State Of Play Recap, Plus Pokopia Preview And Reanimal Review

<v Speaker 1>Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly
<v Speaker 1>podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday
<v Speaker 1>for a discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and
<v Speaker 1>exclusive reveals, alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from
<v Speaker 1>around the industry. I'm one of your hosts, Kyle Hilliard.
<v Speaker 1>I'm joined today by Charles Hart. How's it going, Charles?
<v Speaker 1>How do you? Who? How are you? Oh? Good, good question.
<v Speaker 1>Eric Van Allen is here. I'm kind of catching you
<v Speaker 1>right as you're taking a sip.
<v Speaker 2>No, I was blowing on my coffee to cool it
<v Speaker 2>so it doesn't burn my tongue. Today I'm terrified of
<v Speaker 2>burning my tongue live on air. It hasn't happened yet,
<v Speaker 2>but it will one day eventually.
<v Speaker 3>Oh.
<v Speaker 1>I can't wait. I'm gonna be there. I'm going to
<v Speaker 1>be there. And Wesley LeBlanc, what's up Wes?
<v Speaker 3>Hello? Hello, excited to be here.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Hey, Today we are diving deep on the state
<v Speaker 1>of play, which at the time of this recording, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know when you're listening to this, but we covered
<v Speaker 1>it in a big way last night, and we on
<v Speaker 1>Thursday and now Friday morning. First thing we're doing is.
<v Speaker 1>We are talking about everything that happened there, and along
<v Speaker 1>with all the announcements, I have also played a little
<v Speaker 1>bit of I've already forgotten the name God of War
<v Speaker 1>Sons of Sparta. I've played a little bit of it,
<v Speaker 1>so we can talk about that too. And then after
<v Speaker 1>a break, Charles got to play some Pokemon Pacopia, West,
<v Speaker 1>reviewed re Animal, I reviewed Romeo as a dead Man,
<v Speaker 1>and played a bunch of Cinny Cross. It's a whole
<v Speaker 1>dang episode of the game and former show, and we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna dive right into it. Guys, let's talk about state
<v Speaker 1>of play. I don't know who wants to go first,
<v Speaker 1>but like, what did you guys think of it? Like?
<v Speaker 1>I thought it was I thought it was a good show.
<v Speaker 1>I thought it was dense. I thought there was a
<v Speaker 1>lot of fun stuff. But yeah, what did you guys think?
<v Speaker 3>I thought it was the best one. I would need
<v Speaker 3>to go back through all of them to say it's
<v Speaker 3>the best one, but in recent memory, it's the best one.
<v Speaker 3>It was the first one in a long time where
<v Speaker 3>I was like, not really any segments that felt this
<v Speaker 3>could have been an email or a press release. This
<v Speaker 3>was like, this felt very event worthy. I'm actually surprised
<v Speaker 3>it was a State of Play and not a PlayStation showcase.
<v Speaker 3>To be honest, I think it could have easily been
<v Speaker 3>their more hype exciting thing, but there was less first
<v Speaker 3>party representation. That's probably why I was a State of Play.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, lots of lots of good stuff to chew
<v Speaker 3>on in, and I think.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'd have to think back to like maybe there's
<v Speaker 1>there might have been some E threes that maybe out
<v Speaker 1>did it. I'll always remember the shadow that oh for
<v Speaker 1>sure remake kind of like just like blowing my mind
<v Speaker 1>that that thing would even exist. But yeah, I I
<v Speaker 1>it was. There was a lot happening, and there was
<v Speaker 1>there was a lot of stuff that I was I
<v Speaker 1>was really surprised by, like opening up with is it
<v Speaker 1>Kenna or Keena? I I know, I actually only Keene.
<v Speaker 1>I never played the first.
<v Speaker 4>However they said it in the trailer. I'm gonna play
<v Speaker 4>it right now so I can remind myself. However they
<v Speaker 4>said it. I was surprised because I had been saying
<v Speaker 4>it a different way.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Charles is doing the research right now, Nana, what's
<v Speaker 2>my name is that?
<v Speaker 1>Is that what it is?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's y'all forgot about that song until now. I
<v Speaker 2>guarantee you you did not really over that song.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what you're talking about.
<v Speaker 2>I forgot about a Rihanna song, not a song but
<v Speaker 2>Nana what's my name specifically.
<v Speaker 1>But that I don't know how you guys felt, but
<v Speaker 1>that one surprised me in a big way because as
<v Speaker 1>cool as that original game was, which I'd meant, I
<v Speaker 1>only played like about an hour of it, but I
<v Speaker 1>love the way it looked it. My prediction for a
<v Speaker 1>long time has been that studio was like, hey, we
<v Speaker 1>made Kenna, and then Sony was gonna be like, great,
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna put you on this license. It was kind
<v Speaker 1>of my thought, you know, I don't know what that
<v Speaker 1>license was. I don't know what it was gonna be,
<v Speaker 1>but it just didn't occur to me that they would
<v Speaker 1>continue that franchise. In the game looks great, It looks
<v Speaker 1>really good.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>The first one is like a very PS two game. Right,
<v Speaker 2>it was like a very uh like classic action character
<v Speaker 2>action platform or type game or character action type game
<v Speaker 2>like a Jack or a Ratchet.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's visuals though, We're stunning that. I think it's
<v Speaker 3>I'm shooting off the top of my head. But I'm
<v Speaker 3>pretty sure this was a former animation duo like movies. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and that was like the big cell was we are
<v Speaker 3>an animation studio and now we want to make games.
<v Speaker 4>They did a Majora's mask fan film, Is that right?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, which is cool, Like it's like it's kind of
<v Speaker 1>if I've seen it before, and it is. It was
<v Speaker 1>a nice calling card and like sort of showed their
<v Speaker 1>chops and yeah, this one some it looks emotional and
<v Speaker 1>like the action looks cool, Like I am I'm more
<v Speaker 1>interesting jumping right into the sequel, I think personally after
<v Speaker 1>enjoying the first one but just not finishing it. What's
<v Speaker 1>kind of where I was at with it?
<v Speaker 3>And then I I was gonna say I had a
<v Speaker 3>weird moment when this played because I was guiding the
<v Speaker 3>first kind of game for IGN. It was my last
<v Speaker 3>freelance assignment when former editor in chief here Andrew Reiner
<v Speaker 3>had called in like pitched me the job that I
<v Speaker 3>originally took in twenty twenty one, and it was like
<v Speaker 3>it was one of those weird like wow, time has passed,
<v Speaker 3>like that was we're coming up on five years ago
<v Speaker 3>when I was offered this job here and now I'm
<v Speaker 3>seeing the sequel of this game.
<v Speaker 1>It was really lost it twice.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's a whole saga. Like I
<v Speaker 3>don't even know what my I don't even know what
<v Speaker 3>day to celebrate my like this is how long I've
<v Speaker 3>been working here. I just kind of like, guess. But
<v Speaker 3>the first Kenna is actually really great. I can understand
<v Speaker 3>when to jump with the sequel. I do think the
<v Speaker 3>first one, like is a really good time if you
<v Speaker 3>know what you're going in for. As someone who it
<v Speaker 3>because I had to for work, it's really cool. And
<v Speaker 3>I like the Pickman little dudes. I don't know, I
<v Speaker 3>can't remember what they're called, but you can built little
<v Speaker 3>hats on them, and I think, yeah, you collect, you
<v Speaker 3>collect more and more of these little like carry black
<v Speaker 3>Bob things, Yeah, and then you can put little hats
<v Speaker 3>on them.
<v Speaker 4>I did find, by the way, it's Caina Cane. It's
<v Speaker 4>not Kenna, It's not Keina. It's Kana.
<v Speaker 1>Legacy of Kana is how I will which announcements to
<v Speaker 1>a new two D action game and a remaster of Defiance.
<v Speaker 1>But I I think the next thing I want to
<v Speaker 1>touch on is Konami, which Eric you kind of added
<v Speaker 1>it to our sort of podcast notes, is like Kanami
<v Speaker 1>is back, which I think is like a share question
<v Speaker 1>question mark. I think you could put an Entaro bang there.
<v Speaker 1>I think they're like, I think they're I think they're back, right,
<v Speaker 1>and I think they've been back for a while. I
<v Speaker 1>think Silent Hill f was a success. I think Salent
<v Speaker 1>Hill to remake was a success. I think Metal Year
<v Speaker 1>Solid Delta is a success. But this is arguably, I
<v Speaker 1>mean with Castlevania, which you guys please tell me about
<v Speaker 1>Castlevania because I was I was writing things. So that's
<v Speaker 1>like one of the trailers I haven't had a chance
<v Speaker 1>to sit down and watch yet. Like this feels like
<v Speaker 1>an in Silent Hill town Fall. This is like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>now we're getting into new stuff and not necessarily just
<v Speaker 1>like remakes and remasters, which I feel like was necessary
<v Speaker 1>to get Konami back on their feet. But yeah, what
<v Speaker 1>what the what I saw of Caslvania looked really nice?
<v Speaker 1>Was there something like what did you guys who were
<v Speaker 1>paying attention more closely to again from it?
<v Speaker 4>So I wrote that story that it's it's one of
<v Speaker 4>those stories that like the the odd thing where the
<v Speaker 4>development story of the game makes me feel like hopeful
<v Speaker 4>about games as an art form in a weird way
<v Speaker 4>where it's it is Kanami in partnership with Evil Empire
<v Speaker 4>Motion Twin, which are two studios that made the Dead
<v Speaker 4>Cells games. Motion Twin originally did it, and then Evil Empire,
<v Speaker 4>I believe, was like spun off from Motion Twin was
<v Speaker 4>doing the post launch updates and now they have like
<v Speaker 4>separate projects. Motion Twin is working on I think it's
<v Speaker 4>called wind Blown. I believe Evil Empire is doing the
<v Speaker 4>Prince of Persia roguelike, and it's like they they made
<v Speaker 4>Dead Cells inspired by a lot of things in Castlevania,
<v Speaker 4>reached out to Kana and they're like, hey, can we
<v Speaker 4>make Castlevania DLC. This is also, I guess West a
<v Speaker 4>similar thing. This is like one of my first significant
<v Speaker 4>features I did for Game and Former where I was like,
<v Speaker 4>oh time, oh yeah, I remember that, yeah yeah, where
<v Speaker 4>I talked to them and they were like yeah, it
<v Speaker 4>was really it was kind of weird. We were so
<v Speaker 4>excited to do it and they were like, I don't know,
<v Speaker 4>got a vibe of like they were flattered that people
<v Speaker 4>were interested in this way and they really got like
<v Speaker 4>free reign to do whatever, and they made this huge
<v Speaker 4>expansion to Dead Cells that was like old Castlevania themes.
<v Speaker 4>And now they are making a new Castlevania game and
<v Speaker 4>it's a it's a sequel to Dracula's Curse, which is
<v Speaker 4>the third Castlevania game. Yeah, or it's like twenty three
<v Speaker 4>years after that, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was thinking of Dracula X. By the way, Charles,
<v Speaker 1>you are correct, it was it was the third NES game,
<v Speaker 1>right yeah.
<v Speaker 4>And it's also I think the series fortieth anniversary. But
<v Speaker 4>it's it's I think it looked the gameplay looked really nice.
<v Speaker 4>It looks like a modern I mean, I mean Motion
<v Speaker 4>Twin and Evil Umpire really know what they're doing with
<v Speaker 4>like two.
<v Speaker 1>D action and all that.
<v Speaker 4>But it is like Castlevania with a very modern look
<v Speaker 4>and feel to it has a cool kind of like.
<v Speaker 1>Painty kind of art style to it.
<v Speaker 4>And I'm excited because, like I am someone who I
<v Speaker 4>never played the like Lords of Shadow games, and like
<v Speaker 4>I don't I don't know if I like had known
<v Speaker 4>really what Castlevania was in a time where like a
<v Speaker 4>new one was coming out, Like this is a new
<v Speaker 4>feeling to me where it's such an influential series, and
<v Speaker 4>I've seen the influence and I like, I be like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>it's that thing. I've seen the Netflix show. But I've
<v Speaker 4>never played a Castlevania game. It's like where my fandom
<v Speaker 4>of Castlevania is.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I and it's not a rogue game to
<v Speaker 1>be clear, right, it is it?
<v Speaker 4>I don't. I didn't. There wasn't any indication.
<v Speaker 1>That it was. That's good. That's what I want. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>this is for a few years now, as Konamia is
<v Speaker 1>sort of you know, bringing themselves to a boil. That
<v Speaker 1>is this is what I've wanted frankly, is like I
<v Speaker 1>don't need you to reinvent Castlevania. You can do that,
<v Speaker 1>like you can do Lords of Shadow again in the future.
<v Speaker 1>I love the first Lords of Shadow, but like, for now,
<v Speaker 1>when it's been so long since we've like been a Belmont, like,
<v Speaker 1>I just want like a nice get it. Get a
<v Speaker 1>really talented, smaller developer who knows how to make these
<v Speaker 1>games that you sort of started and like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>make put put a bunch of effort into like a
<v Speaker 1>two D Castlevania game. So this is exactly what I
<v Speaker 1>wanted for the franchise.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So That's why I wanted to bring it up
<v Speaker 2>is because Konami has kind of found a new like
<v Speaker 2>like coasting speed by saying, Okay, a lot of the
<v Speaker 2>stuff we're doing now is either remakes or collections of
<v Speaker 2>our old stuff. Notably, in this state of play, we
<v Speaker 2>got the Metal Gear Solid Volume two collection, which means
<v Speaker 2>MGS four is no longer locked. The PS three, which
<v Speaker 2>is honestly kind of incredible in and of itself. I
<v Speaker 2>believe peace Walker is packed in with it.
<v Speaker 1>I've been I've been eternally threatening to myself to plug
<v Speaker 1>in a PlayStation three play replay Metal yes, the last
<v Speaker 1>couple of years, you know, like I've got one on
<v Speaker 1>a shelf collecting dust. But yeah, this sounds like weirdly exciting.
<v Speaker 3>On that peace Walker note too, This was kind of
<v Speaker 3>like hidden because it wasn't announced in the state of play.
<v Speaker 3>The multiplayer is coming with it, which is like, that's
<v Speaker 3>what Peacewalker's whole thing was. Yeah, it was the that's
<v Speaker 3>really cool.
<v Speaker 1>So everyone who's playing the Delta multiplayer mode, which is
<v Speaker 1>all of us, right, we've all played the Delta multiplayer,
<v Speaker 1>We're all just gonna move right over to Peacewalker right, Sorry,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think anyone.
<v Speaker 2>So so that that's like one fork of it, right,
<v Speaker 2>and the other fork is either contract or bring in
<v Speaker 2>studios that are going to do cool things with our properties.
<v Speaker 2>Whether that's bringing in outside talent like with Silent Hill
<v Speaker 2>f where they brought it with Yukishi and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 2>or you get motion twin in on something like this,
<v Speaker 2>you get Blue berr in on something like this, And
<v Speaker 2>I think it makes a lot of sense. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>if you it might sound really simplistic to say, well,
<v Speaker 2>if you have a ton of really good price properties
<v Speaker 2>that everybody loves, then just get somebody else to make
<v Speaker 2>them for you and reap the benefits, and everybody kind
<v Speaker 2>of gets what they want. A studio gets a really
<v Speaker 2>good shot at a property, people get in New Castlevania,
<v Speaker 2>a new Silent Hill something like that, and Konami gets money.
<v Speaker 1>But like, that is.
<v Speaker 2>Really a winning strategy that is seeming to work right now,
<v Speaker 2>and of all the companies to figure it out, I
<v Speaker 2>don't think, you know, five ten years ago, any of
<v Speaker 2>us would have guessed that would have been Kanami, you know,
<v Speaker 2>in the wake of all the Kajima MGS five stuff
<v Speaker 2>and all that, like it's it's there.
<v Speaker 3>Too, where Kanami was like, we're kind of done with games.
<v Speaker 3>We really like our casinos and our slot machines and stuff,
<v Speaker 3>and then everyone was like, Okay, that sucks, So like,
<v Speaker 3>ok the fact that we're yeah, the fact that we're
<v Speaker 3>back to like Kanami as a game maker is really cool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So do you guys remember when the Metal Gear
<v Speaker 1>Solid three slot machine debacle happened? I read God, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if you guys remember it, but like it
<v Speaker 1>was way before the proper remake existed, and this like
<v Speaker 1>trailer went online that showed like new visuals for Metal
<v Speaker 1>Gear Solid three. It was like a trailer we saw
<v Speaker 1>the boss and like all these high resolution It's like,
<v Speaker 1>oh my god, it's happening, and then it cut to
<v Speaker 1>like a pachinko machine. It was like, yeah, devastating thing ever,
<v Speaker 1>but it was hilarious in retrospect. Yeah, do you.
<v Speaker 3>Think that their Konami is doing all these smart moves
<v Speaker 3>incrementally to eventually get to we have a small studio.
<v Speaker 3>We've contracted a studio to make a new Metal Gear
<v Speaker 3>Solid Because it feels like they are politely tiptoeing around
<v Speaker 3>that large elephant that will always be in their history,
<v Speaker 3>which is what happened with Kojima and Kanami, and they're
<v Speaker 3>bringing back their other franchises. Metal Gear has just been
<v Speaker 3>releases in this remake, Like how far until a small
<v Speaker 3>stealth studio is given the reins to a new Metal
<v Speaker 3>Gear Solid or is it just off the table?
