Ghost Of Yotei, Hades 2, and Silent Hill F Reviews

<v Speaker 1>Hello, everyone, Welcome to the Game and Former Show, a
<v Speaker 1>weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us each
<v Speaker 1>and every week for a discussion on the latest gaming news, reviews,
<v Speaker 1>and exclusive reveals with Game and Former staff and special
<v Speaker 1>guests from around the industry. I am your host this week,
<v Speaker 1>Marcus Stewart. I am joined by the King of the
<v Speaker 1>Hilliard himself, Kyle Hilliard.
<v Speaker 2>Hello, Hello, King of the Hilliard. All right, I'll take it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm the king. I did it.
<v Speaker 1>And what's the king without another king? Because we have
<v Speaker 1>the King of Hearts himself, Charles Hart Heart.
<v Speaker 2>I like that.
<v Speaker 3>I was gonna say, Kyle, do you feel like the
<v Speaker 3>king and your family dynamic?
<v Speaker 2>No?
<v Speaker 3>I was gonna say, I don't know, because I feel
<v Speaker 3>like you talk about your wife and daughter enough that
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>They're in charge, man, I don't know. Don't making decisions?
<v Speaker 2>Are you kidding me?
<v Speaker 3>I'm the only heart that lives in my house. So
<v Speaker 3>I feel fine being the king of.
<v Speaker 2>Well for now, mister Gage. If she decides to take
<v Speaker 2>your last name, I suppose she's going to so now nice.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Hello everyone, Welcome to the Game Informer Show. We
<v Speaker 1>have a absolutely stacked episode. This week, We've got Ghost
<v Speaker 1>of Yo Take. Kyle Hillary reviewed the game. He's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be talking about that. We've got the one point zero
<v Speaker 1>launch of Hades two. Charles Hart you review that. I've
<v Speaker 1>got Silent hill f which also came out this week
<v Speaker 1>that I reviewed. We're gonna be talking about Baby Steps,
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna be talking about Hotel Barcelona, and maybe we
<v Speaker 1>might talk about the state of play. Who knows. But yes,
<v Speaker 1>it's a very big, very big week. So before we
<v Speaker 1>jump right into it. Of course, if you want to
<v Speaker 1>support Game Informer, the best way to do it is
<v Speaker 1>to go to GameInformer dot com, slash subscribe and sign
<v Speaker 1>up for a magazine subscription. As you can see Charles
<v Speaker 1>Hart holding up our recent Ninja Go four issue. Kyle
<v Speaker 1>Hillier has got our Vampire to Masquerade Bloodliness two issue.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, recently we announced our next cover story, which
<v Speaker 1>we'll actually have to leave go live digitally next week,
<v Speaker 1>which is on the Outer World Too, which I wrote.
<v Speaker 1>You can get ten issues a year, physical and digital
<v Speaker 1>delivered to you by signing up for a magazine subscription.
<v Speaker 1>You can also sign up for it just the digital
<v Speaker 1>edition for a reduced price. But it's the best way
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<v Speaker 1>improved paper quality and just over eighty pages of in
<v Speaker 1>depth features, previews, reviews, and more, it's, dare I say,
<v Speaker 1>the best way to keep up with video game news.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to day hot exclusive. I'm going to tease
<v Speaker 2>a feature in the Outer World's two issue, Toby Fox interview.
<v Speaker 2>That's all I'll say. Yeah, that's pretty cool, pretty good
<v Speaker 2>creator of Undertail.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, until he has he never shown his face.
<v Speaker 2>No, I don't think so.
<v Speaker 3>I think they just did a stream and maybe I
<v Speaker 3>could be totally wrong. I think they just did an Anniversaryshima
<v Speaker 3>Undertail and he's represented on the couch as like his
<v Speaker 3>little dog persona A right, Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I was opening d like a god mister near Automata
<v Speaker 1>with the moon helmet. I was opening day like that,
<v Speaker 1>but with a sands.
<v Speaker 2>That'd be good.
<v Speaker 1>That'd be pretty good. But yes, keep an eye a
<v Speaker 1>for that in our Outer World's issue. Like I said,
<v Speaker 1>goes live digitally next week. But Kyle hilly or without
<v Speaker 1>further ado. Ghost of Yote, the sequel to Ghosts of Shushima,
<v Speaker 1>one of the PlayStation four's best games. It is is
<v Speaker 1>it out this week or is it next week or October?
<v Speaker 2>October second?
<v Speaker 1>I believe October second. Yeah, yeah, is Embargo looked pretty early?
<v Speaker 2>I guess today, I think, yeah, it's.
<v Speaker 1>Pretty yeah, yeah, week from today. But yes, you played it,
<v Speaker 1>you finish it. Your review is up on the site
<v Speaker 1>tell us. Is this a good game? Should we be
<v Speaker 1>excited for Ghost of Yota?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Absolutely, it is a fantastic game. I loved Ghost
<v Speaker 2>of Yote. I I this is uh yeah, I really
<v Speaker 2>loved Ghost of Sushima, and I really loved Infamous Second
<v Speaker 2>son and I really loved Infamous, and I really loved
<v Speaker 2>uh Sly Cooper three and Sly Cooper two and Sly
<v Speaker 2>Cooper one. And I've never played Rocket Rubino Wheels. But
<v Speaker 2>that's all to say I've always a fake fan. I've
<v Speaker 2>always admired Sucker Punch a lot. I think in a
<v Speaker 2>way they're kind of underrated because they're not really spoken
<v Speaker 2>with in the same breadth as like Naughty Dog and Insomniac,
<v Speaker 2>But like they're like maybe my favorite Sony like owned
<v Speaker 2>developer in that sort of you know, triumph it.
<v Speaker 3>I think, like, honestly, I even more than Sony Santa Monica.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, man, that's a tough Yeah, that's tough. That's tough.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, Like, but they're like I I just
<v Speaker 2>like I love their games, and like Ghost of Susho
<v Speaker 2>was my game of the Year the year it came out,
<v Speaker 2>and I kind of had high expectations for Ghost of
<v Speaker 2>Yote and like I loved it. I love this game,
<v Speaker 2>Like I don't know if I'm ready to call it
<v Speaker 2>my game of the year, Like I think Claire Obscure
<v Speaker 2>maybe still takes that title for me for reasons we
<v Speaker 2>can get into later in the year. But this is like,
<v Speaker 2>if it's not number one, it's certainly like a close
<v Speaker 2>number two. But yeah, I love this game. Like it's
<v Speaker 2>just like there's so many cool things about it, right,
<v Speaker 2>Like it's not this radical reinvention of what worked in Sushima,
<v Speaker 2>but it's just like it's just really good. Like this
<v Speaker 2>the world is fun to explore. There's like there's no
<v Speaker 2>loading times at all for fast travel, which means the
<v Speaker 2>pace is just like sprinting all the time. Like it
<v Speaker 2>is constantly fun to just be doing stuff in the world.
<v Speaker 2>There's no there's no like there's there's barriers in the
<v Speaker 2>sense that like you're kind of going through a narrative,
<v Speaker 2>so like you are going along like a story track,
<v Speaker 2>but there's no barriers in terms of like the player
<v Speaker 2>interacting with the game, if that makes sense, you know
<v Speaker 2>what I mean. Like there's never there's never a moment
<v Speaker 2>to like be bored. If you don't want to be bored,
<v Speaker 2>If you want to be bored and you kind of
<v Speaker 2>just take in the scenery and not really focus on anything,
<v Speaker 2>you can totally do that. But like it's one of
<v Speaker 2>those games. It was interesting to play because you know,
<v Speaker 2>I had a review deadline that I was trying to hit.
<v Speaker 2>I knew it was a big game, but like I
<v Speaker 2>could not stop myself from doing all this side stuff,
<v Speaker 2>Like I just couldn't focus on the main story in
<v Speaker 2>a complimentary way where it's because it's like if you're
<v Speaker 2>riding your horse to like that point, like you're gonna
<v Speaker 2>get distracted by something that's worthwhile, like whether that's just
<v Speaker 2>like following a golden bird to get like, you know,
<v Speaker 2>find a hot spring that gives you more health, or
<v Speaker 2>if it's like a side story that they're like all
<v Speaker 2>the little side quests are really engaging and interesting in
<v Speaker 2>the sense that they're there. Really isn't a lot of
<v Speaker 2>repeated things of like, oh this person needs like five flowers,
<v Speaker 2>go get them five flowers. Like every single side story
<v Speaker 2>just has kind of a unique interesting twist to it.
<v Speaker 2>And because there's no loading screens and the fast travels instantaneous,
<v Speaker 2>it's really easy to just like pop around and get
<v Speaker 2>distracted and then get right back to what you were doing.
<v Speaker 2>And then on top of all that, like I think
<v Speaker 2>the narrative just really does out does Sushima in a
<v Speaker 2>big way.
<v Speaker 1>Like I well, what I want to ask us this
<v Speaker 1>is set like a couple one hundred years after I
<v Speaker 1>think it's Sushima. Yeah, three hundred years and you're playing
<v Speaker 1>as a new protagonist Atsu.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, what year is it? Do you know? I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I mean I think it. I think it's like fifteen
<v Speaker 1>or sixteen hundreds because Sushima was twelve hundreds, Yeah, wasn't it.
<v Speaker 2>I mean it's yeah, it's a it's a significant amount
<v Speaker 2>of time and it's a different area, so I mean
<v Speaker 2>there's no there's no tie really.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, sixteen oh three, okay, said Charles.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I mean and like I but the thing
<v Speaker 2>I was I was getting at is just like the
<v Speaker 2>story of the game is like is really engaged good
<v Speaker 2>and I like Atsu a lot, Like I like her
<v Speaker 2>more than Gin. She's a much more interesting, sort of
<v Speaker 2>well realized protagonist that I really just liked being with
<v Speaker 2>and hanging out with. And there were like there were
<v Speaker 2>times that in the game that like really got me,
<v Speaker 2>like really were making me cry and like brought me
<v Speaker 2>to tears and things like that. I kind of I do.
<v Speaker 2>I cry pretty easily when it comes to like fiction,
<v Speaker 2>so like I'll you know, maybe not everyone will have
<v Speaker 2>that experience, but like I I met, I was messaging
<v Speaker 2>Haley over at min Max because she got really far,
<v Speaker 2>She's almost beaten it at this point, and we were
<v Speaker 2>both kind of like, yeah, there's there's at least one
<v Speaker 2>part that, like you know, was was making us tier up,
<v Speaker 2>and I bet I was. I messaged her. I was like,
<v Speaker 2>I bet it was this part, wasn't it. She's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it was em so like I'm not spoiling anything obviously,
<v Speaker 2>but I mean, it's just it's just one of those
<v Speaker 2>games that I went into with high expectations and they
<v Speaker 2>were exceeded, you know, like I love it. It's so good.
<v Speaker 1>Does this came get into the because one thing. So
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna preface saying I really liked Ghostusushima, but I
<v Speaker 1>think I've always been on the lower end of my likes.
<v Speaker 1>I know people have a love affair of the game,
<v Speaker 1>and I was always just like, it's pretty, it's good,
<v Speaker 1>it's really good.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>One of the things that annoyed me about the game
<v Speaker 1>was sort of the premise of the like like debating
<v Speaker 1>whether to use like stealth or just facing enemy's head
<v Speaker 1>on and sort of the story concede around it was
<v Speaker 1>like inforiating to me because I hated Jen's uncles so much,
<v Speaker 1>just because of how anti stealthy was in a way
<v Speaker 1>that just made no sense to me. Yeah, Like, are
<v Speaker 1>you is there still that sort of like no balance
<v Speaker 1>of like you're choosing what style to go through and
<v Speaker 1>it's like a weird moral decision at all or do
<v Speaker 1>they just say like kill whoever you want. No, that's
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's the thing that That's one of the
<v Speaker 1>reasons I like ad Too so much, is like she
<v Speaker 1>doesn't care about that stuff, Like she doesn't folks. Her
<v Speaker 1>focus is so specific and like extremely sort of defined
<v Speaker 1>of like I was a kid and these six men
<v Speaker 1>killed my parents and my brother in front of me,
<v Speaker 1>and they and they used a sword to stick me
<v Speaker 1>to a tree that they set on fire. And I
<v Speaker 1>have spent my whole life trying to get back at them,
<v Speaker 1>And that is like and She's gonna do whatever it
<v Speaker 1>takes to do that. Like she is mad for totally
<v Speaker 1>justifiable reasons that I totally believe in in the game,
<v Speaker 1>because it's so good at like setting you up, Like
<v Speaker 1>because the way it's not just like the cut you know,
<v Speaker 1>you don't just get a cut scene flashback like they've
<v Speaker 1>talked about this before, right, Like you actually go into
<v Speaker 1>the past and you get to live, you know, see
<v Speaker 1>her family and what her life was like before this incident,
<v Speaker 1>and then you get to live through that incident as well,
<v Speaker 1>like by literally playing as young Atsu. So like she's
<v Speaker 1>so focused on this singular goal that it's like as
<v Speaker 1>a like a narrative and also it's like a video
<v Speaker 1>game sort of premise. It's like great because it's like
<v Speaker 1>I know exactly why she needs to do this, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm totally I totally understand why she needs to do this,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm gonna help her do it, and I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>do whatever it takes to get results, which was kind
<v Speaker 1>of like in the narrative of Sushima, that was kind
<v Speaker 1>of the thing. It was like Jin's uncle kept being like,
<v Speaker 1>you can't do it this way, and Jin would like
<v Speaker 1>point behind him and be like yeah, but like it's working,
<v Speaker 1>Like what do you want from me?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>Also, they don't play like Jin's uncle was basically the
<v Speaker 1>main villain as far as I was, like, you're just
<v Speaker 1>enabling the murder of your people by being so stubborn.
<v Speaker 1>Is she is she had samurai or a ninja, like.
<v Speaker 2>She's an on real she's a ghost Marcus. Okay, exactly,
<v Speaker 2>I mean she's a mercenary, she's a samurai basically.
<v Speaker 1>You know. Yeah, I didn't know if this counted in
<v Speaker 1>the Year of the Ninjas.
<v Speaker 2>She was like closer to a snob. It does in
<v Speaker 2>the sort of in the world of Ghosts of Sushima.
<v Speaker 2>Gin is kind of the original ninja, like he was
<v Speaker 2>the first one to kind of decide to do this
<v Speaker 2>and become a proper ninja, if that makes sense, And
<v Speaker 2>like Jin had who kind of like toes the line
<v Speaker 2>between she has ninja abilities. You know, you could call
<v Speaker 2>her ninja and you would you wouldn't be offending anybody,
<v Speaker 2>but she's she's basically a mercenary samurai is kind of
<v Speaker 2>like the best way to find her. She's walking around,
<v Speaker 2>you know, with swords and not really being sneaky. But
<v Speaker 2>if you want to dress up in all black and
<v Speaker 2>be sneaky, can that's an option? Nice?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And you mentioned the side content earlier being better.
<v Speaker 1>That was actually one of my problems in the first
<v Speaker 1>game is that I thought the side content outside of
<v Speaker 1>the main like ally missions, I thought everything else was
<v Speaker 1>pretty boilerplate in a way that I found disappointing, Like
<v Speaker 1>are you still doing those like big ally missions, like
<v Speaker 1>like loyalty missions. I guess, for lack of a better term.
<v Speaker 2>They're not as defined. But there are a handful of
<v Speaker 2>characters that you do sort of go on missions with.
