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KOTOR Remake Despair & Super Mario RPG Delight! - Add to Party 11.21.2023
6 Plays11 months ago
This week we cover the KOTOR Remake, the Super Mario RPG reviews, Starfield crashing, and Netflix killing it.
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a news show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm joined by
00:00:23
Speaker
Andy K. Oh, wait, what? Oh, I did. Listen, I say it with confidence and then you cut in. I like pointed at the screen. I was like, yeah, I was I was ready. OK, but and now to pass it, I've been joined by Derek Costiha. Finally. Oh, I'm sorry, Derek.
Seaweed and Sickness Story
00:00:50
Speaker
It was a bit of a roundabout.
00:00:52
Speaker
Listen, I didn't try to steal the attention this time, okay? You didn't, but I do want to steal the attention. What'd you do? I don't feel good. Oh yeah, you didn't feel, are you still not feeling good? Yeah, so I'm trying to figure out, okay, what's the symptoms of food poisoning? I mean, fatigue, nausea. Yes. Sweats. Yes.
00:01:17
Speaker
Uh, chills. Yes. So yes. So those are also the symptoms of COVID. So right. Right. Well, yesterday I had a tiny bit of a piece of seaweed that was like flavored with cilantro or something. Like everybody in the office was trying it because it looked so disgusting. Um, that I later found out when I went to go yell at the guy about it.
00:01:40
Speaker
He told me his neighbor gave it to him because his neighbor had lost 150 pounds and she thought he would like it.
00:01:50
Speaker
And he was like, oh, OK, I see what you're saying. I guess you can lose one hundred and fifty pounds eating disgusting seaweed. But I ate it and then I got nauseous. And no one. Idiot. What's that? Was it immediate? Yes, it was immediate. Not food poisoning then. Oh, really? Food poisoning can take twenty four to seventy two hours to actually kick in. But usually it's pretty quick.
00:02:16
Speaker
Oh, mine was like literally within a minute. Yeah, no, that's not food poisoning. Oh, well, then. Well, I just thought it was gross. No, you can have it within a minute. Food point. Well, you know, at first it was nausea. And then I was like, oh, I'm just being a baby, Andy. Plus I do not want to throw up at work. Those toilets are gross. It's no, I'm not doing it. And then but I left work early because I told everyone I want to go throw up on my own toilet.
00:02:42
Speaker
And then I went home and then I started throwing up like crazy. But then I started getting chills and a fever and I started hallucinating. And I'm trying to figure out how could seaweed do this? I also didn't have COVID. I did a test. But how does a piece of seaweed, a little
Cult Fever Dream
00:03:00
Speaker
bit, just a tiny bit, how does that throw me off? I had to take today off. I'm a mess. I'm feeling better now, actually. But that's good. I don't know how it does it.
00:03:17
Speaker
It's like it was like a chip, right? It was like it was like a very flat, thin, like thin, like paper thin pieces that was seasoned. Yeah. And like I just it everybody was like, this looks gross. We were in a meeting and we're like, you know, some of us tried it because everything once. And then it just destroyed me. It destroyed me. And then I had a bunch of crazy fever dreams.
00:03:33
Speaker
I don't know what it is, but I've been cursed by seaweed.
00:03:45
Speaker
which apparently were all of me trying to start small businesses that were like keeping me up. The one though that I thought was interesting, I'm like, I wonder what this says about me, but I was trying to figure out how could I monetize starting a cult.
00:04:02
Speaker
Like, I mean, that's called being a mega pastor, Andy. Well, it wasn't. Well, in the dream, I wasn't even focusing as much on like, because I know, like, yes, you're a mega pastor, and then you sell like a book about how successful you are. And I don't know, all I really know about his books and like inspirational calendars and crap.
00:04:24
Speaker
But you guys, I divide. I think Andy, that's how you get money. Well, I've got to start the church, but no, I wanted to merchandise. OK, and my brilliant idea as I was rolling back and forth, not trying to throw up was I was going to start a shoe brand.
00:04:40
Speaker
And my shoe brand was called Born Again. And you can only get my shoes if you join my cult. And I was going to lead the shoe business with my born again shoe brand. And I think Supreme already does that. Who? Supreme. You don't even know who Supreme is. I think I do. Aren't they the people who put Supreme on anything and then sells? Yes. Yes. Are they a cult?
00:05:10
Speaker
Yes. Oh darn it, I thought I was covered. No, no, no, no, no, no. They're a cult. I mean, it's a cult of fashion. It's not. Sure. Yeah. Well, this is, oh my God, Supreme is literally what I want to be.
00:05:23
Speaker
I wanted to accept my brand is called Born Again. Well, it's a working title, but that was what I came up with. And then I was like, but I don't know anything about shoes, but I thought it was like the most subtle thing you could wear that would show you're part of my cult. Um, that isn't like too like loud. Does that make sense?
00:05:45
Speaker
You're going for the sneakerhead demographic and I'm here for it, Andy. Thank you. Like I could even collaborate with them and then they would have to join my cult. But I don't know you guys. I got to get good at making shoes for my shoe cult. Oh, you
Rise of Pickleball
00:06:00
Speaker
don't make the shoes. No, you test that out. Children in third world countries will. I don't know you guys like you have to pay children. You don't have to pay volunteers.
00:06:11
Speaker
Like my whole cult could just be people volunteering to make these, I don't know, instruments of God. And then I was even thinking too, like if it's through my church, I think I can dodge taxes with it, right? If I'm selling these shoes as like, I don't know, implements of faith, is that tax exempt? If I'm doing the work of God. What's that? What's this podcast about?
00:06:38
Speaker
It's about my fever dream dip into capitalism. Yeah, yeah. You seem to be trying to operationalize it instead of just being like, hey, listen to this crazy dream. When I had a fever dream, when I was sick not too long ago, my fever dream was that I had to put a puzzle piece together to move.
00:07:03
Speaker
It's like I had to go, well, if I have to get up, I have to put these puzzles into the floating frame in the sky. Up, right, left, right, up. OK, we'll see that. I'm sure that holds a lot of meaning.