<v Speaker 4>You think they did say like when they were talking
<v Speaker 4>about Castlevania, they were like, we've been They didn't use
<v Speaker 4>these exact words. It was basically like, we've been releasing
<v Speaker 4>old Castlevania collections just to make sure people didn't forget
<v Speaker 4>that they liked these games. So now that when we
<v Speaker 4>come up with a new one, people will actually play
<v Speaker 4>it because they have all the nostalgias. So like the
<v Speaker 4>concept of that is something they are doing with one series,
<v Speaker 4>So I wouldn't be shocked, But I don't know what
<v Speaker 4>studio would do it.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, my my bet, like the place that I
<v Speaker 1>would put my chips is actually the team that made Delta.
<v Speaker 1>Their next project is a is a fully original Metal
<v Speaker 1>Gear Solid. I think that that among you know, the
<v Speaker 1>Konami franchises Silent Hill, Castlevania, et cetera, Like sound Hill
<v Speaker 1>and Castlevania are flexible and like have been handled by
<v Speaker 1>other people, and they can hand them off to others
<v Speaker 1>they have before they can give them another studios. But
<v Speaker 1>metal gear is like a very specific, precious thing that
<v Speaker 1>costs a lot of money to make and demands production value.
<v Speaker 1>So I don't think Gear ever gets handed to a
<v Speaker 1>smaller team. I think it will always be internal. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if that means it'll be good. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if the next Metal Gear Solid I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if they call it metal Gear Solid six will be
<v Speaker 1>a good game, or if we'll play it and will
<v Speaker 1>be like this doesn't work without Kojima. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>But that's where I would sort of guess the series
<v Speaker 1>is right now. I bet, I bet the Delta team is.
<v Speaker 1>I bet they're working on something original more than I
<v Speaker 1>think they're remaking something else.
<v Speaker 3>As someone who's not I have not played the metal
<v Speaker 3>Gear Solid series because I've been waiting for this moment
<v Speaker 3>that we now have, which is I can easily play
<v Speaker 3>them all. Are they as like that or no, don't
<v Speaker 3>say that. Are they as wild as death Stranding is?
<v Speaker 3>Because I know of metal Gear Solid and I know
<v Speaker 3>that they can't kind of get a little kookie but
<v Speaker 3>like now, seeing where Kojima is at with Death Stranding,
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, there's no way this dude's making metal gear.
<v Speaker 3>He would be making metal gear solid anymore.
<v Speaker 2>Four is the one that I think jumps the shark,
<v Speaker 2>like I think one in two are certainly goofy, weird,
<v Speaker 2>a little bit over the top in ways that I
<v Speaker 2>think people sometimes overblow a little bit, especially too, like
<v Speaker 2>two's got some wild stuff in there. Yeah, two is weird,
<v Speaker 2>Like two is where they talk about memes and stuff
<v Speaker 2>like that in the year of whatever it was, and
<v Speaker 2>the PS two they were talking.
<v Speaker 1>About and they basically totally called the current Internet and
<v Speaker 1>how terrible. Yeah, it is basically way.
<v Speaker 4>Three also has like like inexplicable like live action footage.
<v Speaker 4>It's a game that, like I could tell you details
<v Speaker 4>about it, you would say that's weird, and then you'd
<v Speaker 4>start playing the game. You'd forget everything I said because
<v Speaker 4>it wouldn't make any sense, and then you'd encounter it
<v Speaker 4>in the game you're like, oh, I guess Charles did
<v Speaker 4>mention this, but it I had no Anyways, I don't,
<v Speaker 4>but in the somebody who played that within the last
<v Speaker 4>few years.
<v Speaker 1>I do think two.
<v Speaker 2>Is in the context of Kajima is clearly a sinophile
<v Speaker 2>like who enjoys like mediums and messages and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 2>and and especially like if you watch a lot of
<v Speaker 2>art films and stuff, you're going to see a lot
<v Speaker 2>of the ways in which he takes ideas and brings
<v Speaker 2>them in and you can kind of see it as
<v Speaker 2>a you know, uh, I don't know, a mixing pot
<v Speaker 2>of all that stuff. And the three is obviously like
<v Speaker 2>the most grounded, I would say, but still a little
<v Speaker 2>bit goofy, still a little bit wacky. Four is where
<v Speaker 2>it jumps the shark. For me, that's the one where
<v Speaker 2>you have like the models that he brought in to
<v Speaker 2>be the the fem fatale bosses that you fight throughout
<v Speaker 2>the entire thing and really long.
<v Speaker 3>He posts them on his Instagram first as like a tease.
<v Speaker 2>For Yeah, I was like, when when was that happening?
<v Speaker 2>I don't think that was Instagram time. It was like
<v Speaker 2>coming up on it.
<v Speaker 1>Uh yeah, yeah, no it was. Uh.
<v Speaker 2>There's a lot of stuff in four that I don't
<v Speaker 2>want to spoil for you that gets absolutely bizarre. But
<v Speaker 2>still really I think the ending to that game is
<v Speaker 2>absolutely amazing and in ways that really only Kajima tries
<v Speaker 2>to go for so.
<v Speaker 1>I appreciate it's interesting the Death Stranding sort of like
<v Speaker 1>level of lunacy comparison. I think is interesting because Death
<v Speaker 1>Stranding does break off into what I mean, genuinely magic
<v Speaker 1>in the sense of like you are you are going
<v Speaker 1>between the world of the living and the dead, and
<v Speaker 1>what does that mean? Right, Like that's a that's a
<v Speaker 1>thing that like they don't explain away with technology and
<v Speaker 1>death strand, right.
<v Speaker 3>You just have to follow Kajima and the studio with
<v Speaker 3>the games.
<v Speaker 1>Like, yeah, you can die and there's another world where
<v Speaker 1>you die, and you know what I mean, Like that
<v Speaker 1>kind of that's where Death Stranding goes crazy. But like
<v Speaker 1>Metal Gear doesn't quite go to that line. But like, dude,
<v Speaker 1>there's like there's a situation where that exact thing happens.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there is in the moment, Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Where there's a world of the dead and it's kind
<v Speaker 4>of magical and explain it.
<v Speaker 1>I guess. I know you guys are totally right that
<v Speaker 1>is true, but I guess it's the yes right right.
<v Speaker 3>I guess what I'm curious about is is like post
<v Speaker 3>Death Stranding one and two, Kojima would he be making
<v Speaker 3>metal Gear Solid six h today still yeah maybe?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Like metal Gear is a world that he has
<v Speaker 1>created that totally gives him the freedom to do whatever
<v Speaker 1>he wants it so to speak, right, Like it's not
<v Speaker 1>like it's not like he broke away from metal Gear
<v Speaker 1>and I can finally do something crazy, like he could
<v Speaker 1>totally like if he if there were if you know,
<v Speaker 1>if they announced that metal Gear Solid six, Hey guess
<v Speaker 1>what this is crazy? Kojima Productions is making it. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>that's the outside company that makes metal Gear Solid six actually,
<v Speaker 1>but like if that happened, like I wouldn't be like,
<v Speaker 1>oh no, he has to rain himself in again, No,
<v Speaker 1>absolutely not.
<v Speaker 3>I mean he's making phissions, So we're gonna see. I
<v Speaker 3>guess what metal Gear Solid six would be theoretically probably.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, lots of cool, very stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Very excited check out metal Gear Solid now.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah all the way four is my least favorite, but
<v Speaker 1>it's still a game I really enjoy and like I
<v Speaker 1>want to play again because I was at a weird
<v Speaker 1>place in my life when it came out where I
<v Speaker 1>was like full time student, working full time and I
<v Speaker 1>was getting really frustrated with that game because I had
<v Speaker 1>like an hour and a half to play a video game, right, Like,
<v Speaker 1>I was very busy. That's a cut scene, literally, like
<v Speaker 1>genuinely literally, I would I would boot up the game,
<v Speaker 1>watch a cut scene, not even get to finish it,
<v Speaker 1>and like have to go to class, you know, so
<v Speaker 1>like so I got really frustrated with it. So I
<v Speaker 1>would like to revisit it now, knowing what I'm getting
<v Speaker 1>into and being like I'm gonna watch a movie and
<v Speaker 1>at play a game sometimes basically, which is not the
<v Speaker 1>thought process I had while I was playing it at
<v Speaker 1>the time.
<v Speaker 2>I've never played a middle Gear Solid. I just watched
<v Speaker 2>my friend play all of them because he had all
<v Speaker 2>of them on PS three and so I would just
<v Speaker 2>sit there on the couch and watch him play them.
<v Speaker 2>And I don't know if I want to play middle
<v Speaker 2>Gear Solid at this point because it seems like a
<v Speaker 2>good game series, But there's something about experiencing that with
<v Speaker 2>like people around and be like, dude, what is happening
<v Speaker 2>right now? Are you seeing this experience?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I did forever shape the way that I see
<v Speaker 2>this series, So yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Eric, can you tell me about I'm sorry, Charles,
<v Speaker 1>go ahead, I didn't mean to cutch up.
<v Speaker 4>I was gonna say real quick that I was like,
<v Speaker 4>I my perception going in, as I knew they were
<v Speaker 4>this is I've played the recently one and one through three.
<v Speaker 4>Perception going in is they're like these wacky, crazy games
<v Speaker 4>and all this stuff's going on. And then I did
<v Speaker 4>play them and I was like, oh, they're also fun.
<v Speaker 4>People talk about that it's fun to play these games,
<v Speaker 4>and that's something that I'm excited to play with yourself
<v Speaker 4>for because I I I may maybe it's not fun.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>I assume it'll be fun, and then everything else I'll
<v Speaker 4>just be like, it's crazy, this is.
<v Speaker 1>All happening, and my eyes in front of me. But
<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm very excited for this. I'll be I'm excited
<v Speaker 1>to hear your because you will play it like you committed, right,
<v Speaker 1>like you've played I definitely recently. Right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's like almost a sunk cost thing at this
<v Speaker 4>point where I'm like, I put up with too much
<v Speaker 4>craziness in this series to not know.
<v Speaker 1>How the like end of the timeline is or whatever. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm excited to hear your sort of thoughts.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there is no end, right, I'm excited to get
<v Speaker 3>to five because the way people talk about five has
<v Speaker 3>always been so fascinating to me. But like it just
<v Speaker 3>like you don't get a climax, right, Like.
<v Speaker 1>You just have to live with that, Yeah, because you
<v Speaker 1>have to. Yeah, Like four is the ending, like truly,
<v Speaker 1>Like I mean, it's there's some open ended nature to it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not spoiling anything, but it's it is a satisfying
<v Speaker 1>conclusion to the Metal Gear solid saga because five is
<v Speaker 1>a prequel. Five goes back to like the early timeline,
<v Speaker 1>So like it is interesting the way that all fell
<v Speaker 1>apart where I mean not, I know, we're like sort
<v Speaker 1>of getting sidetracked with Metal Gear, as we always do,
<v Speaker 1>but like there is a complete story here that he
<v Speaker 1>was able to walk away from, right, It's not it's
<v Speaker 1>not like there's unanswered questions in the Metal Gear franchise.
<v Speaker 1>I mean there are, but like not the big important ones. Yeah. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but uhh, Eric, I wanted to hear you talk a
<v Speaker 1>little bit about tokn Marvel Tokon and and and because
<v Speaker 1>they shared new fighters right.
<v Speaker 2>Well in their release date, which I didn't even realize
<v Speaker 2>they didn't have a release day locked in, And now
<v Speaker 2>we have one set for August sixth, which does kind
<v Speaker 2>of put it in the window for EVO, which is
<v Speaker 2>kind of interesting. I don't think it'll be an EVO
<v Speaker 2>game this year. That seems like too tight of a
<v Speaker 2>window to manage. But maybe it gets some spotlight shine
<v Speaker 2>at the show.
<v Speaker 1>That'd be cool.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, So we got the trailer that confirmed that
<v Speaker 2>there was some additional stuff on the PlayStation blog about
<v Speaker 2>an episode mode that wasn't exactly clear, but seems like
<v Speaker 2>there will be some kind of storied single player type
<v Speaker 2>mode and it'll have comic slash manga panels that cut
<v Speaker 2>in and things like that kind of try to do
<v Speaker 2>something that adds a little bit of story and framing
<v Speaker 2>and setting to this. But the big news is three
<v Speaker 2>fighters confirmed. We already knew Storm was in the game,
<v Speaker 2>and that's like Storm's classic NBC that makes sense. Another
<v Speaker 2>classic NBC inclusion is Wolverine. You really can't make an
<v Speaker 2>x Men any like, like an X Men game, much
<v Speaker 2>less an X Men fighting game without Wolverine in it.
<v Speaker 2>But then Magic is really sick. I think Magic has
<v Speaker 2>slowly become a more popular X Men character over the
<v Speaker 2>last like five years or so, her being rivals Marvel's
<v Speaker 2>Midnight Sun's games that really put a spotlight on her
<v Speaker 2>and how cool her kid is. She's just big sword,
<v Speaker 2>teleport demons, it's it's it's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>I love Magic.
<v Speaker 2>And then Danger, who might be one of my favorite
<v Speaker 2>characters I've seen somebody come up with for a Marvel game,
<v Speaker 2>which apparently is just the Danger Room from Xavier's Academy,
<v Speaker 2>became a sentient Android and is fighting alongside the X Men,
<v Speaker 2>and so she's like a hot Sunae Miku or like
<v Speaker 2>Echo from Overwatch Android that.
<v Speaker 1>But she's also no, she's a she's a robot. I
<v Speaker 1>thought was Wasn't Android is hot? I mean, I don't
<v Speaker 1>know the fiction.
<v Speaker 3>Of I know that it's a hologram, but I don't
<v Speaker 3>know what she is.
<v Speaker 1>She's a hologram on stage, Yeah that's what. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>don't I'm not sure.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think Fortnite as well.
<v Speaker 2>If you know things about hots and Aku, please leave
<v Speaker 2>a comment below. Please.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I've been playing the Fortnite uh Festival because
<v Speaker 1>I bought like a guitar break.
<v Speaker 4>That's really got so so authoritatively, as if it would
<v Speaker 4>answer all the questions like, oh, she's a Fortnite.
<v Speaker 1>Too, Oh okay, Yeah, Fortnite. Yeah, but her her Autumnagucci
<v Speaker 1>song that she did, which is a great song. I
<v Speaker 1>love that song is in Fortnite fest War was recently,
<v Speaker 1>so yeah, not as as I'm sorry, G.
<v Speaker 2>I show lovest Meku. We we say this all the time.
<v Speaker 2>Uh a friend of the show ons and Amy too.
<v Speaker 2>She could probably be a guest, right yeah, Vocalo, We'll
<v Speaker 2>reach out, We'll have our people talk to her people androids, holograms,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure. I think the text message like into
<v Speaker 2>like the ether, right, you just like send a message
<v Speaker 2>without a recipient and it'll get to her, I think. Anyways,
<v Speaker 2>Danger is the Danger Room turned into an anime Android girl,
<v Speaker 2>and that's awesome. Man's that's sick. All the moves are
<v Speaker 2>like throwing out the different obstacles and like buzz saws
<v Speaker 2>and lasers you might see in the Danger Room. And
<v Speaker 2>I think that's a really cool design. Marvel Tocon looks
<v Speaker 2>really good. They also tease that their teams, which if
<v Speaker 2>you've played like a King of Fighters game, you might
<v Speaker 2>recognize that sort of framing of different teams of fighters
<v Speaker 2>that kind of form a loose framing of you could
<v Speaker 2>make a team of these characters and they'll probably click
<v Speaker 2>together pretty well, or they'll have like similar ideas, be
<v Speaker 2>coming from similar backgrounds, that sort of thing. So I
<v Speaker 2>like that. I think that's that's a fun framing device
<v Speaker 2>for this game. But Token continues to look really, really good.
<v Speaker 2>I think the fighting game community is in a strange
<v Speaker 2>place right now, where we've got some really really good
<v Speaker 2>games at the top. I think Street Fighter six is
<v Speaker 2>still fairly healthy. Tech and eight depends on who you
<v Speaker 2>talk to, but I think Tech and eight is still
<v Speaker 2>a pretty solid game. Two XKO I think is the
<v Speaker 2>big elephant in the room right now with all of
<v Speaker 2>the layoffs that just happens. And I mean Riot coming
<v Speaker 2>out and saying that it did not launch in the
<v Speaker 2>way that they expected. It did not hit launch expectations.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's really strange coming from Riot Games.
<v Speaker 1>But well they're also a company that they're probably they
<v Speaker 1>they want like the biggest hit in the world. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean they like if it doesn't if it's not
<v Speaker 1>like the most successful thing ever, it's like that's considered
<v Speaker 1>a failure for RYOT I think, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they've been sting a bit too with the legal legends,
<v Speaker 3>like spin off, third party games. Things they were doing,
<v Speaker 3>they stopped doing that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they stopped doing those. I could talk at length
<v Speaker 2>about Riot games. I don't think we need to make
<v Speaker 2>this podcast episode. But the short version is that I
<v Speaker 2>think there were expectations they had for that game and
<v Speaker 2>how they thought people would engage with it that were
<v Speaker 2>different than what reality was ever going to be. You know,
<v Speaker 2>they saw it as, oh, people will treat this like
<v Speaker 2>League of Legends, and they didn't. And even League of
<v Speaker 2>Legends has been having its own problems with the reception
<v Speaker 2>that Riot thinks it should get versus what it does get.
