FFXIV: Dawntrail Impressions, Infinity Nikki Beta, And Alan Wake 2's Night Springs DLC | GI Show

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast covering
<v Speaker 1>the video game industry. Join us each and every Thursday
<v Speaker 1>for a discussion of the latest gaming news, reviews, and
<v Speaker 1>exclusive reveals with Game Informer staff and special guests from
<v Speaker 1>around the industry. I am your host Marcus Stewart, as
<v Speaker 1>evidence by this hat, because you know, the normal host,
<v Speaker 1>Alex van Aiken always wears a hat, so I thought
<v Speaker 1>that like taking the crown because he's not here this week.
<v Speaker 1>I would. It's like it's like Digimond protagonists, like they
<v Speaker 1>always have gog goggles to let you know that they're
<v Speaker 1>the main character. It's like the same thing. If you
<v Speaker 1>wear a hat, you host the podcast works.
<v Speaker 2>One of the other people on here is also wearing
<v Speaker 2>a hat, are they most?
<v Speaker 1>Uh? I guess we'll get some bad. That voice you
<v Speaker 1>just heard you might recognize as a former game and
<v Speaker 1>former editor now at The Indian Former and also my
<v Speaker 1>former video game video Gamography co host John Carson.
<v Speaker 3>Back in the saddle. Hello, it's so good to be back.
<v Speaker 3>See all your lovely faces. It's been it's been forever.
<v Speaker 3>Glad to be here. I'm glad to talk about games.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, someone that is less new less special but still
<v Speaker 1>an all right guy, Kyle Hilliard to hear everyone.
<v Speaker 3>Less new, less special. That's that's good. That's like my
<v Speaker 3>old Aim. You know, aol instant messager, you would have
<v Speaker 3>your like status that that would be a good status
<v Speaker 3>for me.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, yeah, you can make it your Twitter bio.
<v Speaker 1>I guess that's true. Yeah, the new Aim Twitter. I
<v Speaker 1>never wear a hat on the rare occasions that I hope.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm just like, I'm just don't want to wrench
<v Speaker 1>in the whole works here. Yeah, and my my hat
<v Speaker 1>wearing rival, our lovely podcast editor Matt Storm is here.
<v Speaker 4>Hello, Hi, I'm happy to be back.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, Alex had to flee to Parts Unknown, so I'm
<v Speaker 5>I'm the subpar Alex replacement that's not hosting.
<v Speaker 4>Trying to find the ultimate warrior.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, you never know, is that where he was
<v Speaker 5>from marketing Parts Unknown?
<v Speaker 1>Yes? He Kyle's grimace because he realizes he's trapped in
<v Speaker 1>the podcast.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't even have like a lot of to
<v Speaker 3>add this week. I haven't been playing anything new, so
<v Speaker 3>it is just gonna be like a lot of me
<v Speaker 3>being like's talk about this redline story? What about the
<v Speaker 3>Wayatt six?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? We can. We can induct Kyle Is like you
<v Speaker 1>know when Sammy was the honorary Oose. He can be
<v Speaker 1>like the honorary. We'll jump them in.
<v Speaker 3>I did recently when we were doing our super replay
<v Speaker 3>with geors Mask. You were describing a wrestling thing Marcus
<v Speaker 3>and I, so I looked up RoboCop and who was it?
<v Speaker 1>Sting? That's right, I only forgot.
<v Speaker 3>About coppin Sting and I found that pretty ridiculous and
<v Speaker 3>entertaining though, so.
<v Speaker 1>That made you want to watch.
<v Speaker 3>That's my familiarity with wrestling now is Rebel Cop.
<v Speaker 4>Was that are once.
<v Speaker 1>And we're still waiting for him to come back. Hello. Everyone,
<v Speaker 1>this is a video game podcast, some might say the
<v Speaker 1>best out there, and you can help us continue making
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<v Speaker 1>watching a video version, you can see John Carson holding
<v Speaker 1>up the Haites issue that I wrote, flipping through all
<v Speaker 1>the lovely pages you could you could be just like
<v Speaker 1>him holding a physical issue of the magazine right now.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, no, no, no, no, no, we're drawing lines somewhere. We
<v Speaker 3>gotta draw lots.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah you can. You can lick the page like John
<v Speaker 1>just did too. I mean, we're not here to tell
<v Speaker 1>you what you do with the magazine. We just would
<v Speaker 1>love it if you just subscribe to it. You know,
<v Speaker 1>we're not here to run your life. So yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>a great way to support us and also a great
<v Speaker 1>way to show our parent company that we are worth
<v Speaker 1>keeping around. But yeah, we've got a very pack show today,
<v Speaker 1>a lot of cool games to talk about. The big
<v Speaker 1>release this week is Final Fantasy fourteen Dawn Trail, which
<v Speaker 1>is the brand new expansion to the IS I can
<v Speaker 1>you say that Final Fantasy fourteen is the most popular
<v Speaker 1>MMO in the world. It's up there, right, it's.
<v Speaker 4>It's up there.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know the exact numbers, but like it's it's
<v Speaker 3>one of the hottest ones out there.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe not ever, but currently.
<v Speaker 2>Currently bigger than Wow right now.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's yeah. And John, you've been playing it because
<v Speaker 1>you're reviewing it for us, so you have been steeped
<v Speaker 1>into the world of Final Fantasy fourteen. I I don't
<v Speaker 1>remember what the actual land mass is called.
<v Speaker 3>In that game.
<v Speaker 2>Limited is the source like the Yeah, there's a there's
<v Speaker 2>a few different names.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, okay, I have very limited Final Fantasy fourteen experience,
<v Speaker 1>even though as a Final Fantasy fan is something I've
<v Speaker 1>always wanted to make time for. So I'm excited to
<v Speaker 1>hear what your thoughts are so far in down Trail.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm gonna pass the baton to you, sir.
<v Speaker 2>Sure, Don Trail. It's it's an interesting expansion to dive
<v Speaker 2>into because the previous expansion, ed Walker, was the culmination
<v Speaker 2>of everything that they had been working towards since the
<v Speaker 2>original Final Fantasy fourteen release, and so they they wrapped
<v Speaker 2>up like this huge story all there, like big character
<v Speaker 2>arcs have kind of been completed, and now they're everyone's like, well,
<v Speaker 2>what's next?
<v Speaker 1>What do you? What do you do?
<v Speaker 4>Like?
<v Speaker 2>This thing is hotter than it's ever been, but also
<v Speaker 2>your big stories done. So Don Trail is kind of
<v Speaker 2>their summer vacation adventure, uh expansion and uh, your character
<v Speaker 2>the Warrior of Light and a few other characters that
<v Speaker 2>he've been traveling.
<v Speaker 4>With, are.
<v Speaker 2>They join up with this this Uh, this lady named
<v Speaker 2>uh wook Lamott, who is the daughter of this guy
<v Speaker 2>called the don Servant, who's like the king or emperor,
<v Speaker 2>like he's the ruler.
<v Speaker 4>Are we talking about wrestling again?
<v Speaker 3>Did we? You know wook Lamott might actually be this expansion.
<v Speaker 1>The expansion was called Bash of the Beast before they
<v Speaker 1>changed the.
<v Speaker 4>Name, right, yeah, they.
<v Speaker 3>That's gonna be my my subhed for this thing. So uh, basically,
<v Speaker 3>wook Lamott is vying to be the successor to the
<v Speaker 3>throne uh for her for her land in the what
<v Speaker 3>what's called the New World. That's uh, it's a place
<v Speaker 3>called Tarol. It's a big continent that no one really
<v Speaker 3>goes to.
<v Speaker 1>You.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's hard to get to you. It's people from
<v Speaker 3>that land don't really travel off of it because of
<v Speaker 3>the way that uh, like the ocean is around it.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's super shallow for a while, so they can't
<v Speaker 3>build big boats to actually traverse the seas. So there's
<v Speaker 3>not a ton of back and forth, but there's enough.
<v Speaker 3>There's enough that that gets back and forth. But we
<v Speaker 3>go to that land and we start learning about the
<v Speaker 3>the right of succession. This this contest between wook Lamott
<v Speaker 3>her two brothers and another claimant to the throne, like
<v Speaker 3>who won a martial arts tournament or something that they
<v Speaker 3>did offscreen, which is a super bummer because I wanted
<v Speaker 3>to see that. So you're you're traveling around with with
<v Speaker 3>wook Lamott and learning about the different cultures there, the
<v Speaker 3>different people and uh trying to complete these rights of
<v Speaker 3>succession to get to ascend to the throne. It's kind
<v Speaker 3>of a shown in anime. At its heart is very
<v Speaker 3>she's she's very like I love peace, but I will
<v Speaker 3>fight anyone and everyone to get it. She's always like
<v Speaker 3>fired up, She's always willing to listen. She's very compassionate,
<v Speaker 3>she's very passionate, and so like it has that that
<v Speaker 3>soul of a goku or.
<v Speaker 1>He's just gonna say it sounds like sounds like Malcolm
<v Speaker 1>X of like peace necessary.
<v Speaker 2>But but like that that's the thing, like there there
<v Speaker 2>are four different people who are vying for this throne,
<v Speaker 2>and she's very straightforward and she wants peace. She wants
<v Speaker 2>like there's already a lasting peace in the land and
<v Speaker 2>she wants to keep that. Everyone respects her father.
<v Speaker 3>But this isn't a choice, by the way, Like you're
<v Speaker 3>you're given to this. This character is like you're only avenue, right,
<v Speaker 3>Like you can't go you are put onto this path, correct. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>So you kind of meet her right before the expansion starts,
<v Speaker 3>and then you travel with her tour land.
<v Speaker 1>And so.
<v Speaker 2>One of her brothers is very like scientific minded, and
<v Speaker 2>he wants to solve everything with new technology from like
<v Speaker 2>the place that you're from, because he's he's studied there.
<v Speaker 2>He thinks that it can better his his society, but
<v Speaker 2>he doesn't really think about the people and what they
<v Speaker 2>want or what their what their traditions are.
<v Speaker 1>You have.
<v Speaker 3>Her other brother who's xerol Ja. He kind of looks
<v Speaker 3>like a covenant from from Halo. There's there's a a
<v Speaker 3>whole civilization called the Mamulja, which are like these lizard people.
<v Speaker 3>We've kind of seen them before in fourteen, but they
<v Speaker 3>are a much bigger presence in this. The dawn Servant,
<v Speaker 3>the ruler of the land, is a Mamulja, but he's
<v Speaker 3>a two headed Mulja.
<v Speaker 4>So he has.
<v Speaker 3>A a side that's more like straightforward and wants to uh.
<v Speaker 2>I guess, do things with like physical means uh. And
<v Speaker 2>then he has like a more reasoned side that is
<v Speaker 2>like more magically enhanced, and that's like a A big
<v Speaker 2>theme in the story is these special mamul jas that
<v Speaker 2>they're they're called like blessed siblings because they're they're two
<v Speaker 2>there are two people on one body, but they're like
<v Speaker 2>super powerful and they're ah they're meant to rule according
<v Speaker 2>to their their culture. So one of the one of
<v Speaker 2>the claimants is one of these blessed siblings, like a
<v Speaker 2>basically a one and one and one hundred child that
<v Speaker 2>is super powerful. He's the one who won like the
<v Speaker 2>martial arts tournament to get in you. But he wants
<v Speaker 2>to he wants to win the throne so his his
<v Speaker 2>people can rule over everyone instead of everyone being like
<v Speaker 2>in like living together in peace.
<v Speaker 3>There's a lot of politics in this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was gonna say, for what sounded like go
<v Speaker 1>hang out on a mice beach and just kick back.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's and and that's why they I think the
<v Speaker 3>producers of this of this expansion have been kind of
<v Speaker 3>upfront that they're like, yeah, it's kind of semparification, but.
<v Speaker 2>It is more adventure, like you are going out and
<v Speaker 2>exploring this new place and learning about these these these
<v Speaker 2>new people, and there's a lot of there's there's a
<v Speaker 2>lot of set dressing. There's a lot of uh story
<v Speaker 2>building or or uh like world building that that happens
<v Speaker 2>because we haven't been here before, Like there aren't a
<v Speaker 2>lot of threads that they can pull from from earlier
<v Speaker 2>expansion for these people. So I want to say, like
<v Speaker 2>the first like ten hours or so are pretty much
<v Speaker 2>just like going talking to people, Like there's not a
<v Speaker 2>lot of combat in the beginning of this, but like
<v Speaker 2>things are starting to ramp up. Where I'm at, which
<v Speaker 2>is about two thirds of the way through or so
<v Speaker 2>for the leveling process, Jesus feels like it's been like
<v Speaker 2>thirty hours or so. But but the what they're what
<v Speaker 2>they're paying off with seems cool and worth it. And
<v Speaker 2>I like what I've learned about these cultures. You you
<v Speaker 2>learn about them in in cool ways, like through how
<v Speaker 2>how you learn about any culture in the.
<v Speaker 4>World, like.
<v Speaker 3>Looking at their sculptures or visiting like their their holy sites,
<v Speaker 3>or even through their food.
<v Speaker 1>The kind of entrenched in.
<v Speaker 2>It right exactly, and they they put everything together very smartly.
<v Speaker 2>It's not the most action packed stuff at all times,
<v Speaker 2>but it's very interesting.
<v Speaker 4>It's very heartfelt.
<v Speaker 2>I think they're telling a very good story and things
<v Speaker 2>are going off the rails in a way that I
<v Speaker 2>can like super get behind. Last night, I was in
<v Speaker 2>a call with friends of the show, Jesse Fi, Telly,
<v Speaker 2>and Michael Hyam, and Jesse was like just ahead of
<v Speaker 2>where me and Michael were, and he was like popping
<v Speaker 2>off on Mike. And then like an hour later, Michael's
<v Speaker 2>popping off at the same thing. And then I got
<v Speaker 2>there an hour later and I'm popping off at the
<v Speaker 2>same thing. Like were all like, we're so back. This
<v Speaker 2>is so good. Final Fantasy fourteen is still hitting. It's
<v Speaker 2>still firing on all cylinders. It just takes a little
<v Speaker 2>bit to get there, I think for this expansion.
<v Speaker 1>God, So like my big question with this and any
<v Speaker 1>like expansion really is like my Final Fantasy fourteen experience
<v Speaker 1>pretty much boils down to playing the first two hours
<v Speaker 1>of the game on a stream with men Max and
<v Speaker 1>Sarah Pazorski and our lovely web designer John Woody, who
<v Speaker 1>are both Final Fantasy Fortunes when just like sick, Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>what He's great, So, like, can you just jump into this,
<v Speaker 1>Like what are sort of the prerequisites to start this expansion?
<v Speaker 1>So if you.
<v Speaker 2>Want to experience the whole story up until that point.
<v Speaker 2>Let's so you you lit up Final Fantasy fourteen, you
<v Speaker 2>have to go through the entire main story quest get
<v Speaker 2>to this point.
<v Speaker 1>Like that's the part that's considered a realm.
<v Speaker 4>We're born a realm.
<v Speaker 2>We're born, then Heaven's Word, then storm Blood, then Shadow Bringers,
<v Speaker 2>than end Walker, and then this. When I was catching
<v Speaker 2>up for my end Walker review back when I worked
<v Speaker 2>at GI, it took me about two months in about
<v Speaker 2>three hundred hours to catch up to end Walker.
<v Speaker 1>That sounds pretty quick, Actually.
<v Speaker 2>It was like every every e I was grinding away
<v Speaker 2>at it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. When I look at when I think about that,
<v Speaker 1>I was like, well, that's like a year minimum of
<v Speaker 1>my life.
<v Speaker 3>It feels like it's it's a lot. It's a lot,
<v Speaker 3>but like it's it's super worth it, Like it is
<v Speaker 3>still my favorite Final Fantasy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I remember hearing you say that, and it makes
<v Speaker 1>like there's there's definitely fomo as a Final Fantasy fan
<v Speaker 1>that this one is like hearing other fans say like
<v Speaker 1>this is the best like story they've ever told and
<v Speaker 1>Nasa and it's like, oh man, I want to I
<v Speaker 1>want to get in on that, but I like, I
<v Speaker 1>didn't get in on the ground floor, just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>just I just didn't. So it's like, man, is it
<v Speaker 1>there's so much. It's like intimidy. It's like starting. It's
<v Speaker 1>like the idea of starting one piece from the beginning, and.
<v Speaker 4>I will never I want to, but I will never.
<v Speaker 2>All week kind have been thinking like this is the
<v Speaker 2>one piece of video games, Like, I mean, it is
<v Speaker 2>so long, but it's so worth it, and like seeing
<v Speaker 2>every piece of it, it's so good, Like the world
<v Speaker 2>building is immaculate. It Yeah, I oh, one thing, one
<v Speaker 2>thing I didn't really mention before about this is the
<v Speaker 2>times you do like gets you enjoy combat and stuff
<v Speaker 2>like the dungeons, the trials, like the the group content
<v Speaker 2>has been really good. All the bosses have had very
<v Speaker 2>cool mechanics that really test your skills.
