The Besties - Yes, Metaphor: ReFantazio Really is Fantasy Persona

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Half of The Besties adore Metaphor: ReFantazio. The other half? It’s complicated! Griffin and Plante talk about the new RPG that puts a fantasy spin on the Persona formula. And Hoops and Frush bring two games that brought them joy, Yars Rising and Kill Knight. 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!

See, is it too early to just say it was the metaphor was inside you the whole time? Is it too early? Ah... Am I jumping the gun? I... I don't know. I mean, you're definitely jumping the gun. I don't think anybody has a clue what the fuck you're talking about. We never do talk about the game in the introduction.

But in this case, I'm not talking about the game, I'm talking about the very end of the game when you learn that the metaphor was inside you the whole time. Oh, you're worried about spoiling that truth. Yes, that's true. Teddy from Persona 4 comes out at the end of this one and he's like, the metaphor was you and love and be cool to each other. Those are the three metaphors of metaphor refundasio. Did you have something else you wanted to talk about, Justin?

No, I was just trying to talk about, Justin? No, I was just trying to think about better names for the video game, because they couldn't come up with any, so I was trying to come up with one. Oh, sure, let me try. Fantasy Sword. Uh, you can do magic, quest. Okay, no, no, no. Wait, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Sorry, I need to stop for one second. Sure, sure. Is the name that you wanted to pitch, because I think it's strong. Yeah, yeah. You can do magic, hyphen, quest, exclamation point. So I'm gonna, you can do magic, colon, quest, exclamation point. I, my position is that you could call the game

Hambone Slam Jam, and it would be probably a stronger, more memorable title. I adore this game, in two years, I'm gonna be like, what was that fucking game called again? I think Metaphor on its own is not bad. And then you throw in some random ass Italian shit. ReFantazio sounds like this game has sent me an email and it wants to draw my attention to Fantazio.

It sounds like I should be playing Maracas while playing this game. I think, a little bit. Maybe they could choose between metaphor and fantasio because they are both kick ass names for video games. Yeah, slip a re in there to bind them together. The binding re. My name is Justin Macorano, the best games of the week. My name is Griffin Macorano, the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I think I know where the name of this game comes

from and it would be a scoop on this episode because I don't think anybody else has figured it out yet. This week we're talking about metaphorically. Mine is Russ. I think it'd be cool to get Russ on this one. Let's get Russ up in this one. Get your flavor on here. Sorry Plant threw it off by talking after his name and I feel like the show had started. No I get it, I get it. Certain. Think of it. Anyway, welcome to the Besties,

where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a video game club. And just by listening, you are a member. We're talking about Metaphor Re-Fantasio. Chris Plant, what's that? Metaphor Re-Fantasio is kind of like Persona, because it's made by the people who made the Persona games.

But this time, say goodbye to that wonderful Japan high school experience. Say hello to fantasy, heavily, heavily influenced by the works of Salvador Dali. And we're gonna talk about it more after I review. And then after that, the Fun Boys are back in town. Russ Freshstick and I are bringing back games. We're gonna have, we're gonna get games back.

This episode's gonna be a wreck. Let's go to the break so we can establish the structure. We here at Besties Incorporated take our human resources incredibly seriously. And when you say human, you mean horrible monsters. I mean horrible mutant monsters. We take our human resources very seriously. To get all four of us embedded elbow deep

in a 90 hour long JRPG is simply not the best use of everyone's time. And so some people weren't so psyched about playing a 90 hour JRPG. They checked out other shit, that's fine. And for what it's worth, some people did try to check out a 90 hour JRPG, they checked out other shit, that's fine. And for what it's worth, some people did try to check out a 90 hour RPG. I'd say a lot of people on this show tried.

I'd say the majority. About half the call. I will say I got my road dog over there, Chris Plante over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am sorry to talk with people who actually tried and not people who are gonna tell me they tried. Josh, can I say very quickly just to set the parameters? Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. I come not to crucify metaphor refontasio.

It is 100% a case of like, not my flavor. Not your shit, not my shit. Knew it wouldn't be my flavor going in. You've played Persona games, right? And you know that you haven't really loved a Persona game. I have really loved several Persona games. I've played 80 hours of a couple different persona. Oh fuck me Just game. It's good as shit. Okay, not a person again. No no no

Listen, I don't I did I just said that I just said that's right. No aggro. No aggro here No, I said the way I could tell you why it didn't work for me But I don't I who gives a shit like if you're gonna like it you're gonna let's circle back to that Let's circle back to that. I also want to call my shot now that in In some time in the next six months, I don't know when, Justin's going to come and tell us that he's actually started playing this and that he loves this game.

And it's gonna be- No, it's not. I can't get into you. He's got his reasons and I'm curious to hear them, but before we do that, we should talk about the- Yeah, and I want to say, Justin and I, like, I'm gonna just hang back for a while while you guys fucking drool over this. I know it seems like Russ and I have been talking

for two minutes about how we're not gonna talk, but just to set it up, Russ and I are really gonna try to sit back a little bit and let you guys do it. I think this game does a lot of stuff different from Persona, so I would say if you have questions about that. Can you give a summary? Griffin, do you wanna start with what's the summary

of the game? So if genuinely it is not reductive to call this fantasy persona and you would know like 85% of what you need to know about the game. Structurally, it's very similar. It takes place in a calendar that passes. You have to manage your time and your activities. There are social links that inform the like, you know,

core dungeon crawling gameplay. All of that stuff is here. And what is different is the genre. It is profoundly different than this slick, urban kind of fantasy story that they have told in all the Persona games. The Shin Megami Tensei games are, I don't know, I don't know how to classify them as a genre.