00:07:17
Speaker
I don't know why I fell down this, but Derek, what was your last fever dream? Cause apparently mine is just focused on businesses. What's going on? So there's not a definite figure, but the overall vibe is paralysis demon. Oh, they sit on you. No, there's no figures, but it's just, I'm just conscious, barely able to see around me, but just unable to move.
00:07:44
Speaker
And just not comfortable. You might seek medication for that, Derek. Cause
Gaming Nostalgia
00:07:50
Speaker
that's a shitty experience. I mean, no, it was only the last time that I had a very.
00:07:58
Speaker
bad gastroenteritis spell. So it was mostly dehydration. Oh, is this not a regular thing? Oh, no, no. Oh, OK. No, it's just that just the last time I was in bed and I was just could it just stood out. It was probably only like 30 seconds and then I just got up and had some PD light. That's still terrifying. Like you were you having a fever?
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah. OK, OK. Well, I'm glad it was only 30 seconds. Holy crap. Oh, I have no clue how long it was. Oh, OK. It just it's just it was still sun up when I got up to get hydration. Well, yeah, it sucks. You said you're dehydrated. Does your is your pee supposed to burn when you're dehydrated? I noticed my pee. No.
00:08:52
Speaker
Well, it can be a little darker. It could be a little stinky. It was very dark.
00:08:59
Speaker
Yeah. And I
KOTOR Remake Cancellation
00:09:00
Speaker
was like, oh, it must be burning because I don't know. I have no liquid inside me anymore. No, I gave it all. No, that's a urinary tract infection. I don't want to say that's a UTI on all from a piece of seaweed. Also here. Also, maybe I don't know. You know, maybe there's a venereal disease involved. You can say. Oh, but since we went back to that, Andy, do you have any seafood or crustacean allergy?
00:09:28
Speaker
I don't think so. Although I do have salmon the night before. Okay. But I'm trying to eat more fish because of my cholesterol. Interesting. I could have been the salmon from the night before too. Really? Oh no, this isn't good. How am I going to warm my cholesterol? Take fish oil.
00:09:51
Speaker
Um, but also it just means maybe the fish was bad. Mm hmm. Tasted very good. Yeah. Well, sometimes it tastes good. And even though it's bad, I just don't know how it was triggered literally within a minute. It was I could only direct it to that. But yeah, the fever, the chills, the everything I mostly recovered from it. But again, not COVID. But I've been thinking a lot about it, you guys. And so, yeah, please look forward to my call.
00:10:20
Speaker
Legal distinction, Andy is not forming a cult. I mean... No. Well, I shouldn't call it a cult, but I can't call it a business because I don't want to pay taxes. It's a nonprofit advocacy group. There we go. First off, though, that is pretty much the definition for a cult, and creating cult in itself is not illegal. It's the other things you do.
00:10:48
Speaker
I mean, it's it's looked down upon if you use the word cult. It's only conspiracy if you're it's a conspiracy to commit a crime. OK. Hmm. I'm not committing a crime. I'm spreading, spreading good. If you just want to start a pickleball league in your town, go for it. Well, you're hurting all the tennis courts by overtightening the nets, but.
00:11:09
Speaker
Wait, what? This is very specific, Tarek. What's going on? Oh, I think pickleball cultists are a real thing. Wait, what? Is this like infecting your area? I mean, if you're unaware, pickleball is low impact tennis. I thought that was what's the one. I want to call it bidet, but I know it's not called bidet.
00:11:30
Speaker
No, it's not a good day. You're thinking of badminton. Badminton. Thank you. Started with a B. Badminton's actually very tense because that the shuttlecock fucking that'll go. Oh, I thought that was low intensity tennis, but you're telling pickleball is and it's a plague. And it's a lot of people that it just infected social media. I noticed that local tennis courts have people over tightening the nets and playing pickleball instead of tennis.
00:11:58
Speaker
Is it more annoying? Cause it sounds more annoying. No, I think the name doesn't help. I don't care about the name and it's very accessible for people to end like tennis. And it's nice to see these previously unused tennis courts being used constantly, but they don't have the same exact setup for the courts. So pickleballers will tighten up the nets to
Super Mario RPG Remake Excitement
00:12:20
Speaker
the point it'll cause damage to the courts. Oh, and realize, I don't know where my tennis racket is. Hmm.
00:12:29
Speaker
I remember the last time I saw that. That might've been a couple of apartments ago.
00:12:33
Speaker
Well, you traded it for a pickleball. No, I looked as a as a person who plays tennis. I look down on people who play pickleball. Oh, well, apparently it's a cult now. No, it's not a cult. It's it's very it's very accessible and it's because tennis is like tiring. It's high intensity, hard on your knees and very it's your joints, just all your joints. It gives you that thing I had the
00:13:01
Speaker
Why can't I remember what I had? It was tennis elbow, whatever that is. I'm looking now. Oh, so pickleball is like you use a tabletop tennis mat stored. You use a you use a it's a wider it's a wider racket and it's a heavier ball, too, isn't it? Right. So there is indoor and outdoor pickleballs. Oh, you don't use the other ones because
00:13:31
Speaker
They just aren't used as according to social media. I have not played pickleball. All this is hearsay, but they're a little bit heavier than tennis balls. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is a paddle. It's not a racket. That's right. Huh?
00:13:48
Speaker
Well, the more, you know, I've friends were telling me they just went to go play pickleball. So really, it is the latest fad. Well, I don't want to call it a fact. White people love it, Andy. I don't know. Google Images is showing me that people of all types are. Yeah, it's mostly white people. I mostly white people because much like golf, it's a sport which you can play while drinking. Yeah, you can't play pickleball one handed if you really want to.