<v Speaker 1>Uh.
<v Speaker 2>There there have been a lot of groups that have
<v Speaker 2>been in that will die to a boss, but we'll
<v Speaker 2>all notice exactly what we need to do, and then
<v Speaker 2>on the next run we are learning something and applying
<v Speaker 2>it and and really I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>Like it it's it's.
<v Speaker 2>There's nothing that really comes out of nowhere that's not
<v Speaker 2>like unsolvable it's just if the mechanics are very clean
<v Speaker 2>and readable and and not always easy to figure out,
<v Speaker 2>but they are you are able to figure them out
<v Speaker 2>and and work around them. And I think they've they've
<v Speaker 2>been very successful and fun for all those encounters awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Have you had a chance to try the new was
<v Speaker 1>it classes like the Pictomancer?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's the piccto answer and the Vipers. I haven't yet.
<v Speaker 3>I've just been kind of trying to work through the
<v Speaker 3>main story quest. I want to once I do finish
<v Speaker 3>that up. Picctomancer is a a class that uses like
<v Speaker 3>a magical brush and can paint like creatures. And I
<v Speaker 3>don't know all the details, but they use uh like
<v Speaker 3>painting magic.
<v Speaker 1>That's what a realm was. And f f oh god,
<v Speaker 1>I forgot the number that realm appears four.
<v Speaker 3>That sounds right, sounds correct, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>It's four six, one of the two. Sorry for fans
<v Speaker 1>right now. I just literally but that was that was
<v Speaker 1>what she did from that game.
<v Speaker 3>From what I remember, Okay, and then and then Viper
<v Speaker 3>is like a melee focused dual sword wielding class that
<v Speaker 3>can kind of like put the swords together like Darth
<v Speaker 3>Maul and do some cool sword stuff. I haven't played
<v Speaker 3>them yet either though, but they are a big part
<v Speaker 3>of the story.
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Also, I saw I had to look this up
<v Speaker 1>because it was bothered me Final Fantasy Oka. Yeah, it
<v Speaker 1>is like, okay, that's what my gut was telling me.
<v Speaker 4>I never got that far in six.
<v Speaker 2>Supposedly there's a lot of nine inspirations in fourteen, and I.
<v Speaker 1>Think that go on.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think the Mamulja and.
<v Speaker 3>Galul Ja Ja the don servant the ruler of the
<v Speaker 3>land is a character that was in nine.
<v Speaker 4>I think I was.
<v Speaker 3>I think I was seeing so the the inspirations aren't
<v Speaker 3>hit like hitting me over the head of the hammer,
<v Speaker 3>but it is supposed to be nine adjacent, which.
<v Speaker 1>Is like pretty cool. The main villain isn't sly vv
<v Speaker 1>somehow not yet.
<v Speaker 4>Whoa time it could could happen. You never know.
<v Speaker 5>They could add it in like a patch later on.
<v Speaker 5>I will say this Marcus uh as someone who was
<v Speaker 5>also indoctrinated into Final Fantasy fourteen a few years back
<v Speaker 5>by the aforementioned Jesseva Telly, who I think we all.
<v Speaker 4>Blame for it one one way or another.
<v Speaker 5>I've gotten through the main story quest of a realm
<v Speaker 5>reborn and then like halfway through the first expansion, and
<v Speaker 5>I did it almost completely by myself, unless like friends
<v Speaker 5>were playing new classes to play with me. You can
<v Speaker 5>treat it as a single I have a friend who's
<v Speaker 5>played the entire game single player, and so like I.
<v Speaker 4>And by the way, I.
<v Speaker 5>Do own all the expansions through and Walker, because there
<v Speaker 5>was a sale and I was like, well, I'll play
<v Speaker 5>it eventually, so like you could start it and like
<v Speaker 5>take your time and play it once a week and
<v Speaker 5>like it would take an extremely a long amount of time,
<v Speaker 5>but you could do it by yourself. You don't actually
<v Speaker 5>have to play with other people.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Actually, and I do have that version of the
<v Speaker 1>game too. That's what I I was playing when I
<v Speaker 1>when I streamed it a few years ago, was like,
<v Speaker 1>I guess whatever bundle that can like all the way
<v Speaker 1>up to in Walker because I think and Walker was
<v Speaker 1>still new at the time. So it's like I'm ready
<v Speaker 1>to go. Basically, I just have to. I just have
<v Speaker 1>to sit down and just like commit to it. I
<v Speaker 1>did like what I played.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 2>It's super fun. They have made single players stuff a
<v Speaker 2>lot easier to In the last expansion or two they
<v Speaker 2>added basically NPC characters that will go into dungeons with you,
<v Speaker 2>so you don't have to wait for random people to
<v Speaker 2>to group up with for the dungeon, and they help
<v Speaker 2>you along pretty well too in those dungeons, so like
<v Speaker 2>if you're new to mechanics, you won't have people maybe
<v Speaker 2>brating you because you're dying.
<v Speaker 1>But right, I was gonna say, like, if I were
<v Speaker 1>to play with you guys who were probably like level
<v Speaker 1>a gazillion at this point, Yeah, would that like break
<v Speaker 1>the balancing? Like, would you guys just like wipe the
<v Speaker 1>floor with everything in like the early.
<v Speaker 5>Game, you get scaled down, I believe to the dungeon
<v Speaker 5>you're teaming with, So we would be your level in
<v Speaker 5>the dungeon with you.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, it's pretty smart, yes, And then we would break
<v Speaker 3>you as your I will say, why are you joking.
<v Speaker 4>In the in the fire? Don't stand in the fire
<v Speaker 4>you joke about that.
<v Speaker 5>I was a big wild player for many, many years.
<v Speaker 5>I think I jumped off after Cataclysm, but like I
<v Speaker 5>tanked my whole way through that, And people are a
<v Speaker 5>little mean on Wow, if you don't know what you're
<v Speaker 5>doing and you come up for random dungeons like they're
<v Speaker 5>not great. But in Final Fantasy fourteen, I started as
<v Speaker 5>like a paladin and then became a dark Knight, And
<v Speaker 5>when I was tanking, I was still learning and like
<v Speaker 5>we would die or we would have to start over.
<v Speaker 5>Everyone was really nice. I told them it was my
<v Speaker 5>first tri Like they were like, oh, you're doing a
<v Speaker 5>great job. This is only your first time. Then no
<v Speaker 5>worries like well you should try this, or oh make
<v Speaker 5>sure you tank that mob, like they were so supportive.
<v Speaker 5>It was kind of really heartwarming, because you know, the
<v Speaker 5>Internet tends to be not a kind place to new
<v Speaker 5>players on the Internet.
<v Speaker 2>Sure people get that those dungeons are kind of a
<v Speaker 2>casual thing for some people too, Like they're they're working
<v Speaker 2>through the main story. You do have to do dungeons.
<v Speaker 3>It's probably not something that you're gonna be doing all
<v Speaker 3>the time for a lot of people. If they're just
<v Speaker 3>going for story, they're not going for progression or anything.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I die a lot, and every time I do, I'm
<v Speaker 3>like in the chat like so sorry, I'm an idiot.
<v Speaker 3>Please just don't don't revive me. I'm holding this team back.
<v Speaker 3>Please please don't.
<v Speaker 1>Let me die.
<v Speaker 4>It's for your best.
<v Speaker 1>There we go that it's what we call a true hero,
<v Speaker 1>Ladies and gentlemen.
<v Speaker 3>I sipped away for a few minutes, But is it
<v Speaker 3>is it good? Did we come to a conclusion there?
<v Speaker 1>I like?
<v Speaker 2>I like it so far. It's been a little bit bumpy.
<v Speaker 2>There have been some like like it starts off pretty slow,
<v Speaker 2>like there's a lot of world building that needs to
<v Speaker 2>happen to kind of get to the payoff for what
<v Speaker 2>they want to do, and I'm kind of starting to
<v Speaker 2>get to with that payoff. But like all the combat
<v Speaker 2>encounters are very are very fun, as few and far
<v Speaker 2>between as they are. But but really the back third
<v Speaker 2>of these expansions is always.
<v Speaker 4>Where like.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's always the super exciting stuff. That's the stuff
<v Speaker 2>I remember from every expansion. That's that's where everything kicks off.
<v Speaker 2>The world is on fire and and you are there
<v Speaker 2>to save it.
<v Speaker 1>And.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's It's been a solid expansion. It's not
<v Speaker 2>my favorite expansion, probably far from it, because Shadow Bringers
<v Speaker 2>and and Walker are pretty high up there for me.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm I'm enjoying it quite a bit. And we're
<v Speaker 2>starting to get to the uh, We're starting to get
<v Speaker 2>to the fun stuff and I'm looking forward to what
<v Speaker 2>that brings awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Well yeah, Final Fantasy fourteen Dawn Trail available now, I guess.
<v Speaker 1>Look keep an eye on Game Informer dot com in
<v Speaker 1>the near future for John's review. Excited see what your
<v Speaker 1>full thoughts are on it. Me too, it was very good.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of another, another game that is not out, at
<v Speaker 1>least not for everyone is Infinity Nikki Baby, It's glam
<v Speaker 1>time because I have I have been playing a beta
<v Speaker 1>of the game. The game is out now in like
<v Speaker 1>closed beta form. You have to like sign up for
<v Speaker 1>it like a couple like a month ago or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>I forget when they like open up registration for it,
<v Speaker 1>but it's people are running around in Infinity Nikki right now.
<v Speaker 1>For those that don't know, this is the if you
<v Speaker 1>watch the PlayStation State of Play in May, this is
<v Speaker 1>a good chance maybe where you saw it for the
<v Speaker 1>first time. It's the very like colorful dress up game
<v Speaker 1>with the pink haired girl in a big open world,
<v Speaker 1>and it's part of the the Nikky series of like
<v Speaker 1>mobile fashion games. I've been around, been around for a
<v Speaker 1>while in our apparently incredibly popular, especially in Asia and
<v Speaker 1>at least the I say this is someone that has
<v Speaker 1>no familiarity with the Nikki series whatsoever. But from what
<v Speaker 1>I could gather, it's pretty much like like the crutch
<v Speaker 1>of it is just collecting outfits and dressing up Nikki
<v Speaker 1>and and just making her look nice. And I think
<v Speaker 1>there's some like narrative there, but I think that's like
<v Speaker 1>the main hook is like how pretty can you make?
<v Speaker 1>Can you make Nikki pretty? Nikki?
<v Speaker 4>Well?
<v Speaker 3>I was wondering because it's like it isn't it's kind
<v Speaker 3>of an MMO, right, It's like an online kind of
<v Speaker 3>Infinity Nikki specific Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Uh yeah. Well I don't know yet, so there is
<v Speaker 1>multiplayer in the game, but like that's not active in
<v Speaker 1>the beta.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, because I was thinking, to everyone's just Nikki, right,
<v Speaker 3>because you don't. It's not like you create a character,
<v Speaker 3>do you.
<v Speaker 1>Know, you're just Nikki. You can name her whatever you want, right,
<v Speaker 1>you know? I just named her Nikki, and.
<v Speaker 3>You can change her her eye colors, and obviously you
<v Speaker 3>change her outfits constantly, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, which you can change like her hair color and style,
<v Speaker 1>so you could make her look like, I guess, a
<v Speaker 1>completely different person. But I think they're all just very
<v Speaker 1>I think it's like the barbie thing, Like how like
<v Speaker 1>they're all Barbie, but there's different barbies, you know, hi, Nikky.
<v Speaker 1>So honestly, I hope that's what it is when a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of players or anything.
<v Speaker 2>How are you getting different outfits and stuff? Do you
<v Speaker 2>just have it at your disposal? Or are there things
<v Speaker 2>that you're doing to get other So it seems to
<v Speaker 2>make her look cute.
<v Speaker 1>Oh you're doing all kinds of things, John, carefully, how
<v Speaker 1>do you address her up?
<v Speaker 4>Myself?
<v Speaker 1>So this game, so let's set the stage here, all right.
<v Speaker 1>So it's it opens with Nicky and her little buddy Momo,
<v Speaker 1>who's like the cute little furry thing that's hanging out
<v Speaker 1>with her that can talk. Like they're getting ready to
<v Speaker 1>go to a ball, and she doesn't have a dress
<v Speaker 1>and they're like in an attic, and then she opens
<v Speaker 1>a closet and there's like this beautiful like red gown
<v Speaker 1>but it comes alive and drags her into this world
<v Speaker 1>called mirror Land.
<v Speaker 3>Oh it's a hord game.
<v Speaker 1>Is that? I think it's technically an Asa kai okay,
<v Speaker 1>even though everyone there is like human and like not
<v Speaker 1>weird world altogether, I mean, is there are like weird
<v Speaker 1>monsters and stuff that she doesn't really react to is
<v Speaker 1>like this is we don't have these at home, so
<v Speaker 1>I don't. But I guess you don't really have context
<v Speaker 1>of like what her world is like, so maybe they
<v Speaker 1>have weird stuff there too. But yeah, she gets dragged
<v Speaker 1>here and then this like god like deity beckons her
<v Speaker 1>to find the miracle dresses, which apparently the dress that
<v Speaker 1>dragged her there is one of them, and she's like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>you've been chosen to go save the world somehow by
<v Speaker 1>you need to gather all the miracle outfits and that
<v Speaker 1>is gonna like reveal some sort of like like divine
<v Speaker 1>truth that will presumably save us all. And Nikki's just
<v Speaker 1>like all right, cool, and you just it's this big old,
<v Speaker 1>open world thing where it's first and foremost. I will
<v Speaker 1>say that like when this game first came on my radar,
<v Speaker 1>like maybe like a year or more ago, and former
<v Speaker 1>editor Blake Hester used to champion this game like no tomorrow.
<v Speaker 5>He loves the franchise, like he really, he's really excited
<v Speaker 5>for infiniting Nikki.
<v Speaker 4>It's wild.
<v Speaker 1>Wait does he like the actual franchise? I saw it
<v Speaker 1>was just this game.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, unless it was a bit for the handful of
<v Speaker 5>episodes he was on this show that I edited, like
<v Speaker 5>he always which.
<v Speaker 1>Is a possibility.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I think he is.
<v Speaker 1>I think he genuinely is, Okay, But yeah, he was
<v Speaker 1>like unironically pumped for this game, and like and I
<v Speaker 1>was there with him, like maybe a little less like
<v Speaker 1>on the d L, but just like, oh, just the
<v Speaker 1>idea of like a different spin on a big open
<v Speaker 1>world game. Like there's no like overt violence, like no,
<v Speaker 1>like I don't say no combat, but it's not that's
<v Speaker 1>like not the focus of the game.
<v Speaker 3>It's a it was it's a game that like you
<v Speaker 3>would see to this day even watching you play for
<v Speaker 3>a little while. The reason I was kind of interested
<v Speaker 3>in because I was like, what is this? Like what
<v Speaker 3>are you doing? Exactly? Because it just was like with
<v Speaker 3>really beautiful vistas and like beautiful outfits and dresses, and
<v Speaker 3>then it's like you kind of see her flying and
<v Speaker 3>double jumping, and I.
<v Speaker 4>Was just like, what what is this thing?
<v Speaker 1>You know? Yeah, and like all of those abilities are
<v Speaker 1>tied to her outfits. So you're going around, you're collecting outfits,
<v Speaker 1>and there's different tiers of them. The main ones are
<v Speaker 1>ability outfits. Which are the dresses that give her like
<v Speaker 1>basically superpower. So the dress that lets her float like
<v Speaker 1>Princess Peach and do a double jump like that its
<v Speaker 1>own dress. There's another dress that lets her fight or
<v Speaker 1>fire these like energy balls that are called like purification
<v Speaker 1>because the enemies are all these they're like demonically corrupted,
<v Speaker 1>and her purification ball clears them of the corruption. So
<v Speaker 1>you're not killing them, you're purifying them. Even though they
<v Speaker 1>vanished into a puff of smoke, we assume that they
<v Speaker 1>are now alive and like free of evil somewhere else.
<v Speaker 1>I guess, I don't know, but they're not dead. And
<v Speaker 1>there's also there's those are like your main abilities. Those
<v Speaker 1>are like mapped to the buttons, are the keys the bait.
<v Speaker 1>It's only mouse and keyboard, by the way, which has
<v Speaker 1>been a challenge for me as a non mouse and
<v Speaker 1>keyboard flayer. But you also have like a second class
<v Speaker 1>of specialized dresses that are only accessible via like a
<v Speaker 1>weapon wheel. So these are like for very bespoke sort
<v Speaker 1>of task, Like one is for bug catching, and there's
<v Speaker 1>one for fishing, and there's a cute one for like
<v Speaker 1>grooming animals like you just spawn and by the way
<v Speaker 1>every time you use an ability, she like instantly dwarps
<v Speaker 1>into the outfit that represents it, like the floating dress.
<v Speaker 1>When she jumps and floats, she just immediately dons a
<v Speaker 1>blue dress and her hair turns blonde, and it's like
<v Speaker 1>a whole thing.
<v Speaker 3>That's I love that, by the way, that is huge.