But this is straight up fantasy, and it is like really, really, I would say, traditional, extremely dark kind of fantasy. A lot of really fucked up stuff happens in this game, which I think they can- I would say it's like, into color a bit, like you keep, it's not high fantasy. I would-

No, no, no. Me and Mortis like militaristic fantasy. Like that sort of- Like Game of Thrones-y. No, not Game of Thrones-y. I would- No, no, no. Liam Orchard's like militaristic fantasy. Like that sort of- Like Game of Thrones Z. No, not Game of Thrones Z. I would say more- Military. Attack on Titan is the vibe that it was kind of giving me.

Recent Final Fantasy games too, I think have had this. The more recent, yeah, sure. I would say Game of Thrones season one. Yeah, yeah, before there is some castle intrigues. But this is much more modern. Like the aesthetics are not- They speak in modern sort of ways. They got bricks.

For the most part. And they look cool, right? They still look like fucking cool people because it is a P-Studio game and that's their jam. I think this game sets itself apart in what it does differently than Persona and what it has honestly fixed about some of the stuff in Persona.

I think it is way easier to understand. They have done away with a lot of cruft from the Persona format. For example, gone is the like, you have to go out and collect these different demons and then fuse them and if your social link is strong enough here, you can make a stronger version of this demon. That's all gone.

Now it's just like a class system, like you would see in like a Final Fantasy V or like whatever, imagine any game where you could, all the Dragon Quest games where you can pick different classes for each character, each character's totally customizable, it's not like Persona games where you just really can control your main guy and then whoever you hang with

does their own thing. And you can blend these different classes, right? You can have a fighter with skills from the, you know, healer tree and so on and so forth. And so your social links, they're called followers in this game. When you level those up, it directly empowers those different classes,

which I find a way more juicy and delicious carrot than like in Persona 5, it's like you talk to this guy and you spend half the day with him, and then it's like, on Sundays you get 50% off at the smoothie stand. It's like, who fucking cares? In this one, I feel like by simplifying that system, they have made it way more appealing to,

I don't know, do anything. I found myself never without something I wanted to do, something I wanted to chase. I think that improves the pacing of the game a lot, which is maybe its biggest accomplishment. In every Persona game, even the ones I love, it's like, there will be times where it's like, well, I got 15 days to kill.

I guess I'll go to eat fucking beef with Chie over and over and over and over again. Chris, what was your take? Well, for people who have not played a Persona game, because I'm sure that there's gonna be some of those listening, the calendar thing that Griffin talked about is the key to the game. And I think is probably why, uh, hoops and fresh maybe bounced off because here's

a problem with the game for most average people, the calendar stuff doesn't really start until the 10 hour mark and doesn't really get going until the 20 hour mark. And that is a totally reasonable reason to bounce off this. Yes, that is a huge ask of players. But when you get to it, holy moly does it sing. And the way it works is that you, let's say that there's a big dungeon that you need to go solve the mystery for, right? You need to go beat the big boss in the scary dungeon. And they will say you have two weeks to do that and there's a countdown clock. to go solve the mystery for, right? You need to go beat the big boss in the scary dungeon. And they will say, you have two weeks to do that. And there's a countdown clock every

day when you wake up. And you have a thing that you can do in the afternoon or in the evening and you could go right to the dungeon and start blasting through it. But the enemies will be really tough. So what's probably better spent is chatting with your friends and unlocking these new powers or going and doing side quests, because I think that's the other thing this game does really well. It gives you a ton of side things to do

rather than just go into a endless generative dungeon and playing it over and over again. And they tried to do this with Persona 5, right? Persona 5 had the labyrinth, I forget what it was called, but like, if you didn't need to progress in the main dungeon, there was like this other dungeon you could go and level up in. This game is, I mean another sort of big genre difference

is it's a travelogue. It doesn't take place in one, it doesn't take place in Tokyo and that's it. You move through these different cities and every time you get to a new city, it's like there's new side quests, new mini dungeons to explore, new you know social links to form, new, so it's it always kind of feels

fresh. I do think the dungeon stuff like you do kind of have to be into that like grindy sort of like- If you don't like turn-based dungeon combat, this game is not for you. And I- Yeah, for sure. Something clicked in my head with infinite wealth that got me into this stuff and Thank the heavens because I used to like despise this chunk of persona games and I'm really really into it But I yeah, I think the other thing that that fixes you mentioned the travel log of it all By making this a road trip video game effectively, it is allowed to do so much more with those side dungeons creatively. So another example of that is each time you go into a town, they have a series of like,

oh, these people are terrorizing our town. We want you to go and like fulfill this bounty, which is like not so different than any other bounty questing and an RPG. But you will hear about those bounties from other random characters in the town. You will like actually get a sense of- My son got eaten by the worm. Yes, that these things are like connected. Yeah, yeah. It's very just clever and I found that once I got into it, once I got to that point, it was really hard to stop playing because it would be like, okay, well, I have 10 days free and I have this afternoon and this afternoon,

oh, I can finally talk to one of my best colleagues who is gonna, I know, unlock all these powers and I wanna know more about their story. And then I do that. And then I, oh damn, I really wanted to go fulfill that like one tiny dungeon. And suddenly I lost another hour doing that. And time just completely gets away from you

because there's always another relatively short thing to do with a like genuinely pleasurable story beat and reward. I don't think it's a crunch though, in the way that some Persona games, it feels like, oh no, I don't have enough time to get everything. I have felt like I have enough time to get done. Way more generous with its time. One other thing that is sort of-