<v Speaker 2>But in that light, Marvel token Arc System Works kind
<v Speaker 2>of the golden child of fighting games at this point
<v Speaker 2>has you know, I think once Dragon Ball Fighters came around,
<v Speaker 2>people just immediately woke up to the fact that Arc
<v Speaker 2>System Works as like an st here a high talent,
<v Speaker 2>high caliber, high talent fighting game studio that can make
<v Speaker 2>really cool stuff. And seeing them do all this stuff
<v Speaker 2>with Marvel, I mean, it looks fantastic. It rekindles that
<v Speaker 2>fire that Dragon Ball Fighters had for me all those
<v Speaker 2>years ago, in like twenty eighteen or whatever. So I think,
<v Speaker 2>to con looks great. I really can't wait for that.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's going to be a really really cool game.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, crucially, they have the word Marvel in the title,
<v Speaker 3>which I think, honestly, I think two K xo's biggest
<v Speaker 3>issue was like, you didn't put League of Legends in
<v Speaker 3>the title, and then you made a really bad name
<v Speaker 3>to Fighting Souls, not the greatest name. But I think
<v Speaker 3>having Marvel in there is going to help a bunch.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because people will just say, hey, guess what, Win's Marvel.
<v Speaker 2>That's already a thing in the fighting game comedian. Now
<v Speaker 2>they can once again say Win's Marvel and it's a
<v Speaker 2>tag fighter again. It works so well with a new
<v Speaker 2>Marvel Fighting game, is like it's alternative title. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you kind of brushed past it, Eric, But there's a
<v Speaker 2>danger the Danger Room Fighter.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, that's that is not from the comic. That's like,
<v Speaker 1>I have no idea.
<v Speaker 2>Is that a comic character?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I looked it up beforehand. But yeah, well, I
<v Speaker 4>this is a good segue for me. I was gonna say,
<v Speaker 4>I when I went to see Marvel Cosmic Invasion a
<v Speaker 4>few months ago, at like the end of last year,
<v Speaker 4>was talking to the team at Tribute about their relationship
<v Speaker 4>to like the big Marvel Games team, and they were
<v Speaker 4>saying they don't really have any strict like you have
<v Speaker 4>to have this character in your roster or whatever, but
<v Speaker 4>they are generally like.
<v Speaker 1>It it shouldn't be all a listers.
<v Speaker 4>You should have a good mix of like obscurity in there.
<v Speaker 4>So like you're probably gonna want Spider Man because he's
<v Speaker 4>like the most popular character in the world, so every
<v Speaker 4>Marvel game would have Spider Man.
<v Speaker 1>But they really encourage it's like.
<v Speaker 4>If you can find like a weird character to put
<v Speaker 4>in there, or a slightly lesser known character. And I
<v Speaker 4>think Danger is like the perfect example from this that
<v Speaker 4>we've seen where it's like people are going to like
<v Speaker 4>from Marvel's perspective, they're like, this is a character that
<v Speaker 4>exists in the comics, and maybe if someone is exposed
<v Speaker 4>to this game they really like the character. That's like
<v Speaker 4>a way into more Marvel stuff for them. But I
<v Speaker 4>like it too because it just makes like it makes
<v Speaker 4>the roster more diverse in a way. Honestly, I think
<v Speaker 4>that's why Magic is so prominent in a lot of
<v Speaker 4>Marvel stuff, because I mean, she literally looks different than
<v Speaker 4>a lot of characters, but also like giving her a
<v Speaker 4>giant Sword is a thing. I think a lot of
<v Speaker 4>developers are like, well, you know, adapting Thor's move set
<v Speaker 4>into this thing might be kind of tricky because of
<v Speaker 4>how his powers work, but we know how swords and
<v Speaker 4>fire works, and so we can put that into a
<v Speaker 4>game pretty easily.
<v Speaker 2>I think even the fact that they're announcing the release
<v Speaker 2>date alongside the X Men is a subtly like masterful move,
<v Speaker 2>like acknowledging that Marvel does have a rich history in
<v Speaker 2>finding games, but the X Men specifically have a very
<v Speaker 2>rich history in all these games, going back to like
<v Speaker 2>Children of the Atom and stuff like that. But even
<v Speaker 2>like the start of Marvel versus Capcom with stuff like
<v Speaker 2>X Men versus Street Fighter, like the X Men have
<v Speaker 2>been core for a lot of like Marvel's fighting game
<v Speaker 2>presence for a long time, and it led to even
<v Speaker 2>in games like NBC two, a lot of the Big
<v Speaker 2>Four was mar was X Men characters, was a cable,
<v Speaker 2>was Storm or Sentinel like like these these very iconic
<v Speaker 2>characters that became the face of Marvel as a fighting property,
<v Speaker 2>and so having them roll out like this, I think
<v Speaker 2>it's just very well done, very well played. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I uh yeah, it seems like Arc system Works is
<v Speaker 2>doing everything right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Uh, let's talk about Project Windless.
<v Speaker 3>Uh yeah, which.
<v Speaker 1>I this was. I had a weird memory this we
<v Speaker 1>talked about a little before the start recording. It's based
<v Speaker 1>on the Korean novel series The Bird that Drinks Tears,
<v Speaker 1>and that kind of like sparked something my brain. I
<v Speaker 1>was like, why is this familiar? And when I was
<v Speaker 1>the mobile like at lead editor at GameSpot dot com,
<v Speaker 1>I remember like assigning a story on this announcement for
<v Speaker 1>at the time it was called it was just it
<v Speaker 1>was just untitled. It was untitled based on this game,
<v Speaker 1>but they had this sort of cgi like the Art
<v Speaker 1>of the Chicken and this this was back in like
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two. So like as we were watching this footage,
<v Speaker 1>I was like, God, this seems so familiar. I've seen
<v Speaker 1>something about this. And the trailer just kept getting like
<v Speaker 1>crazier and crazier, and there's like this giant chicken like
<v Speaker 1>playing Dynasty Warriors. Like I think we were all just
<v Speaker 1>kind of like, what is happening here? This is insane?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, this is a so this the trailer starts and
<v Speaker 3>it's this reptilian looking like goddess woman we're talking about, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>purity and soulless people and blah blah blah. And she's
<v Speaker 3>part of the Reptilian Naga race in this novel series.
<v Speaker 3>This is a high fantasy series of novels from South
<v Speaker 3>Korean author Lee Jung Due. It was first published in
<v Speaker 3>two thousand and three. So this isn't like a folktale thing,
<v Speaker 3>which Crafton is doing a lot of as well. This
<v Speaker 3>is like this would be like what's currently happening is
<v Speaker 3>like Brandon Sanderson's novels are being adapted into other media,
<v Speaker 3>and it's this world of like four races. There's the
<v Speaker 3>reptiles that we saw, and then the chicken is part
<v Speaker 3>of a race known as the Recon or Recon. That's
<v Speaker 3>all the lord stuff happening. No, no, I'm this is me.
<v Speaker 3>This is the research I was doing for the story
<v Speaker 3>I wrote yesterday. And uh yeah, so that's like the
<v Speaker 3>lore that's happening, and you kind of get taste of
<v Speaker 3>that in the trailer. But then you watch the trailer
<v Speaker 3>and there's an anthropomorphic super buff chicken with two swords
<v Speaker 3>who was just slashing through hordes of enemies dynasty warriors style,
<v Speaker 3>Like I don't want to say it's I don't want
<v Speaker 3>to say it's quite Dynasty Warriors, and I recognize maybe
<v Speaker 3>that's a turnoff for some people. I quite like that
<v Speaker 3>kind of combat, but it's like mixing the more traditional,
<v Speaker 3>like over the shoulder third person action combat that we
<v Speaker 3>see everywhere now with like Dynasty Warrior hordes and the
<v Speaker 3>ability to just like rip through them, and I think
<v Speaker 3>that's really cool. We see giant like monkey beasts, like
<v Speaker 3>all kinds of stuff happening, and this chicken is just
<v Speaker 3>like this buff, sword wielding chicken. I have no doubt
<v Speaker 3>the Internet will soon grasp onto this chicken, and we're
<v Speaker 3>not far from calling him hot. In fact, I saw
<v Speaker 3>ash formerly. Yeah, yeah, like, I think people are gonna
<v Speaker 3>be hot for this chicken. Lots of good jokes out
<v Speaker 3>there already, and it looks sick. It's under the name
<v Speaker 3>Project when List, which should indicate this is probably a
<v Speaker 3>good bit of ways away. We have no release window
<v Speaker 3>or anything. It's being developed I think exclusively for PS
<v Speaker 3>five currently, but again we're probably years away from published,
<v Speaker 3>so who knows where it goes.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I think to your point about the action,
<v Speaker 2>I would almost call this like a spectacle action because
<v Speaker 2>we used to have more of these games, and then
<v Speaker 2>I think Souls got very popular and people kind of
<v Speaker 2>started to go in that direction. But you go back
<v Speaker 2>to the three sixty era, you have games like Dragging Guard,
<v Speaker 2>You have games like ninety nine Nights that start to
<v Speaker 2>expand out what the character action game can look like
<v Speaker 2>on the ground. And this does have a bit of
<v Speaker 2>that flavor to it, a bit of that. It's hack
<v Speaker 2>and slash action. It's not quite DMC, it's not quite Souls.
<v Speaker 2>It's like a third point on the vectored triangle of
<v Speaker 2>character action. And I'm all, I'm all game for that.
<v Speaker 2>We're back in the air. The three sixty is so back.
<v Speaker 2>We're getting games like Pragmata, We're getting games like.
<v Speaker 1>Three sixties. Big thing early on was like we can
<v Speaker 1>put so many characters on screen. You don't even understand.
<v Speaker 1>You think, you think tens a lot just to wait
<v Speaker 1>like that was like the whole like first six months
<v Speaker 1>of the Xbox three sixty.
<v Speaker 3>And then Dark Souls happen and now it's like you're
<v Speaker 3>gonna fight this one person in before five minutes in
<v Speaker 3>a duel. You're gonna like, yeah, this game. It was
<v Speaker 3>just like it's it's one of the trailers of all
<v Speaker 3>the trailers during the show, I would say, watched this one.
<v Speaker 3>You're only somehow watching one because it is just bonkers
<v Speaker 3>off the wall and it looks cool. It's going to
<v Speaker 3>be a single player. They called it an action RPG
<v Speaker 3>in its open world as well, which you don't really
<v Speaker 3>can't really tell that in this more cinematic trader, but
<v Speaker 3>I think it's really interesting. This is Krafton. This is
<v Speaker 3>a South Korean based company we are seeing post blackmuth
<v Speaker 3>Wukong Development is a lot of the East Asian markets
<v Speaker 3>outside of Japan, so talking like Korea and China have
<v Speaker 3>been kind of like stranded in mobile and gotchland because
<v Speaker 3>their player base is they play a lot of mobile
<v Speaker 3>games there. And I've spoken to a lot of South
<v Speaker 3>Korean devs for Game and Former and basically what's happened
<v Speaker 3>is they've kind of tapped out on that market, like
<v Speaker 3>the well is running dry. They have their whales that
<v Speaker 3>keep those games afloat, and those games are still doing
<v Speaker 3>really well, but they're finding that younger generations want to
<v Speaker 3>build PCs and play BF games on bfpcs and maybe
<v Speaker 3>by a console too, And so now these companies saw
<v Speaker 3>what Blackack Myth Wukong did, which, mind you, that's like
<v Speaker 3>a twenty five million cellar game. That's huge for a
<v Speaker 3>brand new IP And I think they're going to tap
<v Speaker 3>into like their culture's history, which we see a lot.
<v Speaker 3>We see comic games based on American comics and this
<v Speaker 3>kind of stuff. Like they're tapping into the media that's
<v Speaker 3>popular there and creating these big action games, and I
<v Speaker 3>think it's we're going to continue to see that, and
<v Speaker 3>whether or not this game performs well in the US
<v Speaker 3>is irrelevant. I think this game is going to do
<v Speaker 3>really well the same way that Black Myth Wukong, Like
<v Speaker 3>that audience in the East Asia is like hungry.
<v Speaker 1>For I mean, Stellar Blade is like a similar story too,
<v Speaker 1>And that was kind of like they I got the sense,
<v Speaker 1>you know, which is from a translated interview, Like it's
<v Speaker 1>always tough to tell how emotionally a developer is feeling,
<v Speaker 1>but like I got the sense from them that they're like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we made a lot of mobile games and we're doing great,
<v Speaker 1>but like that's not what we want to do, Like
<v Speaker 1>we want to make bigger things, and so it seems
<v Speaker 1>like they are, which is good.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Fantom Blade Zero's coming out of China this year.
<v Speaker 3>Like we're seeing China and South Korea are absolutely new
<v Speaker 3>markets to watch. I mean I went to China last year.
<v Speaker 3>That was the first time in GI history, I think
<v Speaker 3>that we've ever been to China to cover a game,
<v Speaker 3>and like it's I'm really excited about what's coming out.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, obviously Japan, we know that industry very well,
<v Speaker 3>but it's cool to see China and South Korea kind
<v Speaker 3>of jump into this market.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, let's talk a little bit about God of War,
<v Speaker 1>which was if I remember correctly, that was that's how
<v Speaker 1>they ended the show, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how I feel about that, because what
<v Speaker 1>they did is they brought in the I don't I
<v Speaker 1>don't have his name off the top of my head,
<v Speaker 1>but the actor who played Cards Credos Okay, yeah, TC. Right,
<v Speaker 1>it's like any TC Carson. TC Carson who played Krados
<v Speaker 1>in the original trilogy and you know the PSP games
<v Speaker 1>and and Ascension and stuff, and he was on hand
<v Speaker 1>to say, hey, we're uh Sody, Santa Monica is remaking
<v Speaker 1>the God of War trilogy. Hello, I'm very care and
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to tell you that they're they're and I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to be involved with it. I was like, that's great,
<v Speaker 1>but like, I don't know, man, Like I don't know
<v Speaker 1>how I feel about those kinds of announcements of just
<v Speaker 1>like we're working on something, you know. Like I think
<v Speaker 1>it even.
<v Speaker 3>Had like the warning of like it's gonna be a
<v Speaker 3>while before you hear anything more about this, and it's
<v Speaker 3>games do that, and it's very frustrating.
<v Speaker 4>Well, and I think there's there's like two like uh things.
<v Speaker 4>I think one of them is they don't want to
<v Speaker 4>get leaked, like they want to have it come out
<v Speaker 4>on their own terms.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>And the other thing about it that's like good broadly speaking,
<v Speaker 4>is that if you're a developer working on the God
<v Speaker 4>of War trilogy, you can talk about it. You don't
<v Speaker 4>have to be like secretive about it. So to an extent,
<v Speaker 4>I understand it, but I also get like it's frustrating
<v Speaker 4>of like, I don't know, it's weird to be anticipating
<v Speaker 4>a game that's like however many years out, like five
<v Speaker 4>years out or whatever, if it takes a stupid long
<v Speaker 4>amount of time.
<v Speaker 3>But they do it for recruitment too. I know that's
<v Speaker 3>something do they announce games early, and it's like, if
<v Speaker 3>you want to come work on this, you should do that.
<v Speaker 3>But as a fan, it's like you get excited for this,
<v Speaker 3>like we were popping off in the chat and so
<v Speaker 3>is social media. But then, I mean, we're probably not
<v Speaker 3>going to see anything about this for at least a year,
<v Speaker 3>maybe a year and a half.
<v Speaker 1>Like this is like, I mean, I know it's a
<v Speaker 1>lot to ask because they're probably very early on, but
<v Speaker 1>I just want to know the visual direction, Like what
<v Speaker 1>is a screenshow about I don't even need you know,
<v Speaker 1>I just want to know, like a visual identity of
<v Speaker 1>this thing.
<v Speaker 2>You'd be like a concept art or something like a
<v Speaker 2>little bit of something. I personally like this. I think
<v Speaker 2>the games industry is often too secretive for its own good.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's a little too precious about confirming that, hey,
<v Speaker 2>that series that is super popular, that will make us
<v Speaker 2>a lot of money when we make the next one
<v Speaker 2>in its installment, you know stuff. Yeah we're working on that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we're we're thinking about the next plans for that. Instead
<v Speaker 2>they're like, we're not discussing anything about this. It could
<v Speaker 2>or could not happen. Who could? I think it's fine
<v Speaker 2>to get out there and say, hey, yeah, we're working
<v Speaker 2>on this. I mean, Kingdom Hearts four is in that
<v Speaker 2>box right now, Mass Effect five is in that box
<v Speaker 2>right now, and it's fine that that stuff is getting
<v Speaker 2>worked on. There's extenuating circumstances with at least one of
<v Speaker 2>those games that maybe casts a dark shadow over it,
<v Speaker 2>and maybe that's Ultimately the thing is, the video games
<v Speaker 2>industry is never stable enough to feel like you can
<v Speaker 2>get out there really early ahead of something and still
<v Speaker 2>feel like it's going to be on track three years
<v Speaker 2>from now, because our timelines are so long, because things
<v Speaker 2>take so long to turn around compared to, you know,
<v Speaker 2>twenty years ago. But all that being said, I mean
<v Speaker 2>trilogy remake. It's interesting. I don't I'm not the hugest
<v Speaker 2>fan of God of War in general, but I know
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people are. I think I have a
<v Speaker 2>lot of questions, certainly about what it means that they're remaking,
<v Speaker 2>Like how much do they remake? Is it going to
<v Speaker 2>play like a twenty eighteen game. Is it still going
<v Speaker 2>to play like the PS two game Sames? Is it
<v Speaker 2>going to rewrite that character? Is it going to retcon
<v Speaker 2>anything like we've seen with like the Kawami series of
<v Speaker 2>Yakuza and all that is, like how do you retackle
<v Speaker 2>this game? I think that would maybe be a question,
<v Speaker 2>and maybe they don't feel like answering that at this moment,
<v Speaker 2>or maybe there's stiff like that right now.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I think that's all fair. Eric. I like
<v Speaker 1>knowing that things are being worked on, and I think
<v Speaker 1>that that is good. I think that the sort of
<v Speaker 1>annoying consumer thing that I'm complaining about is like the
<v Speaker 1>pace of the show. It's like I want, you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's like I want like fun announcements and gold things,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, oh, it's great to see. I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, Wes, I think you joked at the beginning
<v Speaker 1>like there wasn't anything here that couldn't have been an email.