<v Speaker 2>There's really only like two primary allies, I guess you
<v Speaker 2>could say, which is like good, you know, it's like
<v Speaker 2>sort of paars it down to just like the really
<v Speaker 2>important ones, and those two are like really important in interest.
<v Speaker 1>Is there a comedic relief?
<v Speaker 2>Not really? Actually, I mean Odds is pretty funny because
<v Speaker 2>she's so brash and just like you know, like doesn't
<v Speaker 2>really care. I guess you could say, you know, and
<v Speaker 2>she gets oh, okay. There's a lot of people who
<v Speaker 2>will just be like oh a woman, and she'd be
<v Speaker 2>like yeah, and I'm gonna kill you in like five seconds,
<v Speaker 2>so like let's get through those, which is like a
<v Speaker 2>fun dynamic have you know, So there's not really like
<v Speaker 2>a comic relief character. Really, ultimately, it's not. It's a
<v Speaker 2>pretty dour game. It's not without its light moments, but
<v Speaker 2>it but it takes itself very seriously and in an
<v Speaker 2>effective way. I would argue, I think it works.
<v Speaker 1>Right, and the combat's the same, like switching between the different
<v Speaker 1>sword stances and whatnot.
<v Speaker 2>Or yeah, I mean that's like I guess you could
<v Speaker 2>call it a complaint if I didn't like Sushima so much, right, Like,
<v Speaker 2>I think like a lot of the mechanics of Sushima
<v Speaker 2>I think worked really well. I thought the stealth was
<v Speaker 2>a lot of fun in Sushima because it really prioritizes
<v Speaker 2>like like there's so many stealth games that are very
<v Speaker 2>punishing to sort of make the stealth more intense, right,
<v Speaker 2>it's like, if you get caught, it's over. Where Sushima
<v Speaker 2>and Yote are very much like we're gonna make stealth
<v Speaker 2>pretty breezy and fun and if and if things go wrong,
<v Speaker 2>like you're a badass, like you're gonna be fine, and
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't feel like you've failed, right, Like I feel
<v Speaker 2>like both of the games are pretty good at making
<v Speaker 2>you not feel like a failure even if you don't
<v Speaker 2>succeed in being stealth healthy as you planned, which I like.
<v Speaker 2>And by the end of the game, you know, when
<v Speaker 2>I'm trying to just like wrap up a few things,
<v Speaker 2>I did often just walk into a camp and just
<v Speaker 2>basically yell and be like, hey, let's come on, try
<v Speaker 2>to fight me. You know, Like I wouldn't even bother
<v Speaker 2>doing stealth at a certain point because and because it's
<v Speaker 2>like and if I'm in the mood for stealth, you
<v Speaker 2>know that's available. But you know, I kind of got
<v Speaker 2>sidetracked there. But like it doesn't like radically reinvent anything
<v Speaker 2>in Sushima, right, Like you have different weapons, but that idea,
<v Speaker 2>that rock paper scissor idea of like switching between them
<v Speaker 2>mid fight is still present and super fun and like cool,
<v Speaker 2>and like it's really fun to use like the new
<v Speaker 2>weapons to just bash through someone's shield, you know, and
<v Speaker 2>stuff like that. And you have new things, like you
<v Speaker 2>have a gun instead of not instead of but alongside
<v Speaker 2>like a bow and arrow, you know, like it's it's
<v Speaker 2>not like a radical reinvention, but it's like but it's
<v Speaker 2>just like iterated on a little bit where it's just
<v Speaker 2>improved somewhat. Same with like navigation with the wind. You know,
<v Speaker 2>it's like the wind was like one of the most
<v Speaker 2>memorable interesting parts of Sushima, So like that maintains here
<v Speaker 2>and it's still very good and very sort of lets
<v Speaker 2>you just focus on the world, which looks fantastic. It's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of things of like it is. It is
<v Speaker 2>an iterative sequel in a complimentary way where I think
<v Speaker 2>I think I can say pretty easily that they improved
<v Speaker 2>on everything right, Maybe not in like massive ways, but
<v Speaker 2>it's like the story's better, the main character is more interesting,
<v Speaker 2>the combat smoother, like you know, all those things are
<v Speaker 2>just like better overall in general awesome.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's mentioning the win. Is it surprising to you
<v Speaker 1>guys that goes to Shushimo was five years ago and
<v Speaker 1>no other game has ripped that off. Like that's got
<v Speaker 1>a while to me because of how that's such a
<v Speaker 1>great idea and such an easy idea to just pluck
<v Speaker 1>and put into your game, I know, and unless i'm
<v Speaker 1>unless I'm I don't know if maybe there's something I
<v Speaker 1>don't know of, But it's like, how has that not
<v Speaker 1>just been ripped off yet? Like this is only the
<v Speaker 1>second game to do it.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's so it's very much people take like
<v Speaker 3>an all or nothing approach to the maps nowadays, where
<v Speaker 3>it's like either you're going all the way and you're
<v Speaker 3>like getting the towers and clearing all the sections off,
<v Speaker 3>or people were like, we hate towers and clearing sections off,
<v Speaker 3>so we're not gonna give you any map and you're
<v Speaker 3>gonna have to figure it out all by yourself. And
<v Speaker 3>sometimes that's fun and sometimes it's not fun. But I
<v Speaker 3>really like the balance the Ghost of Souci Moodeyestra.
<v Speaker 2>Like you can't. I never really pulled out my sort
<v Speaker 2>of telescope and just marked the map and just went
<v Speaker 2>in that direction. I think there's only like one little
<v Speaker 2>side mission I did it for, but like that's you
<v Speaker 2>could totally do it that way, and you can see,
<v Speaker 2>like you can look out in the distance and see
<v Speaker 2>like you know, smoke rising up in the air, and
<v Speaker 2>that's like always a signal that there's something interesting there, right,
<v Speaker 2>but you could also just like use the map and
<v Speaker 2>mark it and like, like I said, fast travels instantaneous.
<v Speaker 2>There's never a barrier of like maybe I should just
<v Speaker 2>ride my horse over there. It'll be quicker than watching
<v Speaker 2>a loading screen. Like it's all. It's like, it's it's insane,
<v Speaker 2>Like I don't I don't know how they pulled it off,
<v Speaker 2>where like it's just everything is instantaneous. It's wild.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I guess they figure that out with Spider
<v Speaker 1>Man because that also had the instantaneous like yeah, wellload
<v Speaker 1>that nobody used because the traversal was actually really fun.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, Sushima has that acqu loading too, but it
<v Speaker 2>still feels magical. Like I it's it's wild that you
<v Speaker 2>can just like press a button and you're there, Like
<v Speaker 2>it's it's crazy, it is.
<v Speaker 3>It's it is interesting how how much of a like
<v Speaker 3>modern gaming thing that is that I've started to get
<v Speaker 3>really used to. And then like Marcus and I will
<v Speaker 3>be streaming Resident Evil Outbreak and to move between one
<v Speaker 3>room and another room is like ten seconds of loading
<v Speaker 3>screen per room.
<v Speaker 2>And it's like, you know, they just don't do that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the heartbeat is literally counting on a number of
<v Speaker 1>heartbeats that you have waiting for the next scene to
<v Speaker 1>load in.
<v Speaker 2>Awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I have not been able to fire up my
<v Speaker 1>copy yet, which I was I was hoping to before this,
<v Speaker 1>but just busy with my own stuff. But I'm super excited. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm super excited to get to it. Like I said,
<v Speaker 1>I I liked Sushim a lot, but I it was
<v Speaker 1>just like short of just falling in full love with it.
<v Speaker 1>But everything you're saying sounds awesome and like, actually, I
<v Speaker 1>guess the last question I have was like that original trailer,
<v Speaker 1>Remember that first trailer had that really kind of like
<v Speaker 1>that soundtrack, but like the kind of Western eye, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>kind of vibe, Like does that is that indicative like
<v Speaker 1>the tone of the game, because I mean the idea
<v Speaker 1>of the Revenge Quest sounds like something that could be
<v Speaker 1>like a spaghetti western of like going on. Does it
<v Speaker 1>have like that Western vibe or you think that was
<v Speaker 1>just sort of a I mean I don't want off
<v Speaker 1>for that trailer.
<v Speaker 2>It does for sure, like, especially like the the sort
<v Speaker 2>of climax of the game, like the final sort of
<v Speaker 2>confrontations and stuff like that definitely have sort of a
<v Speaker 2>Western kind of tone. And when I say Western, I'm
<v Speaker 2>talking about like the film genre, right, yeah, like they did.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that is like the I think samurai films es
<v Speaker 3>are what Westerns are kind of based off of. So
<v Speaker 3>it is cool to like, Yeah, you take it in
<v Speaker 3>the old version into the new version, Yeah, and it
<v Speaker 3>works well. And then I didn't dig too much into
<v Speaker 3>it because I didn't want to not have the sort
<v Speaker 3>of proper experience.
<v Speaker 2>But the uh, what a Nabe mode? Is that right?
<v Speaker 3>That's what I was gonna I was gonna ask about
<v Speaker 3>the director.
<v Speaker 2>The one that I was interested in, Yeah, is what
<v Speaker 2>a Nabe? Which has the like it's he's the anime
<v Speaker 2>director who created Cowboy Bebop and more specifically Samurai Champlu,
<v Speaker 2>which was like they basically yeah, great show that like
<v Speaker 2>they basically if you turn that on, it makes the
<v Speaker 2>soundtrack like was it like chill beats to you know?
<v Speaker 1>Does it just add like music? Like he was the
<v Speaker 1>producer that that the all the soundtrack for? Is it
<v Speaker 1>just Yeah, basically I'm a big fan of this. That
<v Speaker 1>would actually be incredible to play the game with his music.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I like I turned it on for a
<v Speaker 2>little while to do some side quests and stuff, and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, I think I kind of want to
<v Speaker 2>keep this on, you know, like you get that that
<v Speaker 2>just that chill sort of hip hop stuff, like is
<v Speaker 2>it's so good, it works so well, and they have
<v Speaker 2>and it's like it's like, you know, they have like
<v Speaker 2>you know, the combat music, they have the Wata Nabe
<v Speaker 2>version of the combat music, so it's like you could
<v Speaker 2>totally keep it on and it would be like a
<v Speaker 2>seamless soundtrack. I think maybe some of the cutscenes might
<v Speaker 2>go back to like the sort of orchestrated soundtrack, which
<v Speaker 2>is like great, But I was like really impressed by
<v Speaker 2>like the tone that the music change sets for the game.
<v Speaker 2>But like then like the the Curasawa mode and the
<v Speaker 2>the other mode who's the director's I name, I can't
<v Speaker 2>remember off the top of my head. Those I was
<v Speaker 2>like less interested in, you know, like I didn't really
<v Speaker 2>want to change the whole visual style of the game.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I would definitely recommend turning on a Wata
<v Speaker 2>Nabbe mode at least for a little while. I think
<v Speaker 2>now that I've beaten the game, and I'm gonna go
<v Speaker 2>and like mop up everything because I do I this
<v Speaker 2>is one of those games that I finished and you guys,
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure you've had this before where you're like, I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to not be in this world. I'm not
<v Speaker 2>ready to leave as yet. Like that is one hundred
<v Speaker 2>percent how I feel like. I'm just like I was
<v Speaker 2>putting off beating the game for so long, even though
<v Speaker 2>I had to for review, because I just didn't want
<v Speaker 2>the journey to be over, and like I don't really
<v Speaker 2>have as I get older, like that video game experience
<v Speaker 2>kind of becomes rarer and rarer, Like I am very
<v Speaker 2>much a like see credits, move on to the next thing.
<v Speaker 2>We're here, Like I'm gonna look for every excuse to
<v Speaker 2>like not be playing Ghost of Yota, Like I just
<v Speaker 2>want to see everything it has to offer, you know.
<v Speaker 2>But now that now that I've seen credits, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>I'll probably just leave water on mode on all the
<v Speaker 2>time because the soundtrack is so cool.
<v Speaker 3>I do like because I remember, uh like probably with
<v Speaker 3>like Spider Man two or something like a game where
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, I want to keep playing this and I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna just one hundred percent I if I've played it
<v Speaker 3>long enough, I do kind of get to the point
<v Speaker 3>where I'm like, all right, I'm gonna listen to my
<v Speaker 3>podcast and just kind of do the busy work of
<v Speaker 3>figuring this out. And I like the idea that it's
<v Speaker 3>like you can make it visually audibly interesting that's separate
<v Speaker 3>from the other thing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's just cool. I mean it is. And there
<v Speaker 2>is like a lot of Spider Man in the game
<v Speaker 2>in an odd way. Spider Man's in this game. I'm
<v Speaker 2>literally Charles, I'm sorry. I mean he's just so excited.
<v Speaker 2>But like just the like and not tone is the
<v Speaker 2>wrong word, but just like the experience of playing where
<v Speaker 2>Spider Man and Spider Man two are so like seamless, right,
<v Speaker 2>Like there's just like you're just in that we're having
<v Speaker 2>a great time, and it's like there's and you're just
<v Speaker 2>kind of always upgrading yourself and doing things like this
<v Speaker 2>has that kind of gameplay tone, like not not like
<v Speaker 2>narrative tone or world tone, but just like gameplay tone
<v Speaker 2>of just like, yeah, we're gonna let you in here.
<v Speaker 2>There's always gonna be something fun to do. You're never
<v Speaker 2>gonna not be having fun, whether that's you know, solving
<v Speaker 2>a puzzle or like stopping a crime. Like there's always
<v Speaker 2>gonna be some cool distraction that you're gonna want to
<v Speaker 2>be engaged with, and like you can even you know,
<v Speaker 2>skip the little things that maybe you don't want to do,
<v Speaker 2>and the loading is instantaneous so you have no excuse.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, a great game, Like it'll definitely be one
<v Speaker 2>that I'll be, you know, pushing forward the end of
<v Speaker 2>the year for accolades and talking about a lot like
<v Speaker 2>I this is definitely like I said this and Claire
<v Speaker 2>for me are like my my one and two for
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty five. So far Metroit Prime still has to
<v Speaker 2>be in my hands. See how that goes. That's true.
<v Speaker 3>I wanted to ask, are you also are you an
<v Speaker 3>Erica fan of like outside of game?
<v Speaker 2>No, I am, now, I was like because I like
<v Speaker 2>her as Atsu so much, but I was completely unfamiliar
<v Speaker 2>with her until until playing Yote.
<v Speaker 3>If if you ever watch dropout stuff, Erica does a
<v Speaker 3>lot of like comedy things and actual play like tabletop stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's like a D and D person right, Like
<v Speaker 2>she's she's been on.
<v Speaker 3>Critical role in Mention twenty and she's she's on my
<v Speaker 3>favorite show Worlds beyond Number.
<v Speaker 2>She's great. It was a fantastic performance. I was really
<v Speaker 2>impressed by it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, oh yeah, well Ghost of Shushima, like we
<v Speaker 1>mentioned out October seven, Yota PlayStation clearer ghost Ghost of.
<v Speaker 2>Clear also out if you can play Ghost of Sushi also.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, so October second, Ghost of Yote for PlayStation five.
