Hey everybody, It's Tuesday, September ninth, twenty twenty five.

Welcome to the Giant BombCast, presented by MBSI and I am your host jan pad Show.

Well, welcome to the Giant BombCast, Episode nine hundred and seven.

We've got so many people on this podcast today, it's like we're a K pop girl group with how many people are on today.

We've got the vocals of the group, Jeff Grubb.

Hey, everybody, Yeah, my kids are getting into BTS because they're coming.

The boys from BTS are inside McDonald's Happy.

Meals, speaking about being inside happy meals.

He's inside all the meals and he can't contain his excitement over them because he's the playful one of the group.

Dan Record, No, the McDonald's happy meals are inside of me.

Uh, but they didn't the adult happy meal thing right recently.

I thought about doing that.

It's just kind of fucked up looking shake.

I don't want to shake with every meal, you know.

I don't think.

I don't know if you had to get the shake and we did, we did it.

Maybe we did get the shake, Dan, I got it once.

I don't know.

You don't have to get it every time.

Okay, okay.

I like the idea of getting back into happy meals, but they need to make it for cool adults like me.

Exactly.

He's the moody one of the group.

You can find him sitting in the back of the class, scrawling his name into desks.

You can't borrow a pencil from him because he's dressed in all black, the scary spice equivalent of our group.

Back, Hey, what's up?

How's it going?

Jam?

You like that one?

Did you get the birthday card I sent you?

You're a month early?

But artistic abilities though, back drawing, borrow that drawing later.

Fantastic And he's the archetype that hells in our group.

Not only is he the smart one, but he's also the young one.

Turbo Shawn Sean McDowell.

Happy birthday to the thing that all young people love, the Sega Dreamcast.

Yeah, that's right, and this only PlayStation and PlayStation in the United States.

PlayStation can go.

Hell.

Oh, they're both great.

I love both my kids.

Speaking about kids, we were just kids back then.

But he continued to be the bad boy and he's a bad man of games media.

Uh, he's that's right.

He's coming to the ring with bleached hair leather jackets.

His family's got to take over games media soon because he is the bloodline Mike Man naughty.

I was just at the thetist and I didn't get a lollipop.

So we've partnered up with MSI to our dear friends that have been presenting and sponsoring us for the past month or so here on Giant pomcast and on Gay Mess Mornings.

Hey, not only did y'all impress them by going over to them during pack sws and saying, like Yo, I roll with the gang, holler throw me in, Get me some MOBOs, get me some jipoos.

I hope you didn't actually approach them like that.

They seem like very nice people.

But we partnered with them again to do a mobo giveaway.

Let me hear some MOBOs from the boys here.

I'm a freight of screwdrivers too, so proof that's right, Secure Boots on the Ground award winning ads.

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Wi Fi and how you enter gang.

This is how you enter, Jeff Greb You got this doc in front of you.

Yeah, I got some dock in front of me.

Were how to enter?

Yeah, if you want to enter, you want to, You're going to need to post a pick of your current rig in the MSI Discord you can join that.

Go to Discord dot gg slash MSI.

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Include a handwritten note with discord name plus today's date for verification.

You want to include that actually in the image itself.

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Apparently I'm very bad at spelling, but I haven't bothered to edit the ad.

But it's fine.

You get it.

We get it, vallid until October fifteenth, Gang, what's going on?

How's the HAPs It's happening?

Baby?

Me and Mike both cried on Friday.

Yeah, oh we cried together.

I did cry.

Those ticking drinks were so good.

I cried, for sure, you cried.

We went to go see Joe.

He said, you see the composer for Studio Ghibli And it was like his whole things, like, I'm going to play some of my original compositions.

That's all that was promised.

And they were beautiful.

It was really nice moving.

It was moving, yes, but you know, he kind of gets h halfway through.

We take a little break, we come back.

He starts playing some more familiar stuff, but he did not the wind rises, but he does as a boy in the Hair.

And latest Ghibbli movie, he composed, Oh.

I get that.

I mean, look, emotional events happened.

I I get it.

That's and that's and then it was over.

But it wasn't over.

You guys ever see this.

I was like, hey, I'm not done yet.

I'm gonnams.

I didn't think it was going to be an encore situation.

It was like a fancy you know, orchestra.

Thing, right, I do wonder like what the etiquette is like for that for like orchestras, Like how many encores is like okay if you're a guest conductor, but whatever.

He came back and he played Carousel from was that House Moving Castle and the Yeah, and then he played like the piano suite from Spirited Away one are just absolutely was like amazing, Like we're like, you know, oh yeah, less than fifty feet away from the guy and he's just up there playing the piano himself on a big, little, big old steinway.

It was really amazing.

It was cool, and that was the moment.

Oh yeah, both those songs really got me.

Yeah, because like I really was like, yeah, it's great, and I'm going to see him, you know what.

I've liked it if he did houses being Castle, spirit Away, sure.

But he's not.

And I'm a big boy and that's okay.

Then as soon as he started doing those songs, yeah, I lost it.

So did you guys?

I'm assuming you sat next to each other.

Yes, well, we put a dude bro space between us right when.

You what was the point where you both realized you were crying?

And did you like right away and did you make eye contact.

You were sort of like, I'm glad you're here.

Man.

I definitely gasped a little like, oh god, I.

Think I do the whole glasses off the you know, I'm relatively animated, believe it or not.

So it was a good though.

It was.

It was a lot of fun.

Drunk is that?

What do you think you cried a little bit drunk?

Yeah?

Well, I know, I feel like I know you were drunks, But I'm also asking do you think you know alcohol increased your uh uh, you know, sort of like crying ability.

Does it do that?

Yeah, it's a depression a little bit, a little bit.

We we live in an interesting space, specifically the six of us uh and our extended family because instead of drunk texting or drunk calling someone, Jeff Crub decided to just drunk chat.

I did not realize how lid I was until I tried to write that sentence in chat and it wasn't working.

So we're going fish and chips?

Where are you guys?

The fish and chips were so good?

Yeah, shot Ufs a.

Great lakes through company.

Right.

I took Jeff Grub to the West Side market of Cleveland, stable for the first time.

Just this indoor market thing where everybody has their own boothe and they're selling meat, jerky, sweets or bread.

It's just you know, a bunch of little stations in there.

It's so fun.

Yeah.

I was like, still went over immediately, took the family back there on Sunday, uh, and to my mother in law as well.

It was great.

It's good times.

Hell yeah.

Sometimes it's I don't know, I cry at concerts a lot too, Yeah, just because no, no, I don't know why, Like I get like overcome with emotion sometimes.

Yeah, yeah, it's fun.

I'm like of two minds.

I'm like, one of me is like this is so emotional, and the other ones.

You know that Jerry Seinfeld line, I don't want to go watch a man sing a song.

I'm like the same time.

Definitely, It's like I just listen to at home, but then I get there and it's very moving.

Seeing it live is something special.

It's funny, like Encore is now.

I feel like there's certain bands who like really milk the Encore thing, and then there's certain bands who were just like, we're all adults here, We're just gonna play more songs and not leave and come back, you know.

Like that because or the ones that's been like listen, there's not gonna be a OnCore.

This is our last song, Like I like just doing that, so you don't do the thing we're gonna wait, are we're gonna go appreciate?

Yeah, but I get the like people it's the one last thing, right, people are really attached to that ship.

I'm so you say, like this is the one last thing.

Well way this hit you know.

Yeah, people probably well so say they hear that, They're probably like this is fine.

Of course.

Yeah, we're still getting probably the same amount of music.

I can be honest, there's no way I could resist being like an encore asshole.

I guess, Oh, are you cheering more for me?

Yeah?

I know, one more song.

I think you get sick of it eventually.

I think that's where a lot of bands either a band can't like get creative with it anymore and they're just.

Like, we don't need to do this or if.

But I've seen bands do it really creatively, Like there's not a lot of space to move there.

So for premium folks out there, we're actually starting to do our own encore on the dump truck, you know, like, oh no, we're back, we got a breboard up, let's go.

It only happens if you cheer at the end of the podcast, though, stand up in the chat.

Yeah, it's like tinker more dumb.

Everyone else have a rousing weekend filled with It's okay if everyone else cried, I think I might have cried also.

So it's fine from a concert, but of course, yeah, yeah.

Of course.

I mean I saw wrestling at the Mall of America and Hornswoggle was there and he went around and uh, I'm friends with the refs there, shout out to referee clerk and talked to him afterwards, and definitely wasn't giving the heads up that Hornswoggle was just gonna run around hitting all the referees in the nuts.

So that was funny.

Wow, what what a follow up to the last subject.

I'm watching?

You still saw a man cry this weekend?

Dad cried, This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

He's a poet.

I went to a Korean barbecue joint with some homies over the weekend.

Cried there.

No, no, no, I didn't cry there, cried afterwards, And it wasn't one of those gas joints.

It was like a charcoal joint.

So they had charcoal in front of in the middle of the table, which if people are kind of getting a little schwasty at Korean barbecue, that feels like a gigantic health hazard for someone just fucking falling into charcoal to go.

I think, right, how do they mitigate the smoke?

Well, that's the next part of my story, Jeff Beckler.

There are these giant vents on top, which I assumed was supposed to act like a like a ventilation or chimney or whatever.

It's okay, And the Korean barbecue place had to open a door or because the in a window because it was getting a little too smokey in there.

Ventilation wasn't too great.

I was sitting in front of the window and the door area, so all of the smoke from my group's Korean barbecue was just all over me, and so was the two other tables near us, So all their smoke was headed towards me and in one general area.

So I felt like I was a Mortal Kombat character.

I went to a dispensary afterwards, and then like the lady that checked me out was freaking out like, oh my, God is through a fire and here like it smells like smoke.

Oh my smell like And then I looked at her was like, hey, sorry, I did this backwards.

Normally you get the weed first and then Korean barbecue, but I'm doing it differently today.

And then I had an existential crisis during karaoke.

But that's besides the point.

I mean, it is the best thing.

We did have one of those.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I also watched Naked Gun.

That movie movie is pretty good.

Boy, that's a funny movie.

It's extremely funny.

Yeah, just really got me the entire time.

It was one of those ones.

I'm like, I'm gonna put this on.

And then Steph kind of sexting, she said, oh, I want to watch this too, and mother in law was here and we all kind of watched.

It and everyone really loved it.

Even the kids kind of picked in sometimes that were picking up on some of the jokes, which I remember doing with the original Naked Gun movies.

And I was like pretty much a kid when those were.

Coming out, and uh, you know, that was the nineties, so I think those were mostly like rated R in a lot of cases, they did this f G thirteen and I kind of like appreciated that and was impressed they were able to pull off so many of the jokes.

It's thirteen back in the day they were I think, so I just for for some reason, I remember nudity, but maybe that's.

He was like, yes, that's a good joke.

There's not a ton of sex stuff.

Well, well the snowman scene, but.

Well the snowman scene that like as soon as that started, as soon as I saw the snowman's head, I'm like, I hope they And then the next thing was I can't believe they're doing this, but it was like exactly, like that would be the funniest thing if they did this, and it like just hit so hard that.

That was the analog to the mcgroover sex scene for me, where it's like I'm loving this entire movie and this is the part where I am crying.

So maybe that movie didn't make me cry.

Yeah, they were.

They were PG thirteen.

Man, Yeah that's a kid.

It was just like this is this seems pretty you know.

Yeah, well they came out when we were like, I guess it's interesting.

Yeah, they're like nine to ten, so you're sort of like at that age, you're sort of like anything slightly off color is like.

The for adults, Like I could just I knew that, and a lot of them definitely were sex hinge, but I guess they just weren't explicit.

There is more like kind of pants shipping type stuff going in that movie than sex stuff.

Huh.

Yeah, I could see a kid like me at ten, I probably would have made it my entire personality.

Now you would have really respected cops a lot.

Yeah, it's fantastic.

I'm glad you saw it.

The windshield joke to Jesus Christ.

So good.

It's so fucking stupid, just like, oh, they're gonna do this.

Yep they did.

Wasn't it directed by one of the Lonely is the one that broke his hip from falling from a ladder recently?

Why don't know?

That might have been Jorma.

Oh I think that was Dorama.

Yeah.

I love that.

His previous film was Chippendale Rescue Rangers.

A group dom Jorma did Jorma Okay?

Yeah?

Yeah, so the Lonely Island legacy and recent count recent he would have.

Been involved with that, like as a producer probably then.

Right, I'm sure.

Yeah, yeah.

I think I think maybe Samberg was the only one that wasn't involved with mcgroover.

Seth Myers was Okay, God the Lonely Island crew, I just give them any movie really, like, yeah, can you do pop Star?

Because pop stars?

Also yeahs Ireland.

Yeah he directed.

Directed it with drama apparently.

Yeah, he's so directed hot Road.

I need to rewatch pop Star.

It did not like the way that it hits everyone else.

And I bet now that I've seen it once.

Okay, this is why I asked a couple of weeks ago, is was beIN load and just to shoot bad dude all around?

Because fantastic lotten song is such a banger of a song.

Yeah, I think, yeah, it's pretty good.

I think we would have healed as a society and been on a different track if we had more celebratory songs that we killed Ben Lauden.

Yeah, like, but also the song is also about sex.

Yeah yeah, you know, like maybe did he wouldn't have so many freakoffs if he.

Just celebrated breakoffs.

He's not celebrating it.

I think there is anything in the world and stopping.

Maybe Kanye would have been fine now if he just celebrated.

No, I don't know, pe hold on, I can find another non problematic uh music star Auric Kelly would have been No, okay, there you go, not nailed in one jan didn't make music.

But you're right, you're right, there's I got nothing there.

All that also happened before nine only.

Yeah.

Well anyway, Uh this this podcast hell out brads that we killed.

It's the week for it.

Oh yeah, it is.

Talk about timing.

Wow, well, we are not gonna let I live an overshadow dreamcast day here and never again?

Is what we say to that?

Oh god, uh not.

We're the handsomest podcast on the internet, folks, what do you say we talk?

Anyone else have anything else they want to get off their chest.

I don't know we're the handsomest podcast on the internet because I don't know.

If you saw Hanson's Rapid Fire with Nate Fox from Sucker Punch, we talked about putting me in the game, but didn't put Ben Reeves in because Ben Reeves was too handsome, Acause they scanned both of us and said, oh, we couldn't put Ben Reeves in because he was too handsome.

He was distracting over the game.

I did not know that there was such a backhanded compliment out there.

Yeah, we got sucker punch.

Makeet picking in our video games.

You're not handsome?

Yeah, yeah, you you got real n PC energy, like yeah, wow, the most common NPC and infamous second no, specifically that first Neon whatever one all over that.

There is a fucking scene.

There's a side mission in that game where it's like a sex trafficker and you have to like follow cameras and stuff to watch them, like go from spot to spot in the city, and it's fucking me and pink Adda's tracksuit walking around, Like why.

Giving you a heads up if we're going to cast you as a sex.

Like you just do generic commercial reads and so that you find out you're like in a Herpes commercial like the Yeah.

Yes, I'd be fine.

I still got the bag.

You know, I could live that life for sure.

Sure, folks, before we talk about video games, I'd be remiss and Chuck would be a little bit upset if I didn't mention the pre weumsite beta.

We're keeping it open for all the premium users out there.

Enormous explosive dot com.

Uh, do you have any problem linking your og account to the account over there.

Holler will try and get you all set up, but the wiki needs your help.

Programmers, editors, testers, joy join the wiki street theme in our the Giant Bomb discord that's Discord dot gg slash Giant Bomb, or go to BombCast dot com slash wiki for the code repo.

You can learn about all sorts of things with code and RSS feeds and and other number thing is.

Chuck showed Seawan and I a YouTube string and then he pulled a thumbnail out of it.

I'm like, how did you do that?

I'm not gonna question it.

I'm gonna politely smile and nod my head.

Anyway, it's video games.

We'll get this out of the way now, gang.

Last upf we had a rousing time.

We played Chronos and we finished off the day by with these two experts, Dan Reikert and Jeff Becklar, with a little assist from Dibb, teaching me how to play Sodoku.

Uh.

I was ignorant because I thought Sudoku involved math, and I don't like math.

In fact, it's just patterns, numbers and tiles, and I logiciles.

It's logic.

And since that day, I have been doing nothing but place really on my phone.

I bought it.

Oh my god, yes.

And then I started looking up strategies.

I found the crosshatched strategy, the X wing, the Y wing, and then I was I kind of got lost in the sauce and I I was just staring at the page and I was getting the numbers right, and I didn't quite know how I was doing it, but I saw and I felt great.

There's some of the names for the strats are.

Problematic, like like like like naked and like weird naked pairs.

It's okay, was an old game.

It was different back then.

And how did you guys originally learn to play Sudoka guest Brainage yep.

I thought that's when it was invented, but apparently it's.

Remember those crappy little PDAs for like ten.

Yeah, the only game on Brainage.

One was great because it had that handwriting recognition.

You know, if you could pencil mark in it?

Could you just turn the way you could?

You could pencil mark?

You could?

You could?

Yeah, if you did like tiny tiny numbers and stuff, I think it would just put it right, like.

Different corners depending on if you have different reasons, different logical reasons for that.

Yeah, but yes, I fell all the way in and it was I was at a bookstore and I was looking at a Sadoka book and I was just staring at him, like these patterns fucking suck.

These boards suck.

I threw the book away and then I found a better one.

Also, it's it's so bad, guys, I feel like my depression is cured.

Well that's what it was originally in vage.

It's probably good therapeutic.

No, but what's amazing about Sudoku is that you there are like each puzzle kind of has like an attitude, right, Like it has like a sort of personality where you're like, oh, you're doing this fucking thing.

You're doing this fucking thing where like you're making all the sixes showing up in this way.

Like I think that's what's really amazing about it.

I guess the same thing if you said, for like crosswords, right where like they have a theme kind of.

Like yeah, there's an editorial.

People like the non computer set Sudoku's are.

Like can be very very interesting.

Are you guys familiar with like the the current trend of uh ragging on performance?

What that means no, okay, So like a performative male is like a dude that will show up to a coffee shop or a park will have a boat bag, a macho latte, and a book that he's not actually reading.

Sure this, I still don't get what you're describing.

Migrated to l A.

Just you know someone is putting on, like the guy at the coffee shop that is working on his specscript has been doing that for years.

Jan Jane.

Question from someone who used to live in San Francisco.