<v Speaker 1>This is taking that we're remaking the God of Rtrial cool.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 3>I think for like old fans, the voice actors like
<v Speaker 3>the big thing there because there's people who, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>I love Christopher Judge, but even you know, since it's casting,
<v Speaker 3>there's people who are like why did we recast? TC?
<v Speaker 1>Is great?
<v Speaker 3>Like he's Credos. So I think it's really cool to
<v Speaker 3>like bring them back in. Yeah, super charismatic dude. I
<v Speaker 3>was not familiar with his game, but like I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>this is hell. Yeah dude.
<v Speaker 1>That's why they decided to do it that way, because
<v Speaker 1>they're like, yeah, this guy, Like you're gonna want to
<v Speaker 1>hang out this guy, you know.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I would also argue that, like the well, I also
<v Speaker 4>want to talk about Sons of Sparta, which is another
<v Speaker 4>the the way I was hanging it in is that
<v Speaker 4>we would also maybe feel differently if, like last Summer
<v Speaker 4>Game Fest they announced Sons of Sparta was coming out,
<v Speaker 4>then we have this and then there's less of a
<v Speaker 4>because we have like a we've had a drought of
<v Speaker 4>what Sony Santa Monica is working on. I think is
<v Speaker 4>part of the reason they feel the need to like
<v Speaker 4>compensate for this gap of information, and I think if
<v Speaker 4>we just had this thing, it would be like okay,
<v Speaker 4>that would tide us over a little bit. I also
<v Speaker 4>think they were like, it's like you're having a birthday
<v Speaker 4>party and then at the very end, you're gonna have cake,
<v Speaker 4>and they're like, you, guys, I gotta say next year,
<v Speaker 4>it's gonna be a huge cake. It's gonna be remember
<v Speaker 4>your favorite cake ever it's gonna be like that but
<v Speaker 4>even better. Anyways, here's a plate of cookies and you're like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't expecting the cookies, but you spend a long
<v Speaker 4>time talking about this cake that I haven't seen and
<v Speaker 4>have no concrete concept of, so much that like I
<v Speaker 4>did forget that I got cookies just now, and it's
<v Speaker 4>so Anyways, I think they should have maybe spend more
<v Speaker 4>time was as a Sparta or had someone come out
<v Speaker 4>and talk about that also, so it was more like
<v Speaker 4>we're finishing on something real and tangible.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Now am I I don't know, Well, Kyle, you've played
<v Speaker 4>this game.
<v Speaker 1>I'm curious of what you think of it. Yeah. I
<v Speaker 1>was gonna we'll finish up this section of the podcast
<v Speaker 1>talking about Sons of Sparta because it was it was like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I had the emotions you guys went through.
<v Speaker 1>I am a big God of War fan. I have
<v Speaker 1>I have played every game, including even which I reference
<v Speaker 1>in my story about some of the God of War
<v Speaker 1>portrayal like the Nokia like pixelated God of War game.
<v Speaker 1>I have seen Credos full story like and I enjoy
<v Speaker 1>his story. I like that. I have seen every facet
<v Speaker 1>of his life, and I know, you know, there's the
<v Speaker 1>version of his life where he's a married man with
<v Speaker 1>a daughter. There's a version of his life where he's
<v Speaker 1>a widowed father with a son. You know, like I
<v Speaker 1>like tracking this guy's life, you know, So Sons of
<v Speaker 1>Sparta was like I was like, oh, this is like
<v Speaker 1>a cool thing. Like I was like, I like going
<v Speaker 1>really like the like the furthest back in Cretos timeline.
<v Speaker 1>In terms of gameplay, you know, I've we've seen sort
<v Speaker 1>of bald Credos and his brother in like sort of
<v Speaker 1>like old cut scenes and like cut content from the
<v Speaker 1>original God of War and stuff. But I was just
<v Speaker 1>kind of like, okay, like this is cool. And then
<v Speaker 1>the announcement of like it's about it's out now was
<v Speaker 1>like genuinely surprising, and I was like, oh great. And
<v Speaker 1>I started playing it this morning. I'm on the review
<v Speaker 1>so I'll have a proper review of the game soon,
<v Speaker 1>and I played about forty minutes, so like you know,
<v Speaker 1>Grain of Salt and all that. With like everything I'm sharing,
<v Speaker 1>opinions could change, but like I I've I've been generally impressed.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's more metroidy than I realized because I thought
<v Speaker 1>it was gonna be more just like a straight up
<v Speaker 1>action game, kind of like a Shnoby from last year,
<v Speaker 1>which is like not a Metroid game. And Ninja Guiden
<v Speaker 1>as well also is not right. It's like it's it's
<v Speaker 1>just a straight ahead action game right with levels. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is like you're you're running around Sparta. I'm recalling
<v Speaker 1>the recent Prince of Persia game, which is funny because
<v Speaker 1>the Spartans are currently like at war with the Persians,
<v Speaker 1>which is like a funny thing. I do think like
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't need to be compared to Prince of Persia,
<v Speaker 1>but that is like the recent apex of Metroid design.
<v Speaker 1>In my mind. Yeah, it does not feel as good
<v Speaker 1>as that game. It is not as smooth. It's like
<v Speaker 1>a little hitchy and like there there's like combat mechanics
<v Speaker 1>that are like yeah, if you hold down are one,
<v Speaker 1>you do a little less damage, but like you know,
<v Speaker 1>you get these benefits, and I'm kind of like at
<v Speaker 1>this stage, I'm kind of like, well, I don't understand
<v Speaker 1>like why I should ever be holding down our one
<v Speaker 1>at this point, Like that could change, right, I just
<v Speaker 1>don't understand the mechanics yet. But like as someone who
<v Speaker 1>really follows the God of War narrative and is invested
<v Speaker 1>in it, Like I'm excited. It's fun to hear TC Carson, right,
<v Speaker 1>that's his name. It's fun to hear him playing Credos
<v Speaker 1>again and he's telling his daughter a story, so like
<v Speaker 1>the sort of framing is like a version of Credos
<v Speaker 1>we don't often often see, like the father of a daughter,
<v Speaker 1>and then we get to see him as this sort
<v Speaker 1>of abrasive child, which I don't we haven't really seen either,
<v Speaker 1>and it is fun to play kid Krados and him
<v Speaker 1>being like, yeah, I really want to be a powerful spartan,
<v Speaker 1>like that's what I want from my life. And I'm like, dude,
<v Speaker 1>your life is crazy, man, Like you don't even know,
<v Speaker 1>like what's gonna happen. It's gonnas, It's gonna be bad,
<v Speaker 1>but it's also gonna be really fast and engaging and
<v Speaker 1>emotional and moving at times. So like that part of it,
<v Speaker 1>like I'm I'm into, Like I'm thinking maybe the developer
<v Speaker 1>who I looked up has mostly done like backyard sports
<v Speaker 1>games as it kind of been their recent like sort
<v Speaker 1>of gamography, which just makes them an odd pick for
<v Speaker 1>this is like I imagine they're kind of like doing
<v Speaker 1>the sort of design and the and the development the
<v Speaker 1>gameplay and like you know, making sure the combat feels
<v Speaker 1>pretty good, which it does, and then I think maybe
<v Speaker 1>Sony Santa Monica is like, yeah, no, don't worry, we'll
<v Speaker 1>take care of the sort of an emotional side of this.
<v Speaker 1>And maybe to the writing, I don't know if that's
<v Speaker 1>what it is. I'm just making assumptions here, but like
<v Speaker 1>the writing seems solid, the action seems okay, i' and
<v Speaker 1>I'm having a good time exploring, you know, building a map,
<v Speaker 1>you know, like finding something here and realizing I have
<v Speaker 1>to come back to it later, like those kind of
<v Speaker 1>Metroid sort of mechanics. Those all seem really solidly implemented,
<v Speaker 1>and like I'm eager to see it to the end.
<v Speaker 1>So like positive first impression for sure.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it has a stacked voice, guess too. They put
<v Speaker 3>out like a little blog post yesterday night, and there's
<v Speaker 3>there's a pretty uh robust cast of characters. I know
<v Speaker 3>Shelby Young, who I follow on TikTok. She does like
<v Speaker 3>all kinds of voices. She was Leah in the recent
<v Speaker 3>Star Wars Lego games. She's in it. The guy that
<v Speaker 3>plays Decord in Detroit Become Human is somebody. There's a
<v Speaker 3>lot like they put out like a little trailer and
<v Speaker 3>it was like thirty names, like it is stacked.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to put you on the spot. I
<v Speaker 1>probably don't know the Do you know who's playing the
<v Speaker 1>brother Damos because he sounds so familiar? Look him up.
<v Speaker 3>I don't remember, but I'll look him up.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, this.
<v Speaker 3>Is a thirty dollars game.
<v Speaker 1>That's a good question. I don't know, And it's a
<v Speaker 1>good it's PlayStation five. It's funny. As I'm playing it,
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, you know where I would love to be
<v Speaker 1>playing this on the switch?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, yeah, thirty dollars game. Just a PS five game.
<v Speaker 3>I am surprised it's not a Switch game, considering that
<v Speaker 3>they're playing playing a bit nicer with Nintendo. They did
<v Speaker 3>the Horizon Lego game. Yeah, it seems like it would
<v Speaker 3>be a good fit for War Switch. But it is
<v Speaker 3>also God of War. Yeah, that's like that's.
<v Speaker 1>Arguably their most precious franchise. Maybe, I mean, because like
<v Speaker 1>you could say Spider Man, but like that's Last of Us. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you know, you guys are Last of Us. I I'm
<v Speaker 1>sort of more invested in the God of War story personally,
<v Speaker 1>although I do really enjoy Last of Us as well.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not trying to us we say Last of Us,
<v Speaker 2>but they sure do find an excuse to trot out
<v Speaker 2>one of those two games every time they do a stream.
<v Speaker 3>And cancel the multiplayer game. Yeah yeah, yeah, Traded t too.
<v Speaker 3>So it's not even.
<v Speaker 1>Demos is voiced by Scott Menville. Oh he plays Robin
<v Speaker 1>and Teen Titans doesn't.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, Yeah, we've also got Jack Quaid.
<v Speaker 3>That was another name that I was like, his I
<v Speaker 3>is from Star Trek.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's the main thing that.
<v Speaker 1>I was referencing Jack Quaid on our podcast recently, and
<v Speaker 1>I was like, you guys know that the actor. He's
<v Speaker 1>got a famous dad, and of course we all know
<v Speaker 1>him from his appearances on the comedy Bang Bang podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Like that, I totally bypassed the boys to talk about
<v Speaker 1>an obscure improv comedy podcast that he shows up on. Sometimes.
<v Speaker 1>I like Jack Quaid. He's very funny. Yeah, who does he?
<v Speaker 1>Do you have that list of Charles? I don't Demos?
<v Speaker 1>Oh he wait?
<v Speaker 4>Oh sorry jack Quaid ace e, I S.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think i've met that character yet, Okay, cool, yeah, yeah, sweet.
<v Speaker 4>I am excited for the trilogy Remax. I've never played
<v Speaker 4>those games, and I always I really really like the
<v Speaker 4>two new games, and I've found it an interesting way
<v Speaker 4>that I have. Some people are coming in with Kratos's
<v Speaker 4>perspective of his life and the things he's done. I
<v Speaker 4>came in with a TRACE's perspective of, like, I guess
<v Speaker 4>my dad's done some bad things and he's kind of
<v Speaker 4>feels bad about it.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know all the details.
<v Speaker 4>I have seen, like a video essay that like kind
<v Speaker 4>of breaks down anything that happens. I like, these games
<v Speaker 4>seem wild, so I'm curious to see how they are
<v Speaker 4>reimagined in whatever amount of context is this.
<v Speaker 1>Two D game.
<v Speaker 4>I'm curious to play it because I don't. It doesn't
<v Speaker 4>really uh scratch the God of War itch for me
<v Speaker 4>just looking at it, like I'm if I want to
<v Speaker 4>play a God of War game, I wouldn't look at
<v Speaker 4>this and be like, Ah, that's that's the thing I
<v Speaker 4>should do. It's just like a different occupy's a different
<v Speaker 4>part of my brain, And I'm curious of how much
<v Speaker 4>like Kyle, do you feel like? Even translated to d
<v Speaker 4>that you're like, oh, this is a God of War
<v Speaker 4>game or is it more just like this is a
<v Speaker 4>different game that has God of War characters.
<v Speaker 1>I think it's more the latter so far. It is
<v Speaker 1>a different game that had that like like sort of
<v Speaker 1>character wise so far, like it does feel like who
<v Speaker 1>I imagine Credos as a child to be right, And
<v Speaker 1>the framing of of having the original voice actor talking
<v Speaker 1>to Calliope is helpful and important, like I yeah, Like
<v Speaker 1>there's a couple of really interesting sequences with Calliope in
<v Speaker 1>the first PSP game, like truly like heartbreaking stuff like that.
<v Speaker 1>Like so I like seeing him be a dad to
<v Speaker 1>a daughter, Like you know, that's that's important to me
<v Speaker 1>as a dad of a daughter, I guess. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the action right, Like you're right, Charles, it doesn't really
<v Speaker 1>feel like God of War. Like I am collecting you know,
<v Speaker 1>glowing little globules for health and experiences.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, globules.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I always say there's two types of games. There's
<v Speaker 1>there's the game where the globules come to you, and
<v Speaker 1>there's the game where you have to collect the globules.
<v Speaker 1>And that's like that that's all video games.
<v Speaker 3>So that's a feature that's a feature.
<v Speaker 1>To yes, exactly, but I mean it would be it
<v Speaker 1>would be it would be kind of insane if you
<v Speaker 1>got the Blades of Chaos, like you know what I
<v Speaker 1>mean like that, like if he's swinging a blade, I
<v Speaker 1>mean may maybe they could say, like, yeah, this is
<v Speaker 1>how we learned to do it, like he had to
<v Speaker 1>learn to do it at some point, but like right now,
<v Speaker 1>I just have a staff, you know, I have a
<v Speaker 1>like a.
<v Speaker 2>Sword with a chain on the end. He starts swinging
<v Speaker 2>and he's like, I don't know, seems unwieldy and like
<v Speaker 2>the camera and like throws it away. It is the
<v Speaker 2>like the Gotham problem where I don't know if you
<v Speaker 2>guys remember the TV show Gotham, which is about Bruce
<v Speaker 2>Wayne as a like fourteen year old boy, where it's like,
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna have all your favorite Batman stuff, except none
<v Speaker 2>of it's as it is yet, and when we do
<v Speaker 2>make it like more accurate, it feels way too early.
<v Speaker 2>But when you don't get enough of it, you're like,
<v Speaker 2>this isn't anything.
<v Speaker 1>Why do I care?
<v Speaker 4>That's Gordon's not even a commissioner. And then he becomes
<v Speaker 4>a Commissioner're like well, now there's no prequel. This is
<v Speaker 4>just what his job is.
<v Speaker 3>Such a weird show that I watched every episode of.
<v Speaker 4>You know, my my cousin was on that show.
<v Speaker 1>Really he's an actor, Commissioner Gordon.
<v Speaker 3>He Jerome or Joker or Jake Jerome or Jeremy Jeremy
<v Speaker 3>that's right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there, Jerome is the Joker and then he dies
<v Speaker 4>and then turns out to a brother Jerom.
<v Speaker 3>That show went the last season or two of that
<v Speaker 3>show went like bonkers.
<v Speaker 4>My cousin play. He was in an episode The Mad
<v Speaker 4>Hatter where the Mad Hatter was mind controlling everyone and
<v Speaker 4>he was.
<v Speaker 1>At that point a common career.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, he mind crows everyone to go up on a
<v Speaker 4>roof and they're about to like all jump off the root.
<v Speaker 4>I can't remember why, but he's gonna make everyone kill himself.
<v Speaker 4>I think mister Gordon realizes, like in the My Controls instructions,
<v Speaker 4>they're like, and you're not allowed to save yourself, and
<v Speaker 4>he goes on like the radio station. She's like, you
<v Speaker 4>can't save yourself, but you can save each other. And
<v Speaker 4>my cousin is the guy that stops Harvey Bullock.
<v Speaker 1>From jumping off the ledge. He's credited as Youngster on Roof.
<v Speaker 4>Oh hey, I watched the whole episode knowing he was
<v Speaker 4>gonna be in it. I hadn't seen like the entire
<v Speaker 4>season preceding. It was like, man, this is a weird show.
<v Speaker 4>And then he had no lines. He was just youngster.
<v Speaker 1>That's awesome. There you go. You know, Brian Jay is
<v Speaker 1>in the crowd scene of Dark Knight Rises, so oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>maybe I mentioned that they could chat about their experiences
<v Speaker 1>Gotham extras. Yeah, there you go.
<v Speaker 4>Anyways, that's what God of Words. It's like my cousin
<v Speaker 4>being in the Gotham show.
<v Speaker 1>My hope is that it's more focused on like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>Credos and his brother like stuff that we haven't seen
<v Speaker 1>enough of yet. Ghost of Sparta has some cradles brother
<v Speaker 1>stuff the second PSP game. But like, yeah, I don't
<v Speaker 1>want to, you know, I don't want it to be
<v Speaker 1>winking too much to the future because the fun part
<v Speaker 1>is like just hey, this is a kid who like
<v Speaker 1>doesn't even know what he's in for it for the
<v Speaker 1>rest of his life, you know. But yeah, Stay of
<v Speaker 1>play a great show. I think I think it was.
<v Speaker 1>I think there was a lot of good stuff in there.
<v Speaker 1>And a lot of fun surprises, and it didn't feel long, frankly,
<v Speaker 1>even though it was yeah you know, yeah, I agree.