<v Speaker 2>Real quick, Oh, Charles, are you a Sushima guy? Are
<v Speaker 2>you gonna play Yote? Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>So, I I didn't play Sushermo when it came out,
<v Speaker 3>and I don't really remember why. I don't know what
<v Speaker 3>was going on in my life at that point. I
<v Speaker 3>thought I was still in college, so I think it
<v Speaker 3>was just like literally busy. But I played it a
<v Speaker 3>few years after and I got like fifteen or so
<v Speaker 3>hours in and then I was like, I'm done. I
<v Speaker 3>think I like finished the first act or like the
<v Speaker 3>first major section, and it kind of opened up a
<v Speaker 3>new part of the world. And I remember having the
<v Speaker 3>thought where I'm.
<v Speaker 2>Like, I'm good.
<v Speaker 3>I don't really feel the need to I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I liked it, but it didn't really get its hooks
<v Speaker 3>in me, and I was more playing it because I
<v Speaker 3>knew people liked it so much, and I was like,
<v Speaker 3>I got to get around to it, and I ultimately
<v Speaker 3>was like it kind of felt like another open world game,
<v Speaker 3>and I both wasn't really in the mood and wasn't
<v Speaker 3>like super blown away. I think that this story you
<v Speaker 3>were saying it's so good it's that is just immediately
<v Speaker 3>more compelling to me, like the story level I think about.
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, I genuinely can't remember the story of Ghost
<v Speaker 3>Sushi off the top of my head right now. I
<v Speaker 3>assume it was a similar revenge story, but I some yeah,
<v Speaker 3>distinctly remember when I played through all of the Assassin's
<v Speaker 3>Creed games a few years ago that there's a pretty clear,
<v Speaker 3>uh like linear graph of how much I enjoy the
<v Speaker 3>game and how much revenge is like a palpable part
<v Speaker 3>of the plot line where I'm like, like an Assassin
<v Speaker 3>Creed revelations at he I wasn't really trying to get
<v Speaker 3>revenge on anyone anymore, and I feel like he's not
<v Speaker 3>like driven to do all this crazy killing and stuff. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>when there is that, I'm like, I'm so into it.
<v Speaker 3>And you're saying that that was like a major part
<v Speaker 3>of ots who's character is like, I'm like much more.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they lock it in really well, It's it's they
<v Speaker 2>do a good job with that cool. Well, yeah, I didn't.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't mean that sort of sidetrack us, but like
<v Speaker 2>to hear your opinion. But I was curious, Charles. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>good game. Alrighty well, thank you, Kyle H.
<v Speaker 1>Charles. I'm gonna throw it to you now because you
<v Speaker 1>have been playing the one point zero version of Hades two,
<v Speaker 1>which drops this week in a much like a in
<v Speaker 1>a hollow, Hollow night silk song fashion out of nowhere
<v Speaker 1>more or less. Super Giant Games announcing just a couple
<v Speaker 1>of weeks ago that Hades two, which went into early
<v Speaker 1>access last spring, would be yeah, last May, coming out
<v Speaker 1>in one point zero, which they did keep to their
<v Speaker 1>schedule they were. They always told everyone, including us when
<v Speaker 1>we did the cover story, that it would be out
<v Speaker 1>sometime next year, which I was confident about, just because
<v Speaker 1>they were saying, like one day went into early access
<v Speaker 1>a lot later than they did with Hades one, which
<v Speaker 1>is why it was so robust even when it first
<v Speaker 1>went in early access, and also just them having a
<v Speaker 1>template to build on. I know greg Is often was
<v Speaker 1>telling me when I was there, just like, yeah, we
<v Speaker 1>don't really need to keep it an early access as
<v Speaker 1>long it should be, it should be out sometimes twenty five,
<v Speaker 1>but it is here. You've been playing it, you finished it?
<v Speaker 1>What do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I played it.
<v Speaker 3>I really really really like it. I was really talking
<v Speaker 3>about it was a lot.
<v Speaker 2>I'm serious.
<v Speaker 3>Kyle was saying all this stuff about Ghost of Yote
<v Speaker 3>and I was like, oh, he's taking all my talking
<v Speaker 3>points for Hades two.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well did you before we started? Did you? Were
<v Speaker 1>you a Hades one guy?
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely? I love Hades one.
<v Speaker 3>It's like one of my one of my favorite games
<v Speaker 3>of all time, Hades one, all time. All right, So
<v Speaker 3>I at the time of this recording, by the time
<v Speaker 3>this is out, the review will have been published. At
<v Speaker 3>the time of this recording, I have not really.
<v Speaker 2>Settled on a score all the way.
<v Speaker 3>But this is the first time I have reviewed a
<v Speaker 3>game and seriously considered a ten. All right, kind I'm
<v Speaker 3>up there, I'm kind of jumping around. I had a
<v Speaker 3>conversation with Brian, who's like in charge of reviews here,
<v Speaker 3>and I was like, I'm thinking about this. I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, not asking him like permission necessarily, but
<v Speaker 3>it's like a big deal to give a game to
<v Speaker 3>tell you yeah, And so we had the conversation and
<v Speaker 3>having just finished it, I'm leaning more ten than I
<v Speaker 3>was before I had finished it now that I've kind
<v Speaker 3>of like seen it through to the end. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>this game rocks. It is the it is like the
<v Speaker 3>perfect roguelike. It's I couldn't I have thought really hard about,
<v Speaker 3>like like a a game getting atten necessarily mean it's perfect.
<v Speaker 3>But a thing I usually start when I'm reviewing a
<v Speaker 3>game is I'm like, how much do I like it?
<v Speaker 3>And then how much are things I dislike about it?
<v Speaker 3>Like kind of bumping points off of that, like are
<v Speaker 3>there little you know, quality of life things I think
<v Speaker 3>could be better? Do I just actively dislike this part
<v Speaker 3>of it? How my feeling with playing the game, And like,
<v Speaker 3>the more I think about Hades two, the more I
<v Speaker 3>cannot come with a good like thing I would change
<v Speaker 3>about it, even on like a micro level. And whenever
<v Speaker 3>I'm not playing it thinking about playing it, And I
<v Speaker 3>also don't I don't leave the game feeling upset. I
<v Speaker 3>never leave the game being like, oh I'm mad at
<v Speaker 3>how that went. There's games where like.
<v Speaker 2>And isn't really a perfect Charles. I think that's why
<v Speaker 2>it is.
<v Speaker 3>It's like erase is that like I don't know that
<v Speaker 3>major point where of like like when when I'm playing
<v Speaker 3>games casually, like not for review, I usually give myself
<v Speaker 3>like three of those, like I'm not really feeling this game,
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to turn it off. And once I have
<v Speaker 3>the third time where I'm like not really vibing with
<v Speaker 3>the game anymore, that's usually when I'm like done with it.
<v Speaker 3>And just the fact that I did not even really
<v Speaker 3>have one of those of Hades two is like really
<v Speaker 3>telling of how much I like it. If you don't know,
<v Speaker 3>I guess I'll like explain the concept of Hades and
<v Speaker 3>Hates two. You are in this game you're playing is Mulinaway,
<v Speaker 3>who's a daughter of Hades, and in this story Chronos,
<v Speaker 3>who's like the father of Hades and a lot of
<v Speaker 3>like the major gods in Greek mythology.
<v Speaker 2>Titan is a.
<v Speaker 3>Titan of time. He has basically imprisoned Hades Zagary, all
<v Speaker 3>the characters you know in Love from Hades one are
<v Speaker 3>somewhere imprisoned down in the underworld. And Melina Way was
<v Speaker 3>raised in the Crossroads, which is like the shadow plane
<v Speaker 3>between like the overworld and the underworld, and has basically
<v Speaker 3>been training as a witch her whole life to kill Kronos,
<v Speaker 3>and instead of breaking out of hell like you do
<v Speaker 3>in the first game, you're now breaking into hell. So
<v Speaker 3>it's a lot of like familiar kind of areas. It's
<v Speaker 3>like new twists on characters that you knew before, and
<v Speaker 3>it's just really really good. It feels good. There's new weapons,
<v Speaker 3>there's a lot of new mechanics, but they're introduced so
<v Speaker 3>gradually that it's like I never felt overwhelmed or bored
<v Speaker 3>by them. Like a paragraph I had in my review is,
<v Speaker 3>on my fortieth run of this game, I unlocked a
<v Speaker 3>new weapon and then also discovered a new god to
<v Speaker 3>get boons from. Like I was forty runs in and
<v Speaker 3>it was like completely different than every other run I
<v Speaker 3>had done, And that last weapon ends up being my
<v Speaker 3>favorite weapon. But I'd already I already the game up
<v Speaker 3>until that point. So for it to go that many
<v Speaker 3>hours in and be like, here's your new favorite thing
<v Speaker 3>and it will remain your favorite thing is just bonkers.
<v Speaker 3>And it's a game that, like I said, I never
<v Speaker 3>left it feeling bad, but it is like such a
<v Speaker 3>almost to the point where I'm like, you ever play
<v Speaker 3>a game that's so good like I feel this way.
<v Speaker 2>With like Vampire Survivors.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, ah, maybe there's something wrong about video games
<v Speaker 3>that it's making my brain feel this way like maybe
<v Speaker 3>this is too good where I'm like every whenever you
<v Speaker 3>lose the game, it's like, well, you lost, but now
<v Speaker 3>you can just spend all that currency you got on
<v Speaker 3>upgrades and you willunlock this new thing and you can
<v Speaker 3>get this new thing, and you're like one thing away
<v Speaker 3>from this new thing, so you.
<v Speaker 2>Should probably just start a new run immediately.
<v Speaker 3>And it's like everyone feels like that in a way
<v Speaker 3>that I'm like, I don't know, they just did it.
<v Speaker 2>They just made a very very good game. They nailed it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean that's incredible to hear. It's like I'm
<v Speaker 1>I'm with you in terms of like I adore Hades,
<v Speaker 1>I adore Super Giant in general. I love all their games,
<v Speaker 1>but Haites is easily my favorite of the bunch. It
<v Speaker 1>was my game of the Year in twenty twenty when
<v Speaker 1>it went one point oh that year. And I played
<v Speaker 1>a good bit of Hades two when it first went
<v Speaker 1>into early access, a lot of it for the cover
<v Speaker 1>story and was like floored then by it of like oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is yeah, this is better in every way. And
<v Speaker 1>this just came out in early Access, and I haven't
<v Speaker 1>touched it much since that first month, just because I
<v Speaker 1>didn't want to burn out on it basically, So I
<v Speaker 1>I like, I have like did you keep up with
<v Speaker 1>it at all throughout early Access or did you take
<v Speaker 1>a similar break? Like I wonder like if you played
<v Speaker 1>in the beginning, how much change has like how much
<v Speaker 1>has been changed about the game since it first went
<v Speaker 1>in early access.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so I.
<v Speaker 3>I also, as I'm saying this, there's I was talking
<v Speaker 3>about new things you unlock and how it's kind of gradual.
<v Speaker 3>There's some things about like the nature of Hades two
<v Speaker 3>that I don't want to spoil that I think other
<v Speaker 3>views will probably talk about. But I think it's so
<v Speaker 3>fun to just discover stuff in this game.
<v Speaker 1>There's a big thing that happens that was any origin
<v Speaker 1>the original early Access launched that I yeah, it is
<v Speaker 1>public knowledge in terms of like the places you go. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but even then, I guess we don't need to go
<v Speaker 1>out a way to spoil it, even though I guess
<v Speaker 1>it's been out.
<v Speaker 2>There for a year. But yeah, it's also good. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's also good.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, But so I when I had played the Early Access,
<v Speaker 3>I did not exhaust all of the Early Access content,
<v Speaker 3>and I wasn't many an updates. So I played like
<v Speaker 3>the first build of Early Access for like twenty hours
<v Speaker 3>and I really liked it, and I came back and
<v Speaker 3>I've been playing, and then also my fiance has been
<v Speaker 3>playing like also on my switch, on her own profile,
<v Speaker 3>which has been a nice way for me to like
<v Speaker 3>see the natural like early stages of the game again
<v Speaker 3>without me having to replay them, and for her to
<v Speaker 3>have all like the natural like discovery of stuff and
<v Speaker 3>being like, oh, that's how we meet that character. Oh
<v Speaker 3>that's how this happens, et cetera. But for the most part,
<v Speaker 3>it is the same. It feels very similar. I would
<v Speaker 3>say the main thing that they changed that I like more,
<v Speaker 3>and this is I think a relatively early update to
<v Speaker 3>the game, is there's a gathering tools, so when you
<v Speaker 3>leave to start a run, you can get like a
<v Speaker 3>pickaxe or a shovel, and that lets you collect certain
<v Speaker 3>types of resources that will like let you upgrade your
<v Speaker 3>weapons or you know, cast some kind of spell in
<v Speaker 3>the cauldron. And it used to be you had to
<v Speaker 3>pick one and that was the only type of resource
<v Speaker 3>you could get through a whole run, and now they're like,
<v Speaker 3>that's dumb.
<v Speaker 2>You can just have all of them.
<v Speaker 3>You can just do all of them all the time,
<v Speaker 3>and it feels way better. And it was the one
<v Speaker 3>thing where like you would you would encounter the type
<v Speaker 3>of resource and it's like, you can't get that this run,
<v Speaker 3>and that would be kind of the gist of it.
<v Speaker 3>So that's one thing that's changed. I think the feel
<v Speaker 3>is probably about the same. I remember when I think
<v Speaker 3>when you did the cover story, because I edited that
<v Speaker 3>rapid Fire, which you should check out listeners, is very good.
<v Speaker 3>They I think they mentioned like about like the balance
<v Speaker 3>of the game. They were like, aw, fastest might be
<v Speaker 3>too good right now because we just added him in,
<v Speaker 3>but he still feels really good.
<v Speaker 2>So if they nerfed him, I couldn't tell. I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>All this is to say, there's a lot of words
<v Speaker 3>to say. It hasn't really changed that much, but it
<v Speaker 3>was already good, so I'm not really like surprised, But
<v Speaker 3>it has the feel of a game where you're like,
<v Speaker 3>I can tell this has been you know, extensively play tested,
<v Speaker 3>and there's been a lot of feedback to make it
<v Speaker 3>feels good as it does, also noting I played it
<v Speaker 3>on switch To. I played my first twenty or so
<v Speaker 3>hours in early access on steam Deck, and then I
<v Speaker 3>played this on switch To. No performance issues runs like
<v Speaker 3>a dream loads up quick and it is a switch.
<v Speaker 1>To like there was a switch to native version because
<v Speaker 1>it's also on switch yeahe two.
<v Speaker 3>It's something crazy like it it supports like.
<v Speaker 2>I love that game.
<v Speaker 3>There's a a if you have like a TV that
<v Speaker 3>supports one hundred and twenty fps, like this game runs
<v Speaker 3>that that they like announced on switch To.
<v Speaker 1>That's crazy on switch too, and I think only when
<v Speaker 1>doc yeah, of course, yeahah, And I don't have.
<v Speaker 3>A TV that does that, so I didn't test that out,
<v Speaker 3>but that's probably cool. I don't know, Yeah, I think,
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, I think. I know you're kind of the
<v Speaker 3>roguelike hater of the book kind of.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like I I certainly have many that I have
<v Speaker 2>fallen in love with a in a big way, hades.
<v Speaker 2>It was one that I liked, like I never quite
<v Speaker 2>crust it into like love affair. I beat it, you know,
<v Speaker 2>like I saw it to credits and I was like,
<v Speaker 2>that was good, and that was sort of my sort
<v Speaker 2>of relationship with Hades, but hearing you talk about it,
<v Speaker 2>and like I was like, Hades two was on that
<v Speaker 2>my cue of like I gotta play this, and it's like,
<v Speaker 2>am I really going to get around to it? I
<v Speaker 2>don't know, Like that's kind of one of those games.