There was a guy that rode my route a lot on the on the muni and he would stand up and he would read Atlas Shrugged and.

No, I have a picture of him.

Can you that's a good Is that a good example?

Jan?

Can you give me another one?

Yeah?

Is that it?

I think?

Just think me if I was if I was more of an ask more of an ass self aware.

Now hang on, now, hang on, Jan.

I had to search this because this is one of those instances where you make me feel like one of the olds of the group.

Apparently this is someone who pretends to be into feminism.

To yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, a soft a soft boy, soft boy.

And then yeah, some of those woke.

We have a title there, we go, got it all right, We can have dashes in the RSS feed.

But I had a SKU book and I was staring at it while I was waiting for my coffee.

And then I these like two to these two people were staring at me, and I was staring at them, and like they were also two dudes with like a tote bag and their own little book, and like the other guy had a journal.

And I think we just kind of did like a Spider Man meme for a second of like wait a minute, like are you for real for real?

Or you not for real?

Because my my dumb butt forgot to have a pen with me.

So I was just staring at a like SKU book, tried to do the solutions in my head anyway, video games actual shoot video games.

Something else we played on you PF that I was a little bit on the fence about and Jeff Backlar eventually cleared that again, thankfully through the guidance of our friend from Christian friend Christian from Argentina, Kronos.

The new down Baklar.

Have you spent more time with this has has the fence bug traumatized?

As I mean I've spent about like eight nine hours on this game.

I guess ninety minutes of that was sort of like redoing that whole section where we couldn't get by what was some sort of I don't know, it was some sort of glitch, some sort of locking glitch where there was this asset that manifests this spawn in my save and I could not leave an area.

If you watch you PF, it was like, yeah, it was funny, but it was frustrating for sure.

I that moment is not indicative of the entire sort of game.

I think this game is fine.

There are moments where I really enjoy it.

It is a third person shooter survival horror game that like really kind of wishes it was resident evil in a lot of ways, which is a.

Good thing to want to be.

It also feels like it also feels like it's it's trying to go You said this during UPF, but it's trying to like incorporate elements.

The most dead space out of any other game for sure, like right down to the stomping right.

Yeah, but like go ahead, sorry is it no?

No?

No?

Sorry?

Is it pulling off like that same scary tone where it's like building the tension in a way where you are from that section in UPF you were kind of precious about your your supplies and everything.

But like I feel like dead Space constantly builds on on that tension on top of like even if you don't have the supplies, does this chronos also Yeah, that spookiness.

So yes, it maintains the spooking is dead Space is better at sort of choreographing the things you want out of that where this game, I think, to a fault sort of like reminds you it's a video game because you are you are handcuffed by certain you know, mechanics, right, So like I don't want the sort of immersion to be broken when I'm like, you know, spinning plates of inventory and trying to like make things worry.

And I think there's like certain quality of life things that just are not in this game that I'm kind of surprised by.

Like you can't quick turn around, you can't you know, if you don't have an inventory slot left and there's like bullets staring you in the face, you can't pick them up.

And I just don't get it.

I can't live in a world where like this is how a game refuses to work.

I maybe it's petty, Maybe I'm just being a petulant shithead, but like, come on, fix that allow me to put the bullets in my gun.

I don't want to have to, like, and it's not like you can just you know, drop something else and then pick it back up.

You have to.

Delete it, right, You have to like just like burn whatever the inventory occupier is.

So that's stupid.

Don't do that?

Do better?

Yeah, But I mean, like overall, like you know, I think that I said this in the upf the best part of this game is the world building, is the mystery, is the sort of like.

Yeah, this was what gonna I was gonna ask, Like the sounds like there are plenty of things to complain about, but like for like the back of our scale of like coming into one of these games and wanted to like, you know, hit your buttons or whatever.

How is it doing on that front?

Is it delivering on the spookiness and the you know, the the world whatever question.

I think in those departments, it's ticking those boxes.

It's scary enough, you know, like the scare flavor it is is like goopy, and I don't always love the goopy.

It's fleshy and like bulbous, fleshy goopy, not like nor.

Without a doubt.

Like you guys, you didn't really see a lot of the the baddies in this, but they are all like horrific for reeks.

Biological terror.

Uh, it is not great.

Where does it land on?

Like the Geiger counter?

Is it like very?

I mean it's the most you've got, like, and they can merge, the enemies can merge with them with each other, so like if one of them is like an acid spinner and the other one is like an eight armed you know, teeth freak, Like, they'll fuck in real time and merge and then you're fighting the combination of that, which is interesting.

But also you know, it's it's just a lot.

It's just that, you know, I know, but.

Is it is.

It kind of like the modern Resident Evils with the molded and how there's.

A little bit I think that's a good one way to look at it, but just more flesh colored.

Yeah, I mean some of those characters they looked really like the things in the basement.

Yeah that was a boss that.

Like the licorice wrapped around it like that.

But you know, yeah, I mean, I.

Think I'm enjoying my time with it for the most part, save for the sort of mind numbingly you know, shortcoming with the quality of life stuff.

That stuff I just kind of can't stand for.

So I feel like it is like a six to seven kind of thing.

And for me, you know, that is what this game is.

I'm going to see it through.

I'm going to finish it because, like I said, the story is intriguing enough, and I this game scares me.

Like this game there are moments where I'm just like, what are you doing?

I've also got run into spots where like I can't kill this boss because I'm out of AMMO, I'm locked in an area and I'm just running around.

I'm not going to melee it to death.

Uh you know, you have to use fire to really sort of accelerate killing a lot of these enemies, and if you run out of all that and you have no AMMO, you're sort of just handcuffed.

And that sucks.

I don't want I don't ever want there to be a situation where I'm just burned like that.

But uh yeah, I'm I'm I land on the on the better side of the average scale.

What's edge.

Or not you Yeah, okay, all right, halfway done?

Okay, Uh, how big of a development team is you know, it is like how much Silent Hill to remake a team?

How much of that team worked on Chronos.

I'm curious.

I mean, I'm sure they're like, yeah, I'm sure they all zipped over to help on that once.

Uh some it was out, but.

Yeah, Wikipedia says fifty I was gone.

Undred and fifty.

I gues two hundred fifty is what you would need for two of these games kind of come up pretty close together when.

Oh yeah, yeah that's from there about page So yeah, I really wonder.

Like if they're you know, I guess it all depends on how this game does.

I think this is a game that's like a good start and maybe a really solid sequel is in the future, but I don't know if that's the ambition, if that's where this studio is going to go.

I'll be interesting to see how the switch to version does, because it's like, maybe maybe that one hits because it's oh a spooky game on the switch to maybe it's a chance of breaking out, but kind of and.

It will say playing this on PC and performance wise it like has not in the best I'm I am using the frame generation d ll d L S S as well, and like, you know, I'm trying to in four K on our on our four eighties here or four nineties whatever we have, and yeah, it's hitching up a little bit.

So yeah, or you know, I don't know, maybe I have a fried CPU and that which.

Is also is definitely a possibility.

So but yeah, like I said, the the the cinematic kind of moments.

Again, there's not a lot of characters that you can kind of like identify with here, but the cinematic stuff is really interesting and you're sort of just like you know, because I said in the in UPF it's kind of like this twelve Monkeys thing where like they're sending people to the past to kind of figure out what the hell happened, and some of that stuff is really interesting.

Uh, and it's and and then they.

Don't flirt too much with like, oh, you're you're screwing around with time travel and you're violating all these things, and it's just annoying because you're just kind of like making the narrative of work to tell the story.

Like I haven't run into any of that where I'm sort of rolling my eyes, But yeah, it's cool.

You know, I think if you're like me, you probably have an easier time slipping into a game like this.

I don't know how universally appealing that might be, though, there.

You go, awesome.

Well, it sounds like you had a hellish time navigating the spooky scaries of it, just like Mike Minati has had a hellish time dealing with mods in the hottest newest game out, Diablo one.

It made him skip a funeral.

It's so hot, Mike, I need to say this.

I can't believe you missed a funeral.

You got okay, but with it, buddy.

One hundred and two, that's a that's a major achievement in life.

Yeah, I went to her birthday party.

That I'm not inviting a berth.

No, I was traveling.

I was busy working for use Lub, so I missed her one hundred birthday.

She only died two years later.

I don't feel that about I see the funeral Diopolo one.

Yeah, I love.

When I asked him if it was like a travel thing, He's like, no, it was very local.

Yeah, it was as funeral as Mike Manati is.

Your brother showed up to the discords out hall later and I thought we were getting like served papers.

He was told not to go.

I listened to my dad like that said don't go.

I'm I guess, sir, father, sir, anything you say, I have another twenty all right.

Diopolo one is a game I always wanted to play when every league did.

I loved Diabolo two when Dipple one came out as a little early for me.

But something about the up one, you know, I know, spooky season extending in September is like a little bit of a hot topic, but it's definitely fall vibes.

And even more than spooky, I get fall vibes from those Diablo games, especially Diabolo one, because Tristram is kind of surprisingly cozy for a game haunted by the Devil.

There's that weird guitar music.

Everything's just kind of dark and you know, you know, chili and a fun way.

I played this because on goog you can buy the original game, but you can also just from their storefront, get this mod.

It just gets added to your library.

It's just the executable that you open and it runs the game with this mode.

Automatically.

It's called Beel's Above.

Now.

I thought it was just an HD mod, but it actually is a lot more than that.

There's a lot of UI stuff and quality left stuff that basically kind of makes the game a bit more like Diablo two in a lot of ways, Like you know when you're buying and selling stuff that that just looks like that now instead of just seeing a list of things that you can get from them.

But they also add a lot of stuff, and so a lot of it was cut content, like oh, when you fight the butcher, you know in the original game, just open up his little room and he comes down and swims at you, and here you have to open up a scroll of town portal and then you go into his lair and there's a little F and B cut scene and then you fight him.

So port me is like neat, but I think I kind of wanted to do that the original way that there's a I think it overreaches a bit and what it's changing.

Also apparently it's kind of a big difficulty upswinging that.

I don't know if it's because they're rebalancing things, because they added all these extra side missions, even added player abilities that weren't in the original game, and classes and things like that too, So it's been a very difficult experience actually, Like I am really struggling each time I go to a new floor.

It's some giant difficulty curve.

So sometimes I've gotten surprisingly frustrated with it, and I'm like, I think I actually just want to go find a mod that is more of a pure HD conversion than this.

Maybe I'd like that more.

I don't know, but now I'm like fifteen hours in, so too deep.

I got to see it through.

Well, okay, we have to see it through.

Your shy would probably transfer might well, God, I don't know.

With all that content, it might break.

You could try.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's weird because I think they even added items that weren't in the original This one, I don't know, probably just like zap Away, but I don't know if there's might not work.

But mostly I think the mod is very but I don't think this is the mod you should play.

If this is like I want to finally experience Diabolo one, it almost seems like a mod for Diablo heads, Like.

Look, it's like a total conversion.

Did they do a Diabolo one re released recently, am I misremember.

They never did.

They did.

An event where they brought in a lot of like the kind of remade Diablo one in Diablo three, but that was a limited time.

There's also Devolution x grub.

You may have seen that like retro gaming channels like retro game Core, because they do show down.

That's like the I think it was a decompilation that they then turned into a PC port.

I think if people are looking for a more faithful version of Diabolo one, maybe that would be.

The one to go to.

I don't think they're graphical mods, but I think they're the quality of life stuff is in there, So may may that be song for you check out as well, Mike.

I know it's a little more of alved.

It's not just like go og.

You press a bun and the rockets installed, but that.

Will help and you sometimes you can even use two mods at once, so you yeah, well it's.

Crazy, Yeah, so yeah, I was.

I was a little thrown up with them all.

But Diabo one is still really interesting and fun, and I like the setup of it.

You compared to Diablo two, where you have all these acts and you're traveling different places.

I like that.

It's just here's your one town, and here's your one dungeon, and it's a very big dungeon, and you're just gonna keep going down and down and down till eventually you get to Hell and fight Satan.

That's a good setup, you know.

Even something about the way these older action and RPG's working.

You know, this is basically the first one where it's just like I mostly have to just click it on people and just sleep in a sword and maybe maybe a good item will drop.

Probably not, but when it does drop, it's exciting.

There is something about the way Diablo four has sort of evolved into just spamming ten attacks on short cool downs at all time.

That's summon like fifteen were wolves or meteors or giant rolling boulders, and you're you know, there's dodge slop in Diablo now and stuff like that, and normally I like dodge slop, but I don't know, it's all gotten to be a bit much, and it's barely about the campaign anymore.

It's about the seasonal content and the running riffs and rays or whatever the heck it's all called.

There's a periody here, Oh yes, Jeff Grub.

Yeah, I'm just looking at our list of games, and I was busy last night so i'd have a chance to see didn't you try Pillars of Maternity two?

Yeah, So it's interesting because I did play Pills of Eternity too last night for a couple hours, and it was kind of bizarre to spend all weekend playing the first one of these and then spend some time in the newest one of these that game is in early access.

Yeah.

I enjoyed that people always have oversold the Path of.

Path.

I'm always going to be yeah.

XL sorry, yeah Path similar names there, but yeah, like I think Path of Exile has always been oversold to me, as like that's it's more like Diablo two than Diablo three.

Whenever I play it, I'm like a kind of this still mostly feels more like a Diablo three or a four to me than a Diablo one or two.

And I get it.

Not other people, not many other people are old sickos like me who really want to go that far back.

But yeah, Path of Exile two was definitely interesting and it seemed like a good time.

I was having fun with it.

I would like to maybe explored a bit more.

I do find it interesting that you say that, because, as far as I know, like I don't follow the scene too closely or anything, but Diablo three was, as far as I know, so different that a lot of Diablo two has went over a Path of Exile one and that sort of became their new Diablo because it was, you know, still a big development team like sort of fans making the game that Diablo fans want.

And it's interesting to hear you describe it.

Yeah, I mean that was definitely what happened, especially early Diablo three.

Path of Exile completely benefited from that.

But even then, like I heard that, so I would go play Path x al one and I kind of got it, but for some reason it was it wasn't clicking for me right away.

This one was clicking for me a bit more, especially because aesthetically, you know, it looks stocking.

Look, it's everything that you want from a one of these.

I mean, this this one.

If if it told me this is Diabolo four and we never got the other one, I'd be like, oh, okay, sure, it's very much in that wheelhouse.

So it was a good time.

Some of the free to play e stuff of it even though Diablo four basically has all of that too.

Now, right, Like I push M because I expect M to be the map button.

It turns out the m stins for micro transactions open up and it's like the page where it's just like, you know, like Season of the Blood God Pack cosmetic.

You know, do I have to let any of that stuff really get in my face and bother me?

No?

Not really, Yeah, it kind of bothers me when I just open up this page.

It's like fifteen logos for things that sound like magic the Gathering expansion rejects, you know.

Just send those links my way, then, Mike Well, speaking about tinkering and testing things out, our own expert resident fighting game person.

That's right, he's fighting on the streets and on the internet.

Turbot Shawn Sean McDowell.

You got the chance to check out the Marvel Tocon beta.

Yes, I did.

And it's funny you say, you know, tinkering and testing, because that's not what I really had a chance to do with a beta.

Let me talk about the beta itself for a second here.

It was one of those betas and I hate this.

I get why they do this, especially if they're doing network testing, but it was at very specific times throughout the weekend, okay, and so like, yeah, let me read this off.

It was what would this be my time?

It was like eleven pm to five am Friday, and then it was seven am to one pm Saturday, and then they are like five to eleven, and then an early morning Sunday it was like four to something.

And because of that, I only had a chance to play in a little bit of it, only like a couple hours on Saturday evening because I was like, well, it's a beata, I'll you know, be able to play whenever I got my code, like towards the end of session two, and then I was busy on Sunday, so I could really only play in one session, but I still got a couple hours in.

I still mention GI in there.

The second layer problems comes from a fact that this seems to be the EVO build gameplay wise, but instead of putting you into a local versus multiplayer, it puts you into the online lobbies, not matchmaking.

ARC system Works online lobbies, which is if you've ever seen it, you may have seen it by this point.

It's the one where they have the little chibi avatars, you know, like Dragon Ball Fighters, Aikh's running running, running around the virtual arcade, which is all awful for a beta because I just I went to one of the busier lobbies.

I just sat there waiting for someone to walk up to me and get some matches in.

So I spent like, you know, close to half the beta just waiting.

That sucked.

That's bizarre that there's no button to just be like, yeah, I'll be into a match now.

Yeah, like there is in their full games.

The beta yeah, because they yeah, they know that people don't like that anymore, and yet this is the what they chose for the beta, presumably show off all the Marvel stuff that they have in there.

It's cute, like it is neat to run around as like you know, the Gunda'm looking iron Man and stuff, but like not for a beta, come on, Neil.

Anyways, the game itself, I did have a chance to like play it more and figure it out more, and at first I was still sort of cautiously optimistic, kind of concerned about it because they really want you to play with like the modern controller control scheme where they have everything separated as its own bun which kind of feels like control soup because it's like, yeah, we have light, medium, and heavy buns, but then there's also a special bun and you press this sort of like the b bun and smash.

You press the direction and the special and does an attack.

But then there's also the unique bun, which is every character's unique trait, which also has a forward downer backs, and then there's the tag bun, which also has forward downer back, and then you pressed combinations of these buns to do soupers and stuff, which that was a lot to take in and also like confuse my fighting game brain of like man light, medium, heavy and then doing quarter circles and Z emotions sounds like it would actually be easier.

It clicked a little bit more once I realized that they're basically doing the street fighter modern controls thing and learning how to insert special moves and the unique moves, because like the difference of special moves will be the generic stuff like a fireball, an uppercut, you know that sort of like REU kind of stuff, and then unique will be say Captain America, his neutral special is to throw his shield bouncing around like you would see like the Maer movies.

And stuff, and it becomes a trap for the enemy to walk into.

You press back and unique again it's not our shield thing very specific to Captain America where it takes a defensive stance.

It's like the DOWNBA with fire emblem characters and smash, you know, defensive stance.

If you get attacked, is one counter hit that kind of thing.

And so once you actually learn how it works with your control scheme of choice, it's very fun and I think it's also very approachable once you again are comfortable with your control scheme of choice, controller, stick, leverless, whatever you play on, because there are auto combos, and it was the thing that people were concerned about because auto combos are very good actually, but there's also different options, so it feels a little more like To me, it felt more like chain combos and something that I like, say Darkstalkers, where you kind of do just press bunds in series to get different combos.