<v Speaker 3>I love that you're not really manually swapping outfits like that,
<v Speaker 3>Like that's just a simple thing that makes it so
<v Speaker 3>much more playable.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's just kind of like cool to see, like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>you're just cycling through outfits. If you're just going through
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of abilities in succession, it's kind of like
<v Speaker 1>a fun showcase of the different things that she can wear.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, the dog Groomer one is like or not
<v Speaker 1>even dog groom it's animal grooming where you can just
<v Speaker 1>walk up to one of the random little animals that
<v Speaker 1>are just out and about and then she'll brush them
<v Speaker 1>and then you get like a material from them, so like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I got dog fur that I need for to make dresses.
<v Speaker 1>And that's a big thing with this game is that
<v Speaker 1>you're going around collecting materials, whether it's like animal furs
<v Speaker 1>or like picking plants off the ground or fishing or
<v Speaker 1>shaking trees fruit and you're getting all this stuff to
<v Speaker 1>craft what are called sketches, and the sketches are like
<v Speaker 1>your blueprints for the outfits. So like every outfit has
<v Speaker 1>like different parts of like there's a dress, here's a
<v Speaker 1>head piece, shoe, socks, all the way down to like
<v Speaker 1>small things like a variety of like accessories and makeup,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, they each have their own sort of
<v Speaker 1>crafting requirements. And then like I said, some of them
<v Speaker 1>are just decorative and then others have like abilities tied
<v Speaker 1>to them. But regardless of what sort of class they
<v Speaker 1>fall in, you can wear any combination of anything at
<v Speaker 1>any time. So if you really like the way to
<v Speaker 1>bug catching outfit looks, you can just wear that all
<v Speaker 1>the time and not just when you use that ability,
<v Speaker 1>which is nice.
<v Speaker 4>That's cool.
<v Speaker 1>And then it's I think it's funny, Kyle. I hadn't
<v Speaker 1>thought of this till we did our ngty of it.
<v Speaker 1>But it's got a bit of like Ginchin impact and
<v Speaker 1>it's DNA and a sense of how many different sort
<v Speaker 1>of like tasks it gives you, and like this is
<v Speaker 1>a game about fulfilling a bunch of different meters. So
<v Speaker 1>like early on, you find out, like you meet a
<v Speaker 1>character who tells Nikki that she's a stylist, which in
<v Speaker 1>that world is like a special person that can create
<v Speaker 1>outfits and and find other sketches. And you join a
<v Speaker 1>stylist guild and they give you this like tablet thing
<v Speaker 1>called a pair pal and pairs in the fruit by
<v Speaker 1>the way, and it basically keeps track of like here's
<v Speaker 1>your stylist level, and that can raise based on like
<v Speaker 1>just different things like oh, you've crafted this many dresses
<v Speaker 1>or you've unlocked this amount of nodes on you have
<v Speaker 1>a skill tree that you get like items and dresses from,
<v Speaker 1>or even just like smaller like like everyday things like
<v Speaker 1>oh you picked this many flowers today. And there's like
<v Speaker 1>daily task and then there's that resets every day and
<v Speaker 1>you can only fulfill a certain number of those per day,
<v Speaker 1>so it'll give you six daily tasks, but you might
<v Speaker 1>only be allowed to do three, and then it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>you gotta come back tomorrow to do more of those
<v Speaker 1>to get see that?
<v Speaker 3>Does that does scare me a little? You know, It's
<v Speaker 3>like it's just gonna be like an obligation kind of game.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think you have to, because there's so many
<v Speaker 1>other ways to earn things beyond just like relying on
<v Speaker 1>like I can only get this from the dailies, you know,
<v Speaker 1>like because there's like a main there's a main story,
<v Speaker 1>and there's like main quest that you're getting things from,
<v Speaker 1>and then there's a bunch of side quests, like there's
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of different citizens, like the the main town
<v Speaker 1>in the intros called Flora Wish, which is beautiful, And
<v Speaker 1>this game is like a very good looking game, Like
<v Speaker 1>it is a very inviting world. It's so colorful, it's
<v Speaker 1>like really nicely detailed. The cinematic cutscenes look pretty good too,
<v Speaker 1>like it's it's fully voice acted, though it's only in
<v Speaker 1>I believe Mandarin, but an English voiceover is coming, but
<v Speaker 1>you know it's English subtitled, and like the like the
<v Speaker 1>production values are like pretty on point, like they put
<v Speaker 1>some money into this, and like the main quest, I
<v Speaker 1>have not hit the whatever is it like the limit
<v Speaker 1>of what's available in the beta. But it goes from
<v Speaker 1>like oh, you know, Nikki sort of like getting her
<v Speaker 1>feet wet, meeting characters, kind of getting like her introduction
<v Speaker 1>to how this world works to Like, now I'm doing
<v Speaker 1>a thing where like people are falling into comas for
<v Speaker 1>some reason, and we're trying to figure out why people
<v Speaker 1>are falling into comas. And then I ran into like
<v Speaker 1>a team Rocket style like bad guy group of like
<v Speaker 1>evil stylists, and we had a fashion contest and that's
<v Speaker 1>how I beat them, because like, all right, because all
<v Speaker 1>the all the dresses you find fall into different categories
<v Speaker 1>of like how would you describe it, like like style,
<v Speaker 1>a taste of like oh, this hat is considered handsome
<v Speaker 1>and then this dress is considered sexy, and so like
<v Speaker 1>everything everything you have falls into one of those. And
<v Speaker 1>to beat this this evil gang who are called the
<v Speaker 1>the Eben Scissors because they'll cut through you like fabric
<v Speaker 1>or whatever their dumb catchphrase was. They're like, oh, you
<v Speaker 1>need to you need to put on a handsome outfit,
<v Speaker 1>and it there's like a point quota you have to
<v Speaker 1>hit and if you assemble an outfit of the most
<v Speaker 1>handsome things. And he also gave me a limit on
<v Speaker 1>how many different things I could wear, so I couldn't
<v Speaker 1>just throw on everything I had, and so I just
<v Speaker 1>like filtered my very large inventory of clothing to just
<v Speaker 1>the things that were considered handsome and put on all
<v Speaker 1>this like beautiful gown ensemble and then stood in front
<v Speaker 1>of the guy I was competing with, and he had
<v Speaker 1>a pretty funny line where he's just like, oh, why
<v Speaker 1>can't I take my eyes off of it? It's so
<v Speaker 1>it's so handsome, and like I do like cause the
<v Speaker 1>game is it's it's very saccharine, like it's very sweet,
<v Speaker 1>like everything in his game is like designed to make
<v Speaker 1>you smile constantly, but it does seem to have like
<v Speaker 1>a sense of humor and like a weirdness to it
<v Speaker 1>that I appreciate it. Like I don't know if it's
<v Speaker 1>all the way there, but Kyle, you compare this to
<v Speaker 1>like My Little Pony Friendship. It's magic a bit, and
<v Speaker 1>I don't think it goes it gets all the way
<v Speaker 1>there in terms of like how genuinely funny that show
<v Speaker 1>can get and like self referential and even like sarcastic
<v Speaker 1>at times. But there are moments in the writing where
<v Speaker 1>they do show like, Okay, this isn't just about like
<v Speaker 1>let's just be very kind of like surface level like
<v Speaker 1>happy and chippering up. Be like there'll be characters where like,
<v Speaker 1>oh they this person's kind of sassy or or like
<v Speaker 1>they're right out there right hopefully more. Yeah, there are
<v Speaker 1>moments that have kind of shown like okay, maybe there's
<v Speaker 1>a bit more to the writing than just keep people happy.
<v Speaker 1>It plays nicely like jumping around and platforming, especially with
<v Speaker 1>the floaty dress, like you can climb up on rooftops,
<v Speaker 1>which you know they high collectibles up there, and a
<v Speaker 1>lot of the game is doing all these different sort
<v Speaker 1>of mini games, so like the main collectible you're finding
<v Speaker 1>are called wind stars and I it reminds me a
<v Speaker 1>lot of finding stars in like a three D Mario game,
<v Speaker 1>like a like a Mario Odyssey, where they're like all
<v Speaker 1>over the place and some of them can just be found,
<v Speaker 1>but then others have like challenges tied to them, where
<v Speaker 1>like oh, you can only get this star if you
<v Speaker 1>kill everything around or excuse me, purify everything around you.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that might be even darker.
<v Speaker 1>And or like a like a sort of like a
<v Speaker 1>chase mini game, or like oh, we're gonna put a
<v Speaker 1>line of them in front of you and you have
<v Speaker 1>limited time to try to hit all of them, and
<v Speaker 1>you're kind of scattered in different ways, so it's like
<v Speaker 1>a light platforming challenge. My favorite one so far is
<v Speaker 1>sort of this like kind of like I Spy Game
<v Speaker 1>where they kind of like put a radius around you
<v Speaker 1>and you have to find a star shaped object in
<v Speaker 1>within that space. So it can be either a picture
<v Speaker 1>of a star on like a sign, like a logo,
<v Speaker 1>or like there was like a wreath that was shaped
<v Speaker 1>like a star, so it's like just observe and see
<v Speaker 1>if you can find a star in the environment within
<v Speaker 1>this space and will give you a whim star. There's
<v Speaker 1>even like special like portals that take you to small
<v Speaker 1>challenge rooms that are at the best comparison is like
<v Speaker 1>Shrines from like Breath of the Wild or Tears of
<v Speaker 1>the Kingdom, where it's like we're gonna take you to
<v Speaker 1>the small little pocket dimension and we're gonna give you
<v Speaker 1>like a very short platforming a puzzle challenge that you
<v Speaker 1>have to get through with like I did one where
<v Speaker 1>you have to like guide a ball down a ramp
<v Speaker 1>into a little hole and but it's got like a
<v Speaker 1>gap in the middle and they put a box nearby,
<v Speaker 1>so it's like, oh, okay, you put two into the game,
<v Speaker 1>put the box there filling the gap. Now the ball
<v Speaker 1>can go like that's as simple as I've seen it
<v Speaker 1>so far. But even little things like that, you're like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 1>this is this is interesting, Like this is like you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's not, at least so far, I haven't seen anything
<v Speaker 1>that it's like broken my mind. But it's like just
<v Speaker 1>enough of a like I guess, enough resistance to where
<v Speaker 1>it's not just like easy and basic, I guess, But
<v Speaker 1>I like everything so far that I've played has just
<v Speaker 1>been so delightful, like it is like a genuinely nice
<v Speaker 1>world to occupy, and the gameplay, even though nothing has
<v Speaker 1>like challenged me, it's like it's it's like constant dopamine hits,
<v Speaker 1>which I guess is sort of like in that Ginchen format,
<v Speaker 1>like when you get like a meter fulfilled, you're like,
<v Speaker 1>hell yeah, you cash that in and you get all
<v Speaker 1>your little like money and upgrade materials, and then you
<v Speaker 1>unlock another dress and you can make Nicky look as like,
<v Speaker 1>you can make her look super regal, My Nikki looks
<v Speaker 1>pretty cool. You can make her look kind of like
<v Speaker 1>edgy if you want her to, which is kind of
<v Speaker 1>where she's at right now, Like I call it like edgy.
<v Speaker 1>Glamorous is kind of where she's at got like some
<v Speaker 1>black and red changed her hair. She kind of looks
<v Speaker 1>like a glamorous version of the main character from Kill
<v Speaker 1>the Kill.
<v Speaker 3>All right, all right, you mentioned like a scissor group
<v Speaker 3>there too, Yeah, that is. But yeah, the thing there,
<v Speaker 3>they've been vague about the free to play of it,
<v Speaker 3>all right. They haven't really hitted one way or another,
<v Speaker 3>which which is like it scares is a strong word,
<v Speaker 3>but like, if this is full free to play, like,
<v Speaker 3>if it is a Genschin Impact, I'm I'm probably not
<v Speaker 3>even gonna play, if I'm being honest, you know, But
<v Speaker 3>if if it's a premium game, I'm like way more interested.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they still have not said it. Like I've looked
<v Speaker 1>it up and they have not like confirmed what the
<v Speaker 1>sort of model of this game. Is it just a
<v Speaker 1>paid thing or is it free to play?
<v Speaker 4>Gotcha Dresses?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there has Gotcha. It's been like you just either
<v Speaker 1>earn it and it's like the skill tree tells you
<v Speaker 1>exactly what you're gonna get and just here's the materials
<v Speaker 1>they need, and there's like shopkeepers. I just sell stuff
<v Speaker 1>so you can know, like, oh this guy has this,
<v Speaker 1>I'll just buy it. But I haven't seen. There has
<v Speaker 1>not been any sort of like Roulette elements so far.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, that's cool, that's good. That actually that inspires some confidence.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, but like it for it being in beta
<v Speaker 1>and also maybe for me, this is a game that
<v Speaker 1>I questioned just like if it would if it was
<v Speaker 1>actually real, honest like saying it a year ago, like
<v Speaker 1>this looks cool. I don't know why this. I filed
<v Speaker 1>us away into games where I'll believe it where I
<v Speaker 1>see it. I think we all have the list of games,
<v Speaker 1>and like so far for it, I have no idea
<v Speaker 1>when this is actually coming out, but it's like very
<v Speaker 1>polished so far, Like I mean before, it looks nice,
<v Speaker 1>it plays well, and like even last night I was
<v Speaker 1>up later than I thought it would be. I was like,
<v Speaker 1>you know what, I think I'm done, and then I
<v Speaker 1>see something like a whim star in the distance and
<v Speaker 1>be like, you know, I think I'm gonna go get
<v Speaker 1>back because it's just it's just kind of fun to
<v Speaker 1>just like traverse this this very pretty and pleasant world.
<v Speaker 1>So honestly, I'm having fun with it. We'll see how
<v Speaker 1>far that how long that lasts if I get my
<v Speaker 1>fill of it and this beta. But like it's it's
<v Speaker 1>fun so far.
<v Speaker 3>So it's funny to hear you described that moment where
<v Speaker 3>you stayed up late last night, Marcus, because it's like
<v Speaker 3>I had the exact same I've had the exact same
<v Speaker 3>thing in elden Ring for like a week, you know,
<v Speaker 3>where it's like just the polar opposite where it's like, well,
<v Speaker 3>what is that pleasant thing in the distance, Where I'm like,
<v Speaker 3>what is that horrible monstrosity? I'm gonna go see if
<v Speaker 3>it will kill me? And it's like and it seems
<v Speaker 3>like infinity. Vicky is like like the literal opposite.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's fine. Maybe that's why I'm also enjoying it,
<v Speaker 1>having like spent so much time reviewing elden Ring, Like
<v Speaker 1>this is just the hard opposite of like everything here
<v Speaker 1>is just.
<v Speaker 4>Very nice purifying yourself.
<v Speaker 1>I am. I put on my purifying dress and it's
<v Speaker 1>all of the hardships of eld and Ring are slowly
<v Speaker 1>melting away. But I've also I think I like it
<v Speaker 1>as like a and after work, like chill pill. It's
<v Speaker 1>kind of how I appreciate it too, Like it's just
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna run around do some like simple puzzle solving,
<v Speaker 1>talk to some interesting characters and go fishing, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I can feel the stress melting away as I'm playing
<v Speaker 1>this game.
<v Speaker 2>Did you ever play the Style Savvy series at all?
<v Speaker 4>No?
<v Speaker 1>I don't think I've played anything.
<v Speaker 3>Like you should you should dress upby Yeah, you should
<v Speaker 3>if you can pick up like one of the three
<v Speaker 3>DS games Trendsetters or Fashion Forward.
<v Speaker 4>There is there a recent one of those for Switch
<v Speaker 4>or did that? Was that on my thinking of a
<v Speaker 4>different there was?
<v Speaker 3>It's like a spiritual successor. I heard middling things about
<v Speaker 3>a Fashion Dreamer, right, fashion Tream, which is not that series,
<v Speaker 3>but similar. I think it's somehow connected, but I don't
<v Speaker 3>know all the details. So but yeah, I would.
<v Speaker 2>I would try one of those three DS games, try
<v Speaker 2>Transsetters or Fashion Forward. They're they're very like kind of
<v Speaker 2>similar to where you're talking about like getting specific styles
<v Speaker 2>together for.
<v Speaker 3>Like what someone wants and you dress them up in it,
<v Speaker 3>like depending on what they what kind of vibes that
<v Speaker 3>they were looking for, and then see if you're successful
<v Speaker 3>with it. You kind of own a boutique and you
<v Speaker 3>bring in designer clothes and stuff for you to carry
<v Speaker 3>to then sell to people. It's it's a very fun
<v Speaker 3>and cute series that I would definitely recommend. If if
<v Speaker 3>Infinity Nikki it sounds good to anybody out there, I
<v Speaker 3>would check out one of the one of the.
<v Speaker 4>None of these.
<v Speaker 1>You got Matt Infinity Nikki on.
<v Speaker 5>Your radar, So, I mean I saw the trailer right,
<v Speaker 5>the last State of Play had the trailer for it.
