetic games. That's my nostalgia. That's millennials. Right. Anyway. I don't even remember games like this it is a twin stick roguelike action game uh in the vein of uh honestly it reminds me the most of hades which

i recognize is like a pretty lofty comparison um but in terms of like game feel and the amount of like variety and just sheer content that is available here it is i think applicable uh you play as a doomsday hunter you play as one of these weird looking mutant characters one of them is just a man with a hand for a head and eyeball right in the middle of that hand, and he's all about sort of melee attacks. There's, like, vampires in the mix as well. There's, like... No way!

It is a wild vibe that this game is putting down, and I would encourage you to look at a trailer for it. The trailer is awesome. It almost has like a isometric yes yeah it's like yeah that's another or not great uh it's like bastion yes bastion is another sort of good aesthetic kind of uh comparison uh you are as as a doomsday hunter you are just trying to clear out uh each level that is made up of these little islands that you hop around each island

will have like some enemies on it or a puzzle to solve or a little building you go in uh there is in terms of like what goes into a build it is mind-boggling there are like primary weapons you pick up there are sidearms there are like spells that you uh can find and then cast there are special weapons there are relics that will sort of give you these boosts. All of these things are like not especially mold breaking, but like it's all together in concert. It is the type of roguelike game that I think I am just always gonna have on my Switch

because every time I pick it up, it is fun immediately. And, you know, I'm unlocking new weapons and new characters and new upgrades. There's a level up system that you get just from playing the game. And as you level up, you unlock new stuff for your characters, but you also unlock new enemies and level elements. Like, oh no, now there's automated turrets that are going to show up on your islands, but you're also a little bit better equipped to,

to face them. Uh, there's like a currency that you can spend on permanent upgrades that go across all your characters. There's just like, there is a shit ton of stuff to, to unlock. Uh,

I think there's like 1200 items or something like, you know, approaching that, um, that binding of Isaac level. But yeah, I don't know what to say about it except that like I have not been this into a roguelike probably since Hades. And it is scratching very much the same itch for me. And I just think it's great. very much the same itch for me and I just think it's great.

I've been trying I'm looking at these screens trying to figure out why I really really want to play this even beyond everything you're saying sounding great and it's Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Zombies Ate My Neighbors maybe, sure. It's a very old

game for people at home. We've really fallen deep today. You listen to a podcast by old men this is how it happened there's also a scan line filter over the entire thing which i think sort of uh colors be the impression that you have um so that's doomsday hunters and now i'm gonna put um nasty Buy my Nasty Mike. He's in the drawer now. Can I talk about Fey Farm? Oh, sure.

A different game. This one's not out yet. It's not out until I think September 6th, but the preview embargo is up, so I can kind of talk about it. You can only talk about three vegetables. So turnip. Yep.

Oh, God. Potato. Shit. three vegetables so turnip yep oh god um potato shit um uh this is from uh phoenix labs which is the studio that made dauntless did any of you guys play that oh the monster hunter game yeah so basically phoenix labs took a look at monster hunter and was like we'll make one of those and they did and it was really good uh and it focused i would say a lot more on the like uh progressive uh like online multiplayer element of it uh it was free to play and it had like a like a season pass that you were sort of leveling up through as you battled monsters so it was like going is dauntless still a going concern dauntless is still going um there this is basically that for stardew valley or harvest moon or you know inter farming sim here uh and and you know a lot of those ideas i bring up stardew valley just because it is the best one of those but

these ideas predated stardew valley like you own a farm you're going to clear it out and get you know fiber from all the weeds that are around that you could use to feed the animals that you get and then there's a mine that you go through different levels of and like pretty pretty much straight across the plate uh harvest moon level stuff uh what is different about this game is that it is way less uh punishing i would say than uh than a stardew valley there's things like you know in stardew valley if you accidentally use up too much energy you're gonna you know sleep in the next day and have half your meter empty and all of this stuff. That doesn't really happen here.

It is a much easier, much more approachable game that just dumps tutorials at you constantly so that you never feel exactly out of your depth. I feel like, Juice, you would honestly have an easier time clicking with this game than Stardew, just because it is a lot more straightforward with how it handles all these different systems.