And I think sometimes that's very daunting for people playing fighting games, is figuring out, Oh, I have to memorize a combo.

I have to like memorize what move goes into another move.

I think it's good that the base level it is very simple to just get combos done, and that's more about the positioning of you versus your opponent.

And then my concerns were also alleviated when I saw, say, Sonic Fox was playing.

Over the weekend, I watched the Tampa Never Sleeps tournament that they did a little bit and seeing a high level and seeing people still doing like those forty hit combos and stuff.

I looked at that, I'm like, oh, wait, no, it's you know, it's got that Marvel versus Capcom in here, Like there's a little bit of it feels weird to say uncanny valley because it looks gorgeous, it sounds amazing, like the soundtrack is phenomenal, it's presentation wise amazing, but there's that uncanny valley of it's not quite Marvel versus cafcom, which is what I expect, but no, it's like it's close in a lot of ways, and that that's close to the drug comparison, right, yeah, exactly, that kernel being buried in there and clearly being the inspiration that I think is what's going to carry token here, and I think that's what is where the depth is going to come from.

Having that again, like smash like you can't kind of just hit bonds and stuff happens.

But when you learn the positioning and how your attacks relate to your place on the field, I think that's where death's going to come from.

It's a lot of fun.

I'm kind of curious, just I know the rest of you are all more casual fighting game enjoyers.

Did you have any like, were you wondering anything about token, any questions about the game?

I'm just curious, you know what the temperature check is with the thinking community after this baitage, people seem pretty excited and everyone seem to be happy and enjoying it, thirsty for more.

Where there are any major concerns popping.

Up, I think pretty much everyone like had the same arc that I did.

Where we get in, we play it, and boy, this feels mashy.

Auto combos are very good and there's no training mode, so it's hard for us to learn in depth stuff, which is what we love, It's what the Sikhos love.

But eventually when we did see the people who did just like like Maximilian stream for twelve hours straight from the night so he could play that entire first session, and he was by the end of it.

You know, people like him and the afore mentioned song Fox and everyone.

They were figure out the sick oh stuff, and it was really cool to see all the different combos that they were pulling off.

And you know the high low mix up, the left right mix up, a sick clip where Songic Fox they called in what they were attacking on one side, and they called in assist.

They positioned so it came in on the other side, and then we're attacking with the other person switched to the other person and the apoe has to just hold that mix.

They have to figure out what's happening here.

That's Marvel versus Capcom right there, and so there's still that in there, and so I think a lot of us are getting more and more excited about this game.

I would say, you know, cautiously optimistic is maybe even too negative.

It's like the difference between partly cloudy and mostly sunny.

Like, man, we're feeling mostly sorry right now, it's like ninety five percent we're having that pictick and have a good time today.

Right, Yes, Yeah, that's kind of my quick question would just be like, as someone who's like always wanted to get into Marvel, but it has like didn't get on the grand level and now I feel like I'm too intimidated to figure it out.

Do you think this will be in a new on ramp for someone like me for this variation on what Marvel's become.

For this style of game.

I do think Token's going to be a good on ramp.

I think the collaboration of studios here it being you know, Marvel Games, Art system Works, and PlayStation They want to make this successful.

They want to make this the new big fighting game, like we talk about Marvel versus Capcom, and so I do think that yeah, you know, like I said, this is sort of easy to learn, hard to master that is in here.

I think that's yeah, it's going to be a good on ramp for people like you who are just looking to hop in and then eventually learn the more in depth stuff.

How many characters are they talking about, like in total are going to be in the game.

Oh, that's the secret fighting games Jan.

They never tell you until the game is about to come out and you see that final roster.

You don't know because they want you to buy the game and not thinking about the fact that this is a four v four fighting game that maybe it was only going to have like twenty something characters that launch.

Which fourth of the roster do you want on your team?

Yeah, A lot of the teams and a lot of the cambos were looking similar over the weekend because we only had was it's six characters to choose from.

So that's gonna happen.

Yeah, I because I want to play the game of like staring at the character select screen and doing the mental math of like, Okay, this spot has to go to this character, that spot has to go to this character.

How upset am I going to be until they show me Cyclops?

And then I'll and then I'll be happy, and then I'll all say, fuddy.

Duddy man Storm is there Day one.

I have no doubt the Cyclops is going to be there, whether he's Launch or whether he's DLC.

He'll I guarantee you he'll be there.

Chan they know what the fans.

Want, fantastic, they know what I want, they know what the jans want.

That's right.

Uh, Sean, You've also been playing a game that I'm also very cute curious about and I constantly constantly am misspelling because of how the the title is.

You've been playing lost souls spelling correct, and uh okay, yeah, so many souls.

There's a lot of souls out there.

Yeah, so we're just talking about six or seven's right, Speaking of this game, it's a regretfully I gottay, it's kind of just okay.

So this is why I've been following for a very long time.

As a quick refresher, this is the one that was like a one man passion project.

A grad student put out this really cool looking like tech demo show piece thing, got picked up by PlayStation as part of their China Hero project, and it kind of went into development hell for a decade of roughly because they realized they need to build up the studio to actually make a video game.

Does contrary a popular belief one person does not make video games.

But yeah, now it's finally here, it's out, and it's the fact that it did start ten years ago as survey response to someone thinking Final Fantasy fifteen looks really cool and boy, Devil May Cry and Bayonetta play really fun.

Yeah, you can tell that it started early and then they kind of just got inspired by fifteen seven remaking in particular looks just like Midguard in the opening section, the combat is very fun, which is what I tracked all of us in the first place.

It does play very well, does feel like if you like that classic kind of character action game like I do DMC Bayanetta Boy.

It plays like that, and it's very fun.

They even do some cool stuff because there's the stuff you expect, like which time dodging, and there's a Devil trigger gauge you know from their respective games, but that also do cool stuff like when you do a which time dodge, you don't immediately like get in a counter attack.

Instead, you gain a stock, like a little like orb of light circles your character, and you can build these stocks a few times and then when like yeah, if the enemy is attacking you over and over, you can then like wait, you can just keep dodging, wait for it to be over, and then unleash all these stocks as really quick attacks.

If you are.

Familiar with Virgil from Devil May Cry, it just like does a quick slash, you can do that and he just goes do do doo doo doo, and just like quickly attacks the enemy for each of those stocks that you have, So they do cool stuff like that of a sort of variations of what you know in love from character action games.

The problem is when it takes itself too damn seriously with a story that sucks and it's very generic and they spend away so much time talking in a game that otherwise is about fast face action.

I mean that's part of the fun of like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta is that they've got all the fast face action, but there's so much personality.

They super don't take themselves seriously.

You know, you eat pizza and surfing around on enemies and stuff in beyanettas whack use all hell like like the tone of this.

I like character action games, but just like what I've seen of this, it's like I don't know that.

Yeah, one that's dead on Dan because even in Bayonetta and Delman Cry they have quite a few cut scenes.

There's a lot of story happening.

Yeah, it's all like, you know, Dante being a goober, being like nineties extreme in every ones around, like, what the hell is this guy doing, Bayonetta being super over the top and stuff.

No, this is the Empire is suppressing us.

We need to take down the Empire.

Okay, let's plan a mission to go like destroy one of their reactors.

I'm like, okay, okay, yeah, macho reactor and all that.

I get it.

Yeah, I was gonna I was literally gonna ask, can you tell what game they were like trying to like remake in their own style?

Was it definitely Final Fantasy?

I mean this game started as a love layer to fifteen, and over time it's like, oh, you too have played seven remake?

I see, right, someone at say tu Final Fantasy?

Yeah kind of feels like it.

Yeah, And it's funny because like Final Fantasy also went a much more action oriented, right, and at sixteen that like he knew what it wanted to be from the get go, and I think he landed it a lot better.

This game unfortunately does not.

It's I don't know, if all the story and stuff wasn't there, it would be a slightly jink because a smart team but still very fun character action game.

But yeah, I just I can't really recommend it to most people, unfortunately, in this state.

Would you would you send someone who's like aching for one of these games to god, what's the gooner game from last seller Blade?

Star Blade?

Instead?

I was genuinely trying to think which one is he going to talk about yours endless Stellar Blade, Okay, I like Stellar Blade a lot more like Stellar Blade yell, you know, all the online conversation side.

Genuinely very fun character action game with a bit of a dark soul's edge to it.

This one, Yeah, this is I usually don't bring up like price when it comes to talking about something like this.

It feels weird as a full price, sixty dollars first party PlayStation published game if this came out, even other projects that initial we're in the China Hero project came out like thirty dollars.

Yeah, and I think if if this was a thirty dollars Steam release, people would have been much more receptive to it.

But yeah, it's like a bigger deal kind of thing despite not having the marketing for it, which maybe that's reflective as something.

Yeah, it's just I can't recommend it at full price and in the state.

Maybe they'll update some stuff, maybe they'll let you, you know, get through the cut scenes and stuff a little bit quicker.

But yeah, it's an unfortunately little disappoint for so I'm really looking forward to I.

Still might want to check this out because I am kind of hankering for like that character action game.

I pulled up the trailer for myself to just take a Peaksi's at the gameplay and I'm looking at a weapons video and I feel like I wrote this because and it's unfortunate that you say it takes itself too seriously, because they show off you can use a scythe and then under its cutting edge control like, oh, okay, you can have fun with this genre.

It's yeah, yeah, but you I was staring at the main character here, Sean, and it was bugging me that I couldn't place why he looks familiar until you said Final Fantasy fifteen.

Yeah, it's just it's super like I glanced at this game, it was like PM Fantasy fifteen, right, And then.

They even have the blue particle effects in there, and they even change weapons because it's it's done.

That could be cool is that you have like a floating particle dragon there that was initially showing off the PS four particle effects and stuff, and like it turns into all the different weapons just like Nactus does.

And then yeah, it's just.

I'm a great mighty dragon and I'm gonna have a long monologue here.

I'm like, ah, no, shut up to see at least voiced by the Mario I wish came Fantom Blade zero game part of the China zero thing.

I think.

I think it's its own thing, I believe.

Yeah, saw the looks all these Chinese action games are coming out there are inspired by stuff are pretty cool, you know, like I know people liked to Wukong and yeah, Phantom Blade zero and stuff like that.

They look pretty cool.

This is unfortunately not one of them.

Well, speaking about long over drawn monologues that you have to sit through, grub Mike and myself sat through, uh several monologues as we completed Riven, the sequel.

The mist Yeah, that guy a bit of a christ complex, I believe is what they call that, right, he's a yappers.

Yeah yeah, he.

Put us in a casion.

He made it talk to us a bunch and I had to listen to that twice because the first time I did the wrong thing.

But that's okay.

Yeah, we finished Riven, the remake of it that came out just last year.

The second game in the Monday Mornings Missed with Mitch Saga.

I was so surprised by that game, just how different it feels from miss whereas this is almost episodic.

Yeah, it's houb Island.

They're from there.

You go to these different ages and they each have their own kind of self contained puzzles just to get those pages.

Or just to leave there.

Then you know, you go back and you kind of you know, rich Rush Pete Riven has these five different islands, but they're all connected and they're all part of the same area.

And so much of the game, like the first half of the game is just opening up the way so that you unlock the entire island and now you have this whole place that you can go around, and then you realize a lot of stuff that you were looking at before.

And there were clues or even solutions to essentially three big puzzles that are the puzzles of the game.

There are smaller ones like open a gate here or unlock this thing there.

A lot of those teach you the things you need to solve these three big puzzles.

Right, Like a big component of the game is just, hey, these people have their own numbering system and you're gonna have to learn how that works so that you can figure out some other puzzles in the future.

And I liked that whole formula for it a lot.

It was very satisfied to finally get somewhere and be like, oh, this is what this stuff meant.

Now I kind of have understood it.

Now I got to get the rest of the way there and push through this puzzle.

And it kind of leads up to this very at first seemingly confusing one.

Here's five colored orbs and a grid.

What am I gonna do with this?

You think you're never gonna get there?

Then you just kind of wander around, You sey some things out, you read a journal here and there, and it all comes together and it's very satisfying.

Also beautiful game gossip.

Really yeah yeah, I uh when I this was the way for me to play this game, cause I was thinking about it and it's like definitely collecting different ideas for a puzzle from across the map.

You keep it colating, all those things in my brain, keep them all straight.

That would be a hassle for me.

The reason I like The Witness so much is each puzzle is just all right there, right in front of you, and I like then they could be as difficult as they want to make them.

I will figure it out as long as I know it's all right here having to navigate the world and kind of remember, oh, these bits and pieces, So having Mike, who's really good at that kind of like bring all those things together, then I was free to just like think about the puzzle.

And that was really fun for me.

It was like, oh cool, I could just like we have this piece, we have this piece, he's going somewhere else, he's gonna get another piece.

Let me think about this for a minute.

And it was again really satisfying to kind of work our way through this and just throw ideas out and see what worked.

And when things didn't work.

It was kind of fun as well because it's like, Okay, now we can come up with a new hypothesis about what's happening with this puzzle.

And we like kind of worked our way through a lot of stuff that seemed pretty complicated just by doing that over and over again got away through that.

You know, we got a few tips.

From Chap, but not a lot.

Really we were able to work our ways.

I mean, we're so handsome.

Smart is smart?

Is that apartment?

And also just actual really cool sort of world building and lord building and fun characters like I have already like filled this connection to a Trus.

I'm like, my God, Atrus is here, all right, Atrius for your car?

Yeah right, I thought that jed For me personally, Riven felt too big and too open.

Sure, it's like five islands, but I think the traversing back and forth was off put for me, maybe because I got used to the contained nature of like the books and like the episodic nature, like you said, Mike, of the original myst uh, and I don't mistfelt cozy.

There's parts of Riven that kind of felt like a little eerie and scary.

Yeah, there was putting this to it.

I kind of liked some of the tonal shifts.

There are definitely some cozier Yeah, you're right, because even the cozier parts of the beautiful parts of Riven is a mess up thing.

But it ties back to the lore of oh this this age is dying because because again the bad guy messed it up for everybody.

So, yeah, things aren't great here, and there's it's weird because there are people here.

It's like every time you actually see a person, it's a jump scare, right, because they're mostly hiding from you and just let you do your thing.

I think it's a neat way to do a sequel that what you know, this could have very easily been just literally missed too.

They got ambitious, and it was I'm very glad that this game is the way it is, Like that was the right move back then, for sure, And even though we got the kind of like tone down version that has a little bit more quality of life and actually tones down some of that ambition, so it's a little bit easier to manage, but a lot of the spirit is still there.

Right, It's not like, you know, yeah, so that remake they do kind of rework puzzles one because it's free roaming now instead of just the static screens, but some of it was toning some things down, and again, that last puzzle still one of the more ambitious puzzles I have seen in one of these kinds of games.

So it's not like I felt like we were playing some you know, easy mode version of Rivening like that.

But yeah, that I always heard amazing things about that remake, and it lived up to those expectations.

It was fans.

I loved it.

I'll be thinking about riven for a while.

Apparently MYS three is much more like Missed one in terms of it's a lot of single screen puzzles and stuff like that, so Jan there's much of that wandering nature coming up in that one.

This was another instance though, just like when you watch like a major film that is like part of the film canon.

As we were playing through Missed and now Riven, I'm seeing like, oh, this has influenced an obscene amount of games that I've played.

Oh yeah, that's why I was like, that's part of the rea, is why I wanted to do the series and the playthrough.

I'm like, boy, missed this very important, and it seems like not very many people appreciate that anymore.

So there's a little bit like I'm gonna sit you all down and make you watch a Missed.

Yeah, because you know the blueprints earlier this year, major component of the Game of the Year conversations later in the year probably, but like, oh this is you you played Missed?

Huh?

You you grew up watching Missed?

Let me ask Mike.

Is Missed and Riven and all those?

Are they closer to something like a blueprints experience or something like a traditional like adventure game.

I think it's closer to a blueprint basic when I think about like at the point like a venture games.

I like, it's a lot of inventory puzzles.

It's kind of a lot of talking to people, you know.

Inferences and deductive reasoning.

And yeah, even like the way Blueprints does its story and that is straight from MISS, where it's a lot of stuff from books and and things like that.

So yeah, you know, especially the MISS which again is relatively kind of a bit more straightforward.

I think you would like Miss that, Actually you would.

I could see it.

I mean, I've always liked logic based puzzle games and stuff like that, and like this seems, you know, different than the ones I've played before, but like I loved that different though.

Yeah, I think I could have liked that.

I bet, I bet if I had a computer that could have run it back then, I would have been obsessed with it.

It's fine, it was it was just FLI showing anything.

Ye a Riven had a PS one version, which is kind of.

Thing.

Is a lot of the times these games would come out that were like these legendary talked about games back then, and I would see it come out on a console that I have and be like, it's not going to be the real thing.

You know, you would have hated it back then, regardless where you played it.

The idea of like I need to get something on this part island over here, so I have to swap out, Oh my god, going to a different island.

I think that would be at least that would drive me crazy.

Oh wow.

You know what helps me is that I'm a sick of for trams and trains.

So the fact that I had to go on these trains all the time where enter a planetarium every time I wanted.

To down, I was like, I'm right, they should put and Riven.

Okay, hey, we have like three more games maybe before if we play, there better be some kind of SKU style puzzle.

And an expert by then I will.

I'm going, yes, we're moving you on to the cross Oh yeah, real quick, because we still got games to talk about.

What is Ken?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry the name ken twice?

Oh okay, yeah, I I one of the Sudoku books I bought was like, I think is CAGEK Is that what it is?

It's a different Okay, okay, okay, you got a burp.

There's multiple cases and division on this.

I don't like this at all.

Actually this is shooting.

Yeah, is it like when the dart puzzle got too complicated for me?

In Blueprints, I just.

Like a tag team.

It was like half Sudoku half ken Ken.

Damn.

Yeah, it's cold.

It's like the super Metroid link to the pass randomizer.

Exactly exactly.

Jeff Grubb, you have been exploring space in such a way that I am surprised by.

Because I know that you were high on Star Wars Outlaws last year.

I think I'm more surprised that you are still checking it out on the switch to Yeah.

So I played about thirteen fourteen hours on PC originally and was into it.

It just kind of ran out of time and I was always looking for an excuse to go back.

And now the switch to version is out, and this is like the new high water benchmark for a port from the current gen.

Going over to switch to it runs kind of immaculately.