<v Speaker 5>I mean genuinely, I had not heard of the series
<v Speaker 5>until Blake on an episode of the Game of Former
<v Speaker 5>show like lost his ish about it. But but I
<v Speaker 5>mean it looks fun and like actually hearing your report
<v Speaker 5>about how it's a palette cleanser really like interests me.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I don't know about you guys, but the
<v Speaker 5>real world is kind of bleak at the moment, and
<v Speaker 5>so anything bright and colorful. I mean this we be
<v Speaker 5>related to something I played that we'll talk about a
<v Speaker 5>little later. But like, I'm I'm starved for like really positive,
<v Speaker 5>bright colored, excited games. It's why I loved the recent
<v Speaker 5>Intendo direct because between Zelda and and Mario and Luigi Brothership,
<v Speaker 5>it's like, yes, happy games about cool things with bright colors.
<v Speaker 5>I'll take it. But it looks fun. I mean, I'm
<v Speaker 5>kind of where Kyle is like I don't.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know.
<v Speaker 5>Free to play games kind of turn me off just
<v Speaker 5>because of the gotcha of it all. I have trouble
<v Speaker 5>ignoring it and like not necessarily giving into it. But
<v Speaker 5>it just feels on the present. But if this is
<v Speaker 5>like a premium game that I can like pay a
<v Speaker 5>full price for and get the whole thing, I'd be
<v Speaker 5>definitely curious to jump in and see because it sounds
<v Speaker 5>like it's a lot of fun to play.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure, hopefully it Hopefully it continues to come together.
<v Speaker 1>I'm curious see what the feedback is from other players
<v Speaker 1>that have gotten into it. But it has a no
<v Speaker 1>release window. Still, hopefully it'll come out this year. I
<v Speaker 1>can't imagine it. It's got to be next year at
<v Speaker 1>the earliest, I would imagine. But yeah, we shall see.
<v Speaker 1>But Matt, while I've already got your talking, you have
<v Speaker 1>been playing Alan Wake Two's is it Night Springs Night?
<v Speaker 4>You'll see m hmm.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I haven't tried it yet. I haven't downloaded, I
<v Speaker 1>haven't had a chance to dive into it, but I'm
<v Speaker 1>excited to hear what you think of it.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I mean, I you know, the quick and dirty
<v Speaker 5>of it is I loved it, but I've also become
<v Speaker 5>a heavy remedy sicko over the last couple of years.
<v Speaker 5>So I played Control for the first time maybe around
<v Speaker 5>the time of the Pandemic, a couple of years after
<v Speaker 5>it came out, and fell in love with him. Then
<v Speaker 5>immediately streamed Alan Wake one afterwards, and when I realized
<v Speaker 5>that then the DLC was coming out for Control, that
<v Speaker 5>they were connected, I was like, Oh, this is one
<v Speaker 5>big world. Like as an X Files fan, I was like, Oh, weird,
<v Speaker 5>creepy stuff, all connected.
<v Speaker 4>I'm in.
<v Speaker 5>And so when al Wake two came out, and I'm
<v Speaker 5>not a huge survival horror person, I was like, uh,
<v Speaker 5>maybe it'll be too scary, and it was very scary
<v Speaker 5>for me because I'm a coward, but I still loved it.
<v Speaker 5>And so like I've just been riding the train, I
<v Speaker 5>played Max Paine one and two for the first time
<v Speaker 5>this year, like I'm just really all in on remedy
<v Speaker 5>and so when I knew we were getting DLC, and
<v Speaker 5>not only DLC, but DLC based on the Night Springs thing.
<v Speaker 5>For those who don't know, within the world of Allen Wake,
<v Speaker 5>night Springs is this like homage to the Twilight Zone. Essentially,
<v Speaker 5>it's these short, little five minute things about a story
<v Speaker 5>in a small town, and they actually show up on
<v Speaker 5>the TVs in both games and you can just kind
<v Speaker 5>of stand there and watch them, and they're usually pretty entertaining,
<v Speaker 5>and so this was like kind of building from that.
<v Speaker 5>Mister Dore, who is the host in the Dark Place,
<v Speaker 5>is hosting three episodes of Night Springs. One based around Rose,
<v Speaker 5>who is the Alan Wake superfan who works in the
<v Speaker 5>diner in the first and second game. The second story
<v Speaker 5>is about Jesse Fayden. It's a prequel story about her
<v Speaker 5>looking for her brother. I don't want to say too
<v Speaker 5>much more than that, and then the third story is
<v Speaker 5>about Sheriff Breaker sort of tim Breaker. Again, not wanting
<v Speaker 5>to spoil it, but what I will say is they
<v Speaker 5>were great. They were about forty five minutes to an
<v Speaker 5>hour apiece, like kind of perfect bite sized things. I
<v Speaker 5>kind of wanted a little more, but I know that
<v Speaker 5>we're also getting the Lake House.
<v Speaker 4>I think this fall.
<v Speaker 5>Is when it's supposed to come out, and so that
<v Speaker 5>is also supposed to be like a bigger chunk of
<v Speaker 5>the main narrative. But I love them. They were great.
<v Speaker 5>They're all very different what I loved about Rose's story
<v Speaker 5>is so you're playing as this obsessed fan of Alan
<v Speaker 5>Wake who has to come to his rescue, and it's
<v Speaker 5>kind of like the delusions of a superfan, and so
<v Speaker 5>it's very B movie cheesy, evil dead kind of like
<v Speaker 5>storytelling that I really loved. And then the Jesse Fadden one,
<v Speaker 5>like I said, is a prequel. It's before control, she
<v Speaker 5>doesn't have her powers, she's looking for her brother, and
<v Speaker 5>that one was really more on the creepy side and
<v Speaker 5>more in line with Alan Wake. Two is based kind
<v Speaker 5>of creepiness, and then the third one, the tim Breaker story,
<v Speaker 5>is just bonkers, Like I don't know what else to say,
<v Speaker 5>you know how, I like in every Remedy game there's
<v Speaker 5>a bonker's moment You're like, I can't believe Remedy did
<v Speaker 5>this and it worked. The whole tim Breaker episode is
<v Speaker 5>that like, And to reveal any of it here would
<v Speaker 5>be a huge spoiler, in the same way that nobody
<v Speaker 5>wanted to talk about Herald of Light for a while
<v Speaker 5>because it's such an important moment and I'm still hesitant
<v Speaker 5>to this third episode of the DLC is like, the
<v Speaker 5>whole thing is literally a WTF Herald of Light kind
<v Speaker 5>of moment, and so I can't recommend it enough.
<v Speaker 4>The cast is still doing order or do you can
<v Speaker 4>you like skip to one.
<v Speaker 5>Or so you can play them in any order? Okay, Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>they're they're episodic. You can play them in any order.
<v Speaker 5>They're not through the main story. There's like a separate
<v Speaker 5>DLC menu and you select each one and so you
<v Speaker 5>can play them in any order, so you could go
<v Speaker 5>to them because they're not connected to each other either.
<v Speaker 5>They all have implications to the main meta narrative of
<v Speaker 5>Alan Waken Control in really interesting ways, but none of
<v Speaker 5>them are connected to each other, so you can play
<v Speaker 5>them in any order. So yeah, I would recommend the
<v Speaker 5>tim Breaker's story first. I think it's time something. I
<v Speaker 5>don't remember what it's named off the top of my head,
<v Speaker 5>but maybe it's called time Breakers. Actually, I think I
<v Speaker 5>can double.
<v Speaker 1>Check that other it's another Quantum Break reference.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so yeah, the different chapters are called Number one,
<v Speaker 5>Fan north Star, and then Time Breaker, and yeah, they're
<v Speaker 5>all phenomenal. They all have a little like intro thing
<v Speaker 5>by mister or where he comes out the actor, the
<v Speaker 5>live action actor comes out and like sets up the
<v Speaker 5>premise of what the episode's about, and then it cuts
<v Speaker 5>to like a title screen and then pans down. It's
<v Speaker 5>very it's very very Twilight Zone and kind of the
<v Speaker 5>best way and yeah, it's a blast. And there it's
<v Speaker 5>all third person. It's mostly third person shooter with some
<v Speaker 5>other surprises. Uh and uh yeah, I especially Marcus if
<v Speaker 5>you played Alan Wake well, I know you and Kyle
<v Speaker 5>are both big Allen Wake fans. If you enjoyed Allen
<v Speaker 5>Wake two on any level, you should definitely play the DLC.
<v Speaker 5>It's absolutely worth the price of admission.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm excited for that, but also just the seeing
<v Speaker 1>that Jesse is in this game is maybe most exciting.
<v Speaker 1>As much as I do like the Allen Wake games,
<v Speaker 1>I think I'm a bigger control fan. Like I love control. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so like any new control stuff or like anything that
<v Speaker 1>could like I'm I don't want to I want to
<v Speaker 1>ask the stuff and I'm like holding my tongue like
<v Speaker 1>like anything that could that gets us closer to control too,
<v Speaker 1>And like the tiniest ways is like exciting to me.
<v Speaker 1>So that's awesome. I forget is this this isn't free DLC.
<v Speaker 4>Right, No, it's part of the if you have the
<v Speaker 4>premium versions.
<v Speaker 1>I have the premium packs. I just want it for
<v Speaker 1>other people.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so I actually didn't have the premium pack. I
<v Speaker 5>bought the base game. But you can just upgrade to
<v Speaker 5>the digital premium version for like ten bucks on on
<v Speaker 5>PS five that's what I played it on, and you
<v Speaker 5>get all the DLC including the Lakehouse. So I did
<v Speaker 5>that since I was going to want to play the
<v Speaker 5>rest of the DLC that's coming out anyway. But yeah,
<v Speaker 5>so it's not free. I don't know how much it
<v Speaker 5>is on its own off the top of my head,
<v Speaker 5>but I assume there's like a separate season pass you
<v Speaker 5>could buy if you want, or the upgrade to the
<v Speaker 5>premium is the same thing as the season pass.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not positive.
<v Speaker 2>The DLC plus add ons is currently twenty bucks at
<v Speaker 2>least on that game store. So cool, Okay, what are
<v Speaker 2>we gonna say, Kyle?
<v Speaker 3>Oh, I like I like Remedy a lot, and all
<v Speaker 3>their DLCs are always like good. Like I liked all
<v Speaker 3>the Allen Wake one DLCs. I like all the Control DLC's.
<v Speaker 3>I do want to play this. I I I came
<v Speaker 3>in like lower than most on Allen Wake two, but
<v Speaker 3>I still.
<v Speaker 1>The internet said you hated it.
<v Speaker 3>Actually, I despised that game, and I think it's a
<v Speaker 3>waste of everyone's time in general. No, I I like
<v Speaker 3>that game, and I think I think to like revisit
<v Speaker 3>it in this way, is it would be like the
<v Speaker 3>perfect I think it sounds great, Like I really do
<v Speaker 3>want to find some time for it. The guys, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>no one else in this house is going to beat
<v Speaker 3>Elden Rings DLC. So someone's got to do it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>my wife and daughter are going to do it, you know,
<v Speaker 3>and it's got to be.
<v Speaker 1>Control. Your daughter say can you beat this? And please?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah? I think she can do it. Started training early recently.
<v Speaker 3>I I we played they had the Jurassic Park collection
<v Speaker 3>that came out, and I gave her like the Genesis
<v Speaker 3>Jurassic Park game, and I was like the classic if
<v Speaker 3>you beat like the first like three or four level.
<v Speaker 3>I think I we had like a line where I
<v Speaker 3>was like, you've beat the first three levels, I'll give
<v Speaker 3>you twenty bucks, and she like she was like all right,
<v Speaker 3>she was able to do it, but she really tried.
<v Speaker 3>She can't.
<v Speaker 1>Did she beat one level? At least?
<v Speaker 3>I think she beat the first level?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that that Genesis. It is that Genesis. When I
<v Speaker 1>was a kid, there was my apartment complex I was
<v Speaker 1>living at a time at kind of like a clubhouse
<v Speaker 1>that had like uh like a Genesis and like a
<v Speaker 1>Super Nintendo setup for like kids, and like I remember
<v Speaker 1>they had that game and I would hang out there
<v Speaker 1>after school and I happened to go one day when
<v Speaker 1>it was like dark, it was a kind of stormy
<v Speaker 1>out and no one was in there but me and
<v Speaker 1>I fired up that game and I forgot like that
<v Speaker 1>that intro used to terrify meage. Oh yeah, yeah, like
<v Speaker 1>especially in that environment, like I'm gonna not like not
<v Speaker 1>my house in this dark room alone, and then that
<v Speaker 1>intro starts and I would want to like skip past it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Marcus, you and I are on the same age,
<v Speaker 3>I think, and like that. That is a sixteen bit
<v Speaker 3>game that is like seared into my memory, like playing
<v Speaker 3>in a friend's house, you know, and like that creepy. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's it totally stuck with me. Yeah the record, my
<v Speaker 3>daughter is quite good at video games. She can totally
<v Speaker 3>destroy me at Fortnite, like she's she's good. Sorry John, please,
<v Speaker 3>Oh I was gonna say, it's it's weird that you guys,
<v Speaker 3>have the Genesis one that seared into your minds when
<v Speaker 3>I had the Superintendo one?
<v Speaker 4>Interesting, Yeah, no I had, but that.
<v Speaker 5>Genesis is the one that had the Raptor and Grant,
<v Speaker 5>Right you hitch between between? Oh yeah, they're completely different games. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>is the Raptor in the in the s one? From
<v Speaker 5>what I remember, this one.
<v Speaker 3>Is like an overhead Yeah, it's like a top down
<v Speaker 3>you were exploring the park. It's like part adventure game.
<v Speaker 3>You'll go into like buildings and it'll turn it to
<v Speaker 3>first person and you're trying to find like key cards.
<v Speaker 3>And I've never played it is completely different. It's it's
<v Speaker 3>fun to get that uh that collection. I think it
<v Speaker 3>was Limited Run Games put it out recently and like
<v Speaker 3>go through all that era of Jurassic Park games. So, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I have to Superintendent. That's where I had. I would
<v Speaker 3>rent that Jurassic Park game and the Genesis was what
<v Speaker 3>I would play at friend's house, and I was like
<v Speaker 3>always like, they got the better one, they got the
<v Speaker 3>better Jurassic Park.
<v Speaker 2>No, the Superintendent one's like impossible. I could not wrap
<v Speaker 2>my tiny brain around that same.
<v Speaker 4>I still can't get.
<v Speaker 1>To this before we move on. Can I get a
<v Speaker 1>quick temperature check. Are we excited for that new Jurassic
<v Speaker 1>Is it world still moving calling it?
<v Speaker 4>I'm so out of them. They announced someone for it, right, God.
<v Speaker 1>It was someone big I forgot.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I've not watched the Jurassic World movie.
<v Speaker 4>I've I love the first two, but then I haven't
<v Speaker 4>really watched any since.
<v Speaker 1>And the first Jurassic World is fine, and then it
<v Speaker 1>kind of off a cliff. Yeah, the second one.
<v Speaker 2>Is is it turns into like Resident Evil at some point,
<v Speaker 2>but with dinosaurs.
<v Speaker 4>Dino crisis movie.
<v Speaker 1>But it's not as good as you would think.
<v Speaker 3>No, no, but also it's it's kind of weird in
<v Speaker 3>a good way.
<v Speaker 2>At the same time, it's it's not a good movie.
<v Speaker 2>I never saw Dominion.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's the one where is the old cast?
<v Speaker 1>Right? The Dominion is very bad and also very long,
<v Speaker 1>which makes it worse. It's like two and a half
<v Speaker 1>hours of crap.
<v Speaker 3>But by the way, Jurassic World War directed by Gareth Edwards, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>Godzilla and Rogue one.
<v Speaker 1>I mean they cast they cast someone, didn't they Gareth Edwards?
<v Speaker 1>Scarlett Johansson, That's what I'm thinking of. Yes, Scarlett Johansson
<v Speaker 1>was tied to it.
<v Speaker 3>Not to go too much on the side, but like
<v Speaker 3>the problem with those recent movies is like the joy
<v Speaker 3>of those first I like the second one a lot
<v Speaker 3>as well. The joy of those first movies is like
<v Speaker 3>people just in a bad situation dealing with real dinosaurs,
<v Speaker 3>and increasingly they're just becoming like superhero movies where there
<v Speaker 3>it's like and they were inventing dinosaurs. It didn't exist,
<v Speaker 3>and I was like, that's not the joy, Like.
<v Speaker 2>The the the whole lesson at the first one is
<v Speaker 2>we shouldn't have meddled with Mother Nature, and so like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>for the subsequent movies, yes, we're gonna meddle with it
<v Speaker 2>more and make them more dangerous weird.
<v Speaker 3>I just I just like the smaller scale of like
<v Speaker 3>a group of people dealing with dinosaurs, you know what
<v Speaker 3>I mean. And it's like the later movies are just
<v Speaker 3>so big. They're about like the business of the park,
<v Speaker 3>it's like, and how it's becomes like a economy. It's like, no,
<v Speaker 3>I just want to see like three people running down
<v Speaker 3>a scary hallway from raptors. Like that's let's let's let's
<v Speaker 3>focus on Bronto sours. How do you deal with a stampede? Yes?
