Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Wonko, Warhammer and the World! || Chatsu Cafe #5
26 Plays42 minutes ago
In this episode, Satsunami is joined by friend of the show WonkoTheSane to the Chatsu Cafe. Since their last episode together, Wonko has been on an adventure, from his hijinks in Japan and France to his latest Warhammer 40K builds. But what have the duo been up to lately? Why did Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leave such a mark on Wonko? And what hot spots should you be checking out in Japan, France and...Lindesfarne?! All of this and more in this latest episode!
This podcast is a member of the PodPack Collective, an indie podcasting group dedicated to spreading positivity within the podcast community. For further information, please follow the link: https://linktr.ee/podpackcollective
Where to find us:
Check out all of our content here!
Support Us:
Patrons:
Super Pandalorian Tier:
- Battle Toaster
- Ghostie
- Cryptic1991
Red Panda Tier:
- Greenshield95
- Danny Brown
- Aaron Huggett
Free Members:
- Sonia
- Middle-aged Bodcast
- IRIDYSCENZIA
- Rob Harvey
- Aaron (Super Pod Saga)
- Billy Strachan
Use my special link zen.ai/chatsunami and use chatsunami to save 30% off your first three months of Zencastr professional. #madeonzencastr
Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr
Stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated!
Recommended
![[Announcement] What to Expect at Fan Frontier's Power Con in 2026! image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/6184f404ff8e31006d3165c2/7977cf98-aa61-461e-8262-d39c7cd73705.png)
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami, a Scottish variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime in general interest. Join me, your host, Satsunami, as well as the rest of our Chatsunami team for our takes on these very important pop culture topics. Sir, it's clearly a trap. I accept copyright! That happens three times in the film. Every time that general goes, don't do this one thing, he goes, do you know what I'ma do? That's the exact thing.
00:00:27
Speaker
Does it well? She had the pointy teeth? What was that about? She looked like Bilbo when he wants the ring back. but She turned into it. I just want the lightsaber one more time. Parasite says, no, you will get back into your office and work. No, says the man in Zoom. yeah Trousers are for the working man. You're bursting into your hotel room. Honey, we need to go.
00:00:50
Speaker
Leave the kids. We can milk an odysh. Oh.
00:00:58
Speaker
That's the worst thing you've ever said on any of the episodes. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out at our website, chattsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:01:14
Speaker
Stay classy and have a... This has been chattsunami. I'm sorry.
Conversations in the Chatsy Cafe
00:01:27
Speaker
Ah, here it is, the Chat Tsunami Cafe.
00:01:31
Speaker
Looks good. Right, he said he'd meet me here, so I as well go in. And who do we have here? Big the Cats. Oh, the Panda Lawyer. and He does get out and about. And is that David Cage? Hey, Wonko, over here. Away from David Cage. Come over here.
00:01:44
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Chatsu Cafe. My name's Satsunami, and joining me in the cafe today is none other than the one and only Wonko the Sein. Wonko, welcome back. How you doing tonight? I am tired, but I am good. It's a lovely cafe. I'm glad to be back. And it's not nice to be on the same continent, because last we recorded, i was in Japan, and we were playing Hilldivers. That is very true, actually.
00:02:11
Speaker
I'm just trying to think. What was the last episode we did together? Because was it the Chunebio one? Oh. Uh, officially, yeah, but that was just before I left for three years to go to the other side of the world. We had the impromptu recording sesh on Helldivers, and yes, may or may not have been one other recording that has been lost to the mists of time for good reason. Or it's in the vault somewhere. Maybe when you're big time famous, you'll drag it out. It's under David Cage's table. Let's not bother him over there. No, no. He seems to be having a tough time with it, poor fella. He's still bitter after Quantic Dream Month, which you should definitely check out in chatsandami.com. Yes, with Bad Games Jewels. Yeah, honestly, that month was so much fun to record for because I think I've said this story so many times on the episodes. Tell it again. Oh, why not? Rolling out the red carpet here. Sorry, the verbal red carpet, as it were. There's holes in it. Don't tell them that. Jesus. Anyway, so this is your last episode, Wonko. No. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Fairly well, folks. yeah
00:03:10
Speaker
So yeah, it was during the end of the Resident Evil month where we discussed Revelations 1 and 2 together and Jules had made a very offhand comment just saying, oh yeah, what about those David Cage games? Ha ha. And you know, we both kind of joked and said, oh imagine if there was a David Cage month. What's the deal with David Cage? It's like, you know what, Satsu? You only get one opportunity in life. Ask if Jules wants to do this and she said yes. I was like, you know what? Let's rip apart these games slash praise them for what they were.
00:03:44
Speaker
For what they were. mean, it wasn't entirely, you know, complete and utterly brutal takedown of David Cage and all his works. You had some nice things to say. oh it could have been. It could have been. It was this close. This close. But I also really loved the mini skits you guys did at the start. It's like, what are we doing in Detroit? I thought that was really, really cool. It's like turning a page and chat tsunami and production values going up can only be a good thing, says I. I'm looking at the coffers right now and hoping that the Red Panda barista, who coincidentally looks very similar to the Red Panda lawyer. I don't know why.
00:04:14
Speaker
legal reasons, is that a joke or is that serious? How bad are things? Yeah. column A column B anyway if you want to financially support us on patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami you can buy him a coffee at coffee.com anything and everything is gratefully appreciated please don't let this panda lawyer lose his pants and by the way that's coffee.com not coffee.com Which one of us is the professional podcaster again? No, it's not even that. It's imagine someone being like, C-O-F-F-E-E, don't you worry, Satsu, I'm buying you a coffee. Hang on, baby, I'm coming. I actually don't know if that does exist. Oh, there's an easy way to find out. Oh, please don't. Coffee.com. Oh my God! I don't want you getting malware over this episode, so... My eyes! My beautiful eyes!
00:04:58
Speaker
So yeah, Pandalorians, you
Weather and Bureaucracy: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
00:05:00
Speaker
know the drill. With Chatsy Cafe, this is very informal. You know, we've got our cups of tea. Yeah, I've got to ask, Wonko, what have you been up to? Oh God, ah where do I start? I mean, just recently, I don't know how it is in Alba, but in France, we finally had some good weather and it's so nice to see the blue sky. We've had the insects come out, the trees are starting to flower, dandelions and bluebells and orchids everywhere. So it's good to be alive. It's been a long winter. But when you live in France, you have to deal with, obviously, French bureaucracy. And my God, it's been kicking me about something fierce at the moment. I've had to, well, I've received some official documents from Japan that i have to send back to get pension rebates. This is the Japanese way.
00:05:38
Speaker
I had to go in. And obviously, I live in a very, very small place, very, very rural area. They don't often have people asking, how do I send this to Japan? So the first option was a chrono post for 66 euros. i'm like, do you have anything cheaper? I bought the thing, went back home all happy, started to put the documents in, get making sure everything was done, getting the manifest. But only then do I realise that the customs can only be done in person.
00:05:58
Speaker
So I've just wasted a morning. And then the afternoon, I spent two hours trying to call up a local office that I'd been convoked to for a meeting and was completely unable to do so. So it's just been one of those days, man. Yeah, there's nothing like a good bit paperwork, is there? Oh, no.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of tuning and throwing a bit, editing out the bit that you said earlier there, because I feel as if it's very anti-British, that of course being that you've had good weather. I say, old chap, we can't be spouting this sort of nonsense on this formal podcast, what? Ew, I say. No, in dubious, old chap. Because I don't know what's going on with the Scottish weather. The other day, or rather the other week there, we had a day where it was absolutely freezing in the morning, then it was rain, then it was snow, then it was ice, then it was blistering sunshine, back to rain, back to snow, back to rain, and even today it's been a mixture of heavy rain. Haha, David Cage. Haha. I did, you know, that meme where I had my mouth open pointing at the window going, it's like my David Cage game.
00:07:03
Speaker
Sean! Yeah, honestly, the weather has been absolutely all over the place. You know, there's a split second where I'm able to take the dog out and it's like a military operation. I just throw on the harness, just throw it out with me. Go, go, go! Go, go, do a whizzy, go! Go, go, go, go! No time to sniff! Man down, man down! Go on without me, Luna! Go home, take the key! Yeah, I'm trying to teach her to do that just now, but it's a work in progress. She kind of reached the lock is what I'm saying. I didn't think it through. Anyway.
00:07:35
Speaker
Mistakes were made. But my shattered dreams of going in Britain's Got Talent aside, although then again, i don't think I could go in Britain's Got Talent, you know that? The problem is you got too much. but boom I mean, no. No. they've got too little to be honest I think Chatsunami would
Art Installations and Cultural Critique
00:07:51
Speaker
be sullied by Britain's good talent. Because I'm sorry, if you still enjoy it, absolutely fine. But I was complaining to my partner about this the other day, and I saw a clip online where I don't know if the French version or the Japanese version or any other version is the same, right? I know the American one is probably the same, but they do this really weird thing, right, where someone comes out and let's say they're really good, you know, they go, oh, I can sing perfectly. And then they do this weird thing where they pan to the audience and they do this insufferable slow motion thing. Whereas like they're all going, we are happy. Oh, clap.
00:08:29
Speaker
Clap. The hell is this? It's so Americanized. i mean, don't get me wrong. Britain's Got Talent was never, you know, high cinema or anything. No. high brown, but at least there was some entertainment there. You take that back.
00:08:43
Speaker
Is this what it feels like to be brain rotted in real time? Because, I mean, there's someone with a TikTok account and being over 30. That's how it feels. And I think to that I must say, no cap, no cap, for real, for real, skibbity. You know, I think that's even outdated now. Oh, I'll give you another laugh. Speaking of skibbity, I was getting my shopping, I think it was a month or two ago. Oh, I saw the picture! I saw the photo! It's real! This story's based on true events. So yeah, I was out getting my messages, or to translate for everyone else, I was out getting my shopping, and I thought, right, okay, you know, I'll go down this aisle, I'll go down that, and then passed by the toys that they were selling. and you know Normally I just scoot by it, go for this and that, obviously the Iron Brew and the Tunnock's Tea Cakes. Wink, wink, please sponsor me. Yeah, it's like I was walking by and there was this box that it was just the skibbity toilet guy. Christ above. I don't know what's worse though. The fact they were selling them, of course, or the fact it said Series 2 on them, which implies, much like Bad Boys 2, there's obviously a... Bad Boys 1. Yeah, there's been a Bad Boys 1, but no one knows about Bad Boys 1 because nobody talks about Bad Boys 1. Damn good reason.
00:09:53
Speaker
Just as nobody speaks about Series 1 skibbity toilet... But for me, perhaps the most horrifying thing in this story is that you recognise skibbity toilets on the stores next to the Tunnock's Tea Cakes and the Iron Brew. Well, I'm kind of embellishing a little. bit The Iron Brew was What you're saying is William Wallace overthrew the English crown so that you could see skippity toilets on your shelves. It's like a domino effect. I'm not going to lie. It's not been easy to study history for four years and be like, yeah, I've got a degree. Trust me, bro.
00:10:24
Speaker
I've got my cork board. I've got my red string that ties everything together. All I'm saying is James II didn't get blown up by his own cannon for this. That's all I'm saying. Anyway, don't stand next to your cannon, kids. Yeah. It's not a good idea. But yeah, that aside, there has been a lot going on in terms of, well, me staying away from skibbity toilet, obviously. Yeah, I've had to like physically restrain myself. Yeah, I bet. I've had to have a social media detox, as it were. Oh, God. So my partner and I, we ended up going over to the East Coast, which, yeah, I had to take a deep breath going from West to East. I was like, OK, you've got this, that's it. Okay, we can clearly see where your allegiances lie. That's great, mate. Go on, go on. Love you, Edinburgh. I love your cannons. God, I'm just trying to think how the hell would you even do like a Scottish Donald Trump? We have the best cannon. No, that's just French. now I can't do it.
00:11:17
Speaker
I was gonna say, was that like David Cage? The best canon, the best canon. Napoleon would be so proud. That's the other domino effect. Oh god, the French hated that film so much. It was incredible. You know, I still haven't seen that film. I've heard terrible things and I've heard Ridley Scott be an absolute ass about it. How did you know?
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, were you there? Yeah, yeah, just throw hundreds of years of history and academia away, yeah. I mean, he only directed aliens, like, he also died directed aliens three and four, so. Oh god, the ones we don't talk about for a damn good reason. Well, actually don't know if he directed those ones, but I'm pretty sure. No, I don't think he did, so the joke falls flat. He do Prometheus, and that was pretty f***ing awful. Oh yeah, that was us. Yeah, so the joke can still work, okay. It lives on, folks. We hated Prometheus. Anyway, that aside, I ended up with my partner driving all the way over to the East Coast and we ended up in a place called Jupiter Artland, which I have to say is not a place that I'd heard of initially. And then it was my family that recommended it and everything. Yeah, when one says Jupiter, I don't immediately think of Scotland for some weird reason. What, big and gassy?