You are being so, so charitable right now. Thank you, Griffin. I appreciate that. Thanks for the restraint. I appreciate it. You can just say I'm not very smart. I wouldn't say that at all. You just talked about a game

that was musical books. So obviously you've got something going on that's a great point griffin i don't give myself enough credit the literati um it is uh i i am really really enjoying it i this preview embargo is weird because i can only talk about the first like sort of few chapters of it but like it is uh it is what I expected it to be and kind of what I wanted it to be which is like the same way that they modernized the monster hunter formula with dauntless is is pretty much exactly what they have done here it looks great it feels really good uh the characters aren't quite as like you know that's a big deal with games in

this genre is like you know you want to uh befriend and in some cases romance the characters that are all around this town uh they the characters don't feel quite as um robust i would say as other entries in the genre but again i am still fairly early days with it so that may change um but from a like you know customize your farm and your house and your outfit and dive into a a mine so you can upgrade your tools like that loop is here and it is great and it feels great and um i i think that i i feel like i know a lot of people who are going to get very into this game when it comes out. And so I'm, you know, I'm excited for that to happen. But I will probably circle back on this one once it's fully out and I've had some more time to spend on it.

I've got a pitch for y'all. Are you ready for it? Yep. A Peter Molyneux game with restraint and simple. So not a Peter Molyneux game. So not black and white. It's just black or white. This game is called En Garde.

Or En Garde! Because there's an exclamation point. And it is a swashbuckler simulator. It's an action sword fighting game. And you play as a woman with a killer uh swashbuckling fencing skills and it has that i don't know there's something about the aesthetic that is like deeply fable very silly um the tutorial is like 45 minutes long but it's not really even a tutorial it kind of just throws you into the game and And you are fighting henchmen who have been clearly hired to like sit around near ledges so that you can push them off.

Like that type of silly. But the combat is the draw here because it's, I don't even know how to really describe it. I think there's a demo on Steam. And if there is, you should check it out. If not, the game is like 20 bucks. It's on sale right now. I mean, it's fencing, right? It's fencing.

Yeah, it's fencing. But, you know, getting fencing and making it actually feel like fencing is the tough part and the thing that I hadn't really seen in other games. is the tough part and the thing that I hadn't really seen in other games. And it's a little bit of the kind of, you know, Batman combat of wait for certain visual cues that tell you a hit is coming, whether it's dodgeable or not dodgeable. But then there's just tons of environmental stuff. So you can fence somebody and kind of disorient them and then push them into a weapons rack, and that'll fall on them.

Or you can pick up a mug and fence while you're holding the mug and then throw the mug at somebody to have it land on their heads so they can't see. Watching the video of the gameplay, it looks pretty like – not frenetic. That's not the word I'm looking for, but it doesn't look like the kind of thing where you would plan your strategy your strategy it feels very sort of like reactive that's a great word so i thought that going off the trailer total opposite for me really because if you if you get caught like

fencing if you get caught with like two or three people on your sides you're just done yeah, you're reacting in that like you're having to improvise, you're having to get around the environment and find areas that are going to like give you an advantage. But you you are kind of you're not just purely on the offensive, you're running away at points to try to like get again, get a one on one match that is in your favor. Or like, oh, I have like four people, there's no way I'm going to get a one-on-one match that is in your favor or like oh i have like four people there's no way i'm going to get a one-on-one but there's a big stack of barrels at the top of the staircase i'll get them to chase me up the stairs and then i'll knock the barrels down on them plant let me ask you something a lot of games that have done sword fighting uh

the like they struggle or they spend a lot of time and energy with the specifics of countering hits in a specific direction. You know what I mean? The attack is coming from overhead, so you block overhead or whatever. How much of the combat is like that predicting and looking for openings and stuff? Because it looks a little bit bigger than that. It looks a little bit more zoomed out uh mechanics wise yeah it's not the like left right parry uh all the different directions it is more of a okay there are hits that are going that you can parry um there are hits that you can't so it and then they build on that by like okay well you might get a combo thrown at you that's

like a can't parry it so dodge can't parry it so dodge can parry it hit it can parry it again hit it and that will be the thing that disorients them so you're kind of learning these patterns um because of the the real goal is to like disorient the enemy so that you can then use the environment or get a few jabs in because if you just kind of like come swinging at them. They're going to block you just as much. It sounds like Sekiro is what it sounds like. Yeah it does. Which is great.