00:14:19
Speaker
OK, that's fair. That's fair. Well, I'm sorry that it's become a plague on your city. No, no, no, that was just a joke. I actually appreciate seeing all these people be active and enjoying our public like scapes that were made for people to use. What a reason. I think Charles was, you know, former member of the podcast. Charles was complaining that people were playing pickleball a lot at the
00:14:42
Speaker
the court by his house. Oh, that's right. Because he was like, you guys heard a pickleball. It just showed up. Yeah. I like that framing. It's just people using a public good. Yes, I'm not doing. I don't really have any problem with it. I'm just absorbing your opinions. OK, as you should. Again, it's just I have.
00:15:09
Speaker
I, I was trained in a deal sports. I learned of it through social media, which immediately makes me distrustful of it. Otherwise I'd
Starfield's Challenges
00:15:20
Speaker
have positive outlook on it. Okay. Well, good deal. Good deal. Maybe I'll use them as a model for my own, um, business.
00:15:29
Speaker
all the use. Oh, maybe I'll make pickleball shoes. That's how you get white people. I mean, I'm deaf. There's definitely already, like I'm looking at the USA pickleball website. Clothing and apparel is like second thing.
00:15:43
Speaker
I am branding on this. Let's go. Oh, my God. You know how many abandoned churches are everywhere? I could probably just buy him off the city and turn him into pickleball things. Really? Oh, yeah. Let's go. You have a lot of abandoned churches. Listen, I you've got all these old, old buildings that no one can afford to keep up. So let's turn them around into pickleball courts. You can be pickleballing under beautiful stained glass.
00:16:12
Speaker
and inspiring high higher ceilings. I think really none of this will go poorly. No, I am. Wait, Derek. So Derek just posted a link to some shoes. I don't know if this is born again material, though. I'm looking for some maybe some more subtle, but I'm just letting you know that your business plan has already been capitalized on. Oh, multiple large brands selling specifically pickleball shoes.
00:16:39
Speaker
Eric, do you see how they're reinforced in the toe because you're playing on your toes? Oh, OK, well, I'll go back to the drawing board. I'll find my I'll find my niche. Well, speaking of going back to the drawing board, yes, we talk about other things that I'll give you guys updates. Don't worry. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remake is more than likely dead.
00:17:07
Speaker
Oh, and and so with it, my dreams. Knights of the Old Republic, by the way, the one B favorite, my favorite game of all time. This is the Final Fantasy seven remake. Like, yeah, that level for you. Yes, it was. Yeah. Ocarina of Time is one a Knights of the Old Republic is one B.
00:17:27
Speaker
Uh, so Jeff grub on his giant, uh, giant Bob game, giant bahams game mess morning show, uh, said, I just want to clear it up. This game is not being worked on right now. Grub said just full stop. This game is not being worked on in any way at any studio.
00:17:50
Speaker
Uh, it was originally announced in 2021, um, stealing my heart, like as much as Andy's like, this is, this was my final fantasy screaming. Uh, first, I was going to be did by Aspire media before an Embracer roof shifted it over to saber interactive in August of 2022. Uh, during a show, grub also mentioned the game may have even moved away from saber interactive as well. Um,
00:18:16
Speaker
Not in this article that I linked to you guys, but
Gaming Market Dynamics
00:18:20
Speaker
also what I heard is that really this was being done in partnership with Sony and Sony was really looking for like a big tentpole, you know, third person story narrative game. Yeah. To remake this into, which is funny because I associate Kotor with the original Xbox so much. Sure. I think that's were released. At least popularized.
00:18:44
Speaker
But that's where I played it on the very least. And yeah. Embrace her, you know, as you may have remember from our other stories, not doing super great. So so I think so. They're like, we can't give you what you want, Sony. And so he's like, well, then we're not fucking doing this. Yeah.
00:19:02
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, it sounds like no, there will be no, uh, Knights of the old Republic remake probably, probably for at least another five to 10 years. I think this really begs the question. Why is Sony afraid of earning
Netflix's Successful Shows
00:19:20
Speaker
money? If they released this, they would be printing money. This could be the bloodborne of this generation of selling consoles.
00:19:30
Speaker
And it's just I don't any of you are playing Knights of the Royal public. I have not no Derek. Did you play it?
00:19:36
Speaker
Yes, I played it on the original release and I couldn't get through the campaign based on how small the damn text is on the Steam version. It just really, I only just now this last week got a 1440 piece green before I was on 1080 on both. So that small text was not comfortable to read. But yes, I played it extensively one and two on the original releases.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah, Night City in the public probably has one of the, I want to say better Star Wars stories that like exists. Like it is, it is a shockingly good story. Um.
00:20:19
Speaker
And like there's story beats in there that are just so fucking interesting. And I mean, it's what fucking 15, 18, 20 years old at this point. So, you know, I don't really have to be careful about spoiling it because, but just in general, I'm not going to, but it's just that there's like big twists in that game. And you're like, don't really see it coming. Like Derek, did you, when you played it, did you see the twist coming?
00:20:43
Speaker
I did not, but I was also a stupid kid, but let me just- Yeah, that's true. We were dumb kids when we were playing it. Yeah, that's also true. But the fact of how good the story was just leads more evidence that my conspiracy theory that Disney is the one killing it. Oh, wait, I want to hear your word. They can't have a great Star Wars story after what they've released so far.
00:21:10
Speaker
Andor and Ahsoka were pretty good. Oh, yeah, I've heard. I need to watch Andor. I thought we all liked Mandalorian.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, we do. And it was still Mandalorian,
Yu Yu Hakusho Live-Action Concerns
00:21:21
Speaker
yes. But there was conspiracy theories back in the day that Disney stopped them from adding content to KOTOR 2 on the Switch. But, you know, this is just more non-conspiracy theory, nothing true. This is just me making shit up. But I want to leave. Well, Disney has their own games division now, too. So it's very interesting.
00:21:42
Speaker
It's very interesting. This because having this kind of relationship with Sony when they're trying to actually build kind of like this weird in-house gaming studio. I don't know. So does Embracer like own just Kotor them? No. This is the thing, right? Kotor was originally released by BioWare. Yes.