<v Speaker 2>But I think hearing you talk about Charles, I think
<v Speaker 2>Hollow Knight's gotta go, man, I think I think I
<v Speaker 2>gotta Like That's what I've been playing on my which too.
<v Speaker 2>I've been making really slow progress and it's like it's
<v Speaker 2>not that I dislike it or anything, but I'm just
<v Speaker 2>like every time I play it, I'm like, I don't
<v Speaker 2>think I'm in the headspace for a challenge like this
<v Speaker 2>right now. Yeah, I think I think I'm I think
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna switch over. Haites two is gonna become my
<v Speaker 2>switch to game now, I think. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Ilk song is a perfect example of the I felt
<v Speaker 3>bad putting this game down yeah too many times, and
<v Speaker 3>that's what I'm doing a lot. Yeah yeah, where I'm
<v Speaker 3>like I just don't like and once I beat this boss,
<v Speaker 3>I think that was the thing is I went from
<v Speaker 3>being mad at one boss to being mad at the
<v Speaker 3>next boss, and I never had a moment between more like, man,
<v Speaker 3>I'm so good at Silk Song, I'm so satisfied, and
<v Speaker 3>we'll talk about this. We'll get to Baby Steps later,
<v Speaker 3>which is the game I also reviewed this week. But
<v Speaker 3>I think there are just some people that have a
<v Speaker 3>much uh more inherent sense of satisfaction in a game
<v Speaker 3>of completing a task where they don't need the game
<v Speaker 3>to then reward them for it, or to be further incentivized,
<v Speaker 3>like to have a challenge and complete a challenge is
<v Speaker 3>like fun. And I feel that way about some things,
<v Speaker 3>and it depends on the game, and I feel about
<v Speaker 3>the style of game, but to have like an incentive
<v Speaker 3>in there makes me want to play it more, obviously,
<v Speaker 3>And Hades two is like the most I think the
<v Speaker 3>Besties podcasts with the maclroy's and some Polygon folks I
<v Speaker 3>guess now former Polygon folks. But when Hades one came out,
<v Speaker 3>Justin McElroy said that I think Hades might be the
<v Speaker 3>funnest game of all time, and I think about that
<v Speaker 3>all the time. I'm like, you know, I could try
<v Speaker 3>to be critical about it, just as the funnest game.
<v Speaker 3>And that's your review headline, right, the funnest that's my
<v Speaker 3>review The Funnest.
<v Speaker 2>Alright, I guess this is the more the funnierrest gig
<v Speaker 2>It's better. Yeah, funnery, funderiest love. Yeah. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>The story also is I was gonna say, you can
<v Speaker 3>see you see a lot more of it now that
<v Speaker 3>the game is in like a completed state. There's just
<v Speaker 3>like more stages that you can reach and stuff. And
<v Speaker 3>I like the ending a lot. I think it's like
<v Speaker 3>a I think with Hades one. Also, once you kind
<v Speaker 3>of see all the areas and all the bosses you're
<v Speaker 3>gonna fight, you kind of have an image in your
<v Speaker 3>head of like, this is what success in the game
<v Speaker 3>will be like. And the way that Hades two kind
<v Speaker 3>of flips it on its head and it's like, uh,
<v Speaker 3>it's not there's not necessarily an easy, straightforward solution to
<v Speaker 3>this sort of thing. Is a thing where I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>I feel like I know everyone's smart and the writers
<v Speaker 3>are very smart.
<v Speaker 2>About making smart or something.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm the first to say.
<v Speaker 1>It hot take. Yeah, good writer. No, that's exciting. I
<v Speaker 1>like to your point about Hollo Night is it is
<v Speaker 1>like delightfully diabolical that those two games launched as close
<v Speaker 1>together as they have Because I'm so early in Hollow Night,
<v Speaker 1>and not for a different reason. I've just been tied
<v Speaker 1>up with review games.
<v Speaker 2>I just haven't had time.
<v Speaker 1>I'm in there too, to get back into it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like otherwise i'd be ANXI. I do like what I've
<v Speaker 1>played of it, and I'm a Hollow Night fan in general.
<v Speaker 1>But like now that I have hollow Ight or Holiday
<v Speaker 1>Haites two on my switch to as well Inson Steam version,
<v Speaker 1>which there is cross saves between her two, which is awesome. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>because I'm gonna just I'm thinking I might just start
<v Speaker 1>over from scratch because I just don't I just kind
<v Speaker 1>of want to see the beginning and it's completed state
<v Speaker 1>now and I never finished the early access content when
<v Speaker 1>it first came out, and also it's an excuse to
<v Speaker 1>play more eighties two. So it's like I think, I
<v Speaker 1>was like, I think I might just wipe my save
<v Speaker 1>and just start from scratch and then just transfer my
<v Speaker 1>data to switch to and just go back and forth
<v Speaker 1>between the you know, depending on if I want to
<v Speaker 1>lay in bed and play some hades.
<v Speaker 3>They do have multiple save files, I will say, so
<v Speaker 3>if you do want to move it over really started.
<v Speaker 3>So what I did, I started a fresh save, and
<v Speaker 3>then I was like, I want all my old stuff again,
<v Speaker 3>so I went back to my existing stave. I do
<v Speaker 3>think like to this note, I don't know how long
<v Speaker 3>it would take to start because I played the early
<v Speaker 3>access version and I didn't like exhaust all the content
<v Speaker 3>of that. But I play about fifty hours to reach
<v Speaker 3>the credits, which is a long time. Yeah, and I
<v Speaker 3>think if you were better, if you were better at
<v Speaker 3>the game, you would probably do it faster. Not that
<v Speaker 3>I was terrible once I got like a childs.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if you noticed about me.
<v Speaker 2>Pretty good at video games, are pretty good at video games.
<v Speaker 2>Marcus hard games a lot.
<v Speaker 1>I might have heard my name is some sort You
<v Speaker 1>might have seen some Marcade leader boards. I said, all
<v Speaker 1>that was you.
<v Speaker 2>You're ever sing one of them?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's sorry, big reveal, exclusive reveal, that is meet
<v Speaker 1>this whole time.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's a joke, Marcus that I'm mad I haven't
<v Speaker 2>heard before. That so funny, just claiming that you're a
<v Speaker 2>A A that's marks middle name, ah A for Marcus,
<v Speaker 2>A for Stewart. There's an A in there, and.
<v Speaker 1>My middle name does have two a's or three a's.
<v Speaker 2>If anyone would know, I think it would be you
<v Speaker 2>you're asking.
<v Speaker 1>I have two I have two middle names that are hyphenated,
<v Speaker 1>so it's jamal Lamar. So there are four a's total
<v Speaker 1>in there.
<v Speaker 3>WHOA, you're like the like the GTA six of people.
<v Speaker 1>Highly anticipated and people expect more of me than I
<v Speaker 1>could probably deliver.
<v Speaker 2>But somehow you always live up to those expectations.
<v Speaker 1>MARKO awesome. Yes, uh so yeah haities to everyone. Keep
<v Speaker 1>an eye out on Gimingformer dot com for Charles's full review.
<v Speaker 1>See if if it got that coveted ten or not.
<v Speaker 1>We'll see.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm super stoked to play this game. Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Moving on to yet another big game that came out
<v Speaker 1>this week, Silent Hill F the new mainline entry in
<v Speaker 1>a Silent Hill series, the first one in like over
<v Speaker 1>thirteen years. Because we've i mean won, we we we
<v Speaker 1>stopped getting Silent Hill games for a long time, and
<v Speaker 1>then we got the uh, the very good Silent Hill
<v Speaker 1>to remake last year, and we've gotten like smaller side
<v Speaker 1>projects in that time, like that free uh the short
<v Speaker 1>message game, and then that uh, that streaming one that
<v Speaker 1>nobody liked. I don't remember what that one was called.
<v Speaker 2>I looked at a list on I think it was
<v Speaker 2>Etcetera had like a list according to Metacritic of the
<v Speaker 2>Oh I don't remember where the list was sourced from,
<v Speaker 2>but that Silent Hill streaming game was like at the bottom,
<v Speaker 2>Like people really did not like that game at all.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think it's like, objectively the worst Islent Hill game?
<v Speaker 2>Have you seen it? Marcus?
<v Speaker 1>I saw, but like very little bits of it. I didn't.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's not like any Long Force, I mean,
<v Speaker 2>the other competitor not to go down to. Like let's
<v Speaker 2>talk about the cool Silent Hill game that you generally liked.
<v Speaker 2>But like there was also that Vita twin Stick Shooter
<v Speaker 2>which was like pretty pretty too.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah I forgot what that one was called.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so did literally everyone in the universe, Marcus. But
<v Speaker 2>I want to hear about sound Hill F, which is
<v Speaker 2>like for me, my next I've finished with quote unquote finished.
<v Speaker 2>That is what I want to play next. Is if
<v Speaker 2>I'm playing on console, I'm playing Sound Hill F. If
<v Speaker 2>I'm playing on my switch to, which is also a console,
<v Speaker 2>I'm playing Haities two starting today. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>You know, have you ever I'm sure you guys have
<v Speaker 1>had this as fellow games reviewers where there are certain
<v Speaker 1>games sometimes where you're almost more interested and excited to
<v Speaker 1>see what other people think about it than your own
<v Speaker 1>opinion of it. Like this game was the Yeah, Like
<v Speaker 1>this game was the prime example of that, because of
<v Speaker 1>just the wild swings that it makes in its storytelling
<v Speaker 1>and and even just its premise. But then also on
<v Speaker 1>the flip side, for me, there were things that were
<v Speaker 1>so kind of underwhelming that it was like, I like
<v Speaker 1>trying to weigh like this, this aspect of the game,
<v Speaker 1>particularly the combat is so prevalent and is so like
<v Speaker 1>kind of flat compared to the other things going on
<v Speaker 1>in this game that like it, it knocks it down
<v Speaker 1>quite a bit. Yeah, in a way that is disappointing,
<v Speaker 1>And then wondering like how much that's gonna matter for
<v Speaker 1>other people, especially more like fans that are bigger Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill fans than I am, because I'm a more recent
<v Speaker 1>Silent Hill, but I'm a huge survival horror guy and
<v Speaker 1>a big horror guy in general. You know, Like I've
<v Speaker 1>played Silent Hill to the original Silent Hill too. I
<v Speaker 1>have not played the remake yet, but I played that
<v Speaker 1>last year and then I you know, Kyle, we did
<v Speaker 1>our Silent Hill super replay.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, like my play through of the original, my first
<v Speaker 2>play through the original. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So because I was on that, I've seen the
<v Speaker 1>entirety of Silent Hill one and seen that story and
<v Speaker 1>I played I mean pt if we want to count that,
<v Speaker 1>and I played the short message last year. So I'm
<v Speaker 1>getting on a Silent Hill bandwagon and all it that
<v Speaker 1>is to say that silent What's nice about Silent Hill
<v Speaker 1>F is that it is incredibly newcomer friendly because it
<v Speaker 1>is so divorced from the I don't even know if
<v Speaker 1>you say cannon, because my understanding is that the Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hills series is kind of all over the place in
<v Speaker 1>terms of like, like how much does the cannon matter
<v Speaker 1>outside of at least as far as I know, Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill one in three being kind of direct, you know,
<v Speaker 1>having a direct linear Yeah yeah yeah, and the rest
<v Speaker 1>of them all yeah, pretty standalone. So you can come
<v Speaker 1>into Silent Hill F as like this can be your
<v Speaker 1>first Silent Hill, and I think it's a like a
<v Speaker 1>totally fine and respectable entry. So it set in nineteen
<v Speaker 1>sixties Japan. It's in this rural village. He plays this
<v Speaker 1>teenage girl named Hinniko, who kind of like lives in
<v Speaker 1>an abusive household because her dad is kind of a monster,
<v Speaker 1>her mom is subservient to him, so she resents her
<v Speaker 1>mom for allowing it to happen, hates her dad, only
<v Speaker 1>loves her older sister. But she has since moved out
<v Speaker 1>to get married and sort of like she's carrying all
<v Speaker 1>this baggage, a lot of it dealing with like sort
<v Speaker 1>of like gender roles of the time. Like a lot
<v Speaker 1>of this game gets into some interesting sort of like
<v Speaker 1>commentary and symbolism around like feminism and like Hinniko's entire
<v Speaker 1>personality and how rebellious she is, Like she's she's very masculine,
<v Speaker 1>and it's something her friends or some of her friends
<v Speaker 1>almost make fun of her for because she just prefers
<v Speaker 1>the company of boys, just because seeing how her father
<v Speaker 1>treats her mother. He's like, oh, is that what I
<v Speaker 1>have to look forward to when I get married? Well,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to screw that, you know, like why
<v Speaker 1>do we even put up with that? And you know,
<v Speaker 1>she meets up with her friends and the big sinister
<v Speaker 1>fog rolls into her town. Literally it's a very abrupt start,
<v Speaker 1>like the fog just shows up and you're like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 1>we're just getting right into it. I don't know why
<v Speaker 1>is this happening? And then you know, transforms the entire
<v Speaker 1>town and and you know, a bunch of the sort
<v Speaker 1>of like somebody familiar Silent Hill creatures like the creepy
<v Speaker 1>fleshy mannequin show up and just other weird, disturbing horrors.
<v Speaker 1>And from a presentational standpoint, this game is awesome. Like,
<v Speaker 1>I think the art direction is phenomenal. I think the
<v Speaker 1>cinematography and the cut scenes is really well done, and
<v Speaker 1>this is a very well shot game. The soundtrack by
<v Speaker 1>you know, long Time Composure a Kira Yamioka top notch,
<v Speaker 1>very different tou he gets to play around with sort
<v Speaker 1>of the the Jazzjapanese aesthetic a bit, but just like
<v Speaker 1>a lot more of just Japanese sounding like string instruments
<v Speaker 1>and other just like era specific intrumentation that really sets
<v Speaker 1>it apart from the older Silent Hills, Like this was
<v Speaker 1>a game that I never got tired of just looking
<v Speaker 1>and listening to, Like it's just it's just a very
<v Speaker 1>very pretty game. Sort of the main contention point with
<v Speaker 1>it even before, like when the preview beat came out
<v Speaker 1>and everyone was talking about the combat. This is kind
<v Speaker 1>of it seems like there's been a line in the
<v Speaker 1>sam with the Silent Hill community from what I'd say,
<v Speaker 1>because everyone who has been nervous about like, oh, is
<v Speaker 1>this like Dark Souls combat? Just because it's such a reliance,
<v Speaker 1>like it's melee, only you don't use guns and everything
<v Speaker 1>you do is dictated by a staminometer, which in of
<v Speaker 1>itself is not does not automatically make it a Soul's like.
<v Speaker 1>But I think because it's such an oversaturated genre at
<v Speaker 1>this point.
<v Speaker 2>That challenge plus stamina just feels soulsy kind of you know, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And like I'm gonna just reiter it again, this
<v Speaker 1>is not a Soul's like game. You're not like losing
<v Speaker 1>experience and going to collect them, and even the enemies
<v Speaker 1>are not overly difficult, depending on the difficulty you choose,
<v Speaker 1>which I'll get into in a second. But it is
<v Speaker 1>like weighty. It's deliberate in a way that I actually likes.