Well, it is really impressive.

One of the big things there is it has baked in, baked in the wrong board.

It has ray tracing as a fundamental technology for its lighting system.

They can't take it out.

It just wouldn't work, or if they did, it would be a ton more work that they're just not going to do so, the Switch too needs to run the ray tracing model here.

That includes even like some global illumination which is decently taxing, even some reflections that aren't even on the Xbox Series S version.

And it's just locked at a really good thirty frames per second, way better than this game ran on the Steam Deck or the Asis Rock ally when I tried it on there, like significantly better.

I think that speaks, you know, in the fact that it's trading blows with the Xbox Series S.

Digital Foundery did their coverage of it.

They're like our DNA to the technology behind the Xbox, the PlayStation five and all the handhelds.

Just the ray tracing stuff just isn't very good there.

So the Switch, the fact that they have the Nvidia technology might speak to the fact that this system is going to be able to keep up with wherever ray tracing is at on consoles throughout the generation.

So it's a really good sign for a lot of games like this one that they're going to run real well on Switch as long as the developer puts in a little extra love, and that is in this case, like the level of detail, so like how many polygons are in the geometry, they turned that way down in a lot of instances, so instead of a perfectly round bar top, you could see that there's like a little some sharp edges here and there.

You don't really notice it when you're playing the game, but when you look for it, you see it.

And apparently that was enough to get this game in a really good place, and I was able to kind of just pick it up and start playing it and it just works really well.

I'm able to play through this game and it's kind of the way I want to play it anyhow, handheld, kind of dipping in and out, trying out, trying submissions here or there.

And I played like another i don't know, five hours over the weekend when I had some time, and really finding this to be a very good way to play that game for a game that I think is pretty decent, like a pretty good game overall.

Yeah.

I was listening to the DF boys talking about on def Direct Weekly yesterday and I was surprised by how glowing they were about it.

They were kind of.

Just like, this is everything we always want to see in a port, especially like a port down of just make smart cuts and you know, like ray tracing it's kind of a myth that ray tracing is super expensive as long as you rein it in like you said, with global illumination, which is just like a room lighting.

It's sort of the simple way saying that if people don't know like doing the simpler stuff, you know, yeah, it works well on the hardware.

Like you said, then video hardware is doing a lot of like work over the modern consoles, which is very funny.

You see, it's just better at some stuff than what AMD was doing.

And I kind of want to pick this up now check it out because it sounds very impressive.

Yeah, and it's not like, you know, we got Doom and Witcher three and a bunch of these games on the Switch one, and it's not like those ports.

Those ports were like you look at it, like, oh, you could see in every instance where they went and turned down everything to get this game to run on the Switch R.

This is much more like they were able to be able to pick and choose and it's like, yeah, some things are turned down and in some other ways it's running just the way it does on a lot of other platforms, or at least in terms of image quality, it is reproducing those results and so yeah, just a very encouraging game, like a feel good game, like you'd be soft giving this game another chance, and it like really hitting with this audience that might be willing to pick this up because it's a novelty to have something like this running on the switch to at this point.

So yeah, I'm just really really happy to see that this game delivered in a way that we knew was probably possible, but I wasn't sure developers would actually go the I don't even know if it's an extra mile, but the extra work that would have taken to get it into this shape, I wasn't sure if that would happen.

This is a sign that at least developers have charted that path, they know how to do it.

It's just encouraging too as somebody who's was like maybe word recently like whoa how are third party game is going to look on switch too?

Is we're hearing things about stuff like elden Ring and others where it's like, wow, what's going on here?

No, like there can be good ports.

It can't be done.

Yeah, maybe it takes you know, certain smart decisions, smart technologies.

I don't know, but yeah, it's also games that are GPU dependent are going to run better.

Because the switch is still just a handheld, the CPU can only be so powerful.

But because of what Nvidia did tech wise, there's a lot of good GPU stuff in there.

So that's how you get this game.

Yeah, yeah, that's how you get this game on.

Like Doom, which I switch one was kind of just like a blurry mess at times, and then which are three, I just looks like, you know, more of a PS three like downscaled version of that game, which is what you expect.

It just looks like a different game.

This is like unmistakably Star Wars Outlaws.

It's just you know, it's running thirty fps, but also it's got the upscaling tech to do fourteen forty p doct apparently, so like it looks like Star Wars Outlaws.

They just made the smart cuts.

That's really cool.

Yep, that's really good to hear.

Sean, you have been donning a gee, dude, Ninja's word, GI's is what do they wear?

What is it called rob It's it's a gee right and stuff?

You know.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a name that we don't non pants.

Zoomiest there you go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jean shorts.

George and George would be interesting crash bandicoot.

I don't think there'd be as enough mobility though.

But you have been playing Shanoby Art a Vengeance.

We've talked a bit about this game over the last couple of weeks.

I also want to say, I think Joe yea Musashi, right, that's his name.

I think he's the coolest looking ninja in a video game.

The way he runs and everything, and every one of those attacks, the downward kick and then the spin and like, fuck, it looks good.

I think like the combo of like the white and the head just looks so striking.

You get the other ones, blue, the yellow, the like.

There's some good alternate ones too.

But Sean, what what what?

What do you got to say about it?

But Shnoby Oh I want to say about Shoby Jan is that Shanoby are a Vengeance.

I think my current game of the year.

Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, I really got to go play the rest.

Of this game.

Nice.

Everything that I was looking for in Lost Soul Side I am finding in Shinobi, which is awesome because I've always seen character action games as the natural extension of like two D, beat them ups, Hack and Slash games that kind of thing, you know, like the Batman Arkham games are kind of like, you know, beat them ups, brown to three D and then del mccries sort of like Hack and Slash run three D.

This Lizard Cube took everything that we've learned about action games for the past like twenty five years and poured it back into a two D game.

Man, And that's like the game clicked with me.

Why.

I realized that when it wasn't just oh yes, Lizard cubesa looks gorgeous and the soundtrack is incredible and everything like that, But when I really started getting into the way the combat works, and I realized how much you can juggle enemies, how much you can string together moves.

I am trying my best to stay in the air at all times, and it works.

I'm like, this is just a character action game, bossy and stuff.

You can fucking juggle them and just keep them up there and just it's not button mashing.

I feel like, you know, it's easy to just like something about the controls and the abilities and everything.

It's kind of easy to keep straight in your head.

You know, Yes, I think it's you know, Sean, what do you say?

It's probably the best at like that character action combat feel in a two D game, Like it's the best I've ever seen.

I think it's like a I think like you know, like Prince of Persian New or Lost Ground was great.

That was also better than that, Like this is, uh, this is the best I've seen.

This is doing the thing where in any character action game or something similar, I don't buy moves anymore.

I've never done that a delam Cry or Bayonetta unless they're like missing something obvious.

This is for a first time since like Beautiful Joe, where I buy moves constantly and I want to save up my money for new moves because they do new things and they work so well off of the hell system and then the shield that can go over that, and then the stagger gauge, and you want to balance out what moves you're using to get the respective gauge up or down that you want, so then you can do the execution, which is just metal Gear Rising Slash Dal twenty sixteen where oh god, I'm law on health.

I need to get this dude into execution motz I turn them into a pinata where health pours out why and cut his head off.

It's so freaking sick.

Even with like equipping the ninpo and stuff where it's like, all right, I need something for shield stuff.

Someone to put this one on here.

So it's like when those health back things pop up, its all right, I'm gonna pop up, and then the down wide thing that'll take out the shield and this nipple will hurt the bad guy's shield and it's just god damn it.

That game is good.

Yeah, and they do smart stuff too, like light attacks oftentimes don't matter in two D hacking slash games normally just want dour does the most damage because an memel dying one or two hits anyways.

But very smartly, they have the combo anulets where the higher hits that you have a combo, the more things you can do because after you pass a certain threshold and keep it going out, like you know, fifteen hits, twenty five hits where our case, maybe you'll do more damage.

Enemies will drop more health like, so you actually are incentivized to do long combos on an enemy rather than just taking them out and moving out as quickly as possible.

And that combined with the fact that the platforming is fun.

The challenges that are hitting in the levels are all really fun.

You do the rift to challenges.

I did my first one the other night because I've been missing them apparently, and that was a blast to do.

Like really some of those are.

Hard, they're good.

I like the challenges are a combination of combat challenges and platforming challenges too.

You don't know which one you're gonna get till you get there.

Yeah, And it's just the style, Like when you get that final kill on a boss, when you get the execution on it and it does the big screen, it's just like cheering when I beat these bosses.

You know, it's blast.

It has a style too, like you know, there's there's some talking in this game, not too much and never overdoes it.

And I always love that there's a little bit of personality there where like someone will like have this like speech that they give Joe and because he's Joe, maussa like and they're like, yes, that's right, Joe, I bring up.

They have fun with it.

Yeah.

I'm absolutely loving this game.

It's every everything that I look for in character action games and fighting games that just like very fluid motion and like awesome presentation with great soundtrack and the combat feeling incredible and really empowering.

You.

Yeah, I haven't finished the game yet, but I think I'm close to the end and I'm just having a blast.

Sean, did you check out rage Bound at all?

I did, And I also really like Ninja Guy and rage Bound, and I think they are games that can coexist.

They are both excellent.

Rage Bound is definitely more platforming oriented and this one was more combat focused, and I think that's great because it sets them part even further, especially since Ninja Guy and has a different art style with the pixelar in earthing and this has the gorgeous hand drawn r and there things like that.

They feel like different games and they're both awesome.

Yeah, I liked I had more gripes with rage Bound, like they definitely brought in more souls elements.

I think that's like what their last game did, right, because they did blasphemous I believe, Yeah, yeah, and which was you know, I always heard people describe that as like dark souls in two D, and some of that is in Rage Bound, like the bosses take a while to get through and stuff like that, and that was starting to turn me off, but I got through it and I was like, you know, for the most part, yeah, I really really enjoyed that.

But this is just I have basically nothing negative to say about Shanoby.

It's just been nothing but fun.

That's sick.

Okay, I want to see if you are hundred percent, because like I was loving it so much.

I was like, I'm definitely going one hundred percent of this thing, and I can go to like ninety five or so.

But like there were a couple, like the platforming riffed ones where it's like, Okay, if I tried this thirty times, I bet I could do it, but you know, we got to move on to other stuff.

But I'm curious to be doing one hundred You can tell that.

That's why I'm leaning towards Dan because I looked at my percentages through the levels, and it goes up from like, yeah, in ten percent, fifteen to twenty Yeah, eventually I am starting like one hundred percent levels.

I'm like, oh yeah, I'm really really falling into this one.

When I would go back a lot too, like you get some ability that lets you go up and then like gusts and stuff, it's like, well, okay, I remember seeing those back then I'll go back and get a couple of those metals or whatever.

It's not quite Metroidvania because it is a level base, but you do get abilities that allow you to tackle the earlier levels in different ways.

You know it's not a Metroidvania and that it's not this one giant map.

But it made me think of like Order of Ecclesia, remember that, because it's like it would you'd pick from the overworld map like in this where it's like I'm going to go to this area and there are it's not straight linear like a lot of these levels are linear.

And then it gets to a point where it's more Metroidvania, a little more open.

But yeah, it made me think of Order Ecclesia that way.

Sure, folks, how do you feel about us taking quick bricky break and we'll get to the big game of the week last two weeks really and then that's the news as well.

Oh thank god, Michael at it all right, we'll see you on the other side.

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Mobo all right, this is gonna be a weird game to dance around spoilers and also a weird game to spoil.

So if you were super sensitive about things that you unlock mechanics, boss fight, mechanics boss fights in regard to Hollow Night Silk Song, I would skip ahead maybe ten or so minutes.

If not, Hey, we're gonna says a lot to talk about.

Uh by, okay until you hear the news music someone.

Well we'll provide you a timestamp.

Perhaps, but gain get figured out.

Thank you, Sean, Thank you, Sean.

Hey, I really like this game.

What the fuck is up with this map?

What's all?

Okay?

Now now I'm curious.

Did he play the first one?

No?

Okay, because I think you are describing what my issue was with the first one initially, Like what the fuck?

I'm just going around the dark here and I gotta, you know, not find a map for like, you know, until the sixth time I'm in this area.

Is that what you're talking about.

I'm talking about how shitty the map looks, because I could draw a better map.

I think I might be.

It's also not a super useful map, but also like a map for quite a while.

Yes, yeah, that you have a quill in the compass and all that, right, you get to them eventually.

Yeah, I get to them eventually.

I'm just and then you have to have the compass equipped and stuff like that.

You know, I have not turned the compass off once.

That would drive me.

And of course it takes a whole spot Compass or compass, Compass, Compass.

No, you don't say it first, Compass.

I get what happened.

Past again, this is not me.

I'm just I'm compass.

I guess I do say compass.

It's compass.

Yeah, it does sound like compass.

It does.

I wish it didn't, but it does.

It just does.

It's wan fine.

We just came back from break.

I don't have to thank you.

Thank you, though, Dan, Hey.

I think this game freaking rules.

And I kind of forgot how much I like Hollow Night and I see some people and like there that watching player things like I don't get it.

And boy, Hollow Night and solk Song especially, they just get so many of the most basic fundamentals.

So right, like you jump and wow, that's a really good feeling jump.

And you know, we're just talking about Shinobi, and it's interesting that game is a game with this really intricate combo system and like juggling and here the combat is mostly just this one really.

Fast attack, but boy, is it the best feeling attack button ever.

It just comes out so fast, like huh, And a lot of fights are just where are the spots where you can maybe get two or three of those hits in real quick and then you get out of there, and there is something so incredibly satisfying about it.

Even just the you had the feedback.

I know, there's like an emblem you can put on or whatever request that like makes it so you don't get knocked back at all.

To knock I do that on, it feels like you're really hitting something each time, Like there's something about that hit that feels better than maybe any Melee two D thing I've.

Ever felt, you know, right exactly.

It definitely was like a learning thing of like, uh oh, the knockback will happen even if I'm getting bored and I'm swinging when I'm doing a jump and I kind of barely hit this wall over here, and now I fell down a goddamn pit because I had to like visually stem myself while I'm playing a video game because I'm a fucking idiot.

But I eventually am like really getting on.

Yeah, I'm really getting on this game's wavelength.

It rules, it rules.

I can't stop playing it.

I mean it super won me over.

I love the fact that there's just as much chance that once I beat a boss, I'm gonna find another boss before I find another goddamn bench.

Sometimes that's like.

Really funny to me.

Like this game, man, there really are forty bosses in this game.

You could just tell, because there's one every thirty feet.

And there are real good, intentional fuck you moments in this game that I can't help but laugh at because it's like, we know what we're getting into with this game, and like it'll do a couple of things where it's like, oh, fuck you guys, like but like in a good way.

It's interesting because there's almost this a disconnect of they clearly made this game for people who played Hollow Night because it is a bit more difficult in a lot of ways, and they do have some of those fuck you moments, right, But there's a lot of people playing this who have not played Hollow Night one because it's just such a kind of zeitgeist thing at the moment, right.

So, but I think one of the smart things they did they're compared to one.

I know, All Night one opened up very quickly.

It felt like this massive game almost immediately with all these branching paths, and you would get lost here even though you still have like the stuff with well you you're not gonna get the map for a little bit.

Once you get it, it's not going to be super useful right away.

They like the first five hours of the game relatively linear ish, right you're kind of just mostly going to the right, and then you're going up.

I like ten hours in now, so I'm at the point where it has opened up massively and suddenly there are different paths I can go to in a bunch of extra areas I haven't been to, in areas I can go back to an unlock new things.

So you do get there.

Then that's a part of all and I think a lot of people did eventually love.

I know a lot of people fall off because it is also overwhelming right away.

I'm doing shit now where it's like I'm probably like fifteen hours in and it's like I will get to an area and I will beat my head against this trying to get to the end of it for just hours only to realize like, oh fuck, this is like there is like kind of an intended path through these areas and boss order and stuff.

It's not strict, but it's there, and I'll just be like, oh fuck, I just I could have made life so much easier for me if I had just gone over here.

What was making it as difficult on those paths, on those heart more difficult paths.

Is it the combat or the platforming or both?

It can definitely be both, I mean, but there are some where it's like there are you know, definite like aerial abilities and things like that that will kind of soften your well.

I mean, let's let's let's talk about one.

Was talking about like there's the hover thing.

I don't yeesh.

It's basically not really a flutter dump.

It's more of just like a hover down like you know, the whole day and then the whole day.

Yeah, let's let's let's expect that we're going to get most of the Metroid Vena abilities in this Metroid Veinya game.

And that's like, you know, one of the early ones you get in Sympathy of the Night, it's here as well.

It's like lighter kind of thing.

It's like a glider thing.

Yeah, totally.

And so like Hunter's March, which I see as an area that people are talking about a lot because it is a pain in the ass.

But if you go there and you.

Go with names, can you describe like there's like a little red flowers and the diagonal brute forced those with the with the early everything no flutter, no downward thing.

I was assumed the diagonal jump and I got through like most of that thing by just brute forcing it.

It was a lot of fun.

I'm glad I could do that, but I yeah, I got some of those other things, and I.

Was like, oh, like it gives you the tools and stuff, like you know, the air dash.

You know, if you're just doing the diagonal slash and air dashes, you can get through all that area.

But then once you get the like lighter thing, it's like, oh fuck, that would have been so much easier.

Which you're talking about the downward one that I have not equipped that once because it's like I know some people like and it's easier to do the bounces when it's straight down like the first game.

But I fucking love that.

I love so much.

It's in combat too, because you can get into the.

Back and forth routine is really awesome.

The thing is like, I can't tell I'm still like learning that system.

I think if I have that's called like the Reaper ability.

If I have that one, is that the one that allows me to do the run and upper cut attack.

I think that's what it is Cress.

So yeah, this whole crest system is interesting because it's both the slots for your badges, which is what gives you extra abilities, but it basically changes your core move set to It changes the look and feel and timing of your basic attack animations or you're running attack is Reaper.

The thing that gave me the downward attack?

Is that something different?

The first one is the is so the first one that I know Reapers will give you that downward one.

Okay, okay, all right, well it's straight down.

There is a crest that gives you basically the movement of the first Hollow Night straight down to Okay, yeah.

I like that third crest a lot.

I was using for a while until recently where I kind of upgraded my first Cress because yeah, I was like, oh yeah, this is basically just the Hollow Night one.

Crawt Ye.