00:22:07
Speaker
EA owns Bioware now, but I assume they licensed Star Wars from Lucas because this was pre Disney buying it. So I don't know. I assume when Disney bought it, they got the rates to all that. But does EA have any hold on it? So Sony lost exclusive rights, but they still have rights to some Star Wars IPS.
00:22:33
Speaker
Yeah, if they choose to leverage them. So they people think as that maybe they could make a co-tour game if they remember to the the old Republic MMO is still going and got an update like a new campaign. I want to say like a year ago. Wow. Yeah, that thing's still going, which I played. It was a good time. Yeah, that was one of the first games where they did the thing where
00:23:01
Speaker
Um, cause it's actually still very narrative focused, even for an MMO. So you all get like a narrative choice when you're in a dungeon, like, and you can all kind of vote and then we'll pick which answer to choose. Oh, so it's branching even with like.
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah. So like if you were like thinking about if you're having like a dialogue tree and he was like, okay, you have these four answers you could give to this person. Everyone in the, in the group votes for which answer to give. And then that's the answer that the party gives essentially, which I always thought was very interesting. And, and you kind of see that in other things now, but older public, I think was the first place that did that.
00:23:38
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. I thought I was curious. You brought up the Sony thing because I can see because I think in that thing, too, it says like Sony scrubbed every like. Yeah, this was going to be like a Sony exclusive, which again, very weird. And I like I guess I kind of get it now. Right. Because like, you know, Microsoft will just owns everything. So I guess bun or Banjo Kazooie and what were the other ones? Perfect. Are there nostalgic properties to us on Microsoft?
00:24:08
Speaker
Um, but, uh, I was wondering, I was like, well, why don't they just hand it to blue point or something? Not that blue point is probably not. Oh, blue points working on something. They haven't told us, right? No, they haven't. No, but like maybe Sony just doesn't have the capacity to do it, but I can see them turning it down. Like you said, like if it was going to be bad, Sony doesn't release like bad games.
00:24:30
Speaker
I think the scope of what Embraiser was thinking of making it, it's like, hey, we're just going to do 4K upres, you know. Oh, sure. Yeah, like, you know, like we'll create new assets and stuff like that. But Sony's like, no, you got to fucking reimagine this game. I do. Yeah, I want to find it at least as far as gameplay, if not story is what you think, James, do for I would assume that's what they would want.
00:24:57
Speaker
If it was going to be a Sony exclusive, that's what I would expect. Yeah, because they've already upresed it and everything, right? I mean, I mean, I would say they they did, but not like like if they like if they recreated all the textures, you know what I mean?
00:25:14
Speaker
There's one thing to like just kind of like upres the textures and then there's like recreate them for 4K. Well, then how do you feel about this? Oh, I'm knowing that it's stopped. And would you do you care if it was just going to be something with better textures? I mean, I would still like it if because they could probably throw in a couple of quality of life. That game shows its age in a lot of places when you play it now. Starting with the inventory. Yeah. Oh, Derek, the whole underwater world.
00:25:44
Speaker
Fuck that whole world. But yeah, no, I mean, that game, it could use it could use some spit polish to to quality life it up. And that's what I was expecting. It's like, hey, if you could just speed up some of the old game shit with this, this would be great. I'd be happy with it. Of course, I would love a Final Fantasy 7 remake level thing, too. But I don't know if I was ever really kind of expecting that.
00:26:11
Speaker
Sure, fair. I was actually expecting like a remake level. Like to me, it looked like they're going like full in. But I don't know. You would need like a real like a sorry. Embracer group. You would need like a real studio. Like you would need like a blue point or a sucker punch or an insomniac to really like do that. Because the worlds in that game are huge and like varied. Sure. Like like there's you go to
00:26:40
Speaker
I think you go to Alderaan, right, Derek? That I don't recall specifically. Oh, I think it's like pre Alderaan, Alderaan. There's the town that gets the world that gets glassed. But yeah, that's like a huge city, like Midgard level big. So if you're going to redo that, it's going to take a lot of effort. So maybe you can't really do it. I don't know. Derek, is your heart broken? My heart is not broken.
00:27:10
Speaker
But I am still disappointed because I would have just taken an upscale with readable text. Like, that's all it would take to win me over. But if this means that we're going to get something better in the future, maybe they'll release something worthy of me to go by the latest PlayStation console.
00:27:32
Speaker
Like, well, we didn't talk about this because it kind of happened in the in between weeks we've been taking off lately, but they announced and I think ever released the essentially slim versions of the PS5 now. That's right. Yeah, they're still pretty big, but they're a little small. Yeah.
00:27:53
Speaker
Um, yeah. Well, you know what? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what? Remake did happen. What's that? And met pretty good expectations. That's Super Mario RPG. That's out now.
00:28:08
Speaker
currently sitting at an 84 on open critic with 96% of critics recommending it. Tom marks at IGN given eight out of 10. Super Mario RPG is considered a classic for a reason and the faithful remake makes it easy to see for anyone who missed it on the NS on the n s n e s era to see why.
00:28:30
Speaker
Steven Petit at GameSpot gave it an 8 out of 10 saying, Super Mario RPG is an overtly faithful recreation of the Super Nintendo hit and this charming adventure has aged quite well.
00:28:44
Speaker
And Timothy Monbleau at Destructoid gave it a nine out of 10 saying, super mariapigee is an all time classic game that both RPG lovers and Mario fans are like, Oh, Oh, it to themselves to play this switch remake brilliantly preserves the spirit of the original SNES game with some great quality of life enhancements and a phenomenally redone soundtrack.
00:29:05
Speaker
Yeah, Andy, so I think you were so you said you were going to be playing this, right? Yes, I at first I was put off by how squished Mario was like in the trailer. But as I reflect on it now, Mario looks fine to me. I don't know what was going on. Maybe I was just looking to be contrarian. He's he's the he's mini Mario. He has a mushroom.