It's real generous with your time too. It's generous with time all around. One other thing that I think is really kind of interesting about the game is sort of the subject matter that it dabbles in. The main kind of like premise of the game is what if this world that was basically like a sort of theocratic monarchy

with all of these like systemic problems with racism and classism and like deep, deep entrenchment of power that is sort of facilitates the racism and the classism. What if overnight it became a democracy because of magic? And that's, and then seeing people in this world, like no one knows how to fucking deal with this, right? Like everyone, even the people who are like supposedly

empowered to choose their next king are like, wait, but how does it work? How do we do it? And you meet a ton of characters that sort of represent these different sort of virtues that a ruler might have, and it's like a great cast of characters too. It beats you over the head with this stuff

when you start playing. It shows you like there's these nine tribes and there's lesser tribes and people are really racist against them. And it feels like they are setting up this story that is just like, all of this bad stuff is bad. When really it's more of a story of like, how do you fix the bad stuff?

And that is sort of what the, that was the metaphor all along. The main character has this book that is like a book that is sort of what the, that was the metaphor all along. The main character has this book that is like a book that is sort of about this utopia that kind of reflects the real world, our world. And that's so fucking interesting. Like it is really fascinating to hear all of these different takes.

And it's not all like idealistic. Like there's a really great moment where you talk to this one character and he reads the book and he's like, uh, I don't know He's like it's great to just say like everyone should be equal But how do you like does that mean we ignore what separates us and makes us different and and the culture and all of the stuff That kind of like makes you makes you unique It really kind of like I don't know it asks sort of thoughtful questions about this core

Conceit in a way that really surprised me because I don't think any persona game has done that Well in the past in persona 5. It's like the world sucks. Fuck grown-ups of thoughtful questions about this core conceit in a way that really surprised me, because I don't think any Persona game has done that well in the past. In Persona 5, it's like, the world sucks, fuck grownups. That's about as far as you get in Persona 5. It is funny. It's funny to me in this, because they lay it on so thick early on,

and again, I did not get deep into this, but they lay it on so thick where they were like, just a reminder, I know you're gonna think you're playing a fantasy game, but actually connect it to what you got going on in real life and you'll see some similarities. It's interesting, huh? Isn't that interesting?

Interesting set orders, interesting things. But I think that that hook does a really great job. I know, it's just they paint it with such a thick brush. For sure, but whenever you meet it, it is a lens through which you learn about the characters who join your party because you always have a scene with them where it's like, brush. For sure, but whenever you meet it, it is a lens through which you learn about the characters who join your party because you always have a scene with them where it's like, check this book out,

and they're like, oh, interesting, shit, cool, okay. How do you, okay. I wanna hear about your issue. Yeah, I wanna hear it. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. I'm much more interested in you guys. How do you justify for yourselves, and I'm not, I don't mean this in an antagonistic way,

I'm saying what you're talking about, a lot of this sounds like interesting right I know that I like full stop was not enjoying myself while I was playing this game right well I the the combat is a lot thinner than it for the I don't know five or six hours that I got through a lot thinner than what was going on in Yakuza. It's very much like Rock, Beat, Scissors. Yeah. Pokemon and Strong against Weak. I know what I'm playing.

I'm only speaking my experience, I'm not interested in dating. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. So that was kind of, to me, there are so many games, movies, books, whatever, that I could experience the totality of right before this got good. So how do you, as people with limited time say, well, I can justify that

initial buildup or ramp up because the rest of it is so enjoyable. I can't justify, at this point in my life, I can't justify spending any time where I'm like, not enjoying it. This isn't good, but it'll get good later. That's all. Well, I mean, I have a few answers to that. For me, I love this genre, I love this developer

and this style so much that I didn't, I don't think that the game takes 10 to 20 hours to get good, you basically unlock the class system or whatever after an hour, and the stuff leading up to that is just world building, and I am willing to stick through a part of the game that I find a little bit dull because I trust that this developer has some really good shit

coming down the line. And that's, and the reason I feel okay about spending as much time with this game as I do, for one, it's been my fucking bike buddy. And so I've been rocking like an hour on my bike and I don't have a ton of other like game time unless I stay up late at night, which I have done quite a few times for this game.

This is not about amount of time either. I have disgusting amounts of time on many games. But you could spend that doing, in the 90 hours it would take to beat this game, you could do so much shit, right? I just love this. I love this series. I love this developer.