<v Speaker 1>So cool. Well, we're going to take a break and
<v Speaker 1>we're going to come back and we're going to talk Pokemon,
<v Speaker 1>pop Cope, re Animal, Romeo is a dead Man, and
<v Speaker 1>Cinny Cross and then uh yeah, we'll call it an episode.
<v Speaker 1>So stick around. Hey, everybody, we are back from the
<v Speaker 1>previous segment. You just heard us talking about the state
<v Speaker 1>of play and I'm sure we had a lot of
<v Speaker 1>amazing things to say. We're recording this out of order,
<v Speaker 1>but wow, what a show that was and what a
<v Speaker 1>conversation we had. I love it.
<v Speaker 2>I can't believe they went right to the PlayStation seven.
<v Speaker 2>That's crazy, you know, I really thought the six would
<v Speaker 2>be next.
<v Speaker 1>And let's get away from PlayStation stuff. Who cares about
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation Charles tell me and I guess Wes and Eric
<v Speaker 1>listening to if they want about Pokemon Pacopia, which you
<v Speaker 1>went to New York to play recently? Right?
<v Speaker 4>I did? It was it was the one game I
<v Speaker 4>couldn't talk about until later. Uh, and it was my
<v Speaker 4>favorite game that I saw there.
<v Speaker 1>That virtual boy. You're saying, definitely actually hands down.
<v Speaker 4>I would actually say there's no part of virtual play
<v Speaker 4>I enjoyed more than Pokemon.
<v Speaker 2>You couldn't play Pocopia in the virtual boy, right, Uh.
<v Speaker 4>No, I mean I'm sure I could try, but I
<v Speaker 4>don't know if it would work. Yeah, it was. It
<v Speaker 4>was like a venue. I talked last week about how
<v Speaker 4>there's all these like waiters showing up and they had
<v Speaker 4>like platters of food and I was like, Oh, this
<v Speaker 4>fancy little steak bites or whatever. That was all the
<v Speaker 4>first floor, the whole basement was exclusively dedicated to Pokemon Pucopia,
<v Speaker 4>which was fun.
<v Speaker 1>So it was all just set up for that.
<v Speaker 4>I went in, I sat down, and I got to
<v Speaker 4>do I played about an hour of the game, and
<v Speaker 4>I played in two chunks. My first chunk was like
<v Speaker 4>a fresh save, and then after that we got to
<v Speaker 4>do some local multiplayer, and.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was.
<v Speaker 4>My honest opinion with most Pokemon stuff lately is like
<v Speaker 4>I always loved Pokemon. I'll always have a soft spot
<v Speaker 4>in my heart for it, but I don't know that
<v Speaker 4>I'm excited about it anymore. It's not a thing that
<v Speaker 4>I'm like, I'm not always actively looking forward to it.
<v Speaker 4>I'll check it out when it comes out. But I'm
<v Speaker 4>not like, I'm not like first in line like I
<v Speaker 4>used to be for a reasons, and this was one
<v Speaker 4>where I I honestly, the premise is so obvious. It's
<v Speaker 4>one of those things that it's like, it's amazing it
<v Speaker 4>took them this long to do like a Pokemon animal
<v Speaker 4>crossing kind of a crossover where I was like, uh, there,
<v Speaker 4>this is probably gonna be a nothing game. It's probably
<v Speaker 4>gonna be boring, or it's not gonna be all that
<v Speaker 4>interesting because it doesn't have to be. And then I
<v Speaker 4>played it and I was like, oh, this rocks, and
<v Speaker 4>it's now I'm now like actively excited for it. I
<v Speaker 4>see myself playing this like in bed each night, as
<v Speaker 4>like a nice reset at the end of the day.
<v Speaker 1>And you are an animal crossing guy, right, like you
<v Speaker 1>like animal crossing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I played animal crossing. I'm not like a super
<v Speaker 4>intense about it, but it's the thing I enjoy.
<v Speaker 1>Which I'm gonna this is probably a question you're getting
<v Speaker 1>ready to answer here, but like you know, it's like
<v Speaker 1>farming sim right Stardy Valley versus like animal crossing, Like
<v Speaker 1>is it more on the animal crossing side of things.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, I would say it's definitely more on the animal crossing side.
<v Speaker 4>There's like, uh, from what I played, farming is not
<v Speaker 4>a super relevant part of the experience in that like
<v Speaker 4>you're not trying to get specific berries to do things.
<v Speaker 4>When I was playing, there were trees that produced berries
<v Speaker 4>and that refreshed your like power points, your PP which
<v Speaker 4>you use to like use your moves all the time,
<v Speaker 4>gifts berries to people.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we just had the parental advisory sticker on.
<v Speaker 4>You know, I intentionally said power points before shortening it
<v Speaker 4>because I was like, We're not even gonna go there.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna avoid it. But like Kyle had a joke
<v Speaker 1>that I'm sure has never been made before ever on
<v Speaker 1>any other.
<v Speaker 3>In Pokemon history.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, uh but yeah, it uh is I think.
<v Speaker 3>Oh.
<v Speaker 4>The other part about it that I think is interesting
<v Speaker 4>is I am I don't think they've said this, and
<v Speaker 4>I'm not sure it's confirmed, but I suspect this is
<v Speaker 4>at least some people that worked on the dragon Quest
<v Speaker 4>Builders games.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I was gonna jump been with is that
<v Speaker 2>I believe Omega Force is working on this, and that
<v Speaker 2>is the crew that made dragon Quest Builders, which for
<v Speaker 2>my money is one of the best dragon Quest spin
<v Speaker 2>offs ever, made extremely good duology of games, and for
<v Speaker 2>years I was like, where's where's dragon Quest Builders?
<v Speaker 1>Three? Where is it?
<v Speaker 2>Where is it? It turns out it might actually be Pokemon.
<v Speaker 2>Pocopia is the follow up because even just the way
<v Speaker 2>you move around in that space, the way you plunk
<v Speaker 2>things down and can kind of rearrange the town. And
<v Speaker 2>for those who hadn't played dragon Quest Builders, there were
<v Speaker 2>a lot of mechanics that were about not just building
<v Speaker 2>stuff all on Minecraft, but building little homes and places
<v Speaker 2>where people would go do things and it would start
<v Speaker 2>to automate stuff. So if you built a kitchen, people
<v Speaker 2>might go in and start baking things and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 2>So this looks to do a lot of that, but
<v Speaker 2>with Pokemon, which makes a ton of sense.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And it almost makes me more excited for it
<v Speaker 4>to realize that because there's a sense of like it
<v Speaker 4>was just I was talking about, like the concept of
<v Speaker 4>a Pokemon's been off before, where they're like, oh, well,
<v Speaker 4>just ship this off to like, you know, a smaller
<v Speaker 4>side developer. They'll throw it together. But the main thing
<v Speaker 4>is that it's got the Pokemon licensing and a bunch
<v Speaker 4>of kids will play it because X y Z and
<v Speaker 4>this is all I feel like a lot now that
<v Speaker 4>I know it's a team doing the type of game
<v Speaker 4>that they know how to do, but with Pokemon instead
<v Speaker 4>of Dragon Quest as a license, it kind of makes
<v Speaker 4>more sense to me when I was opening it up
<v Speaker 4>and being like, oh, there's a lot going on here,
<v Speaker 4>which is exciting. So you play as a diddo who
<v Speaker 4>is transformed into their long lost trainer. Not super clear
<v Speaker 4>what happened to the trainer. They might be dead. You
<v Speaker 4>just kind of wake up in a cave and you're like,
<v Speaker 4>I don't know what my trainer is.
<v Speaker 2>And then.
<v Speaker 4>There's a tang growth known as Professor Tang Growth that's like,
<v Speaker 4>I's this old poke Decks has been sitting here forever.
<v Speaker 4>And then it wakes up when it sees you, and
<v Speaker 4>it's like, oh, the Trainer's back, and I'm like, did there.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sure they'll answer the question. I hope they answer
<v Speaker 4>the question, but no, it seems like talking about it
<v Speaker 4>like there's a plot to the game or something like
<v Speaker 4>there there was some like slight for it. Just it
<v Speaker 4>felt like, honestly, it felt like the start of.
<v Speaker 1>A Fallout game.
<v Speaker 4>It's like I woke up in a bunker, I don't
<v Speaker 4>know where my dad is, and then I go outside
<v Speaker 4>and the whole world has ended. There's no Pokemon, like
<v Speaker 4>tank growth is not just like holy crap, a human
<v Speaker 4>and then like, oh wait, you're a ditto, Holy crap,
<v Speaker 4>another Pokemon. I haven't seen any of those around here
<v Speaker 4>in a long time. And I'm pretty sure they refer
<v Speaker 4>to the surrounding area as a wasteland too, So it's
<v Speaker 4>like a surprising, just like a vibe I wasn't expecting.
<v Speaker 1>And then you go outside.
<v Speaker 4>There's an unconscious squirrel and you use you learn water
<v Speaker 4>gun from him. You wake him up with some water,
<v Speaker 4>and then you there's like a kind of tatorial section.
<v Speaker 4>But the gist is that you're the main mechanic. Is
<v Speaker 4>this habitat's mechanic where you are placing objects in the
<v Speaker 4>environment or growing natural features in the environment or something.
<v Speaker 4>Basically make little clusters of decorations that can spawn in
<v Speaker 4>Pokemon kind of the way that like in a Pokemon game,
<v Speaker 4>you'd run around the tall grass look for something, so
<v Speaker 4>like four tall grasses is like a tall grass area
<v Speaker 4>and that can spawn in a bulble sore or a
<v Speaker 4>charmander or some other pokemon I didn't get to see.
<v Speaker 4>If you put some grass around a tree, that's a habitat,
<v Speaker 4>you put some grass around a big rock, that's a habitat.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sure if you have like three little rocks and
<v Speaker 4>you put them together, that's a habitat. And then also
<v Speaker 4>extends to some like non natural features too. So the
<v Speaker 4>one I saw there was like a punching bag next
<v Speaker 4>to a weightlifting bench, and that can spawn in some
<v Speaker 4>fighting type pokemon. And I'm excited for that as a
<v Speaker 4>concept because I've always been very much like in an
<v Speaker 4>animal crossing, for example, I'm just like, well, what's the Charles?
<v Speaker 4>I Like, my favorite color is green, so I'm like,
<v Speaker 4>what's a green bed? Or like, how can I make
<v Speaker 4>fun geometric styled green curtains or whatever? And once I
<v Speaker 4>have that, I'm like done. I don't need to make
<v Speaker 4>stuff anymore. Maybe I'll get some as like gifts for
<v Speaker 4>my villagers, but there's like a clear cap on creating stuff.
<v Speaker 4>And this is like a very good incentive to be Like,
<v Speaker 4>you're gonna want to get as many recipes or decorations
<v Speaker 4>as possible because it'll be like, oh, You're gonna spend
<v Speaker 4>a lot of time, you know, looking for this item,
<v Speaker 4>because that's how you can get the toy volcano, which
<v Speaker 4>is how you spawn the chartis art or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>So I thought that was exciting. The Minecraft Builders reference
<v Speaker 1>is surprising and not surprising at the same time. I've
<v Speaker 1>played a shocking man of that game, like both of them, weirdly,
<v Speaker 1>even though it's not usually my genre. But dragon Quest Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I say, did I say the wrong thing? Minecraft? Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>dragon Quest Builders? Thank you? Yeah, no, thank you for
<v Speaker 1>correcting me. And the thing that I didn't get from
<v Speaker 1>looking at the videos and trailers and stuff that I
<v Speaker 1>did read about in your preview, which you can read
<v Speaker 1>on gameformer dot com, Like you talked about like getting
<v Speaker 1>off the island and going to like a different island.
<v Speaker 1>Is is it pretty large? Because like Dragon Quest Builders,
<v Speaker 1>world is shockingly big, like in both of those games,
<v Speaker 1>and the early that first look at Pacopia made me
<v Speaker 1>kind of feel like, ooh, this is gonna all take
<v Speaker 1>place in this one little area, Like what what's your
<v Speaker 1>sense of that part of the game.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I'm not really sure because the the section I
<v Speaker 4>played was at the start, it was clearly like a
<v Speaker 4>crater of sorts, so I was surrounded by like high
<v Speaker 4>walls on all sides, and I didn't unlock any like
<v Speaker 4>climbing or flying or even like block breaking abilities. And
<v Speaker 4>then the second chunk I played was on an island
<v Speaker 4>and I could see another island and I had like
<v Speaker 4>rock smash and stuff, so I could we could get
<v Speaker 4>around more, but it was like it was sizable. I
<v Speaker 4>also like there was an ocean I was swimming across
<v Speaker 4>slash flying over that I assume I could fill in.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't.
<v Speaker 4>I don't really know. It wasn't super clear to me
<v Speaker 4>whether like that starting area was a part of the
<v Speaker 4>same area, or like how it all connected, or if
<v Speaker 4>the the map could get bigger or smaller depending on
<v Speaker 4>like what we discovered.
<v Speaker 1>But I didn't. I I think there was. It felt
<v Speaker 1>like it felt spacious. I didn't. It didn't feel phostrophobic,
<v Speaker 1>at least in that section I was playing.
<v Speaker 3>YEA, is it is there like objectives or is it
<v Speaker 3>just kind of like, hey, here's a blank space. Have
<v Speaker 3>fun because I like animal crossing. But I always sputter
<v Speaker 3>out quickly because I just don't have an aim, and
<v Speaker 3>I prefer games that give me something more than my
<v Speaker 3>own creativity.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there's definitely like a I was saying story mode,
<v Speaker 4>but there definitely is a sense of like linear progression.
<v Speaker 4>And I'm very glad that we did like the start
<v Speaker 4>of a save file and then we went on to
<v Speaker 4>the multiplayer stuff, because the start, the start of the
<v Speaker 4>save kind of did feel like the start of a
<v Speaker 4>Pokemon game, where they're like holding your hand through like
<v Speaker 4>every little specific mechanic.
<v Speaker 1>Interaction disrespect for the player's time is how.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, pokemont.
<v Speaker 4>There's text, there's texts, and then you learn water gun,
<v Speaker 4>and then there's more texts and the water squirrel, and
<v Speaker 4>then there's more texts and they're like I wonder what
<v Speaker 4>else you could water? And then you find a dry
<v Speaker 4>thing you water, then there's more text and like I
<v Speaker 4>wonder what else you can water? And it's like that
<v Speaker 4>where it was like I spent more time reading textboxes
<v Speaker 4>in that first section than I did actually playing the game.
<v Speaker 4>But then like there's like challenges and stuff in the
<v Speaker 4>PC that give you some I imagine what would happen
<v Speaker 4>is the story would slow down a little bit. There
<v Speaker 4>they'll be like you have to focus on, you know,
<v Speaker 4>leveling up the environment, area or whatever it's called. There's
<v Speaker 4>like a name for the level that you're operating at,
<v Speaker 4>and then those are little more like macro goals of
<v Speaker 4>like make X number of furniture or do xyz and
<v Speaker 4>I when I was doing it, I was trying to
<v Speaker 4>be very specific and stick to the goals that I
<v Speaker 4>had because I wanted to do it. But it opened
<v Speaker 4>up a lot more then and it's like, oh, if
<v Speaker 4>I wanted to just go around and like move a
<v Speaker 4>bunch of grass around or kind of just do my
<v Speaker 4>own thing, it's very easy to get like sidetracked even
<v Speaker 4>though I have like concrete objectives to do.
<v Speaker 1>So that was like the start.
<v Speaker 4>I like played there solo, and then I went into
<v Speaker 4>a multiplayer local wireless game and this was really so
<v Speaker 4>that first section, I was like, Okay, I'm interested. I'd
<v Speaker 4>love to play more of this, but I don't have
<v Speaker 4>like a real sense of the gameplay loop yet. Then
<v Speaker 4>I go into this next section and I'm like, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>I understand why the game is appealing now because it's
<v Speaker 4>like the world is way more open. I had a
<v Speaker 4>bunch more like moves I could use. I can just
<v Speaker 4>smash blocks. I didn't really know going into this game
<v Speaker 4>that it was like, no, you can go any point
<v Speaker 4>on the ground. You can mine down like it's Minecraft,
<v Speaker 4>and you'll collect blocks and you can place those blocks
<v Speaker 4>in different spots, like you have full, full range of
<v Speaker 4>command over that sort of thing. And they we saw
<v Speaker 4>in this area people had used it to like make
<v Speaker 4>houses and make sculptures, and they built a bunch of windmills,
<v Speaker 4>and I'm pretty sure that was like a pre built accessory,
<v Speaker 4>but it was like, wow, they really like windmills. There's
<v Speaker 4>ten windmills on this island. And quickly went from a
<v Speaker 4>thing of like, Okay, this is just a place items
<v Speaker 4>or whatever to get Pokemon. And I was like, okay,
<v Speaker 4>I could make a town here and I'll visit someone
<v Speaker 4>else's town will look way different from my town. It's
<v Speaker 4>not strictly guided. And then there's also like a thing
<v Speaker 4>I didn't really get a taste of, is your relationship
<v Speaker 4>with the Pokemon that end up like living there in
<v Speaker 4>the houses that you make.
<v Speaker 1>They all have like dialogue, like spoken dialogue. Social Yeah yeah, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you talk, you talk to everyone. I guess. I guess
<v Speaker 1>their rule is like if you are playing as a Pokemon,
<v Speaker 1>you can talk to other Pokemon. I guess it's kind
<v Speaker 1>of like, yes, yeah, I watched uh.
<v Speaker 4>The they did like an extended trailer on the features
<v Speaker 4>in Pocopia, like a few weeks ago or maybe like
<v Speaker 4>in December, and they have they announcers like in the
<v Speaker 4>very Nintendo voice, let's look at what these pokemon are doing. Hmmm.