I mean maybe like Baby's first Sekiro. Because I enjoyed it. But yeah. And the environment stuff is definitely it's own thing. The game's not very long. It's like maybe three or four hours. But it does have arena mode that's yeah that's as much as you're ever going to play this character this is this

episode is fucking usa characters welcome i will say uh you know what it looks like and you said peter molyneux and it's like this is again we're digging into the annals of history but like the reference there for me is this is what Molineux said. Fights in favor would be like, this is what he said is like, you'd be in a bar and there'd be like a mug and you can press a button to, it was all contextual, right?

You press a button and you kick a mug at the guy and then you jump off the chandelier. A fable was never, ever, ever like that in a million years. But this is also the man that made people sign a legal document on a wall to say that a rail shooter he made was not, in fact, a rail shooter. That sounds cool, though. Yeah, I think folks will like it.

It's definitely worth a try. Again, it's kind of a perfect length. It's a great portable game. I know it's on Steam. perfect length it's a great um portable game i know it's on steam works perfectly fine on steam deck i think it's on switch and other consoles too cool um that was a lot of games uh we have a few reader mail questions these come directly from the newsletter um i know you're thinking how is that the newsletter at besties.fans it's the newsletter at besties.fans and you're thinking how could a newsletter have questions in it but the newsletter

actually has a comments thread and we pull questions from the comments thread so if that is a reason to get engaged with that comments thread so your questions can be asked boom there you go uh this first question comes from patrick c and it's for justin and griffin do you expect balder's gate 3 to influence how you play taz new do you mechanics you've discovered to change how you play a player character new classes you'd like to try new tricks story beats encounter types to incorporate into how you dm does the vibe of how laurie larian has DM'd this game, translated it all into Taz's setup, or is it hopelessly too much pre-production work? It's a big question.

Honestly, I think it's kind of apples and oranges. I adore Baldur's Gate 3. We're playing a lot of shit right now, a lot of which we can't talk about, and it is hard because I just kind of keep wanting to go back and play more balder skate 3 um but at the same time like i think what they have done to adapt the dnd rule set to a video game is miraculous um i don't necessarily know that there is a lot there that would go the other

way right because the other way is so open-ended that arguably you could turn anything into anything. Right. I will say that it's a really good way of understanding, as somebody who does actual play podcasting, we get when there are certain people for whom adhering to the rules of a specific game is extremely important.

Like a fidelity to the rules is laid out the rule book and i think balder's gate 3 is a really instructive way of saying like okay this is a game that adheres very closely to the rules there are certain rules of dfiv that it dispenses with right like you don't need for example material components for spells um or casting time is they have some fun with that there's a lot of spells that would you know some spells in dnd require hours if not days you know to to cast um so that that is those are rules that they've eschewed to to make it feel the best for for the game um which is very much what like makes sense in actual play right it the best for the game. Which is very much what makes sense in actual play, right? It's like adapting the game to

what makes sense. I will say, though, as somebody who played a wizard for several years, there's some things I didn't understand apparently. This is a wonderful,

wonderful way of getting like a functional understanding of Dungeons and Dragons I mean we said that before but like if you wanted to get into it like this is such a good like starting point for getting an idea of what those mechanics are

especially stuff like spell memorization spell slots a lot of the fighting stuff like a lot of things like haste and the bonus attacks um make it it's so much clearer when bonus actions are like in orange right and you can see oh i have this many bonus actions that i can lay it on this way um it's a wonderful learning tool i would say um but but yeah i don't know that it'll learning tool, I would say. But yeah, I don't know that it'll shift things that much.

Although it is a wonderful, again, I think I have a better understanding of a lot of the classes, especially ones that I haven't personally played. Yeah. This is not so much a question as a useful comment. This comes from Devin.

RE the DM mode question. I believe last week we were asked if there were other games that would allow for like more of a dm control over the actual video game uh are you the dm mode question solasta crown of the magister has user created campaigns it's more of a budget 5e game than balder's gate and the graphics definitely show it but it's a full 5e rule set and the tools for creating a user campaign are powerful. They're not as flexible as the tool sets in Neverwinter Nights, to my knowledge,

but lots of people have made good stuff on it. So definitely worth checking that out. Cool. One more question. This comes from David Miller. What character class skill set would you recommend beginning training my toddler in to prepare them for preschool? It's very useful information for me as well. So which class do you think is ideal for a preschooler?