00:12:31
Speaker
okay I take it all back. Oh, dear. Anyway, this is the last episode of Chatsunami. Thank you all for coming. No, but it honestly is a fantastic place because it is. It's just like a massive park and it's got all the different art installations. If you're one of the cool kids, you're obviously already on the Chatsunami Discord server. But one of the photos you posted, just like that landscaped one, almost out of Minecraft with the step terraces and the lake, that was incredible, I thought. That was really cool. Yeah, because it reminded me of, I think it's the fairy pools. I could totally be wrong on that. But there's hills and sky that are very similar to that, obviously in a bigger scale. But they are so cool and the way they've done them. But even in Jupiter Heartland, we had a lovely day for it. We managed to go around and get a lick of it. Rain because day before rain and howling winds the day after we'd been yeah absolute same so we we're in that kind of lovely middle sandwich but I just got the blister and sunshine there was some and Exhibits that you know that way when you see a bit of art and some of it does speak to you you think wow This is very evocative. It's very interesting. like My Japanese anime is yes go on yeah pretty much you look at it and then there's other bits you look at and go i don't think i get this because there was one where we went into this you couldn't really climb up it but it was like one of those stone towers you know ones that you would probably see beside monasteries and things yeah yeah like a big massive turret thing anti-viking towers oh there's a great one see over in larks shout out to larks but there's a great one there it's literally just called the pencil
00:14:09
Speaker
That is, seriously, Google it. An imagine's in bunch, but if it works, it works. I mean, it looks like a giant pencil, you cannae fault them for it. I mean, a spade's a spade, a pencil's a pencil. You can also get great fish and chips there, but anyway, larks aside. Sponsorship deal! Yeah, I went in, they had this projector running, and it was just the ocean that was playing, and all these, you know, like, the waves. crashing and all that. Where's this going? See, you think, okay, that's quite peaceful when the acoustics were great and everything, because it was quite tiny and in an enclosed space. As soon as you left, all you heard was a woman screaming. Jesus Christ! It was a pre-recorded scream! All you heard was, ah, ah! Was that us? Did we trigger that? Or...
00:14:52
Speaker
What's going on here, lads? What's going on? Just keep walking, boys. Just keep walking. Again, if you get out on a nice day, there was the wooded area as well, which is cool up until you get to the Weeping Girls, where, well, I say exhibit, but, yeah, statues of these girls with the hair in front of them, they literally look like, you know, the Weeping Angels out of Doctor who I wish I could forget, man. Yeah, exactly. Like those, but they're all over the forest. And all I keep thinking was, see if you were there at night. You would shit yourself sideways seeing those things.
00:15:25
Speaker
Pretty much. God, yeah. Again, it's quite cool. Again, it kind of varies. There's some that you think, wow, that's really impressive. And then others are like, huh? Because there was literally a pit that had amethysts around. And it was like, oh, that's cool. And, you know, i looked at it, but there's big signs everywhere being like, I swear to God, we are watching, do not steal my amethyst. I'm like, okay. Do not touch the amethyst. Avoid eye contact with the amethysts. Keep moving. The only weird thing though was they had this pit and genuinely, I don't know why, it was some commentary, I think, and that could be wrong, so apologies, if somehow the vein diagram crosses over and the actual artist who did There's glasses for this episode If you do by the way Feel free to DM me And come on the show Because I'd love to pick your brains on this But yeah it's like this massive hole That's just going into the ground And this like I don't know 10 15 foot cage around it And it reminded me of something Out of Silent Hill Pyramid Head's down there I can see him He's guarding the amethysts That I need for some weird puzzle To get out of this Jupiter Art Garden thing Before the mists roll in Go on little Jimmy Don't be afraid now You're the amethyst. Your hands are small. You'll be able to get them. Do it. But yeah, it's terrifying because you just look at it. I mean, you're nowhere near it because you would genuinely have to climb. So see at that point, if you manage to climb over it and then get in, it's really your own fault if you fall in. But if, God forbid, they decide to get rid of it, I hope they don't do the comic thing where they just put like a rug over it and then you get some Scooby-Doo shenanigans where people just fall into it. I've seen that place in my dreams. The pit. Yeah.
00:17:02
Speaker
The pitch coming soon. But yeah, it's been quite busy, have to say, in terms of Tratsunami. Yeah, you've been getting out and about. mean, fair play to you. The other thing that my partner and I did, to which we were really excited to do, was we actually saw the two very famous Scottish actors, that being Julie Wilson Nimmo and Grey Kemp. I needed prompting, because obviously you enjoy teasing your dear friends and listeners, so you sent me and was like, oh, do you recognise her? It's like, no, not really. It's like, look at the eyes. I know those eyes. Not Miss Hooley from Balamori. Yes, indeed it was. And it wasn't like a Balamori meet-up or anything. She played Miss Hooley from Balamori, and she was also enjoying the fact. No. Shoes and Shoes? Really? Yeah, genuinely. And yeah, her husband is famous for being Victor in one of my favourite shows of all time, Still Game. But what I didn't realise was that both of them had done a wild swimming show on BBC, which is aptly called Jules and Greg Wild Swim. So we got to hear them speak and everything and it was absolutely fantastic. They even brought their dog, which was even better. I was like, oh my god, this is a great night. But not only with that, we got our photo taken with them and we got a signed copy of their book. Oh, brilliant.
Celebrity Encounters and Gaming Discussions
00:18:18
Speaker
It's, you know that we were waiting in line and the whole night I was nervous because I really wanted to go up and get everything signed. And then and my partner was uncharacteristically quiet in the queue and I kept saying, are you okay? And She was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm fine. And then as soon as we got to the front, she's like, I'm a wee bit nervous now. And I'm like, oh, ah you'll be fine. You'll be fine. I've been doing the podcast for over five years now. You would think I would be able to center my core or whatever it is and be like, OK, I'm calm. I'm going to be collected for my partner. Hang on a second. Are you saying you actually got starstruck? A little.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think what was better about the whole experience is they genuinely seemed like lovely people. Really down to earth, they were chatting away to everybody and whatnot. I'm not saying this in a parasocial way to be like, oh, they were lovely people. but it makes a nice change from, you know, when you go to Comic Con and things, and obviously the guests are there to do their job, you know, they're there to sign your things and whatnot. But at the same time, I think because it was such a... I mean, it was sold out, the event. The place was absolutely packed. But the fact that they took the time to talk and everything, and they seemed genuinely engaged with everyone who went up and whatnot. And I don't know. It's just it felt nice to be like, oh, they seem like lovely people. I think what also built upon that was when my partner and I, we parked up, we were walking into the venue, and then they pulled up at the same time and they gave us a wave. Oh, cool. Quid's in, man. Yeah, I was just like, did Victor from Still Game just wave to us? Oh my god! Honestly, it was absolutely fantastic and I was just raving to you about it all night. And then their faces fell as you pulled out a Balamori picture book and demanded an autograph.
00:19:58
Speaker
Yeah, i told you they wouldn't sign your book, man. Come on. You said you wouldn't say. What's the custom charges for France again? Oh. Too much for a Balamori book. No, it's 10% the value. And I know that because coming back from Japan, i wanted to buy some Warhammer, get back into the hobby a bit. 10% of Warhammer kit is actually a fair bit of money. yeah I mean, we were saying this before we came on tonight, but yeah, I haven't really gotten back into Warhammer for probably since I started the podcast. I feel as if I've been teetotal when it comes to Warhammer. You took all the time that you had for the Warhammer and put it somewhere else. Well, it's true. i mean, I still got all my models up and everything, but unfortunately i had to put all my Imperial Guard into the battle box and everything. You've still got the knight on the shelves, you got the basilisk on the shelves, and then Lemanrus as well, I believe? Or Leemanrus, don't know how the hell it's supposed to be pronounced. Yeah, I've got the basilisk, the Lemanrus. He's shown me his collection several times against my will before people. It's terrible!
00:20:58
Speaker
What's terrible is I can't remember them by their real names, so I think I called them different things. Like, I've painted on the side of them, and I'll need to post the pictures one time. They've all got names, so the Basilisk, which is a big artillery cannon, for any people who don't know what 40k is, it's like a big artillery cannon thing. I called that the Flaxon Five instead of the Jackson Five.
00:21:20
Speaker
hey I was sipping a... Hey, not fair. I've got another one called, i think, Landforce 1, which... Okay. That's not the best one. It's not the worst, but it's not the best, yeah. And the other one, i think I just called it Cannonball. I don't think I've named my Baneblade. It's a Baneblade, that's what you have, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Baneblade, the big, big one. oh Oh, God. Ready to unleash 11 barrels of hell. How can you forget the Baneblade? It was a wooden Baneblade! God, I love that so much. Yeah. It's so old, but it's way better than the memes that the Zoomers have at the moment. I'm sorry, I'm just throwing that out there. Stealer in. Space Marines! Space Marine. Oh, I love it. How can you mess up pronunciation that bad, but do it so well at the same time? Honestly, it absolute art. It's just this peak art. One day I dream of a mod for Space Marine 2 that replaces all the good dialogue with goddamn Indric Boreal. But yeah, no I haven't really gotten back into it since. I mean, I need to buy... Or rather, i need to hunt for all the paints that have already. you Yeah. Yeah, they can dry up if you're not careful, which is a real bugger. Oh yeah, I'm not aware, yeah. You know, you leave home for three years and you think your paints are going fine and it's like, oh god, I'm going to to invest about 300 quid in paints before I can even do anything. ah
00:22:31
Speaker
This episode's sponsored by Citadel Paints. I'm more of a Vallejo man myself, but don't tell Games Workshop that. They'll throw me out when I try and play that next time. Army Painter, just throwing that out there. They are really good as well. They're a British company as well, aren't they, Army Painter? I love Army Painter. I can't of remember what the silver one is. There's one where it is literally just, oh that terrible. terrible because i used it religiously genuinely anytime there was a gun or anything that had to be painted silver because it gives that kind of metallic gleam to it and it's honestly between that and their strong tone oh the strong tone dip is such a lifesaver oh no strong tone for the win guardman goes in paint comes out guardman goes in paint comes out some people say oh no oil no no it's agrax earthshade man is it really what happened to whole oil oh no no it's still that's the long enough being out of it
00:23:19
Speaker
I always thought it was Agrax Earthshade that was like skill in a bottle or skill in a paint pot or whatever, but Null Null is pretty good too, to be fair. Honestly, I just love shaders because it makes all of my models look so much better. Well, you are a shady fella, to be fair. Very true, very true. Games Workshop, return my calls or I'll be back with the boombox. This is not an idle threat.
00:23:39
Speaker
I'm okay. I am deadly serious. I will do it. Federal agents. very true the red panda lawyer behind the counter is shaking his head right now okay he was the barrister i knew it but yeah speaking of gaming and hobbies and things have you been to anything in that realm oh yeah i've been busy so it's almost invariable that when you you're in the warhammer hobby you have the source of eternal shame and damnation that is is the pile of shame. That pile of kits you buy and it's like oh I'll get around to doing that one day. So coming back from Japan, I basically threw myself into getting through my backlog of Warhammer, which sort of helped me readapt to life in France because obviously there's a lot of psychological turmoil that goes on, whether you realize it or not. You mostly do, to be fair. Well, I mean, you said yes to this episode, so... I'm still not over it.
00:24:24
Speaker
You're still not over the Chunibyo one being outpaced by the A-pop demon hunter. We'll do Chunibyo season two and we will do the film at some promise. That is my threat to you listeners. We will get that done at some point. But I mean, we're probably going to it in Chow Tsunami or whatever because dodging aside from Warhammer back to Chunibyo, but... On my first holiday, my first proper holiday, my first holiday was longer than three days in Japan. So you can imagine what it was like. But I went to Shigaken, which is basically where Chunibyo was set. And before coming on to this, I was listening to, I think, your first cafe to remind myself what happens on a Chatsunami cafe with Martin. And he was mentioning that when you go to place like, oh, New York, and you recognize all those places. And I was doing that. I was basically going to all the in real life locations that the Chinyubyo anime was set. And even have a special name for that in Japanese. It's called the Seichiro Junle, which is literally a sacred pilgrimage. And I saw it all and it was just incredible. I loved it so much. And my favorite spot, and i think I sent you a semi-drunken message at seven hours time dilation change difference kind of thing. But I was like under the bridge where all the magic happens. just like... man, I'm finally happy. Oh, it's incredible. I highly, highly recommend anyone, anyone who can go to Shiga, go to Otsushi. It's an absolutely incredible place. But going back to the Warhammer, right? Surprisingly, there is Warhammer scene in Japan, even in Kochi way. out in the sticks where I was. And best of all, well, ironically, but on my last year there, there was another real Warhammer fan that came and he bought his Blood Angels. So that was a kick in the pants I needed to paint up my Necrons. And we started having games and stuff like that. And that was absolutely fantastic. Some real back and forth. But during that, I got a real respect for the Redemptive Dreadnoughts because Space Marine 2 hadn't come out at this point. So no one knew just how cool they were when they can be led to the slaughter. But it gave me the idea to make like a proper heavily armored and Dreadnought heavy army, which is what I'm working on the moment. And actually, just today, I found a really cheap Redemptive Dreadnought kit. So I absolutely smash grabbed that and bought it because, ah, the new Dreadnought kits are amazing. You don't realize how big they are until you put them together. They tower over your space marines now. It's incredible. That sounds absolutely amazing, though. Have I ever told you about my Dettol marines? What?