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's not it's not even like he's it was just weird. It gave me a weird vibe. But regardless, that is the pettiest of reasons. People I know have been playing it. My friends have been really, really enjoying it. I'm looking forward to playing it, but I am not playing it until I beat Xenogears.
00:29:45
Speaker
I am not moving on to another game. I know how I work. I know I'll just abandon it. But that is literally my next game on the docket. I'm thrilled to play it. And I'm thrilled because I forgot that it's a short game. Yeah, that's actually something people have been saying, which originally it was, I think, pretty short, probably 18 to 20 hours. And I think with now the quality of life improvements that they've given, people are reporting they're finishing it in like 12 to 15 hours. I bring it.
00:30:14
Speaker
I would love that. And and there's extra content like extra bosses or something. The the secret boss is still in the game. Yes, there's a secret boss. And I think there's a couple more things to do. So I'm looking forward to that. But no, I'm pumped. I got over my dumb like impression of it. I'm excited for it. What about you guys?
00:30:39
Speaker
Derek doesn't know the switch. Oh, that's right. Weren't you traveling pants in your switch? He has to agree to it. He still hasn't. I'm honestly.
00:30:51
Speaker
just about ready, given all of the quality games out right now. This one is probably not one that would push me to do that, because it's, by all accounts, a great remaster remake. It has some quality of life improvements, but at the end of the day, it's a remake of an old classic for a $60 price tag. It is $60, which... Yeah. It'll be $60 in forever. Yeah, forever.
00:31:20
Speaker
this is a mario game mario games do not go on sale so i can appreciate that this game is good hopefully a content creator i enjoy will stream it and i'll get to re-experience it because i did play it back in the day but oh you did oh yeah
00:31:35
Speaker
I had the NES. My close family had the NES. So I was born and raised in Nintendo. Oh, really, though. So $60 for like what what I guess, then what if they add like a bunch of content or something? Would that make it more worth it? Because I have like I'm fine. Like it looks like they did a complete remake of it. They did. I mean, to the same level of like Link's Awakening, I would say. Sure.
00:32:06
Speaker
OK, but it's competing for every single Mario game of this generation. That's fair. Like, I wonder if it just came out like three weeks. Yeah. Yeah. OK. When you when you put it that way. I hear you. I hear you. I hear you. I don't know. I mean, it's Nintendo is going to charge when Nintendo is going to charge. I think like they was it Metroid Prime remastered, I think was like 40 bucks. Hmm.
00:32:35
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, I bought it. I bought it at 60. And that's fine because I know it's never going to go on sale. I think if it was like 50, I would feel a lot better about this game. For some reason in my brain, it's just a new game. I don't know why. But maybe just because it looked like there's like the quality of it is so high. It just to me, I just considered it. No, it might be because the original was like over 25 years ago.
00:33:05
Speaker
But it just, it looks like the, I mean, fair, fair, fair, fair. It's interesting now because I literally just like never even considered that it is just a remake. And, but like you called out, maybe it's just nostalgia. And so like, you know, my wallet is open to it, but.
00:33:21
Speaker
I also, I never played Super Mario RPG. So this will be my first experience with it. You'll enjoy it then. Yeah. Yeah. Like I think this is a must buy. If you played this and you have a kid who is old enough, like five plus, like I think seven or plus is better, but it looks fairly approachable for even a young kid.
00:33:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think I played it in like fourth grade. I don't know how old people are in fourth grade, but that's when I played it and I absolutely adored it. And I'm glad that people get to experience it now. And I've never played a Mario RPG since. Yeah, it came out in 96. So how old was I then? I was. Well, I was 10.
00:34:12
Speaker
I was eight? Yeah. Because I bought it when it came out, I'm pretty sure. I remember it was the first game I ever bought. I saved up for so long for it. So eight years old? Am I eight years old in fourth grade? Was I younger? I don't think I made decisions about what to get to the SNES. The N64 is when I got to get games. My brother made decisions about it. Oh, sure. Well, your brother has good taste. Well, he didn't get Super Mario RPG. Oh, I hear. I hear, yeah.
00:34:42
Speaker
Well, this, oh, so I must have played it younger then. I didn't know I could function as like a human before fourth grade. Now, hold on. You also have to account that back in the day, you didn't have to buy the latest and greatest game. If you didn't watch certain channels or you didn't subscribe to the game, influencers, you weren't pushed to go buy this game. You go to Blockbuster and see, oh, like I played the Mario before. Let's try that.
00:35:12
Speaker
So you may have like, who knows whenever you actually played it. Honestly, this one, though, I bought it because of the commercial, because I the graphics blew me away. And I was like, I need to play this. The graphics are so good. And I remember it was like, like, I think it was like an old man in a rocking chair. And then like, he was
00:35:33
Speaker
blown away by how good the graphics were or something. I'm like, well, I need this. I need this. I got a lot. What was the Super Mario RPG commercial? I swear he got it as an old man. Not your grandpa's Mario. Derek, do you know my rental game was that I would get all the time? Sure. Magical Quest starting Mickey Mouse. Oh, that's a good one. That was a great game. Yeah. I think I rented that game like 10 times.
00:36:03
Speaker
Did you ever beat it? Yeah. So mine was two. It was either the game tied into Shrek 2. Yes. And a game called Brew Force, which was a third person shooter. Characters had different abilities. It's all really blur now. But middle school, sleep overnight, that was the jam.
00:36:32
Speaker
Brute Force, you said? Yeah. Oh, I'm watching someone playing Magical Quest now and it's triggering memories in me. Is it bringing you back? Yeah. No, it was just how fucking hard this game is. I don't know if I had a rental game. I remember when I would rent games, it was like I wanted to try as many different games as possible. So I would just keep changing.
00:36:56
Speaker
We had a video store in our supermarket. Same. Yeah. Yeah. So I would while mom was shopping, I would go just kind of walk through the game section, be like, what's new?
00:37:10
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. I remember one game I always wanted to own, though, from the grocery store. One was Smartball. And just because you could climb the wall, I thought that was the coolest thing. That was the future. Smartball could climb up a wall. And my dumb little kid brain wanted that game so bad. And then eventually that grocery store sold it and I bought it from it. And it was made by Sony on the SNS. But.