I love this game, honestly. I'm fucking crazy about this game. And so like, I don't know, this is how I like to play games. I don't mind getting stuck into a game because I honestly prefer that. That kind of stuff excites me a lot. Can I ask on the narrative side, and this specifically relates to time,

when did you feel, I'll take a step back. I was immediately kind of drawn to the setting of both Persona 4 and Persona 5, just like off the jump. A lot of it is like, oh, it's a real world setting, but not one that I know super well, but at least there's a grounded nature. And I think the writing- Very lovingly recreated parts of the game

that like feel very- Kind of drew me in. So when, how far into this game were you like, oh, I like this character, or oh, I'm into this story. How long did that take? Not so much the gameplay. I do miss, I will say like the thing missing for me is I do love the like virtual tourism shit

of Persona 4 and 5. And I do think this setting is interesting. Like all of the kind of like world building that they do around it is interesting, but I don't think it necessarily is as like vibrant or has that kind of like external familiarity as Persona 4 and 5 had. As far as like when the game gets like hooked me,

it was, there is a moment sort of right before you get into the first major dungeon where like the plot of the game is established and the plot, and that's this sort of like, uh-oh, it's a democracy now, deal with it, is like, so the way that comes about is so fucking wild. And then I sort of realized the more I played, like I didn't know what was gonna happen next.

In the way that like Persona, you can't say that about. In Persona, I always knew what's gonna happen next. A month is going to pass, I'm gonna find some weird kid, I'm gonna go into his heart and fix him or whatever, and he's gonna become a new party member. In this one, it's like, I don't know, man, this story is doing a lot. It's doing political intrigue, and it's a revenge story,

it's an underdog story. It might have just been, I think there's a moment of reassurance for me in a game when I reach what I think is the end of the loop that this game is built of. It's built of these loops. And like with action games, those are very short loops, right?

I think the original idea of these was in context of Halo. Right. 30 seconds basically. 30 second loops. But I think with this, like you wanna see the structure of like where this, and for me, I didn't see that sort of like, where I felt like this is the game. Like I'm in the game now.

And I feel like that made it hard for me to feel like I was really, it's sort of like if the first episode of a podcast is really long and you don't finish it, it's like, well, I must hate this podcast. And it's like, you know, I felt like. Yeah, I just wanna go back to the original question of like the 90 hours,

cause I think there's two separate interesting things there. First, why the game works. I don't think it is a traditional loop video game. And I don't think like that's the market that they are in. And I think that's why it took five persona games for them to like really find success with that series, because you have to like teach people what the game is. And now we all take it for granted, like we know the persona system, we know it's going to pay off for us. And now we all take it for granted. Like we know the persona system, we know it's going to pay off for us. But like, I think it same thing with Monster Hunter, right? Like you would kind of have to try these games over and over again, before you like learn to

trust that like it's going to be worth it. And I think that is a part of it here. In terms of like that intro, I agree with Griffin. Like I thought thought after the first hour, I was like very much into the game. But the gameplay does take longer to get going. But before then, I think the story is interesting. I think the music is fantastic. I know why I did that. I thought presentationally and the music, it looks bad. I thought it. I thought the presentation is the look of it.

Just the look of it, just the look of it, that it's so busy that it gave me a headache. I think it looks bad to look at. I really like the amount of it on there. I found kind of grating, I would say. Interesting. I adore it. I think it actually looks like art and I think it's inspirations.

I think it's wild to play a game where the inspirations are so clearly like Horonomous Bosch or Salvador Dali or Francis Bacon. The bosses are so fucked up and scared. I didn't realize that's on me because I didn't get the Horonomous Bosch of it all. And now that you're saying that, that's unlocked sort of an enjoyment on my end.

Yeah, now you've got the Bosch in there. I actually, now that you've said Bosch and Dolly, I'm like, there's the Bosch. This is Detective Bosch we're talking about, right? We are talking about, yes, that's 100%. Yeah. Bosch Unleashed. I mean, but the other thing about the 90 hours, I just wanna talk to that really quick.

I think that is the forever problem of our enterprise, of us doing this show, of people liking video games in general. You could always be doing something better with your time. If you're playing this and you're like, all right, man, during this time, I could have read like Moby Dick four times over. And then when reading Moby Dick, you could be like, man, doing this, I could have like opened it up. I could be playing metaphor re-fantasy. Yeah. Like, I mean, there's, there's always,

there's always a better use of your time. Time is inherently wasted. And as long as it is bringing you pleasure, I think it matters. I think it's like, I guess what I'm saying is like, it's a good question, but I think it kind of an ineffective one because it inherently brings your

dislike of a thing. I'm not saying it's just about you, whoops, with like this game. I'm saying I've done this for other games too. Like, I know I say this often about like MMOs, but like other people are getting something out of it that I just personally cannot unlock. So for me, it is a bad use of bad games. But I'm saying that, I am saying that there's an artificiality in what we're talking about, because that you only think it's an artificiality in what we're talking about, because you only think it's worth the time in retrospect.

No, I don't think that's fair. I was into it right away. Chris Plante, earlier you did say you don't think the game necessarily hits its point of until 10 or 20 hours. I think it becomes a 10 out of 10 game at 20 hours. And I'm also talking about the point where, I guess I'm talking to like y'all

who want the gameplay loop, who want like that, that's the thing that you're going to find pleasurable. That's gonna take a while to get to. For me, I was enjoying the story, I was enjoying the art. There are other things that I like, was enjoying in the game that...