00:26:29
Speaker
I love how you're just like, yeah, I had this amazing experience and everything. Oh, it was great. And I'm like, let me tell you about my Dettol marines here. Oh, God. Dettol? Oh, sorry, I thought you said ghetto marines. i' like, what, like Peaky Blinders? You having a giggle, Chapter Master? Peaky Blinders is Birmingham. Oh, God, not the Brummies. Oh, Jesus. Shout out to Luke from the How Do Beans podcast. I mean nothing by it, Luke. I've never met you, but I have no ill will. I was thinking when you were saying you were getting back into the hobby and everything, and it reminds me when, I think it was when I was just coming out of university and everything, and I didn't want to spend hundreds on kits, which, to be fair, I probably should have. You've picked the wrong hobby for that game.
00:27:05
Speaker
Very true. I mean, they call it plastic crack for a reason. For a damn good reason. I remember I thought, oh, I'm going to buy these space marines from eBay. So I thought, right, okay, I'll buy them. I'll strip off the paint and everything. But I thought, oh, maybe can just paint over them. But I realized the paint was way, way too thick. And was told by a very good friend that, oh, if you just put them in a thing of Dettol, you can scrub it off. Mm-hmm. Good news is that does indeed work. Bad news I now have a bunch of death hall scented marines in a box. They smell gently of pine, what's not to love? Oh, they stink. Honestly, I can't remember if I tried to even spray them and it just made it worse. I was like, oh, this is terrible. I left them outside for a day and they still sank. Honestly, never again. Maybe the problem is with me because I used to be able, before customs and Brexit happened, but I was able to get Dettol from cheap and that's what I used to strip a lot of my minis because I didn't mind the smell of it to be fair. So I have a Dettol-centered Imperial Guard somewhere in boxes as well, which now I know Satsunami hates. I'm definitely to play a game with him. I don't mind the smell of Dettol because you know it's gonna go away. This didn't. These were genuinely Dettol marines. I was like, you know what?
00:28:17
Speaker
I can't do The Plague Father shall have no grasp on them. no, it is fun to see an army come together. And I obviously put together the rest of the necrons I was able to bring across. So, you know, I got Japanese necrons and oh god, the Japanese translations for Warhammer was absolutely incredible as well. Really? Just to be absolutely clear, and because obviously 40k has an emperor, you know, the Japanese take great pains to remind you that it is the 40k emperor. It is not the Japanese emperor because you can get away with a lot of stuff in Japan, but do not have anything bad to say about their emperor. There is a lot of love. There is a lot of respect. And so fair enough, you know, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So... Whenever they talk about the Imperium, so the Imperium of Man, the quote-unquote good guys of the settings, who are beset on all sides by foul Xenos and traitors and chaos and excommunicate Traitoris from within and without and everything, and though a thousand psychers are sacrificed daily so that the writhing carcass of the carrion emperor of mankind can never truly die, it's still the best option that we have. The Tau don't count. We don't talk about the Tau. So they have the Japanese translation for the Imperium Man, which is Teikoku no Ningen. So literally like Teikoku is Imperium, basically like the Empire and then Ningen Man. And then in brackets, Imperium. Every single time you see it in a sentence, it had me cracking up in the fluff pieces, in the codexes, in the books. Shotei no Ningen. Imperium. Thank you. I had forgotten who that was.
00:29:37
Speaker
No, Teikoku no Ningen. I'm sorry. Teikoku no Ningen Imperium. And the Emperor in Japanese is the Shotei. An Emperor, but not the Emperor. But the thing was, we had to be really careful because obviously when you play a game Warhammer with a friend, with someone that that you click, there's chemistry, you know, you start getting along, you start making jokes, you start getting a bit out of, well, no, you start getting extremely crazy. I think the worst thing and we did was one time his brother came to visit and his brother bought his army as well. So we had a three-way on the table in front of everyone, just Warhammer-wise there. And obviously at this point, Space Marine 2 had come out. So at one point, because he had a redemptive dreadnought, he moved it on the table and lead me to the slaughter. And so you have three 30-year-old men just sort of waving their arms wildly and flaying, going, lead me to the slaughter.
00:30:16
Speaker
As these poor, polite Japanese people are just trying to play Magic the Gathering in peace, look over and try to ignore us. So... Is that- no no, sorry to interject here. Is this like, you know when you go to a bar or somewhere and it's like, you know, you're having a quiet drink and then you've got the rowdy football fans like, whoa! that like the geeky equivalent over there? I suppose it was. But it's not helped because the Dreadnought stubby little legs. He was like throwing his body from side to side. There's a very distinctive Dreadnought walk. If you've seen the clip, you know what I mean. So we're just doing that, lead me to the slaughter. Incredible. I mean, I was an English teacher, so hopefully I've taught people something there, but yeah. Which is pointing to the board. Lead me to the slaughter. But the best part was that the local accent of Kochi is almost identical to that of the common Yorkshireman. And it turns out me... Well, it turns out it wasn't a revelation for me. Me dad's from there. I've got family there. And I can slip into a bit of Yorkshire accent. So, you know, when I told my aunt where I was, it's like, oh, yeah, no, I'm in Kochi. And, oh, coach sounds nice. And that's exactly how Kochi people say Kochi. It's coach. So it's like, we're not so different, you and I, grommet. Oh, my God, that's next week's episode. Oh, God. But anyway, the problem was that we were playing with, obviously, Japanese codices. And because Games Workshop is incredibly peculiar about their IP. So in English, it's fine. You know, a space marine intercessor is a space marine intercessor. That's not a problem. In French, it's a space marine intercessor. And in Japanese, it's a space marine intercessor. So obviously, I looked at guy was playing with. He looked at me. You know, little grin starts forming at the corner of mouth. And I just go, OK, I'm going to charge my... Scopec Road into your Eliminator.
00:31:52
Speaker
ah And it just spiraled out of control from there. Honestly, it sounds like something you would do to be fair. It is, yeah. Oh man, I really need to get back into Warhammer. I mean, to be fair, you have to be there as well. It's a lot of fun. If you've played a game of Warhammer against someone, you sort of know how it goes. These stories are created, these memes that transcend time and tale itself to become their own thing entirely. Because it reminds me of the episode that Robotic Battlesauster and I did, oh, I think a couple of seasons ago. And there was like 40k reasons not to... live in the 40k universe yeah and it was such a fun episode it was like on the one hand i was like i don't know if many people will be interested but by the end of it it was like no the people have to hear this people have to know you do not want to live in this oh god no no no not in the slightest nothing good happens in 40k and that's the point but it's not that easy kai that you I'm going to be honest. Do you remember years ago they brought out books for children to go into Warhammer? But it was the most horrifying, horrifying factions there was. The first one was against Necrons. Yeah. The second one was, I think, Chaos. And then for God knows what reason, and if you know, know, but the third one was Gene Steeler Cults. Don't put kids anywhere near the goddamn Gene Stealers. For the love of God, just by the name, if you don't know what they do, you can guess what they do. And it's not for kids.
00:33:11
Speaker
By the way, you have my condolences.
Warhammer and Cultural Adaptations
00:33:13
Speaker
Poor old Captain Acheran from Space Marine 2. The reason he's not appearing in canon anymore was because he was dobbed in by a Gene Stealer cult, apparently. You're joking. No, no, it is true. He got gotted. The one Scottish Space Marine we had. And for God's sakes, the Ultramarines come from a planet called Macrag, which it doesn't sound very English. Mac, what could that be? Hmm. Yeah, but they're all very... horse space marines aren't they they're like oh for the emperor oh well no they don't sound like that right enough no no some of them very much received pronunciation yeah one give one's life for the emperor old boy toodle pip what what
00:33:45
Speaker
but I mean, all they need is a monocle and a top hat, and they'll be raring to go. That's another game that i have to review for the channel, Space Marine 2. I played that ages ago, and I remember thinking, oh, I've got a couple of people in mind, you know, to do it with, and I just never really materialised, because I played it and absolutely loved it, but was like, eh. No, it's like Warhammer games can be hit and miss when it comes to like being true to the lore, basically. But Space Marine 2 nails it better than any game I've seen so far. Don't get me wrong, Space Marine 1 had its charm, but the orcs are always not to be taken too seriously. They've got that comic relief because days just caught the hooligans what come for a good scrap. But when it's tyranids and chaos and that smug son of a bitch chaos sorcerer and everything else that goes on and the rousing speech of just Kalgar when he appears, that is absolute cinema, dare I say. It's damn good no narrative wise it's a lot stronger than the first one because i played the first one before the second one came out and it's very repetitive yeah i'm not gonna lie is really is a bit of a slog to get through the first game no it is the orc war boss is fantastic Got yourself a friend, Space Marine! Tackled. For anyone who doesn't know about Forty K and they're still listening, there's a scene where a big orc, massive green, has a metal jaw and everything has the metal Mad Max attire, as it were. But taken up to 11. Yeah, and a big cannon or machine gun on his arm. He sees this guy who looks essentially like a demon, and all these demons pour out of these portals and everything, and they kill all the smaller orcs and things, and you see the leader of them in full, chunky armour and everything. In Terminator armour, wasn't he? The sorcerer was in Terminator armour. Yeah, but he's got spikes coming out here, there and everywhere. eight Spoilers, he kills one of the space marines who are supposed to be the pinnacle of mankind and everything. So you think, oh my god, this guy is a serious threat. The wharf effect at Well, yeah, that's like saying I'm going for a loaf of bread. You hear it a lot. But, you know, you see this guy and you think, wow, this guy is a big deal. And then all of a sudden, going back to the Mad Max Orc, he comes out of nowhere and he's like, got yourself a friend, Space Marine. And he tackles the guy off Bloody Cliff. And then he still survives at the end. And you're like, this guy is so cool. I was a bit sad that he was a boss fight because you have to beat him and kill him. But he didn't deserve to go out that way. didn't. But ah is it in the original Dawn of War? It's Gorguts. He has some amazing lines as well. They do grow on you, but they have like that comically evil aspect rather than yeah everything else in 40k, which is genuinely evil. Oh, yeah. 100%. be fair, in the 11th edition box set, it's going to be sort of an amalgam of space marines, ah blood angels and ultramarines against orcs. So the orcs are being brought back as the canonical bad guy for the 11th edition, which they were in 6th or 7th, I think. Assault on Blackreach. Oh, that takes me back.
00:36:36
Speaker
Good stuff, though. Good stuff. Honestly, I do need to get back into the games and maybe we can do an episode in the future about them because I'll tell you two games that I've actually played recently, which they've essentially made me question humanity and considering what's going on in the world. That's taken some doing. This podcast is going to come through a broken TV screen like in Fallout and some poor people are sharpening spears while listening to us going on about what the hell is an orc? We got...
00:37:01
Speaker
ah I don't want to set the world fire. The Ink Spots, by the way, an excellent, excellent band. I highly recommend you listen to their stuff. Oh, 100%. But you want to hear these two games that absolutely destroyed my faith in humanity? Of course I do! So the first one, which isn't as egregious, but it was the Resident Evil game The Dark Side Chronicles, is a game that i've never really played. out Is that like the online co-op one where you're playing through like episodes from all sorts of different Resident Evils and you unlock different player characters that have different abilities? Is that it? No, that is Outbreak. That's Outbreak, sorry. Yeah, which is another one that i have to go back and play because I'm really interested in playing it. i've heard mixed things. It was everywhere in Japan. i had friends who swore blind by it, so... Make of that what you will. Yeah, because I've got friends who keep telling me, oh, play Code Veronica. But going to be honest, it's really, really hard for me because the controls are just... Oh, it's back to the original Resident Evil tank controls, isn't it? The thing is, i don't mind tank controls as long as I can use, you know, the analog stick. And I'm going to get crucified for this opinion. but I wouldn't mind that as much, but it's the fact that Code Verodica is like, okay, we're going to give you these tanky controls, and it's, you know, proper tank controls, where it's like you have to stop and turn, and you have to kind of angle yourself. Classic Resident Evil 4, or is it worse than that? Oh, no, it's worse than Oh, God. mean, that was bad enough as it was, but... No, but at least you can use the analog stick, you know, to go around in circles and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, in this, you have to turn like a literal tank and then move forward. Oh, I mean, you can kind of keep the momentum going, but it's really difficult without your thumb slipping and pulling you the other way. I had no idea.