<v Speaker 4>Exactly the spin.
<v Speaker 5>Like, I mean, I'm an fan of the books, so
<v Speaker 5>like I love the first Michael Crichton books. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 5>have a hardcover collection from Barnes and Noble of the
<v Speaker 5>first two books, which that's part of problem. Also, I
<v Speaker 5>think as they ran out of books to support these movies.
<v Speaker 4>Sure, but like I.
<v Speaker 5>Think the first movie is kind of a perfect movie.
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah, and the second one is fun. The second
<v Speaker 5>one is fun, and then yeah, the third one is awful.
<v Speaker 5>Oh my god, it was so bad. I was so upset.
<v Speaker 5>I was just old enough when that came out that
<v Speaker 5>I was like, oh, movies can be bad.
<v Speaker 1>The things I like can let me down. Well, thank
<v Speaker 1>you everyone for listening to our Jurassic part to talk.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, have to put a timestamp for that.
<v Speaker 1>We've decided that the first movie is still the best
<v Speaker 1>one believer super like the.
<v Speaker 3>Second one, though I'll plight for the second one. I
<v Speaker 3>the last fifteen minutes then I'm like, you guys are right,
<v Speaker 3>but for like, you know, like two thirds that movie
<v Speaker 3>I really like a lot.
<v Speaker 1>Honestly, at least I would say the last fifteen minutes
<v Speaker 1>are better now because Jurassic World takes that and just
<v Speaker 1>makes it takes that idea and just blows it up
<v Speaker 1>in a way where it's like, you know what, this
<v Speaker 1>is actually pretty tame. By comparison, I have been playing,
<v Speaker 1>or I started playing over the weekend, a really cool
<v Speaker 1>game I've been meaning to get to called Crip Master.
<v Speaker 4>Have you guys heard about this?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah?
<v Speaker 4>I have staked right it is.
<v Speaker 1>It's a cool like came out actually came out on
<v Speaker 1>May ninth, which was the like indiea Apocalypse day where
<v Speaker 1>like all the big celebrated in games all came out
<v Speaker 1>the same dame.
<v Speaker 2>This was like the one that slipped the game Nightmares.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is your E three.
<v Speaker 3>It was like his three Flash Past May It's like
<v Speaker 3>the three video games.
<v Speaker 1>It was like I think it was this in a
<v Speaker 1>wasn't a thousand times resist that same day?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, which I just bought in the Steam Summer Sale
<v Speaker 5>and haven't started yet.
<v Speaker 4>And I very excited for.
<v Speaker 1>Little Kitty Big City.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah the crow Country.
<v Speaker 1>I think crow Country to crow Country. Yeah, hell of
<v Speaker 1>a day, just forget it. So, yes, I I because
<v Speaker 1>of that, Like this one was like on the back burner,
<v Speaker 1>but I started playing it this weekend and it's a
<v Speaker 1>it's a first person dungeon crawler that is played where
<v Speaker 1>all like all your actions and like like not even
<v Speaker 1>just interactions, but just like physical actions are done through typing,
<v Speaker 1>so kind of like a like typing of the Dead
<v Speaker 1>style a bit where you play as a a like
<v Speaker 1>a dead person. Basically like you're in the underworld and
<v Speaker 1>the crypt Master is like this like powerful being sort
<v Speaker 1>of like hooks up with you and is like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>you know we can work together and get to the surface.
<v Speaker 1>You know we can escape together if you, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you help me out. So you wind up helping this guy,
<v Speaker 1>and you're pretty much like, oh, you're a party of adventurers.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like an RPG where you got four different
<v Speaker 1>characters and you're making your way through levels of the
<v Speaker 1>underworld to try to get to the surface, and along
<v Speaker 1>the way you're trying to regain memories of who you
<v Speaker 1>were as well as like what like your attack and
<v Speaker 1>all your different abilities for each of the party members.
<v Speaker 1>And so the way you do that is that you're
<v Speaker 1>finding these chests, and when you're opening the chest, the
<v Speaker 1>crypt Master will sort of like it'll have an item
<v Speaker 1>tied to one of the party members passed, whether it's
<v Speaker 1>like a shield or something like a piece of paper,
<v Speaker 1>or just like mundane things because you have no memory
<v Speaker 1>of anything, and then the crypt master will describe it
<v Speaker 1>for you, like you have to try to guess what
<v Speaker 1>it is because he doesn't know either, and he's like
<v Speaker 1>remembering along with you. So it's this fun little game
<v Speaker 1>where he's like, you can type basic commands like look
<v Speaker 1>or taste or smell, and then he'll do that and
<v Speaker 1>he'll be like, oh, this thing is hard like metal,
<v Speaker 1>or you know, it feels like a cross shape I guess,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, or it smells like like wet fur.
<v Speaker 1>Then you have to type in what you think it is,
<v Speaker 1>and every guest kind of fills a letter on sort
<v Speaker 1>of the available slot, so kind of like Hangman style,
<v Speaker 1>and so you can kind of be like, oh, it's
<v Speaker 1>a sword, and then like oh, okay, sword, and then
<v Speaker 1>the letters from that will be added to the blank
<v Speaker 1>sort of like letter spaces over each individual character, and
<v Speaker 1>then filling those up unlocks and ability for that character.
<v Speaker 1>So if you fill up all the spaces for like
<v Speaker 1>the warrior guy, he'll unlock the ability to hit, like
<v Speaker 1>literally just like he can hit things now, and now
<v Speaker 1>you can actually engage in combat or like the Sorceress
<v Speaker 1>she has like zap is like she can shoot lightning.
<v Speaker 1>So like you see the letters being filled out and
<v Speaker 1>then you can kind of figure out like what you
<v Speaker 1>need to unlock an attack of like Okay, I got
<v Speaker 1>A and P, what could be the first letter? Like
<v Speaker 1>what what we're tap? I don't know what would make sense,
<v Speaker 1>And like all the interactions are like that, like you're
<v Speaker 1>like when you're fighting enemies is like a first person combat.
<v Speaker 1>You're just typing in the attack that you have unlocked,
<v Speaker 1>like I have for the Warrior, I have hit and
<v Speaker 1>I have boots, and boot like knocks them down, so
<v Speaker 1>it's like, I guess slightly more powerful. One of the
<v Speaker 1>other characters, who is like a mystic, has yell because
<v Speaker 1>like all the attacks have a cool down, but using
<v Speaker 1>his yell eliminates the cool down, but it itself operates
<v Speaker 1>on the cool down. So there's like some interesting timing
<v Speaker 1>of when you can do abilities and you can attack
<v Speaker 1>like with all four of them kind of at the
<v Speaker 1>same time, and it kind of comes down to how
<v Speaker 1>fast you can type. Like if you can just like
<v Speaker 1>type out all their attacks at the same time, you
<v Speaker 1>can kind of like unleash them in succession and try
<v Speaker 1>to like knock out the enemy before they can eliminate you.
<v Speaker 1>Which all the party members have their own HP. It's
<v Speaker 1>kind of it's pretty much the letters of their names,
<v Speaker 1>so someone has like a longer name that will last
<v Speaker 1>longer than someone has like three letters in your name.
<v Speaker 1>But like the attacks are randomized, so you never know
<v Speaker 1>really who's gonna you know, what party member the enemy
<v Speaker 1>is gonna target. But like the free form nature of
<v Speaker 1>this game is really fun, where like the database of
<v Speaker 1>words that must be in here and how characters react
<v Speaker 1>to what you type must be pretty vast, because a
<v Speaker 1>lot of the interactions are pretty free form of like
<v Speaker 1>they'll ask you something and they just say type something,
<v Speaker 1>and they're like okay, and you can only type like
<v Speaker 1>a word. But like I found like there are these
<v Speaker 1>altars that are like your checkpoints, and there's like this
<v Speaker 1>Goddess of the Living who's like this really high and
<v Speaker 1>mighty kind of like figure who the crypt Master is
<v Speaker 1>like on bad terms with, and the first time you
<v Speaker 1>get to her altar, the crypt Master's like, oh, you
<v Speaker 1>can defile this and then we can use it on
<v Speaker 1>her own because only living people can use it, but
<v Speaker 1>if you defile it, we can use it. And they
<v Speaker 1>just say type in a word that would defile this
<v Speaker 1>I and I typed in on both occasions, like farts,
<v Speaker 1>because when they're like, I don't know if it'll count
<v Speaker 1>for that, And as soon as I typed in fart,
<v Speaker 1>you just hear like a giant fart sound effect and
<v Speaker 1>like poop sprinkles, and then she like and she like
<v Speaker 1>flips out at you, like what are you doing? Like
<v Speaker 1>and it like destroys her alter. The next time I
<v Speaker 1>found one, I just typed in p just to see
<v Speaker 1>what happened, and a crypt masters like, oh, you're nasty,
<v Speaker 1>all right. This game has an incredible sense of humor,
<v Speaker 1>by the way, like this game right now, like it's
<v Speaker 1>got a great sense of humor. Like some of the
<v Speaker 1>characters I've met are silly, Like there was like getting
<v Speaker 1>to like another section of the underworld. There's like these
<v Speaker 1>giant eyeballs that are tasked with keeping out the dead.
<v Speaker 1>They're like, you can't and they're like idiots basically, like
<v Speaker 1>they have these big booming voice and they're like, hello,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not allowed to let dead people go by. Are
<v Speaker 1>you dead? And then you can type in yes or
<v Speaker 1>no and then try to bs your way through it.
<v Speaker 1>But other times it's like I don't believe you, or
<v Speaker 1>you know, you got to prove that you're not you know,
<v Speaker 1>you're alive or whatever. And then I met a rat
<v Speaker 1>because there's like these I'm in this area where there's
<v Speaker 1>like a bunch of just like sentient rats hanging out,
<v Speaker 1>and one of them was in a cage and he's
<v Speaker 1>kind of shady and he's like, hey, you know, help
<v Speaker 1>me out. And he's like, hey, you try to get
<v Speaker 1>past that eyeball door if you just tell it, because
<v Speaker 1>it was like guarding a tomb for like royalty that
<v Speaker 1>I needed to access. And he's like, if you tell
<v Speaker 1>the door that you're there the rob it, it'll like
<v Speaker 1>let you win because it it acts tough, but it's
<v Speaker 1>like a huge like it's a pansy, like if you
<v Speaker 1>say you're a robber, it's gonna open up because it's
<v Speaker 1>terrified of you. So I was like, Okay, I don't
<v Speaker 1>have anything else to go on, so I go there
<v Speaker 1>and type it in and the eyeball is just like
<v Speaker 1>what the why would you tell me that I'm not
<v Speaker 1>gonna let you in? Did you just admit that in
<v Speaker 1>front of me? And you can hear in the background
<v Speaker 1>the rat is like laughing hysterically that you actually did
<v Speaker 1>this good. It's like, yeah, it's a really fun game,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm liking the sort of like scavenger hunt aspect
<v Speaker 1>of it of like you can see all the like
<v Speaker 1>empty slots of abilities that each party member has, and
<v Speaker 1>like the more you engage with like combat or just
<v Speaker 1>other sort of like word games, you're gaining more letters
<v Speaker 1>to try to fill out their attack. So every time
<v Speaker 1>I see, like, oh, I'm missing one more letter for
<v Speaker 1>like the mystic guy, and I know what it is.
<v Speaker 1>I can I have enough now to know what it
<v Speaker 1>spells out, so I just see the find an enemy
<v Speaker 1>that will drop an S because every time you kill
<v Speaker 1>an enemy, you your elude to sort of like they
<v Speaker 1>give you a random assortment of letters to choose, and
<v Speaker 1>then you know either they either the available slots you're
<v Speaker 1>trying to fill have those letters and you see them
<v Speaker 1>go in there, or they don't and it just kind
<v Speaker 1>of disappears. You know, It's like a guessing game a
<v Speaker 1>little bit. But like I've found myself really like like
<v Speaker 1>that is sort of my driving forces, like I want
<v Speaker 1>to get all these letters, I want to make all
<v Speaker 1>these works. I want to see what all the other
<v Speaker 1>attacks or whatever abilities I have, because there's so many
<v Speaker 1>of them. It looks like and you know, I would
<v Speaker 1>like to do more than just like hit people and
<v Speaker 1>spartan kick though. So but it's kind of cool art
<v Speaker 1>directions kind of got like a black and white kind
<v Speaker 1>of sketch book look to it. The closest comparison I
<v Speaker 1>have is like if anyone played Mundawn from a few
<v Speaker 1>years ago, that it kind of like sketch booky look
<v Speaker 1>to it. It reminds me of that a.
<v Speaker 4>Little bit spell that mon. I want to look it up.
<v Speaker 1>Oh mu n d au n. It was a game
<v Speaker 1>that I reviewed when it came out that I or game.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it's got kind of like a three D
<v Speaker 1>kind of like sketch book kind of look to it
<v Speaker 1>that I like. But yeah, between like that and the
<v Speaker 1>humor and the voice acting like, it's a very cool
<v Speaker 1>game and it's it's very funny so far, so I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna stick with it and see how far it goes.
<v Speaker 4>Cool, awesome, cool.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of weird and creative venture games, Matt, you have
<v Speaker 1>been playing Immortality, which was one of our top ten
<v Speaker 1>games of Was it twenty twenty two when it came out?
<v Speaker 1>I think that sounds right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it was either that or last year. I can't
<v Speaker 4>keep it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it definitely wasn't last year.
<v Speaker 4>Okay it was. I can never remember what came out?
<v Speaker 3>Who yeah, right, Yeah, speaking of games that also that
<v Speaker 3>Blake Hester went insane for.
<v Speaker 1>But I love this game too, Sam Barlow Joint. You
<v Speaker 1>got to it for the first time. How's it been
<v Speaker 1>treating you?
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I so it's funny. I'd always wanted to
<v Speaker 5>play it, been on my backlog for a while. And
<v Speaker 5>then we're recording amidst the Steam Summer Sale, which I
<v Speaker 5>always say this time, I'm not going to buy any
<v Speaker 5>games this time. I don't need more games. I have
<v Speaker 5>like three hundred games in my backlock.
<v Speaker 4>I'm good.
<v Speaker 1>And then also thanks.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, a lot to ourselves.
<v Speaker 5>And then I look at my wish lists and see
<v Speaker 5>how many games are five bucks ten bucks, and go well,
<v Speaker 5>And so I got like seven games for seventy five bucks,
<v Speaker 5>which is not bad at all. And one of those
<v Speaker 5>games is Immortality, which I wanted to play for a while,
<v Speaker 5>and yeah, I booted it up and like it's funny.
<v Speaker 5>I added to my list of games I want to
<v Speaker 5>talk so little about because I don't want to ruin
<v Speaker 5>the experience for anyone else. It's that it's before your eyes.
<v Speaker 5>It's Lay the Princess, like all these games that like
<v Speaker 5>the more you know, the less of surprises there are.
<v Speaker 5>But like, I've always wanted to play one of Sam
<v Speaker 5>Barlow's games. I followed their existence and watched trailers and
<v Speaker 5>stuff and just never got around to them. And this
<v Speaker 5>one was like the game and so I finally picked
<v Speaker 5>it up and like the first time something in quotes
<v Speaker 5>happen and you're like, wait a minute, Like I nearly
<v Speaker 5>jumped out of my chair, Like I expressed earlier.
<v Speaker 1>Have we all played it? Because I finished.
<v Speaker 3>It, it's too late for me. Yeah, I I And
<v Speaker 3>it didn't click with me the baseline gameplay, Like I
<v Speaker 3>just couldn't quite like lock into it. But I know
<v Speaker 3>the full sort of picture because when the end of
<v Speaker 3>the year discussions ober on I think it was on
<v Speaker 3>min Max, I was basically like, yeah, let me have it.
<v Speaker 3>Tell me what this whole thing is.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I'm just wondering. You're like, what's our level of
<v Speaker 1>like spoiler, Yeah, we can always avoid and we won't
<v Speaker 1>spoil it here.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, But like they're so for those who don't know,
<v Speaker 5>it's a you're playing a game that's essentially an archival
<v Speaker 5>tool of this actress's three films at Marissa Marcel and
<v Speaker 5>like she disappeared or something happened, Like you don't really
<v Speaker 5>know the whole story. You just know these films are
<v Speaker 5>either unreleased or I think they're unreleased, and you're like
<v Speaker 5>going through the archival footage, yeah, or.
<v Speaker 1>Like unfinished, unfinished yeah.
<v Speaker 5>And so like you start with just a clip from
<v Speaker 5>a talk show appearance, and then from there you can
<v Speaker 5>like zoom in on frozen images and like if you
<v Speaker 5>zoom in on the plant, it takes you to another
<v Speaker 5>scene from another film that has a plant in it
<v Speaker 5>and zooms out and you can.
<v Speaker 4>Watch that clip.