00:37:36
Speaker
But yeah, I'm excited for this game, though. I also found the commercial and there is an one about an old man just yelling. And then he puts his teeth in a like a dentures thing and it says play it loud on it because Nintendo was. We've we've yeah, we've talked about old Nintendo commercials being weirdly edgy. You know, God bless them, though.
00:38:01
Speaker
Well, I did for it. You know what? RPG has not come to such critical acclaim as Mickey's Quest and Super Mario RPG. What's that? And Brutal Force and Brutal Force. Yeah. That's Starfield. Oh, Starfield has dropped to a mixed rating on Steam.
00:38:25
Speaker
And not just Steam, if you go to the Xbox store, you'll see that it's at a paltry three and a half stars. With 24K, 23 and a half K reviews.
00:38:40
Speaker
Now, is the one where like people in other countries were like review bombing it or something? Russia was a review bombing because there was no localization for very obvious reasons with the landscape. But they are legitimate.
00:38:56
Speaker
Reasons to not be completely satisfied with star field even though I think it is a very strong contender for comfiest chill out game Oh, it's released this year, but it lacks the mod support So if the mod support came out tomorrow, I'd say maybe it has a shit ton of mods already I mean I I have I have like I had like 30 mods running when I was playing
00:39:19
Speaker
It does, but from what I understand, they still have not released some key files that would allow further script. Yeah, the script extenders and stuff like many people naked. No, you can already do that, I bet. OK, like there's. Oh, yeah, no, that was handy. No, you can't. But give me the best of the game. Its main strength is going to be what the community does with it. Sure. Yeah.
00:39:47
Speaker
I've fallen a bit out of love with Starfield. And it's interesting because I've heard this from several people now, which it really mirrors what I went through with Starfield was you start playing Starfield. You're like, I don't know. It's not great. And then it clicks and you're like, this game is fucking great and I'm loving it. And then for some reason you hit this weird wall and you go, I don't want to play it anymore.
00:40:14
Speaker
And I'm not the only person I've seen say that where it's like, yeah, it's just, you get, it's so weird. It's so weird that a game can like, you.
00:40:26
Speaker
You fall in and out of love with it while you're playing it. And that's not something it's usually clicks or it doesn't click. I think that speaks to the fact that it's the the world of starfield and the mechanics of starfield are sound. Sure. But there's just not quite enough there to keep you interested. Well, I just hear those planets are boring.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, there was no boring. There was an article. Yeah. Well, we've talked about this before. My whole thing is this fucking cutscene, the cutscene, the cutscene, the cutscene, not cutscene loading screen. Yes. But and that kills a bit of the immersion and a bit of the fun where I'm just kind of like I'm just running. I'm just really trying to run through as quickly as possible to get through the loading screens to do the things that are more interesting.
00:41:18
Speaker
But yeah, I don't know it's just yeah it I hit a point with that starfield where I'm like I'm done with it hmm and like the story isn't compelling enough to finish it I Fit I mean I finished it Oh then leave it whatever No, I know but like we've talked about this on the spoiler podcast, but the end of the story is not the end of the story so
00:41:43
Speaker
It's the end of the story brings up questions on why it the end of the story doesn't seem to translate to the rest of your play through. Yeah, it's it's very weird.
00:41:55
Speaker
It's a weird game that I think, I don't know, a starfield, like I think a starfield two might be better, but I don't know. I don't know if they're going to come back to it. It's, it's, it's definitely not going to win any game of the years. I mean, should it be, should it be nominated?
00:42:13
Speaker
I think so. No, I think it should get at least a nod. And I think it did in the game. Oh, actually, no, it didn't. It got snubbed in the game of words. I don't think. Yeah, the keelys. I don't think it got any nods in the game of words. Oh, that's you know what? You know what? Like kudos to Jeff Keeley, then he's not, you know, cozied up to what was the meme like Mountain Dew and something else or whatever.
00:42:42
Speaker
Like probably not doing Doritos. It was it was nominated for one game award, which is best RPG of the year, which is not going to be Baldur's Gate. Oh, yeah. But to not be nominated for game of the year, like with the amount of money behind it and Xbox involvement and how important it is for some reason. And maybe this is an unfair characterization of IGN as well. But I always just like picture them like, you know, just like puppeteered by the big companies or whatever, which is not fair.
00:43:11
Speaker
And I don't think it should be, you know, I don't even think it's true, but that's just kind of how I viewed the game awards was just like a giant circle jerk among all the big companies. But I guess not if Starfield not nominated. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's also just the staying power of the game. Like it couldn't.
00:43:32
Speaker
It it didn't capture I think the zeitgeist like people are still talking about Baldur's Gate 3. Oh, that's right. Baldur's Gate was just a couple of weeks before, wasn't it? Yeah. And and and people are still talking about Final Fantasy 16 to a certain extent. People are people are playing Spider-Man 2. I I don't know enough. I I'm I don't think I'm going to I don't know if we're going to do a game of the year this year because
00:43:58
Speaker
I haven't finished everything and you two are not going to have enough opinion about things to do. I need to nominate Xenogears. Yeah, OK. I beat Final Fantasy 16. I have the other year.
00:44:15
Speaker
I haven't seen Spider-Man 2, again, I don't see a lot of it capturing the internet. People played it and they enjoyed it, but I don't see a lot of staying power of people just keep living in that world.
00:44:30
Speaker
It I I think it really might be a problem of too many good games. It definitely is. Like there's just too many. And I think everybody loved Spider-Man 2, but there was just more to do or more to move on to. I mean, there's also the impact of its platform. Like if it was on every platform, there'd be a lot more discussion going on.
00:44:53
Speaker
I mean, Baldur's Gate 3 is was only on PC and then a month later it was on PS5. Yeah. But what percentage of the all gamers play? Let's ignore mobile. What percentage of all gamers play on PC versus consoles? More. More on PlayStation. PlayStation beats PC. Really? For like a total game. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Let's get this. Let's get. I am being corrected here.