Yeah, for a preschooler. Bard. Well, there can only be one bard. So that's a lot of pressure to put on a kid. You think other kids are going to train? I mean, no, like bard. No one thinks they want to play bard, but bards are really useful, right? Sure.

If you're the kid in school and you're new and you want to like, the most important thing at that level I think is social development. Yeah. So you want to have a kid to make friends. If you have a kid who's like, yeah, he's eating his peanut butter jelly. He is the hero that we all deserve. And you're like pumping people up as they're like stacking up blocks and shit. Like that's going to be a very popular kid i would teach him to be a bard i like that that's good uh last we're all bards you realize that

right like almost everybody you know in media would be a bar you think about that that's probably true yeah uh a last comment from olive farden just wanted to say i was kind of neutral on the whole newsletter thing, but reading this one on a whim was a great decision. Totally rules. Keep up the good work, y'all. Thank you, Olive. It's a great newsletter.

Great newsletter. Highly recommend. Great recipes. Who do I send the recipe to to get recipes in the newsletter, guys? I get the newsletter. You leave them in the comments. I don't know who's sending it. You just leave them in the comments.

They'll be read. What are you talking about? It my newsletter yeah so you write the newsletter and then you leave i don't know do what you want you'll figure it we'll figure it out uh anything honorable mention wise to call out if there's anything that we haven't talked about on here that would be let me guess a non-video game maybe there's a game we haven't talked about on here, that would be a non-video game maybe. There's a game I haven't played yet that I want to mention. Have y'all heard about Robodunk? No. Wow, that's a good name.

NBA Jam Roguelike. It looks so good. Wow. I've not played it yet. It could not be good, but it comes out like it should be out by the time this episode is out. Oh, yeah. Wow. I've not played it yet. It could not be good, but it comes out, like, it should be out by the time this episode is out. Oh, yeah. Wow. Hey, look, PS1 aesthetic. There you go, Jonathan.

Thank you. Extreme PS1. Very cool. I'm just playing Baldur's Gate 3, so it's, yeah, hard to... I've got a TV show that is not a struck project, which is very exciting. It's a Korean reality show, which is very exciting it's a korean reality show which is really between like physical 100 siren survived the island did you ever finish that juice

i got like two episodes left i just haven't been in headspace uh it's it's crushing this year and this is a new one it's on netflix it's called new world and very briefly the premise is six uh celebrities uh who are sort of from the like variety show panel show circuit in south korea are live on an island in houses that are customized to their exact specifications it is a utopian society uh they are given phones that have a messaging app and a banking app on it that they use to deal with the island's fictional currency which is called yang and every day there's a new game uh through which they earn or lose that currency uh and it is a show that is so steeped in arcane rules and game mechanics that constantly unfold.

And it is a absolute delight to watch how deeply these people get into the game. For example, at some point, someone discovers that there's a place called the Shadow Store. And the Shadow Store has like 30 items for sale that you can use at different points of the thing. But you don't know what it is exactly you're going to buy. So one guy buys a shield.

And everybody's trying to keep their little secrets, their little items secret. But then the shop owner hands him this gigantic metal shield that he has to carry around. One guy loses all of his money like the first day. But he finds the keys. he wins the keys to a golf cart so now he becomes the chauffeur of the island and he offers people rides around for in exchange for the money that he could use to eat that day and the games themselves are so hysterically funny and clever like one day they play this sort of like monopoly style uh game where they purchase properties around the island uh that they buy and sell throughout the day to try and cut a profit

uh and they can spread rumors about the properties by like scattering cockroaches around one of them or one person buys uh the like grocery store where they buy all of their stuff and then just like spends an hour cleaning it up and changing the prices and working at the cash register to boost the profits. What's this called? It's called New World. It is so good.

It is so, so good. I think it is a mystifying sort of first episode, but there is a sort of twist to the first game that makes everything kind of click into place. So if you can stick with it that long, you you will love it and the people in it are so fucking funny uh it's it is uh it is it's so good this this year has been absolutely insane for new like reality competition shows and this is this is uh this hangs with my very favorites so This hangs with my very favorites.