I think it was a smart thing to put that in.

But see I had one boss fight where I switched to Reaper.

I think it's the more wing fight.

I switched to Reaper, but I have not wanted to switch to others because it's like you get those memory modules and it's like, okay, well I'm expanding my basic you know one, and so now I've got I can equip two blues and two reds and stuff like that.

Like I don't want to go to another crest right now.

Become invested in them, and those crests aren't necessarily super easy to come by.

It's part than me almost wishes.

Yeah, like maybe like the crest unlocked one for each thing, because yeah, I'm a little bit like I think I'd like to use this one, but I kind of I unlocked all of the crests in that Reaper one and then later was like, I don't like this one, and.

You can't refund it.

You can't respect that thing.

So it's just well, I know for sure I like the base move set, so I'm just gonna stick with that and go nuts with it.

God, the boss fights so freaking good, some of the best boss fights I've ever seen.

Just the patterns and just like you know, it's I've said this about many different games in the past.

Words just the thing where you go and you get your ass whooped the first couple of times.

Then it's like, well, okay, I've learned that.

I get to the next phase.

And then you know, Snoby, I think I was saying the same stuff too.

It's just like you're gonna die a bunch like more Wing.

I fucking died, like Bonk heard me from two floors up, screaming and like I'm not a super vocal when I'm just like playing games by myself at home, not streaming the silent, I'm yelling and sah, I'm fucking screaming at this fucking more Wing thing.

And took me, i'd say over well over an hour, I'd say like thirty tries.

And I did see that they nerved it.

They feel I feel like someone who like paid off his student loans and now I'm mad about student I fucking had to go through that.

No, just to be clear that it's a universally good policy.

I don't want anyone to be I feel like one of these people that I'm mad about it.

You know, yeah, did you do?

I won't get did you do?

The clockwork Dancers boss Fight where there's like two of them and they kind of were like just moving.

Oh god, oh such a good one.

Well, I don't know if I did well real quick, like more wing these bosses, like what is making them difficult?

Warring didn't get me too much trouble.

That was like for four attempts, but it was like I was definitely like getting frustrated because I'm like, these patterns are so simple and they're so telegraphed, like I can tell what's happening, and I think they just have a lot of health.

And then I'm like I kind of like get sloppy and then at the end of the fight, like that's go on long enough that it's like it punishes you.

You aren't locked in, it tricks you into getting greedy, and so much difficulty is teaching yourself so greed.

Yeah, that's that is my Achilles heal with these games is if you get me stuff that looks cool and feels cool, I'm gonna want to do it and every opportunity, even when I shouldn't, I want to like make this fight feel as cool as possible because I feel like I'm supposed to instead of playing it safe.

And that's what that's what I And you get greedy, you get in, you try to do too many attacks and why you're doing that.

You're not seeing how many health pips you have left and everything, or you're healing it stupid times, or just like instead of waiting for an attack and then healing while they're getting ready for the next one, you do it at a bad time.

It's interesting how like you know, you say more Wing didn't take you bunch.

It's like, I think everyone's gonna have the different ones they struggle with, because like more Wing was hell for me, but then I heard Peop will be like, oh, just wait for Savage beast Fly, and like I didn't have that much trouble with Savage Beast Fly.

So I do think it's just like.

Ye, that's that's the from Soul or the you know, the from game influence there right layer where it's like these bosses are gonna like really kind of trip up certain people and it will be different for everyone.

Yeah, but Andy Simmonson from and I think that's why it's like, you know, like like Securo for example, that was the type of game where you couldn't just cheese and level up and you had to just get good.

Similar with this, you can't really cheese that much.

You can't do.

It's not like leveling up with XP.

You can do the rosary stuff and everything.

But I think this clicks for me, whereas I was frustrated by sekuro is because it's the Perry stuff.

Like I'm not like an anti pery game guy or whatever, but like I'm not as good at pairying as I am at dodging and being on the offense, and so like, this is all about utilizing your mobility for these boss fights, avoiding their attacks, getting in there, knowing when to get your shit in, how to stagger them go into a ton of attack there, when to heal.

I can do all that.

It's just the like very specific, frame specific pairying stuff I could do, which this it's not this, you know.

Another thing I love is just all of these little side characters.

I think all of them are just really.

Everyone rules that everyone's so good.

Surma is such an incredible character, That's what The first one is going on is the pilgrim with the hat and she's singing all the time.

No, not map lady, not made Lama.

I love her.

Yeah.

The first time you see her, it's like she's on the other side of a gate.

You and longet.

She's like, Wow, can you believe that gate just opened?

I love it.

You're right, you did it, And you know what, I'm hoping.

I have no idea where it goes.

I'm hoping by the end you find out like actually, though there is some magic to her song and actually it's powering you up, and you're like, actually you're the one answering her prayers.

Yeah, because there's all these pilgrims, right, and they're like, we don't even use weapons, that's sacrilege, and like most of them die, and like some of them are like you you find them later, and a lot of them are like kind of harrowed and whatnot.

But sure was just like, I look, I found a hot spring, Come join me.

And she's just super happy to be there.

And when there's like fifty of these guys, like every single one is cute and kind of dumb and fun.

I love all of them.

Have you met the spa guy that like he joins the flee circuits and gives you like a little spa Have you done the thing with him?

Oh?

I didn't go in there because he gave me bad vibes.

I guess I should do it any I'll.

Tell you this, go in there and hang out in the spa, and there is something you can do if you don't ever want to pay again to go into the spot.

Okayh yeah, okay, I really made me laugh here.

There's so many just so many times, especially later, I'll go off the beaten path and I'll find something like really interesting or kind of important and seeming that I'm like, maybe you could just even miss this entirely.

And I love that the game can work like that.

Like I kind of like went back to the first area, like the very first area and found this side path.

I'm like, I can't believe this was here.

Well, or the mor wing boss fight that I'm saying, like that's an optional I heard you.

Can miss that.

Yeah, it's insane.

It's like that seems like a big major boss fightings like, no, you can just skip that.

Oh it's a gosh, it's really neat.

I love the way the game looks, especially the environments.

Everything is sort of you know, still and spooky and off putting, but there's a strange beauty to all of that as well.

It's it's you know, it's it kind of goes back to some of the best super metural areas.

I still think that is the best kind of design I like in these sort of games.

So there is something creepy just inherently about running around these giant areas by yourself.

When you get that eeriness translated to the aesthetic of the game, it does that really well.

And there's like a mystery too, where it's like I don't really understand the mechanics in the back that are, like, you know, whenever you get to a new area, all you want more than anything is to see those little discs and know you're getting closed to the map lady and stuff.

And there are times you'll get there and its like, okay, this is where she is, I'm going to market on my map, this is where she is.

I'm gonna come back once I have rosaries And you go back and she's gone, and it's like, did I trigger something that made her go to a different area?

Does seem to move around a lot like for a while, should be planted in the hometown, But I don't even see you there her there anymore?

So Yeah, what do you mean the discs?

Is that you know, she's got the little like rings that like they'll be hanging sometimes or stuck in the environment, and I don't have to tell that like she's nearby base or she could be there at some point, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, the visuals that you were speaking about that like the that there's like something about the Parallax where it's both the most in your face parallax ever and yet super subtle at the same time.

I think it's just it's natural looking in a way that like Parallax is supposed to be very stylized, but this it just looks like it's just gently sucking you into the screen, and I don't know, it's really is mesmerizing to me as I'm playing.

Yeah, they just have nailed this style of game.

I mean it feels like they had it done a lot of time to really polish every aspect of it.

Yes, Sean Turbo, Sean McDowell.

I did have a question for one Jeff Grub from Giantpom dot com.

Yeah, you I thought were like me and that you kind of bounced off of Hollow Night one after trying it like a couple of times.

Yeah, I mean bounced off Like Yeah, I guess go off is probably the right way to put it.

I definitely started up several times and couldn't click with Yeah, not that thought it was bad.

Yeah, I know we have an entire legacy on the internet and surrounding that.

I am curious what it is about Silk Songs, specifically that like sort of brought you around on hollidnight.

Yeah, I think it's uh, I think it was.

First of all, I did have a good understanding of the map system that I know that now that that is a big part of what sort of caused me to bounce off.

I was finding those maps in the first game.

I was just like, I want to know where I'm supposed like just give me a direction, like give me an idea of like where I'm supposed to be headed, like you know, give me some audio cues.

And I think what this game does is there are several audio cues and like you'll hear that singing from a couple of rooms over and I'm like, at least that has given me something to work toward.

And I think that was enough to bridge the gap.

And then I got into I think the first boss fight pretty quickly, and then really soon after that the second boss fight, and I was like, oh, I'm like feeling a pace here.

Of progression that is that feels really nice.

And so I'm already sort of on the treadmill and it's carrying me along.

I'll just see what's next.

And then another power up and now a new set of skills and this, and then another power up and then another boss fight and another boss fight, and I'm now I'm mocking the map and I have a good idea in my head like how the map works, and then I'm like, oh, I'm lost, Like, oh, you know what, I don't think I actually went to that door over there that's just has a whole other named area.

Let me go down there.

It's like, oh, yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be.

And once those things start like clicking one after another at a relatively rapid pace, I'm on board for one of these.

I just like kind of didn't get to that point with the first Hole of Night, and again I thought, I'm like, I could tell this is a good game and I will eventually love it, but this one's just making it a little bit easier for me to love it.

Okay, interesting and not being surprised by it helps, I think, because like, yeah, that was the thing with the first one.

I think I had the exact same thing as Groboard's, just like, man, where the fuck am I going?

I don't want I'm here to get lost, and then when I go back, I don't have any sense of where I'm going, Like, you know what you're signing up for this time?

Yeah, because you know what to expect us, Like you're comparing against our Metroid venus so much as against Hollow Night itself.

Right, Okay?

Uh mean chance?

No, no, no, no, no, John, You're the youngest, That's true.

You are the youngest.

Denied my insistence.

That's so rude of him just to offer a different perspective, is that.

Uh I I fired it up just to try it out, you know.

I try to go and open mind and say, like, look, I didn't like the first one for just so variety of reasons.

It just wasn't for me.

It wasn't clicking.

I thought, I try Silk Song, and surprise, surprise, the game that originally started as DLC for Hollow Night kind of more Hollow Night.

They re find some stuff.

You're playing as a different character.

It feels a little different, but is mostly more of a game in that vein, And so for me in particular.

As much as I love Metroid it's my favorite gaming series, but I don't usually love Metroid Venus because I typically don't like how much Castle Vania is in them.

Sure, and I've just never I like, simply in Night, GBA wants fine enough.

I just don't like that they metro vedeas tend to be longer games, they tend to take, you know, like the RPG elements.

They tend to be slower combat stuff like that, and that's just never really been my thing.

And so playing Hollow Night, I was like, Okay, I can tell.

I can see that this is a game made for people who like this stuff.

It's a well made game.

It's just not my cup of tea.

And that's that's why I got a Silk Song.

It's just the various issues I had with Hollow Night one are you know, specific to me, and I think other people are feeling the same way.

You know, It's clearly there's huge love for Hollow Night and Silk Song, and just some of us are just going to bounce off of it.

And I think that's totally fine because there are games like I was just you know, gushing about Shanobi being such a fast paced game and like combat heavy, combo heavy, and that's for people like me.

And I think it's cool that Silksong is out here for people who do want the more slower pace, exploration driven experience instead.

Yeah, and I think that's slow pace in terms of like the character movement and mobility.

The options early on is like like it speeds up, like you do eventually get the dash and that dash turns into a sprint and it feels awesome.

It's such a good feeling run.

But the game is meant to be played at a slower pace.

It is meant to be like you're supposed to take your time.

If you don't know exactly what's ahead of you, you better be going slow or else you're gonna get punished.

And that is I think something that will cause some people like, oh, okay, like what do you want from me?

You're giving me these abilities, but should I, like, can I actually take advantage of that?

It's like, no, you need to take your time here.

And it does feel like it's rubbing up against players in some ways.

I can see that if you are in the camp of this is this is a video game version of going to the car and realize like I.

Don't know my car keys.

Yeah, you're not gonna like this, like you kind of have to like getting a little loss and having to run around and explore.

And if someone brought that up said yeah, it makes sense under if he even if he said it's more understanding.

Yeah, uh you guys.

You guys went and played this game like normis.

Yeah, I did science.

I did some fucking well inadvertently did some science.

Put it on a Bunsen burner, like what you do?

Yeah, I want to see what it's boiling.

Point was I sat down to show did this game just because I wanted him to look at the pretty animation and the colors and all that.

And he said, give me the controller and I said, okay, sweaty, let's see how you play your first Metroid VNIA.

So what do you guys think?

What do you think?

What do you think?

His obnoxious on this.

Well, I felt I have an equally obnoxious read When he said to me, does it have to be bugs?

And I said, and I was sort of like, yeah, I'm kind of with you there.

They're cute bugs, but they're still bugs.

Nonetheless necessarily love the bug thing either, Yeah, I love it.

It's not it's fine.

It's gross enough for me to be upset.

So, but how do you think he how do you think it went with him?

I get frustrated and quit within.

I think the safe that yeah, that he got lost and hated it.

Oh, I want to be surprised, and he just showed you up and made you look like an absolute wimp.

Well, so he I started playing, He's like, give me the controller, and yeah, it's kind of like a little bit of everything.

He got to that first boss and he was just like what is this?

Like why is this hard?

Uh?

You know, this kid's used to Astrobot.

He's like Astrobots.

You know.

He's like, that's a game where I could play with you know, my my eyes closed.

And I'm like, yeah, it turns out there's a lot of games that are hard, and this is your first hard game.

You're gonna have to like have trouble with the first jump and Cuphead as well.

Yeah, Cupet.

He just likes the brand.

I know you're a controversy with that game.

But so he he was pissed.

He the boss killed him five times.

He's like, this is bad.

He actually went in his room.

He goes I don't like this game.

It's a He's like, you know what, it's a bad game.

Dad.

Did you scream the skill issue at him?

I said, so, I'm not, guys, I'm not joking.

I'm probably airing too much of the laundry here.

Like fifteen minutes went by, right.

He comes back in and he's like, I'm sorry I acted that way, and I get it, I understated Gaer moment.

Is that his first heated, his.

First his first age.

Yeah, it was beautiful.

It happens when any any child turns down.

It was yeah.

And I was like, listen, you're kind of mean to me there because I was like a little laugh I was.

I was laughing.

I was trying not to, but what he was doing was so cute that he was like so frustrated.

I kind of laughed at it a little bit, and I'm like, oh, you're just being a dumb little kid.

And I think we've all been that problem.

We're like watching a friend or faimly member like struggle and we think it's funny.

Sure, whenever you guys.

Are struggling on Blake Club, I don't think there's anything funny.

So he came back and He's like, I would like to try that again, okay, And I was like all right, and he and he and he beat the boss on the first try.

Sometimes he went to his room to go watch a video.

That's what he did.

Now listen.

I don't know if this guy is making it through anymore of this game.

That was a traumatic experience, but it was growth, and I think it was like a tangible mile marker.

Give him Metroit dread or something.

Give I don't think that's a pretty hard one.

Yeah, yeah, one of the GBA Castlevania's you guys throw that out like he's just gonna play a GBA game and.

A question.

It's very modern as law, quality of life stuff.

That would be a good one if he wants the style.

I feel like the robots might be too scary for DIB though.

Yeah, but there's as.

They think I added an easy mode.

Now, yeah, it's possible.

You know, I'm going to play this in front of him more and see if I can like kind of incept him, you know.

And he was definitely looking over my shoulder when I was helping her get to sleep last night, and she like she was like super into Expedition thirty three She's like, what is going on in this game?

Totally?

She seems a little bit less into this one.

I was like, but she was also pretty sleepy.

So I'm gonna play again and see what she thinks now, kind of get her opinion on it.

Is the gimmick really just getting into French culture?

I think, of course, Yes, Jane, I thought it was cute that you thought this problem with the GBA game would be its accessibility on the switchhee, and not the fact that it looks like a GBA game.

Yeah.

Shit, played roadblocks.

I don't want to hear it.

He does not anymore.

It was fun, so maybe there's just encouraging.

He woke up the next day and was just like, you didn't.

He's like, you didn't.

You said you made your own save, right, So I was like, all right, so maybe there is some.

Light that is a rough starter.

Metro Van Oh yeah.

We threw them in the deep end, you know, the first one being Super Mario Brothers to Japan, like this is platform.

Give them ye, give them Shadow Complex.

Yeah, because it's killing killing Modern keep saying Or he he definitely saw Or at one point is much younger, So maybe.

There Metroid zero Mission its Game Boy Advance game.

But come on thinking it's going yeah.

We'll see, we'll see.

Okay, okay, I just need more kids like Metro venues back are.

Sounds like apparently apparently a lot of people do like me, only these two and they should play more of them.

Yeah, Like, I should not take this as a sign that this genre is growing.

This is just a hollow night thing, right, just a hollow night thing.

And sometimes sometimes one game standing out can be good for the genre.

Stuff like Game prisona kind of carrying turn based RPGs outside of Pokemon for kids, you know, they played Pokemon, they graduate to Persona and they're like, oh wait, I should check out more of these.

Yeah, sometimes you get for the genre.

Right collecting monsters, I collect friends.

What.

It's just like, this game is gonna sell probably thirty twenty million copies.

I'll say twenty million to be nice, and no, let's say one hundred million.

I say twenty million, and the Prince the person Lost crowns Like at one I'm just saying, like, maybe nineteen million of you should give Prince of Person.

Lost crown to try.

I think you might like it.

Would this be the highest selling Metro video.

Let's say it hits twenty mostly.

Yeah, he is the best selling Metric.

Vibe is wild to meat like the success is just so oh like it's crazy, Dan, I.

Found it fascinating the idea.

You didn't know Metroid games rarely sell one a half million.

I think it was definite.

I didn't know Metroid sold so low.

And I also didn't know Hollow Night sold so much.

Like when you told me that that this has sold more than any Metroid, that blew my mind.

I think, like for real, within the next month, the two holid Night games will have outsold Metro as a series.

Wow, Like the month.

Yeah, it's almost certainly very close.

So it's like probably they said five million, or is it.

Do we get a number for Hollo Night too, I don't know, but it's probably around number two.

Uh, the first one was fifteen million.

I guess Metroid generally is around twenty two million.

You know that's those are fuzzy numbers.

It's close.