<v Speaker 1>I think it fits the character because Hennego is this
<v Speaker 1>teenage girl who's not a teenage fighter or a train fighter,
<v Speaker 1>excuse me, and it is just a bunch of her
<v Speaker 1>just swinging for defenses and just bashing these these monsters
<v Speaker 1>that are coming at her, and like it. I think
<v Speaker 1>it feels good, and I think managing the stamina, at
<v Speaker 1>least on the difficulty I played, was totally fine. And
<v Speaker 1>also like it. It makes battles feel a little bit
<v Speaker 1>more interesting and more like a fight because one the
<v Speaker 1>level design in this village is a lot more narrow
<v Speaker 1>and claustrophobic. One of the problems I with the when
<v Speaker 1>I played OG Silent Hill too, even watching just the
<v Speaker 1>older games, is that when you get into the open
<v Speaker 1>world of Silent Hill, a lot of the monsters you
<v Speaker 1>can just so easily just bypass them that they're not
<v Speaker 1>even scary, yeah, because the streets are so wide, like
<v Speaker 1>you just you're like on the opposite side of the
<v Speaker 1>screen and this thing's like shambling by, and you're just
<v Speaker 1>like all right. It's like you're like, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna go to the other side of the street
<v Speaker 1>if there's another person there exactly, I don't know. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Whereas in this game they funnel you into threats, like
<v Speaker 1>there's like this tiny alley way and there's like a
<v Speaker 1>weird creature at the end.
<v Speaker 2>You're like, well, you.
<v Speaker 1>Gotta go through them, and you know you can either
<v Speaker 1>fight them or you can dodge through them. You got
<v Speaker 1>this kind of like perfect dodge that you can use
<v Speaker 1>to evade threats. And there's even like a like a
<v Speaker 1>time counter attack that you can do that's kind of cool,
<v Speaker 1>like they kind of force you to read in any
<v Speaker 1>new movements because at certain points in their attacks they'll
<v Speaker 1>do they're kind of like glow red, like this kind
<v Speaker 1>of red staticky thing that pops up for a second,
<v Speaker 1>and if you attack that window, you'll do this like
<v Speaker 1>stunt attack that stops them for a second, and you
<v Speaker 1>can use that as a chance to either escape or
<v Speaker 1>to finish them off because they take increase damage when
<v Speaker 1>you're stune like that. There's also a sanity meter, which
<v Speaker 1>is probably the biggest new thing in combat, where you
<v Speaker 1>have a focus mechanic where you can basically like hold
<v Speaker 1>a button to like really lock in on an enemy
<v Speaker 1>and it basically makes the counter window easier to spot
<v Speaker 1>and it lasts a little longer. But the longer you
<v Speaker 1>hold that button now it drains this little meter, and
<v Speaker 1>when that meter runs out, you start taking when you
<v Speaker 1>take damage, it starts affecting your health instead. Of just
<v Speaker 1>affecting your sanity, and I guess I think contextually the
<v Speaker 1>idea is like, oh, you're staring at this really horrific
<v Speaker 1>creature for a long time, so it's chipping away at
<v Speaker 1>her psyche and you can only replant. Yeah, and if
<v Speaker 1>you take damage while you're doing this focus, you not
<v Speaker 1>only lose health, but you lose like a chunk of
<v Speaker 1>your overall sandy. And the only way to replenish that
<v Speaker 1>is to go to these prayer shrines that you save at,
<v Speaker 1>and you have to spend this currency called faith to
<v Speaker 1>replenish it. You can only use faith to buy these
<v Speaker 1>like equippable charms that you can use to kind of
<v Speaker 1>build like very simple character builds, like oh, I got
<v Speaker 1>these charms that focus on health regeneration or once it
<v Speaker 1>give me more staminta like help with stamata management. And
<v Speaker 1>you can only have one at a time, but you
<v Speaker 1>can eventually unlock up to three like that I think
<v Speaker 1>is cool. But the problem is that the sanity meter
<v Speaker 1>is only lost behind the hard difficulty, and that's kind
<v Speaker 1>of one of my biggest gripes with this game is
<v Speaker 1>the way they communicate the two difficulties. So there's two
<v Speaker 1>difficulties types for each style of play, so there's action
<v Speaker 1>and puzzle solving each. You choose the difficulty for each
<v Speaker 1>one at the beginning, okay, and you can choose either
<v Speaker 1>story difficulty or you can use hard difficulty. Now immediately,
<v Speaker 1>I have a problem with those labels because usually in
<v Speaker 1>most games, that usually means the game is gonna be
<v Speaker 1>too easy or too hard, and it's like, is there,
<v Speaker 1>like is there normal? Like I don't necessarily want either
<v Speaker 1>of these if they mean what they usually need these.
<v Speaker 3>I just like if you went to a restaurant with
<v Speaker 3>spicy food and the two flavors were like no spice
<v Speaker 3>and burn your face off.
<v Speaker 1>No season yeah yeah, and like bland are too spicy?
<v Speaker 1>The like I neither and but for story, so for
<v Speaker 1>the action difficulty, story is labeled as the traditional Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill experience. So in my mind, I'm like, Okay, I
<v Speaker 1>guess that means normal because it's saying like this is
<v Speaker 1>what you expect in these games. I was like, I
<v Speaker 1>guess I'll pick that one. And then also Une the
<v Speaker 1>review guide told us like you should play story actions.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, okay, I trust you guys. But for puzzles,
<v Speaker 1>hard difficulty is described as the traditional silent hill. So
<v Speaker 1>like the compast, the combination is like Story Action hard puzzle. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>the puzzle difficulty five. Like I think the puzzles in
<v Speaker 1>this game are generally pretty clever, and you're playing it
<v Speaker 1>on hard. Is hard puzzle?
<v Speaker 2>Hard puzzle? Okay?
<v Speaker 3>What does what does the difficulty change for the puzzles?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I haven't messed around with the Story puzzle yet I
<v Speaker 1>have to. I don't remember what their description was of it,
<v Speaker 1>but I would imagine maybe there were some puzzles where
<v Speaker 1>you do them multiple times and it just gets a
<v Speaker 1>little harder if I maybe they cut out the number
<v Speaker 1>of times you have to do it. Like there's a
<v Speaker 1>scarecrow puzzle you have to do where you're trying to
<v Speaker 1>find the correct scarecrow in like a field of them,
<v Speaker 1>using these really vague clues, and you have to do
<v Speaker 1>that five times before you get the puzzle to get
<v Speaker 1>to the other side of it. Maybe only have to
<v Speaker 1>do it like three times in Story. Don't quote me
<v Speaker 1>on that. I'm just guessing, because yeah, I don't know
<v Speaker 1>how you would just thinking about the puzzle in this game,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how you would design them to make
<v Speaker 1>them easier structurally, you know, but yeah, I no, no,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't mess with it. But for at least the combat.
<v Speaker 1>The difference between story and hard is that the story
<v Speaker 1>difficulty removes the sanity stuff, like you still have it
<v Speaker 1>and it still drains, but it's basically a non factor
<v Speaker 1>because you don't lose it when you get attacked the
<v Speaker 1>way that you do and hard difficulty, And in hard
<v Speaker 1>difficulty you pretty much just have to manage it more
<v Speaker 1>like it's more of a it's more of an important resource,
<v Speaker 1>whereas in story is just kind of there. And I
<v Speaker 1>think that fundamentally changes the combat in this game, because
<v Speaker 1>I think it's story to combat's way too easy. Like
<v Speaker 1>most things go down, Yeah, to me, most things go
<v Speaker 1>down pretty quick. Your stamina doesn't drain, it's quite as fast.
<v Speaker 1>But it trivialized the monsters to the point where they
<v Speaker 1>just stopped being scary because like you just roll up
<v Speaker 1>on something and you're just like, I could fight this thing.
<v Speaker 1>The only thing that might discourage you from finding is
<v Speaker 1>that all the weapons are breakable and you can only
<v Speaker 1>have the three at a time, so you can have
<v Speaker 1>like pipes, bats, sickles, kitchen knie just random ord eary
<v Speaker 1>things you find and they all degrade over time, and
<v Speaker 1>some degrade faster than others. There's repair kits you can
<v Speaker 1>find that you can use to fix some, but those
<v Speaker 1>are kind of few and barred between. But between the
<v Speaker 1>enemies dropping faster, and also story mode gives you like
<v Speaker 1>an abundance of health items, like they're everywhere, Like I
<v Speaker 1>was constantly filled to the brim with health items where
<v Speaker 1>I was having to put them down more often than not.
<v Speaker 1>I was just like, oh, I like again, as a
<v Speaker 1>survival horror fan, I like feeling like I kind of
<v Speaker 1>have to ration my resources and that you're making hard
<v Speaker 1>decisions about like am I gonna heal now or should
<v Speaker 1>I maybe hold out for a bit until I get
<v Speaker 1>to a checkpoint or whatever, And there's not really any
<v Speaker 1>of that in this game, and in a way that
<v Speaker 1>Silent Hill too has. So I was disappointed. And you
<v Speaker 1>can't change the difficulty in mid game, like once you commit,
<v Speaker 1>that's it. You have to Yeah, you have to start
<v Speaker 1>a new game if you want to see the other ones.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh, I guess I'm stuck with this.
<v Speaker 1>But again, this is what they said was the traditional
<v Speaker 1>Silent Hill experience, but at least playing og Silent Hill too,
<v Speaker 1>I was like there was a lot more pushback on
<v Speaker 1>that than there is here. So my recommendation is, if
<v Speaker 1>you're a fan, or even if you want any symbols
<v Speaker 1>of challenge, just go for the hard difficulty. I think
<v Speaker 1>managing the sanity meter makes it a lot more of
<v Speaker 1>a tense and interesting experience than it is in story mode.
<v Speaker 1>But even then, the other big problem to have with
<v Speaker 1>the game is that the enemy variety is really small
<v Speaker 1>in a way that was like kind of really disappointing,
<v Speaker 1>a little shocking. Like there's probably six different enemy types
<v Speaker 1>in the game, and it's not a long game. It's
<v Speaker 1>about ten hours, like I beat it just shy of
<v Speaker 1>ten hours, but you see pretty much everything in the
<v Speaker 1>first half and then they say like one enemy type
<v Speaker 1>for like the last couple hours. But yeah, and it's
<v Speaker 1>like there's variations of each one, Like there's like three
<v Speaker 1>different Mannikins, but they're the same in the sense of like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>they animate the same, they just hit harder, like one
<v Speaker 1>of them just covering the more of those weird flowers,
<v Speaker 1>and then one of them is a little more otherworldly.
<v Speaker 1>But it's like it's a man again. You know what
<v Speaker 1>they're gonna do pretty much, and that's the case for
<v Speaker 1>pretty much all the enemy types. And that was another
<v Speaker 1>thing that kind dulled the scares, Like I like to
<v Speaker 1>be scared in games, like I think it's fair if
<v Speaker 1>I'm playing a horror game, I would really love it
<v Speaker 1>if you scared the crap out of me. And in
<v Speaker 1>the early hours of Silent Hill, it's like, oh, when
<v Speaker 1>you don't know what to expect things, you're creepy and tense.
<v Speaker 1>But then after the first few hours, you start running
<v Speaker 1>into the same things over and over, and so I
<v Speaker 1>stopped dreading what was coming around a corner. Like there's
<v Speaker 1>so many times they set things up, but you're like
<v Speaker 1>hearing things in distance or like a weird groan and
<v Speaker 1>you're like, oh, man, what could that be? And then
<v Speaker 1>to be this thing that I seen like fifty times,
<v Speaker 1>you're like, oh, well, yeah, of course it is. I
<v Speaker 1>guess there really isn't anything else. So that was just
<v Speaker 1>the letdown for me, Like it just became it was
<v Speaker 1>just diminishing returns over time, and I would almost get
<v Speaker 1>frustrated because there were the sound design is so good
<v Speaker 1>that it felt like, Okay, this has to be something different.
<v Speaker 1>This sounds crazy up ahead, and then to be this
<v Speaker 1>other thing that I'm saying, it's like, damn it, like
<v Speaker 1>stop making me think you have new stuff. The only
<v Speaker 1>exception are like there's a very small handful of like
<v Speaker 1>proper boss battles that are pretty cool, like design wise
<v Speaker 1>and just like challenge wise, like they they're like more
<v Speaker 1>interesting tests of the combat. So, like the reason I'm
<v Speaker 1>knocking it so much is that combat is so prevalent
<v Speaker 1>in this game. Like this game is fair, it emphasizes
<v Speaker 1>combat a lot. There are straight up moments where you're
<v Speaker 1>like in like they lock you into a combat encounter
<v Speaker 1>where you're fighting like little waves of enemies that they're
<v Speaker 1>coming at you, and even some of the level design,
<v Speaker 1>we're like, yeah, you could dodge certain enemies, but a
<v Speaker 1>lot of times it's better to just kill them so
<v Speaker 1>that you can focus on like puzzle solving. Like it's
<v Speaker 1>a little hard to just leave them roaming around, so
<v Speaker 1>you almost feel like you're encouraged to be like just
<v Speaker 1>get rid of them, especially when you're inside of interiors,
<v Speaker 1>like there's like a middle school you explore at one point,
<v Speaker 1>So it was just like if the combat was if
<v Speaker 1>you had if it was less one note, this game
<v Speaker 1>would have scored higher with me. I gave it a
<v Speaker 1>seven point five out of ten overall, by the way,
<v Speaker 1>but the story stuff is is better. But it's also
<v Speaker 1>this is one of those times where sometimes I feel
<v Speaker 1>like I don't know if you guys feel the same,
<v Speaker 1>Like discussing a narrative in a review can be really
<v Speaker 1>tricky sometimes because like everything, everything in a game is subjective,
<v Speaker 1>but I narrative can kind of be the most objective,
<v Speaker 1>especially for a game that is intentionally trying to go
<v Speaker 1>for like you know, it's intentionally unclear, it's it's sort
<v Speaker 1>of like meant to like you're supposed to read between
<v Speaker 1>the lines, or it's going for like symbolism and metaphors
<v Speaker 1>and all that good stuff to try to instead of
<v Speaker 1>telling things more directly, which is fine, but I also
<v Speaker 1>think you're a kind of at the mercy of.
<v Speaker 2>Like, am I do I just am I just dumb?
<v Speaker 2>Do I not just get with it laying down there?
<v Speaker 2>You know?
<v Speaker 1>And then you are like, am I the problem? Or
<v Speaker 1>is it them?
<v Speaker 3>Like?
<v Speaker 2>Am I just not?
<v Speaker 1>Am I just not graspiness? Because of me? And I
<v Speaker 1>think this game has a lot of that. There are
<v Speaker 1>there without getting into specifics, there are moments in the
<v Speaker 1>story where you're kind of Hinniko is sort of like bounce,
<v Speaker 1>like grappling with her identity and sort of her sense
<v Speaker 1>of reality in a way that about midway through for
<v Speaker 1>me specifically, it kind of lost me, like wait, okay,
<v Speaker 1>I thought I thought I was on track, and now
<v Speaker 1>I'm kind of like wait, what, like when are we?
<v Speaker 1>When are we now? And is she the same Hinniko?
<v Speaker 1>Are we?
<v Speaker 2>What is happening? Like It's like like it was confusing
<v Speaker 2>in a way that's like wasn't engaging, right, because there
<v Speaker 2>is a line where it's like sometimes that ambiguity can
<v Speaker 2>be like kind of get you in this strange dream
<v Speaker 2>like zone, right, yeah, and it just wasn't you're saying,
<v Speaker 2>it just wasn't quite doing that in this instance, not
<v Speaker 2>for me.