<v Speaker 4>I can't quite understand them as they're recorded here. I'll
<v Speaker 4>do a little bit of translating and then does like
<v Speaker 4>voices for professor Angle or whatever. So like even in
<v Speaker 4>the meta world, they're like, you don't understand what this is,
<v Speaker 4>but Ditto.
<v Speaker 1>Does, so that's I'll accept that. Yeah. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>But then it's stuff of like they all have like
<v Speaker 4>likes and dislikes of furniture items that are near them,
<v Speaker 4>and they get mad when you take them away, Like
<v Speaker 4>someone took away Arcannines likes. Like it was like a
<v Speaker 4>bus stop signpost outside and I didn't see anyone take
<v Speaker 4>it away, but he ran outside and he's like, ah,
<v Speaker 4>where's my sign post. I'm like, oh, geez, he needs
<v Speaker 4>a side post. And then I brought it back and it.
<v Speaker 3>Was like take those from him?
<v Speaker 2>He does, yeah, yeah, that's his entry. He breathes fire
<v Speaker 2>and loves bus stops, loves public transports. He's a huge
<v Speaker 2>fan of public transportation.
<v Speaker 1>Anyways.
<v Speaker 4>Uh so there's all that, and then I guess there
<v Speaker 4>can be multiple Pokemon living to a house. The ones
<v Speaker 4>we saw there was just like one in most of them,
<v Speaker 4>but they had living together, which was very cute. And
<v Speaker 4>then in this multiplayer section, we were with rebuilding the
<v Speaker 4>Pokemon Center, and it was like we needed a few sticks,
<v Speaker 4>a few leaves, and then like two Pokemon to act
<v Speaker 4>as like the builders to come in here and do it.
<v Speaker 4>So we needed a dragon Night. We needed just a
<v Speaker 4>build type Pokemon. Which is another thing that there's each
<v Speaker 4>Pokemon has a like category of like work it can do.
<v Speaker 4>So like I think a lot of fighting types are builders.
<v Speaker 4>They'll have like a hard hat image on their pokedecks entry.
<v Speaker 4>So there's an element where it's like you want to
<v Speaker 4>catch as many as you want, but there's also an
<v Speaker 4>element of like, well, if you have one of each
<v Speaker 4>of the main worker types, you don't have to stress
<v Speaker 4>about like filling out the poke decks necessarily. I just
<v Speaker 4>happen to think this is a cool way of filling
<v Speaker 4>out a poke decks it's just gotta catch exactly what
<v Speaker 4>you need and no more yes uh. And then I'm
<v Speaker 4>I'm very much a very much a goodie two shoes, like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>this is where the developer wants me to go. Oh, Like,
<v Speaker 4>if there's a paved road in a video game, I
<v Speaker 4>will walk on the paved road. I'm I'm a immediately
<v Speaker 4>go I played. I played Grand Theft Auto Uh before
<v Speaker 4>I ever got my driver's license, and I know the
<v Speaker 4>rules of the road, but I had a hard time
<v Speaker 4>getting around because I just kept crashing into stuff. So
<v Speaker 4>there was a point where I'm just like, you know,
<v Speaker 4>sometimes you can just stop at the red light and
<v Speaker 4>it will make your life a little easier.
<v Speaker 1>That's the kind of person I am.
<v Speaker 4>The people I was playing with did not have such
<v Speaker 4>courtesy for their natural environment, and I enjoyed that.
<v Speaker 1>While I was like, all right, guys, let's get to Makuhita.
<v Speaker 4>You can help us prepare the Pokemon Center.
<v Speaker 3>I like this voice you have going.
<v Speaker 4>I'm gonna be the best Pokemon Copia resident ever. I
<v Speaker 4>looked over to my right and logan plant of ign
<v Speaker 4>was immediately dug straight down, gathered a bunch of blocks,
<v Speaker 4>and then called my attention. I looked over and he
<v Speaker 4>had found the build height limit in the game straight up.
<v Speaker 4>And then he said, I do you want to know
<v Speaker 4>if there's fall damage, And then he just jumped off
<v Speaker 4>the edge of it and there's no fall damage, so
<v Speaker 4>I'm going he checked. He turned into like a diddoe splat,
<v Speaker 4>and I was like, I'm glad you did that, because
<v Speaker 4>I never would have thought to do that.
<v Speaker 1>But that's the exact type of thing that.
<v Speaker 4>Like on a podcast and be like fault damage. And yeah,
<v Speaker 4>so we at a certain point we just started going
<v Speaker 4>around breaking stuff also because it gives you a sense
<v Speaker 4>of like what you can put down. And I was like, okay,
<v Speaker 4>these houses are built by people. It wasn't just like
<v Speaker 4>a here's the whatever kit you can it exists, it's
<v Speaker 4>the house now. It was like mitigly crafted. There are
<v Speaker 4>like housing kits that create more of like an animal
<v Speaker 4>crossing house where like you open the door and then
<v Speaker 4>there's like a loading zone and it's in a different
<v Speaker 4>area that's like a little more specifically decorated. But there
<v Speaker 4>was like u there was like a fountain that had
<v Speaker 4>water in it, and when we broke the side of
<v Speaker 4>the fountain, water spilled out everywhere, and then we were
<v Speaker 4>like all floating. It was like Minecraft water. It just
<v Speaker 4>kind of like stayed in the area and everyone's like,
<v Speaker 4>why is there water everywhere? And are like, I don't know,
<v Speaker 4>someone broke the fountain. And also crucially, we were all
<v Speaker 4>this wasn't even our island, so we could just destroy
<v Speaker 4>whatever we wanted, and it wasn't like it wasn't like
<v Speaker 4>we had to have special host permissions, or maybe we
<v Speaker 4>did have host permissions.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I didn see how it was set up.
<v Speaker 1>It was nice thing, right you have to have a
<v Speaker 1>best friend, yeah, and then if they want, right, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>they could terror form. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>But knowing that you can get grant that to up
<v Speaker 4>to three other people at the time, it's nice because
<v Speaker 4>like this is something I will probably play alone, but
<v Speaker 4>would love to play with another person and just like
<v Speaker 4>build an island together. So yeah, it is exciting. It
<v Speaker 4>seems like, uh, there's a lot more room for creative
<v Speaker 4>expression than I realized. But then also that kind of
<v Speaker 4>like Pokemon specific collectithon, there's like a new method of
<v Speaker 4>doing that that I think blends really well with.
<v Speaker 1>This like genre of.
<v Speaker 4>Game, which is always the thing I want a spin
<v Speaker 4>off to do is it's like it's not just uh,
<v Speaker 4>I'm trying to think of a thing like if it
<v Speaker 4>was like a Pokemon pit Cross, which I think exists.
<v Speaker 4>It's like, I don't just want to do Pitcross of
<v Speaker 4>like a Pokemon I wanted to then like get added
<v Speaker 4>to my POKEDX or something like. Don't just take the
<v Speaker 4>esthetic part of it. Make it clear you understand like
<v Speaker 4>the spirit of the game, the.
<v Speaker 1>Core, you know, franchise. Yeah, yes, exactly, Yeah, I mean
<v Speaker 1>reading your preview and talking to you now, I mean optimistically,
<v Speaker 1>it does seem like it's a step above like Pokemon
<v Speaker 1>spin off, Like you know what I mean, because there's
<v Speaker 1>like tears of Like I don't have any great examples
<v Speaker 1>off the top of my head, but like there's a
<v Speaker 1>lot of Pokemon spin offs are rough and they're just
<v Speaker 1>they feel cheap and quick. I get a sense that
<v Speaker 1>this does not feel that way, which is reassuring. Like
<v Speaker 1>I'm wondering now because my I have a daughter who
<v Speaker 1>loves animal crossing like just well just nu Kerr Island
<v Speaker 1>and restart every couple of months. I'm wondering if I
<v Speaker 1>need to get another switch to so that she can
<v Speaker 1>play and not you know, because March fifth and it
<v Speaker 1>is switch to. It is not switch one.
<v Speaker 4>There is game Really yeah, I might. I think games
<v Speaker 4>you might extend to the switch one, but I might.
<v Speaker 3>Be taking that up unless it's game by game. But generally,
<v Speaker 3>anytime I've read about game share, it's always like you
<v Speaker 3>can play on a.
<v Speaker 1>Switch because you're streaming, right, You're not actually like, yes, interesting,
<v Speaker 1>that's kind of cool. Okay, so she'd be able to
<v Speaker 1>play with you. I don't want to have the trailer. No,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not. I'm good.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, Okay, man, I'm not.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to she will just take over the
<v Speaker 3>switch to that you need a second switch. That's what
<v Speaker 3>I wanted to say, that you can play games I
<v Speaker 3>got to do.
<v Speaker 1>You can't be just but I mean, like, I I know,
<v Speaker 1>I sound like I'm being like harsh. This is not
<v Speaker 1>my genre, Like it's not really I'm not like I
<v Speaker 1>like Pokemon, but like, but I am excited for like
<v Speaker 1>fans who saw that trailer and reacted like me. I
<v Speaker 1>was like, this is like smart and this needs to exist,
<v Speaker 1>and I worry that it's not going to be as
<v Speaker 1>good as we want it to be because we we
<v Speaker 1>want this thing to be as good as possible because
<v Speaker 1>it seems like a great mashup and and you came
<v Speaker 1>out on the positive end of it, which which is exciting. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I think especially in the in the context of a
<v Speaker 4>lot of uh. I think most of the Pokemon spinoffs
<v Speaker 4>I can think of nowadays are like mobile games, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>which all have.
<v Speaker 2>Like Pokemon Unite, Pokemon Masters stuff, vaguely.
<v Speaker 4>Icky monetization strategies to actively icky where it's like either
<v Speaker 4>it's like Gotcha pulls or it's like Pokemon Friends was
<v Speaker 4>like you can play one every day unless you spend
<v Speaker 4>twenty dollars and then you just have the game. But
<v Speaker 4>it's like a just like odd sort of things like
<v Speaker 4>that where it's uh, not doing what I was saying,
<v Speaker 4>where I'm like, I want the spirit of Pokemon and
<v Speaker 4>this was like, oh no, this is this is a
<v Speaker 4>capital G game sense.
<v Speaker 2>What if this one monitored your sleep rhythm instead?
<v Speaker 1>You know that's great teeth.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it might. I want to say, there's a uh.
<v Speaker 1>It might.
<v Speaker 4>It might be a real world day night cycle. I'm
<v Speaker 4>not one hundred percent sure, like animal crossing is uh.
<v Speaker 4>I do know that there is like there's like daily
<v Speaker 4>furniture and stuff, and there might be challenges. I didn't
<v Speaker 4>I didn't write down that my notes, but I think
<v Speaker 4>I remember it is. But it is kind of incentivizing
<v Speaker 4>you also to like, if you want to play an
<v Speaker 4>animal crossing style and just like play a bit every
<v Speaker 4>day and check back in and see what's new, you
<v Speaker 4>could also do that.
<v Speaker 1>And it's kind of built for that sort of play style. Cool,
<v Speaker 1>So I'm glad you got to check it out. Charles too.
<v Speaker 1>Hey everyone, we've been talking a lot about animal crossing.
<v Speaker 1>What about reanimal crossing our desk for review? Wes, please
<v Speaker 1>save me? Yeah, so fantastic.
<v Speaker 3>I think the animal does not treat its animals the
<v Speaker 3>same way, to put it.
<v Speaker 1>Lightly, don't make a world for them to live in.
<v Speaker 4>And I do want to say we talked about this
<v Speaker 4>in slack a little bit of just like on the
<v Speaker 4>scale of Kyle Specifical talking about games his daughter.
<v Speaker 1>I know, I know, I We're talking about it all
<v Speaker 1>the time.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sorry, No, No, I think it's useful just as
<v Speaker 4>a metric of like age and just like subject matter
<v Speaker 4>of what people are interested in. Were like Copio probably
<v Speaker 4>then we were talking about mugenics and slack a little bit,
<v Speaker 4>and I'm like, like, it's not It's not a great
<v Speaker 4>game for animal lovers.
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't say if you're like sensitive to that.
<v Speaker 4>And then I think at the bottom of whatever the
<v Speaker 4>spectrum is is probably Reanimal.
<v Speaker 1>From what Wes has said about it, you made.
<v Speaker 2>A comparison a like is to blank as blank is
<v Speaker 2>to blank that I think you should repeat on the podcast.
<v Speaker 2>That was useful for like the Little Nightmares.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so yeah, over the weekend I started playing it,
<v Speaker 3>and uh, as just a quick way. This isn't in
<v Speaker 3>my review, but it was a quick way to tell
<v Speaker 3>the colleagues here at Gaming Form or what's going on
<v Speaker 3>with this game, because I think I'm the only one
<v Speaker 3>playing it. And I said, if Tarsiar's studio they made
<v Speaker 3>Little Nightmares one and two, If Little Nightmares is their
<v Speaker 3>Tim Burton take on adventure games, re Animal is their
<v Speaker 3>ari Astor take on adventure games, which should paint a picture.
<v Speaker 3>You can take it in any direction you want, any
<v Speaker 3>of the ari Astra movies. I haven't seen Eddington, so
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if there's any re Animal in that,
<v Speaker 3>but like, this game is h I keep wanting to
<v Speaker 3>jump to more adult language that I won't use here,
<v Speaker 3>but it's just messed up. It's a very messed up game.
<v Speaker 3>It's not particularly fun, but I don't I'm not someone
<v Speaker 3>that thinks every game needs to be fun, like they have.
<v Speaker 3>They have something they're trying to do here, and they're
<v Speaker 3>using familiar gameplay mechanics and verbs to tell a very
<v Speaker 3>like macabre and grueling story about war and children's place
<v Speaker 3>and war. So like if you're watching, if you watch
<v Speaker 3>the game, if you look at the game, it does
<v Speaker 3>play a lot like Little Nightmares, and so mechanically speaking,
<v Speaker 3>I'll start there. It's it's a lot of moving across
<v Speaker 3>a screen, pretty visuals. There's some very scary creatures trying
<v Speaker 3>to get you, ranging from elongated men who have broken
<v Speaker 3>legs that walk and trample on screen to really messed
<v Speaker 3>up animal creations and.
<v Speaker 1>You puzzles two and a half it's not two and
<v Speaker 1>a half D. Yeah, this is a pretty game, right, Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>This was like a big I don't want to say
<v Speaker 3>marketing point, but I spoke to the team of Games Common.
<v Speaker 3>They were very proud of their work they've done with
<v Speaker 3>the camera, which isn't a very flashy thing to write
<v Speaker 3>about or anything. For them to speak about, but once
<v Speaker 3>you play the game, it's very clear what they mean.
<v Speaker 3>It's a very cinematic game compared to Little Nightmares, which
<v Speaker 3>is moving left and right for the most part. They
<v Speaker 3>take advantage of all space in all dimensions that you
<v Speaker 3>can use in a game, which goes a long way
<v Speaker 3>to make this feel refreshing. I've kind of after Little
<v Speaker 3>Nightmares three. I think I'm set on that, like I'm
<v Speaker 3>not craving a Little Nightmares four. I think the genre
<v Speaker 3>was kind of a bit stagnant with that game, And
<v Speaker 3>of course the people that kind of started the Little
<v Speaker 3>Nightmares trilogy have come back to reinvent this genre, I think,
<v Speaker 3>and they're in their new horrific take and yeah, they
<v Speaker 3>use the camera in very interesting ways. You're coming at
<v Speaker 3>the screen, you're running away from the screen, you're going
<v Speaker 3>left and right. You drive a boat, you drive cars,
<v Speaker 3>you drive a tank like you drive vehicles. You have combat.
<v Speaker 3>They went they did a lot of work to add
<v Speaker 3>a bunch of new mechanics, not even mechanics, just like verbs,
<v Speaker 3>to the vocabulary of these types of games. It's not
<v Speaker 3>just jumping and grabbing something and holding X to pull
<v Speaker 3>something anymore. Now there's a bunch more that you're doing,
<v Speaker 3>which is something I really appreciated. I reviewed Little Nightmares
<v Speaker 3>three like months ago, not too long ago, and I
<v Speaker 3>enjoyed it, but I was like, Okay, this is getting
<v Speaker 3>a little stale, and it was really nice to play
<v Speaker 3>re Animal and feel renewed coming.
<v Speaker 1>Out of it.
<v Speaker 3>All that, to say, renewed is not the word I
<v Speaker 3>emotionally felt when I rolled credits on this game.
<v Speaker 1>It is a very.
<v Speaker 3>Thought provoking, but gross and disgusting and I don't I
<v Speaker 3>don't know all those all those types of adjectives, like
<v Speaker 3>it is just a gross game.
<v Speaker 4>I was gonna say, is it like forst some reason
<v Speaker 4>I'm imagining? And this is partially with the comparison of Ariaster.
<v Speaker 4>The most recent Areastra movie I watched was Bo's Afraid,
<v Speaker 4>which is like so much of a movie, h is it?
<v Speaker 4>Is it a game that you finished and you're like,
<v Speaker 4>I need to take a shower?
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yeah, I think so that's a really good way
<v Speaker 3>to put it. I mean, uh, without getting too much
<v Speaker 3>into detail because I don't want to spoil it, but
<v Speaker 3>also like trigger warnings ahead. But for some of the
<v Speaker 3>things I'm going to talk about, like you are beating
<v Speaker 3>animals to death. There is lots of suicide, and suicide
<v Speaker 3>is a mechanic in some of the like escaping and
<v Speaker 3>platforming you do.
<v Speaker 1>There is.