00:45:21
Speaker
Oh, I just assumed that the PC was a superior platform that everyone else. Oh, it's the superior platform. Does PC have more players than consoles? What percentage of gamers are PC versus console? Apparently there are 1.8 billion gamers in the world.
00:45:40
Speaker
OK, no 60. This is well, this is from I don't know who can say how correct these numbers are. But 62 percent play CC games, 56 percent play console games. So, yeah, PC games are edging out console games by six percent. I think for a long, long time, it was a majority. I think it was a very recent turnaround to PC. Yeah, I would say console for a long beat up piece. You have to remember China, Korea and Russia. Russia.
00:46:07
Speaker
Well no, PC cafes were the primary way for youths to get start playing. Well I guess the other thing too is like good PC ports are a fairly new thing. Like in the past 10 years. PC ports are a different discussion. It's more games that are there.
00:46:27
Speaker
Starcraft, Starcraft 2 groups, Counter Strike, like those games drove, and League of Legends, those games drive people to the PC cafes when they don't have a console or PC. Console cafes are a very rare thing. I know one of them in town, the consoles are very underused. So it was still my assumption, and it seems like consoles are right up there.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'll say I found one that says consoles have the slight lead. So yeah, I think it's just somewhere along the edge. Here's another thing just based on like sales numbers. So like in 2022 video games earned like an estimated $92 billion.
00:47:11
Speaker
Um, and they're saying essentially $51 billion of that was on console while 38 billion of that was on, uh, PC. Now, now does that console include mobile devices, which would include, uh, I don't think it, I think it just, it, it completely does not include con. Okay. Okay. Well,
00:47:36
Speaker
I stand corrected on my main point, but the other point is it's missing two thirds of its big slice of the pie and almost half the other side of the pie. So I think if it reached out to at least one other console or PC, there'd be a lot more hype for it. It could be, but it'll end up there in a couple of years. And I'm sure Sony still made a ton of money.
00:47:59
Speaker
And if I ever do play it, I'm turning off the web assist. I'm going to Oh, you're not a casual. Oh, no, I just want to feel pain. Crash into the wall. I love that it has that setting where you can make it less assisting and you'll drift with the direction your web. So
00:48:19
Speaker
you reach onto a building, you won't just keep going straight like you expect. You're going to swing into the building or you do too late. Well, too bad. You're going to hit the ground instead of the physics and cheating for you. Is that not how it worked in the first one? And I don't know about the first one. I don't know. I don't think Web Assist was a setting in the first. OK.
00:48:39
Speaker
I just remember loving the feeling in the first one, but it sounds like it wasn't as hardcore as Derek. No, the default is to have all that on. Oh, so I liked the baby mode. I mean, I also like the baby mode when I played it on his board, but.
00:48:58
Speaker
But I also just want to play with the physics of it. Oh, yeah, I hear you. It's a modern AAA game. They give me the option. Of course, I'm going to try hardcore mode and I make I make it completely filtered out and have to go back. But I'll try it. The power of option, the appeal of an option. Hmm. If I ever. Maybe I'll give it a try. Well, you know who is killing it? Oh, not Starfield. But Netflix. Oh.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah, let's have a story about Netflix about how they're not raising their prices again for like the fifth time. Oh, God. I need to cancel my Netflix. Well, but should you, Andy? Because right now I am having a great time on Netflix. Well, tell me what you're watching.
00:49:46
Speaker
Recently, right. So they had the one piece live action adaptation fan, which was good. Yeah. Not one piece fan. I'm not going to give him the Stockholm syndrome. I stopped at skypea. I was forced by peer pressure to skypea. The one piece adaption was good. I enjoyed it.
00:50:03
Speaker
Japanese dub. My, my partner who has never read one piece or watched one piece or in general likes anime liked it. Um, she also liked the cowboy beam. So that's a point against her. Um, but
00:50:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, all accounts very positive. It's been renewed for season two, by the way. And I know that the writers and the actors strike have fucked it up, but they I remember, too, that the showrunners were saying, you know, we could potentially be back next next winter with season two. Whoa. Yeah. That's a quick turnaround. Yeah. Well, I think like they have all the scripts done.
00:50:44
Speaker
Oh, I hear. Yeah, I hear. Yeah. OK. Yeah. But we'll see. We'll see when it comes back. But I'm but that's not all. I mean, right now, two new shows that have released recently is Blue Eyed Samurai and Scott Pilgrim takes off and they are fantastic. Oh.
00:51:04
Speaker
Blue Eyed Samurai is a is a store is basically a revenge samurai story and incredibly graphic, incredibly adult. Like it's it's animated, but it's very adult. Like, what would it be? Like, think of like a madhouse like Ninja Scroll. Like it's it is gory and their boobs. And oh, yeah, it's a great story like.
00:51:32
Speaker
I fight choreography is fantastic. Story is fantastic. I stayed up watching it. Each episode is also like almost an hour. So you like really sit in there and you get to live in the episodes. Who's the studio? Sorry. Uh, I don't know. It's an American studio, I think, or, you know, it's an American adult animated. Like as you're talking for some reason, my mind went to Afro samurai. Yeah. I remember it being like just
00:52:00
Speaker
violent and great. I love that. So Netflix animation and Blue Spirit, which I don't know. So the spirit did it. Yeah. What have they done? Oh, I don't need a yoga retreat. Oh.
00:52:19
Speaker
Scott and then Scott Pilgrim takes off. I don't want to spoil too much of it. It is not just a faithful readaption of Scott Pilgrim. Oh, and it is. It is a new story. Oh, and really good, actually. And it it actually takes a lot of the criticisms of the original Scott Pilgrim story and kind of addresses them like the the comic book.
00:52:46
Speaker
Yeah, well, the comic book and the movie, I guess, technically, because a lot of those like Scott Pilgrim was kind of a shitty person and they do kind of address that in the original story as well. But this one, they really address it. Oh, yeah.
00:53:01
Speaker
So it's yeah, I would highly if you in on a managuchi is back and they did a lot of music for it. But it's it's if I guess this is a like the original Scott Pilgrim was like this love letter to like 90s video games and, you know, kind of pop culture of the 90s. Scott Pilgrim takes off as kind of a love letter to like pop culture of the 2000s and 2010s.
00:53:29
Speaker
Like there's a ton of anime references in it. It's it's like more. Yeah, it's. Would I need to know the source material? Absolutely not. Cool. I mean, for you, just watch it. I mean, if you do the source material, you'd appreciate the differences. But no, it's its own contained story.
00:53:50
Speaker
I don't know. It's funny and they make an end of Evangelion reference. Well, I gotta watch it then. If Ava's involved, let's go. Honestly, too, if you want to think about it in a certain way, it takes some keys from Evangelion Rebuild. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:11
Speaker
The only negative I'll give you on Scott Pilgrim is it's missing background music and some fights, which is weird because they use a lot of licensed music everywhere. Yeah. But suddenly when they're fighting, there's like, no, maybe it was just the mix on my TV. I don't know. But it's just, it was just kind of silent and just lots of, I was like, I guess whatever.
00:54:33
Speaker
You're kind of selling me on it. I think I have a like a poser or posers. It's only it's only eight episodes. Each episode is only 30 minutes. OK, that's that's very doable. I'm trying to watch content that isn't YouTube, especially after the realization of how much I watched last episode we talked.
00:54:54
Speaker
And then just just engine just Castlevania Nocturne came out recently, too, which is the next Castlevania show. If you watch the original one, this new one's pretty good. I think they definitely cut the budget down on the animation a little bit. But I think overall, the story is still pretty damn good. Is it starring Alucard or am I making that up? No, this one is about what's his name?
00:55:24
Speaker
Or is it a new character? Well, I mean, new. It's new for the show. It's it's the it's the one from Rondo of Blood. I can't remember his name.
00:55:34
Speaker
Richter, Richter Belmont, there it is. And then also there's a Yu Yu Hakusho live action adaptation coming out and the trailer released not too recently ago. Again, looks like they're taking the one piece route with it, which is they're adapting it how it how the anime was, but they're just kind of playing with it and like.
00:55:55
Speaker
Netflix is killing it like they're they're giving nerd content like great and a lot of like a lot of great content like this is a There's been long periods of times. We're like, why the fuck do I have Netflix? I'm I'm a little torn on the yuhaka show though. Oh, I want to hear so, uh
00:56:12
Speaker
Are we just gonna do spoilers for what happened the anime since it was fucking 90s? I mean, yeah, it's called out. I was just like, I haven't seen Yu Yu Hakusho. Okay, so there's need to watch it. Okay, so so would you Hakusho is arguably the prime force that led to one on one fights overtaking the shonen genre? Really? Yeah. So
00:56:39
Speaker
It was definitely it had like one of the first battle tournaments, didn't it, Derek? Yes, it had. Yes, I was told battle tournaments. Yeah. So it's it really drove home that there was, of course, key moments where you had one like two characters fighting together against one strong enemy who's just appeared. And usually it's followed by a one on one encounter later.
00:57:06
Speaker
But this one had the trailer had fighting against like MOOCs and had multiple on one fighting, which it seems against the premise of You Hawk show. But given that it's live action and it's this far gone, I'm not going to like cut like say, no, it's going to be bad because are you are you talking about how in the trailer they had the four of them fighting to grow for the first time? Yes.
00:57:36
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, but it was cool bar in him. So it wasn't like a one-on-one. Yeah, it was cool bar in him. And they by the skin of their teeth, got a strong enough hit to get him to retreat. Yeah. And it was, you know, it wasn't even, well, I'll avoid going further, but that one I'm going to have to see how the fight concludes is why I'm not like saying it's completely going against what you talk show presented itself as, but
00:58:05
Speaker
The five second sequence of him and fighting people just like one punching him away like a kung fu movie. I just didn't like that. Oh, well, I mean, it's I don't know. I think if the Yu Yu Hakusho is kind of a weird show like in general. So I think if they lean into it being weird and they seem like they are because what's his name?
00:58:27
Speaker
Kodama? Yeah. Yeah, like they have him with they kept the pacifier in his mouth and everything like that. That's the one thing I didn't want to bring up. They they had him in adult form in the trailer. Well, it's kind of hard to have a baby unless you just CGI it the entire time. So I can understand that for trying to keep the prices down. But they kept the pacifier. And so yeah, but if they greenlight this to season three, that misses a pivotal moment.
00:58:56
Speaker
Hey, I mean, listen, they, they played with that in one piece though. They changed things that like, remember Don Creed didn't show up. He was in it for all of 10 seconds. Yes, but it was, it happened so closely with, uh,
00:59:11
Speaker
the teacher's transformation that it was I know it just worked so well. So missing out on that. This is this is me telling you in general, though, if you have a Netflix description and you're like, I guess I have it, go on there and give a couple of these shows a try. Sure. I mean, I blew I blew that samurai. Definitely. If you have any interest in animation, go watch that. And I would even say watch that before you watch Scott Pilgrim. Oh, OK.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's real good. But we can talk about that on another episode of Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I've been your host, James, the brown eyed samurai. Oh, Hartwell. And I've been joined by. Darn it.
01:00:02
Speaker
Andy, the Supreme of the Saved? Sure. I'm trying to go for alliteration. Kay. And I've been joined by... Derek the Tardy, Kostiha. Tardy, when were you tardy? When you went off on a tangent at the start. Wait, what? I don't get it, but I'll always support you. Good night. Good night.
01:00:31
Speaker
Good night and happy holidays, everyone. Aw, yeah. If you're in America, enjoy Turkey Day. And if you're in the rest of the world, enjoy working on Thursday, suckers. I get wrecked. Bye. You don't get wrecked. I'm sorry. Enjoy your time.