<v Speaker 5>And you're building these this library of clips to like
<v Speaker 5>understand what happened to this woman. But that's kind of
<v Speaker 5>all you know. And as you do that stuff happens,
<v Speaker 5>and like it seems something's amiss, and like like everyone
<v Speaker 5>told me it's not a scary game until all those
<v Speaker 5>people y'all are liars.
<v Speaker 1>Say, like who said that? Dirty faith. Yeah, well it is.
<v Speaker 1>It's not a horror game, no, like categorically speaking no, but.
<v Speaker 5>But it's creepy and like so stuff starts, you start
<v Speaker 5>to see things in the clips, and you start to
<v Speaker 5>like stuff starts to happen. I don't even want to
<v Speaker 5>spoil much more beyond that, but like it's awful motion video.
<v Speaker 5>It's all fully acted with incredible actors. Man Engage plays
<v Speaker 5>the lead, Murcea Marsell, and she's incredible in all the
<v Speaker 5>different stuff. It's like three different movies from different periods.
<v Speaker 5>One's like a religious, an old school religious movie. One's
<v Speaker 5>a like crime thriller, like seventies kind of crime thriller,
<v Speaker 5>and then the third film is like a modern like
<v Speaker 5>a pop star kind of murder thriller. And like just
<v Speaker 5>like her range alone is incredible, but the whole cast
<v Speaker 5>is awesome, and like there's behind the scenes stuff both
<v Speaker 5>within the films and like talking to the actors and
<v Speaker 5>directors and it's it's just kind of a wild accomplishment
<v Speaker 5>as a game because like I just don't I also like,
<v Speaker 5>like like you felt, Kyle, like I thought that's how
<v Speaker 5>I was gonna because typically games like this, like FMV
<v Speaker 5>games I don't always get into like everyone's played Night Trap.
<v Speaker 5>It's fine, it's I played Night Trap as an adult
<v Speaker 5>for the first time. I went this was a problem.
<v Speaker 4>This is nothing. This is nothing.
<v Speaker 1>He probably plumbers don't wear ties, but that's a different story.
<v Speaker 1>Some spicy stuff.
<v Speaker 5>But like I was like, oh, I don't know if
<v Speaker 5>I'm going to get into this, And like I even
<v Speaker 5>said to my friend who had been pushing me to
<v Speaker 5>buy it, like, oh, yeah, I picked it up.
<v Speaker 4>I'll give it a try. I'll play for like.
<v Speaker 5>A half hour, and then I'll move on to a
<v Speaker 5>thousand Times Resist, which is what I was really planning
<v Speaker 5>on playing that night. Next thing, I knew three hours
<v Speaker 5>had gone by in these different like chunks, and I
<v Speaker 5>was like, oh, oh.
<v Speaker 3>No, I'd see you tweeting about it like all night
<v Speaker 3>You're like, oh, oh man, mortality.
<v Speaker 4>I just got to this one part. I'm like glad
<v Speaker 4>they're liking it.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, that's awesome, and then like and then yes, Like
<v Speaker 5>so I bought it on Sunday, played it for three
<v Speaker 5>hours Sunday night, and then yesterday as soon as I
<v Speaker 5>got home from work, I played the rest of the
<v Speaker 5>game and beat it, Like I just dialed in and
<v Speaker 5>got locked in and it's great. I can totally see
<v Speaker 5>someone bouncing off it if like the mechanics aren't or
<v Speaker 5>you're not like maybe a movie buff, or maybe you're
<v Speaker 5>just not in the mood to watch a bunch of
<v Speaker 5>stuff because it's a lot of watching.
<v Speaker 4>It's kind of doing passive by design, right, I mean, right.
<v Speaker 3>What it is.
<v Speaker 1>It's also dependent on it. There's almost like a luck
<v Speaker 1>factor of like depending on how long it takes you
<v Speaker 1>to find something of interest, Like I remember it took
<v Speaker 1>like talking to Blake and other people and staff at
<v Speaker 1>the time of like people find the thing sooner than others,
<v Speaker 1>and like I think that's the hook of a game,
<v Speaker 1>like once you find that thing, that goes, okay, there's
<v Speaker 1>more here than I thought there was, like cause I
<v Speaker 1>found it pretty quick, and then other people are like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>it took me like two hours before I found the
<v Speaker 1>weird stuff. So and then maybe in that time you
<v Speaker 1>might have bounce. You're like, I don't get it, you.
<v Speaker 5>Know, yeah, yeah totally, But but I really dug it
<v Speaker 5>clearly because I beat it in like a little less
<v Speaker 5>than six hours because I start jumping clips quickly, and
<v Speaker 5>if you do that you can get to credits a
<v Speaker 5>little faster if you don't watch every clip. But like
<v Speaker 5>I blew through it and then I went back in
<v Speaker 5>after I finished it, like after credits, roll went, well,
<v Speaker 5>what other things can I find? Like, And that's the
<v Speaker 5>sign of a game that leaves leaves a mark a
<v Speaker 5>little bit, is like can I play this thing right
<v Speaker 5>away after just finishing it or keep like wanting to
<v Speaker 5>find stuff, And so I'll probably go back to find
<v Speaker 5>the clips that I'm missing, But I yeah, I was
<v Speaker 5>absolutely infatuated with him for two days. And it's going
<v Speaker 5>to be on my Game of the Year list for
<v Speaker 5>this year because I played it this year and it's
<v Speaker 5>a new game. I won't put old games that I
<v Speaker 5>play again that, but like if it's a game I've
<v Speaker 5>never played before, especially something like this, I will Like
<v Speaker 5>I played Cocoon for the first time this year too,
<v Speaker 5>and that game also blew me away another in like
<v Speaker 5>big indie game. So yeah, I really dug it. And
<v Speaker 5>I'll have to d M you Marcus after the podcast.
<v Speaker 4>But did you find this? Did you see this thing?
<v Speaker 4>Because like there's some wild stuff in that game.
<v Speaker 1>There is, Yeah, I saw online that, Uh, Sam Barlow
<v Speaker 1>and man Engage. Where at SGF did you guys see them?
<v Speaker 3>I think Sam Barlow is there because of the isn't
<v Speaker 3>Sam Barlow doing Blumbhouse stuff?
<v Speaker 4>Yes? Going T games, Project C and Project d.
<v Speaker 1>Y C is the Blumhouse one? Yep. Yeah. I just
<v Speaker 1>love pictures.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't know if you guys had I did not
<v Speaker 3>clock them while I was there, but I do not
<v Speaker 3>know what they look like, so.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like that would be one that would be
<v Speaker 1>wild to see. Man Engage. I'm thinking so much immortality
<v Speaker 1>because it's like, oh, she just that's just the video
<v Speaker 1>game character that is a person, just like it really is. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Like I'm gonna walk backwards and see if you're actually
<v Speaker 1>something else.
<v Speaker 4>She's also a streamer apparently.
<v Speaker 5>I followed her oh goitter the other day because I
<v Speaker 5>wanted to see her other work and check out some
<v Speaker 5>other stuff. She was on Dave the FX Show, and
<v Speaker 5>like she's a streamer. She's was streaming Animal Animal Well,
<v Speaker 5>I believe, which is awesome.
<v Speaker 4>I love that. I think that's great.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking a game full of secrets, Oh my god, Matt,
<v Speaker 1>you've also been playing a paper Mario the Thousand Year Door,
<v Speaker 1>the Switch remaster.
<v Speaker 4>I would say, remake safely.
<v Speaker 1>I think I'm going by a Nintendo. Nintendo. Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>did you guys watch the Capcom next thing that happened yesterday?
<v Speaker 4>Kind yeah, because there.
<v Speaker 1>Was a whole for the Dead Rising segment like Dead
<v Speaker 1>Rising Deluxe Remastered. They spent like a whole chunk of
<v Speaker 1>that thing questioning their own title where they were like
<v Speaker 1>wait a second, because they were going through like here's
<v Speaker 1>all the improvements that it has, and then narrow just
<v Speaker 1>like wait a second, this sounds like it should be
<v Speaker 1>a remake. What's the deal? And they're like interviewing the
<v Speaker 1>three like leads on it, trying to get them to
<v Speaker 1>justify why it's called a remaster, only for the outcome
<v Speaker 1>to be it's a remaster and it's like why did
<v Speaker 1>we get.
<v Speaker 2>The Luxe remaster? But it's in an entirely different engine
<v Speaker 2>from before, Like this thing was basically rebuilt.
<v Speaker 1>It starts a remake.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, yeah, okay, I think I mean it looks like
<v Speaker 5>it no no, no, but like it looks more graphically impressive,
<v Speaker 5>Like I looked up like screenshots of the original. It
<v Speaker 5>looks so much better. Also, like they God bless them,
<v Speaker 5>they added a fast travel system it's just a couple
<v Speaker 5>of pipes that like take you to the different areas.
<v Speaker 5>But like, I remember the original version of that game
<v Speaker 5>because that's a slog like because there's a lot of back.
<v Speaker 4>And forth fetch questing. But yeah, I loved it.
<v Speaker 5>I Kyle, you didn't you review it for for for
<v Speaker 5>Game Informer.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, that was the first time I'd ever played
<v Speaker 3>it was the Switch version, And yeah, I liked it too.
<v Speaker 3>I wouldn't go as strong as love, but I.
<v Speaker 4>Had a great time with it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I mean I think besides my favorite like Mario
<v Speaker 5>Luigi games, it's one of my favorites. I mean Super
<v Speaker 5>Mario RPG, both the remake and the original are always
<v Speaker 5>going to be my favorite because they were kind of
<v Speaker 5>my earliest, even if they're not the best.
<v Speaker 4>But like the same boat there.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, but the writing is top notes in this game,
<v Speaker 5>And yeah, I beat it. It took me quite a
<v Speaker 5>few weeks, just because I wanted to kind of take
<v Speaker 5>my time with it, played in small chunks. But like
<v Speaker 5>I was afraid that because I try and like Super
<v Speaker 5>Mario RPG, the remake, I knew I was going to replay,
<v Speaker 5>and like, there are a few other remakes that come out.
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, all right, I'm gonna play this because I
<v Speaker 5>really want to spend time with it. But for the
<v Speaker 5>most to part, if I've played it and enjoyed it,
<v Speaker 5>unless there's a lot of new stuff, I tend to
<v Speaker 5>like pass. I'm like, there's so many new new games
<v Speaker 5>to play an old new game, It's like, do I
<v Speaker 5>really have the time? But I'm glad I picked this up.
<v Speaker 5>I picked up a physical copy and like, I just
<v Speaker 5>I had a blast. Like it's so funny, it's so
<v Speaker 5>well paced. You know, some of the I remember Kyle
<v Speaker 5>saying some of the Bowser and Peach stuff is a
<v Speaker 5>little slow, but I think it's quick enough that it
<v Speaker 5>doesn't really impede it. It just does feel like a
<v Speaker 5>bit of an interruption to the story.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the Peach stuff I didn't mind so much. Was
<v Speaker 3>the Bowser stuff that, like, even by the end, I
<v Speaker 3>was like, what are we doing?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>Why was it?
<v Speaker 5>We're just showing him goof around and like get into trouble. Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>but yeah, it was great. I'm glad that I revisited
<v Speaker 5>it and it has I'm wearing, as the video viewers
<v Speaker 5>can see, I'm wearing my TI dive Vivian shirt. I'm
<v Speaker 5>so happy that that trans narrative was like translated properly
<v Speaker 5>in this version and kept in this version. Do you
<v Speaker 5>want to explain that a little bit, because it was
<v Speaker 5>in the original translation they basically a race, right and yeah,
<v Speaker 5>now they've kind of made it accurate to the Japanese release, right.
<v Speaker 4>Right, Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>In the original Japanese version, she talks about being a
<v Speaker 5>brother but feeling more like a sister and like getting
<v Speaker 5>picked on and stuff. I don't remember the exact quote,
<v Speaker 5>but then in this version of the and then in
<v Speaker 5>the English translation, the kind of obvious skated removed it.
<v Speaker 5>But in this English translation and the original Japanese again
<v Speaker 5>for the remake, they put that like narrative thread back
<v Speaker 5>in and it's like a big piece of why she's
<v Speaker 5>being bullied.
<v Speaker 4>It's funny.
<v Speaker 5>A friend of mine said, this is the first time
<v Speaker 5>I think anyone's put transphobia back in a game.
<v Speaker 4>Because that's it.
<v Speaker 5>It's her sisters were transphobic to her, and like they
<v Speaker 5>put that narrative back in the game, and like, and
<v Speaker 5>I think it's you know, representation on any level is important,
<v Speaker 5>and it's not like they don't make a huge deal
<v Speaker 5>of it. It's part of the narrative, it's part of
<v Speaker 5>this character's identity, and Vivian's also one.
<v Speaker 4>Of my favorite characters.
<v Speaker 5>I really like her beyond that, But that was also
<v Speaker 5>a big part of why I wanted to own this version.
<v Speaker 5>Is just that as well, that that's in this base version.
<v Speaker 5>But yeah, I mean I think I'm a little higher
<v Speaker 5>higher on it than Kyle is. But also when I
<v Speaker 5>first played this, I didn't think I would ever see
<v Speaker 5>another Mario and Luigi game again, and then lo and behold,
<v Speaker 5>a month later they announced it and like still don't
<v Speaker 5>know who's making that game, which is a giant question mark,
<v Speaker 5>but like, but also beat until we beat it and
<v Speaker 5>look at the credits, right exactly, But like that's my favorite,
<v Speaker 5>one of my favorite RPG franchises. I loved every one
<v Speaker 5>of those games, even the ones that folks were like
<v Speaker 5>less on, Like I loved Dream Team, I didn't mind
<v Speaker 5>Paper Jam Jam. Yeah, but like you know, Superstar Saga,
<v Speaker 5>I think is one of the best RPGs ever made,
<v Speaker 5>in a favorite Mario game, And so the fact that
<v Speaker 5>we're getting Brothership and we're getting a new one is like, well,
<v Speaker 5>I really love Pypate marath Thousand Year Door probably drop
<v Speaker 5>a couple of notches after I play another Mario Luigi game,
<v Speaker 5>because that's the like the Paper Mario franchise has not.
<v Speaker 5>Like Thousand Year Doors is incredible compared to the rest,
<v Speaker 5>but like the the first one's good and then the
<v Speaker 5>rest are okay. Argami King was actually a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 5>I wish the combat. Yeah, the story was great. I
<v Speaker 5>just wished the combat was better in that game. But yeah,
<v Speaker 5>but yeah, it's fun to revisit, and it looks great
<v Speaker 5>on Switch, and if you've never played them, I think
<v Speaker 5>it's definitely worth your time, especially based on the stuff
<v Speaker 5>that's coming out this year. I think it's still a
<v Speaker 5>contender for like a really solid Nintendo title that came
<v Speaker 5>out this year.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I still want to play it. I always feel
<v Speaker 1>bad when I'm with our Paper Mario fans because the
<v Speaker 1>only one I've ever beaten is apparently the one everyone
<v Speaker 1>hates the most, which is a Stickers Star. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>oh I beat that one, but I haven't. I've and
<v Speaker 1>I've never played Thousand Year Door, which is the one
<v Speaker 1>everyone likes, So I'm always like Sticker Star wasn't so
<v Speaker 1>bad having no, like really nothing to compare it to
<v Speaker 1>that much, and then everyone's like, what's wrong with you?
<v Speaker 1>To give you a break from speaking that I have
<v Speaker 1>an update that I've been meeting the share for several weeks,
<v Speaker 1>but it just happened at the time. But like, uh,
<v Speaker 1>I if viewers may remember, like a month or two ago,
<v Speaker 1>I talked about playing Manner Lords.
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah, it was a real time strategy game, or
<v Speaker 5>like yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>One of a very popular early access game.
<v Speaker 4>Like one of the other things, the ones.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's still an early access I believe. But I
<v Speaker 1>talked about how I was on the cusp of a
<v Speaker 1>Bandit apocalypse, like I built my happy little town. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and then like everything was going great, and then I
<v Speaker 1>got a notification saying like, hey, the Bandits are coming
<v Speaker 1>a year from now, like Dragon ball Z style, like
<v Speaker 1>the Androids are.
<v Speaker 4>Coming gay children.
<v Speaker 1>Literally, They're like, you have one year to prepare for
<v Speaker 1>this because I don't have an army get ready. So
<v Speaker 1>it happened the year expired that the Bandits arrived.
<v Speaker 3>And just because you remained in super sayan form during
<v Speaker 3>the duration of that year, right to sort of accliment
<v Speaker 3>yourself to that higher power level.
<v Speaker 1>If by that, you mean somehow screw up everything where
<v Speaker 1>winter came and devastated a lot of my my town,
<v Speaker 1>and I was struggling to feed everyone, and people died
<v Speaker 1>for the first time. And I was so busy trying
<v Speaker 1>to feed people and just keep them alive that I
<v Speaker 1>had no time to raise a fighting force. Yes, so
<v Speaker 1>by the time spring came around and the bandits came in,
<v Speaker 1>they came in like a plague. Like it was like,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't realize this many bandits hung out together because
<v Speaker 1>they strike me as more like and maybe no more
<v Speaker 1>than a party of fours. You know, their their fees,
<v Speaker 1>you know, yeah, I gotta hang around them. But no,
<v Speaker 1>they were like they they've organized. They swept through my
<v Speaker 1>town literally like a plague of locusts and set fire
<v Speaker 1>to almost every building that I had, and all of
<v Speaker 1>my towns people are running and screaming, unable to defend themselves,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm just watching this playout because I can't do anything.