I will say we kind of skipped over it. The music, I fucking, I was like so into that battle song. The first time you get into a fight and you hear that, oh, oh, oh, oh, there's like crazy like operatic shrieking happening throughout the whole soundtrack. So fucking cool, I thought that was great. I, this is probably gonna be my goatee with a bullet. I'm like obsessed with it and I wanna spend every sort of,

I put almost 30 hours into it and I'm rounding sort of like the third major dungeon. And I just think it's great. I think the writing's great. I think the characters are great. Have you met Heismay yet, Chris? Oh, definitely. Dude, it's fucking, that's like my favorite character

in a game this side of like Chrono Trigger, I feel like. It's, there's fucking, that's like my favorite character in a game this side of like Chrono Trigger, I feel like. It's, there's a screenshot that I will put in the newsletter in a few weeks after the game has been out for a little while, but it to me is real, how did we get to this point in the world of video games that this screenshot both exists and makes sense and is affecting. I think this is a pretty easy one. If you like the Persona games, this is a fucking incredible one.

I wanna finish it first, but I don't think a Persona game has like grabbed me and made me want to keep playing as much as this game does. Same, yeah. And if that is not your jam, I mean, JRPGs are, I think that's a pretty codified genre,

like fighting games or racing games, like you know whether or not that's gonna be your shit, and it is extremely a JRPG. And a more traditional, like, it doesn't feel like Infinite Wealth is a traditional JRPG, even though people- No, I mean, it's doing a completely different thing. Right, I think there are different approaches

to that genre is what I'm saying. And that fucking rules, man. Like it rules that there's two like amazing JRPGs doing completely different things this year. But yeah, I adore it. What's that? Oh Jesus. Is that the party boys at the door?

Oh shit. Oh shit, are the party boys at the door? Oh shit. Oh shit, are the party boys at the door? Are they gonna bust down the door? Let's take a break and then we will come back and talk about what else is going on. So some people like their games a little longer. Some people like their games a little shorter and with more stuff that's fun earlier.

Is that fair so far? Is that a fair thing so far? That's pretty fair, I think. They like it to be fun at the beginning as well as the middle and end. It's interesting. I guess that's different. Russ, can you tell me, do you have any games

in mind like that? I don't wanna put you on the spot, but just as an example for the discussion we're having. Sure. I played a game called Kill Night. Now Russ, already. Fucking aces, brother. Better title than metaphorical titles. Better title, not even close. It's one of the best titles of video games I've heard in recent years. It is spectacular.

Kill Night is basically blending the gameplay of a Hades with the gameplay of like a Doom 2016. It's like a very quick murder a bunch of people in an isometric perspective. In this case you're murdering, I guess, demon type things. And it uses this very interesting combo system where you're using your sword to charge up your heavy shotgun attack, which then charges up a super power beam. And you're trying to kind of like combo one into the next, into the next. It is much more of a score chasey game than it is like a narrative driven, there's like very little narrative. But it's a more- No kidding? In Kill Night? in kill night, very little.

Um, and there, there's some meta stuff too, where you're unlocking like perks and new weapons and things like that. But most, for the most part, it's like a score chase game. Uh, and you're either going to like that immediately or you're not, um, and it very much shows its hand in the first, you know, 10 seconds, I will say it is like incredibly detailed and in depth, like the mechanics that are going on such that the tutorial, which they recommend you play at the beginning, it takes about 10 minutes.

It has about 15 steps to it of like this, then this, then this. There's just like a lot of layers. Russ, are you sure you didn't play metaphor refund? Russ, I don't want to kick you out of the fun party boys. It takes 10 minutes. Russ, it's really, I'm hearing a lot. 10 minutes for Kill Night though? And then you're killing all sorts of folks as Kill Night.

You are Kill Night, you're not killing that. I like that, don't get me wrong, I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah? I liked it. 15 steps of the tutorial. If you're a fan of like again Hades or doom That sort of speedy action stuff this very much checks that I will say something that's interesting I've seen a few Hades alikes

Assume that you are on board for a end game Hades level of complexity because you liked Hades. So you're ready for like 20 or 30 different mechanics at the very beginning. Like Hades took a very long time to ramp up. Yeah, this to me felt like that is the case where they're kind of throwing you all the tools right at the beginning. I would recommend if you're just starting out, change the difficulty to whatever the easiest setting is. They gave it some ridiculous name, but that to me, let me get my feet wet a little more effectively. So I strongly recommend that.

But it's like 12 bucks on Steam and is also like the sort of game that you're going to know very quickly if you're into it. So if it doesn't click with you in the first 20 minutes, just return it. I like this version. That's like the party boy motto, baby. If it doesn't click with you in 20 minutes, return it. Justin only plays games that you get on Instagram filters. Just like fucking park the car

or get the tile out of the box. The one where you sing and you try to get the pitch your voice to make the ball go through the gates. That's the only game, Justin. That's the only game of the year. That's the only platform I buy games on. Vine length games, please. Justin, you played something else.

Yeah. And this is gonna get started in quicker than 20 minutes is what you're saying. No, if possible, no. Yars Rising sounded like something I wouldn't be that interested in because I, you know, usually like retro stuff or retro remakes don't really do it for me.

So I wanted to, if you're like me, I wanted to mention that Yars Rising is not really that. It is a search action game. Do people even know what it's like a sequel to? Oh yeah, it's a really good point actually. So Yars Revenge is a very old arcade game that has different, sort of interesting mechanics that make it sort of a little bit unusual.