I would like to briefly mention a game series called Unlock. I'm a big fan of, like, puzzle box type things, escape the room in a box type things. I love escape rooms in general. But, like, you know, that's a lot of times you're home. And a lot of these have, like, these, like, fiddly bits of cardboard and stuff. And you're turning the dial to make the thing work and it always is a little bit weird and you know if you just rip the door off its hinges you know the ants will be there whatever um unlock is like a massive series there's a bunch of them uh and in each box there are three different adventures of like varying themes um and and the system that this uses is really, really cool. Basically, each game is like

a deck of cards, and there is a companion app that you use to assist in this game. And the basic core thing is you turn over a card, and it has a few different numbers on it. And those numbers correspond to cards that are in your hand. You can't see the – all you can see is the number on the back. So like you're in the first room that you have to escape and there's like a 16. And you look – so you can dig out 16 from the deck and find a TV. And then the – you might look elsewhere and find a remote that is 14, right? So you've found a remote and you found the TV. These pieces are labeled like red or blue, and basically you can combine items to make a new number. If that number is one of the cards in your deck, then you've

unlocked it. And that's how you progress, is you're the cards in your deck, then you've unlocked it. And that's how you progress is you're combining items in that classic escape room fashion. And if it's a working combination, then you have found the next thing that helps you progress through. And there are each – that's like the base core thing, but every one has like different – the app adds a lot of layers to it. So there can be areas that you have to unlock with like a four-number code, and you have to input that into the app, and it tells you what card to get. It's also playing music and doing your timer the whole time in the app. There's also like machines that you can – there are cards that have a number on them, and you plug that into the app. And it becomes like, for example, a headlamp you can find. And if you point your phone at the specific cards that interact with this headlamp, it gives you like an AR view of the card that is showing you like the next thing that you need to do.

It's really, really neat. Each of the boxes is 30 bucks. So each of these like individual adventures is 10 bucks. I wouldn't say there's like a bunch of replay value necessarily, but it was great to play with Cooper is five. She's a little young. Charlie's nine. She was deeply, deeply into it.

But if you're looking for that kind of thing, and Sid and I did one, you know, just the two of us, it was great. It was a lot of fun. But it's a cool series. There's a bajillion of them. It's called Unlock. If you're trying to find that, it's unlock! That might help because it took me a while to actually find it on Google.

Oh, interesting. Yeah. Add the exclamation point. They have some themed ones too. There's a star wars box with three different star wars adventures um there's a wizard of oz you know they they do some stuff like that and then you can buy them individually for like 12 bucks they have some that are specifically themed towards kids whatever but you they're they're very cool cool okay we Uh, I wanted to thank the following people for writing reviews to the besties on Apple podcasts.

We have, we're, we're in team. I don't know how to pronounce that. CS more as 16 and Lyle men. Thank you for writing reviews for the besties on Apple podcast plant. Recap the games we talked about. Armored core six blasphemous too.

Yeah. You want those games, right? So here you go. Now let's see you clear them. Stray Gods, Doomsday Hunters, On Guard, Fey Farm, Robodunk, Baldur's Great, Baldur's Gate.

Baldur's Great is right. It is great. And Unlock. And you can find links to all those games in our newsletter. God, there's too many games. And there's so much shit we can't talk about yet. So like, it's fucking, yeah, our cup run is over.

Speaking of games, next week, a little game called Starfield. Oh, my God. Wait, really? I hope that is a, I hope we do two weeks. But we probably won't be able to do two weeks. There's so much. There's so much to do. It is extremely busy.

I don't think I'm up to it. We need a fifth bestie. We'll see. We'll see. Ron is just busy. I don't think I'm up to it. We need a fifth bestie. We'll see. Ron is just waiting in the corner like, I'm always here. Ron is the fifth bestie, right? At this point, we're the Chris Granatron 3000. That was a cybernetic AI

well ahead of its time. So many throwbacks today. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode. Besties.fan, right now. Don't even think about it. Just go do it. Thanks. We'll be back with you again next week with Starfield. Until then, for all of us here, thank you for joining us for 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? games. Besties!