<v Speaker 1>I don't even have that. I didn't even get to
<v Speaker 1>build that yet, So I'm just looking above like what
<v Speaker 1>has happened? And I just hear people screaming and things
<v Speaker 1>burning to the ground, all the things I spent all
<v Speaker 1>this time and money putting up just gone in seconds.
<v Speaker 1>And by the time that they finished their little route
<v Speaker 1>and you know, got out of there, like I think
<v Speaker 1>I had like two buildings left that had been untouched,
<v Speaker 1>one of them the church, which I guess the bandits
<v Speaker 1>are not monsters. They're like, well, we're not gonna burn
<v Speaker 1>a church now, come on, but everyone else can. But
<v Speaker 1>everyone else can die. So I have not after that happened.
<v Speaker 1>I have not played the game because I have not
<v Speaker 1>known I had my my Tiger King moment of like
<v Speaker 1>I will never financially recover from that. Like I really
<v Speaker 1>don't know what to do for me here because it's
<v Speaker 1>like what do I do? So I'm like contemplating just
<v Speaker 1>like this, yeah, pretty much like should I just start over?
<v Speaker 4>Because this is kind of so.
<v Speaker 1>I just wanted to give that closure to people that
<v Speaker 1>were like gripped by that, that just needed to know
<v Speaker 1>from a couple of months ago what happened. Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>it sucks.
<v Speaker 3>You asked me to bring it up. I didn't want
<v Speaker 3>to talk about it.
<v Speaker 4>It's still a painful wound that's not quite healed.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, scrudles man, it's uh anyway, moving on to happier things.
<v Speaker 1>We know. Dragon Age the Veil Guard is our latest
<v Speaker 1>cover story. If you listened last week, writer Wesley LeBlanc
<v Speaker 1>talked all about it. But you know, Matt, you host
<v Speaker 1>a BioWare focused podcast.
<v Speaker 4>I do.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I figured you couldn't resist talking about your thoughts
<v Speaker 1>on Dragon Age the Veil Guard, and John feel free
<v Speaker 1>to also chime in. I'm not sure what your level
<v Speaker 1>of Dragon Age fandom is, but yeah, I would love
<v Speaker 1>to know. What are you guys thinking about this game?
<v Speaker 1>What do you think of like the weird discourse around
<v Speaker 1>it online, like where are you at with Dragon Age
<v Speaker 1>the Veil Guard.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, so it's very funny that the so for
<v Speaker 5>those who don't know who just hear the pits that
<v Speaker 5>I have a BioWare focused podcast. Reignight started as a
<v Speaker 5>mass effect podcast where me and my co host Frankie
<v Speaker 5>Bradley Lestrange created Shepherd in our own image and then
<v Speaker 5>played through the game, making choices as if we were Shepherd,
<v Speaker 5>and then discussing why we made those choices, why we
<v Speaker 5>fell in love with those characters, the relationships we explored,
<v Speaker 5>our querness, and like just relationship building in general through
<v Speaker 5>the game. It was really fun. And then when we
<v Speaker 5>got to Andromeda, I had never played it before, but
<v Speaker 5>my co host had, and so they were like, well,
<v Speaker 5>let's play for the show, and we did and it
<v Speaker 5>was a blast. And so after that we're like, well,
<v Speaker 5>we don't want to stop. Well, I guess we'll do
<v Speaker 5>dragon Age next. And so we were six seasons and
<v Speaker 5>now we're in dragon Age two. We just started dragon
<v Speaker 5>h two. As of recording. Our fourth episode is going
<v Speaker 5>to air the same day as this drops. And we
<v Speaker 5>have never been current with a BioWare release in the
<v Speaker 5>history of this podcast, except for the legendary edition, like
<v Speaker 5>when we were doing Mass Fact three I think is
<v Speaker 5>when that came out, but like there was no news
<v Speaker 5>to talk about. It was a remaster, like yay, we
<v Speaker 5>get them on new platforms. We did a roundtable with
<v Speaker 5>new players and old players to talk about it.
<v Speaker 4>Like it wasn't a new new game.
<v Speaker 5>And so this one, like in our episode that comes
<v Speaker 5>out the same day as this, we're like, oh, I
<v Speaker 5>guess we have to do a new segment. We should
<v Speaker 5>talk about the new dragon Age game. We were doing
<v Speaker 5>a dragon Age podcast, and I mean, I'll say what
<v Speaker 5>everyone else is already said. The Vailguard is a dumb name.
<v Speaker 5>It's just it's just a dumb name. Dreadwolf was so
<v Speaker 5>much better.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think they made merch? Like, do you think
<v Speaker 1>it's like, you know, Super Bowl teams that don't win
<v Speaker 1>and have all those teachers all those Dreadwolf T shirts around? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>because I would love.
<v Speaker 4>One any goodwill now.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, right, just a pile of T shirts and hats
<v Speaker 5>that say dread Wolf. But the ridiculous name aside, Like
<v Speaker 5>I mean, the discourse about it being a hero shooter
<v Speaker 5>based on one trailer made me want to throw my
<v Speaker 5>computer across the room.
<v Speaker 4>I just like it.
<v Speaker 5>Just I was like, really, this this is the thing
<v Speaker 5>that we're getting upset about. But I loved the gameplay trailer.
<v Speaker 5>I'm excited to play the game. The action combat looks
<v Speaker 5>just like I remember Inquisition.
<v Speaker 4>It's funny.
<v Speaker 5>The trailer had a rogue in it, the player character
<v Speaker 5>as a rogue, and I played Inquisition for the first
<v Speaker 5>time as a rogue, so like, I recognized a lot
<v Speaker 5>of the combat style.
<v Speaker 4>But like, it's funny.
<v Speaker 5>I think in the last episode, Marcus, you had posed
<v Speaker 5>the question do Dragon Age fans actually care about the
<v Speaker 5>consistency or not? As a Dragon Age fan, I'd say
<v Speaker 5>not really. I mean, like Mass Effect, I'm here for
<v Speaker 5>the story and like the relationships and of course who
<v Speaker 5>I can romance, that's the most important part. But like
<v Speaker 5>the combat being consistent isn't a big deal. I think
<v Speaker 5>I hated Origins combat. It wasn't enough like CRPG and
<v Speaker 5>it wasn't enough like an action RPG. It was kind
<v Speaker 5>of in the middle and it drove me crazy. So
<v Speaker 5>when two just kind of went hard action, I went,
<v Speaker 5>all right, this is fine, and then felt like Inquisition
<v Speaker 5>kind of really locked it in. But but yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 5>excited about it. Looks great and also I just like
<v Speaker 5>a friend of the show, Kenneth Shepherd has said this
<v Speaker 5>online a bunch too. I'm just happy they're making they
<v Speaker 5>have something new coming, Like it's excited to be excited
<v Speaker 5>about a new bio or game. Biolays one of my
<v Speaker 5>favorite studios ever. And like I thought this game was
<v Speaker 5>vaporware for so long, like a lot of us, I'm
<v Speaker 5>still not convinced we're getting a Mass Effect game.
<v Speaker 3>Like there's a poster of it.
<v Speaker 1>They's that.
<v Speaker 4>Someone's wearing armor right exactly.
<v Speaker 5>But like this like was just like still images and
<v Speaker 5>vo for so long and the fact that we got
<v Speaker 5>to see gameplay and a cut scene and all the
<v Speaker 5>new very attractive characters. I'm I'm excited for it. I
<v Speaker 5>will probably bully my way back onto this podcast around
<v Speaker 5>release time, but like I'm just I'm I'm very it's
<v Speaker 5>cool to have a current biowor game coming out when
<v Speaker 5>I make a biowear podcast, because that's just not been
<v Speaker 5>a thing in the last six years, because they've been
<v Speaker 5>making this for ten years, twelve years, whatever it's been.
<v Speaker 5>And I just I want it to be good. It
<v Speaker 5>doesn't even have to be great. I would love for
<v Speaker 5>it to be great. I just need it to be good,
<v Speaker 5>like so I can be excited about it. I mean, yes, obviously, John,
<v Speaker 5>I don't remember if you've played the Dragon Age games
<v Speaker 5>or not.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I've played a little bit of Origins, a
<v Speaker 3>little bit of Inquisition, and I skipped to Well Together
<v Speaker 3>because I never finished Origins.
<v Speaker 4>But like, from what.
<v Speaker 3>I've gathered, like the whole consistency with that series is
<v Speaker 3>it's inconsistency in its storytelling and its gameplay. In like, yes,
<v Speaker 3>there are like narrative through lines, which is what you
<v Speaker 3>would be there for if you enjoy the series, but like,
<v Speaker 3>none of those games play the same. So like when
<v Speaker 3>this was kind of shown off as like a like
<v Speaker 3>poppy fun adventure akin to like the Dungeons and Dragons
<v Speaker 3>movie or like a Marvel movie, that didn't shock me.
<v Speaker 3>I kind of wish it was a little bit more
<v Speaker 3>like high fantasy like it originally started out with.
<v Speaker 2>That's more my vibe. But like, I am completely down
<v Speaker 2>to see what this game is and what BioWare as
<v Speaker 2>a studio is like in twenty twenty four, because it's
<v Speaker 2>it's been so long, really what we have Anthem and
<v Speaker 2>uh and and drama to look back on as like
<v Speaker 2>their their previous releases, Like, yeah, it's it's been so
<v Speaker 2>so long, and those games are very different from what
<v Speaker 2>this is or what it's going to be. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm just interested to see what what how they're how
<v Speaker 2>they're kind of projecting themselves these days.
<v Speaker 5>I am going to take a Kyle stance for once.
<v Speaker 5>Kyle famously on this show always says play the new thing.
<v Speaker 5>Who cares play the new thing? You thought you weren't
<v Speaker 5>sure what I was gonna quote you on I don't know,
<v Speaker 5>drag something from the back law. Kyle podcastings, it's like
<v Speaker 5>two thousand and eleven.
<v Speaker 4>It's always out there.
<v Speaker 5>But like Kyle, you always say, like play the new
<v Speaker 5>thing who cares, and like typically, I hate that. It
<v Speaker 5>makes my skin crawl because I love complete stories like
<v Speaker 5>I just I do. Like Alan Wake, you were saying
<v Speaker 5>people should just play on Way too, and I was like, no,
<v Speaker 5>you can't.
<v Speaker 4>There's just no way. But well, you know you're right,
<v Speaker 4>you absolutely can.
<v Speaker 5>But with the Vailguard, it's like, like you guys said
<v Speaker 5>last week, the story is so inconsistent, and this is
<v Speaker 5>clearly starting from a place of like Sola is the
<v Speaker 5>bad guy, this is what's happening, Go get him. I
<v Speaker 5>think people should start with this game just like you
<v Speaker 5>could start with Inquisition and just kind of jump in because.
<v Speaker 4>It looks like it's going to be a blessing example exactly,
<v Speaker 4>I will play this.
<v Speaker 1>Solis and origins or is he just an Inquisition?
<v Speaker 4>Just Inquisition?
<v Speaker 5>So Varrek is in two Inquisition and this game he's
<v Speaker 5>as of now the and then Harding, the other dwarf
<v Speaker 5>in the in the gameplay trailer is also from Inquisition,
<v Speaker 5>but no Souls as far as I know, has only
<v Speaker 5>been an Inquisition and now.
<v Speaker 1>This okay, Yeah, I have only ever Origins is the
<v Speaker 1>only Dragon Age I've ever beaten, and I'm playing withition
<v Speaker 1>despite owning it for years.
<v Speaker 4>Now's the time.
<v Speaker 1>No, it's not, I gotta I got it exactly. This
<v Speaker 1>is right one and then this is where I gotta
<v Speaker 1>catch up on Final Fantasy fourteen.
<v Speaker 4>Start from the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>You can't even do. You can't even do play the
<v Speaker 1>new thing on with that.
<v Speaker 3>You have to technically can, like, you can buy skips
<v Speaker 3>to the main request, but you shouldn't.
<v Speaker 4>It's Kyle, you.
<v Speaker 2>Watched a lot of One Piece, right, Yeah? Should you
<v Speaker 2>skip any of One Piece and just skip to the
<v Speaker 2>current arc? Well, that's different, job, start from the same
<v Speaker 2>different You played Higher Warriors one and then.
<v Speaker 4>Three and four?
<v Speaker 3>I did I have. I will say this is a
<v Speaker 3>soft recommendation. I'm giving you a couple of folks. So
<v Speaker 3>I've been like, watch the live action Netflix show, which
<v Speaker 3>is so good, and then if like you want to
<v Speaker 3>keep going but you're scared by one Piece's length, pick
<v Speaker 3>up where the live action show left off, and you'll
<v Speaker 3>basically be like, you'll basically be caught up, you know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Also, there is an anime coming out later this
<v Speaker 2>year called the One Piece that is supposed to like
<v Speaker 2>kind of be the dragon ball z kai of interesting.
<v Speaker 2>There their main things I was reading today. The main
<v Speaker 2>things that they're focusing on is people's concerns about like
<v Speaker 2>how many episodes one pieces and just being like an
<v Speaker 2>easy way for people to jump in.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they're like compressing the early arcs and right and
<v Speaker 3>redeing them. I mean they'll be in widescreen, you know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's a lot of episodes that that were basically
<v Speaker 2>like five minutes of new of new stuff and like
<v Speaker 2>ten minutes of recap. So hopefully they can just make
<v Speaker 2>a better show out of it.
<v Speaker 1>Why didn't they just call it that? Why do they
<v Speaker 1>call it the one piece?
<v Speaker 3>That's like one pieces still happening?
<v Speaker 2>They have to put something in there, Okay, sure, approach,
<v Speaker 2>just call it new one piece, super one piece.
<v Speaker 1>It less less pieces. O my god. As we start
<v Speaker 1>to wind down here, I feel like we need an
<v Speaker 1>official jingle for this because it's time for elden Ring
<v Speaker 1>check in the shadow of.
<v Speaker 6>The either like or it's just my character dying and
<v Speaker 6>going over and over again.
<v Speaker 1>Kyle, how are we doing a shadow of the archery?
<v Speaker 1>Have you finished it?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I'm gonna say boss names, like I'll set that
<v Speaker 3>up now, like that's the spoiler level will go. I think, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>I have made it to the promised consort, okay, which
<v Speaker 3>I don't even You don't even have to betray to
<v Speaker 3>me or not, but I might. I get the sense
<v Speaker 3>that that might be the finish line, but I don't
<v Speaker 3>actually know. Marcus is just staring ahead it blankly.
<v Speaker 2>This is literally the only boss I know in the experience.
<v Speaker 3>Dude, I also do not know, but I fought him
<v Speaker 3>a couple of times, and I like, if you play
<v Speaker 3>elden Ring, or at least how I play, you walk through
<v Speaker 3>the fog gate and you ring your bell, right, You're like,
<v Speaker 3>help me because like you're like you ring your bell
<v Speaker 3>and then and then you you use a health item
<v Speaker 3>just to like get back because you cost health to
<v Speaker 3>use the bell, and and this guy, well, for the mimic,
<v Speaker 3>it costs health. That's That's what I'm using. Yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>why would you use anything but yourself exactly? Yeah, and uh,
<v Speaker 3>but what happens with this guy is you ring the
<v Speaker 3>bell and he's like nah, he like immediately bounces on you.
<v Speaker 3>And so I was like you know what, I I
<v Speaker 3>don't need. I'm like, I don't need to struggle here
<v Speaker 3>right now. So I went and I left, and I've
<v Speaker 3>been trying to fill in the map, which has been
<v Speaker 3>like weirdly hard, Like there's like I.
<v Speaker 1>Have, like you ever find the north west one? You said,
<v Speaker 1>oh wow, you still.
<v Speaker 3>Have still haven't and like, but I yeah, like last
<v Speaker 3>night I got to the putrescent night.
<v Speaker 4>Have you fought him, Marcus? He seems fully estional, which.
<v Speaker 3>Is like really cool because like you, you you go
<v Speaker 3>deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep.
<v Speaker 3>I don't think I had enough deep underground and you
<v Speaker 3>and then when you get to the point where you
<v Speaker 3>have to fight him, you jump off a cliff and
<v Speaker 3>you fall for like I like the amount of time
<v Speaker 3>it takes you to pull up your phone and check
<v Speaker 3>your email and make sure you're caught up and everything,
<v Speaker 3>because like I I did that jump like six or
<v Speaker 3>seven times, and I was like, all right, I'm falling
<v Speaker 3>and let me check Twitter. Yeah, and then so like
<v Speaker 3>and that that was a cool fight, just the just
<v Speaker 3>the entrance into that where you're just so deep underground
<v Speaker 3>it's insane. And then I also did on the opposite
<v Speaker 3>end of that, I did go and beat Bail as well,
<v Speaker 3>Bail Dress, which was another tough fight, which is like
<v Speaker 3>a big one legged dragon, which is like he just
<v Speaker 3>looks gnarly as hell.
<v Speaker 1>You honestly forget he has one legs.
<v Speaker 4>He doesn't.
<v Speaker 1>He doesn't let them hold back. He's uh yeah. I
<v Speaker 1>actually I beat him too. I think the last time
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned him to you college, I hadn't beaten him,
<v Speaker 1>but I too have have conquered Bail. It felt good.
<v Speaker 1>It felt really good for for Igon egan under the
<v Speaker 1>guy that really wants you to kill him.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, which I went back and talked to him like
<v Speaker 3>he had he had left or something.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Well, he joined you for the fight, right, No,
<v Speaker 1>it was just me and my Oh you didn't or
<v Speaker 1>you could summon you up. So his I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if you noticed this, but his summoning sigil it's in
<v Speaker 1>the arena, it's not outside like everybody else. It's right
<v Speaker 1>to know, Mark, thanks for nothing. Get good. I guess.
<v Speaker 3>I did.
<v Speaker 1>I had to him, and honestly, I don't think you
<v Speaker 1>missed much because he kind of sucks. And I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if it's just me, but like you talk to him,
<v Speaker 1>and he's like going on and on about like kill
<v Speaker 1>bail I hate bailude and to me thinks he's talking
<v Speaker 1>about Christian Bale.
<v Speaker 3>But like I'm like, okay, exactly.
<v Speaker 1>But it's like it's not even that. It's already hard
<v Speaker 1>enough because unlike every other person like summoning uh like NPC,
<v Speaker 1>his is inside the arena for some reason, which is weird.
<v Speaker 1>It's like right in front of the door, but you
<v Speaker 1>have to initiate to fight, then stand in front of it,
<v Speaker 1>then you know, hit the button.
<v Speaker 4>He has. He has a summon in this as well.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well m I so I didn't have any help
<v Speaker 1>with that, and I think that there's story reasons for that.
<v Speaker 1>I just had my mimic t here. But like NPC's
<v Speaker 1>well no, some oh man, this is getting into some store.
<v Speaker 1>I was like someone showed up, but they showed up
<v Speaker 1>on their own. But it was like it was like
<v Speaker 1>or wait, no, no, no, no one should have I'm thinking
<v Speaker 1>of the fight before. Never mind. But anyways, there's very
<v Speaker 1>apparently there's like variations of how that can play out.
<v Speaker 1>But I it was just me and my mimick tier
<v Speaker 1>for Mesmer. I had no available assistance but like yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so like and Bail I called him and then he
<v Speaker 1>I feel like, out of all the summonable allies, he
<v Speaker 1>contributed the least outside of like yelling comedically about how
<v Speaker 1>he is Bail's worst fears made flesh. And he uses
<v Speaker 1>a big old cross, like a big arrow or big bow,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, oh man, that looks like they could
<v Speaker 1>do some damage. And this guy like one he takes
<v Speaker 1>for ever to shoot, like he's just kind of running around.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, every now I'm trying to like fight, and
<v Speaker 1>then I look behind, like, dude, are we doing this?
<v Speaker 1>And he's just like kind of like standing around or running,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, please help help.
<v Speaker 4>Me for at least a moment.
<v Speaker 1>And then he's and then he takes his like one
<v Speaker 1>shot that he waited five minutes to do, and it
<v Speaker 1>like whiffs like half the time because Bail moves around
<v Speaker 1>so much, and I'm like, why are you, Like it's
<v Speaker 1>already hard enough to summon you, because you're in the arenas.
<v Speaker 1>I have to summon you then some in my tent,
<v Speaker 1>my mimick tier, and the fight has already started, so
<v Speaker 1>it's like it's rough. Yeah, and yeah, outside of just
<v Speaker 1>screaming about how he's gonna be Bale's worst nightmare. He's
<v Speaker 1>like worthless.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, yeah, but yeah, my goal is to I
<v Speaker 3>want to get the map like build in you know
<v Speaker 3>what I mean, I think I should or some cool stuff. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I have like two large areas that I haven't found
<v Speaker 3>the maps for yet, and I figure once I do that,
<v Speaker 3>that process will get me some new skoodoo tree stuff
<v Speaker 3>and then I'll go and I'll I'll go all in
<v Speaker 3>on on redon, I think.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So I listened to the minmax Deepest dive you
<v Speaker 1>guys did for this, which great job by the way,
<v Speaker 1>shout out to Jacob Geller for hosting that. And it's
<v Speaker 1>funny because you mentioned or he mentioned one of the
<v Speaker 1>areas you haven't gone through yet, and he mentioned the
<v Speaker 1>Coffin thing, which I can understand that's that's tricky to find.
<v Speaker 1>But the other one in the Northwest that you have
<v Speaker 1>not found, I'm it's like feeling bad for you because
<v Speaker 1>it is actually deceptively simple to reach, like you you
<v Speaker 1>can reach it any time, like there's nothing stopping you
<v Speaker 1>from getting there. And I guess the same is true
<v Speaker 1>for the other one. But I mean this one is
<v Speaker 1>like there's no trickery really behind it. You just haven't
<v Speaker 1>found the opening to get there. But it is like,
<v Speaker 1>d you actually, because I am you have probably passed
<v Speaker 1>it a myriad of time at this point.
<v Speaker 3>But it's I mean, it continues to be great. I'm
<v Speaker 3>Marcus your review. You gave the DLC like a nine
<v Speaker 3>seventy five. It's so it's great. I mean it totally reignited,
<v Speaker 3>you know, my elder ring passion, and I'm one hundred
<v Speaker 3>percent back in and I'm having a great time with it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah that's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, I'm still playing it myself, trying to clean
<v Speaker 1>up stuff that I haven't found yet, and I will
<v Speaker 1>continue to do so because it's great. In between Infinity Nikki.
<v Speaker 3>That DLC has trophies, right, I haven't gotten any?
<v Speaker 1>Well, I kind of. I guess I thought because I
<v Speaker 1>was playing pre release that I was like, oh, it's
<v Speaker 1>probably that's why. But now that I think about it,
<v Speaker 1>I've been playing post release and I haven't gotten it.
<v Speaker 3>I don't think if I this is weird. This is
<v Speaker 3>like behind the scenes stuff, but like, yeah, like usually
<v Speaker 3>when you get an early PS five game, you can't
<v Speaker 3>really see the trophies until the game is out right,
<v Speaker 3>so like I will actually you'll review a game and
<v Speaker 3>they'll be like, oh, what trophies did I get? Not
<v Speaker 3>that I'm like a big trophy guy. I don't really
<v Speaker 3>usually care that much, but just that that hit that yeah,
<v Speaker 3>hit a dopamine, but because it's like the nice thing
<v Speaker 3>about elden Ring is because I'm always looking for excuses
<v Speaker 3>to continue playing. I liked having the trophies because it
<v Speaker 3>was like, oh, that's a that's a checkbox I can
<v Speaker 3>go to. But I don't like when I pull up
<v Speaker 3>my trophies it doesn't list any additional ones. And then
<v Speaker 3>when I go to the store, it actually asks me
<v Speaker 3>if I want to buy the DLC, and I think
<v Speaker 3>it's because I had an early release code or something.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if I've just like hit a weird
<v Speaker 3>a weird specific book or what I was like, does
<v Speaker 3>this not how there are no trophies? There are no trophies.
<v Speaker 3>There are no trophies. Okay, cool, it's going fine.
<v Speaker 1>I can't hurt to preserves the platinum. But that's kind
<v Speaker 1>of disappointing, Like there's some things in that game you're like,
<v Speaker 1>I should have got a trophy for that I did.
<v Speaker 3>I platinumed the base game by like playing through it twice.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, no I don't. I don't need Trumphies or anything.
<v Speaker 3>I just I was just curious if they existed, So
<v Speaker 3>that does That doesn't answer my question.
<v Speaker 1>You're not sure I'll take them though I know John
<v Speaker 1>and Matt so it said before the show that you're
<v Speaker 1>playing the base game of Eldin Ring right now or
<v Speaker 1>half played it, but have not jumped into the DLC yet.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I want to, but I also do not have
<v Speaker 5>the time to get good over again. Also, I came
<v Speaker 5>back to my character, who is not a new game.
<v Speaker 5>Plus I was smart enough not to do that, but
<v Speaker 5>didn't beat the optional boss that you need to enter
<v Speaker 5>the DLC.
<v Speaker 4>I beat.
<v Speaker 5>You have to be we're done, right, but like, yes,
<v Speaker 5>I didn't be the optional boss. And when I learned that,
<v Speaker 5>I also had not unlocked the like peninsula that Mogue
<v Speaker 5>was on, like I haven't even gotten to that area,
<v Speaker 5>I was like no, thank you at enough time. And
<v Speaker 5>also I made a mage because I heard that if
<v Speaker 5>you get powerful, it's like you're like Goku Super sayan
<v Speaker 5>like you can just obliterate bosses. But trying to relearn that. Also,
<v Speaker 5>after playing Dragon's Dogma two this year and like hitting
<v Speaker 5>things with a spear or sword, I'm like, I can't
<v Speaker 5>do this. I've I like, I fought like one enemy
<v Speaker 5>in that new area killed me in two hits, and
<v Speaker 5>I went I think I'm good. I think I'll come
<v Speaker 5>back to this later if I start a new game,
<v Speaker 5>because I wanted to start a new play through as
<v Speaker 5>like a melee character, because I tend to lean more
<v Speaker 5>towards melee characters, I might go for the DLC, but
<v Speaker 5>I think for now, I think I'm just gonna kind
<v Speaker 5>of there's.
<v Speaker 4>Plenty of other games. I'm letting other.
<v Speaker 5>Folks enjoy it, and I'm living vicariously through their death
<v Speaker 5>stories and video clips of getting clobbered by bosses.
<v Speaker 4>That's my strategy right now is I think.
<v Speaker 3>I originally played it on PS five and I bought
<v Speaker 3>it on Steam because I've upgraded my PC recently and
<v Speaker 3>I think it'll look.
<v Speaker 4>Nice on there, so I bought it on there.
<v Speaker 2>I'm starting over for I jumped in for like five minutes,
<v Speaker 2>created a character just like walked in, and I am
<v Speaker 2>completely confused by the controls already, Like after after playing
<v Speaker 2>like so many games in between, Like it is imperative
<v Speaker 2>that I start over, because if I jump into my
<v Speaker 2>PS five save like where I am, I'm going to
<v Speaker 2>die like immediately. It doesn't matter like they're I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>have to like go to an earlier part of the
<v Speaker 2>game and just like start hitting things just to just
<v Speaker 2>to like get get the feeling back. But I'd rather
<v Speaker 2>just build up my character again and and and learn
<v Speaker 2>that way. So that's that's my strategy. Hopefully I can
<v Speaker 2>get to it and kind of like pick away at
<v Speaker 2>it over the summer. I need to finish this final
<v Speaker 2>Fantasy fourteen DLC or expansion first, and that's very time
<v Speaker 2>consuming at the moment, and then everything that's happening in
<v Speaker 2>like September October, we'll see where I where I find
<v Speaker 2>time to to play more. But I want to you
<v Speaker 2>it's it's been like all that my friends are talking.
<v Speaker 4>About and it's good.
<v Speaker 3>I want to.
<v Speaker 4>I want to. I want to see that new stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I love it. It's up there my my barchelon
<v Speaker 1>of games in a year so far. Yeah, that wraps
<v Speaker 1>up this episode of the show. Thank you both for
<v Speaker 1>joining us. John Matt from taking time out do you
<v Speaker 1>guys wanna take a chance to plug anything that you
<v Speaker 1>guys are working on that you want to steer the
<v Speaker 1>viewers to. John can start with you.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, check out the Indian Former. Uh we're on x
<v Speaker 3>slash Twitter at indie Underscore Informer. Also the website is
<v Speaker 3>uh indye i Indie dash I and dashformer dot com.
<v Speaker 3>It's I don't I don't know why that's the website,
<v Speaker 3>but check out it pretty easier. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm
<v Speaker 3>currently on summer vacation from there. But read everything that
<v Speaker 3>that Jill is putting out there. There's a bunch of
<v Speaker 3>stuff from SGF. It is a great work and he's
<v Speaker 3>never stopped dropping. And Jill is killing it over there
<v Speaker 3>right now, right man, every day. Yeah, and then read
<v Speaker 3>my review of Dontreil and that drops in the next
<v Speaker 3>couple of weeks.
<v Speaker 5>Awesome for me, I mean you can find me right
<v Speaker 5>here editing this podcast every week. I love doing it.
<v Speaker 5>It's fun to be on the show every so often too,
<v Speaker 5>as you guys say at the end of every episode,
<v Speaker 5>and I'm so grateful. I have two podcasts to promote
<v Speaker 5>besides this one. I do a general video game podcast
<v Speaker 5>called Funny games. It's a broad conversation about the games
<v Speaker 5>and games industry. We bring on guests. Marcus was on
<v Speaker 5>not that long ago talking about the Spider Man, the
<v Speaker 5>plethora of Spider Man games.
<v Speaker 4>Across the years.
<v Speaker 5>We did a franchise retrospective, but both of you, Actually
<v Speaker 5>everyone on this call has done a side quest episode,
<v Speaker 5>which is a smaller show within the feed where three
<v Speaker 5>times every two weeks we put out a short like
<v Speaker 5>ten to fifteen mint episode about a game someone loves him.
<v Speaker 4>Why they love it.
<v Speaker 5>Marcus did a great one on Final Fantasy ten, John
<v Speaker 5>Carson did one on Magic MTG Arena, and then Kyle
<v Speaker 5>had done one on Okare enough time, I believe, and
<v Speaker 5>all of them great episodes, fun chats. I'm definitely gonna
<v Speaker 5>wrangle y'all for another one at some point, but it's
<v Speaker 5>really just my way of putting some positivity and joy
<v Speaker 5>into the Internet of like, these people unabashitory love these games.
<v Speaker 5>Here's why, and so can can't recommend that enough. And then,
<v Speaker 5>like I said, my now current BioWare retrospective podcast, we're
<v Speaker 5>currently covering Dragon h two, but we'll be checking checking
<v Speaker 5>in on Veil Guard throughout the year until it comes out.
<v Speaker 5>We will not be doing it for the show cold.
<v Speaker 5>We will be playing it on our own first and
<v Speaker 5>then come back to it when we get to it
<v Speaker 5>in the timeline. But if you want all the latest
<v Speaker 5>Dragon Age stuff, you can go there. And then I'm
<v Speaker 5>on most social media's DJ underscore storm again except Blue Sky.
<v Speaker 5>I'm just djstorm again because they don't like underscores for
<v Speaker 5>some reason. And you want to chat games, you can
<v Speaker 5>give me a follow there and thanks for having me again.
<v Speaker 4>This is always a blast. Thank you.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, no problem, got and yes, as I mentioned at
<v Speaker 1>the top of the show, you can subscribe to a
<v Speaker 1>print edition of Game Informer magazine. It's just nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 1>one for ten issues a year, or you can sign
<v Speaker 1>up for twenty issues for two years for thirty four
<v Speaker 1>to ninety nine. Great way to support Game Informer directly
<v Speaker 1>show our parent company that we are worth keeping around
<v Speaker 1>and all that good stuff, and it helps us support
<v Speaker 1>you know, the website and this podcast. You can also
<v Speaker 1>follow us on social media Game Informers on Twitter, Facebook,
<v Speaker 1>Blue Sky, Threads, Instagram, as well as Twitch, which you
<v Speaker 1>can find us at twitch dot tv. Slash game Informer.
<v Speaker 1>Kyle and I have our ongoing, never ending super replay
<v Speaker 1>series of Relationship Zelda.
<v Speaker 4>We're enjoying it.
<v Speaker 3>Clear it's been fun, but.
<v Speaker 1>It has been very fun. We just made like next
<v Speaker 1>to no progress the last episode because of.
<v Speaker 4>The Matris mask.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm did my first time playing a game, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm understanding the like it's a really fun game, but man,
<v Speaker 1>it can when you don't make progress. Yeah, it hurts
<v Speaker 1>so but yeah, we'll see what we can do next
<v Speaker 1>week when we hop back into saddle with that. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>subscribe there for all of our Twitch streams. You can
<v Speaker 1>also follow me on Twitter. I'm me at Marcus Stewart seven.
<v Speaker 1>That is the number seven. Kyle, you're at Kyle M Hilliard. John,
<v Speaker 1>what is your head?
<v Speaker 4>Sorry? John? Underscore Carson.
<v Speaker 1>That's right there you go, and yeah, tune in next week, guys.
<v Speaker 1>We'll be back with another episode of the Game and
<v Speaker 1>former show. But until then, we hope you have a
<v Speaker 1>great week. Happy fourth of July for all of our
<v Speaker 1>American viewers and listeners, and we shall see you next time.
<v Speaker 1>By everyone,