00:38:44
Speaker
And then at the very beginning, it's like, oh, yeah, here's a graveyard and here's 20 zombies. Enjoy. And I'm like, oh, yeah, thank you. Thank you for this cap. Very cool. Anyway, sorry. The Dark Side Chronicles. It's a weird one. It's like, you know, Time Crisis, that kind of rail shooter. Yes, I know Time Crisis. crisis yeah yeah but i don't have you know one of the playstation move type guns so i have to use the analog sticks to aim and everything so it's not ideal but i thought you know what gonna suffer through it and see and i like the ideas of it i like what they've done in the retelling of certain elements in the past games but the thing that really threw me ironically enough was There's a scene at the end where, well not the end, but the end of this level where you fight William Birkin who is for those who don't know, he's one of the scientists who, he gives himself a lovely dose of the G-Virus which gives him a big eyeball on his shoulder. It tends to do that, doesn't it?
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah, usually. Big pulsing weak spot. Yeah, he hits you over a railing and you're hanging on. And I got his health down to zero, right? Yeah, yeah. And then I'm like, why is he still clapping my cheeks? Why he still hitting me, even though the thing's gone? And I think you're supposed to shoot him in a very particular place. But even when I tried, couldn't do So I was like, you know what? Nah, I'm going to quit for a while. So i haven't played since then. But at least for the most part, I thought, okay, I've had some fun. I like where they went with the story, etc. The other one was Mighty No. 9. did not have fun with Mighty No. 9. It is a cult classic among some gamers though, isn't it What was a problem? Wonko, if you like this game, you are in a cult. You're right there. And not a good one.
00:40:26
Speaker
It's just a mess. I'll definitely be doing an episode on it. I think it was the guy who originally worked on Mega Man and everything and everyone optimistic. That's the one. That's the one. Yeah, yeah. Mega Man rings a bell. Yeah, yeah. And it was just, honestly, see the backstory for Mighty No. 9? It is so captivating. After this episode, go look it up on YouTube because it's like you listen to it and you go, there is no way this is a real game. And it is because it's things like, I think he raised the money for it because the Mega Man series, ironically enough, Capcom as well.
00:41:00
Speaker
But Capcom had stopped releasing Mega Man games at the time. So there was this dry spell. And you know that joke that's going around where it's like, this is what happens to Dark Souls fans when they don't have a game after so long, or they don't insert any franchise here. It's like Mega Man fans after they don't have a game for so long. It was just a nightmare because it was things like he got the money for it, but he kept saying, oh, I'm going to add this in it. I'm going to add multiplayer online for Oh, no. Even though people weren't asking for it. Feature creep, right? Something like that, yeah. And the one thing that granted wasn't his fault was the advertising. So the publisher, I don't if you've seen the advert. I don't know, but... So basically it showed you a lot of basically rubbish graphics and things. People made fun of the explosions saying they looked like pizzas and whatnot. And it does, it looks bad, but... There was like this voiceover trying to sound cool and one of the most infamous lines, they had this advert and it was like, you're gonna make the enemies cry like an enemy fan on prom night. Oh, that's where it comes. know the quote, i didn't realise it was Mighty No. 9. You do realise who your target audience is I don't know what they were thinking, genuinely. But eventually, think they took so long, and then they said they were going to create another game midway through the development cycle. But they took so long that Capcom actually re-released the Mega Man games. Oh no!
00:42:26
Speaker
It was terrible. And what was even worse was apparently there were versions that were bricked in consoles. Ooh. Genuinely, I had no idea that was a thing, I thought. And this was the early days of consoles, wasn't it? You didn't have a handy-dandy internet connection to bail you out. If it was bricked, it was pretty badly... Oh no, if it was bricked, it was bricked. But this was like 2016, man. It was pretty late in and the cycle. It was mid-2010s, yeah. Time has lost all meaning to me at this point. Okay, fair enough. Continue. ha. Hold on, let me look it up. 2016, wow. Was it really? Good The first image is biggest flop in indie game history. It doesn't look like a 2016 game, does it? To be fair.
00:43:05
Speaker
I mean, it looks like a 2010s game, but let's... With a lot of makeup on. So yeah, played it. I hated it. The boss fights are absolute BS. That's all I'll say. They give you a tutorial level, right? And you're like, all right, okay, i'm going to fight my way through and everything. And it's relatively okay. And then the boss fights, they just steamroll you. And I'm like, you know what? I don't like this game. There might be Mega Man fans out there going, you're not a true gamer, but it's like, if that's the case, then sign me up for the club because I'm not defending Mighty No. 9. Terrible, terrible game. But have you been playing anything recently game-wise? Oh, it depends how recently you mean, because once again, after coming back, I've been working my way through a couple of games on the old backlog. I suppose two ones jump out that i really want to talk about. To the surprise of no one, the guy who lives in France, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, of course. Signalis, which is a little gem of indie horror I absolutely love. And, well, you know, last time you saw me, I was on Helldivers, and I haven't stopped playing it since, so Helldivers 2 as well. There's been plenty more since then. and
00:44:07
Speaker
to be fair, I've been eating pretty good because you have a backlog in Warhammer, you have a backlog on Steam. We all have a backlog on Steam. I think it's something ridiculous. Like 70% of games on Steam are never played. They're just bored. It's like, oh I'll get around to it some point. So I wanted to like try and put a dent in my old backlog. So I've been going through, but since I've been back, I've got a list here because Satsunami warned me. I was able to play through Batman Arkham Asylum, Arkham City. Oh God, it's good to get back to the roots of the original Free Flow combat system. And before Batman got DC-ified and weirded and Joss Whedon cuts and all the Zack Snyder cuts. Nah, nah, just simpler times, man, simpler times. Finished Baldur's Gate 100%. Coffee Talk, which was... oh yeah. I mean, i had a strong reaction to that. It's like, Satsunami gave it to me as a gift, probably out of pity or something. I don't know why. Or fear. or fear An offering.
00:44:51
Speaker
But playing along, it does have its charm. But the thing is that every time I was playing it, I was just thinking, oh, you know, they got that from Valhalla or VA11 Hall A, you know, the original sort of mixing drinks and changing lives, cyberpunk bartending action game. But to be fair, it was a nice game. I hated the main female character, Freya. It was just like, oh, I'm going to watch people's lives and steal it from my newspaper article or something. but a few of the characters were surprisingly well written. can't remember his name, but I called him Cat Dad. So, you know, definitely ah a big Cat Dad stan over here. Around Christmas, I caved and I bought myself the Crisis Core remake. So to give it his full title, Crisis Core-Final Fantasy VII-Reunion. That was amazing. Bought back a lot of old memories where I had to borrow a friend's PSP in high school because I was in the dorms and we didn't have anything else to do. So I just like played through his save file Crisis Core and just ground and farmed items for him. But it was still a fun game it still holds up it's a classic jrpg dredge which is lovecraftian fishing simulator end the magnolia bloom in the mist really highly recommend that if you like metroidvanias it has a lot of improvements compared to the first which is ender lilies but they've changed it because in ender lilies the main character lily was apparently an offshoot of the joestar family because she could summon spirits to defend her that was the whole fighting mechanic she never did anything your main character couldn't hit she could only dive duck
00:46:04
Speaker
dip, dodge, dive and weave or whatever it is but she could summon ghosts or spirits of things to defend her in her place so that's the sort of stand power and there was a lot of jokes about that End of Magnolia is a more recent remake where it's not spirits anymore it's homunculi the story is weaker the graphics are better and there's a lot of quality of life improvements in it in End of Lilies you had a set amount of the times you could summon a spirit to do its attack animation basically. So if you messed up in a boss fight, that was it. You had no way of doing damage and so you had to reset it. Whereas in End Magnolia, they put it on timers, which can be a bit more punishing, but you always have access if you can just dodge enough, which was nice. This one, I don't know if I should admit it, but I was feeling incredibly nostalgic for my high school days after teaching Japanese high schools for three years. So I played through Life is Strange, the original. Ooh, wow. You know, I don't know why I thought you were gonna say like Doki Doki Literature Club or something, was like, yeah, that makes sense, and then you're like, life is strange. I think it's called Yandere, the original thing that what Doki Doki Literature Club is based on, which is like a self-aware visual novel where you also have psychotic characters. Although, yeah, no, I think Yandere does it better than Doki Doki Literature Club, but that's just my two cents. But no, I mean, I still hated Chloe Price, I never liked her. It's still decent enough. And I have a friend who met back in university and we both really liked the game. So we talk about that from time to time. But there's a lot of memories. You know, i think when it comes to certain age, you replay old games. And it's not because you want to play the game again, but it's because you want to feel how you felt the first time you played it. As sad as that sounds. Oh, God, you're having in the fuel, Ciarman. know, know. It's the truth, to be fair. Oh, it is. But no, it's it's just nice to get back in touch with that old past version of yourself and like, no, I've i done well enough,
Game Reviews and Personal Preferences
00:47:43
Speaker
I suppose. Oh, although speaking of Warhammer and being a boomer, well, maybe in my head, but I was also able to play through and finish Warhammer 40k Boltgun. Oh, yeah. Excellent boomer shooter. Absolutely excellent. If you've ever played Doom or Duke Nukem, though I think it takes more from Doom, and especially the newer Z Doom or GZ Doom, that was absolutely fantastic. You have a taunt button, you have to chainsaw enemies apart to get a lot like Doom 2016 and... Eternal. Thank you, Eternal. Yeah, melee attacks will reward you with more ammo and weapons, so you have to like juggle getting up close and then keeping afar. It's...
00:48:14
Speaker
pixel art but very well done pixel art it's very very faithful kado malem is another fine addition to the ultramarines have nothing bad to say about him and yeah just the whole aesthetic of being the only space marine going through a heretical stronghold and fighting off chaos demons and the traitors that have renounced the imperium of man absolutely fantastic i thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed that and you're not limited to two weapons it's the old style you have your whole arsenal you have the bolt gun you have the heavy bolt gun have the melter gun have the plasma gun you have the grav gun which is like the bfg you have your trusty chainsword and kick obviously and the sound design was incredibly well done as well obviously missed out but space marines are what two and a half meters tall they weigh over like a ton i think in their ceramite armor but every footfall and every every time you walked on a different surface or thudded down and no fall damage just to show how much of a badass you were No, it's a really good game. Really, really good game. It was to the point that I actually got the DLC, which takes you onto a Forge World, which is really interesting as well. And really, really well done. No, I quite enjoyed those. But yeah, so the two I really want to talk about are obviously Claire Obscura and Signalis.
00:49:12
Speaker
Claire Obscura Expedition 33. What a fantastic time to live in France. You just can't stop winning. I know, right? But it's, I mean, where do we even start? Because it started off as that tiny indie project. I was able to track down the original Reddit post, I think, from 2019 of Guillaume from Zanfal, who was looking for people to voice act. It was a voice acting call originally, and a sort of built off from there. And Florian Testard, the guy who did the incredible, incredible music to it, he was just a guy on SoundCloud before all this started. It's just incredible to see. And there's so, so much. It's I mean, obviously, I'm going to make our good Satsunami do an episode on Clé Obscure because on your 100,000 episode celebration, I think. Congratulations, by the way. Oh, thank you. But Martin mentioned he was playing it as well, right? Yeah, he did. It's just incredible. But the thing is, it's so quintessentially French. You know, we mentioned David Cage to begin with, but any of the Quantic Dream games, you wouldn't necessarily think they're French. but Claire Obscure, from the way it's presented, from just the existentialism that permeates every fibre of its being. It is such an unapologetically French game, and it is incredible. But it was also slightly strange for me. So I played it in French, obviously. But the problem is that all the cutscenes are mo-capped off English actors, so all the lip movements are English. And it really took me out of the story from time to time. It was actually quite surprise. It's just so quintessentially French. You know, you can study the French language, but you don't necessarily get how French people communicate. But you have bits when Gustave near the start, when he doesn't know what to say, he just goes, which is such a French thing to do. Don't know what to say? Just raspberry. And I mean, unstructured rant ahead, but it's just so well done. So, so well done. And a lot to say on it that I'm going to have to cut out. I don't want to spoil you. It's so worthwhile doing. But the main underlying core theme of the game, I would say, is grief and how it's handled. And it's so interesting. You only have the French to do something so miserable, but so beautiful at the same time.