It's not a straight up and down, like just shoot all the bad guys, like in like a centipede or whatever. Yars Rising is a search action game where you are a young hacker that is working for a company that finds out that the company is up to some nefarious stuff. And you start trying to bring this company down

from the inside, you're inside the corporation. You have friends that are like in your earpiece trying to talk you through your mission. But what's cool, the hacking is you play Yars Revenge. So when you go to hack a game, there is a like sort of mini section of like a Yars Revenge level or a type of mode. They're not all like really Yars' Revenge, but like to give an example of a pretty basic one, your ship is going up against a,

like the bad guy spaceship, and it's encased in this like coating, and you have to fly over there and eat through the coding with your spaceship. And then once you've eaten through it enough, you have to eat the boss a little bit and that charges up your energy that you fire a cannon from the other side of the screen. And then you have to get out of the way of the shot that you just fired from the other side of the screen to hit the main guy.

That's just Yars' Revenge. It's a crazy game, but you are playing like every mini game is different. It's like five seconds or 10 seconds of Yars' Revenge, it's a crazy game. But you are playing like every mini game is different. It's like five seconds or 10 seconds of Yars' Revenge that you're playing through. And you actually like, as you're playing, you get these upgrades that let you like increase the speed of your ship or like you eat through things faster, your blasters charge up faster,

which makes the quote unquote hacking easier. Mm. But the wild thing about Yars Rising is, faster, your blasters charge up faster, which makes the quote unquote hacking easier. But the wild thing about Yars Rising is so in Yars Revenge, there is a background story to Yars Revenge. And it's about these, this race called the Yar that are up against their like the nemesis, the Kotile. And the Yars get these powers that they use to defend their world against the Kotile. And that's what the plot of the fuck, like the Atari game Yars Revenge is, right?

Yars Rising is in our world, and it assumes that this young character met one of the Yars in childhood. And this Yarr gave her the ability to use their powers on Earth. So in addition to running around the facility and distribution hacker you also have. The same abilities that the yard have so you have like you can gain the ability to run on water and to shoot blasters from your hands and to do like you know bigger jumps and fly up and that kind of thing it's really. jumps and fly up and that kind of thing. It's really all the little like mini games are really fun. It's actually really well written. Like they're very early on. There's a bit where you're it's in a 2D perspective and your character is crawling through this like little tunnel after going through

this terrible like laser section of the game where you're dodging laser beams and stuff. And as she's crawling through the tunnel, she says, well, thank God we're past the laser part of this. And then beneath her, because it's in 2D, you can see the area you're about to go into is like all laser traps. And she's commenting about that, like as you're passing it, which you're able to see, it's really cute. It's really funny.

The plot is actually like, uh, pretty sharply done. It's it's compact. It's not like a the plot is actually like, pretty sharply done. It's compact, it's not like a huge sprawling thing. But I thought all the... And it also lets you turn off the... for the little hacking challenges. You can make them like, unfailable if you want. You can also make it so that if you fail one five times, it turns on a prompt that lets you make it unfailable for that specific challenge.

There's also, as you play through, those hacking mini games start to bring in other Atari retro stuff. So you start, and you start running into bosses and enemies that like are inspired by Atari games. There's a boss named missile commander that you have to fight. Like that's crazy. It's such a good idea. It's and it's by way forward is the developer, Atari is actually publishing it. So there's like a

lot of like Atari, uh, whatever version of Atari. I wonder who owns Atari right now. Atari's done some interesting stuff lately with like the reissuing things and doing a lot of weird merchants. Whatever happened that's called hotel that they were gonna build. That I think was close in disgrace. They have a Bubsy collection coming out soon. Yars Rising is an interesting video game

that I, more than interesting, I think it's fun to play. And I think that- Is that on Steam Deck? What are you playing it on? I'm playing it on, it's great on Steam Deck. It's $30, by the way. It is great on Steam Deck.

I'm playing it on Steam Deck and it is being great. I don't even think I put it on the other consoles because it feels so good as a Steam Deck game. That came out September 10th. And not a bunch of people are playing it. It's like I've got 58 reviews. It's a really good game. It's a playing it. It's like I have 58 reviews. It's a really good game. It's a good try.

It's a really tough time for games like that. It is. I wanted to mention you saying that reminded me. I did manage to get Metaphor working on Steam Deck. You do have to tweak some stuff, which does make it easier to get through those 90 hours. I didn't have to tweak very much at all, actually. Maybe I started it on Steam Deck.

Maybe I started it later than you did and they patched it, but it worked fine for me. I did get a pad and update, so maybe, I don't know, I had to turn down some of the graphical stuff, but otherwise it works pretty well. Honorable mentions, let's do it. Frush, you have an honorable mention that you wanna tell us about.

Hell yeah, thank you, Russ. I forget if I talked about, I know for sure that I've talked about Halls of Torment on this podcast before. It is the best Vampire Survivors Like ever made. I do not doubt that one bit. It is fucking spectacular. It's also $5. Stop whatever you're doing and fucking download this game. The 1.0 update released sometime in September, and I only recently got around to going back and playing it, but it added all the things that have made this game so sticky in the past. It basically lets you store items that you collect in runs, and then you can set up different builds for like the eight or nine different classes that are

playable. And now you can store like uncommon and rare items that like to further let you min max your things. They're always giving you like a little, uh, carrot to like pull you ahead with quests and things like that. It's just, what's up juice. Did you try children of mortar? I didn't know. I haven't played.