<v Speaker 1>And this was one as once I posted my review,
<v Speaker 1>I was checking out other outlets reviews because again, just
<v Speaker 1>super curious to see where it's gonna land. Because this
<v Speaker 1>game overall like scored really well, like I'm on the
<v Speaker 1>lower end of the review spectrum, like it's which is
<v Speaker 1>great for the game, but hearing like the story is
<v Speaker 1>beginning universally praised is like the best thing, Like people
<v Speaker 1>like this is maybe one of the best narratives of
<v Speaker 1>the year, Like I loved it. It it did this
<v Speaker 1>and that and again. If you guys have ever felt
<v Speaker 1>this when you're sort of like reading other people's impressions
<v Speaker 1>and you're just almost like, man, I wish I had that.
<v Speaker 1>It's like.
<v Speaker 2>Marcus, I've I've been there another horror. I guess horror
<v Speaker 2>that happens with horror.
<v Speaker 1>I guess, yeah, Like you almost feel like you're outside
<v Speaker 1>the party house looking through the window as everyone's doing
<v Speaker 1>cartwheels for this story and going like I man, maybe
<v Speaker 1>it just went over my head. I I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>but I was just like, oh, it's cool. But like
<v Speaker 1>by the end, like the final cutscene, I literally was
<v Speaker 1>just like what, Like I audibly said what, like like
<v Speaker 1>what happened? Like I don't understand, Like I just felt
<v Speaker 1>like nothing, and I just felt confused, like and I don't.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if you're supposed to replay it multiple
<v Speaker 1>times to get it it, you know, there are multiple
<v Speaker 1>endings at the game in traditional Silent Hill fashion, but
<v Speaker 1>the first time you play through it, you get a
<v Speaker 1>canonical ending that everybody sees, and the optional endings only
<v Speaker 1>open up in New Game Plus to where your actions
<v Speaker 1>will dictate where.
<v Speaker 2>The conclusion lands.
<v Speaker 1>There's like five of them, and one of them's the
<v Speaker 1>UFO ending, the like silly ending that's been another Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill games. But this isn't like a near automomous situation
<v Speaker 1>where like the fact that you're supposed to replay the
<v Speaker 1>games like built into the narrative. Like it literally is
<v Speaker 1>like you beat the game, here is new Game Plus.
<v Speaker 1>You can play it again with all your stuff, and
<v Speaker 1>who knows, maybe you'll get a different ending. So it's
<v Speaker 1>like like, fans, you're gonna replay this game no matter what,
<v Speaker 1>because that's just what you do with Silent No do
<v Speaker 1>you want to see all the different like permutations of
<v Speaker 1>the ending. But at the same time, it's like I
<v Speaker 1>feel like if you can't get me the first time,
<v Speaker 1>which is like the majority of players are probably going
<v Speaker 1>to play this once and because that's just you know, statistically,
<v Speaker 1>that's just how it goes, and it's like if I'm
<v Speaker 1>the first go around, I'm just kind of like huh,
<v Speaker 1>like what like what was that? It's like, am I Like,
<v Speaker 1>I may be more inclined to replay it just to
<v Speaker 1>sort of clear to follog, but I also feel like
<v Speaker 1>I shouldn't.
<v Speaker 2>Have to do that. Sure, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I try to remind myself when I'm in like situations
<v Speaker 3>where I'm like, am I I don't know, like not
<v Speaker 3>getting the story?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Am I not smart enough for this game?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, like objectively speaking, as like when our job
<v Speaker 3>is reviewing games. Compared to like other game reviewers, it's
<v Speaker 3>kind of hard to say, but compared to like the
<v Speaker 3>general public, it's like I do play more games than
<v Speaker 3>most people, and I do experience more game stories than
<v Speaker 3>most people. So if I don't understand it, it's not
<v Speaker 3>like there's gonna.
<v Speaker 2>Be other people that don't understand it.
<v Speaker 3>So I think it's not like that crazy for you
<v Speaker 3>to be like I didn't get it, and that's confusing
<v Speaker 3>because then people will be reading the This is a
<v Speaker 3>crazy thing to bring up, but one time, when I
<v Speaker 3>was like eleven, I was downloading games on my mom's
<v Speaker 3>phone and there was a Spider Man game. And this
<v Speaker 3>was like twenty eleven, so there weren't like real Spider
<v Speaker 3>Man games on Android phones. And all the reviews were
<v Speaker 3>like I love this game. This is really great, five
<v Speaker 3>out of five stars, and one of the like thirty
<v Speaker 3>reviews was like, guys, do not buy this game. It
<v Speaker 3>is in Spanish. You can't change the language away from Spanish.
<v Speaker 3>I can't understand the game. And I was like, I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna download the game and it'll be fine. And the
<v Speaker 3>game was in Spanish. All the reviews were Niglish with
<v Speaker 3>the all time games in Spanish. So it is nice
<v Speaker 3>because like someone's gonna play this game and be like
<v Speaker 3>I have no idea what's going on, and we'll read
<v Speaker 3>the game and form review and be like, Okay, this
<v Speaker 3>other person also didn't know what's going on, so at
<v Speaker 3>least I feel better about that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like I again, it's like I
<v Speaker 1>paid attention, I swear.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And there are moment there are moments in the story
<v Speaker 1>that I think hit There's one moment midwave where like
<v Speaker 1>something really wild happens, and there's one particular scene that
<v Speaker 1>I think could be a Moment of the Year contender
<v Speaker 1>for just the sheer brutality and like shock of it.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I just wish I I wish I was
<v Speaker 1>able to take away what other people seem to be
<v Speaker 1>taking away from it, I guess is ultimately Yeah, and
<v Speaker 1>then you wonder, like who's whose job is that?
<v Speaker 2>I guess.
<v Speaker 1>I guess ultimately it's their job. But I guess they
<v Speaker 1>did fulfill that for those people, maybe just not for me.
<v Speaker 1>But that is all to say, like overall, like I
<v Speaker 1>think this is a it is a fun, enjoyable Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill game, Like it is a good survival horror game.
<v Speaker 1>Like my misgivings aside, Like it takes some really fun
<v Speaker 1>leaps of the franchise that I I I think are admirable,
<v Speaker 1>Like it's not just them, sort of like diving into
<v Speaker 1>the well again of what worked in like Silent Hill too,
<v Speaker 1>Like they the swings, even if they don't always hit,
<v Speaker 1>I respect, you know. Yeah, and yeah, it's sounds like.
<v Speaker 3>A game with a lot of big swings from the
<v Speaker 3>combat to the story. Comic is the weapons. It sounds
<v Speaker 3>like swinging a lot of blunt Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>You swing a lot of blunt objects that take your stamina.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Silent Hill left. You can check out my full review.
<v Speaker 1>It's on the website. Seven point five out of ten.
<v Speaker 1>It's like Kyle, when you started I when you finished
<v Speaker 1>on I'm I want to talk to you so much
<v Speaker 1>about this game.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm excited to play it because it's like you're
<v Speaker 2>also like, it seems like the right length for Silent Hill,
<v Speaker 2>right about ten hours or so give her take.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Yeah, which I think people I've seen are bummed by.
<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm not too like. I've always been the firm
<v Speaker 1>believer that horror game should be on the shorter end, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>to maintain their kind of like scares and momentum. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but I do think this one again go back to
<v Speaker 1>the story stuff, maybe because by halfway I was kind
<v Speaker 1>of like, what is happening? Like it starts ramping up
<v Speaker 1>to its big inclusion pretty like around like our seven
<v Speaker 1>hour six or seven. We're like, it feels like we're
<v Speaker 1>already building to the crescendo. It's like, are we really
<v Speaker 1>winding this down already? Because maybe because the combat felt
<v Speaker 1>still felt like the same as it had in the
<v Speaker 1>first couple hours that I thought, Hu, surely we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>start seeing some like later game enemies or some like
<v Speaker 1>big surprises. And again there is a big mid game
<v Speaker 1>thing that happens that changes the combat dramatically but it's temporary.
<v Speaker 1>But outside of that, it's like, oh, we're still kind
<v Speaker 1>of I'm still engaging with this game in the same.
<v Speaker 2>Way I had in the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>So that's probably fed into my disbelief of like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>we're wrapping up. Oh okay, huh. But yeah, it's I
<v Speaker 1>almost want to say, polarizing game. But at the same time,
<v Speaker 1>I think more people seem to like it than are
<v Speaker 1>a little more down than so maybe it's not so
<v Speaker 1>polarizing it counts.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Sound Hills just an apprising to be fair, It's
<v Speaker 2>just like it's supposed to be like a weird, ambiguous,
<v Speaker 2>like hard to parse, like what did I just experience?
<v Speaker 2>Like that's what I want from Silent Hill to a
<v Speaker 2>certain degree. So I'm still it makes it more interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>definitely makes a more interesting game for sure. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Silent Hill f out today. Also out this week is
<v Speaker 2>Baby Steps Charles who.
<v Speaker 3>Got got another horror game. According to Charles, it freaking
<v Speaker 3>felt like it man. Yeah, I reviewed Baby Steps.
<v Speaker 2>This is a game, by the way, Charles, After reading
<v Speaker 2>a review, I just want to say, I'm I'm sorry
<v Speaker 2>that you had to review Baby It's okay, you get
<v Speaker 2>to review Hades.
<v Speaker 3>I did get to review Hades, so it was all
<v Speaker 3>I mean, imagine reviewing Baby Steps and the whole time
<v Speaker 3>you have Hades downloaded on your switch to Oh, I
<v Speaker 3>know I could be playing Hades.
<v Speaker 1>I might have a similar experience with a game I'll
<v Speaker 1>talk about after this.
<v Speaker 3>So this is developed by uh Maxi Boch, Gabe Kutzillo
<v Speaker 3>or Kutzio I don't know how you pronounce, and Bennett Foddy.
<v Speaker 3>Bennett Foddy being the ones who's touch you can feel
<v Speaker 3>the most. He's known for getting over it.
<v Speaker 2>And Quop.
<v Speaker 1>And Gabe were the minds behind ape Out, which okay,
<v Speaker 1>okay also worked on.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, well there you go, ape Out, ape Out two.
<v Speaker 1>Love ape Out.
<v Speaker 3>So it's it's, uh a game where you control this
<v Speaker 3>guy and you walk him one foot at a time,
<v Speaker 3>and it's a physics based game and it is difficult,
<v Speaker 3>and the whole point is that it's hard and uh,
<v Speaker 3>this goofy guy is gonna fall down constantly trying to
<v Speaker 3>do like the most basic tasks. And it starts off
<v Speaker 3>being like ho hah, but you can't walk up this
<v Speaker 3>path without slipping and falling in the mud. And by
<v Speaker 3>the ending, it's like doing this elaborate balancing on this.
<v Speaker 3>Like there's one part that's inside of a like massive
<v Speaker 3>sand castle, and sand is a texture. The textures of
<v Speaker 3>the ground are really important. Say, is very slippery, so
<v Speaker 3>if you misstep even a little bit, or you walk
<v Speaker 3>too slowly or too quickly, you're just gonna slip and
<v Speaker 3>slide all the way.
<v Speaker 2>Back to them, to the botto. You have to do
<v Speaker 2>it over and over again.
<v Speaker 3>It is well what I would classify as a rage
<v Speaker 3>bait game. It is supposed to be frustrating and make
<v Speaker 3>you angry. So it's hard to review that kind of
<v Speaker 3>thing because I'm like, I hate this, but it's.
<v Speaker 1>Like intentionally supposed to be difficult or like not difficult, but.
<v Speaker 2>Like it did what it says.
<v Speaker 1>It's difficult, right, Yeah, Like it's supposed to be hard
<v Speaker 1>to play and push against you, and yeah, in a
<v Speaker 1>way that would be considered bad in a game where
<v Speaker 1>that was not the intent.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, So and Marks, did you you play this a
<v Speaker 3>little bit too?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? I played like the first I mean, it took
<v Speaker 1>me an hour to get to this point, but I
<v Speaker 1>got to the first like campfire segment. But I was
<v Speaker 1>also like taking the time to kind of like walk
<v Speaker 1>around like I found a hat, oh yeah that I
<v Speaker 1>went out of my way to find, and then like
<v Speaker 1>that unlocked, like I guess, like an optional little cut
<v Speaker 1>scene when I when I slept at the fire, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>which I guess I should probably mention that this game
<v Speaker 1>is basically any it is.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. So yeah.
<v Speaker 3>The main character, Nate is like in his parents' basement
<v Speaker 3>and he's got like a.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the TV.
<v Speaker 3>It's the Netflix screen, and it's like, would you like
<v Speaker 3>to continue watching One Piece?
<v Speaker 2>That's just like that says yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I didn't I saw it said something.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't realize it literally does it does? Yeah, he
<v Speaker 2>zoned out watching one Piece.
<v Speaker 3>Uh, And then like he just kind of blinks and
<v Speaker 3>all of a sudden, he's in this like big puddle
<v Speaker 3>of water. He just falls in this random cave. And
<v Speaker 3>the thing I do like about the game is the story.
<v Speaker 3>Nate is so awkward that he like needs help, and
<v Speaker 3>this is like a metaphor for the whole his life.
<v Speaker 3>It ends up being turns out he needs help so
<v Speaker 3>badly and it's so clear, and it every given opportunity,
<v Speaker 3>he just kind of casually pushes it.
<v Speaker 2>Away, so it'll be like hey, you fell down here.
<v Speaker 2>Are you good?
<v Speaker 3>He's like, oh, yeah, I'm good, and he's like welcome,
<v Speaker 3>let me show you around. He's like, oh no, I'm
<v Speaker 3>just gonna Can I just leave? And the guy's like what.
<v Speaker 2>He's like, yeah, I'm just gonna leave. It's fine. And
<v Speaker 2>he's like do you want shoes? He's like no, no,
<v Speaker 2>I'm good. I'll just get on out of here.
<v Speaker 1>And there's like a map guy that I met at
<v Speaker 1>the fire ye, like a really funny exchange where he's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm a climber. I got this map. He's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I give you a mini map. It shows everywhere. And
<v Speaker 1>for a second, they regular mini map pops up on
<v Speaker 1>the screen with like all these icons.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then Nate just turns it down and then
<v Speaker 2>you never get that map. Yeah. Over and over again.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, do you want like climbing gear. He's like no,
<v Speaker 2>I don't need it. I'm good. And then you play
<v Speaker 2>the game.
<v Speaker 3>You're like, Nate, you you dumb dumb boy. You only
<v Speaker 3>needed all of these things, and they still have a
<v Speaker 3>hard time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. It's like a very good example of like social anxiety. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like you don't like people are like I said, people
<v Speaker 1>are trying to help you, but you're like, I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if you feel like you're in conveniencing them even
<v Speaker 1>though they're offering it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean I can relate, but yeah, no, it's
<v Speaker 2>very relatable.
<v Speaker 3>It's I I also like I comment, I called him
<v Speaker 3>a pathetic character who lives in his parent's basement, and
<v Speaker 3>someone commented on the review and said, like, uh, in
<v Speaker 3>this economy, it's not pathetic to live with your parents.
<v Speaker 3>It's actually totally fine. And I want to clarify that.
<v Speaker 3>I think he's pathetic. And also he lives with his parents.