<v Speaker 3>Like the animal noises you hear, and the pain that
<v Speaker 3>some of these animals go through, the types of like
<v Speaker 3>hybrids that are created between like humans and animals. I
<v Speaker 3>think I don't even know if that's the proper way
<v Speaker 3>to describe them. Like, it's just a very messed up game. So,
<v Speaker 3>as Charles alluded to earlier, Yeah, Kyle, your daughter should
<v Speaker 3>not play this game anytime soon. It's very like animal
<v Speaker 3>lovers period. I don't and I'm an animal lover. I
<v Speaker 3>don't know. I don't want to say, like, if you
<v Speaker 3>love animals, don't play the game. I think it's okay
<v Speaker 3>to engage with art that is antithetical to your beliefs sometimes,
<v Speaker 3>but like yeah, exactly, but just know that, like you
<v Speaker 3>do have to press the button that like takes a
<v Speaker 3>crowbar to scold to seagulls and kills them, and you
<v Speaker 3>do it a lot, and the game does not really
<v Speaker 3>give you any grace to avoid that kind of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>It's all very head on. There's not much that's optional
<v Speaker 3>save for some collectibles. Like, yeah, it's a very chilling game,
<v Speaker 3>but it's one that I thoroughly enjoyed because for me,
<v Speaker 3>what I got out of it, and I'm very excited
<v Speaker 3>to read other people's reviews and thoughts is like, this
<v Speaker 3>is a game about war, but specifically what war does
<v Speaker 3>to children, and I think it's a very timely and
<v Speaker 3>punctual story and narrative. Like, yes, we know war tears
<v Speaker 3>up cities, and we know what it does to the adults,
<v Speaker 3>but this is a game about like the children who
<v Speaker 3>have to live through war and maybe what happens when
<v Speaker 3>someone in their friend group is affected by war, and
<v Speaker 3>what lengths they'll go to save themselves and save that
<v Speaker 3>friend and save their innocence. And Yeah, it was really really,
<v Speaker 3>really like stimulating to engage with. It's the first game
<v Speaker 3>in a minute where I was like often pausing just
<v Speaker 3>to kind of think about what I was seeing on
<v Speaker 3>screen and what I was doing. Uh, It's My review
<v Speaker 3>is like almost kind of like a big warning in
<v Speaker 3>the sense that like, it's not a fun game, and
<v Speaker 3>it's a very gruesome one, but it is one that
<v Speaker 3>like if you're someone who wants to like wrestle with
<v Speaker 3>your thoughts after a game. It's it's really good for
<v Speaker 3>that as a game itself, their big highlight is co op,
<v Speaker 3>couch co op. Finally, I don't know how we didn't
<v Speaker 3>get that in the Little Nightmares trilogy.
<v Speaker 1>It was yeah, very strange.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah have local, it had online co op and not local. Unfortunately,
<v Speaker 3>the big miss of re Animal is that it's just
<v Speaker 3>not a very good co op experience. And I'm actually
<v Speaker 3>a little shocked they built it as a co op
<v Speaker 3>game or not even co op, like, because I played
<v Speaker 3>most of it solo when you have a because I
<v Speaker 3>preferred it solo you have an AI companion. But like,
<v Speaker 3>I almost feel like they could have completely acted that.
<v Speaker 3>It felt like they did that because that's what they know,
<v Speaker 3>and that's how they did Little Nightmares, so they continued
<v Speaker 3>that here. But yeah, it seems very antithetical to what
<v Speaker 3>this game is trying to do, because it's like it's
<v Speaker 3>like if you're watching Hereditary to bring back ari Aster
<v Speaker 3>and you and your actually note Hereditary is a bad example.
<v Speaker 3>It's like watching Schindler's List and you and your friend
<v Speaker 3>are like laughing and yelling and talking to each other
<v Speaker 3>about it, and it's just like, it's not the vibe,
<v Speaker 3>it's not the this is not the kind of game
<v Speaker 3>I want to be playing with the friend and smiling
<v Speaker 3>and thinking about things and trying to figure out how
<v Speaker 3>to solve the puzzle. Fortunately, The AI Companion does a
<v Speaker 3>really good job of mimicking a person, like a really
<v Speaker 3>really good job. It's probably the best of these types
<v Speaker 3>of games so far. Like, I didn't have any issues
<v Speaker 3>with The AI Companion, but yeah, just beware, Like I don't.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's a very good co op game. It's
<v Speaker 3>cool there's local co op, but I would not recommend
<v Speaker 3>local co op. It's I think it's best served as
<v Speaker 3>a solo game. But yeah, it's short. It took me
<v Speaker 3>two play sessions, I want to say, like four to
<v Speaker 3>five hours. There's some you can go back through and
<v Speaker 3>find collectible masks that you can wear, which are also
<v Speaker 3>so disturbing. Some of them are. There's a I had
<v Speaker 3>a pighead one that is so the physics on it
<v Speaker 3>and like the texture of it is so gross that
<v Speaker 3>I like had to take it off because it.
<v Speaker 1>Was grossing me out. Like it was just nasty.
<v Speaker 3>It was very nasty, which you know, if you're a
<v Speaker 3>horror sicco like there's probably a lot in here to
<v Speaker 3>chew on, but yeah, it's a I gave it eight
<v Speaker 3>point two five to mention my score, Yeah, yeah, gave
<v Speaker 3>it an eight point two five, which for us at
<v Speaker 3>Game of Former is basically like it's a great game,
<v Speaker 3>but like arguably so. And that's kind of where I landed, was, Uh,
<v Speaker 3>some people will really love this. I came out really
<v Speaker 3>liking it, and some people it will be a turn
<v Speaker 3>off for them off the rip, like, and I can
<v Speaker 3>totally understand why it would be. But if it's something,
<v Speaker 3>if these types of themes and if you're okay with
<v Speaker 3>this type of imagery, I do think it's worth checking out.
<v Speaker 3>It's a thought provoking game, that's all. I keep saying
<v Speaker 3>that word. But yeah, I really.
<v Speaker 1>Enjoyed it for that. I mean, I like Little Nightmares
<v Speaker 1>one and two so much that this was kind of
<v Speaker 1>like one of those Tartsier had has established themselves. It's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'll always see what they're doing, you know, like I'm
<v Speaker 1>always going to be sort of investing in checking it
<v Speaker 1>out and trying it. So despite your warnings, I still
<v Speaker 1>am excited to check out for sure.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I hope I haven't like over sold how dark
<v Speaker 3>it is. It's not like dark web type dark like something.
<v Speaker 3>It's just like it's very heavy, and I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>I guess for me personally, like when there's animals involved,
<v Speaker 3>like it does get a little more gruesome, and the
<v Speaker 3>game does not. There's no like fluffing it up or anything.
<v Speaker 3>There's no smoothing it out. It's like it's in your
<v Speaker 3>face and you can't avoid it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I think I think you're clear about how it's like
<v Speaker 4>it's about the subject matter, and it's it's subject like
<v Speaker 4>we're used to seeing like the average if you played,
<v Speaker 4>you know, see them Mortal Kombat fatality, that's like more
<v Speaker 4>gore than you see in a lot of movies. Like, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>there's a there's a types of violence or horror stuff
<v Speaker 4>that you're kind of used to seeing in games. And
<v Speaker 4>you're saying it's like, it's not like that. It's other
<v Speaker 4>disturbing stuff that's like not that it should be like
<v Speaker 4>band or whatever, but it's like, yeah, the heads up,
<v Speaker 4>it'll catch you off guard.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, absolutely, I think so.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's kind of like oh go ahead, or go ahead,
<v Speaker 1>go ahead, No, you go ahead.
<v Speaker 3>I was just saying I remember watching to Bring It
<v Speaker 3>Back to ari Astra, like Hereditary. I love horror movies,
<v Speaker 3>and that was the first one in a minute where
<v Speaker 3>I was like, Ooh, that was like some crazy stuff
<v Speaker 3>to see on screen, like the the big first moment
<v Speaker 3>that happens in the movie with the car and all that,
<v Speaker 3>and you're like, I've seen more gruesome than that, but
<v Speaker 3>the way that played out was a bit like unnerving.
<v Speaker 3>It's kind of like that, or when the moms on
<v Speaker 3>the ceiling with the m Yeah that part. Sorry, go ahead, Charles,
<v Speaker 3>what was your question?
<v Speaker 4>Well, I was gonna say I found the co op
<v Speaker 4>note really interesting because I you were like, it doesn't
<v Speaker 4>it's a game that feels a little more like meditative
<v Speaker 4>and something you like would play alone in the dark
<v Speaker 4>at night or something just to kind of like.
<v Speaker 1>Grapple with it.
<v Speaker 4>Do you do you think that in contrast, if like
<v Speaker 4>Little Nightmares one or two had couch co op, do
<v Speaker 4>you think, as someone who hasn't played any of these games,
<v Speaker 4>do you think that would have taken away from them
<v Speaker 4>at all? Do you think that's a game that's a
<v Speaker 4>little more prone to being like if we're having fun
<v Speaker 4>on the couch together doesn't take away from the experience.
<v Speaker 3>No, because for me, Little Nightmares has and like the
<v Speaker 3>big difference between it and Reanimal kind of is that
<v Speaker 3>Tim Burton versus Ari Aster, like both interested in horror,
<v Speaker 3>but tim Burton almost has like a whimsy, a fairy
<v Speaker 3>tale s feel to it, whereas Re Animal has none
<v Speaker 3>of that. Is it's just horror.
<v Speaker 2>It's not like a brother's Grin type situation. It's more
<v Speaker 2>like a modern, like darker horror type thing.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, for sure. And I think Little Nightmares one, two,
<v Speaker 3>and three are more interested in puzzles, which is where
<v Speaker 3>the co op gameplay I think would really shine, especially
<v Speaker 3>on a couch, because three had a online co op
<v Speaker 3>and it was fun. Re Animal has some puzzles. It
<v Speaker 3>has one particular puzzle. It's not even really puzzle, just
<v Speaker 3>like a platforming segment that was very reminiscent of Brothers
<v Speaker 3>where you're tethered and you have to walk like you
<v Speaker 3>have to move forward together, and I was like, Oh,
<v Speaker 3>that's so cool. I'd love more of that. Otherwise, like
<v Speaker 3>you're kind of just oh, there's a door that you
<v Speaker 3>need to open together, and so both the boy and
<v Speaker 3>the girl have to go to the door. And press
<v Speaker 3>the button. There's nothing really, I didn't feel like it
<v Speaker 3>was engaging. What two people are needed to solve something
<v Speaker 3>like it's very Yeah, puzzles are not like the big
<v Speaker 3>highlight of this, whereas I think puzzles are a bigger
<v Speaker 3>deal than little nightmares.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Cool. Well, let's move on to a game that
<v Speaker 1>is weirdly I don't know, almost the opposite in terms
<v Speaker 1>of just like it is also violent and has some
<v Speaker 1>gruesomeness to it, but it's like it's like delicious candy,
<v Speaker 1>Like it's just so like stylish and weird. Like I'm
<v Speaker 1>talking about Romeo is a dead Man, which I played
<v Speaker 1>and beat and reputed West. I think you played a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of it, as I asked you, just as
<v Speaker 1>you're taking a sip of water, and it's it's it's
<v Speaker 1>kind of it's like chaotic and crazy, right is Romeo
<v Speaker 1>is a dead Man. It's like you are a FB
<v Speaker 1>a space in time FBI agent who died because of
<v Speaker 1>an early incident in the game. So now you're like
<v Speaker 1>half dead, so you're kind of like a cyborg and
<v Speaker 1>what you have to do is like chase your multi
<v Speaker 1>dimensional girlfriend through time with the laser swords. And gun,
<v Speaker 1>and it's just like it's it's kind of ridiculous in
<v Speaker 1>that way.
<v Speaker 2>These two sound like they would both be midnight double
<v Speaker 2>features at like a college town theater, but for like
<v Speaker 2>different nights.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's it's a suit of fifty one joint,
<v Speaker 1>which I still think he flashes on the screen. I
<v Speaker 1>actually don't know if he. I don't think it happens
<v Speaker 1>here because he's a producer on this one, which he
<v Speaker 1>wasn't like creative director, so it doesn't get to be
<v Speaker 1>a suit of fifty one joint. But he's deafuly involved.
<v Speaker 1>He's out doing interviews about the game. But it has
<v Speaker 1>that tone for sure. And I'm not really the biggest
<v Speaker 1>Sudah fan. I like Shadows of the Damned a lot.
<v Speaker 1>I haven't played it since it released, but like I
<v Speaker 1>Killer seven, I remember playing the day came out. I
<v Speaker 1>was excited for it, and I remember just kind of
<v Speaker 1>being like, I don't know, don't get this man, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what this is. And a number of his
<v Speaker 1>other recent games have it's it's pretty rare that they
<v Speaker 1>click with me, but this this one I like quite
<v Speaker 1>a bit, and sort of the Suda canon I would
<v Speaker 1>put like this in Shadows of the Damned is like
<v Speaker 1>my favorite, although I haven't I kind of like asked her,
<v Speaker 1>I haven't revisited Shows the dam in a long time.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Maybe that game probably doesn't hold up
<v Speaker 1>very well.
<v Speaker 3>No, it definitely holds up. Just don't worry about it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, cool, Just embrace your memories. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>it's a wild game that like shifts art styles all
<v Speaker 1>the time, and like you go to different eras of
<v Speaker 1>Earth that has like mostly evaporated into nothingness, like like
<v Speaker 1>like now there's just like one town that exists. It's
<v Speaker 1>all very weird and it's like and uh. And then
<v Speaker 1>like you between these like larger missions, you're in your spaceship,
<v Speaker 1>which is like sixteen bit pixelated visuals from like an
<v Speaker 1>overhead perspective, and you're walking around and meeting people. Your
<v Speaker 1>mom's over here and she can cook curry, and your
<v Speaker 1>sister's over here, and she has like a garden where
<v Speaker 1>you can plant these things called bastards, which are basically
<v Speaker 1>zombies that you take into battle with you Like you
<v Speaker 1>can you can have a bastard who like shoots lasers,
<v Speaker 1>you know, so if like you get into a rough spot.
<v Speaker 1>You can just like you know, throw one of these
<v Speaker 1>out and nell shoot lasers and stuff. It's it's a
<v Speaker 1>pretty it's pretty wild, and I do I do like it.
<v Speaker 1>I gave it an eight point twenty five. You can
<v Speaker 1>read my review on gameformer dot com. I wanted more
<v Speaker 1>from the from the sort of the narrative, Like the
<v Speaker 1>narrative is a lot of like isn't this wild? Like
<v Speaker 1>like we're like we're hopping between dimensions and like this
<v Speaker 1>is crazy, right, We're like FBI agents and you have
<v Speaker 1>a motorcycle and you gotta like drive through space and stuff,
<v Speaker 1>and like I like the characters a lot, but like
<v Speaker 1>I didn't really feel like emotionally invested in the story,
<v Speaker 1>which is meant to be like you know, the like
<v Speaker 1>Doomed Lovers because you're playing his Romeo who is a
<v Speaker 1>dead man, and uh, your girlfriend that you're sort of
<v Speaker 1>chasing through time is Juliette. But it's like it doesn't ever.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't like the game doesn't conclude in a way
<v Speaker 1>where I felt like emotionally fulfilled or satisfied as much
<v Speaker 1>as I was like, oh that was cool, like you know,
<v Speaker 1>that was kind of my reaction. Most of the time,
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh cool, that was a cool thing
<v Speaker 1>that just happened. I didn't expect you to do that,
<v Speaker 1>but uh yeah, it's cool. Romeo is a dead man.
<v Speaker 1>I liked it. I liked it more than I thought
<v Speaker 1>I would.
<v Speaker 2>Frankly, does it feel like the spectacle is kind of
<v Speaker 2>the draw then, rather than than other stuff, like just
<v Speaker 2>having the sort of style and verve that this game
<v Speaker 2>would have.
<v Speaker 1>I think so, yeah, because like the combat's pretty basic
<v Speaker 1>but like fun. You know, It's like it's you're not
<v Speaker 1>like memorizing a lot of combos and like you have
<v Speaker 1>to switch between shooting guns and swords in the sense
<v Speaker 1>that like some larger enemies have like weak points, but
<v Speaker 1>it's like it never really pushes you that hard and
<v Speaker 1>that's okay, Like it's I didn't really want to be
<v Speaker 1>challenged because I just want to see what else the
<v Speaker 1>game had to offer in terms of like just you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's weird sort of aesthetic, right, So, like I it's
<v Speaker 1>the combat was like good, but like not the sort
<v Speaker 1>of thing that you play this game for. Wes, what
<v Speaker 1>did you How far are you doing? What are you
<v Speaker 1>enjoying it?
<v Speaker 3>Like I felt, I'm like five hours in. I'm really
<v Speaker 3>enjoying it. I pretty much agree with all your points. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>like I haven't really even seen enough of the narrative
<v Speaker 3>or story to like even have feelings really on Romeo
<v Speaker 3>and Juliete's escapades. But yeah, just to kind of stress
<v Speaker 3>a point you mentioned, like that the changes in visuals
<v Speaker 3>and like it is a very uh it's eye candy,
<v Speaker 3>like I think you said candy earlier, Like it's delicious
<v Speaker 3>in the sense that, like your eyes are constantly being
<v Speaker 3>refreshed with some crazy thing you did not expect to
<v Speaker 3>see on screen, And in that sense, I am very
<v Speaker 3>much like I like the combat. It's fine, it's it's
<v Speaker 3>standard action combat, but it's like I'm fighting these zombies
<v Speaker 3>to get to the next I don't even know what's happening,
<v Speaker 3>which is cool because at games Com I spoke to
<v Speaker 3>Suda and I was like, even in the fifteen minute
<v Speaker 3>demo I played that the amount of visuals and art
<v Speaker 3>styles I saw on screen was a lot, and I
<v Speaker 3>was like, what's going on? And he was like, ah,
<v Speaker 3>we kind of just told everyone to like what would
<v Speaker 3>you want to make? Like, what are you what's your
<v Speaker 3>favorite art style? What are you good at? And he's like,
<v Speaker 3>if this person wanted to do a comic book style thing,
<v Speaker 3>and this person wanted to do a claimation type thing,
<v Speaker 3>like we.
<v Speaker 1>Just threw it in there is even inspired, Like yeah,
<v Speaker 1>he was.
<v Speaker 3>Like, they're the artists. I just let them make art.
<v Speaker 3>And then me and the and the director found a
<v Speaker 3>way to put it into a game cohesively, and he
<v Speaker 3>talked a lot more about the challenges of that. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's fascinating, Like the game has so much going on
<v Speaker 3>and it's a really cool I put this on Blue
<v Speaker 3>Scarre but it almost feels like a game where the
<v Speaker 3>studio heads were just telling everyone to run free, like
<v Speaker 3>do what you want, Like we're going to do an
<v Speaker 3>action game with swords and guns. Everything else up to you, guys.
<v Speaker 3>Whatever we'll find, we'll make something, we'll make a story
<v Speaker 3>to put it through, line through all this, and it's
<v Speaker 3>it's really really cool, Like I'm just enjoying the ride
<v Speaker 3>it is.
<v Speaker 1>I think it works right, Like it's there's disparate stuff
<v Speaker 1>going on and like you'll just like play these like
<v Speaker 1>one off little minigames and things like that, but it
<v Speaker 1>like it works, you know, like I like it. It
<v Speaker 1>feels like a bizarre sort of you know, like Suit
<v Speaker 1>of fifty one is a guy who puts his name
<v Speaker 1>on games and and like he he meets that definition
<v Speaker 1>of a tour that we ascribe to various graders and stuff,
<v Speaker 1>and like this does feel like a pseudo game, but
<v Speaker 1>it also does feel like more so than like maybe
<v Speaker 1>a Kojima game, that it's like it is coming from
<v Speaker 1>a larger group of people with interesting ideas, and it's
<v Speaker 1>not perfect, you know, it doesn't always mesh up and
<v Speaker 1>there and then like I had frustrations with some like
<v Speaker 1>the level design and like you kind of go between
<v Speaker 1>dimensions to like get around corners and stuff like that
<v Speaker 1>in a weird way, like yeah, like I don't know, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>do you guys know his Dark Materials that book series,
<v Speaker 1>like The Subtle Knife, the Whole Knife. The idea of
<v Speaker 1>that is like you can cut through a dimension and
<v Speaker 1>like go in there and then like walk over here
<v Speaker 1>and cut back in so you can like get around
<v Speaker 1>locked doors and stuff. Like it kind of feels like that,
<v Speaker 1>but it also kind of gets confusing and frustrating sometimes.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, yeah, yeah, go I set above. It definitely
<v Speaker 2>reminds me of something I love from last year. The
<v Speaker 2>hundred line where you kind of take like the odd
<v Speaker 2>tours in the in the building and use that as
<v Speaker 2>like the ten pole, the like big banner that you
<v Speaker 2>say like, hey, it's the next game from this studio
<v Speaker 2>and this person. But then you just let the creatives
<v Speaker 2>run absolutely wild and go crazy with it. And that
<v Speaker 2>honestly makes me about like twenty percent more interested than
<v Speaker 2>I was previously. So maybe I'm going to mark this one. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Music's really good too. Yeah, I really enjoy love a
<v Speaker 3>good soundtrack, musical taste of it.
<v Speaker 1>And I think this is like a weird thing to pitch,
<v Speaker 1>but it's it's about fifteen hours. It's not like crazy long,
<v Speaker 1>you know.
<v Speaker 2>It's like that's a great thing to pitch.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's like a good Uh, it's a good length.
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't overstay, it's welcome. So yeah, Romeo is a
<v Speaker 1>dead man? Is there?
<v Speaker 2>Uh?
<v Speaker 4>And I don't think there has to be of curious
<v Speaker 4>Is there like an in world reason why the art
<v Speaker 4>style is changing a lot?
<v Speaker 1>It's just kind of like this is just how this is.
<v Speaker 1>It's just crazy. You're like, you know, you're jumping around
<v Speaker 1>through time and stuff like that. It doesn't feel it's
<v Speaker 1>not like confusing. You're like, wait, hold on a second,
<v Speaker 1>why am I looking at a comic book?
<v Speaker 2>Now?
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's like it's not explained, but it doesn't
<v Speaker 1>need to be.
<v Speaker 3>You know, it's kind of like yeah I felt about yea,
<v Speaker 3>it works, but what score did you give it?
<v Speaker 1>You give it a eight to five? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and you know same as we animal, so they're like
<v Speaker 1>basically the same game.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's the double feature.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, exactly.
<v Speaker 1>I also wanted to shout out sort of sort of
<v Speaker 1>our last sort of game discussion here because it's just
<v Speaker 1>kind of like you guys know Warrior sixty four of course,
<v Speaker 1>just randomly sort of shared a look like, hey, this
<v Speaker 1>is this you can play the demo this has coming
<v Speaker 1>out to and like that social media count does sometimes
<v Speaker 1>where it's just like I don't know if they's just
<v Speaker 1>like random stuff comes out of that account. You want
<v Speaker 1>to discount on like chocolate bars from Amazon, and you
<v Speaker 1>also want to get like a switch to when it
<v Speaker 1>comes out. I don't get it, but yeah, Sinney Cross
<v Speaker 1>was something that he shared which I had not been following.
<v Speaker 1>I believe there's a demo out. I think by the
<v Speaker 1>time you're listening to this podcast. It is out on PC.
<v Speaker 1>I'm playing it on my Steam deck. And what it
<v Speaker 1>is it's a rogue game, but like the primary mechanic
<v Speaker 1>is piccross puzzles, nonograms. So if like, if you can
<v Speaker 1>imagine like Blatro as a sort of point of reference,
<v Speaker 1>and if you swapped in like the poker mechanics with
<v Speaker 1>pick Cross mechanics, that's kind of where you are here.
<v Speaker 1>I like this game a lot. I would not elevate
<v Speaker 1>it to the height of Blatro, you know, like Blatro's
<v Speaker 1>you know, masterpiece arguably, but I like this. I like
<v Speaker 1>this game a lot because I love Pick Cross. I
<v Speaker 1>play so much Pickross, and usually that means just solving
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of pick Ross puzzles back to back to
<v Speaker 1>back to back. I just like I just solve them.
<v Speaker 1>They're fun, they're satisfying. Where this is like, hey, what
<v Speaker 1>if like you were solving puzzles and then you sort
<v Speaker 1>of unlocked like abilities to change a little bit how
<v Speaker 1>those puzzles work, and like you also are like solving
<v Speaker 1>pick Cross puzzles with like weird mechanics that you have
<v Speaker 1>to overcome that function as bosses, and like you you
<v Speaker 1>make progress and the puzzles get bigger with each run.
<v Speaker 1>It it works really well, Like I really like, I
<v Speaker 1>love Pickross and this is just a new framing of
<v Speaker 1>it that is just totally I've locked into it a
<v Speaker 1>big way, Like it is what I want to be
<v Speaker 1>playing on my Steam deck a lot, Like I just
<v Speaker 1>want to do another run, you know. So Yeah, shout
<v Speaker 1>out to Cindy Cross a game. I don't know if
<v Speaker 1>I'll do like a proper review. I'm just kind of
<v Speaker 1>playing it on my own because I just liked the
<v Speaker 1>idea of it and I like reached out to the
<v Speaker 1>dev and then when I send it, nice to send
<v Speaker 1>me a code. But it's really cool. It's like I
<v Speaker 1>don't do any of you guys play pit cross or nonograms?
<v Speaker 1>Do you guys know these this style?
<v Speaker 2>When I travel, Yeah, I love the Jupiter Pitcross games
<v Speaker 2>when I'm flying because like I get a little motion
<v Speaker 2>sick when I'm on a plane somehow, even though that
<v Speaker 2>shouldn't make sense, but I do if I try to
<v Speaker 2>like read or play something on a plane. But pick
<v Speaker 2>Ross like somehow does not trigger that has historically never
<v Speaker 2>triggered that for me. So pit Cross is usually when
<v Speaker 2>I go to for stuff like that, and Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 2>super chill.
<v Speaker 4>I love pick Cross, and I had a similar thing
<v Speaker 4>where I played. I probably played like one hundred hours
<v Speaker 4>of these like two pitcross apps that were like I
<v Speaker 4>would put my phone in airplane mode just to get
<v Speaker 4>around the ads that would play every thirty minutes or whatever.
<v Speaker 4>And I was gonna say, it's always It's always a
<v Speaker 4>game I've liked, but I've never you've You've completely sold
<v Speaker 4>me on this game, I guess, is the bottom line
<v Speaker 4>on it. My fiance loves Squeak Cross. It's like a
<v Speaker 4>pitcross game where you make furniture, you can like decorate
<v Speaker 4>a house, and it has like all these good times.
<v Speaker 1>Played a little bit of that.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I played some Murder by Numbers, yeah, which is
<v Speaker 4>a like Ace Attorney Pitcross kind of crossover where you're
<v Speaker 4>like solving mysteries. That one I didn't love because the
<v Speaker 4>farther you get in the game, the hearder the pitcross
<v Speaker 4>puzzles get. So when you get to like what would
<v Speaker 4>be the climax of the story where you really want
<v Speaker 4>to have a lot of momentum, it's like, all right,
<v Speaker 4>time to sit down for a forty five minute super
<v Speaker 4>large pick cross. Every you know, ten into dialogue whatever.
<v Speaker 4>So this sounds exciting to me where it's like, uh uh,
<v Speaker 4>it understands what pitcross is and yeah, is it on
<v Speaker 4>switch or is it.
<v Speaker 1>Just it's just steam right now? Yeah, it's yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>it's good man. Like if you if you like pickcross
<v Speaker 1>at all, like you're like, it's like it's very rewarding
<v Speaker 1>because you get to solve a lot of little pickross
<v Speaker 1>puzzles like quickly. Yeah, Like that's like the challenge. It's like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>you only have so much time. You take damage, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you have health when you, you know, get something wrong.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, hey, you want why don't you solve
<v Speaker 1>this five by five real quick? Solve this five by ten.
<v Speaker 1>We'll give you some bonuses to make the next Like
<v Speaker 1>it's cool man, It's it's really working for me. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if I could really recommend it for like
<v Speaker 1>a non pick cross player. I don't know if this
<v Speaker 1>is the entry point for pickross necessarily, but like if
<v Speaker 1>you are like me and Charles apparently and Eric and
<v Speaker 1>you and you have an affection for solving those kinds
<v Speaker 1>of puzzles, Cinney Cross is really working for me. I
<v Speaker 1>really like it, so we did it. That's that's the
<v Speaker 1>game in Format show this week, you guys.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, I was expecting. I was expecting one, one
<v Speaker 4>last elaborate segue.
<v Speaker 1>I had one in me with the reanimal cross.
<v Speaker 4>That's how we know the show is over, is that
<v Speaker 4>you don't have another elaborate segue. Maybe this is in
<v Speaker 4>effect at elaborate segue, just my acknowledging of it.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, I'm just excited for Final Fantasy seven Incarnation,
<v Speaker 3>which Shadow dropped Shadow yesterday.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Yeah, it'll be fun to listen
<v Speaker 1>back to that first segment having recorded out of over.
<v Speaker 1>But hey, if you're listening to this on your favorite
<v Speaker 1>podcast app, why not check out YouTube dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>game Informer. You can get the video version, can watch
<v Speaker 1>the video version. You can see us reacting to each other.
<v Speaker 1>And of course this whole thing operates basically uh with
<v Speaker 1>our subscription, get the magazine Gaminformer dot com slash subscribe.
<v Speaker 1>Everyone's showing off there copies. I think I have first
<v Speaker 1>light with me.
<v Speaker 2>And don't don't look at my Ninja guide in copy
<v Speaker 2>because my cat got to it and it looks crazy. Now, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>there's there's some battle scars on him.
<v Speaker 1>Now, yeah, subscribe. I believe at the time of this
<v Speaker 1>recording you can still get the first Light issue if
<v Speaker 1>you subscribe, which Brian Share wrote a huge cover story
<v Speaker 1>on the new Bond game and you went.
<v Speaker 2>You went with Brian for that actually, but by the
<v Speaker 2>time this is live, I do think subscriptions will have closed.
<v Speaker 1>So they're always open.
<v Speaker 2>You can always subscribe, but yeah, yeah, for for first
<v Speaker 2>for first, like, yeah, we got head to your local retailer,
<v Speaker 2>head to your local retailer and pick it up. Yeah, yeah, No,
<v Speaker 2>I went on that trip. We got to talk to
<v Speaker 2>all the lovely folks at Io Interactive, I got to
<v Speaker 2>see the lovely town of Copenhagen.
<v Speaker 1>Uh it was.
<v Speaker 2>It was a really good trip. Learned a lot about Bond.
<v Speaker 2>Keep an eye on the YouTube channel for more videos
<v Speaker 2>and interviews about what we learned out there. And uh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>got all kinds of good stuff still cooking up.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And of course, did you I've never asked you this.
<v Speaker 4>Did you ask them about the epic rap battle of
<v Speaker 4>History between James Bond and Austin Powers.
<v Speaker 2>That no.
<v Speaker 4>Agenda or yeah, that just somewhere like just where you're
<v Speaker 4>going through the Bond can and all the most important
<v Speaker 4>people bond the pillars of Bond more movies?
<v Speaker 1>Is that history? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>That one didn't come up.
<v Speaker 1>One I was bonded.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't ask about was the rubber ducks because I
<v Speaker 2>didn't realize that rubber ducks were such a thing. But
<v Speaker 2>then we were in Copenhagen, and obviously if you've played
<v Speaker 2>hit Man, you know there's rubber ducks everywhere in hit Man,
<v Speaker 2>and I thought that was just like a thing for
<v Speaker 2>the studio. But then I saw rubber ducks everywhere in Copenhagen.
<v Speaker 2>So now I'm like, really curious about what's going on
<v Speaker 2>is there? Did they invent the rubber duck in there?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I need to do a follow up
<v Speaker 2>and figure this out. So maybe cover number two James
<v Speaker 2>Bond Rubber Duck Edition.
<v Speaker 3>I have a James Bond rubber Duck from them from
<v Speaker 3>games come at the previous loves Chew one.
<v Speaker 1>Something's going on over there, Twitch dot Tv, Slash Game Informer.
<v Speaker 1>We stream about twice a week. Charles, Uh, do you
<v Speaker 1>have a Friday replay stream plans? You guys finished Sonica
<v Speaker 1>in the Black Knight Right.
<v Speaker 4>We finished Song in the Black Night, we played the
<v Speaker 4>opening of Sonic Unleashed, which is unleashed uh, and I put,
<v Speaker 4>I think our plan for this week is to play
<v Speaker 4>Warrior World.
<v Speaker 1>Is that what the game? Yeah? That was a game.
<v Speaker 4>It got announced for the Nintendo Preview or the Nintendo
<v Speaker 4>Classics Collection, and I felt crazy because I had never
<v Speaker 4>heard of this game before. I was like, I feel
<v Speaker 4>like people hold the GameCube library especially as like a
<v Speaker 4>holy artifact.
<v Speaker 1>If look at all these beautiful.
<v Speaker 4>Games, I'm like, how was nobody ever mentioned me that
<v Speaker 4>there was a Warrior game? And so I think I
<v Speaker 4>don't think we're.
<v Speaker 1>Gonna do it. You guys are about to find out.
<v Speaker 1>I think.
<v Speaker 4>I don't think we're doing a full replay, like it's
<v Speaker 4>not like a super replace, just like a classic replay episode.
<v Speaker 4>I think we're just gonna poke around at some weird
<v Speaker 4>old games until we find one that we're ready to
<v Speaker 4>really sink our teeth into.
<v Speaker 1>But that sounds great. That's the plan for this week.
<v Speaker 3>Shadow of the dam.
<v Speaker 1>Could Shadow of the Damn you could could? Uh? Never mind,
<v Speaker 1>that was something we're talking about before record But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Twitch dot tv, Slash game in Former, and I believe
<v Speaker 1>now we're streaming on the YouTube channel as well, right,
<v Speaker 1>Like it's like, yes, yes, so you can wherever you
<v Speaker 1>prefer to watch. Uh hey, follow Game Informer on you know,
<v Speaker 1>all your favorite social media channels. Blue Sky is the
<v Speaker 1>one that I pay attention to the most, so that's,
<v Speaker 1>you know, that's the one I would suggest. I'm Kyle
<v Speaker 1>Hilliard dot com on Blue Sky. Charles, where are you?
<v Speaker 1>Where should people follow you? I'm chucked duck three six
<v Speaker 1>five everywhere everywhere. Wes how about you? Where where should
<v Speaker 1>people follow you?
<v Speaker 3>Wesley Leblon on Blue Sky? That's really my main platform
<v Speaker 3>these days.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and Eric, how about you at C moosey s
<v Speaker 2>E A M O O s I on mostly on
<v Speaker 2>Blue Sky these days. I've I've really tampered back on
<v Speaker 2>my social media on purpose.
<v Speaker 1>So h help person. Yeah, yeah, we're trying to be
<v Speaker 1>healthy first ten thing. Yeah, but hey, thanks for tuning
<v Speaker 1>in this week, everybody. Thanks for listening or watching the
<v Speaker 1>Game Informer Show. We will be back next week with
<v Speaker 1>a whole bunch of new stuff. Bye, everybody.