00:51:15
Speaker
But it is a gorgeous game. I look over at my tower, my faithful warhorse, six years old. I only have a GTX 1650. So the graphics were horrendous. I had so much frame rate losses in boss fights. But it's a testament to the fact that the game is so well put together that I was able to dodge or survive the boss's attacks just by audio cues alone, not going by visual. But even then, even with ah the graphics on the lowest, lowest possible setting, I was completely spellbound the whole way through. It has some absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful moments. Yes, French people can be slightly pretentious when it comes to art. But it is so well done in Clare Obscure. My friend, before I played it, spent the New Year's with him and he was absolutely under its spell. was telling me, oh, no. At some point, I just put the controller down and I just watch the screen and like, oh, OK, mate. Easy does it, fella. Easy does it. It's just a game. I've played games before and then I do it and I do the exact same thing. I just put the controller down. I go, damn, as reluctant as I am to use modern slang. But they really, really cooked with that one. I mean, you're not wrong. It won all the awards, didn't it? Take that, Todd Howard. Absolutely incredibly warranted at the same time. It's like not telling you who you fight against when it plays, but there's a song called Un Viettiny, which is sometimes jokingly thrown out as being this generation's one-winged angel. And honestly, they're not wrong. I really think they're not that far wrong, to be fair. Although it had been talked up so much that I was slightly disappointed. Very Lacanian of me, I know. But it took a lot of design cues from Persona 5, which to its credit, Persona 5 is an amazing game as well. But in battle, when you select different menus for how to attack, because it is a turn-based role-playing game, but you can dodge. So gives you something to do while the enemies are attacking. So it's extra engaging. There's never downtime with Clé Obscure. But like if you choose a ranged attack, the character will like do a flourish and pull out weapon. If you choose a melee attack, they'll pull out their sword. If you do an item, they'll do like another thing and they play around with the menus. So I'd seen that Persona 5. And the story, arguably, it's sort of Persona 5, not to give too much away. But if you've played specifically Royal, but the ultimate dilemma in Royal is kind of tied in to Clare Obscure, but they copied it in the best way possible. Because with a lot of JRPGs, I have a lot of love for Japan. Obviously, I have a lot of love for Final Fantasy, for Persona, for Shin Megami Tensei, which is what Persona came from originally, so I'm cheating.
00:53:30
Speaker
But sometimes there are some narrative ass pulls when it comes to these things, or like leaps of logic that defy, like, I wasn't expecting that. Where the hell did that come from kind of thing? It doesn't make sense. You lost me. Or it's going too fast, or it's not going fast enough. But with Claire Obscura, it is such a well-written game. It's a game of three acts.
00:53:50
Speaker
And at the end of Act 1 and Act 2, there is such a surprise, such a climax, such an aren't something unexpected that happens. And not to go too much into it again, but in Act 2, the twist, that's the word I was looking for. The twist of Act 2 was such an extent that it happened. I watched it all. I was absolutely godsmacked. I put my controller down, I get up, I walk downstairs, I go to the cabinet, I pour myself a drum of whiskey, I down it in one go. And to no one in particular, just out loud, I say, okay, that's enough for tonight. It was incredible. Honestly, I need to get a copy of it and start playing because for the longest time, everyone genuinely has been recommended it. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. It's genuinely worth it. And I played through, obviously, on the French dub and they did their best. And don't tell any French person I said this.
00:54:39
Speaker
But I think the English dub is better, even though it's a French game. But you have so much star power. And it's also something I'm working on on my side. It's like because there's so much dubbing going on in English, there's like more investment. And I think the actors are slightly better quality. But also you have an incredible star cast. So I've lived abroad for 19 years at this point, almost 20.
00:54:59
Speaker
ah So to me, Andy Serkis is always Gollum. I know he's Caesar in Planet of the Apes. and I know he's done other movie roles. But to me, he's always Gollum, and I don't really hold Gollum to a very high Shakespearean standard of English, you know. He's an incredible character for eating fish, being creepy, and biting fingers off, but I'm not expecting incredible monologues from him. But Andy Serkis voices one of the antagonists, well, one of the main antagonists, arguably, in Clé Obscure, And I was gobsmacked when I watched the videos of him in English. It's such an incredible delivery. You also have Jennifer English. So you might recognize as Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3. She has that immediate recognizable cheeky voice. So it's very hard not to think of Shadowheart, but she's voicing Mayel, which is going into another Japanese cliche, in the best way possible, probably the most dangerous high school you've ever come across. But once again, in the best way possible. And she acts so chops off. And finally, for another character whose name I can't give, but you have Ben Star, I believe it is in English. Clive from Final Fantasy 16. And once again, another impeccable delivery and an incredible job. But the one thing I have to say, lads, the one thing for the English dub, there's a character who in the French dub is called Lune. Lune means moon. We all know this. For some reason in English, it's lune, and I cannot abide by that. That's the only thing i have to say about clay obscure. There's like some genuinely humorous moments I was not expecting. Just like random interactions between almost side characters, really. But yeah, it's fantastic. Like Esquier, if you've played it, the interaction between Esquier and Francois in Esquier's cave, absolutely brilliant. It just was not expecting to smile and laugh as much as I did. But a really, really good game. and well put together as well. It's a role-playing game, but you are given agency during the enemy's turn. You can dodge, you can parry. So dodging is the lower risk, but you can't riposte. But if you parry everything, you riposte or you do more damage. So there's a lot of room for skill expression as well. There's a lot of builds. And there's a lot of freedom as well. So if you're a Dark Souls nut like me, the moment you get access to the open world, you can run over to one of the massive world bosses you're not supposed to take on until you're like level 60. And I was like level 20. But if you beat your head enough against the wall, it will give way at some point. And you can break the game in so many wonderful ways. But since they won so many awards, they also added in, they they gave like a free update to say thank you for voting for them in in the game awards.
00:57:18
Speaker
And so you might think you're good at the game, but wait until you get to that content and that stuff will beat your ass because there's like the ultimate secret boss there's a secret boss and then they reworked him to be even more monstrous in the thank you update it's Simon or Simon if you know you know but it took me about five hours to beat him and the successful attempt was one hour 23 minutes and I was locked in the whole time I was sweating bullets one mistake and the run was over it grabbed me to that extent and did not let go until the final moment it was what a ride what a time to be alive laughing
00:57:52
Speaker
So imagine your shock when you went from this grand, epic adventure in Claire Obscura, and then you went from that to Signalis. I did Signalis first, so to be fair, I built up. Oh, okay. So the opposite then. The opposite then. I haven't played it. It's definitely on my wish list. I remember after playing the absolutely existential, mind-boggling Soma. There's elements of Soma in it, to be fair, but yeah. Is it a good one, though? I would highly recommend it because, let's even on the background, dear listener, but i like went completely overboard just preparing. I just like, oh, Signalis. Let me think about Signalis. And four hours later, i hadn't done any other work besides it. I like sent Satsunami a screen capture. it's like, look what I've got. And it's like, Jesus Christ, man, it's just a cafe. You don't have to go this deep. But there's so much to dig into. So I guess...
00:58:41
Speaker
How do I speed run through it? So, Signalis, what is it? Take Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Nier, Neon Genesis, Evangelion, and Cold War Paranoia, mix it all together, and you get some incredible stuff. You have psychological horror, symbolic monsters, you have the color red everywhere. You know, we like that from Neon Genesis, Evangelion. We have existential loneliness, we have surreal boss fights, we have repeating timelines, we have identity crises, we have Lovecraftian horror, we have Kafkaesque horror, we have psychological horror. We have survival horror. Parentheses time. But obviously in survival horror, one of the main limiting aspects is the limit on resources, right? Your character can only carry so much and it's not like the world is full of medkits, ammo, guns, and ways to defend yourself. But it's just a little twist in Signalis that they did. And to be fair, it's just a two-man team that did Signalis, but it's incredibly well done. So essentially, the setting is a sort of communist dystopia in space, And so the reason you have limited resources in hardcore modes is because a good member of the Yusein Republic only needs six items. And because you are a cyborg, you're only programmed to carry six things. So I loved that they thought it out enough to say, that's why you can't have any more.
00:59:50
Speaker
i mean, it's a feel good game though, wasn't it?
00:59:54
Speaker
Sure. It's one for all the family, you know. As you said, it's full of hard horror, but also joy. If you're on the edge, it's going to give you a push off that fence. No, but at the same time, it's really well done. The world building is incredible. It's a stifling, horrendous atmosphere. The sound design is incredible. In the safe rooms, we're supposed to be safe. There's just an eerie silence that honestly put me on edge for the first couple of hours I was playing it. And when you are ambushed invariably by enemies, the music, which is sort of synthy, it almost goes pure industrial, almost like a, once again, Doom 16 or Doom Eternal, Mick Gordon style, just like industrial aggression in your ears. Like, Dan, da Dan, Dan, Dan. And it's really creepy because the enemies are screaming at you. Your screen starts twitching and wigging out. But on that note, you also have multilingual messages and subliminal messages, which is absolute pure cinema. You have first and third person passages. It's cryptic, but the storytelling is so well done. I could immerse myself in hours and hours and hours of it. You have, once again, the Silent Hill aspect of insanity and reality and breakdown and twisting and everything going horrible. Do you have inventory and item puzzles? And I quote from what I've written, door puzzles and that one right bastard of a puzzle
01:01:04
Speaker
because that could be any of them no no it's definitely one because it's well thought out once again so for most puzzles if you're stuck you can look this up online however signalis has one puzzle which is based on it's a code yeah based on random numbers which are randomly generated for every save file you go through in it so every single time you play it will be different so it's really hard to do and you have to like run around the map dodging monsters and stuff to write things down in a book old school to try and get through it at the very end also it has multiple endings including a secret ending you can only get after beating the game fair and square once you have an ending fake out which is rare these days and it's hard to do well but signalis does it so so well and finally you have the evocative idea of remember our promise it's really really good stuff And for the extra existential dread, the two main, well, three main languages, you have English, but you also have a lot of German and a lot of Mandarin. I think it's Mandarin. So for like the subliminal messages and flash up, half the time it's in German, half the time it's scary looking Chinese characters you probably don't understand, but it's so well done. It's so evocative. speak for yourself here. Come on.
01:02:11
Speaker
I mean... Also, it's it's a really neat touch. So i think you only meet one or two humans, if that. Normally it's cyborgs or androids like yourself. And all of them are created for different roles and they all have different designations. But the cool thing is they are all designations of birds in German that have been acronymed into meaning something. So, for example, the main character, you play LSTR512, who is normally known as LST. An elster comes from Lansvermusson's Schiff Technico of Replica. So it literally means something. But an elster is also a magpie, which is kind of like you going around finding shiny things and bringing them back to your nest or save area. So I really, really like that. i thought it was really well done. And you have a huge, huge... huge discrepancy in terms of enemies there's all sorts of different things they throw at you they get harder as it goes through normally if you shoot them they fall down about halfway through the game you have a limited access to about eight thermite flares and if you don't use one on them every time you re-enter the room there's like a 50 50 roll that they'll jump up and start harassing you again so it really puts that extra stress on your already stretched thin resources it It is such a good game. I probably should have said how it appears, but it's like isometric. So from the top down, not over the shoulder. You do have first person elements in it, but the first person are usually generally just story driven. But the general game takes place in isometric. And the graphics are deliberately almost PlayStation 1 era. Incredibly polygonized, but really, really well done. And it reminded me a lot of Fear as well in that the lighting and the clever placement of enemies does a lot for the atmosphere as well. It's a hell of a game. And just going through it, I got the urge to play it through again. So thanks for that.
01:03:45
Speaker
So if you're going to take away any recommendations from this episode, definitely start with Mighty No. 9, and then the Dark Side Chronicles, and then, yeah, whatever Wonko said. And then start Warhammer army and throw your money out the window. Yeah, that's our recommendation. Yeah, of course, absolutely.
01:04:05
Speaker
On the off chance, because I'm going down through my notes, I can give you a recommendation for a game not to play. And that's Uma Musume, Pretty Derby. Is that the horse girl thing? That's the horse one. I got into it in Japan because a lot of my students were. So just to make them speak a bit more English, it's like, oh, I'm playing Uma Musume. My favorite horse, or my favorite Uma Musume, sorry, is Rice Shower. i Oh, need this name. So just you give them that and then they'll want to talk to you about it. But I mentioned skill expression when it comes to Clé Obscure. You can beat Dark Souls if you're mad enough or have enough time with an unleveled character. You can do a Nuzlocke run theoretically in Pokemon with like level five Pokemon. It is hypothetically possible. Uma Musume is pure gambling. You have the impression of being able to like boost the six stats of your horse to do the best in whatever races it goes through. It's just a pure jackpot. You have no guarantees you'll win. And that really, really upset me when I played it. I'm just imagining you looking stressed and strewn out like a salary man. Just like, oh God. I'd just be like pulling my hair out on the train back and just muttering. Well, no, I wasn't muttering. I was screaming at the at my phone. It's like, win or it's the glue factory for you, you little shit. Yeah, I'm sure that went down well.