You would like, you would really like it if you would really like it's a long similar lines, like if you, if you like halls of torment, I think you'd really of Mordor. You would really like it. You would really like it. It's along similar lines. Like if you like Hall of the Turment, I think you'd really like Children of Mordor. Cool. Give it a shot. Hall of the Turment is the best. Like if you haven't played that one, it's really exceptional.

It really triggers the like my passion for Diablo II era graphics, like that time of graphics. It's, I've tried it a few times. It's never really grabbed me. Have they added in this 1.0 stuff like, I don't know, more? I found the runs to be a bit interminable.

Like I was not really enjoying the sort of core loop and I wasn't finding the like upgrades to be especially cool because it's like 3% attack boost or whatever. I think the thing, and again, I don't know how deep you got into it. The thing that hooked me was once I unlocked the ability to rescue armor and items and make builds for the different characters, which I forget.

That's a thing, a gimmick where if you get a really good piece of gear, you don't automatically unlock it. You have to bring it back to the starting point and basically put it in a bucket. Yeah. All it up top for you. Then it unlocks it. Yeah. You can use that for any other quest.

But you're giving it up for that run. So like if you get something really good, you have to make a decision right there. Like I'm going to send this back. I have a really hard time when I'm playing a game for the first like hour and I'm not like really enjoying it. It sort of makes me, I will give it another time when I'm playing a game for the first like hour and I'm not like really enjoying it. It sort of makes me, I will give it another shot. I do think it is the type of game I would get it. Do you feel good about that, Griffin? I do feel good.

I thought it was a good, I thought it was a great bit, a great callback. It killed so many flights for me. I think I have 50 hours logged in that game. It's fucking crazy. Whenever I have like just a little bit of time somewhere, I just think a run and it's it's fantastic. I love that game Do you find that's one you can step away from for a while and return to 100%?

I hadn't played in like a year when 1.0 came out and I jumped back into it and it was like almost immediate She's a beat Children of mortar. I think yeah, it's Spooky season. Mm-hmm. And I have I got a fucking recommendation for you. The Toonami adaptation, anime adaptation of Uzumaki, Junji Ito's- Fuck this, no way, watch the trailer, absolutely not, ever, no.

It is, if you're not familiar with Junji Ito or Uzumaki, it is sort of his, I would say probably Magnum Opus. I've read a lot of his stuff and he has a lot of really great stuff. But Uzumaki is like one of his longest series and it is about a town that is afflicted by this spiral curse that makes spirals

start appearing everywhere and people get obsessed with spirals and people sort of start to mutate because of these spirals. It is a literal just non-stop barrage of some of the most fucked up, scariest like body horror shit ever, right? The book was like that, the book was that. And so there have been I think a couple adaptations of this in the past that haven't really stuck. The way that they bring the art of Uzumaki and Junji Ito's style to life

and make it move and breathe and it's incredible. It's amazing. And I think it's honestly, if you've never read Junji Ito, it's probably a pretty good starting point because it's extremely watchable and they keep shit coming at you pretty fast and furious. It's not watchable.

Watch the trailer. I watched the trailer. I was like, absolutely, I felt like I was losing my mind for 90 seconds. What was it? It is terrifying. Just because of how scary the- It's, man, just the vibe they establish in the trailer.

It's oppressive. You feel unhinged from reality. I watched it 60 seconds. It doesn't have colors. Like, no, no way. It don't have colors, that's a very good point, Justin. I also- It's not even in English, man.

It's still scary. There is an English voice track. I also have a- I would never. I also have a huge critique. Swine. I have a huge critique with Uzumaki as well, because it is on Max. And very recently, Max decided that the show World of Calm, which my son adores

and has whales swimming in the ocean and shit, does not belong on the kids only version of Max. You have to go to the adults version of Max. So when he requests World of Max, you have to go to the adults version of Max. So when he requests World of Calm, I have to very quickly scrub past the fucking Uzumaki trailer, which always pops up and it is really, really bad. So fuck this show and fuck you, Griffin. Papa, why is that man all twisted up in a bucket?

Oh, that's a different show. Also real quick, Travis has been trying to get us to watch Delicious in Dungeon for a long time. Him and his wife Theresa tore through it. I never really gave it a chance. Rachel was out of town on a trip this past weekend. I was like, yeah, if I finished Jews in Mocky, let me see what the fuck's up with this.

It's so good, oh my God, it's good. I'm loving this show. The tone is like so light hearted and like positive. The animation, it's studio trigger, so the animation is like fucking crazy. And it's just like a show about a party going through a dungeon, and they cook things every episode.

Basically it, and they handle it like closeups of gorgeously animated food with a level of like... It's like monster parts? Yeah, it's like monster parts, right? But the show gets into like, here's the ecology of this dungeon. This monster eats this monster. They eat these plants, so we can actually use this to...

It gets into a lot of like fantasy stuff, but it's so thoughtfully done, and the tone of the show is just, it's really, really great. I've been, it is a hugely enjoyable experience just tearing through this show. So that's my other. I wish they would make some shows that are like that,

but for things that I don't know how to do. Don't you wish there was a show like that, that was about how a car works? Oh, that was so great. I'm not shitting you guys. What if you watch a cartoon, and you know how a car works? And Plant definitely knows an anime that has that?

This is like half of it on me and manga I I am so ready to help you out there are so many manga and anime that are good aside I learned everything that I know about like ice skating and how it is scored from from Yuri on ice I feel like this is genuinely like a huge topic, a huge focus for a lot of people. There was one this season about bartending, and I learned so much about making a perfect pour of a good cocktail.

Anime rules, man. Anime rules. Anime is really good. Anime does rule, that's the new title of our show, Anime Rules. My quick thing is just, hey, it's Halloween time. Great time to go to the public library. So much good stuff. It is a great trick during Halloween

because you could go out and buy a whole bunch of cool new books or movies and stuff, but it's gonna cost you money. Or you can go to the library and get it for free. And it's like the old stuff So when you get like a you know one of those like scary children's books from the 70s or the 80s, right? And like they don't even make them like this anymore. This is the real freaky stuff. Yeah, it's good I like that you described it as a trick because the treat is not going to the library. What a bold position.

Anti-library stand. I love that. You read the whole thing. Wow. How about you? You got anything? God. Played a lot of Yars.

Played that other thing. From continues to the light, but I don't wanna talk about from anymore. No, I feel like I did watch something, but it's gone out of my head. Let me ask you a question about from. Okay. Now that you've watched a number of these shows,

The Loss of the World, The Whatever, where people are stuck in a weird place. Have you reached the point where you know for sure that the end is not gonna be satisfying and you just like, you're cool with it? What I like about From is that it is so blatantly obvious that it will not be delivering any satisfying answers. It regularly picks up plot lines

and then discards them like so much refuse. There was a very long, there was a long storyline about the lead character having Parkinson's that the show has not returned to for a season and a half. Just didn't, just doesn't mention it. Maybe From cured his Parkinson's. Did the From magic cure his Parkinson's? Hey dude, at this point, last night, guys,

last night I saw the sheriff walk through a tree and ended up in a dungeon where an old man with worms in his skin was in the dungeon. And he rubbed his old bloody hand on the sheriff to give him his skin worms. And then it turned out that the skin worms were a weapon against the evil in From. So the skin worms cleared up the Parkinson's, you're saying. The most things happen on from of any show.

It's got the Emmys to prove it. Number one, most stuff happening in a series, an ongoing series, comedy or drama, from it's went for seven years straight with only two seasons completed. So much stuff happens on from. Is it basically hot topic, Twin Peaks? Is that a good summary?

I am not convinced anyone on the show is a paid actor. I am not convinced. Last night they introduced the idea that maybe some people are quote, in on it, and nobody really knows what that means, but they're very excited about the possibility of some people being in on it, and nobody knows what it means. I mean, I don't know what that means, but I'm very excited about the possibility of people being in on it. And nobody knows what it means.

I mean, I don't know what that means, but I'm so excited about people turning on each other inside from last night. I do want to mention a great Emmy winning scene in from the old lady in colony house, which is the house was talking to a boy, the little boy whose mom dug up the basement, trying to find out how the lights worked and made her house collapse. And the boys, the little boy said, dug up the basement trying to find out how the lights worked and made her house collapse. And the little boy said, I'm worried more houses are gonna collapse.

And then the old lady that runs Colony House said, well, as long as your parents don't dig up any more basements, I think we're going to be okay. From clowns on From from like three episodes ago, From gets so cocksure about how it like, remember how we used to be kind of crazy? Anyway, the skin worms are a weapon. I guess it's the wages of making up all the shit

as you kind of go along. It sounds like that is From's whole stees. The first season of From is on Amazon Prime. To get the second season, you have to get MGM Plus. If you want to keep up with the third season live I hope you like fucking Tulsa King or whatever because you're going to get MGM Plus maybe. That is so from. It's extremely from man.

It's weird that people haven't watched the first season of from it's unwatchable. Okay. What are we talking about today? So much. My recommendation is you gotta go get your flu shot. Oh yeah. Oh good. October.

Go get your flu shot. And if you're while you're in there, there's a new COVID. Get that new COVID shot. Not the new COVID variant. Yeah, that's a good idea. And it just it takes five minutes. Just go do it because it's never going to seem like a good time. Just go do it.

Stuff we talked about this week, we talked about metaphor, refantasio, Yars Rising, Kill Night, plus Falls of Torment 1.0, Uzumaki, Delicious in Dungeon, from going to the library on Halloween or for Halloween, and most importantly, getting updated vaccines for flu and COVID-19, protecting yourself and protecting those that you love and the people you don't love because you're a member of society. I want to thank the following patrons at our Patreon, which is reached at patreon.com slash the besties. We have Richard, we have DJ, we have a lot of J's coming at you. Jerry J. Jorts and Jar Jar R. Martin.

Thank you for being Jar Jar R. Martin. That's really good. It's really good. Thank you for being patrons of the besties. Thank you to everyone else for being. Charge R. R. Martin. That's really good. That's really good. Thank you for being patrons of the besties. Thank you to everyone else for being patrons of the besties. We have a new episode of the resties out. We also have this month's bracket episode

of the best launch games ever. We greatly appreciate all of you and you're making it all happen. Juice, what are we doing next week? Shh. Don't even get me started because Silent Hill is back again for the second time. That's right. Silent Hill 2 remake the radio is buzzing and

I don't remember anything else about the flashlights are flashing We're headed back into the static-y world of Silent Hill 2. This might be too scary for me. We're gonna see. But it might be too scary for me. We'll see. We'll see. If it is, I'll just tell you about it. Tell me. I'll give you a reader's notice. Hug me.

That's gonna be our first This Week on the Besties. Be sure to join us again next time for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best game? Besties!