<v Speaker 1>He's not doing anything to contribute to like as far
<v Speaker 1>as it seems like based on what we saw, he's
<v Speaker 1>not like helping around the house or try to like
<v Speaker 1>pull his weet there. He's just mooching off his parents,
<v Speaker 1>you know. And there is a difference, guys.
<v Speaker 2>But One Piece has like a thousand episodes, like you
<v Speaker 2>gotta really so he's that's basically a full time job. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>to get through One Piece. Uh So, story's funny.
<v Speaker 3>And then also I should say, Marcus, you're pretty early
<v Speaker 3>on it gets so bizarre, which also kind of it's
<v Speaker 3>into the metaphor of like He's just going out in
<v Speaker 3>the world and it is like so strange and alien
<v Speaker 3>to him, and like to see people he doesn't recognize.
<v Speaker 3>He's like, I don't want to be near them. Spoilers
<v Speaker 3>for my next sentence. If you're really concerned about the
<v Speaker 3>cannon stuff of Baby Steps, most of the characters you
<v Speaker 3>meet in this game have horse heads and are bottomless
<v Speaker 3>from the waist down, and they're all men. So there's
<v Speaker 3>a lot of penises in this game. Yeah, there allow
<v Speaker 3>nudity on.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, in the beginning, This first thing the game asks
<v Speaker 1>you is would you like to turn nudity.
<v Speaker 2>On or off? Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>And if you keep it off, there's just a big
<v Speaker 3>black bar that just kind of has it maintains it
<v Speaker 3>maintains the physics as far as I can tell. But
<v Speaker 3>it's just like a big sensor bar. But it's just
<v Speaker 3>all these and Nate's obviously really uncomfortable but doesn't know
<v Speaker 3>how to ask people like why are you a horse?
<v Speaker 2>That's just kind of how it is.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, just like it's fine. So uh yeah, So it's
<v Speaker 3>that's that's like the story, that's the aesthetics of it.
<v Speaker 3>I find that funny. I like the cut scenes. I
<v Speaker 3>like the story, I like the place that goes, and
<v Speaker 3>the gameplay obviously is infuriating. I was trying to like
<v Speaker 3>evaluate it. I'm like, I'm gonna meet this game on
<v Speaker 3>its terms. It's gonna be frustrating. It's gonna frustrate me.
<v Speaker 3>What does that look like? The thing I think that
<v Speaker 3>I would give this game a lot of credit it's
<v Speaker 3>it's a lot more accessible than something like Getting Over It,
<v Speaker 3>because there are often hard paths and easy paths, and
<v Speaker 3>especially early on in the game, it's very clear what
<v Speaker 3>your destination is and you can see, like, if you're
<v Speaker 3>really good at this game, you could try to go
<v Speaker 3>up this other path really fast, and now I'm like
<v Speaker 3>excited to see people speed run this game. But you
<v Speaker 3>can also take the long hiking path that's other more
<v Speaker 3>reasonable elevation, and you'll probably you'll get there slower, but
<v Speaker 3>you'll get there and it'll be fine. And there's a
<v Speaker 3>lot of instances of this. And when you get in
<v Speaker 3>the later game, the thing that's frustrating is it is
<v Speaker 3>not nearly as clear where you're supposed to go. Oh
<v Speaker 3>so on multiple times I was trying to do these
<v Speaker 3>like very difficult climbing challenges and in the review discord,
<v Speaker 3>it was only eventually I went back in and found
<v Speaker 3>out there was like alternate paths for a lot of
<v Speaker 3>them that aren't clearly markeding you have to explore for.
<v Speaker 3>But again, it's a game where you're climbing up a
<v Speaker 3>mountain this whole time. If you mess up a step
<v Speaker 3>and you fall, you could set yourself back a really
<v Speaker 3>long time, and depending on whether or not you're like
<v Speaker 3>good enough to climb back up immediately again. Like there
<v Speaker 3>were times I fell way back down and then I
<v Speaker 3>fell down again and I was like set back like
<v Speaker 3>two hours because I was doing this. So it's hard
<v Speaker 3>to have an open world structure where you're punished for exploring,
<v Speaker 3>because then how are you ever going to find the
<v Speaker 3>qote unquote easier paths or the challenges or whatever. You
<v Speaker 3>just have to be really determined.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this is a game that makes you realize you
<v Speaker 1>take traversial mechanics and basically all games for granted. Because
<v Speaker 1>there was one moment where I was I saw like
<v Speaker 1>a weird shiny thing up onto like a stack of rocks,
<v Speaker 1>and I was like, oh, I'm gonna go over there,
<v Speaker 1>And I spent like a good fifteen minutes trying to
<v Speaker 1>get up there in I just could not do it,
<v Speaker 1>and then was like, Oh, I'm just gonna go towards
<v Speaker 1>like the main path and I'll come back later. But
<v Speaker 1>then as soon as I thought that, I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>if I come back down here, that's gonna be a
<v Speaker 1>whole lot of work because of how hard it is
<v Speaker 1>the move here. Of like in most games, you're just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'll just come back later, no problem, But here it's
<v Speaker 1>like that's like a real like, am I actually gonna
<v Speaker 1>come back here? Like I want to put myself through that?
<v Speaker 1>So maybe I just won't. Maybe I'll just just leave
<v Speaker 1>it beet whatever that is up there. It's shiny and glowy.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I'll just never know what that is because of
<v Speaker 1>the amount of work I know it will take to
<v Speaker 1>go back there at this point.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's a part in the game later on where
<v Speaker 3>there's a big green, metal spiral staircase that just goes
<v Speaker 3>straight up a cliff face, but then there's also a
<v Speaker 3>path you could walk on the cliff face, And one
<v Speaker 3>of the people is there talking in Nate and he's like,
<v Speaker 3>I bet you could never climb up this.
<v Speaker 2>It seems pretty difficult. You've got to be a man.
<v Speaker 2>And he's like, no, I'm a man. I can do it.
<v Speaker 2>I'll climb back up and it'll be fine. You're like, no,
<v Speaker 2>I don't think you could. I think you're gonna take
<v Speaker 2>the stairs.
<v Speaker 3>He's like no, And he's like, if you take the stairs,
<v Speaker 3>you're gonna have to call me lord and you're gonna
<v Speaker 3>have to refer to me as Lord from now on.
<v Speaker 3>And he's like, well, it's fine because I won't even
<v Speaker 3>need to. And I, as a player, I'm like, I'm
<v Speaker 3>not I'm not even gonna entertain this long clip wak.
<v Speaker 2>Up the stairs. Yeah, and I did, and.
<v Speaker 3>Then I had to call him lord for the rest
<v Speaker 3>of the game, which is very funny. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 3>it's mainly that thing where like, uh, I like that
<v Speaker 3>it lets you kind of choose your own difficulty level
<v Speaker 3>and it's always gonna be frustrating, but you get to
<v Speaker 3>be in control of it to some extent. But I
<v Speaker 3>don't like when it loses you stop being able to
<v Speaker 3>tell that you can go do other things. And yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I it's It would be a fun game to stream,
<v Speaker 3>it'd be a fun game to watch someone play because
<v Speaker 3>it is so punishing, and we did stream it earlier
<v Speaker 3>this week.
<v Speaker 2>It was a great clip where Alex freaked out and
<v Speaker 2>accidentally closed the stream. It's hilarious, it's so funny. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>uh and uh yeah.
<v Speaker 3>But it's it's a thing of like it's there's a
<v Speaker 3>lot of you know, and I think it was designed
<v Speaker 3>like that. It's a hard game to put a score on, right,
<v Speaker 3>because it's like, I hate it.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't like it.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't think I would like it, And there's people
<v Speaker 3>that will be interested in this sort of thing, but
<v Speaker 3>it's definitely not for everyone. In our game and former
<v Speaker 3>like numbers, what the review's scores say, six is what
<v Speaker 3>I gave it. I gave a six out of ten.
<v Speaker 3>Six is limited appeal, which I think is fair to
<v Speaker 3>say for this game. It's like, I would not recommend
<v Speaker 3>this to most people. If you know what kind of
<v Speaker 3>game it is. I don't think you need to read
<v Speaker 3>my review necessarily because you'll you'll know that this is
<v Speaker 3>the type of thing I'm interested in. But for other
<v Speaker 3>people that are like, is this like a fun, casual
<v Speaker 3>game I can pick up? Or is this something my
<v Speaker 3>kid could play? Because he's been watching the stream play,
<v Speaker 3>he's like, no, do not bad idea man, not just
<v Speaker 3>for the nudity and everything. But it's a challenging it's
<v Speaker 3>a tough one.
<v Speaker 2>Charles. I like, I admire you for reviewing it at
<v Speaker 2>the way you did, because it is like it's that thing.
<v Speaker 2>It's like there was artistic contention here that is interesting.
<v Speaker 2>They're trying to say something and by all accounts, like
<v Speaker 2>even beyond your reception, like it seems like they were
<v Speaker 2>effective in it. But it's like that doesn't necessarily equal
<v Speaker 2>like fun to play video game, you know, and it's
<v Speaker 2>like it's like, well, where's how do you how do
<v Speaker 2>you sort of apply a score to that is tough? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but I think you did a great job.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. It's kind of like maybe more so a silent hill,
<v Speaker 1>Like it seems like when I was looking at reactions,
<v Speaker 1>we're kind of all over the place, like I've.
<v Speaker 2>Seen people.
<v Speaker 1>Of the Year and yeah, it's one of the best
<v Speaker 1>characters and it's like oh wow, and then you know
<v Speaker 1>your review just saying like no, this is fresh.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Talking to Jeff mark Yafava, former game former editor
<v Speaker 2>over at mind Max, he's on that side where he's like,
<v Speaker 2>this might be my game of the year, like he
<v Speaker 2>finished it, and it's like he was not obligate. He
<v Speaker 2>was not writing a review, he was not trying to
<v Speaker 2>hit a deadline, you know, but he Yeah, some people
<v Speaker 2>really love it for what it is. It's it's interesting.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think I'm going to play it. I like,
<v Speaker 2>I just I just like if I can't even like
<v Speaker 2>get like make time for Hollow Night, I can't imagine
<v Speaker 2>a world where I'd be able to make time for bases. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but I like the idea and I like the humor.
<v Speaker 2>It does look it is very funny.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, in terms of like the we were talking about
<v Speaker 3>incentive and like being rewarded for stuff in games. The
<v Speaker 3>rewards in this game are usually cut scenes, which I
<v Speaker 3>do like, but especially late in the game, it's like
<v Speaker 3>it's just not it's not worthing. Marcus mentioned hats. There
<v Speaker 3>are collectible hats that you can get if you do
<v Speaker 3>like these little challenges. I got a cool froggy bucket
<v Speaker 3>hat that I was proud of. But the way the
<v Speaker 3>hats work is if you trip and you fall down
<v Speaker 3>hard enough, your hat falls off and you got to
<v Speaker 3>go pick your hat up. So if you're trying really
<v Speaker 3>hard to get a specific hat and you fall on
<v Speaker 3>a big fall, you might have to go even farther
<v Speaker 3>down to go find your hat, pick it up, and
<v Speaker 3>then bring it back with you. Very punishing game comedically.
<v Speaker 2>So and.
<v Speaker 3>I think I posted on Blue Sky afterwards, I was like,
<v Speaker 3>I am glad this game exists. I think it's a
<v Speaker 3>fun idea, but I did not have fun playing it,
<v Speaker 3>and it would be crazy for me to give a
<v Speaker 3>good review to a game that I hated playing.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm giving you this sense that's fair. I'm in
<v Speaker 1>the camp. I do want to keep going with it.
<v Speaker 1>I want to see how far I can get. I
<v Speaker 1>would like to finish it, like I just I like
<v Speaker 1>the writing into humor. So far, it's very few games
<v Speaker 1>are funny. This one has been so far. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I like hearing your description of the later game. Stuff
<v Speaker 1>does give me pause.
<v Speaker 3>Hey, I can I can also help you be like
<v Speaker 3>if you're like, hey, where do I even go here?
<v Speaker 3>I can be like, this is the this is the
<v Speaker 3>thing you do not have to do. There is a
<v Speaker 3>the hardest climb in the game that I spent genuinely
<v Speaker 3>five hours on. I just spent I was just watching
<v Speaker 3>I'd arrow on on Netflix. In the background, just just
<v Speaker 3>grinding away at this point, trying to hit the embargo,
<v Speaker 3>taking me forever. And then later went in the review
<v Speaker 3>thing and they're like, oh, you can actually take this
<v Speaker 3>other path, and then the end of the game is
<v Speaker 3>right there. Like I was so close the whole time,
<v Speaker 3>but I was doing this one climb that I thought
<v Speaker 3>was like the big finale and it was like unnecessary.
<v Speaker 3>Actually yah, yeah, so yeah, baby steps.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah out now all right, last game we'll talk about
<v Speaker 1>is a Hotel Barcelona, a action side scrolling roguelike made
<v Speaker 1>by Sweary, best known as the creator of Deadly Premonition
<v Speaker 1>and Suit of fifty one of Grasshopper, best known for
<v Speaker 1>No More Heroes. And you got a new game coming
<v Speaker 1>out next year called Romeo is a dead Man.
<v Speaker 2>I believe it's called I was gonna say Romeo must Die,
<v Speaker 2>but that's like a Jetly movie, isn't it.
<v Speaker 1>I legit had to stop myself because Romeo must die.
<v Speaker 1>I always think in that movie when I hear about
<v Speaker 1>the suitor game.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, anyway, this is what I've been curious about because
<v Speaker 2>I'm always speaking of games that aren't necessarily fun to play,
<v Speaker 2>but are like super fascinating. Sweary is like the king
<v Speaker 2>of that. Like, you know, like I have a lot
<v Speaker 2>of fondness for Sweary in particular.
<v Speaker 1>Well, what if I told you, Kyle that this game
<v Speaker 1>is very fascinating but not particularly fun.
<v Speaker 3>What from Sweary and Suita, You've really got two types
<v Speaker 3>of games on this episode of the podcast.
<v Speaker 2>The best games of the year and then the frustrated games.
<v Speaker 2>We like, thinking of ballot but not in practice.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean this one, honestly, I've I've never played
<v Speaker 1>Deadly Premonition, but I know, I know of its reputation.
<v Speaker 1>I did play a little bit of the Good Life,
<v Speaker 1>which is that weird like oh yeah life that one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you can like change into a cat you're like
<v Speaker 2>a journalist.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, And I bounced off that one pretty quick.
<v Speaker 1>But like I would say, like of all of Sweary's games,
<v Speaker 1>this is probably the most sort of like mainstream friendly
<v Speaker 1>because it's a two D action roguelike, so they're like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm on board for that. But also I think that
<v Speaker 1>because of that, this may be the most egregious of
<v Speaker 1>his games, because it's like when you say too D
<v Speaker 1>action roguelike, I have certain expectation of like, oh, the
<v Speaker 1>combat's gonna be really good, and like when you watch
<v Speaker 1>the trailers, it's like fast paced, like you're like air
<v Speaker 1>juggling people, You're like slicing them up and stuff. You're like,
<v Speaker 1>oh man, this is one hundred percent my jam And
<v Speaker 1>the combat in this game is just.
<v Speaker 2>It's bad.
<v Speaker 1>So uh so premise. You play as a US marshal
<v Speaker 1>named Justine who arrives at the Hotel Hotel Barcelona. She
<v Speaker 1>is on a mission to hunt down some some serial
<v Speaker 1>killers that it might have taken over, but also she
<v Speaker 1>is possessed by an ancient titan named doctor Carnival, who
<v Speaker 1>is this very like murderous, like just this just like
<v Speaker 1>potentially evil entity, but we don't know yet. But they
<v Speaker 1>need each other and and doctor Carnival is looking for
<v Speaker 1>a the person that runs the hotel, who is a
<v Speaker 1>witch that has bound him like he like he is
<v Speaker 1>trapped because of this witch and he's like, hey, the
<v Speaker 1>only way for me to be free is if we
<v Speaker 1>kill this lady. Justine is like very timid and very
<v Speaker 1>shy in comparison, so they kind of like they kind
<v Speaker 1>of like complimented, where she's very unsure about everything and
<v Speaker 1>she doesn't really maybe know if she should trust this thing,
<v Speaker 1>but also she needs it, and so he's always kind
<v Speaker 1>of like pushing you to like no, no, no, you
<v Speaker 1>need to go murder all these people. That's totally fine.
<v Speaker 1>There's nothing longer murder you humans are too soft. So
<v Speaker 1>you're in You're in this hotel, and a hotel kind
<v Speaker 1>of serves your hub in between these, uh these roguelike
<v Speaker 1>runs where you're meeting all these other characters, like a hunter,
<v Speaker 1>you're meeting the concierge.
<v Speaker 2>Each of them more or less.
<v Speaker 1>Serves as like different shops, like you can buy new weapons,
<v Speaker 1>because like you're pretty much wielding a mix of a
<v Speaker 1>melee weapons and different firearms, like you start with like
<v Speaker 1>this this dual wielding like a sword and like sickle
<v Speaker 1>or knife or whatever, like a short like a short
<v Speaker 1>two short stabby weapons. Basically it changes in a handgun,
<v Speaker 1>but you can eventually unlock like an axe, which is
<v Speaker 1>a lot slower. And then maybe the most creative weapon,
<v Speaker 1>which sucks because it's not particularly enjoyable, are these bus
<v Speaker 1>songs that she can strap to her hand that are
<v Speaker 1>like motorized, so you're literally just like throwing, like spinning buzzsaws,
<v Speaker 1>like just swinging them at people. I wish that was
<v Speaker 1>more fun than it actually.
<v Speaker 2>Is, so it just stuck fun as it sounds.
<v Speaker 1>It's yeah, because it looks and sounds pretty cool, but
<v Speaker 1>it's like, ooh, this doesn't feel great. And then you're
<v Speaker 1>just going on runs throughout different areas around the hotel grounds,
<v Speaker 1>like the first areas like in this lake that's very
<v Speaker 1>it's very much like almost a parody of Camp Crystal
<v Speaker 1>Lake from Friday to thirteenth, or like like a little
<v Speaker 1>kind of remember what the second one was because I
<v Speaker 1>only ran through it once and beat it. It's like
<v Speaker 1>like a little shack or somewhere, but basically you're running
<v Speaker 1>through and trying to get to a boss at the end,
<v Speaker 1>and kind of like Ruglizz like Haites, there's different doors
<v Speaker 1>that you're going through and to get to the next section,
<v Speaker 1>but every door grants like a different sort of perk,
<v Speaker 1>like some of them replenish your health, some of them
<v Speaker 1>make you attack faster, some of them give you movement boost,
<v Speaker 1>and you can choose. As a two D game, they're
<v Speaker 1>like scattered all over parts of the levels, so you
<v Speaker 1>can kind of decide how long you want to stay
<v Speaker 1>at a level to seek out the door that has
<v Speaker 1>the perk that you want in that moment, or like
<v Speaker 1>if you find the first door that has what you need,
<v Speaker 1>you can end a level like immediately. But even if
<v Speaker 1>you stay in a level for the duration, you're not
<v Speaker 1>there for long because everything is on a timer like
<v Speaker 1>between like a minute and two minutes, depending on the level.
<v Speaker 1>So it's kind of it's very much a game that's
<v Speaker 1>like you get in and go like kill these guys.
<v Speaker 1>You're jumping around trying to find the other doors or
<v Speaker 1>just find like collect the kind of like upgrade materials
<v Speaker 1>that enemies drop, which are like bones and ears and
<v Speaker 1>other gross stuff. And the other interesting thing is that
<v Speaker 1>you're building up as you kill enemies. Their blood is
<v Speaker 1>splattering everywhere and are everywhere, and as blood splatters on you,
<v Speaker 1>you build up this like meter that when it's full,
<v Speaker 1>you get this big special attack that is tied to
<v Speaker 1>your weapon of choice. But the problem, and I actually
<v Speaker 1>think thematically that's pretty cool, and the way the game
<v Speaker 1>plays with that is that there's different weather in the levels.
<v Speaker 1>Like at the start of a level, it does a
<v Speaker 1>little roulette saying like this is these are conditions for
<v Speaker 1>this this run. So it's nighttime and it's rainy, and
<v Speaker 1>when you get wet, it washes off the blood that
<v Speaker 1>you've accumulated and it makes that meter go down. So
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the challenge is trying to stay dry
<v Speaker 1>and keep all the blood that has splattered on you
<v Speaker 1>interest so that you have yeah, so that you have
<v Speaker 1>access to this this big special attack at some point,
<v Speaker 1>especially you want to save it for like the bosses.
<v Speaker 1>But the combat just doesn't feel good, Like I'm I'm
<v Speaker 1>a big stylish action like I'm an action guy, like
<v Speaker 1>I love stylish action games, and like the worst thing
<v Speaker 1>you can do is like have the combat feel sluggish
<v Speaker 1>and just like it doesn't feel particularly weighty and there
<v Speaker 1>just isn't the feedback behind it, Like it doesn't it
<v Speaker 1>just doesn't feel smooth, like like going to to Haites two,
<v Speaker 1>Like you were talking about how having the sort of
<v Speaker 1>like bounce between baby Steps and Haighties two charles, like
<v Speaker 1>having to play a not fun roguelike action roguelike when
<v Speaker 1>Hades two is sitting right there as probably the epit
<v Speaker 1>of me of action ro like roguelikes is it's been
<v Speaker 1>eating at me just I know, but or maybe the
<v Speaker 1>more closer parallel of something like Dead Cells, which is
<v Speaker 1>also like a two D side scrolling action role like
<v Speaker 1>which I think the combat in that game is incredible. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and it's it's and like with that in mind and
<v Speaker 1>playing this, it's like, you know, you can do all
<v Speaker 1>these things. You can unlock like more combos, Like there's
<v Speaker 1>a skill tree. We can kind of like add more
<v Speaker 1>to your repertoire, Like you can do like a block
<v Speaker 1>and a perry, But the block and parry don't feel
<v Speaker 1>good and for some reason, like the perry is like
<v Speaker 1>blocking and hitting a different button and instead of just
<v Speaker 1>doing a time block, which would make it less work,
<v Speaker 1>Like it's like if I have to block and then
<v Speaker 1>hit a different button, I'm just never gonna use the
<v Speaker 1>perry because that just isn't quick enough.
<v Speaker 3>For what a person you're creating a new One of
<v Speaker 3>the most intuitive button presses in all of video game
<v Speaker 3>is the block and then you can time it perfect
<v Speaker 3>into perry. Existed for decades. One of the things that
<v Speaker 3>people try to change them like why would you change that?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, why would you make it's more complicated? Yeah yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and that doesn't it doesn't even feel like that great
<v Speaker 1>when you execute anyway, you got like a dash and
<v Speaker 1>an air dash that don't feel super great, and you
<v Speaker 1>have to upgrade it multiple times for the meanything because
<v Speaker 1>the distance on the dash isn't super great and all
<v Speaker 1>the upgrades for it are like you can dash farther,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, I wish that was just from the
<v Speaker 1>start so that it felt like useful. Because the boss
<v Speaker 1>battles in this game, the two or three that I've killed,
<v Speaker 1>are kind of nightmares on the normal difficulty, where they
<v Speaker 1>the attack priority is so cheap and be like the
<v Speaker 1>way that they can just hit you out of a
<v Speaker 1>dodge or in some cases because the dodge initially is
<v Speaker 1>so short and they're such big characters that you got
<v Speaker 1>to be like right up on to actually dodge through
<v Speaker 1>them without accidentally just landing inside of their hip box
<v Speaker 1>and taking damage. And then also the most egregious thing
<v Speaker 1>is that they can just stunlock you into oblivion. Like
<v Speaker 1>if you get knocked in the ground and they follow
<v Speaker 1>up with an attack and she doesn't get up quick enough,
<v Speaker 1>then you'll just like take like three hits in succession
<v Speaker 1>and she goes down pretty quick and normal to the
<v Speaker 1>point where right now I've dropped it to easy, which
<v Speaker 1>easy doesn't as far as you can tell. It doesn't
<v Speaker 1>really change the difficulty of the enemies. It just gives
<v Speaker 1>you more retries because when you fail, unless you find
<v Speaker 1>these special like retry tickets, you start the run from
<v Speaker 1>the beginning. You go back to the hotel, which is
<v Speaker 1>where you can, you know, do your upgrades and spin
<v Speaker 1>your currency, because when you start a new run, all
<v Speaker 1>the currency you have left over gets reset to zeros
<v Speaker 1>that are like try to unlock as many things as
<v Speaker 1>you can see you don't waste it.
<v Speaker 2>So but at least oneasy they kind.
<v Speaker 1>Of give you three retries so you can stay in
<v Speaker 1>the stage where they hapened to go back to the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>So I've been playing through that, especially since I've played
<v Speaker 1>enough of a comba to be like, this isn't fun.
<v Speaker 1>I just want to see the story stuff, which has
<v Speaker 1>been more interesting than the combat, like sort of the
<v Speaker 1>the mystery of like who is this witch? Like why
<v Speaker 1>does the Titan want to? Like like what did he
<v Speaker 1>do to get trapped? Like who was actually the bad
<v Speaker 1>guy here? And then also like Justine's backstory gradually being
<v Speaker 1>unfolded like they do the Haites thing. Every time you
<v Speaker 1>go back to the hotel, you know, you talk to
<v Speaker 1>your NBC's and they have new things to say, and
<v Speaker 1>the story kind of progresses from there. Like that stuff
<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm a little bit more interested in. And even
<v Speaker 1>if the there's some really weird and dumb stuff in
<v Speaker 1>the ways that it's like some of it's like fun
<v Speaker 1>and some of it's just like why Like the opening
<v Speaker 1>cut scene, you meet a guy doesn't expoil it because
<v Speaker 1>he's gone like immediately, but you meet like a you're
<v Speaker 1>like driving a car and you've got a hitchhiker like
<v Speaker 1>this lady who is just like really promiscuous, And then
<v Speaker 1>in a passenger seat is this soldier that was a
<v Speaker 1>Niche gonna do the job that you wind up doing.
<v Speaker 1>And he's basically a more extreme version of PC principle
<v Speaker 1>from South Park, where he's like threatening to shoot everyone
<v Speaker 1>in the car for saying anything he perceived as being
<v Speaker 1>like like a knock against diversity or like or something. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's weird, and like the dialogue is so blatant
<v Speaker 1>about it, but like yes, you know, he's like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>we live in an age of diversity, and so like
<v Speaker 1>you know, you saying this. I don't even remember what
<v Speaker 1>she said, but it was something we're like, you're you're
<v Speaker 1>mad about mad, Like how would she imply that she
<v Speaker 1>was being like bigoted it anyway? From that statement? But
<v Speaker 1>like I don't know, there's like weird stuff about like
<v Speaker 1>some of the commentary about certain things where I'm like, uh, okay,
<v Speaker 1>but like I said, he's gone pretty quick. Yeah it's
<v Speaker 1>it's I guess it's a Swarry and a Suit of
<v Speaker 1>fifty one game of like yeah, thematically and like narratively,
<v Speaker 1>there's some interesting things here, but like I dread starting
<v Speaker 1>another run off. Yeah, like even with even unlocking new
<v Speaker 1>things to make it easier for like, okay, I got
<v Speaker 1>new combos or I got more helps someone die as quickly,
<v Speaker 1>But I'm not like looking forward to going through these
<v Speaker 1>levels and like I just want to im to the bar,
<v Speaker 1>like I just want to get through it, see just
<v Speaker 1>see the story stuff and just get through these boss
<v Speaker 1>bosses like it's just yeah, it's it's not it's just
<v Speaker 1>not fun Yeah funny.
<v Speaker 3>There's a breathlessness to your description of this game that
<v Speaker 3>I find very relatable, where you're like the whole reason
<v Speaker 3>I did all this stuff is to talk about it,
<v Speaker 3>and I can finally finally explain all that I've been
<v Speaker 3>suffering in silence for so long, and now I could
<v Speaker 3>explain this weird.
<v Speaker 2>Guy in the car just that I had to just
<v Speaker 2>have in my head by myself for all this time. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but yeah, you know, like I said, it's a
<v Speaker 1>It's out tomorrow at the time of recording, on the
<v Speaker 1>twenty six. Yeah, Hotel Barcelona. Everyone. It's uh, it's a
<v Speaker 1>it's a game.
<v Speaker 2>It's a game. I mean, that's it's sweary, man. That's
<v Speaker 2>about you could. That's like the headline for every review
<v Speaker 2>of a sweary games. It's a game. It's it's got,
<v Speaker 2>it's got a stop, it's got stuff. Great, we'll give it.
<v Speaker 2>We'll give it that in a in a in a
<v Speaker 2>very more Souda kind of way.
<v Speaker 1>Honestly, if we're gonna like pin it on someone, it's
<v Speaker 1>got it's got a very Suda style that you're always
<v Speaker 1>kind of like, at the very least you sort.
<v Speaker 2>Of like can respect and appreciate.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah cool, Yeah, awesome. Well, I think we'll just wrap
<v Speaker 1>out the podcast here this week. Thank you guys so
<v Speaker 1>much for watching. Once again, if you want to support
<v Speaker 1>Game Informer and go to gaminformer dot com slash subscribe
<v Speaker 1>and get yourself a magazine subscription ten issues of year.
<v Speaker 1>We got the Outer Worlds two digital issue A launching
<v Speaker 1>next week on September thirtieth, with the physical issue hitting
<v Speaker 1>mailboxes in early October. If you want to follow us
<v Speaker 1>on social media, you can find me on Blue Sky
<v Speaker 1>at Marcus Stewart seven. Charles, you're at Chuck Duck three
<v Speaker 1>sixty five. Yes, did I get it?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, every day of the year, I'm throwing waterfowl.
<v Speaker 1>Ducks, and Kyle you were at Kyle M. Hilliard on
<v Speaker 1>social platforms. In terms of like stuff on the website,
<v Speaker 1>be sure to tune in Every Friday, We've got our
<v Speaker 1>ongoing Resident Evil Outbreak super replay Charles and myself working
<v Speaker 1>our way through the entirety of Resident Evil Outbreak ahead
<v Speaker 1>of Residentevil Requiem in February. And every Wednesday. We have
<v Speaker 1>also our Wednesday streams. We're doing that again. Like we
<v Speaker 1>mentioned earlier, Alex van Agen and Eric van Allen stream
<v Speaker 1>Baby Steps this week. But yeah, our Wednesday streams are
<v Speaker 1>kind of just geared towards highlighting more recent games. Usually
<v Speaker 1>around two pm Central every Wednesday, so check those out.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, guys, that's a show. Thank you for watching,
<v Speaker 1>and we'll see you next week. By everyone,