01:05:18
Speaker
ah No one spoke English in Kochi. They didn't understand me. But the random number generator in that game is so strong. Unless there's like a handful of UMA I can think of that their races are basically just all short. So all you have to do is go all in on speed and you have a decent chance of winning. That's the only time I ever won. It was with Sakurabakushin-oh and Tokai Teo. If you know, you know. Basically, bugger all the stats. Just speed, speed, speed. Nothing but speed. And they were eventually the speediest. But there's just so many random events that can throw up it's like oh your horse girl slept badly now you have a 50 debuff and all training you're gonna do hope you're planning on winning the next thing and the idea is you have to go through almost a roadmap of their career over three years and if you fail any event or if you don't finish within the top eight or the top six or whatever then it's over the run's over so there are so many wasted runs in that goddamn game I'm here bitching away, but one of the friends I made, now he works for Psy Games. He works for that horse game monstrosity, but hopefully he'll never find this podcast. And if he does, if he could just change the random number generator machine to be a bit kinder the next time I play. Oh, God. Although that in and of itself is such a trip it marries horse racing and gambling technically with idol culture so if your horse wins you get to see them do an idol show right afterwards and one of them it's Uma Puy it was written by the same guy canonically who did the music for Metal Gear Solid 3 so the really good one but the guy said he hated it so much he wrote it in his underwear and drunk on red wine at three o'clock in the morning it doesn't mean anything and you can clearly tell don't even get me stuck
01:06:48
Speaker
So it's back to Genshin Impact for you then. I've moved on to Star Rail, actually. Haven't touched Genshin in years. Even though it was your fault, it was you, Jacuzzi. You, in the lockdown, when you played it, you showed me. It's that looks like a fun game. Maybe I'll get into it. And now I can't quite leave me hoyo. So thanks for that. You're welcome. Appreciate it. yangie we at you no problem.
01:07:10
Speaker
Honestly though, I really do need to get back into gaming because there are so many. honestly think after Quantum Dream Month. It didn't burn you out on video games? Incredible. Column A, column B. I think what really got me back into it and I've been speaking about it ad nauseum recently was Resident Evil Requiem. the new one yeah they brought back leon honestly love that game i completed that about six times i want to say 100 percented it i listened to your podcast and when you mentioned that leon was stress tested by a group of thirsty 40 50 60 year old japanese women to the point that he had wrinkles on his neck i'm like no that can't be true and then i look it up it's like oh oh my oh Yeah, I was really surprised at that. But then again, it's like, what I did find hilarious, and again, I do bring up in the episodes, but what was amazing was when they teased it, they were mainly focusing, obviously, on Grace Ashcroft, who is the other protagonist. Stuttering FBI girl. Yeah, and you know, you had all of this survival horror aspect, and oh, you're sneaking from the girl who, I swear to God, people started calling her the hag online, and I was like, oh, That must be her name, the hag. And then you play the game, it's like, no, she's actually called the girl. And I was like, well, how the hell was I supposed to know that? She's not that old.
01:08:28
Speaker
But yeah, so focus on that, you know, you're sneaking through and you've not got any powerful weapons and whatnot. But then as soon as they revealed that Leon Kennedy was coming back, everything went from, oh yeah, the survival horror aspect to just thirst posting over Leon Kennedy. Like, you know that, I don't know the name of the song, but it's like the Daddy's Home song. It's like, Daddy's Home. It's just him coming out the car. No, I don't know this. It was all over TikTok at the time. And then during Christmas, Capcom or the Resident Evil account, one of the two, it was official anyway. It was like, you know, Mariah Carey playing All I Want for Christmas is You. And it was just Leon knocking on the door and they open it up and it's just the PNG of him. I'll need to send you after this. It was honestly baffling how genuinely it went from, well, this looks like a really interesting, intense game to, oh, biceps. Yeah. Which, honestly, I find it more hilarious than anything, because you've got the stereotypical grifters, you know, coming into it being like, ooh, I hate this, because they're trying to sexualise Leon and everything, and I'm like, look at his workout routine here. Yeah.
01:09:37
Speaker
If I was Jax like that, I would be showing it off on TikTok. Damn right, yeah. You know what? I genuinely can't blame them. It's like 10 out of 10. To be fair, I was a bit on the fence, but I think, don't quote me on this, but I think it's the reveal trailer where at one point you have Leon on the bike and he's like just looking down at the camera he just goes, I'm not on the menu. And it's just like, yes, he's back.
01:10:01
Speaker
Honestly, one of my favourite moments of the whole game, and again, I've brought it up, but it was when you have a motorbike chase, and there were a lot people being like, oh, this is stupid, it's ridiculous, it's over the top, blah, blah, blah. And there's a scene where you go up the side of an abandoned building, and then you do the loop of faith and everything. It is just genuinely the rule of cool. I don't care. See anyone who's saying, oh, but it's not realistic, or how did he know there was a building? I don't care. It rolled a 20 for the rule of cool. The whole way through Resident Evil 4, he was dropping those goofy, dumbass one-liners and you just love him for it. It's like, huh, guess it's time for bingo or, oh, bingo. Whatever the hell says for the first one. yeah, where's everyone going? Bingo. Resident Evil is inherently a silly series. It is. you know what Parasite is genuinely in my mind just now? See Bloody Wesker and he's seven minutes. Seven minutes is all I have. can spare seven minutes. It's like, genuinely, I'll go to cook something and it's like, oh, it only takes seven minutes. I'm like, seven minutes is all I have to spend with you. Here I am and you're wasting my precious time. It's like, again, some people, they work out and they exercise because, you know, they want to get fit and everything. And don't get me wrong, obviously do want to get fit. But part of me is like, if I get fit, then what the odds I could do Resident Evil cosplay? Walking around being like, wonder like to interview for the chat tsunami. Seven minutes. Minutes. Actually, speaking of Comic-Cons.
Comic-Con and Scottish Cultural Anecdotes
01:11:31
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. I honestly have to bring this up before we wrap up, but I had a bit of a weird experience, and in all the best ways possible. I was on Instagram, and this account started following me, and it was the Highland Realms Comic-Con account.
01:11:47
Speaker
And I was like, all right, that's one, if not Robbie Yeah, you posted in the group chat, didn't you? Yeah, because that's just before I reached out to them. And I was like, do any you guys know? Because without naming names, there's one particular person in the server who would know. He likes football. Yeah. Yeah, wink, wink. I was genuinely like, please tell me you know, and he was like, nope, no idea. I'm like, oh god, okay. So I wasn't sure who this person was, because as you know, I've done work with the Fan Frontier Comic Cons, absolutely amazing company by the way. You have the weirdest luck with hitting it off with big brands and stuff like that. It's incredible. I don't know how you do it, but you do it. This one genuinely is so baffling because i reached out to them and, you know, I just said, like, thanks for the following everything. Oh, by the way, I'm a podcaster. I'm a big deal. I can spare seven minutes. It's terrible. Yeah, I just a shot my shot. was like, okay, I'm a podcaster. And then they were like, oh, yeah, we were actually going to reach out to you. And we went back and forth. And anyway, long story short, Martin McAllister and I will be traveling up to Inverness around, I think it's the 17th of October, if all goes to plan. Okay, first question immediately. Will there be a podcast done in the car? Oh, oh. Now, if Martin and I like drive up together, oh hell yeah, that could work. Yeah. either on the way or in the parking lot, but you know.
01:13:08
Speaker
Well, I mean, the other thing is, it's going to be the first spin-off of the series, Martin and I sitting in a car in Glasgow. You threatened you you were going to do it, and now it's coming true. Actually, no, that is a good shout. I'm actually going to text them after this and say, I've got an idea, I've got plan. Because, honestly, the people who are organising it seem ah absolutely lovely, genuinely, and I'm really excited to be working with them. Because I think it's the first con of that type up there. Oh, really? First of a kind? well Yeah, for that particular con, yeah. Clay, then, is it's not easy to be the first in any situation, so it can't be easy. Because it is daunting, to be honest.
01:13:48
Speaker
I'm not putting pressure on them to be like, yeah, it's a daunting thing. It kind of is, though. They're bringing Comic-Con to people who spend most of their time tossing cabers and playing bagpipes. ah I know Scotland. Really, you spent one day in Inverness and that's what you got from it. No Nessie or... a Fun fact, I was born in a horrible little town about 10 miles away from the border of Scotland, but I've never been to Scotland in all my life. Really?
01:14:13
Speaker
yep Yep, yep, yep. Have you ever had a Hartlepool? We're famous for hanging a monkey during the Napoleonic War.
01:14:20
Speaker
Well, that yeah no don know you you can't just start a sentence like that and be like, anyway, back to the Comic-Con. No, no, we need explanations here. Okay, okay. So during the First Napoleonic War, the good one, obviously, there was a French vessel that shipwrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. The only survivor, as it turned out, was the ship's monkey. for However, for the poor monkey, they'd made him a little French army uniform. Okay. was the mascot. So the good people of Hartlepool saw this poor shipwreck monkey, never seen a French person before, decided he was a French person, tried him and hanged the poor monkey. So to this day, the football team of Hartlepool is known as the monkey hangers. Oh my God, that's horrific. It's not great, but super close. I've always loved Scotland. You know, I grew up in Ireland, so we have that Celtic connection. I've never been, but I love the whiskey as well. That's the thing. I mean, to be fair, we do do the best whiskey. That is very true. you know, it's been absolutely years since I've been up to Inverness. I think the last time I technically was there was around 21, 22, maybe. And that's because I was going to Orkney and we were past... the roo so we decided to stop off there we drove for a good couple of hours and i was like okay we'll stop off here get some tea and then we'll head off just gonna jump in here so yeah we're just gonna do a learn scottish geography with satsunami for everyone who doesn't know which is further north in scotland is it aberdeen or inverness i think it's aberdeen because aberdeen's got the north sea oil i think is inverness a bit further off to the east let me pull up a map
01:15:49
Speaker
um Because Aberdeen's definitely on the coast because that's where you're getting Stillwakes, the deep territory. Jesus loves you, Kaz, but everyone else thinks you're up. Bleep. yeah thank you that was a damn good game though you have to do a playthrough of that at some point on twitch live commentary so yes totally not pulling up a map here wow i am so good at geography so yeah aberdeen i remember that was in the coast that is the far east funny enough again much like yourself i've not really been to aberdeen before we're not so different you and i spider-man i think I've been on the outskirts of it. I went to a place called Stonehaven and I got caught in a really, well, my partner and I, we got caught in a really bad storm, essentially. more driving back from up there and we're gonna go to Aberdeen but then we ended up stopping at Stonehaven and coming back yeah so Aberdeen is kind of the east and Inverness is like the last big city you go to before you go to the Highlands okay yeah that speaks to me because I don't know much about Scottish geography but I can navigate Scotland based on the five areas of whiskey production so Inverness Glasgow and the rest No, sir. Highlands, Spaceside, Lowlands, Islay, and Kimbeltown. Oh, well done, you. I'll give you a laugh, actually. Oh, was a good couple of years ago. My dad and I went to the Clydeside Whiskey Distillery in Osgo. Oh, fancy. Really nice place. But this sounds terrible because I'm not a big drunkard to begin with, but I can appreciate...
01:17:19
Speaker
No! Ah, no! Shock horror! But I can at least appreciate, you know, the cultural heritage of it all. But remember at one point they were doing, you know, at the very end of the tour, they do the dram tasting and whatnot. And I remember they were saying, oh, this one's really peaty. And I was like, what the hell does peaty mean? And I took a sip and I was like, oh, that's peaty!
01:17:39
Speaker
That's peaty! was like, oh, no! Oh, I love the peaty stuff, to be fair. And ironically, it was in Japan. But one of the peatiest whiskeys you can get is called Octamore. Really? Really? I love my Islay. I love my Lavroig. I love my Talisker. I love anything that, you know, tastes of iodine and peat and, you know, the sea. But like that one, I literally couldn't taste anything else except for smoke for about five minutes. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. No, but I remember when we were tasting it, they said it was from a Highland distillery and they were really secretive about it saying, oh, sorry, we can't tell you, but all we can tell you it's a Highland distillery and everything. And I'm sitting there thinking of all the people who would be like, oh, I really need to know this. I'm the wrong audience. That's all I'm saying. I'd be like, okay, it's from there. Okay, fair enough. Might be Scotland, but this was going way back when, to the mists of time before the pandemic, but didn't you go to Lindisfarne at one point? I did. Yeah, well remembered. Jeez. All I could think of in watching the 28 years later movies, oh, Chattanooga's been there. They sold marmalade there.