I do think that, Like you know that the hype has been crazy with the whole situation leading up for this, but right now, I do think if you made like a mount rushmore of Metroid VANDEA games.

It would not be a crazy thing to put this on there.

You know, I'm not done with this one in particular, but just you know, Hollow Night, Like I think it's what the front runners would be, like Symphony, super Metroid, this Prince of Persia.

Prince of Persia, maybe uh Ore won the West.

Also incredibly good.

It was, It's really good.

I don't know if i'd put on the.

Level of the Opecially.

That's also one that really broke through the mainstream as well, because the way Whim sounds.

Oh wow, yeah it's Xbox too.

So yeah, But I think you're right in I think this is a you know, there's a lot of hype, and it seems to be leading up to the hype.

You know, there's all these.

Conversations with these games about difficulty and stuff like that.

There meant to be difficulty games that push up against you a lot.

That's kind of the flavor here.

Also, like interested to see people who are like giving their feedback on the difficulty because they're not this is not their game or not their franchise, not their genre, and they're like, okay, well is it supposed to be this difficult?

All right?

Like here's how I feel about that.

I want to hear more people talk about this that.

Yeah, I actually, you know, we'll get into it.

I see, there's a new story, so we'll talk about But I do think there's a difference between difficulty and accessibility when it comes to this, because like something that annoyed me when I was playing Silk Song was okay, I died to a boss fight because I don't know the pattern yet, but I go all the way back to say point, and that's something where like a lot of games, the e Metro advans will just checkpoint the boss fight.

I believe Dread did that right where you just restarted the boss fight.

That is one thing, because even you know that the walk back right that was a from Soft thing, and even the newer from Soft games don't really have very long walk backs anymore.

Yeah, Eldon Ring fixed that, So yeah, you know, like I get it's an older school part of the genre, like the older metro games do that, sure, but also those are often like right in front of it, and maybe I was missing something, boy like man that bench is many rooms away from the boss.

Sometimes I wonder if I was missing a shortcut or something.

But yes, some of the walk backs were brutal.

That I'm okay with the boss fight's being hard as long as you know super Meat boys celest it and just like keep going over and over and over again.

Yeah, Like there's not a quick like oh start you know, restart encounter or something like that from.

Mating as an option would be a great way to like, you know, make it more accessible without Tony don dif right.

Yeah, it's the same thing.

It's just you're you're omitting the thing that you've done it million times before.

Yeah, fantastic.

Any other lingering thoughts about Silk sohng before we move on board.

Game of the Year is gonna be fucking nuts this year?

Like I have like five that I have no idea what order I'm going to put in on my personal one.

Yeah, likes, okay's crazy real quick, before we get to the news, what are those five dam.

Dest stranding Bonanza Expedition thirty three Shanoby this, and like Blueprints is like I do think that's maybe going to be more in the kind of middle of the list there, Like I'll say now there, I don't think Blueprints is gonna be my Game of the Year by any rights, but it'll it'll do very well.

But yeah, those five I think are all just kind of jockeying, and I have no idea what order they're gonna.

Speaking about jockeying, y'all still need to play Umamus how you're looking for do not.

But for me personally, I think it's wild how much brain space and uh, it kind of reflects on the Bomb twelve.

Actually go vote on the Bomb twelve right now.

Donkey Kong was taking up so much of my brain space and ever since.

Uh kind of like I revisited Expedition thirty three and now with Silk Song, and I want to check out Shanoby Earnestly.

DK is just kind of like falling down my personal top two.

Interesting, I have probably like number two right now.

I love Bonanza O.

This is gonna be crazy.

I love it.

Yeah, people are gonna die more.

You need to play through all the dust stranding too.

Yes, I will make time.

You know what, Maybe you all need to play through Delta also.

Oh, I'm hearing that.

That's gonna be a weird discussion.

But I want to think.

Yeah, I've got my thoughts on that.

But yeah, anyway, Jeff Grubb, But the news Jeff Gru.

Name is Jeff gru other things on this show?

Yeah, alright, let's get into it here.

The first story is still about Silk Song.

That patch did come out to make the early game easier.

Team Cherry released first post release patch for Hollow Night Silk Song next were releasing it next week.

I guess it might be out already, I'm not sure, primarily for bug fixes, but also including some early game balance adjustments.

Yeah, I get it.

These changes will reduce the difficulty of two early bosses, more Wing and Sister Splinter, and decrease damage from a sand carver enemies.

The patch will also rebalance the in game economy by increasing rosary bead rewards from courier deliveries, relics, and Psalm cylinders, while slightly lowering bellway and bell bench prices so unlocking fast travel unlocking some of those benches will be more affordable.

Yeah.

I'm trying not to update my game because I want to get through this early part with that in the real way.

We paid for college.

Yeah again, again, it is crazy that for mine, I mean, are the I guess these aren't like huge sweeping changes, but like it is kind of nuts how quick they are they.

I bet these were conversations going on up until launch day, and they're like, let's do it, let's see it, we'll get the feedback and we'll make adjustments.

Ready to do it.

And I'm sure there's plenty of data that tells exact I bet.

They're getting a lot of feedback.

I mean, you know, the patch is mostly bug fixes and these are you know, it's not really a ton of this kind of difficulty stuff.

I do think the economic rebouncing is interesting.

Yeah, that coonomy is pretty it's it's pretty stingy.

You don't get a lot of those rosaries and if you have like one unlucky thing where you were holding a bunch of them that died and lost them, it just can't happen.

It's like, oh man, it was really hard getting that many of them.

Later in the game, coming by them is not nearly as difficult, I think.

Hold, I guess I've never thought about this.

And forgive me if this is covered in the the original Hollynight, who are the bugs praying to?

There's gods and Jesus, since it's.

We don't necessarily know Jesus unless you beat the games.

They're going up to the chapel or whatever the citadel, and I don't think we know exactly what's going on in the city.

I can tell you it was almost certainly that it will not be the Catholic God or Jesus.

We're all the agnostic bugs that where are those bugs?

I think you're playing?

Is you are playing?

Wait?

You're a bug?

That's a bug?

Yeah, Jason, Yeah, stylized bugs.

Your name's hornet.

Oh with the with the needle.

I thought it was just like a very tiny seamstress person.

I don't know, it's all bugs.

They're cute that they're bugs, and I think they're good bugs.

They're cute, they're not gross bugs.

It's fine.

We haven't had a good bug game since bugged them finally.

Uh.

You know, it's kind of ironic.

This is the kind of thing that I think early access is good for, because this is definitely the kind of thing that Hades too has had a lot of feedback for, and they've been able to adjust things and actually think, I guess we'll get to jazz second here to blow up.

I think it's a bit of a bummer to actually this is why things like easy modes are good as options or like even burying the options mens accessibility options like look Ninja Guy and Rage Bound a game that's reviving a series, No for anys Hard has health sliders and damage sliders, and that's your easy mode.

You can adjust that.

I think it would be good if the game had if Silk Song had more of that, so that way they don't have to do something like this where they just patch everyone's games and some manly people are like, Okay, well do I not update?

Do I like, I'm g og saw download the offline version because some of y'all are really enjoying that more difficult experience and I don't think they should have to like overwrite that.

Yeah.

I think there's definitely a more elegant way of figuring this out, and it's Celest.

It's the way Celest does stuff, which is what you're describing there exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, like when frum softs like we can't do an easy mode, they have a slight of a leg to stand on because there's so much multiplayer stuff and it's like a, well, we can send people in some songs all single player, So yeah, I get like I would never play.

I don't know why I don't.

Put in an easy mode in or a story mode thing for people who just want to play the game that way.

Whatever.

I don't care.

I'm not going to take it as some personal insult.

Is difficulty and accessibility thing?

Yeah, well, I mean, like I think what we're saying is like instead of an easy mode, the way Celeste does it is it doesn't have an easy mode.

It has so you get that double jump you have, We'll give you a triple jump, George quadriple jump or in quad jump.

It's like, yeah, Mario, Like Nintendo did that a lot for a while, like the weu Era where it's like, oh, you died a bunchiers, like the Magic Wing that shows up a level that's almost a pandering way too.

I think, yeah, I know, like fighting games, you know, some on my perspective on it will even have like in offline only modes, especially training mode.

I believe Tech and Aid has this where you just adjust game speed, like you're not understanding how to string stuff together to land combos, just turn the speed down while you're playing offline and learning this stuff, and then you can go into online matches and actually like try to do a little bit faster and I think not everything needs to be as in depth as that.

Sometimes it can just be an easy mode where yeah, we just knocked every you know, everyone's health down fifty percent, your damage off fifty percent, and that's what they do.

Just you know, having something like that is good.

Yeah, because I asked that question with the with the dance with the answer I wanted was like, yes, right, it is inaccessibility.

Yeah, it would be so easy for them to make an easy mode that was just damage values, right, you take, you take less damage and deal more damage there, and.

Then that's kind of like what the change that they made here is one of the things that the bosses were doing early on is a double damage.

So taking one pit of damage, sure it was doing double and people were like, holy shit, I wasn't expecting that.

And that's like, now my guy's melting and I'm getting hit by that.

So I'm gonna go install this mod that gets rid of that and a lot that's one of the most popular mods now, it's just the game.

I like how Death Stranding two does this where you are having trouble with a boss, you just go to the menu, like, no, I'm gonna pretend that I beat that Crab Souls like game.

You're just shut Yeah.

You pointed a gun.

Sure, But what I was trying to say earlier, when Sean, when you bring up early access in Hades, Dan, I know that you tend to avoid a game until it is fully out out Holy Ship.

Guys, can't wait for you all to check out Hades too.

That gave.

Ye you talk about game of the Year, Dan, you're going to come out this year schedule?

Honestly, honestly, I won't be surprised if it's at this Nintendo Direct this week.

Yo.

It's really happening, the.

Progress they made with that game, Holy fucking Ship.

Okay this year?

Ye.

Did they have a date?

No, but I think we make it the date.

But like.

Especially drop, so maybe.

It could very easily be like you were playing Silk Song into Hades too.

Maybe second indie game has hit the switch to.

Everybody else is still lays there in the game by another month.

Now, that's wild, that's say that is exciting.

All right, Well, we'll see what happens with that.

I think, you know, the conversation will be ongoing and the common thing will be, you know, this is the game intended by the developer.

But they just made changes to their own difficulties, so we know that's something that can change and they'll be won in that feedback.

And they want their game to be a have a certain feeling to it, and that's hard to dial that stuff in.

I bet there will be more of these adjustments going forward.

PlayStation six is that a number?

Is that a name?

You?

Doys want to hear you.

I'm excited to hear PlayStation six.

I am.

I'm ready.

I love hearing crazy shit all the time.

It's like it's like I both want to hear it because the Polation five is underwhelming, and don't want to hear it because the PlayStation five is underwhelming.

Dan, are you serious?

You're like ready for it?

You said, I just like getting new stuff.

And one with the you're the only one with the PlayStation five Pro and you're like, oh now I'm ready for PlayStation.

Yeah.

I just like new stuff.

I mean that is the only thing that is like this tangible advantage that like physical consoles possess the new shiny toy and the feeling.

Could be real.

Yeah, all that matters.

It's fantasy.

It's it's it's right.

It's just fantasy.

It's just a vibe that it's.

A lot of it.

You're right, a lot of its packaging, right, Like we want the O S, the UI to feel different because then that makes it feel like it's new.

Who cares if it's better or worse different?

Yeah, that's what with the switch to was like, yeah, this U I should be different.

So I feel like it's more.

Of that too.

It's just like, yeah, this is all this all works well, but it's like.

It's a mental thing and it's like they could make it worse, but if they made it different, we would be like, Okay, well I see where the work went into this, and it's so silly.

But this is going to feel like a smaller jump than the PS five Though ps PS five is a good system, S X is just going to be accentia of that.

PS four was not a good system so far felt like a huge and I.

Think I think it's even more like fundamental to their strategy this time, that it will feel like less of a jump, because why would they want it to feel like more of a jump, so they have to spend more money on video games to take even longer to produce.

I think this is this next generation will very much be set up around the idea of let's sell most people a PS five.

Again, we don't have to call it.

A PS five.

It'll be called PS six S and it'll be cheaper, but not that cheap.

There'll be five hundred dollars, but it's going to play all the bullshit that they want.

And then we'll have a higher one for all of our freaks who spend all the money on all our stuff no matter what.

That'll be there too, and but we're going to focus on the one that's more like a PS five because we expect the PS five to stick around for another ten years.

That's the strategy.

We've hit the boy oft dimishing returns, where the next console is going to have better rate racing.

You know, I mentioned that's a weaker point of the current systems.

They're just going to get better at doing that and up scaling and everything stuff.

It's going to backslide kind of.

I think, Kim, like a lot of psfis pro stuff is going to be in the P six by default, and that'll be cool.

But man, tell you what, this comes out twenty twenty seven, two years.

That's a generation right there, folks, that's seven years.

It doesn't feel like it.

That's why I think it's all about like it's similar to phones, where now it's just like the feature, like, what's the feature that you can only get?

Yeah, it's going to be the game camera is on these things, right, so they just can't talk about many megapixels or literally.

Apples going on right now?

Yeah, right now, And I'm gonna buy one and.

Something button or whatever that does something random.

They got rid of the buttons.

What are you saying.

Now now they're back.

You missed the buttons.

They're back.

Now they're got to get because those but were ship actually.

Phones now small phones, good phone.

Still expect the big.

Big flash you cowards there.

I'll buy your PlayStation six if you get me disk drive.

Jeff, thank you.

Yes.

So this PlayStation six is planned to have a detachable disk drive.

It sounds like it might even use the PlayStation five detachable disc drive at the very least.

It's gonna have its own.

But why wouldn't it just be the same thing Because there's not new optical media, which is I think kind of a sign of Okay, when this thing does come out, it's not Sony trying to sell.

Us yet a new version of the Blu Ray.

It is still that old version of the of the you know, Blu Ray four K or what however they phrase it.

But they will continue to sell you that because they think they see that there is enough of the audience and still wants physical They don't want to leave that out.

But the fact that they did set this up at the back half of this generation of we're not going to include the drive.

It'll be a separate thing you can attach, maybe you could plug it in.

Maybe it does become part of the system, but it will be a separate purchase.

We're not trying to focus on that.

We're focused on digital that they have primed the generation to be to work that way.

They will take advantage of that by saving money and charging more for digital games.

So yeah, not too surprised by that.

But I don't know when you guys get your PS six, are you gonna get one with the dis drive.

I guess we just do it to be safe.

I do.

I do a lot of like, you know, four K Blu Rays and stuff like that.

I will, yeah, I saw, usually my PS five is what I use as my Blu Ray player anyway.

Right, I saw my PS four games, you know, some that are still PS four exclusive, and so i'll i'll want the option for discrive at least to play those, even if I am buying games digitally or getting codes or whatever.

Yeah, I see myself.

You know, I just keep buying, buying more and more of my games digitally, especially for like these consoles.

I've you know, resigned myself the fact that I'm never going to have some impressive Xbox Series X or Polay Station five physical library, right And you know, as long as they gave me the option, I am probably gonna take it just to be safe.

But I don't expect that option to be around forever.

I don't want to fine the reporter here.

I did say that the PS five detachable disk drive met all of Sony's internal expectations and surpassed them, so the thing was selling.

So I think this strategy is working as far as Sony is concerned.

Speaking of Sony and their consoles, the PS five Digital Edition is going to get kind of a quiet downgrade in Europe.

They are going to bring it from one terabyte of internal SSD storage down to eight hundred and twenty five gigabytes, which is around what the PlayStation five launched with originally, and as that is the exact launch people were saying eight sixty five, I thought it was a twenty five, thank you.

So they are going back to the launch storage solution, so about six hundred ish gigabytes of free space in there.

This is very much about shrink flation.

It's about reducing costs so they don't have to raise the price yet.

Again, why storage especially is expensive, There's a million reasons for that.

But yeah, they are using the more expensive MVME GIN for you know, Gin for SSDs.

Those could be expensive, but one terabyt you would figure it by now they'd be able to make that work.

I guess not.

It's the proprietary tech they're using this.

They're not just using an off the shelf drive.

They are using their own, very specific stuff that makes the Interel stores the fastest SSD you can get in any console.

And what's I didn't follow this super closely, but I did hear that apparently when they went to eight twenty five up to one terabyte, they did so just by like adding a chip or two storage And which is weird because, like I thought, eight twenty five existed because they need some mathematical.

If like fit into the number of PCI E lanes yes connected with the CPU, not to get two in the weeds.

But like Mark Serny is like, this is perfectly divisible if it's in there.

So when they went up to one terabyte, the understanding was maybe they had to add another controller chip in there to handle that and make it work fewer PCI lanes.

Seemingly they're just taking out what they previously add to give consoles one terabyte, which is how they're going to save costs.

Yep.

I have a question for the group here, how often in a console's life cycle does it seem like it becomes more expensive and the initial good parts are taken out.

So more expensive is never?

We have gotten worst versions of consoles before three Backwards compatibility Genesis three like a lot of like older like the we that took out the Canadian Wei, the Red one took out Wi Fi and stuff like that.

Is a good phrase, even just the regular we got backwards compability to So this does happen.

Yeah, but all those situations just somehow still feel different for this where it's like PS five is still the console and like people are supposed to still be buying this thing.

Uh, and you know when you do a revision, that's worse.

Usually you do a full revision and you like make it even slimmer, and you use a lot of cheap components.

This just feels like trying to continue to make this thing work when it should be breaking in the cash because.

It should be cheaper to produce than ever.

That's just not happening though.

So I think it feels differently because it's not like, you know, they would never do this so it would be insane.

But just for example, if they drop PS four backwards compatibility and they're like, yeah, but now it's the PS five Super slim, it's like one hundred dollars cheaper.

It's not that it's the exact same console with everything's just a little bit worse as time goes on, and then it's going up in price.

It just feels like a kickling teeth to like, hey, you didn't get PS five yet you're getting a worse deal.

No, right, and that's uh.

That will also play unto their favor with the PS six.

Right when the PS six launches, you're one of the most common things you're going to hear is you should get it now because it's going to get more reports.

Okay, so so bad, feels so bad.

Yep, and it's but it's going to work for them at least with that audience that shows up in the first year or two of a console.

Will I even have a game to play on a PS six Watch Part two Faster eight game?

Maybe?

Now, all right, let's keep going here.

Nintendo's latest Switch Online news could have just confirmed a leak.

Basically, they are what was the game that they're adding here?

For sixty Future sixty Yeah, I was thinking a Trespasser because girls and tattoos and stuff like that.

Yeah, but for sac and sixty four.

That was part of an image that was in a Nintendo Update video on YouTube about Nintendo Switch Online, and people were seeing a blurry image of game boxes and one of those games was for Sake and sixty four.

There was a bunch of other games in there, including Donkey Kong sixty four, Glover Super Smash bro Bros.

Uh Scars, and then for Saken sixty four.

So now that Forsaken is confirmed, people are thinking, hey, all those other ones are going to happen.

Yeah, and I think that is probably correct.

I love to seeing the like internet sleuthing going on with it because it's like, yeah, this sometimes it seems like a stretch.

This one.

It's like I've seen these boxes a lot, and it looks like those boxes.

Yeah, the only like possible thing could have been like, oh they were those games were just in there for Nintendo testing place and they are real.

But otherwise it's they're gonna happen because they Why would they do the work of putting that stuff in there unless they were intending to release those things would be one thing.

I was like, oh, Monkey Kong sixty four is real.

It's like, well, that doesn't mean all these are.

But the fact that we got for sake in sixty four, which is one of the weirder ones in there, it's like.

Wow, we got that one, right.

I never heard of Forsaken?

Yeah?

Did you?

No one play everyone knows the box art?

Yeah?

You ever played Descent back in the day.

I like it's basically it's like, uh, it's like Quake, but with three sixty degrees of movement you fly.

It's like that, Oh okay, somebody Chad saying it's the Kate Winsley game.

I think everyone thought that she really looked like.

Yeah, I like, Mike going, did you play Descent back in the day when you were three years old?

I mean people were talking about the Scent for decades, right, we were talking.

About much back then, Michael.

Yeah, it is definitely like a sixty four, like all time rental game for me.

Yes, that's when I.

Really there's gonna be multiplayer in this.

We should we should check out for Saken sixty for sure.

Hell yeah, all right.

Sega is Tokyo Game Show lineup teases four mystery titles.

Sega plans to exhibit four mystery titles in Tokyo Game Show in addition to games like Sonic Racing, Cross Worlds, A Virtual Fighter five Revo, Persona three Reload, and Persona five The Phantom X.

Then they had those games and a grid with four blank slots that said, hey, there will be four other games.

I think it's safe to assume there probably will be other RGG stuff, whether that's Project Century, which I forget what it's called now, or the Stranger is wait, no, that's a that's a Will had Gate.

Is it stranger than fiction?

Okay?

Maybe?

Either way?

I don't know what are you guys hoping for what do you expecting.

It?

Strange wasn't there like a leak or there was like an initiative that Sega was like, hey, we want to bring back these games.

And Crazy tax he was one of those.

Yeah, super Game the first, the first one of those.

Yes, Crazy Taxi DoD they say like jet.

Rynd Radio and Crazy Taxi is supposed to be like really big found out one off.

It's Victor Man, I remember Possible they did this.

It was like two Game Awards ago.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like a montage like wait what crazy There was a bunch of those we still do something Golden Acts.

There was another Streets of Rage that was actually a part of that.

So yeah, there are more.

I bet we're gonna at least hear from one or two of those, especially now it seems like Shanoby's doing well.

I assume, right, it's a good start to that whole thing.

Yeah, we know Virtue Fighter is going to be one of them, the new one.

But they're also doing Is this separate from the RGG like direct thing that they announced.

Yeah, this is this would just be their presence at Tokyo Game Show.

Although I bet RGG stuff will blend into this.

Yeah.

So maybe it is like Stranger than Heaven and Virtual Fighter and and maybe it is one of those unannounced sorry, one of those announced retro revivals.

What about Persona for remake?

Have we gotten that confirmed?

I can't.

Show that the revival.

Yeah, that one leaked a bunch of times, so I can't remember.

Okay, revealed.

I don't think we're going to see anything more of that yet.

Yeah, okay, yeah, maybe Echo Echo the Dolphins back.

Yeah, I think independent of the second stuff.

That guy said something about bringing Echo pack.

I can't remember, Yes he did.

I don't believe it.

No, that was definitely like just what old men say sometimes.

I remembering off about Echo the Real Quick, the announced classic revival from Sega.

It is crazy Taxi jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Shanobi, Art of Vengeance, and Streets of Rage.

There were some other ones rumored.

Was one of the rumored one for a little bit, right, that's not really part of this initiative, per se Yeah, it feels a little bit different.

It feels like he's like another playing game.

Yeah, all right, let's see here, we have a story to tell, says Machine Games about Wolfenstein and with the idea of they need to finish the trilogy.

That's according to Machine Games studio head Jerk Gustavsen, who has stated that the developer is not finished with the Wolfenstein story and they did one at least at one point, intend to make a third entry in the series.

He made it sound very open ended and made it sound like it's something they plan to get back to.

But I don't know if there's like hard concrete plans.

But he's like, it was always meant to be a trilogy and we want to finish that now.

I'm a huge fan of these games.

I hope they can get back.

I had accepted the fate that they weren't going to.

This has renewed my hope.

But is this does is this another thing developers just say when now they don't really know if they're going.

To do it.

I was assumed they would be a trilogy, because they would they were going to do Mecca Hit.

They were going to do Mecca Hit.

They happ you kill him and to him piece himself.

He knew there was a Hitler.

He's like clearly like sick and like an old man and like and and there's all these people like yes men around him and stuff like that, and it's really embarrassing.

And I think, like there's something like Ronald Reagan calls him or something.

I don't know, it's weird, but it's like it's clearly like he's dying, so they're gonna have to put him in the next suit and keep him alive for the third game so you can fuck him up then.

And I was like, just so meeting that so bad And listen, I love Indiana Jones.

I hope they go back to Wolfenstein and.

Get I like Indiana Jones.

I love Wolfenstein exactly.

Yes, right, so that's that whole scene was, yeah, you're on Venus or something.

Kiss isn't a bucket?

And then Ronald Reagan just as an actor comes in then Hitler suits him.

Yeah, it was pretty cool.

Is just an all times, and it came right when I needed the most.

What a game game?

Maybe the devs are realizing, oh oh, we didn't get it through people's heads that Nazis are bad.

We gotta make another one to just cement that Nazis are bad.

Yep.

And I mean god, I think coming off of Indiana Jones and having a chance to get a break, letting people miss the series.

I am flipping back over to like, I believe this can happen, and I'm almost at a point where I think it will happen.

Sure, I hope it does.

I mean, it seems like India Joe said, well, but it's not like, get that next sequel out here immediately.

Well, I think it's probably get the next Seagull out there immediately.

Well, but not like, let's greenlight the next two games.

Well like that's I think they were helping for that, and they're like, well, we're definitely going to do another one of these, but I don't know if I don't know if it's the very next thing, but I expect it to be still and then they do Wolfenstein after that.

Maybe all right, last couple of stories.

We're making great progress, says the director of Final Fantasy seven remake Part three and Kingdom Hearts Flor.

That's Tetsia Nimura.

Uh, should you're laughing?

Should I believe him?

What you don't believe about?

I don't believe lies?

Uh?

I believe them.

I mean I believe, but they're making maybe great progresses a lot, but I bet they're making Proggy's backwards.

He said, Final Fantasy seven Remake, Part three.

We don't know what the name is going to be, Revival whatever is, whatever it is.

He says they do have a date though, locked in for when they're going to talk about that game next.

Is that probably the Game Awards.

I'm trying to think maybe a little early, so it might be a little really still, it's only three months away.

Yeah, yeah, I mean they could have a tease.

They could.

Yeah, you're right, they could.

I wouldn't necessarily expect it wouldn't be like some absurd thing.

But do you guys think that game's not coming out next year?

No?

No, I think it's twenty seven.

I think it's gonna be another four year dev cycle, So it's gonna be twenty twenties, seven or eight, you know, depending on how long.

Right, I could see a name drop this U.

Begainning.

Yeah, that's that's what I'm thinking.

Yeah, that's I think that's what he's saying too.

It's like they'll have something along those lines revengeance.

I mean, we kind of want to hear more.

I mean maybe not when I say we, I mean always, but I think it Kenawart's four is when we hear about more again before that.

Yeah, he did not say that they have a date for that one, but he said we'll have something to say, you know, at some point soon.

So yeah, maybe it could.

It could also be super teasery stuff because we know they're just doing weird stuff with the remake trilogy now, so they could just like show some imagery of a character doing a weird thing as just like a picture, like something pre rendered and it just gets you a hype or something like that.

But yeah, I also see Chat points out that twenty twenty seven is the thirtieth anversary of f F seven.

Three years because they did build a lot of.

They would would have been able to foresee that and could have like planned ahead and make sure they were really working on that third game.

And you know, they talked so much about how the second game they were able to get out quicker than they expected because they had the whole team together and they learned a lot that could compound.

And now it's like they don't take too many ambitious.

Risks with them where they are in the story right now.

They got through most of the like open world stuff.

There's still some places we haven't seen yet, like Bu Tai that they need to go to.

But the end of the game is much more linear, so they could just like, you know, narrow and scope to get out with a quicker turnaround.

Now forget everything Final Fantasy.

Of course, I need Kingdom Hearts for I need I need Nomura to give Donald Duck an even mightier spell to further prove that he is one of the most powerful mages in the Final Fantasy universe.

Fair super Zeta Flair, Megazeta Flair.

There you go, just keep going now.

Initial trailer looked kind of interesting though, they like gave so a grappling hook or something like.

I was like, yeah, I want to see what.

Interested Let's go.

That's a real genre.

What if it comes with the keyboard about I'm still out.

What it did.

Get Super into Kingdom Hearts.

I mean, it's certainly within the realm of possibility.

He would make a good Rocksis for Halloween.

What are the outstanding Disney properties that you expect to be in the next and.

The first tea Mowana will certainly be in this one and that teaser troth though everybody thought they saw what looked like the Moon of Endor, so you know, everyone's expecting Star Wars to finally get in here, and it's they're doing Star Wars and it's like, well, do we get a Marble level as well?

Aliens?

Yeah?

Yeah, but there's been some.

Hits since Kingdom Hearts three, like you can do and on Conto level, right, that kind of thing with Coco level Coke, Yeah, I have Coco.

I think would be a big one.

Pardon me, you know, Keenum Arts two is very much like that, like what are the most recent hits?

And then you know a couple Pixar movies from back in the day and then oddly enough parts of the Caribbean three, So nothing like super weird like how Keenum Arts two did Tron back then?

And even Steamboat Willy.

I hope he gets some deep cuts this time, as I would like, what if we do pray?

What if you fight a predator with like.

Simpsons, this Family Guy, No, the Cleveland Show, the level all right, last story here.

Nintendo Direct is still expected this week.

Either Thursday or Friday are the dates to keep going around the several insiders are saying this now.

One insider is also saying that the number seven will factor in into many of the announcements saying that there are there will be three seven games.

Are Meekers now marketing people like basically for Nintendo directs?

Yes for so yeah, three seven games as in games that like relate to the number seven in some way.

I think Final Fantasy seven Integrade release date on the switch to feels like a lock.

What do you guys think the other ones?

Oh?

God, that's right, we got double a seven first light is like a switch to thing?

So yeah, how is that not one?

Be when you said something recently, grow that, I'm open it's real and the Soul caliber.

No, Soul Caliber was deconfirmed, said it's not so caliber.

Deconfirmed got the guy who was teasing this said nope, it's not Soul caliber.

It's not Soul caliber.

Or it's Attorney seven.

Okay, what about seventh Guests?

I like that one on here now, I'm thinking about seventh Guests just got remastered like twenty nineteen.

I don't think they need to do something with the seventh guessing.

What if it's seventh Heaven?

Huh?

What if?

What if we're just putting sick on the switch to right?

All right here here me I said this during the chat yesterday when you were talking about this.

All right, we have the number seven.

What happens when you turned that number seven upside down, right, because it becomes out Is it the year of Luigi again?

We're getting another year of Luigi, that's what he said year.

Hell, yeah, it's time.

It's been a while seven years of Luigi had a twelve anniversary of the Year of Luigi.

It's time, you know, because maybe Nintendo was realizing, all right, it's been some time since the name Luigi was a little bit hot in the streets.

Maybe we can recapitalize off of our our guy over here, you know.

I mean they are going to announce a Lugi's Mission four, like within the next year or two.

Yeah, we should be.

So that what was that studio's last game.

It was Strikers and that was a couple of years ago, and they did that a couple of years after Luigi's Man from three Definite.

Right away they would have known they were making a four.

So yeah, I think we hear about that next year and.

It's Charlie Day in the game.

Yeah, wild.

I think I think these seven games are kind of like the three most obvious, last least interesting ones.

It will be a seven rebirth first Light and then maybe yeah, Kuzza seven or Resident Evil seven getting a native switch to version.

Yeah, that sounds right.

I think it's I think it's Final Fantasy seven Resident Evil seven to set up the you know, the coming of all the other Resident Evil games.

You know.

I know that's got a cloud version on the one.

We don't count those.

We don't count those.

And then Dragon Quests seven remake has got enough smoke that I know that's a weird one.

I think I can't.

I see so much smoke for it.

But boy, that's a weird one to me to do, which I know.

Look, you've got your hands on your head.

Over seven is a weird game that was even the PS one era, when most jerrpg's were still just you know, twenty five thirty hours long.

That one is like one hundred hours long.

It's got this really weird structure to it.

It opens with a kind of four hour puzzle only sequence.

You know, it's it's good, but it's just such a weird one to remake.

I'm not saying it's like the Black Sheep of the series, but it's Black Sheep adjacent is the rumblings on that that is a remake, because well they remade it I think three DS already, So maybe it's That's what I'm saying, because like there was rumblings that Final Fantasy Tactics was a remake, and I wouldn't really call what's coming out a remake.

And yeah, this does have a three DS and iOS slash Android version.

I wonder if me it's like a spruced up maybe that like there's just so many more popular or dragon Quit like you know eight was also remastered for the three DS, and like I think you would rather have that one on switch to before seven.

But maybe they want to go in kind of order.

I don't know.

I mean, the this is from two months ago.

Jason Schreer implies the dragon Quest seven remake is real, just in a smaller scope.

So the Square wants to remake as many dragon Quest games as possible from modern platforms.

Doesn't mean all or any of them are going to be big ambitious revamps like Final Fantasy seven remake.

I don't think.

I mean, it's the right that's definitely the right decision here is that you do just take that through des Versure, which did iron out some of the pacing and made that four hour puzzle sequence a one hour puzzle seeks exactly.

You dis expect up res that thing up, but kind of when we have a Dragon or a badly default remastered, right.

Yeah, I mean it could be like even it could be like a complete asset asset reswap where they like all the assets are upgraded HD like modern console clause.

Oh sure, like Crisis Core did, like Crisis Core.

Exactly, and then and then some edits here are there.

But I don't know, we'll see, hopefully we do find out.

It's when does Nintendo announce a direct?

Who knows?

You know?

It is September.

We usually get a September direct.

There's no reason to think there won't be one, but we'll see.

Maybe Thursday or Friday.

If there is one, we'll talk over it.

Okay, Well, I guess small one to sneak in here.

Breaking news tiny tiny, breaking news two XKO.

Their beta invites are going out right now, so if you sign up for that, check your emails.

This is an interesting one.

Unlike the Marvel TOCM beta, they're just leaving this one up like once.

Once you have access to it, you just basically place getting early access.

In early access basically interesting.

They're only taking down for like maintenance and stuff, so you have an interesting way to do a beta.

But yeah, check your emails.

You signed up, okay, and I guess real quick gain.

Nintendo did settle a couple of lawsuits this week, but well that's barely news.

They settled out for two million dollars.

Yeah, it's exactly.

It's Tuesday for Nintendo.

They settled for two million dollars with the guy that made the MiG switch with I think if I say our four card, most people will know it.

Oh yeah, exactly, look at our four card, our four card.

But for the switch.

If you were using on your switch to good chance you could get get hit and your thing will get locked off online.

But yeah, they settled with that guy for two million.

I think he's the one that represented himself.

And then there was another lawsuit that they settled with a kind of a similar sort of thing.

But yep, that's just Nintendo doing their stuff this week.

All right, jan back over to you folks.

We're going to take another quick pricky break and we will be back with some emails, some super chats if we have them, and we'll see you on the other chat.

These are the emails or the show emails.

Bombcasts, Giant Bomb dot com is email dress.

Send your emails too.

If you want to write in about something we've said on a cross Giant Bomb programming, you have a quiz, you got some miscallaneous cues that you want to ask the crew, or if you have any some nice messages, you know I'll take them.

I love them.

I'll send them to who they are directed to.

Thank you everyone for writing in.

We've been getting a boatload of emails over the last couple of weeks, and uh that uh tickles me in a very positive way.

First email of the show comes from Joe in Michigan.

Joe writes in, I had no idea doctor's offices measured height by the half inch until Dan mentioned it on last week's Dumb Truck.

Does anybody else's doctor just guess how tall they are?

The nurse that takes height weight is always five feet tall and has written down anything from six three to six six on my chart.

Can't wait for Giant Bombs the Giant Bomb story to get tall sized merch now that they're independent.

Much love, Joe in Michigan.

I mean the first thing they do is they take that little scale measuring thing.

Yeah, right, that has the numbers on them, So no one.

Guess your weight, yes, and it's there's numbers.

Are you at a carnival understanding someone in there?

You know, I don't know, thirties to fifties, just not getting measured the hide wise, especially if that has been collected within the last five years.

That usually doesn't tend to change.

Although they still measure me everything sure without sure.

And that's and that's fine.

It's okay to to measure every year.

I would probably not complete the physical if my doctor was guessing my height, I would yeah, yeah, I'd be like, good luck collecting this cope, goodbye.

Physical on Thursday.

You guys do the yearly physicals?

Yeah, try to?

Yeah, I should try to as well.

Are very informal.

Wait, so what do you mean?

You just go to his house and he's like all right, get on the get on, tell us about he's feeling.

And his de's like, okay, well that's emotional or physically.

I get squeezed in a lot, you know, it's like something's wrong, your death.

I come on in.

And then just so your dad is like, you know it's Sunday night.

You bring over a vial of blood for your dollar work hours.

I'll just.

Now, he's got to do blood.

Work every now and then go there and be like you need to get blood work.

Go upstairs at the doctor does do blood work.

You go to the last, of course, analyze the results for he takes good care of me.

Okay, your dad squeezed me in Please maybe if he came here.

I just want your dad to squeeze me.

Everyone moved to Ohio.

Get your great medical care for the next I don't know, five years he's still practicing.

How much long you can he go threatening your father?

Oh my god?

Five four years?

So I killed my dad.

Clean read find like the catdown man.

People are going to find this podcast.

It's gonna be all right.

Stand from Tumwater, Washington.

Right.

So, did you know Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming adaptation of Thomas Pensions postmodern novel Vineland, is bringing its beloved characters to Fortnite next week?

Yes?

What?

And it looks like it's actually happening, they copied in Instagram link and there what out of left field literary or movie characters would you like to see come to Fortnite next.

Personally, I love to hit the Gritty at Tilted Towers as Phantom Threads.

Reynolds would cock say it from Tom Water Washington.

Daniel plain View would be good.

Yeah, the uncut Gems Adam Sandler character would be good.

Yeah, like legit, good dude, the little women.

Give me all of the little women.

Let me play as Joe Marsh.

I think Smashing Machine and cockfo from Catcher in the Rye right the other.

Yeah, I mean that's what I can see.

You had absolutely eventually just joined a murder Island.

Spielberg watched this movie and like was won't shut up about how amazing he thinks it is.

One bad after another from Pta.

I'm like, oh my god, I gotta see that.

Curious that's the DiCaprio one.

Right, what's that?

That's the Diprio DiCaprio.

Is this man in the flannel in this tier for this?

Okay?

Yeah, what this is?

Now?

I'm getting very excited.

Have you seen the like Venice Film Festival stuff with the Smashing Machine where it's like you want the Silver Lion like saft he did, and like everyone's saying, this is going to be the Rocks Oscar thing, and like, imagine how obnoxious the rock is going to be if he wins a fucking Oscar.

The ego situation is unbelievable right now, If that motherfucker wins an Oscar, it's gonna be incredible.

Now, I want to specify.

I think that this stuff is being made.

It made in for Fortnite creative.

It's not like, you know what, it's a license.

The kill was added inefficient, Warner Brothers did this work this warning.

I was getting a lot of stories that games me towards my my time there.

It'll be like, dude Perfect has a Level one Fortnite.

It always kind of makes it seem like official thing, but it's like, oh, well, because there's creation tools in.

That, It's like yeah, it's like the equivalent of uploading a YouTube video, like, oh, dude Perfect has put up a YouTube video because it's a community created thing.

I'm looking at an image on his Instagram post of a pregnant woman with the Warner Brothers branding ad that says this is not sponsored endorser advertised back games in that you will be able to fire guns as and also shoot in Fortnite huh where, Oh.

My god, Yeah, I have a meeting after this.

That's crazy.

I didn't do this.

This is unhinged behavior by the Warner Brothers.

The Brothers.

All right, Cameron, right sin Hello bomcast Cameron from smalltown, Minnesota.

Do you think with acclaim coming back and the recent success from the t HPS Tony Oprascada remakes that there's a big we'll bring back classics like aggressive inline or in Matt Hoffman's BMX game, thank you.

And I know they're not ks, but I refuse to believe it's spelled a claim with two c's love you.

I mean that was the joke back there.

It was like acclaim like ak gross, you know, like Kathy, Yeah, yeah, I can't wait for this fucking thing tomorrow.

We're gonna talk over it.

The Acclaim direct Jeff Jared better like if we do the Bengo for that, Jeff Jared appears better beyond the Bengo card, so so excited, like the teaser, like bringing up like NBA JAM and Mortal Combat and all these other things we can't do anything with, Like I can't wait.

I hope they try.

I loved Matt Hoffman's BMX, So I want to see them try to bring back some of these franchise to compete with the.

Modern I thought you were just saying you hope that they try in general, and I do too.

I hope they just.

Real hard.

Any other hopes and wishes for a we will talk over that.

No, I just don't even know what to expect.

I hope they just don't know it's illegal to use other people's.

It's Mortal Combat two, right, I'm just jared.

This is mine.

Now, that's a Mario game.

Do you think do you think he's going to break a guitar?

Actually?

Yes, chancey?

I think that's over on the over under.

All right.

Travis and Farago wrote in with five cues, I picked one of them.

Travis Ritz and Hello gigantisic Bomb apparently Norwegian.

What's the biggest, most glaring, grand canyon sized blind spot in your gaming experience?

Like a classic game you've never played, or even an entire genre you've never dipped your tiny little toes into.

Travis and Fargo, exhausted after a seven year old's birthday party quake.

Probably mine's metal metal gear Solitude.

Yeah, I guess it's like Doom and Quake, Yeah, yeah, the original Dooms.

Yeah.

I have barely touched the Yakuza games really, so that's when I gotta get to it.

So there's some like old PC stuff too, where like I feel bad about like original boulders Gate that were played through Planescape Torment some some things.

Like that, I got too many of the lists.

It's not even worth it.

Right, Yeah, I haven't played Geist yet, you piece of shit.

Yeah, I try everything.

It was metal Gear before a couple of years ago.

I just had never played through any of them, just straight shout all the way through and loved the series.

I mean, it's definitely dark Souls for me a bit ago, which is why I made a whole like initiative to play those on my own.

I'd say, like a lot of classic charpy.

But even then, you know, I played through Corona Trigger, I played that.

Yeah, I played like twenty plus hours of a lot of different final fantasies.

I played the first disc of several final that's good.

Yeah, you get it then, Yeah, I get it.

Yeah, Okay, moving on, Regi McFly rights in Deer Bomb Squad, can you agree on an official way to tap up a giant bomber, whether fan, secondary agent or main crew member, yours REGI McFly.

Like they're saying we need our own like two sweet situation or much.

I say, keep it simple with a fist bomb.

That's all I'm really is a safe one, right, because that's the one where like everyone will feel comfortable and you can't.

Well, I'll kiss you on the mouth, but that's not it.

We were talking about doing like the forearm thing for a second, like the yeah that guy.

Yeah, there's a lot of coordination involved in that.

I don't know.

You can you can hear this difficult spot, you know?

Yeah, all right.

Mike from Texas writes in Hello, due to the recent MTG gathering talk uh magic, the gathering talk about what color identity matches each member of the crew, I figured i'd share thoughts.

Jan is white red counters because he lifts the whole team.

Mike is blue white hug because he's having a great time and wants everyone else to be happy that he's there.

Grub is Mono green or go Big because he's always got something that will blow you away.

Jeff Jeff is Mono black, reanimate because he's never out of the fight.

Dan is blue black control because he doesn't want anyone else to play or have fun.

Mostly, you know that's not true.

What's with the mono in front of all the colors?

So you're just that color?

I'm black now?

Everyone kidding, Love you all.

Mike from Texas sit from my iPhone.

Shouts out to everyone that actually sent in their color pied definitions for the gang.

One of them that I just giggled at was Mike is white and that's just the truth.

Okay what you're trying to say that you're right, couldn't make that clear.

Let's go two more emails and super chests?

Have we got them?

High podcast Crew.

Since hitting forty, I've been making a real effort to look after myself, and I've actually been working to be healthier.

I've lost twenty kilograms about forty four pounds through a mix of ozebic exercise and a cocaine habit I know that and eating restrictions that come with invisil line.

On top of that, I'm finally getting my teeth trained after all these years.

It feels pretty great to be ticking off those grown up health boxes.

Got me thinking about how you've all been sharing your own journeys.

Backler has been out there regularly playing sports, Dans run marathons, Grub's been on weight loss kick Jan sounds like he might have cut down on smoking, and Mike well, Mike seems to be able to look at apples sometimes.

Maybe fictional video game ones at least.

So I love to hear what's the thing you're most proud of in terms of being a healthy adult?

Big, small, physical, mental?

What's your personal brag?

Cheers from Sydney Tony.

I think the thing I'm on right now is boredom.

I'm trying to be deliberately bored sometimes because I have not been bored and let me check my watch here thirty years.

Yeah, and that seems maybe not good.

So I'm trying to do nothing at all, like not even meditating.

I'm trying to do nothing and just seeing if I can handle it.

And you start immediately having thoughts you don't want to have, and I'm like, oh, that's why I don't do this.

It's a bad sign that like, yeah, when you did do stop distracting yourself for two seconds, like, wait, this doesn't feel good.

Where did you get this idea from?

That?

I?

You know, like everything like, I'm sure, I like saw like a tweet or a skiet or a YouTube short or some bullshit.

I'm like, you know, that's free, I'll try it.

That's my thing with most of these, like anything new age, I'm like, if it's free, I'll give it a shot and we'll see what happens.

And if it's bad, oh well, and if it's just if it's just the placebo effect, oh well, I'll take it.

That's well, that's a little bit of something, and if it's real, I'll keep doing it, so we'll see.

I'm very early on it.

I'm actually still trying to figure out how to do it because interesting I'm surrounded by things that I'm interested in.

Meditation is like, you know, I think I would fit in with that.

You know, no, I think meditation is non negotiable, like that is something I have to be doing these days.

So yes, but I'm trying to do this separate from that, because that feels like when those bad thoughts come, say, I acknowledge you, you can go all about your leave me, you can leave me now.

I think boredom is like what if you kept considering those things and thought about them and you were forced to confront them.

At least that's the idea I'm having right now.

We'll see, who knows if it does anything, but I'm just gonna try it for a bit.

I would say last year is definitely the marathon stuff, and this year the intention was to round the marathon, but then the injuries and stuff kind of piled up.

So now I'm just trying to kind of like treat myself right, Like I'm just kind of like walking every day.

Now I'm doing a lot of shit to try to like work out all these fucking like you know, I'm going to physical therapy and all this shit wrong with me, trying to get that fixed up.

I tried something last night that I want to keep doing because it felt so good.

I did a night shower.

Okay, well I did, I did?

Okay, so you normally I played video games every single night my entire life until I fall asleep.

That's basically what I do.

Is this about in the cold shower?

Burst out the end?

Cause I feel like you told us about no, no, no no.

We took one that Greb and I talked about how we've done that in the past or even now.

That's usually a morning thing.

So this time is like, I take a nice hot shower.

But before that, so I stopped playing video games.

At like ten last night, I went into that steam room thing grubbed, the one that I made you play Mario Win yep, And just twenty twenty five minutes being in the steam room I brought in, I got all these gimmicks for working out, all the muscle knots and stuff like that, and I just kind of like, you know, no music, no podcast, no anything, just kind of like working on the muscles and stuff there steamroom.

Then a hot shower, taking my time in there, going to bed nice clean, just you know, the hot water and all that stuff and breathing in the hot air and everything.

And then I woke up today and I felt like I had the best sleep I've ever had, nice forever.

So I'm going to start trying to do the night shower steamroom thing.

I think, all right, yeah, if it worked to work, that's awesome.

Oh great.

Yeah, similar to grub I I don't want to air too much dairy laundry.

But I've had a very interesting year personally, and I don't think I let my brain be quiet on its own for too long.

So like if I'm not on a podcast or a show with you guys, I have like a podcast where I'm listening to music, and for like the last couple of days, I will just kind of sit in the silence and just like think.

And maybe that's why I actually liked raw dogging planes.

But yeah, that has been helpful.

And also what I did or started doing, is I will pick up my telephone and call a friend and chat a second instead of texting, I'll just be like, yo, can I shoot you a call?

Real quick?

Turns out talking to people about the stuff going on in your life is very useful instead of just keeping it rattling around in your noggin.

Boy, I've had too many professional lifestyle changes recently to think much about personal ones.

I don't know.

I guess I should think about that.

Now.

What did you guys fix about me?

We didn't have any professional changes the rest of us.

This very clearly only happened to you.

Yeah.

I don't know what you guys have been up to, but it's been an interesting year.

What would you guys?

What do you guys think it should change?

Nothing?

Don't change a giant bomb mug.

Oh yeah, how change your feelings?

About mugs.

Absolutely not.

I'm always on team Meditate.

Yeah, I just I'll tell you why.

I don't think it's for me.

You are way wrong, But that's my think, that.

One.

But I don't knock it.

If you haven't tried it, isn't it.

I really don't want it's not fruit.

You don't have to do anything, and you can do it in ten minutes a day.

You know.

That's you know what Grub said about not being boor thirty years.

That's true for me.

And I'm like that that rules.

It's great.

I'm like, I used to be really proud of it, but now I'm like, can I be bored?

I don't know.

And that's those things.

Like this quieting you think about it.

I want it was waight there?

That's it.

That's what I gotta do.

But you know, I got both the cardio actually the Disrep's coming up.

I get back into Disney shape.

I gotta get walking again Disney shape.

I want to ask.

I tell you, you're on your feet so much and you're walking around like you kind of have to like start, you know, I sit down off for works.

Don't you have to leave?

I think you had a meeting, right, are you trying to.

Listen to?

I have some steroids from like some butt things, so I could just take those instead and they kind.

Of remember walk like thirty thousand steps a day at Disney.

Yep.

You know what was the question, what's a health brag?

A health brag?

Well, just what are you working on right now?

Health wise or personal?

I'm just gonna stop working so much, is what I guys, not, you know, health wise?

Liken't I play with I play hockey with kids who are nineteen and.

I could keep up and I feel good about that.

That's good, That's right good.

I definitely like, well, I've been having like long nights where I'm like working on a bunch of different stuff and I'm like, oh, I am in this chair too much.

So I've been activating the standing desk at least once a day now.

It's I'm like this, and I've been like hanging from bar as well, like I got to just strengthen these muscles because I don't I don't do something, this back is going to be fucked up.

I'm sorry.

Grant kind of just like broke a Grant NP in the twitch chat just broke my brain because he's they typed Americans love Disneyland because it's the only walkable neighborhood they'll ever it's grant.

That is a that is a Picasso comment.

That is a masterpiece.

I do like that.

It's a big part of the appeal.

Yeah, take it from someone who tries to make every neighborhood walkaball.

It does not work.

She said that there was an Instagram reel of someone being like, every neighborhood in America is walkable.

I'm going to walk to Applebee's.

It's seventeen miles away.

And the videos just like, yeah, going through highway overpasses and stuff and almost dine.

So I don't know if granted someone gift granted sub Oh my lord, that's good stuff.

Last email of the show before we get the super chats.

This comes from Shagatron.

Hi Bombardos.

I fell asleep listening to Knowledge Fight and had a dream that Dan became known as the Cuck Destroyer.

Signed Shagatron cool, that's reality.

All right, that's a lot.

I don't really understand here.

He has no reason to destroy cucks.

What's Knowledge Fight?

I don't know that.

Oh okay, folks, that does it for emails Bombcasta.

Giant bomb dot com is the email dress send your emails too.

Thank you for writing in, Mike Minaudi.

Do we have any super chats?

Yes, we got a few here from Eric Washenko to start off.

We are sick of this anti mug slander and naughty.

That's fine.

I've been sick of mugs for a long time.

We can all have a similar distinct feeling.

Giant Bond I had this morning.

I had coffe out of my Giant Bond mugg and it was delightful.

Everyone should have that joint.

We could make that happen again.

We can again.

No one else does say that merch star works.

I'm a master.

I actually definitely do.

Next up, it's from Chase Kennedy.

Lions suck butt ps packers suck to skull.

Dammit.

I think lions are great.

They're big jungle cats.

There's no nothing to do with anything else.

But none of you, none of you lost worse than the Browns.

I don't know, I guess, but the Browns had such an awful.

Loss, are pretty embarrassing.

Nine they were.

There is nothing better than the separation of emotion between you know.

Wednesday of NFL Week one, and then Monday event the best.

Yep, my fancy teams did well.

At least I'll take that same the last year from Sleepmick.

Awesome.

Now that you've beaten Riven, will you be playing a sequel where you have to discover how the bad guy hurt his lower leg.

It's called gans shin impact.

That's good.

That's good.

Like that.

Don't worry about it, Dan, it's really nice.

Yeah, don't worry about it.

And I already forgot all right, that's it, Thank you everybody.

All right, thank you everyone for the super chats.

What do we got going on for the rest of this week?

Boys?

Game?

This morning dreams, dream Cast games and a binder here we could play all sorts of.

I might buy a Dreamcast live during this stream.

We'll see cool.

Okay, probably the worst time to buy a dream Cast.

Oh like this day of the year, for sure.

Yeah.

Oh man, I have semen here.

I don't think I have my uh my microphone.

Unfortunately it first for your dad.

Come on, here's something called Soul Caliber, Crazy Taxi, Frog Frogger too.

I got the Hedge Sonic Adventure to Trial disc that's fine.

I was I was last night talking to Bank about nine nine ninety nine because she was a Dreamcast kid, and uh, I really She was like, when's the next time that's gonna happen?

And I was like, oh wait, I was like, I guess it would be March third, twenty thirty three, wouldn't it three three three three?

Oh?

Not specifically the nine, but like that because we would have had two two twenty two and nothing happened.

Somebody needs to release a console on three three thirty three.

Oh, okay, that's the three DS two.

Yeah.

Yeah, And I guess we had four four forty four, So I guess every like, yeah, ten years or so, we'll get something.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I heard like three nines in quick succession, and then I started, uh having PTSD of eating hot dogs.

This morning's popping off from Wednesday Thursday Friday.

Later today we have a Dreamcast anniversary stream, uh, and then we continue Mike's journey through Blake Club.

We're going to talk over the acclaimed stuff.

We're gonna do a GB plus he is us and then voicemail dump truck with friend of the site, Samantha Coleman.

On Thursday upf it will do Borderlands.

We'll see uh, and then maybe there will be a direct.

There is a best of Jeff Passer out on the website.

Now.

We finished Riven yesterday, go check that out.

Mike had a mega man.

He played Path of Eggs out to go check that out.

A lot of lovely fun shorts that Sewn has pudding together.

They're all great.

He's so good at them.

I need everyone to type it.

Thank you, Sean into the chats right now?

What else?

Boys?

What else?

We got.

It?

Okay?

Cool?

All right?

Put this streamcast and again that about does it for the end of the show.

We'll shoe you next week for another episode of the Giant BombCast.

He's been Jeff, He's been Jeff, he's been Sewn, he's been Mikey's but Dan, I've been dead.

And hey, thanks for listening.

I love you.

Patrick's side, that's right, Patra side.

It's on the menu, folks, watch out Papa's We'll see next week the JOT podcast good bye You're on in week Now it's our time.