01:18:46
Speaker
The zombies ate it all. Do you know, need to dig out the photos from that because I think it might be my old phone. Lindisfarne, for anyone who doesn't know, right, Lindisfarne is I wouldn't call it an island. I don't know what it constitutes as. It's an island half the time. It's like linked to the mainland by a peninsula, but at high tide it's covered. Like Mont Saint-Michel in France or Mount St. Michael down south. There must be a term. Geologists are screaming at us. Yeah, right. Did you all just yearned for the podcast time? genuinely can't remember though, because you're right, it is like a peninsula most of the time. A tidal island. Tidal island, there go. tidal island. I didn't even know that was a thing, but now we know. The more you learn in Chatsunami, I've been learning about Hartlepool, I've been learning about French monkeys, now I'm learning about them. You know. French monkeys, French video games, ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom. Honestly, we'll do a French episode at some point. Next time I come to visit in France, yeah, absolutely. Hey, you haven't even come to visit once. You keep going to Inverness. Oh, so that's where I've been going wrong. Oh, right. France is south. No, right. Okay, okay, right. But anyway, yeah, so for anyone who doesn't know, and for some weird reason, we learned a lot about this in school, Windisfarne is, as you said, a tidal island where the only path in and out to it from the mainland gets submerged in water, high tide, low tide, thus tidal island. He says like he knows what it is. Oh, cool. I'm gonna edit this, you don't know it yet, I'm gonna edit it to be like, oh you mean a Tidal Island Wonko? God, how do you not know what a Tidal Island is? Back to the Shadow Realm with you. don't know if you've seen this, there's a huge picture of a submerged car and it's like, what have you seen? Yeah, no joke. It's like a warning. Basically, it's telling people do not drive in high tides, which clearly lot of stupid people have. They've driven in high tide and then the car gets submerged. They have to abandon it and everything. And it's like, oh, why would you do that? But lovely place otherwise. It's weird because I don't know how to describe it like a queen tidal island, but a queen community. Like, you know, these kind of country communities and things like that. It's really hard to describe, but it's just nice. I don't want to tie back to Balamori earlier, but kind of Balamori? Well, we've got Balamori here. It's called Tobermori. Well, yeah, but... I mean, literally, we've got the collared houses and everything. We've not got the pink castle. That's somewhere else. I can't remember where that is. Oh, but Miles Jupp is a comedian now, isn't he? How times fly.
01:21:18
Speaker
No, we do have a pink castle, but can't even remember where that is. Honestly, my geography's terrible. That's why I studied history. See, if I was a Jacobite, I would be terrible. They'd be marching down to York or whatever. I'd be marching up to Aberdeen going, right, lads, where's the red quotes? Wrong. Let's get those bastards. I shouldn't be doing my Scottish accent on Scottish podcast. For the story of the first month I was there, an old, old friend from Ireland came to visit. I hadn't seen the guy for years and years and years, but we went to primary school together. And he got married since we met, so I took him out for a night on the town, all on me and stuff like that. But we had a bit to drink. At one point, I started doing a bit of an Irish accent, and all of a sudden, he just looks me. He's like, never do an Irish accent again. It's the most insulting thing I've ever heard.
01:21:58
Speaker
Okay, Padraig, you're the boss. ah So, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fun times. So, sorry, that was a massive tangent to go back to Inverness. I still want to talk about Lindisfarne. It was a monastery complex, or a monastery originally, wasn't Yeah, the Vikings had a field day in Lindisfarne. It wasn't Tidal Island enough when they came, that's a problem. And talking about a callback, they also had a field day in Larks as well. That's why we've got the pencil there. Oh, the pencil, yeah. the coastal town of Larks. It's like poetry, it rhymes. Yeah.
01:22:26
Speaker
Because if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure Largs is famous for, it was like the last battle that the Scots had with the Vikings there. So they've got a big museum there called Viking Yard. Really cool place. And have a Viking festival every so often. They've got the tents and everything and the kind of main area and that's cool. But then it's like you walk down and it's the typical Scottish coastal town. But remember last time I was there and that happened, we're walking down the bit that's not part of the fair. And then two seconds later, you just see these people going up this sea in a longboat and I'm like ancestral memories oh god no because I could hear in the background was raw raw and like what the hell was that are they okay are they a couple of centuries too late what's going on here guys I need my claymore! Oh, actually, speaking of that, I remember reading the thing in the newspaper once. It was like, oh, I wonder why Lark's is in the paper. And it was a guy who took a claymore. I don't know how he got a claymore, but he took a claymore and he started terrorising people with it. Jesus. Like he just started walking around the street swinging a claymore. Jesus, that's terrorising. I mean, I think no one got killed, fortunately. I think a police officer got injured. A lot of people, for obvious reasons, were locking themselves into their businesses, you know, and shops and things, which are not fair enough. But the one that locked themselves in was the Blue Lagoon Chippy. And the last time I checked, that is all glass at the front. And I'm like... I'm not being funny, guys. It's coming straight through. It's the most Scottish and most bizarre thing I think I've read in a while where like, okay, you somehow got a claymore. Fair enough.
01:24:01
Speaker
I just don't get it. Anyway, sorry, back to Scottish ancestral roots. Okay, now we can go back to Inverness. I'm satisfied with Lindisfarne at this point. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Go visit Lindisfarne, but please, for the love of God, don't drive across otherwise the Tidal Island will... Tidal Island? Yes, it will consume you. You want everything you love, so don't you. Feed me cars. Do you know, I genuinely, I can't remember, there was a place that my family and I went and it had a similar Tidal Island thing, but was more like a footpath. Oh, Jesus. I think it must have been my brother or someone who said, oh yeah, let's go across. And I was like, no, no, no, don't know. And thank God we didn't go across because literally it took two seconds for it just to flood completely and take away the whole path.
01:24:44
Speaker
Tides come in really goddamn fast. It's really scary. You don't mess with the sea. You don't have to tell me twice because I have learned to respect the sea after getting so many tsunami alerts from earthquakes in Japan. Yeah. Believe me. Actually, speaking of that, I remember with my partner and I, i think I brought up. when we did the Chatsunami in China episode, but we went to place called to Chongqing, which is in central China. And the thing that really worried me wasn't the fact we were so high up and everything,
Environmental Challenges and Travel Experiences
01:25:12
Speaker
although that didn't help. But the thing that really worried me was when we got to that hotel, it was the only hotel between Shanghai, Beijing, and all the other places. It was the only place I saw that they had given us a free earthquake kit.
01:25:24
Speaker
And I was like, oh, yeah. Actually, yeah, China does get a lot of seismic activity. Yeah, especially in central China. Yeah, like Chengdu and Chongqing. Yeah, they are really bad for it. But I remember looking at it for the first time, and this is coming from someone, as I said, someone from Scotland who has never experienced, fortunately, has never experienced an earthquake or whatnot. And I'm looking at it going... Oh, this is going to be interesting. No, honestly, as someone who's experienced one, well, it's actually several, there is nothing more terrifying. I cannot describe at such a point that your brain just freaks out.
01:25:58
Speaker
Because the best way I can describe it is if you're in a boat, a small boat, like a little kayak thing, and you start rocking it from side to side. but it's a building doing it and everything's falling around you and you have just this pure dump of adrenaline come through your system. There's nothing else that's like it. You can't sleep for the rest of the night and genuinely terrifying. But I was talking with my colleagues when it happened. It was like a three or a four, I think. So not that big, a bit of damage, but not that much. I'm like, wow, the rocking was terrifying.
01:26:25
Speaker
And then just look at me. It's like, you know, Benji sensei, the rocking is best. I'm like, why is that? Well, if it rocks from side to side, that means you're far away from the epicenter. If it's up and down, you're already dead. It's like, oh, thanks for that. Yeah, because you would just text me random times being like, oh, how you doing, Satsu? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, woke up because of earthquake. Yeah. yeah work's kind of getting me down i'm busy with the podcast what about you yeah yeah yeah just um just going through an earthquake and like oh i can't remember what time it was but there was a time i was genuinely worried for you where you were like oh yeah not to panic you but we're expecting like a super hurricane or something you were getting constant messages from the relevant authorities about it and i was like you're gonna be okay man and you're like yeah well like No, they're apparently evacuating all the old people from my district at the moment. Oh, well. Hurricanes as well. God, they're weird. I mean, in Japan, because of the earthquakes, everything is built to be like flexible. So there's no double glazing. It's only single glazing. When a hurricane hits, it's like looking inside of a washing machine in full cycle right outside the window with like three millimeters of glass between you and it. But also what you don't realize is that it's so humid and hot. You're sweating bullets, both out of fear, but also like the heat and everything around you. I learned a few things going to Japan.
01:27:36
Speaker
Honestly, we do need to do like a child tsunami about travel experiences and things like that. I would love to genuinely hear about it. I have all the best references. I have all the best restaurants, where to go, what to do, and off the beaten path, especially. It's like anyone can go to Tokyo. Everyone's gone to Tokyo. Don't get me wrong. Out of all the big cities in the world, it's the one I like the most.
01:27:56
Speaker
I hate London. I hate Paris. Dublin isn't that great. You know, they're dirty. They are badly put together. Tokyo was gorgeous, but even then it still falls into the camp of being a big city. There's so much more to see if you just go a little bit off the beaten path. Like I mentioned earlier, don't go to Kyoto, go to Otsu, which is right nearby. You are 10 minutes away by train, just under the mountains, but you have so much more culture to see. You have Enryakuji, you have Nidera, you have Biwako, you have Kyoani, which is actually not too far away. You have so many Seiji Junre to do. There is so much history. Don't let Tokyo take up everything you see. And to Shikoku, go to Kyushu, strike off the beaten path. There is so, so much to see. And it don't get me wrong, is Tokyo Japan? Absolutely. But the problem is that they are so exposed to international people and foreigners that they speak a really, really good level of English. Like if they see you come in, they're going switch to English automatically. You go a bit further off the beaten path, they're not going speak English. They're only going to speak Japanese. And at that point, it's either sink or swim. But it's so much more inviting in terms of just everything. I like the final road trip I did before I left Japan. I went off the beaten path. I went to Wakayama. I went to Koyasan. I went to all these incredible places I will never, ever forget. And it was so much better. than just going to, what's it called? Team something in Tokyo or something. Japan has so much to offer. It's like I couldn't understand. Others were oh yeah, we're going to go back home or we're going to go off to Korea for a few days.
01:29:15
Speaker
A, I didn't get that much time off, but B, there's so much to do. There's so much to see. And it's the same for China. It's the same for any other place. But don't fall for the tourist traps because they're tourist traps for a reason. I mean, that's how, when we went to China, that's how my partner and I felt. We went to places like Shaoxing, which is gorgeous, absolutely fantastic. Although, again, this is something that ah my partner and I have worked through in terms of cultural differences. Like, the first time she came over here and she saw the sprawling hills and the verdant fields going, wow, this is amazing. very different. that it's like wow this is amazing and you know it's so beautiful and it is but as a scot you've seen it all you've done it all yeah yeah you get so used to it whereas every time i see a pagoda in china or whatever i'm pointing to it with the you know mouth open going oh it's a pagoda and i feel like such a tourist sometimes i'm like i mean i'm technically but as you said you're completely right nothing wrong with it but just like what you were saying about all that and stuff. It's like, I think I posted it on the Discord. So if you're not already a member, you should do that. but
01:30:16
Speaker
But do you remember the photos I sent you of the Jojo themed ramen restaurant went to in Osaka? Just go a bit further off the track and you find these incredible gems. But even then it was like super popular. I waited two hours outside in 36 degree heat in 90% humidity. I was sweating bullets. But once you got in, oh my God, I will never ever, like I'm not even that big of a Jojo fan. What I mostly got out of Jojo was your and Blowfish Man old not quite podcast but live stream but also podcast kind of thing yeah where you just go back to the chat at the end but i got so much out of that and just incredible there's so much quirkiness to be found but you you get that in in the uk to a degree but in japan they do it so much better ah
01:30:56
Speaker
I mean, that is the amazing thing. And again, don't worry, we will save the meat of this conversation for a chow tsunami episode, because honestly, we could definitely deep dive into it. But you are completely right. Even in Scotland, there are so many places that personally, I had no idea it existed. And then my partner will be like, oh, do you want to try this place? Or, you know, you'll see something that's been advertised and you think, oh Absolutely, that's just it. Always be up for it. Might be a bit out the maybe you've never heard of it, but great. It's an excuse to get out there. It's a weekend, you're not doing anything better with your time, let's be honest. Just do it. No, you're completely right, because the amount of places that we've been, and it's been a bit of a mix. Some places, of it I mean, i'm not going to call out any particular places, but I mean some places that have been in Scotland wouldn have been better than others and everything. You know, there's some places you stay and you're like, okay, there's zero to do here. I can't wait to go home.
01:31:47
Speaker
Pretty much. It's like, where we were staying was nice, but everything around it, it's like, there is literally nothing to do here. Yeah, but you're also pretty good with, like, your photos, and there's just these beautiful little villages completely out the way, but so much character in the main street, and the houses, and the people, and the restaurants, the scenery, and the... I'll tell you the one that genuinely stuck out to me and that was the Fife Coastal Path Walk. My partner and I walked all the way from Ellie to Anstruther. It took us a couple of hours to get there and then a couple of hours back. Sometimes the weather was good, sometimes it was bad. When we got to Anstruther and that was a good couple of hours later, oh my god, it was pouring down.
01:32:28
Speaker
It passed eventually, but sea on a beautiful bright day is absolutely fantastic. I know the clues in the name, the coastal path, but you're literally just looking out at the sea and it's just incredible. It's gorgeous, the wind, just the sound of the waves coming in and out. It's incredibly relaxing. Yeah, but don't go to the fish and chip shop in Anshchudder. Not that one. Anywhere else but that one. The only reason that point that is it is such a tourist trap because it's like, oh, did you know wo King c Charles went there and all these celebrities went there? And it's like, it's okay, fish and chips, but it's not worth waiting 30 minutes for. No. It's one of those, and literally every shop's like, oh, we're the best one. And Strother, we are the best ones. You're like, okay, here we go. Although fun fact, actually, on that route, there is a town that I actually stayed in for a holiday eight years and years ago called St. Monin's. And St. Monin's is actually going to be the inspiration for the new Silent Hill game, which I'm really excited for. After a totally not fatal frame, Silent Hill. Oh, God. Get the feck pyramid head.
01:33:29
Speaker
Well, that see, you would think that, but i think the main character is unfortunately American, which baffles me because I'm like, it's in Scotland. Come on. ahpa scott I mean, maybe they might change I don't know. One can hope. hey Yeah. god i was like, oh, that sounds like an American voice actor. Oh, OK. Oh, dear. Oh, no. Konami, hear me out. Okay. Balamori, but Silent Hill. You know what? You might be onto to something there.
01:33:56
Speaker
You're in the fog and I'm PC Plum. Oh God. Oh God. Oh shit. Oh shit. If you get that, you get that. If not. All my true Pandalodians love Balamori. And if you don't know what Balamori BBC iPlayer is indeed your friend. Ironically enough, that is coming back soon, apparently. Oh no, they're not rebooting Balamori, are they? Well, not rebooting it. They're just doing like a, I don't even know what you call it. Like, you know, Twin Peaks, The Return, but Balamori. But they're old now, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're all older. Because I've been watching See the Scrubs revival, which I have to say I've been enjoying surprisingly more than I expected. But what's really upsetting is I was watching the old ones and they look so young back then. And know obviously time will come for us all, etc. But it's the fact they look, I mean, they still look good, don't get me wrong, they all look great. But they look old. They do look older. And it's, you know, the way it's like you're so used to them looking Yeah, JD's got that fresh face and that little quiff spiky at the front and stuff like that. Very millennial core, doesn't it? Very 2000 core, yeah. Just thinking about Silent Hill and Twin Peaks, I was just thinking, David Lynch should really have done an episode of Balamore. I would love to see that. I was never a huge fan of his, but it gutted me when he passed away earlier last year, wasn't that was tragic. He's one of these people that genuinely lot of his stuff maybe a bit too far out there in some of his work. Not all of them. It's all artistic exploration. Well, his doom definitely
Film Reflections and Book Collecting Trends
01:35:24
Speaker
was. Oh, yeah. I still honestly, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I still love that.
01:35:29
Speaker
The moment that Paul is riding the sandworm for the first time and that guitar picks up, that is incredible. And also seeing Jean-Luc Picard carry a pug into battle, I can't not love that. I mentioned that in the Tunibia episode, didn't Yeah, need to hear that. We definitely need to. I don't know what that is about that film. There's everything wrong, but everything right about Baron Harkonnen bouncing off the ceiling and being, ooh, so crazy, lol, so random, but he's also super dangerous. like, oh. And then they have a Brady Bunch ending where they flash all the faces at the end, and it's like, oh. Was it Sting who was Fade or of the members It was, yeah. It was, wasn't it? was the beefy Harkonnen, yeah. Sorry, the beefy Harkonnen. Or sorry, the muscular Harkonnen, I should say. The improbable thing. And, oh God, oh God, remember how they made the Atreides doctor milk the cat survive?
01:36:16
Speaker
There's so much right and so much wrong with that. Wrong! That'll probably be the next episode, I'm not gonna lie, because I'm gonna look for that now and be like... Those shield graphics for when they were doing the slow blade fight. Oh, miss genuinely miss them. Squares!
01:36:34
Speaker
Because I don't know what it is. I mean, objectively, okay, the... Who is it that directs the new one? Sorry. Oh, it's another Frenchie, isn't it? It's Vinneuve, Denis Vinneuve. His versions, think objectively, if you're looking at what films are done better, probably the new ones are done better. But there's a charm it. Even then, I think if you read the original Frank Herbert books, there's a lot more colour and stuff like that going on, but it's all right. It's Oh, look, it's Aquaman. He's playing Aquaman, but as an Atreides.
01:37:05
Speaker
i mean, that and Kyle McLaughlin. I mean, come on. Honestly, if there's one celebrity i could genuinely get on the podcast, I think Kyle McLaughlin would be up there. Because every time he's on screen, whether he's a villain, whether he's a good guy or whatever, he's just like a ray of sunshine. No, no, he is. He is, to be fair. He brings a lot. Yeah. can't explain it, but he brings a lot. Yeah, he's just, he's happy. I never even watched the second part. I still need to watch it. My dad loves Dune, so I watched it with him, but I'm like, oh.
01:37:34
Speaker
To be fair, I fell asleep, but it was a bit, in my defense, it was on a plane. I was very tired. That's when I watched it again, actually coming back from Japan. And the thing is, there was like, oh, this throwaway YouTube shitty thing where it's like Nissan Al-Gaib and he's like a secondhand car dealer. So it's just every every time I hear it's out, Nissan Al-Gaib. Beep,
01:37:56
Speaker
But right in the sandworm, we put it in H. We got some crazy deals. I'm just imagining the sandworms is, you know, the inflatable tube people. Flaming wildly. Because what i find funny about that right enough is... Flaming people or dune? Dune. Okay.
01:38:14
Speaker
Because what find funny about the end of June is, and spoilers for the 80s version, but in the 80s version there's this triumphant music, it starts to all rain and everything, and you know, it's like a very positive ending, but if you read the book and everything, it's like... Nothing good happens. Yeah, rain's not good for this. No, the worms don't like it very much.
01:38:33
Speaker
Yeah, you're going to kill off all the sandworms here. It actually reminds me, it's between that and the, you know, the Prince of Egypt, where it literally ends at the worst place possible, where it's like, you know, Moses comes down to deliver the Ten Commandments, and that's literally the moment everything goes to Paul. It's like the director going, cut, cut. Okay, perfect. It's fine.
01:38:58
Speaker
They get to the promised land. Where's Michelle Pfeiffer singing There Will Be Miracles? Go on. It's like, it's fine, it's fine. Yeah, there's a lot of films at that time. It's like, good ending, question mark. The end, question mark? is what The end. No, maybe not. I'm going to say. No. Come back when, in Body Horror Part 2, Dune. can't remember the name the second book, actually. What, Children of Dune? Children of Dune, that's it. I'm a sandworm.
01:39:25
Speaker
Is that a quote? ah It might be, I don't know. You know Frank Herbert had some crazy ideas. Here's a confession of the episode here, but I bought the book from Amazon ages ago, and it's like the full, I don't want to say compendium to sound like an idiot, but you know, I think it's like the first three books. So it's like Dune, Children of Dune, God Emperor.
01:39:45
Speaker
I'm sure it's those three, but it's like, honestly, I think it qualifies technically as a blunt weapon, and because it's just this massive. It's probably just as thick as a David Cage script, right? Oh, definitely, yeah. First season of Twin Peaks right there. Exactly. David Cage, not David Lynch. Jesus, damn it.
01:40:04
Speaker
Damn these David. Jason! Jason! But genuinely haven't read it yet. I got it years ago. oh God, you're going to need her. Actually, you know that way, and always remember when my old uni lecturer said that, where it was like, oh, have all these books on the shelves, and they got asked constantly, has he read any of them? And they went, nah. Nah. He said, I've read the bits that are important, you know, for research purposes, but beyond that, nah. swear to God it happens to everyone. It's like, you finish university, you have plenty of books, it's like, ah i can't wait to have some time to read them. And then ten years later, oh
01:40:38
Speaker
It's true though, because the last book I read actually, I think it was the Bioshock book, which is a fantastic read. Probably didn't help though that I read it on a plane, which I didn't realise the irony of that until I got back. Is that a lighthouse down there? Uh-oh. What's that gentleman in the turtleneck doing? Oh my god. Is that a monkey wrench? Yeah, fun times. That was a great book, but I totally agree with you. It's like after you go to uni, the desire to read for fun, unless you're one of these, and again, I'm not criticising anyone for enjoying reading, but the amount of, i think they're called book talkers. Oh, I'm happy to say I'm not on TikTok, but I know what you're talking about. I'm not saying that against send anyone who has a genuine passion for reading and whatnot, but there was a kind of controversy, I think, at the time where people were just collecting books like Pokemon. So they were like, oh, I've got 20 books this month and I've got 15 books. And it was like, yeah, that's great. But if you didn't actually read them, I had no idea. god damn.
01:41:38
Speaker
But they were buying special editions and whatever you call it, you know, drawn on the side of the book, you know, the pages and everything. and Oh, really? They look gorgeous. You know, the prints, I can't remember the official term, but you know when the book's closed and it makes an image with the pages together? On the pages, like you were saying, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.
01:41:58
Speaker
But again, it's like, I think the idea of collecting was more desirable to them, to show off, oh, I've got all these books. Again, I'm not looking down there saying, oh, that's terrible, you know, you're buying a book, do what you want with them. But again, it was just such a shame to see that thing, that kind of attitude. Ideally, a book's there to be read, not just held he to be pretty. You know, if someone loves a book, if it's like beaten up, the spine is broken, the pages are like all scrunched up, but it's been read and reread. and Yeah. No. Once again, your money, collect whatever you want. I collect Warhammer and Magic the Gathering, so I'm no position to judge, but it's a delicate balance. It's hard to weigh in on, to be fair. Again, I've got such a big backlog between games, between films, between clearly travel after you were saying about Japan and France. Oh, God, yeah. That combo. We have tidal islands. Tidal islands, you say?
01:42:51
Speaker
Like Lindisfarne. We love Lindsay Thorne. On that note, go for the marmalade. On that note, Lonko, thank you so much for returning to the cafe and yeah, coming back on. It's my absolute pleasure to leave you with over two and a half hours of raw audio that going have to edit into a decent podcast. You can't see it now. The tears are coming down right now. I'm like, it was only supposed to be another. don't know if you've seen that. think it's Invincible, but could be wrong. But it's that meme where he's like, I thought you were stronger. And he's just after like pummeling the guy to 10. Oh, I've seen the meme. I haven't seen the episode, but yeah, it's on my backlog. But yeah, it's like, I thought you'd be shorter.
01:43:34
Speaker
The worst part is we haven't even gotten over the anime, but at this point it's too late and I'd rather cut it here. No, that's fine. Okay, two more hours. Nah, jokes aside. Thank you so much for coming on. It's good to be on. I'm just dipping my toes in, but hopefully, dear listener, you'll be seeing a bit more of me going into more depth on a couple of games. Well, more than a couple of games, hopefully, but we'll see how it goes. No promises, but here's hoping. No, honestly, the door's always open.
01:44:00
Speaker
Chatsudor included. Servidor. Yeah. But yeah, as the Red Panda barista has and indeed turned out
Conclusion and Future Content Promotion
01:44:09
Speaker
the lights. Oh, that's why it's so dark. Yeah, yeah.
01:44:12
Speaker
Before we go, Sats, remind us all where we can find your podcast and where you're available. Well, I am glad you asked. If you go to Invernet, I'm looking at Folds up my script. There we go. October 17th. Don't miss it. That'll be one jar of marmalade. Yeah, go to Lundisfarne first and then go up to Inverness. Yeah, it's only like two minutes away. Or several others. But anyway, I don't know. I wasn't good at geography. No jokes aside, genuinely don't do that because Lundisfarne is really far away. But all joking aside, if you want to check out more of our episodes together, then you can indeed check us out our website, chatsandami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, Robotic Battle Toaster. Yay! Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. Ghostie. Oh, no applause for Ghostie. Oh, sorry. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. Oh, I'm going to tell him he did that. Okay, let's take that from the top. Rob, I don't know. And Cryptic 1991. Yay! Yeah, Ghosty will hear about this. And Ghost Guy, yay!
01:45:19
Speaker
Thank you so, so much for the support. And if you would like early access episodes, bonus content, commentary tracks, bloopers, as well as Wonko and I's 10-hour cut where we dive deeper into Japan and everything, then of course... I'm fused to my chair. Then of course, all like Baron Harkonnen. I washed myself with a rag on a stick.
01:45:43
Speaker
wo Oh God, we're losing it. oh yeah Take us out, Sats, take us out. Then you can check us out on our Patreon page patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. Don't forget, some point in October, Highland Realms Comic Con. Chatsunami, Satsunami will be there. Martin will be there. They're incredibly friendly. Go up and say hi. He doesn't bite unless you're holding bamboo. Yeah, that's very true. I've been kicked out a couple of cons. Bamboo con, bamboozle con. Brawling with pandas at London Zoo, I believe. They threw the first punch. Hey, they started. Hey, that's not my fault, okay? I was provoked. Whether or not I won the fight, that remains to be seen. Totally didn't screw up the footage of me getting absolutely mauled by a panda, but that's another thing. This podcast is, of course, a proud member of the Paw Pack Collector. For more information, check us out at our Twitter slash MBS. XB, thank you, and what part collect. But until next time, thank you all so, so much for joining us in this episode of Chatsu Cafe. Stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated!