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Episode 109 - Real Gamers Only
20 Plays17 days ago
On this weeks episode we discuss the 30hr requirement for PS5 Pro 30th anniversary preorders, the Assassins Creed Shadows Delay, and the Kingdom Hearts Story Reboot
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Host Update
00:00:16
jscerbo
Welcome everyone to the crit rate podcast for October 2nd. This is episode 109. I'm your host, Justin Scurbo. And today I'm joined by Justin Chow.
00:00:26
Justin Chou
Justin show is here.
00:00:27
jscerbo
And I'm also joined by Alex shock.
00:00:30
Alex
Hello, Justins.
00:00:31
jscerbo
We have no Liz with us today. She is unfortunately under the weather, but I'm sure she'll be returning next week as per usual.
Impact of Illness on Gaming
00:00:40
jscerbo
stomach bugs suck they're the worst it's probably the worst kind of sick you could get because it's just like you're just miserable you know what I mean there's really not much you can do about it that's right yeah I'm feeling for her I'm feeling for her hopefully she recovers quickly and returns to us once again I'm sure there'll be more to talk about next week because when you're sick there's not much you can do other than play games so
00:00:40
Justin Chou
Oh yeah.
00:00:47
Alex
Can't eat, can't drink much, just like you're out of it.
00:01:03
jscerbo
I feel like she'll she'll have something to share there.
Adventures in Vermont and Phoenix
00:01:06
jscerbo
How are you guys doing? How has your lives been since last week? Alex, what's going on in your world?
00:01:14
Alex
You know what? Not too much has changed. I'm up here, Vermont. It's really starting to feel like fall. I'm working on a farm occasionally, and everyone's happy.
00:01:26
Alex
Chickens die a lot. I didn't know that. Chickens die in weird, funky ways.
00:01:29
Justin Chou
hello They have low HP.
00:01:31
jscerbo
That's
00:01:31
Alex
I won't get into it, but chickens are weird animals.
00:01:35
jscerbo
I'm a little concerned about that. I don't know what that means, but I'm not going to ask.
00:01:37
Alex
Yeah.
00:01:40
Alex
Yeah, but all in all, it's good. Uh, it's nice up here. I'm starting to get into like, I want to play fall game, like spooky games or spooky read spooky books or watch spooky movies. so I really liked that vibe.
00:01:52
jscerbo
Totally. It is that time. Justin, how about you? How's fall in Los Angeles, Pasadena, California?
00:01:58
Justin Chou
Is it fall? I guess, when did fall start? September 21st?
00:02:01
jscerbo
Dude, it's 100% fallout here. Absolutely.
00:02:03
Justin Chou
Dude, it's up it's hot this week for some reason.
00:02:03
jscerbo
September 22nd is when fall started.
00:02:07
Justin Chou
It's like in the night. It has like a hundred degrees here in l LA, but I will say that last weekend I did have a fun time driving six hours to to Phoenix, Arizona. And dude, 120 degrees heat is insane.
00:02:22
Justin Chou
Like it is. blisteringly hot, like you can't even sit in the car. The steering wheel is like scorching. You don't want to be outside for more than like five minutes. was rough.
00:02:33
Justin Chou
Uh, but, uh, I will say driving six hours across like America, like seeing like giant vast valleys of solar panels or windmills is kind of insane.
00:02:43
Justin Chou
Like, have you ever seen an entire like Hill or like mountainside, just one, like entire.
00:02:50
jscerbo
Just covered in solar panels.
00:02:51
Justin Chou
solar panels and it's crazy because it looks like a mirage. It just looks like a gigantic mirror shining back at you. And so we crashed. We almost crashed a couple of times because I just kept looking at it and like say hypnotic.
00:03:02
Justin Chou
It was wild. It was wild.
00:03:02
jscerbo
Just drinking it in.
00:03:03
Justin Chou
And then the. Dude, it it was crazy. And then on top of that, like as you're driving through the desert, you're like, who the hell is going to this one single church out in this like desert?
00:03:14
Justin Chou
There's nothing around. like The roads are destroyed, but the church looks like functional. Or like these small towns of like five, six houses.
00:03:19
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:03:22
Justin Chou
like Who's living there? You know what I mean? Where's the Trader Joe's?
00:03:26
jscerbo
Did I thought about that a lot when I drove through it? Not Phoenix, but when I drove through was it like Sedona? Actually, no, that was Arizona.
00:03:35
Justin Chou
yeah yeah Yeah, Northern Arizona.
00:03:35
jscerbo
Yeah. Same thing. It's like it feels so remote. It's like who's driving this food here?
00:03:38
Justin Chou
Yeah. I know, I know what is the like export of, I looked it up. So in Phoenix, it's like, it's a lot of like insurance stuff. And I think construction materials and stuff, but like, and I think there's, yeah, right.
00:03:48
jscerbo
I think they sell a lot of turquoise out there.
00:03:52
Justin Chou
bolo ties, but, uh, yeah, so, I mean, I haven't had a chance to really like sink into any games, uh, over the weekend. Unfortunately, we were in Phoenix, visiting family and, uh, being really freaking hot and, uh, the long drive.
00:04:04
Justin Chou
was wild. but yeah, that's what's new with me so far. How about you, Scurbo? What's going on in your world?
Community Engagement and Gaming Demos
00:04:10
jscerbo
I'll tell you what, last week I was mentioning that I was looking forward to. uh, cleaning my garage or cleaning my basement.
00:04:19
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:04:19
jscerbo
I was very much looking forward to cleaning my basement. Like seriously, it's all it was the central focus of my mind because we ordered a dumpster and the dumpster will be here, uh, next this weekend.
00:04:28
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:04:33
jscerbo
So we were like, we just have to purge everything. We just have to comb through it all. And dude, we have cleared so much space in the basement. It's unreal. Like we, to give you an idea, the amount of garbage that we were able to pull in like thin from our current supply was like an entire garage bays worth of stuff.
00:04:51
Justin Chou
Wow.
00:04:52
jscerbo
Pretty amazing.
00:04:52
Justin Chou
Did you throw it? You just tossed it all in a dumpster.
00:04:55
jscerbo
Yeah, we're about to. I mean, we we brought a bunch out for like Facebook marketplace and see what we can move on there, like, you know, small appliances, furniture, stuff like that.
00:04:59
Justin Chou
yeah yeah Yeah.
00:05:03
Justin Chou
What's the coolest thing that you're trying to sell right now?
00:05:03
jscerbo
But.
00:05:06
jscerbo
coolest thing I'm trying to sell, there's like this little brunch kitchenette corner thing that has these two bar stools in it, and it's like perfect.
00:05:14
jscerbo
Like we've never really used it, but it's a cute little thing that I'm sure somebody would would dig. I was also debating whether or not to get rid of.
00:05:19
Alex
Nice.
00:05:19
Justin Chou
like the
00:05:21
jscerbo
I have like a bench, like a like weightlifting bench.
00:05:23
Justin Chou
work It's a good stool at worst, you know?
00:05:25
jscerbo
And I was like, should I get rid of that? Or is that just kind of like good to have? I don't know. But. Yeah, exactly. So I was doing a lot of thinking around that. And then the main problem that I have when I was sitting through like my actual stuff is these gundams, dude, I had so many gundams and they're like a bunch of them are built, but like that time has passed and I'm just not into it anymore.
00:05:45
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:05:45
jscerbo
But I feel bad because it's so much plastic. It's like, what do I do with this?
00:05:47
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:05:49
Alex
I remember the like, there was a huge phase. There was a huge phase when I was a kid. I mean, all of a child, you probably remember we were all into Gundams. And it's like, we were just, they were everywhere.
00:05:58
Justin Chou
Were you just twisting them off?
00:06:01
Alex
And I didn't know what to do with them at it after a certain point, like, I didn't even clip them or anything. So they're all like sharp and shit. So it's like they were difficult to even like hold or mess around with. Yeah, we also we all did.
00:06:11
Justin Chou
That's so funny. Yeah. it's funny because like, dude, I even go to, like when we were in Japan, Justin, and we were like seeing some, like the, the figures and the statues nowadays are so cool.
00:06:23
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:06:23
Justin Chou
They are so cool. And it's so funny because it's like, I want these things, but then where the hell are you going to put them? And then when you put them out, you're only, they're going to like last for like a season and then you're going to get bored of them. And then what do you do with them?
00:06:35
Justin Chou
Nobody's going to want them, you know?
00:06:37
jscerbo
Well, but that's exactly the place that I'm in now because it's like I loved these things and really it's almost like Lego where it's like building it and going through that process of discoveries like that's the fun part.
00:06:45
Alex
Like I was going to bring that up.
00:06:47
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:06:48
Alex
Legos are the worst for that.
00:06:49
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:06:49
jscerbo
Yeah. But then once you're done, it's like, okay, like I have nowhere to put this. It doesn't look particularly nice, you know?
00:06:55
Alex
Right.
00:06:55
Justin Chou
it does Some of them do.
00:06:55
jscerbo
So some of them do. It's it's very, you know, but it's not, it's not the way that I want to represent myself in my space so all the time.
00:06:58
Alex
But some of them are like.
00:06:58
Justin Chou
Yeah. Still Legos.
00:07:00
Alex
Yeah.
00:07:03
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:07:04
jscerbo
Sometimes sure, but not all the time, you know?
00:07:06
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:07:07
jscerbo
So yeah, I'm, I'm currently, so my, my pathway to solve this was I was like, do thrift stores take them?
00:07:07
Alex
Like.
00:07:14
jscerbo
The answer is no, no thrift stores take them.
00:07:15
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:07:17
jscerbo
Then I learned that apparently there is a market to sell prebuilt Gundams and I was like, okay, like I doubt it. So I joined a couple of Facebook groups and these people are asking like insane money for these things.
00:07:30
jscerbo
And I'm like, the, the real estate is more valuable to me. So I'm about to just like take a picture and be like five bucks to whoever wants them. You're paying shipping.
00:07:37
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:07:38
jscerbo
Here's the whole thing.
00:07:39
Justin Chou
That's not a bad idea.
00:07:40
Alex
You could just also put it up like best offer to just like whatever it is.
00:07:44
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:07:45
jscerbo
True.
00:07:46
Alex
And then you just take whatever they offer, like whatever it is.
00:07:49
jscerbo
Yeah, I feel like I'd rather do that because as long as it goes somewhere rather than the garbage, I'll feel a little bit better about it.
00:07:49
Justin Chou
Yeah, yeah.
00:07:54
Justin Chou
Yeah, yeah.
00:07:55
jscerbo
Like I'm not even worried about the money that I invested in it. It's just a lot of plastic. You know what I mean?
00:07:59
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:07:59
jscerbo
It feels like it has some kind of value to it. I don't know.
00:08:03
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:08:03
jscerbo
But yeah, so that's what's going on with me.
00:08:06
Justin Chou
That's actually funny. You mentioned that like, do people buy prebuilt Legos? Cause I do have Legos that I wouldn't mind like getting rid of.
00:08:13
jscerbo
Well, Legos have an inherent value because they're the loose brick people still use, right?
00:08:17
Justin Chou
Yeah, that's fair.
00:08:18
jscerbo
The Gundams it's like, once they're snapped together, it's, it's a wrap. Like there's no really undoing it.
00:08:21
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:08:22
Alex
two During COVID, I went through a whole Lego phase because like, why not? And I got like the, it's huge, like this huge, famous rocket.
00:08:27
Justin Chou
Yeah. Right.
00:08:33
Alex
And it was like, yes.
00:08:33
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:08:34
Justin Chou
The Saturn 5.
00:08:35
Alex
So I i got that or it felt like a little kid I asked but for my, for for Christmas.
00:08:36
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:08:42
Justin Chou
It's cool, man. It's really cool.
00:08:43
Alex
So I built the whole thing and I was like, what am I gonna do with this is way too big? So it's like, I kept it out for a little bit, but then I just spent a couple hours like meticulously taking the whole thing apart again.
00:08:47
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:08:53
jscerbo
There you go.
00:08:55
Alex
And then I gave it to Jeff and I don't think he ever did anything with it, but that's fine. you know it so It was just sort of like, I don't know, someone else wants to do something with this. I don't know, i'm dumbmp I'm done with it.
00:09:03
jscerbo
Yeah, no, you just.
00:09:03
Justin Chou
and
00:09:04
Alex
My energy has been my energy has been spent.
00:09:07
Justin Chou
Honestly, like taking it apart, putting it in like Tupperware with the instructions, it's perfect.
00:09:11
Justin Chou
Put it away.
00:09:11
jscerbo
Yeah, it's totally totally viable.
00:09:12
Alex
Yeah.
00:09:13
Justin Chou
The problem is I can't take it apart.
00:09:13
Alex
Yeah.
00:09:14
Justin Chou
It just hurts me too much. I just can't do that. and Yeah.
00:09:16
Alex
It's got the little tool, you know, it's, oh, you mean like, you mean mentally or emotionally?
00:09:22
Justin Chou
Emotionally, it hurts too much. It's like, I spent too much time on this thing and now you want me to break it apart?
00:09:25
Alex
I know.
00:09:26
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:09:27
Alex
The first piece is definitely hard.
00:09:28
jscerbo
I don't know if you can see, but in my frame down here, I have one of those like fine art ones. So this is like the great wave and it's supposed to be a really great kit to build, but I've been putting it off because I'm like the second I open this, it's it's going to be a problem.
00:09:33
Justin Chou
Oh yeah.
00:09:40
jscerbo
You know what I mean?
00:09:40
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:09:41
jscerbo
Not like a problem. Like it's going to be fun to put it together, but it's just going to be something to deal with, you know.
00:09:45
Justin Chou
Yeah, yeah.
00:09:45
Alex
Yep.
00:09:47
jscerbo
Alright, well, listeners, welcome back to another episode of the Crit Rate podcast. This is the official podcast of critrate.io, your number one resource to get the best game recommendations online. You can go to critrate.io right now, sign up for your account where you will take a survey, find your gamer house, and then come start to see all kinds of ratings and reviews from other gamers with the same tastes as you.
00:10:11
jscerbo
We have a thriving discord now that is honestly just blowing up in the last couple of weeks. It is awesome to see everybody in there. We've got pictures of pets circulating, people talking about games. It's actually really awesome. I love spending my mornings in there and just seeing what's going on with everybody. So please jump into the discord and everybody that is in there will hear about our upcoming steam next fest activation. So listeners.
00:10:37
jscerbo
This is your opportunity to come and be a play tester with Crit Rate. What we're doing is next, what's called October 14th, we are hosting an activation with Steam Next Fest, where users of Crit Rate.io that are interested in signing up can play test a myriad of games. Those that first 100 users that play test 10 games and give us their opinions on them, they're going to get $10 gift cards. We're giving away a Steam Deck.
00:11:04
jscerbo
and all kinds of different crit rate swag. So if you want any more information about that or want to participate in our Steam Next Fest playtest activation, check out the Discord. There's a Steam Next Fest channel in there but with all of your details.
00:11:17
jscerbo
Now like we do every week we send out a newsletter every Friday that has a that is just chock full of gaming news and information and we also host a survey every week that we call our house hot takes this week in lieu of us launching steam next fest there are the steam next fest activation coming out it's all about demos we wanted to ask a bunch of questions about game demos the role that they play in your experience how they've maybe changed your opinions about certain things or whatever opinions you might have on them. So we're gonna go through some of the questions from that House Hot Takes survey and see what everyone thought.
00:11:55
jscerbo
So the first question that we had pretty simple one, have you ever purchased a game that you weren't previously interested in after playing a demo and 81% of respondents said, yes, they have. So this is, this is kind of interesting. I often don't play demos unless I have some sort of like pre-baked interest in it. Like I, there has to be some sort of grip to it where it's like, I'm interested in the visuals or I like the developer or.
00:12:22
jscerbo
something like that. But to to go from cold to interested and purchasing, pretty awesome. I mean, that's that's the power of the demo. Is is that something that you guys have ever experienced, like trying something out just like at total random?
00:12:38
Alex
Demos occupy a weird space in my gaming history because it when when you say demo to me, it's like that was getting the Xbox magazine and getting those stupid CDs with all the like random demos on it.
00:12:52
Justin Chou
Oh yeah.
00:12:55
Alex
And it was like exciting. It was like, what what are they going to give me? This was before you were inundated with content and trailers and videos and you know all that and lot stuff.
00:13:02
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:13:02
jscerbo
Yeah. So yeah the the term demo, I think, has kind of expanded over time because I was very much the same way.
00:13:09
jscerbo
Demo disks, early demos off of like Xbox Live or something. But I would also factor stuff like like what we do at PAX or playing things at E3. Those are all demonstrations of games you know and and short spurts of stuff.
00:13:21
Justin Chou
Oh, I guess so. Yeah. I was not thinking that at all.
00:13:24
jscerbo
I mean, that's essentially what Steam Next Fest is. It's a collection of games that you just get to kind of walk up to the console and play a short burst of it, you know.
00:13:30
Justin Chou
Oh, yeah. All right.
00:13:32
jscerbo
So that's that's kind of the thing, even with packs.
00:13:32
Justin Chou
All right.
00:13:34
jscerbo
So like in in respect to that, even at PAX, it's like rarely will I approach a game to play unless. Well, I mean, back in the day when it was like TZR days, we would have appointments and play basically everything.
00:13:46
jscerbo
But there was a lot a lot of the time it was approaching games that caught our interest in some way. So. Pretty cool, I mean it makes me feel like I should be a little bit more open to just trying new stuff and and see what might be available there.
00:13:56
Justin Chou
If we do, sorry, I was about to say, if we do include what we see at like PAX East or West or like E3 or whatever, any of the conventions.
00:13:57
Alex
It's good.
00:14:05
Justin Chou
Uh, yeah. Okay. Well, then I'll definitely say like one that I can think of clearly is like Katana zero. I remember playing that and then talking to the developer and being like, guys, this is amazing. I remember like running to the media room.
00:14:17
Justin Chou
Just like bring you guys down to show you the game. Cause I was like, so excited about it. doesn't happen often though.
00:14:21
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:14:23
Justin Chou
And it definitely, I'm definitely not on like steam or the Nintendo store or PlayStation store trying demos and then downloading, uh, and then downloading or buying the game.
00:14:29
jscerbo
Yeah,
00:14:32
Alex
I think that, that barrier to entry was still a little, still a little difficult for me.
00:14:33
jscerbo
same.
00:14:36
Alex
Like it's so nice being at packs and just having all of these things at your disposal.
00:14:37
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:14:40
Alex
Just like the, just like, like I was talking about the demo discs on Xbox magazine.
00:14:40
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:14:44
Alex
It was like, you just had these random things.
00:14:46
jscerbo
Hmm.
00:14:46
Alex
You weren't sure which one was going to catch your eye. And that's kind of cool, but hunting the demos down. So I, if I'm hunting a demo down, I rarely buy it, but yeah, there's been definitely been some pack stuff that has caught my eye.
00:14:59
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:15:00
jscerbo
Definitely. Yeah, let's let's definitely keep the context of like a ah demo in the realm of like and any kind of way that you're trying out a game without it being the full experience, right?
00:15:08
Justin Chou
Mm hmm.
00:15:12
Justin Chou
Yeah, okay.
00:15:12
jscerbo
So like for our next question, what type of demo do you think gets you the most excited for a game?
00:15:18
jscerbo
So the breakdown that we have here are The first one we wrote is give me a bang, give me a key sequence, a boss fight or something big that may not appear in the normal game or maybe it does, but just like a high action like, bam, this is it. There's the prologue sequence where it's like the beginning sections of a game. Like you're just starting the game as if it's a brand new game and you're seeing that first section in original self-contained segments. So maybe they're just taking a portion of the game that might not exist in the final version of it and showing you that just maybe a way to experiment with mechanics or things like that.
00:15:51
jscerbo
The next is a controlled late game state. So like, say it gives you an RPG and and it levels you up to level 60, gives you a bunch of abilities and lets you try out what late game feels like. And then last are highlights. So small sections of the game, ah small sections of different parts of the game. So this would be like if you approach the demo and it's like, here's like the open world segment or the narrative segment or the, you know,
00:16:15
jscerbo
tactical battle segment or whatever, like there's different chunks of the game that it lets you kind of pick and choose. Of the people that that rated this, 45 percent said they enjoy the prologue sequence most. that's playing that first section of the game, like the first 20 minutes or what have you. And that was it only edged out the give me a bang key sequence section of the game that had 36 percent of the votes and then the rest was split between highlights and an original self-contained segment. So that is pretty interesting.
00:16:48
jscerbo
I think of like the give me a bang section, like, do you remember the Uncharted 4 demo where it was like the the Jeep scene where Drake was being dragged by the team?
00:16:55
Justin Chou
Oh, no way. That was the demo.
00:16:57
jscerbo
Yeah, so like that's like a bang, right?
00:16:59
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:17:00
jscerbo
That's like a a huge crazy moment where, you know, you just get thrown right into the thick of things.
00:17:00
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:17:05
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:17:05
jscerbo
When I think of a prologue, I think of something like a Triangle Strategy or Octopath Traveler where it's just like, you get to play the first 20 minutes and then when you buy the game, you pick up directly after where you played the demo.
00:17:10
Justin Chou
yeah
00:17:16
jscerbo
What do you guys think? I mean, for for me personally, I also kind of like the prologue sequence because if the game is presented well enough, the first, you know, let's say hour of a game should have enough of a hook to to demonstrate what the game is and how it's going to play and and what to expect going forward. So I usually think that that's the most honest representation of the game.
00:17:39
jscerbo
especially because like controlled late game stuff, i I don't like having that spoiled for me if I'm like, if I think I'm going to be invested in this. So, I mean, what are your guys thoughts?
00:17:46
Justin Chou
Yeah, I'm really glad nobody checked off controlled late game.
00:17:47
jscerbo
What do you think is the best way to see a game?
00:17:52
Justin Chou
Who wants to play late game? Who wants to play as like Samus with all of the abilities and then start the game after buying it and be like, oh wait, that is Samus games. That is Metroid games. The prologue sequence is obviously the best.
00:18:02
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:18:04
Justin Chou
I mean, like, so the most notable like demo that I've played that did it so well was Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Like that was such a good demo.
00:18:12
jscerbo
Mmm.
00:18:14
Justin Chou
that played exactly, it was, it was its own contained piece, but yet also the prologue sequence of the entire game.
00:18:14
jscerbo
Totally.
00:18:19
Justin Chou
And it was, it was lovely. It was so well made. I'm not even sure if I wonder whether or not that was always the intention to create the, the, you know, the beginning portion of that game as like a separate piece that people will be able to download as the demo.
00:18:32
Justin Chou
so good, so good. But yeah, I mean, I would say that the give me a bang is interesting, but honestly, I feel like I want the bangs to be hidden. I don't want to, I don't want to experience that.
00:18:43
Justin Chou
But, uh, I think, I think I'd probably fall closer to what Alex is about to say, which is probably going to be like, I don't even like demos, but anyway, Alex, what do you think?
00:18:49
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:18:53
Alex
Yeah, I mean, yeah, first get that out of the way hate demos so would prefer not to do it if I'm excited about a game, but little packs is a different story.
00:18:57
Justin Chou
yeah
00:19:02
Alex
I like those smaller bits, the smaller bites, but assume like getting that out of the way. Yeah, i'm I'm a little bit different than you guys where I don't, I don't like the prologue sequence.
00:19:09
jscerbo
Hmm.
00:19:14
Alex
If I, if I'm going to play a game. I think if I'm really going to play a game, I want to just hit the ground running. like The beginning sequence is the hook. Draw me in, bring me, like then like let the momentum carry me through the game.
00:19:27
Alex
If that gets spoiled or I play that like a couple of weeks ahead of time before release, that kind of sucks the magic out of it for me.
00:19:33
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:19:33
jscerbo
I hear that.
00:19:35
Alex
Give me a bang. I think that's probably closer to my answer, although I'm thinking of games like path. Is it path pathfinder doesn't sound right.
00:19:45
Alex
But the journey s game, where like games that are more focused on movement and exploration.
00:19:48
Justin Chou
Yeah. That was Pathfinder, right?
00:19:51
jscerbo
Pathless.
00:19:51
Alex
Pathless. You know, those types of games, you don't necessarily need to have that big, like, bang experience.
00:19:52
Justin Chou
Pathless. You're totally right.
00:19:53
jscerbo
Yeah. so like
00:19:58
Alex
But it's like, hey, just check out our world. You know, there are boss fights, but like, it's really about the exploration and like getting a feel for the game.
00:20:05
jscerbo
Yeah, that would be like a control to open world thing. Like there's no introduction. It's just like plop like you're just in the game, you know, and you figure it out.
00:20:12
Alex
or like a tailored section of like a Metroidvania or something, where you can kind of like, you get one or two abilities and you you get a taste for the game.
00:20:15
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:20:21
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:20:25
Alex
And maybe there's a boss fight at the end, like a mini boss fight, just something kind of gets you going on it. But I don't really want that beginning sequence.
00:20:31
jscerbo
yeah
00:20:32
Alex
And I mean, I don't really want a big boss fight either. Because like you said, you know i want I don't want anything spoiled.
00:20:38
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:20:40
Alex
It's the art of the demo here.
00:20:44
jscerbo
All right. So the next question that we have is, when is the best time for a demo to
The Art and Timing of Gaming Demos
00:20:49
jscerbo
release? I think this is probably the most obvious one, but there's before launch, simultaneous with launch. So, you know, day one and then post-launch afterwards, seeing a demo pop up sometimes reminds me.
00:21:01
jscerbo
about that game. 81% overwhelmingly picked before launch with just 18% picking simultaneous with launch. Now I understand the case for both, but before launch is really where it is, right?
00:21:12
jscerbo
It's like, you've got to build that momentum. You've got to get people excited for it. I think there is.
00:21:16
Justin Chou
I went so under um almost don't understand what post launch would even, that's like a desperation move.
00:21:22
Justin Chou
I think that's, that's kind of weird. Simultaneously with the launch. I guess that kind of makes sense because you don't want anybody like peeking in, but like, don't you
00:21:30
jscerbo
I mean, all all of these things happen now in the post launch is actually becoming way more popular on PlayStation. So like part of PlayStation Plus are those like game trials. So I distinctly remember after like Red Dead Redemption 2 came out, it was like maybe a month after the game came out, they were like, and now you can play a demo. That's like the first two hours or whatever, which is like, like I get it.
00:21:53
jscerbo
i don't I don't really know. It's like, do you think you're going to lose people by showing them the demo early or maybe it's like you're just going to get those few stragglers like you're going to basically get them addicted to it in those two hours after the fact and get like those people that weren't sure.
00:22:05
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:22:07
jscerbo
But now we're going to like, you know, make the move. I don't really know.
00:22:10
Justin Chou
Yeah. Hmm.
00:22:12
Alex
He, I think I, I don't know. it's It's kind of tough because it's like, I don't want things spoiled for me. And if I'm going to play a game, if I know I'm going to get a game, like I'm just not going to play the demo regardless.
00:22:26
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:22:26
Alex
So in that case, like, I don't know if I'm on the fence about something you can release it day of and like, maybe I'll make up my mind then, but you could also do that before. I don't know.
00:22:36
Justin Chou
Can you map?
00:22:37
Alex
There's, you could kind of see it.
00:22:38
jscerbo
Well, I would also say something like, you know, when we go to PAX, right, there's definitely I mean, the majority of the games that I'm looking for to play at an event like that is usually like pre-release stuff, like stuff that's not out yet.
00:22:52
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:22:52
jscerbo
But there's certainly a handful of games that have demos there that are just games that have released, you know, already or in some fashion are already out.
00:23:00
jscerbo
So we kind of see it all over the place.
00:23:00
Alex
I well, Justin, what do you think? I'll have one more thought, but go ahead.
00:23:06
Justin Chou
Oh, I was just about to say, have you guys ever, it's more of a question actually, maybe you should go first. I mean, it's going to move on.
00:23:15
Alex
I was gonna say i have I have kind of two minds. It's like the Alex that's just like every day Alex sitting at home, like when does he want a demo? When does he get excited for a game? What would like tease his interest? And then special occasion Alex, because I i agree with you Scurbo, like when I'm on the floor and I'm playing a game that I really like and they say it's out already.
00:23:33
Alex
I'm like, hmm, that's a little disappointing. Like there's something that takes the magic away when it's already out.
00:23:34
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:23:35
jscerbo
Yeah, totally.
00:23:37
Justin Chou
like i could just buy it right now
00:23:38
Alex
Yeah, the reviews are out already.
00:23:39
Justin Chou
have
00:23:40
Alex
What is it? Is it good? I don't know.
00:23:41
jscerbo
But it's like, I understand that sales cycle though, right? Cause somebody can go up and and like, that's their, you know, their tester, you know, that's their appetizer. And they're like, Oh, now I can just like, I already know that I like this. So I'm just going to go ahead and buy it right afterwards.
00:23:53
jscerbo
Like I get it.
00:23:54
Alex
But when it's out like a year ago, you know, some of you get some of those.
00:23:57
jscerbo
I mean, there there have been some of this. I mean, I moved on a game like that. The first time I played 20XX, it was out for like a while.
00:24:00
Justin Chou
It's like I could just buy it right now.
00:24:02
jscerbo
And then I didn't play it until I was at PAX and it was like put in front of me in that way. And I was just like, OK, like, let's let's give this a shot. And then after I tried it, I was like, yeah, like I'm here for this, like 100 percent.
00:24:13
Alex
Yeah.
00:24:14
Justin Chou
Have you ever been interested in a game, played the demo and then lost interest after the demo?
00:24:21
jscerbo
Yes, yes.
00:24:22
Alex
Yeah, those like f on the fence games, you know, where you're like, you're already not super sure. And then you play and you're like, definitely not for me.
00:24:30
Justin Chou
Oh, that's right.
00:24:31
jscerbo
Yeah, you know, this happened a lot in the ps3 era now that I think about it because they would they would drop these demos like randomly. I specifically remember playing the demo for Hayes and being like, I mean, Hayes was kind of a mess and by itself. But I remember playing that demo and just being like, yo, what the heck? Like I couldn't have been more out on the other side of that.
00:24:52
Alex
What what's kind of funny are demos that are that are actually good, but they don't drive you to play the game because you're like, I kind of get it. Like I played the demo and I kind of I did it.
00:25:02
Alex
I got that experience.
00:25:03
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:25:03
Justin Chou
I see it.
00:25:04
Alex
Yeah, like I get it. So it's weird because the you kind of get the shtick, but you don't really buy into the full experience.
00:25:11
jscerbo
yeah You know, it's like the the funniest example of that that I can give you from like times long past is the original Doom. So the original Doom on PC, I only played the shareware version.
00:25:23
jscerbo
Now, I didn't realize that the shareware version was just that first map, but the actual Doom game is three maps like it's three full sections for that. So I i was like, I beat it.
00:25:34
jscerbo
that That's it, you know.
00:25:34
Justin Chou
Yeah, right? That's funny.
00:25:36
jscerbo
So, yeah, that is that is funny. All right, we have the last three questions here. So next is, so this was an interesting thing for our audience, because this this was the first write in segment, like we let anybody just kind of write whatever answer they like. So this was what insights are you most looking to discover when choosing to play a demo? And these are things like story or fun factor or graphics. And a couple of the interesting ones that I saw a lot of people said story, actually, the overwhelming majority said story, which I thought was pretty cool.
00:26:10
jscerbo
A few were, you know, what does the gameplay feel like? And then there was a couple that gave it a bit more information. So the mechanics, how it feels, that kind of feedback. And if it gripped me by an aesthetic. So pretty much just like, you know, are they enjoying this game? And then what makes you play a game? It says show me the meat, the part of the game that makes me want to buy and keep playing core keeper.
00:26:36
jscerbo
Corekeepers gameplay loop graphics are impressive and immediately sell you on the game. So this is something where it's like they want to understand the gameplay loop. If if you like imagine you play a round of like vampire survivors and it's like you see what like the leveling up and all that feels like. So it's like one complete loop that it's like, all right, now I understand. So I think that's pretty interesting.
00:26:56
jscerbo
For me usually it's it's the connection of two things like something might intrigue me about a demo before I start playing like the aesthetic you know not usually not narrative or story I honestly don't think that I can glean that much from narrative or story from a demo but like if I like the way the graphics look or something like that and I'm like I just want to see what a game feels like to play that looks like that you know that's usually the connection that I'm trying to make like is this actually as fun as it is
00:27:09
Alex
Right.
00:27:25
jscerbo
as it looks, as cool as it, is this actually as fun as it is good looking?
00:27:28
Alex
Yeah.
00:27:33
jscerbo
You know what I mean?
00:27:34
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:27:36
jscerbo
Like I think Octopath Traveler was a good example of that.
00:27:37
Alex
Yeah.
00:27:39
jscerbo
Cause I was like, I'm just so down for this aesthetic, but like, does it feel good to play? And in some ways that answer was no. I mean, I ultimately played that game, but it was like, it was weird to kind of get used to that.
00:27:50
jscerbo
It's like, you know, I love pixel art and all that stuff, but it it was a little strange kind of getting used to.
00:27:55
Alex
that you get into trouble sometimes with demos like it packs to where if they do the very beginning of the game like I want to know what your game is but they put you right in the tutorial and it's like press a to jump press X to attack I'm like I know like I get it like I know all this like that's not really it's not telling me a whole lot and that's just like a such a slow beginning because it's like yeah I mean I mean maybe that's such like a
00:28:16
jscerbo
Do you kinda like patronizing almost?
00:28:18
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:28:21
Alex
you know a douchey gamer thing to say. But like I kind of want to, yeah, like I mean, it's it's up to you to to really demonstrate the best part about your game.
00:28:25
jscerbo
No, I think it's totally valid, honestly. like
00:28:33
Alex
And I don't need to be handheld. And I think a lot of gamers don't really need that. Or like I don't know. I think there's other options. But I agree with this this answer, where it's like, you need to show like what it what makes your game special without revealing too much.
00:28:49
Alex
And that's kind of hard to do.
00:28:51
jscerbo
Yeah, definitely. Justin, what about you?
00:28:53
Justin Chou
pen What do I look for in a demo? It's hard.
00:28:58
jscerbo
Like, what are you trying to get out of a demo?
00:28:58
Justin Chou
i mean
00:29:00
jscerbo
Like what's like, if you're trying to be sold, like.
00:29:03
Justin Chou
yeah yeah
00:29:07
Justin Chou
It's funny. I actually do think story really does drive a lot of it. It's like, if I am getting into something where I'm like, okay, I want to know how this plays out. That's probably like neck and neck with like, what's the main mechanic of the game?
00:29:20
Justin Chou
Like if I played the demo of, let's say, uh, overcore, uh, well over corn overlord unicorn. If I played that demo and I, and I.
00:29:28
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:29:29
Alex
Unicorn Overlord?
00:29:31
Justin Chou
Unicorn over corn. Like the, if I play, if I actually play the demo beforehand and I knew like kind of like what kind of game it was, I probably wouldn't have bought it.
00:29:39
Alex
Oh, you bought that?
00:29:43
Justin Chou
yeah, I did buy that.
00:29:45
Alex
Huh.
00:29:45
Justin Chou
You didn't know that.
00:29:46
Alex
I don't know. I don't know if I knew that.
00:29:47
Justin Chou
I played like a solid, like, I think five to 10 hours of it. I went through, a my I had to have been more than 10 hours because I definitely was picking like colors of my thieves outfits and stuff for like a solid hour.
00:29:59
Alex
But the story was decent, right? wasn't or like Like the intro story.
00:30:00
Justin Chou
the story was The story was cool up until I realized that it's like, oh, okay. So all of these like, you know, previous, you know, uh, I dunno, uh, henchmen slash like party members, they're like, they're like, uh, I dunno, uh, coerced or influenced or manipulated by some magical force that you can break.
00:30:19
Alex
Yeah.
00:30:19
Justin Chou
And then they'd be part of your party. If I knew that, I probably wouldn't play the game. then if I was to understand the mechanics, but like, I will say, like, when I think about games like that, I'm like, okay, if I was to play this, I would have really thought a little harder before buying that game. But I bought that game purely on aesthetics and also pedigree, right? Because it was vanilla wear and I was like, I'm down. Right. But.
00:30:40
Justin Chou
Yeah. so I guess, I don't know. Yeah. I guess story and, uh, and play style are but most important, but story probably comes first. I want to know what I'm doing. Cause like I play final fantasy tactics and I love the story and the gameplay is pretty, I don't know what the, what you would call it, basic, but even though it's like not really basic, but like, you know, it's basic enough and it's like, it's fun enough for me to play and I'm really engaged in the story.
00:31:03
Justin Chou
So I would probably pick it up that way. yeah.
00:31:05
Alex
I think the objective of a demo is to be like a really good first date. like You don't know what you're getting.
00:31:10
Justin Chou
Yeah, totally.
00:31:13
Alex
And it it like a demo of Unicorn Overlord almost tricks you into it. it's like they they They need to put up a good front, give you that good first impression so that you want to come back for more.
00:31:17
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:31:23
Alex
Little do you know that there you know it's not really for you at the end of the day, but you don't know that after the demo, that first date.
00:31:28
Justin Chou
Dude, if I never, if I did not, if I didn't know anything about Final Fantasy seven or the remake and rebirth, and I was to play that demo of rebirth that. It's a beautiful little tight little game and it's, it's, it's awesome. The story is interesting and awesome. And then it ends on like the cliffhanger of like, and that was my memories of Mount. You know, like, wow. Amazing.
00:31:50
jscerbo
Yeah, it was pretty, that was like expertly executed a really great demo and a good transition into the next question, which is what game had a significant or memorable demo that you played?
00:31:54
Justin Chou
It was.
00:32:02
jscerbo
And that it's funny because when you mentioned that one, I was like, yeah, that, that absolutely is one. When I answered this question, the three that made the biggest impression on me, I believe there was a similar demo for Final Fantasy 16, where you did sort of the the prologue section for Clive.
00:32:15
Justin Chou
Oh, interesting.
00:32:18
Justin Chou
Hmm. Oh, yeah.
00:32:18
jscerbo
And then after once the game came out, it was like you just totally bypassed all of the the onboarding.
00:32:24
Justin Chou
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:24
jscerbo
And that was awesome, because I was like, I mean, to Alex's point, I really didn't need a demo to know that I was going to play that game, but I enjoyed
00:32:32
jscerbo
kind of like getting the like the patronizing press X to game you know what I mean section out of the way so that when launch did happen it was like I'm right there like I'm just playing the game you know so that fell yeah
00:32:40
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:32:46
Justin Chou
You know, Square Enix, yeah, Square Enix with Final Fantasy 16. Cause you told me to play the demo too. And that was all, it was, it was also super tight. It's like that up and you get to see like some of the biggest like things and what's to come in the rest of the rest of the
00:33:00
jscerbo
Yeah, it sets the table. It gets the, this is how you play the game out of the way.
00:33:00
Justin Chou
and then, yeah, mountain evil with.
00:33:04
Justin Chou
Sephiroth and cloud. Yeah. I mean, it's Square Enix. Interesting. I should try more of their demos to see if they continue this kind of like, I mean, octopath traveler. I see that you wrote that down too. I mean, that's that ever like a triangle strategy. I remember playing that demo too. And that was really tight as well.
00:33:20
jscerbo
Yeah. Yeah. And the only other one is PT. I feel like that's kind of the hipster answer, but you know, PT was just a very unique and memorable experience for a number of reasons, but, uh, still that.
00:33:25
Justin Chou
At this point, it is kind of hipster. Yeah.
00:33:32
Alex
i'm really trying to I'm really trying to think back to like all of our years at PAX and like which of the ones this that stuck out the most.
00:33:40
jscerbo
Hmm.
00:33:41
Alex
And I'm just forgetting so many. i I think I really like when a game has interesting mechanics, like something that I haven't felt before.
00:33:43
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:33:51
Alex
And being ah know in front of the developer and being able to hear like their side of what makes their game special. Like, Absolver was a really cool demo.
00:33:59
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:34:00
Alex
and that was kind of a special experience. And even that game below, you know, one of our first years of packs, it was kind of like, it felt like we were getting in on the ground level, something really cool.
00:34:05
jscerbo
Oh yeah.
00:34:05
Justin Chou
Oh yeah.
00:34:09
Alex
You know, we had a really nice conversation with the devs. and it was fun to play. I mean, they ended up changing everything and and I don't think it ended up doing too hot. but they stick with you.
00:34:17
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:34:18
Alex
Those, those types of experiences.
00:34:20
jscerbo
Definitely. There was there was some interesting experiences that are most recent packs as well. I remember we played that the sequel to that game Kind Words and not knowing what that game was and then just kind of like stepping up to that booth and kind of like having that like, oh, I see what's going on.
00:34:27
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:34:34
jscerbo
Moment was pretty cool with a game like that.
00:34:35
Justin Chou
Mm hmm.
00:34:37
Alex
Did you buy it?
00:34:37
jscerbo
Justin, was there any? So I did. Yeah. Well, they they gave me like a code for it. So I was like, that's cool.
00:34:41
Alex
Yeah.
00:34:43
jscerbo
Justin, did you do you have any memorable demo experiences outside of Final Fantasy 7?
00:34:50
Justin Chou
That's the most recent kind of words was honestly a very interesting concept. I really liked it. all those listening who don't, who doesn't know, like kind of words ended up being, or rather what it was and what it is, is like a, a, an anonymous, uh, positivity generator where you're basically like sending out good vibes and good feelings and little notes to other players, uh, that come in and then they just paid forward and continue to like talk about like.
00:35:16
Justin Chou
their day. And it's it's very interesting. It's all about like trying to spread positivity, which is a game like you you don't really see much like that or games with that concept. So it was cool. But if I was to think about other demos, like again, I think Katana zero, what was that like seven, six years ago, seven years ago, uh, was one of my most memorable.
00:35:38
Justin Chou
because there's a lot of stuff at packs that tends to be not so interesting for me, you know? but, uh,
00:35:42
jscerbo
Yeah. I mean, I remember playing the demo for like Shovel Knight and things like that, but it's almost like you knew that game was going to be good before you even played it, you know?
00:35:50
Justin Chou
What was that 2014?
00:35:52
jscerbo
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
00:35:52
Justin Chou
Oh my God. We're old as hell.
00:35:54
jscerbo
And I'm looking at some of the other answers that some of our users wrote. One of them here is Bastion. I played it at PAX when no one seemed to be interested in the game. Supergiant Spooth was essentially empty and it was a lot of fun.
00:36:05
jscerbo
My friends and I talked about it and I've since purchased the game on every system that I own.
00:36:09
Justin Chou
Oh my God, that's awesome.
00:36:09
jscerbo
That's pretty, that's fantastic.
00:36:11
Alex
yeah You know a really memorable demo that I never played?
00:36:14
jscerbo
Hmm.
00:36:15
Alex
I just remember the incredible hype for Evolve and the three-hour line that wrapped around the the studio at the convention hall.
00:36:21
Justin Chou
Oh.
00:36:24
Justin Chou
Yes.
00:36:28
Alex
And I know one of our team went and played it, and it just ended up being such a flop.
00:36:31
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:36:32
Justin Chou
Jamal.
00:36:33
Alex
But it was set there was so much hype around that game. There's a huge booth. And like yeah, that definitely sticks out.
00:36:37
jscerbo
Yeah, that was like this. Yeah, that whole generation, I feel like, was chock full of just interesting flops like that.
00:36:46
Justin Chou
yeah
00:36:46
Alex
Yeah.
00:36:47
jscerbo
Looking at some of these other ones, somebody said the Sea of Thieves beta, although technically not a demo, it certainly showcased the best parts of a game and maybe wants to buy it, slash sell it to all of my friends, sells and convince them to buy it.
00:36:59
jscerbo
That's an awesome point. And honestly, I probably would put betas you into this category because it is showing you the game
00:37:06
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:37:07
jscerbo
I had released, you know, like in an unfinished state.
00:37:08
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:37:11
jscerbo
And man, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of betas that I've been like excited to be a part of, not in quite some time. I'm trying to think back to the last like real demo or the last real data that I was like heavily involved with.
00:37:24
jscerbo
I don't know why.
00:37:25
Alex
It's like beta isn't early access. Like it gets a little fuzzy.
00:37:28
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:37:29
jscerbo
When I think beta, I think like invitation only type of thing.
00:37:32
jscerbo
Like you've been doing that with deadlocks basically. Like that's.
00:37:35
Justin Chou
But yeah, betas are more tests though. Demos are sales marketing materials, you know?
00:37:36
Alex
Yeah.
00:37:41
jscerbo
True, true. Yeah, there's a couple of other interesting ones in here.
00:37:44
Alex
Demba is a different art form, I think, than a
00:37:47
Justin Chou
Yeah, especially nowadays. Yeah. Like making them encapsulated and like trying to sell the game in like 30 minutes.
00:37:52
jscerbo
Yeah. Like making that perfect thin slice, it's challenging.
00:37:56
Justin Chou
Right. Yeah.
00:37:58
jscerbo
So somebody else said for honor, I got to play with some friends how it was meant to be played.
00:38:01
Justin Chou
Oh, for honor.
00:38:03
jscerbo
That was a cool game. We played that at E3 Justin.
00:38:05
Justin Chou
Yeah. All three of 2017, which I.
00:38:10
jscerbo
I think so. Yeah. That was where we met Shane. I want to say, was that that same year?
00:38:14
Justin Chou
Yeah, shame came. That was actually a big year. That was like also when, I mean, Alex, I know you're about to say something, so I'll make this quick.
00:38:18
Alex
That's okay, keep going.
00:38:20
Justin Chou
But your brother and I, Frank and I were talking about this yesterday and like 2017 E3 was like a quintessential event. I'm not sure if this is the right time to bring it up, but like,
00:38:27
jscerbo
Oh yeah.
00:38:31
Justin Chou
Like it was, uh, what Liz and her now husband came and like hanging out there. Shane met all of us there too. Frank met Ian, who then they ended up rooming here when he moved to LA.
E3 Memories and Lasting Friendships
00:38:43
Justin Chou
So that entire sense only happened because of like our trip to E3 in 2017.
00:38:48
jscerbo
There it is.
00:38:48
Justin Chou
Of which we also played for honor, which was also a good game at the time, but then it did flop, right? But that was because of server issues really.
00:38:55
jscerbo
Yeah, they just didn't treat that game correctly, I believe.
00:38:55
Alex
it Yeah, I should play that for a while. I bought that and played with some friends.
00:39:00
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:39:00
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:39:02
jscerbo
I've heard it like colloquially, it's it's genuinely an excellent game, but like the player base just wasn't supported in the way that it needed to be.
00:39:09
Alex
Yeah, that was a Ubisoft game and they just, you know, in the in the same way that like, Baldur's Gate is supported and like they talk to the community and like, that's really what you want.
00:39:17
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:39:18
Alex
just did none of that. So it's like there were issues that were never solved. And the game has such slick and crisp mechanics. But yeah, it just ended up dying for dumb reasons, like that for lack of support.
00:39:28
Justin Chou
Uh, that's so unfortunate.
00:39:30
Alex
Yeah.
00:39:31
Justin Chou
Like, I hope they take that game and they turn it into like a single player game or even like, uh, like the mechanics seems good.
00:39:31
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:39:36
Alex
I think it's still around like people. I'm pretty sure people still play it. It's got like kind of a cult following.
00:39:42
jscerbo
Yeah, all those Ubisoft games definitely still have a pretty consistent player base.
00:39:46
jscerbo
I know that, we'll call it Rainbow Six Siege, is still very hot.
00:39:50
Alex
Right.
00:39:51
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:39:51
jscerbo
All these games still live. All right, and then let's go into our last question of the survey. So have you participated in any large demo events? So we said things like Steam Next Fest had its own line, in-person events like PAX E3, EGX.
00:40:05
jscerbo
No, only available on storefronts or demo disks upfront, and then just yeah what's called a free play weekend. That's funny. ah This court keepers game. So 45% said that they attended some sort of in-person event like E3 or PAX or EGX. And then second most was 36% said that they've only played storefront demos or demo disks. And then 27% have participated in Steam Next Fest. So hopefully of our listeners, those that have not participated in Steam Next Fest yet, this is your chance.
00:40:41
jscerbo
This week, coming same here.
00:40:41
Justin Chou
This is gonna be my first time.
00:40:43
jscerbo
It's going to be awesome. I'm actually really, really excited because it seems like there's going to be a lot of cool stuff to be checking out.
00:40:46
Justin Chou
It, it does make sense that, uh, the most was attended events because we did pick up like 6,000 users at PAX East last year.
00:40:59
jscerbo
100%.
00:40:59
Justin Chou
ha Yeah.
00:40:59
jscerbo
Yeah, that is accurate. If you came to us from PAX, nice to have you. Thanks for sticking with us.
00:41:06
Justin Chou
Yeah. Thanks for opening the emails.
00:41:06
jscerbo
You're awesome.
00:41:08
Justin Chou
It means a lot.
00:41:08
jscerbo
Yeah, for real. All right. So for anyone that's interested in our Next House Hot Takes, keep an eye out for our next newsletter. It should be out this Friday. If you have any questions that you want to ask us or incorporate in the Next House Hot Takes, you can reach out to us on the Discord.
00:41:24
jscerbo
You can see all of the items on the top. You can either send us a message directly or you can Hit us up in but and any of the Discord channels with those requests. Okay, now before we get into the news, we we have a couple of news posts this week, nothing too crazy going on. But before we get into it, let's dive into what we're playing. Alex, it looks like you've spent a significant amount of time in Astrobot. Tell us about your journey.
Game Impressions: Astrobot and Zelda
00:41:55
jscerbo
How's it going so far?
00:41:56
Alex
Yeah, so I'm nearing the end of the game. um i It's been my the game that I've been playing over the last week. I mean, I love it. It's like it's a lot of fun.
00:42:10
Alex
Like really just clean graphics and like everything is very intentional, which I like all the little details.
00:42:17
jscerbo
Totally.
00:42:18
Alex
Things that I i really appreciate the sound effects, like the sound design are like, there's a part where you're, you have to like cut bamboo off with, you know, there's one section where you cut bamboo.
00:42:22
jscerbo
Oh, yeah.
00:42:27
jscerbo
I like the throwing stars and whatnot.
00:42:29
Alex
Yeah, and when you stand on top of them, it makes us like du but but boom boom like this just this great like this great little sound.
00:42:33
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:42:33
Justin Chou
Hahaha.
00:42:37
Alex
And those are normal. like They could have done nothing for that, right? they They could literally had no sound, and I wouldn't have noticed.
00:42:42
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:42:42
Alex
But they went through the effort of like adding something like that in and all these little moments like that.
00:42:48
jscerbo
It's like, it's so much attention to detail.
00:42:49
jscerbo
It's like, it's stuff like that where you realize like, man, they really actually cared, like a lot.
00:42:52
Justin Chou
Mm-hmm.
00:42:55
Alex
Yeah, and that really sets it apart. like Every aspect of this game is just like little extra bits and little extra details and designs and choices that you can tell they just they enjoyed making it. And that that really comes through.
00:43:10
Alex
it It's weird. I was going to say, like is it my game of the year? like It's definitely up there. I don't know even know what would beat it. I still think there's room for something to capture like my imagination a little bit more.
00:43:18
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:43:22
Alex
but it is an awesome game. Like it is just an awesome experience. Uh, that, uh, I do not rec or I don't regret picking up.
00:43:33
Alex
Yeah.
00:43:33
jscerbo
Yeah. How are you liking all the little references? Are you 100%ing all the levels as you go through them?
00:43:38
Alex
Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:43:39
jscerbo
Of course.
00:43:39
Alex
Uh, I mean, I can see this being.
00:43:40
jscerbo
It's like the only way to play a game like that.
00:43:41
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:43:42
jscerbo
you know
00:43:46
Alex
this feels like a game you would just be so in, because I don't have a lot of the references, like back catalogs, like every once in a while I'll be like, oh, that guy from that thing.
00:43:56
Alex
Or, you know, obviously the big, the big, right, the bigger ones I know, but there's so many other characters that just don't hit the same.
00:43:56
jscerbo
It's Dante. I know Dante. Yeah.
00:44:04
Alex
Like I maybe recognize them.
00:44:04
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:44:06
Alex
Some of them like, who the hell is that? And why am I getting like, like, why am I getting a, I don't know, finding an item for them or,
00:44:14
jscerbo
Yeah, the the deep cuts, the deep cuts go way deeper than I think most people are ready for. I mean, I so like I would say that I've got a fairly deep knowledge base when it comes to this stuff. And like there were at least like four or five that completely flew over my head that I was like, I just have no idea what the hell this is.
00:44:33
Alex
I almost wish there was like a little, like you find a, so you you find a ah bot and it's clearly a character. And then it shows you like a little, tea like cute teaser, like, yeah,
00:44:44
jscerbo
Yeah, like it won't say shadow of the Colossus, but it'll say darkness under the giant or something.
00:44:49
Justin Chou
Yeah, yeah.
00:44:51
Alex
it's a colossal effort, you know, something like that.
00:44:52
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:44:52
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:44:53
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:44:54
Alex
But sometimes I get to them and it's like, they're recognizable character, but I don't know who they are. I'm like, just tell me, like, I wish there was like a, like a reveal.
00:44:58
Justin Chou
yeah
00:44:59
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:45:01
Alex
Cause it's like, i I can't decipher it.
00:45:01
jscerbo
Yeah. there There's been a few times where I would take their like non-descript name and just throw it into Google and it looked like the first thing would just tell you who they are.
00:45:02
Justin Chou
Like a beast area.
00:45:07
Justin Chou
Oh, that's so funny.
00:45:09
Alex
that's for ads I just didn't want to put in that.
00:45:10
Justin Chou
Good effort.
00:45:11
Alex
I don't know. It's Yeah.
00:45:11
jscerbo
yeah Well, it got to the point where I recognized every single one up until this one. And I'm like, who the fuck is this? Come to find out that it's the main character of a PS1 game called Devil Dice. And I'm like, what the fuck is Devil Dice? I've never heard of that before, you know?
00:45:26
Alex
And they give them such like, there's so much care and attention. It's like, I feel like I should know this, but I definitely don't.
00:45:31
Alex
So
00:45:32
jscerbo
it it is funny.
00:45:32
jscerbo
I will say this is my own like crazy compulsion. There have been a number of games that I've seen in there that I was either familiar with or new ones that I became aware of. And just because they had a cameo in this game, like instantiates this level of significance in my mind where I'm like, I should play that game.
00:45:51
jscerbo
So I've I have since bought two retro games specifically because they had characters in this game.
00:45:51
Alex
it
00:45:56
jscerbo
And I was like, I just need to see what's in here.
00:45:56
Justin Chou
Haha.
00:45:57
Alex
You know what? I don't blame you because it's like it it rose to a certain level of significance to to make its case to be in this game. And that's kind of it's kind of fun to have that knowledge too.
00:46:07
jscerbo
Oh, for sure.
00:46:07
Alex
I kind of go back and check it out.
00:46:09
jscerbo
I think once you finish it, we should have a very lighthearted spoiler cast where we can just talk about some of the, uh, some of the stages and some of these characters. Cause like there's a lot to discuss around who was included, who wasn't included and things like that.
00:46:24
jscerbo
Like there's, there's a bigger conversation there for sure.
00:46:26
Alex
Some of them are definitely big and I'm like, I have no fucking idea who that is.
00:46:29
jscerbo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:31
Alex
And I feel like a bad gamer. But.
00:46:34
jscerbo
There's a few where like, as I was playing them, I'm like, specifically Alex would know who this is and he's going to be tickled that this person's in there. And there was a there Justin, there was a few for you where I was just like, yeah, he's going to see this and know right away.
00:46:46
jscerbo
Like it's going to, it's going to take no effort to understand who this is, you know?
00:46:50
Justin Chou
Yeah, I'm definitely going to try to be aligned through that game this weekend and probably into next because I definitely want to move on to other things.
00:46:51
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:46:58
Justin Chou
but
00:46:59
jscerbo
Yeah. You're, so you're still in progress on, uh,
00:46:59
Justin Chou
Alex. Hello. I mean, yeah, I haven't picked it up in a while, but Alex, how many hours have you, do you think you've played so far?
00:47:09
Alex
That's a good question. Less than 15, probably, like somewhere in that ballpark.
00:47:15
Justin Chou
Yeah, I'm hoping I do want to get everything though. And I do like the game and how it feels. I just haven't been able to sit down with it, but I do want that off my plate.
00:47:22
Alex
i'm doing it I'm doing everything. you know You can get most of it on one pass through. Sometimes you you know you miss it and you get really mad at yourself.
00:47:28
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:47:31
Justin Chou
Mm-hmm.
00:47:32
Alex
Like, how could I miss this?
00:47:32
Justin Chou
Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:34
Alex
But I think it's pretty quick.
00:47:37
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:47:39
Alex
You could definitely chunk it out. Like I don't spend, I haven't spent that long doing it. So I think you could, yeah, you get it done.
00:47:45
Justin Chou
Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, as far as what I'm playing, Astrobot is still like the main focus. Zelda, I'm not going to, I'm not going to allow myself to buy that game until I beat Astrobot. So, and I really do want Zelda, uh, echoes of wisdom.
00:47:59
Justin Chou
So that's what I'll move on to next, but I'm looking at this list, Justin, and it seems like you are already playing it.
00:48:05
jscerbo
Yeah, so I'm so moving through a couple of things. So the first thing that I want to hit is after after I finished my last volley of games on PlayStation. So after Astro Bot, you know, I'm just pulling up my list real quick. After Astro Bot, I blasted through this game, Jitsu Squad. I was playing with that. I was playing out with that. I was playing.
00:48:26
jscerbo
with Ali.
00:48:27
Justin Chou
Yep, yep, yep, yep.
00:48:27
jscerbo
Jeez, I can. eat Why can't I speak today? Ali and I were playing through that game and then finished in platinum to vampire survivors, which is cool, finished in platinum, the Marvel versus Capcom fighting collection, which was awesome.
00:48:40
jscerbo
And then at that point I was kind of like, okay, I've got plucky Squire that I could go back to, or maybe I could just knock out something else that's been like sitting on my stack for a while. And I looked at Hellblade, Senua's Sacrifice. I picked that up like months ago and I was like, I'm just going to like do this. Like I want to get some context around this. I think I bought it before Hellblade 2 came out because I was like,
00:49:02
jscerbo
So many people like this or had nice things to say about it. And so and it's kind of like novel that like this games out on PlayStation, but now the company's owned by Xbox. So there was like some kind of thread there. So I was like, I want to try this out. So I started finished and platinumed Hellblade.
00:49:21
Justin Chou
How'd you like it?
00:49:21
jscerbo
Honestly, and it was it was almost a leave it for me, to be honest.
00:49:25
Justin Chou
Really?
00:49:25
jscerbo
I thought I thought it was clever or not clever. I think it did a good job of presenting its narrative like the character like Senua is is really interesting.
00:49:38
jscerbo
But the way the game actually plays it's actually fairly like shallow. Like there's really not much game there like it is kind of like a moment to moment sort of thing. The combat is interesting but super repetitive.
00:49:50
Justin Chou
Mm hmm.
00:49:50
jscerbo
And like there's really no other mechanics to speak of it's like really soft puzzle solving between narrative moments.
00:49:55
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:49:59
jscerbo
So I was just like I don't know it like it wasn't very long. I think like start to finish it was like six hours or something like it was short. But yeah, I mean, like I guess it's like I get it from like an artistic perspective.
00:50:12
jscerbo
You know, they did all this like crazy like facial mocap and all this kind of stuff. So it's like interesting looking. But just in general, I'd say like as a compelling game, it's just like not really there.
00:50:24
jscerbo
You know what I mean? Like I wouldn't recommend it to myself. Like if I went back and was like, hey, should you play this game? It's like maybe just from an educational standpoint. But like I i wouldn't play it again.
00:50:35
jscerbo
You know what I mean?
00:50:35
Justin Chou
Yeah, I mean, oh, no, you go.
00:50:36
Alex
i i so I played this when it came out. I didn't end up finishing it for some reason, but um I remember playing it back in 2015, 2016, whenever that came out.
00:50:49
jscerbo
Yeah, it's old psychosis and all that.
00:50:50
Alex
Yeah. And I can definitely see where you're coming from. like I thought it had a really interesting take on like, I mean, it has a lot to do with like, almost like psychosis and like, you know, mental mental but mental health struggles and like, there's a lot of weird shit going on.
00:51:05
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:51:06
Alex
It's like creepy and strange and like, there's sort of a bizarreness to it that I think works in its favor. But outside of that, it's like it's kind of an art piece.
00:51:17
Alex
It's like an interesting story and visual design.
00:51:17
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:51:21
Alex
And the right the aesthetic is all there. But yeah, there's some I mean, there's some combat. But it's just sort of like everything like you said, it's a very light and like shallow and it's just there to kind of connect the dots.
00:51:28
jscerbo
Yeah, it's.
00:51:34
jscerbo
Yeah, it was it was trying. i I found that it was just trying to expand the like depth that you could reach with the medium because like the the whole the whole psychosis thing and this is like, you know, this tale has been told them a million times, but, you know, there's voices in her head.
00:51:49
jscerbo
so you're supposed to play the game with headphones on and you'll like hear the voices talking to you like as you're doing stuff so it kind of like simulates what she has going on and like during the combat it's like you know if somebody like swings at you from a direction that you're not facing you know one of the voices will say like behind you
00:51:55
Justin Chou
Oh, interesting.
00:52:06
jscerbo
or something like that.
00:52:07
Justin Chou
Oh, wow.
00:52:08
jscerbo
It'll kind of like you sort of have to pay attention to it. So it's like cool and interesting in that way. But from like a just, am I having fun right now? What do you say like smiles per minute Alex?
00:52:17
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:52:19
Alex
Yeah.
00:52:19
Justin Chou
Hahaha.
00:52:20
jscerbo
00 smiles per minute.
00:52:22
Justin Chou
s SPMs. I love that. Yeah.
00:52:24
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:52:24
Justin Chou
All right.
00:52:24
jscerbo
So that was my experience with Senua.
00:52:24
Justin Chou
Well, that's unfortunate.
00:52:26
jscerbo
It was, uh, it was cool. I could understand, you know, if the second game is similar to this, I think maybe it's time had passed and you know, you can't really play that trick twice.
00:52:31
Justin Chou
You stuff.
00:52:39
jscerbo
So yeah.
00:52:39
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:52:40
Alex
It's got a lane, but it's, yeah.
00:52:42
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:52:43
Justin Chou
I'm sorry if I missed this, but oh, keep going.
00:52:43
jscerbo
I think, yeah, go ahead.
00:52:46
Justin Chou
I was about to say, are you now i'm going to play the second one?
00:52:49
jscerbo
No, no, I don't really have any interest in it.
00:52:50
Justin Chou
Yeah, no. Okay.
00:52:51
jscerbo
Like I said, I like this was more of like a let me get my research together kind of thing.
00:52:53
Justin Chou
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:56
jscerbo
yeah, I really have no interest in playing the second one.
00:52:59
Justin Chou
Okay.
00:52:59
jscerbo
So where that brought me to that bridged me into, OK, now my palate is clean again, other than plucky squire, which I'll get back to at some point.
00:53:04
Justin Chou
Hmm.
00:53:07
jscerbo
So I was like, all right. Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Let's give it a shot. Let's you know, I had it pre ordered. So it was already like loaded onto my switch. I haven't turned on my switch in a while. So I was like, let's boot it up and let's play this game. So I started it up and and fell in love with it immediately. It's very it's so cute. And just It has that same feeling of the Link's Awakening remake, obviously, it's like same character, same like kind of humor and stuff.
00:53:29
Justin Chou
Yeah, yeah.
00:53:32
jscerbo
And the mechanic in this game is super interesting, like the capturing, it's sort of like copying different items and then placing them in the world. And there's all these like interactions between the different items that are fun.
00:53:43
jscerbo
And because you don't have a sword, it sort of changes the way that you interpret combat, like how do I fight this thing? How do I traverse, like all this sort of stuff. Uh, there's also a, like a default jump button, which is a little weird.
00:53:55
jscerbo
I think that might've been in links awakening as well. I don't remember.
00:53:58
Justin Chou
No, you had the feather in links awakening.
00:54:00
jscerbo
Yeah. So, so maybe that's definitely, uh, what's called uh, tip that it's taken from the breath of the wild games or something.
00:54:05
Justin Chou
Oh, wait, actually, was there, but you might be, I actually don't remember. I know in the game where you had the feather, but.
00:54:13
jscerbo
You had the feather. Yeah, rocks feather. Yeah. So i I don't know, but it seemed different to me. But but it was very cool. I enjoyed the I enjoyed the onboarding for that game.
00:54:26
jscerbo
It definitely has some switch stank all over it. You get into you get into the first town and that shit starts to chug like it drops your frame rates like 20 frames a second.
00:54:31
Justin Chou
What do you mean?
00:54:36
Justin Chou
Oh no!
00:54:37
jscerbo
It sucks. Yeah. I mean, when you're in the normal world, it's it's fine and you don't feel that at all, but in the towns, which are like, they're magical. It's the towns.
00:54:46
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:54:47
jscerbo
You know what I mean? It just starts to really get sloppy and that bothered me a lot. So i I got like maybe two hours into it and I was getting into a good flow state and i I already knew.
00:54:57
jscerbo
I was like, I'm loving every second of this. I'm enjoying the exploration. It's cool experimenting with different items, but I had to stop myself. I stopped myself because I was like, I, I cannot feel good about playing this game until I beat the last Zelda.
00:55:10
jscerbo
I was like, I was so fucking close. So I was like, I need to, I need to bookmark this and I need to go finish tears of the kingdom. I was like, I just have to go do that.
00:55:19
Justin Chou
Mhmm.
00:55:21
jscerbo
So I went back and I jumped back in tears of the kingdom.
00:55:25
Justin Chou
And.
00:55:25
jscerbo
And dude, I have been just slamming this game. I'm literally like before this podcast, I thought I would have been done with it. I'm standing in front of Ganon. I'm like ready to do it. You know what I mean? and I'm at like the segment of the final boss. I don't know. I don't even know who the final boss is, but I'm like right there. Right. And I will say in the last like.
00:55:46
jscerbo
hour or two of gameplay, the narrative has gotten way more interesting. Like totally like 180'd on me.
00:55:52
Justin Chou
really
00:55:56
jscerbo
I went from not giving a fuck about what was going on in this game to like genuinely actually interested, compelled, kind of put in awe by what they were able to do with this story and these characters in this world.
00:56:09
jscerbo
I was like, that's cool. Like they actually did something pretty bold. And I was like, that's cool. Like, I appreciate the effort that went on here and like what you've done.
00:56:16
Justin Chou
Really? Hmm.
00:56:19
jscerbo
So like, stoked on that and like now very compelled to see this last ah this last leg of the journey through. So after this podcast, I'm going to finish Cheers of the Kingdom, put a pin in that.
00:56:31
jscerbo
I'm going to feel awesome that I finally put that game to bed and then I'm going to go back in and enjoy my dessert, which is going to be Zelda Echoes of Wisdom.
00:56:38
Justin Chou
Uh, echoes. Alex, did you ever beat tears of the kingdom?
00:56:43
Alex
No, and I don't really plan to.
00:56:45
Justin Chou
Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:46
jscerbo
Hmm. Did you get the master sword?
00:56:47
Justin Chou
i just
00:56:49
Alex
I think I just got, I got, yeah I got the master sword and then I, I met the volcano, the base of volcan the volcano, the Goron village.
00:56:56
jscerbo
Uh, okay. But you did get the master sword.
00:56:58
Alex
Yeah.
00:56:59
jscerbo
Did you get all the tears and everything?
00:57:02
Alex
The, I don't remember.
00:57:04
jscerbo
Okay. Okay.
00:57:05
Alex
problem I got a lot.
00:57:06
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:57:06
Alex
I might be, i'm close I'm not that far from the end, but it just wasn't doing it for me.
00:57:09
jscerbo
Okay.
00:57:11
Alex
And while there's a part of me that feels compelled to play it, i it's not that big.
00:57:17
jscerbo
Yeah, no, this this is this is absolutely the incendiary in me.
00:57:17
Alex
I got other stuff to play.
00:57:20
jscerbo
It's like I have to I have to and finish my meal. You know what I mean? Like I started it.
00:57:24
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:57:25
jscerbo
I need to like I just have to I can't not, you know.
00:57:30
Alex
Like I'm just, like I feel it, but it's also like, I don't want to put another 20 hours into this, you know?
00:57:35
Justin Chou
yeah
00:57:36
jscerbo
See, I think that's the thing that got me to where I am because I'm like I'm I know I'm inside two hours of finishing this game. Like I know it for facts like I'm right there.
00:57:46
Justin Chou
Can I, can I tell you I've flirted with the idea? Cause I do want to know what happens. I flirted with the idea of like, you can type in movie after any game and they'll just cut out all of the major parts and all of the cinematics.
00:57:59
Justin Chou
Sometimes it's like a five hour long video. I'm very close to just watching that.
00:58:05
jscerbo
Wow.
00:58:06
Justin Chou
I know, I know.
00:58:06
jscerbo
Wow. I mean, you could do that. Like, listen, you live your best life.
00:58:11
Justin Chou
I just, I don't want to, I don't want to play the game. It's like, I remember seeing you play with the little ah spirits following around and I just couldn't do it. And I was just like, I totally remember this being a big part of, I hate, I hate them.
00:58:19
Alex
Oh, I forgot about the spirits, yeah.
00:58:20
jscerbo
Yeah.
00:58:22
Justin Chou
They ruined the game.
00:58:22
jscerbo
Yeah. No, I, I, I don't, I don't like them either. It is not a cool thing.
00:58:25
Justin Chou
I would like turn them off unless I needed them. And then I would go through the menus to turn them back on and then put them back in their box, like a little Pokeball. And I was like, what am I even doing? This doesn't feel like the breath. I would rather play breath of the wild again than play this game.
00:58:37
jscerbo
Yeah, yeah, it's understandable, it's understandable.
00:58:41
Alex
All right, let's move it along.
00:58:43
Justin Chou
Yeah.
00:58:44
jscerbo
oh All right, so there will be more Zelda echoes of wisdom to discuss next week. But for now, let's get into some of these news topics.
PlayStation Pricing Strategies
00:58:54
jscerbo
First up, PlayStation has increased the price of Horizon Zero Dawn just ahead of its PlayStation 5 upgrade.
00:59:06
jscerbo
So the story goes, place called Horizon Zero Dawn, the complete edition, had been sitting at twenty dollars for like a very long time, like multiple years. And it was also included free in the PS Plus collection. It was a PlayStation ah Days Days of Play title, like all this kind of stuff.
00:59:25
jscerbo
And then just before the game came out, they have bumped the price of the PS4 version to $40. Now, this is obviously because the PS5 version is a $10 upgrade from the PS4 version and they're selling the PS5 version at $50. So they took this game that was sitting at 20 and just bumped it right back up to, you know, added $20 to that price tag just ahead of this release. Honestly, I'm not surprised.
00:59:55
jscerbo
But yeah, I don't know. I mean, what do you guys think about this a little scummy, little scummy?
01:00:01
Alex
a I mean, yeah, it feels shitty and the optics are bad, but they kind of have to.
01:00:06
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:00:07
Alex
because otherwise you're gonna, you could just buy the old version for 20 bucks and then you have like a brand new game for, well, quote unquote brand new game, like the remaster for $30. So it sucks, but like, I don't really see another way around it.
01:00:17
jscerbo
Yeah. No, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
01:00:24
Justin Chou
The only time that I've seen PlayStation or games prices go up like retroactively have been, I think cyberpunk was the only time that I've actually felt that.
01:00:32
Alex
That's what I was gonna say.
01:00:34
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:00:34
Justin Chou
You know what I mean?
01:00:34
Alex
Yeah.
01:00:34
Justin Chou
It was like, oh, you liked edge runners?
01:00:35
Alex
Yeah.
01:00:37
Justin Chou
Well, guess what? That $10 game, you're going to buy it at 40 now.
01:00:40
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:00:40
Justin Chou
And I was like, no, I was literally looking at this yesterday.
01:00:43
Alex
That was pretty funny.
01:00:44
jscerbo
The literally $10 and I remember seeing it drop the $10 and I was like, I just have to buy it now.
01:00:49
jscerbo
Like it's like even for a broke ass game, like how do you not?
01:00:49
Justin Chou
Yeah, right.
01:00:54
Alex
did
01:00:54
jscerbo
It's $10.
01:00:55
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:00:55
Alex
Didn't you buy the didn you buy a physical version for like 10 bucks?
01:00:56
jscerbo
I do. Yeah, I still have it. still haven't played that game, still haven't played it, which honestly, it's probably, maybe that'll be my first PS5 Pro game.
01:01:03
Alex
that's funny.
01:01:07
Justin Chou
That's funny.
01:01:07
Alex
I mean, it's supposed to be
01:01:08
jscerbo
But it would,
01:01:08
Justin Chou
Probably run really well.
Cyberpunk's Engine Shift and PS5 Chaos
01:01:09
Alex
amazing.
01:01:10
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:01:10
jscerbo
yeah, but it would run amazing.
01:01:12
jscerbo
I wonder if they would actually patch it for PS5 Pro, that'd be pretty cool.
01:01:16
Justin Chou
Maybe eventually. I don't know. CD Projekt is right. What are they making next? Have they announced anything new?
01:01:21
Alex
Yeah. Witcher four or whatever they're going to call it.
01:01:23
Justin Chou
That's been like announced, announced?
01:01:24
Alex
Yeah.
01:01:25
Justin Chou
Oh, okay, cool.
01:01:26
Alex
They show like a, one of the amulets, like the cat amulet.
01:01:29
jscerbo
Yeah. And I think they also said that they dropped their, uh, which called their red engine, like the engine that they made to build cyberpunk badly.
01:01:31
Justin Chou
Son of a bitch.
01:01:37
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:01:37
Alex
They're, they're not using that.
01:01:39
jscerbo
No, they dropped it entirely.
01:01:39
Alex
I forgot about that.
01:01:41
jscerbo
Yeah. I think they moved it to unreal five.
01:01:43
Alex
Huh.
01:01:44
jscerbo
All right.
01:01:44
Alex
That'll look different.
01:01:45
jscerbo
It will look different.
01:01:46
Alex
The jankiness is kind of it's part of his charm in a bad way.
01:01:49
Justin Chou
i Really?
01:01:53
jscerbo
All right, while we're in PlayStation camp. So this I thought was really interesting. So we know about the PlayStation five pre-order. Oh wait, that, did that happen since our last show?
01:02:04
jscerbo
It did.
01:02:04
Alex
I know we didn't talk about that at all.
01:02:06
jscerbo
Oh yeah. So the PlayStation five pre-order happened. I was one of the lucky few. I got that bundle. I can't believe I got that bundle.
01:02:13
Justin Chou
Oh, that was, yeah, that was last Friday.
01:02:15
jscerbo
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:16
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:02:16
Alex
You were one of, how did you get it?
01:02:17
Alex
What was your, maybe you don't want to review your secrets on air, but.
01:02:20
jscerbo
Now i'm I'm happy to reveal it because frankly, it was a total fluke. I literally just had six browser windows open. I downloaded six browsers and had all of them up separately.
01:02:30
Justin Chou
Hmm.
01:02:31
jscerbo
And then I had two browsers on my phone. I had like Safari and Chrome or whatever on my phone.
01:02:34
Justin Chou
Crumb. Yeah.
01:02:36
jscerbo
every single one of them was so basically starting at like eight in the morning or like seven in the morning I just started opening the page like the the direct page and then like refreshing the queue because like once you logged in like it had you go through the queue and the queue existed since like the turn of midnight but the queue would only be like a minute to get into the actual thing but then once you were in the store it would time you out after 15 minutes or so so i would keep refreshing them and i did them all at different intervals so it's like one like the second that one went in then i would i would prompt this one and i would see the the meter go up.
01:03:07
Justin Chou
Mm.
01:03:13
jscerbo
So this was, and I would see every time I tried to reenter the time to get into the store would extend. It would say like 20 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago, and it's so all leading up to the launch time at like 10 a.m. or whatever. And it was around that time, like, Alex, when I was talking to you and Liz, we were timing out that thing and it was at 915 that I was like, OK,
01:03:36
jscerbo
I when I prompted it at nine o'clock, it said 30 minutes. So I'm like, Okay, that means if it if it if the doors open at 10, realistically, the number of people that will add to the queue plus the already existing wait time, if you prompted at like 910 915, it would probably queue at that time. But the part that I didn't expect was at 930, they froze the lines for everybody. So anybody who was in the queue, it wasn't that 35 minutes, it paused the line entirely. And I think they did that on purpose to drip feed everyone in. But the thing that I couldn't
01:04:16
jscerbo
The reason why I wasn't responding when it first came out is because one of my browsers at that time had already been in process and the meter was like almost all the way filled when they froze the line.
01:04:27
jscerbo
So when they unfroze the line and for everyone it said like in our wait time, mine said one minute until Q.
01:04:31
Justin Chou
Yeah, more than an hour. Yeah. Wow.
01:04:34
Alex
Whoa.
01:04:35
jscerbo
And I was like, holy shit, like totally, total fluke, total fluke, no way that it would have happened otherwise. But it was just one of my six browsers said,
01:04:42
Alex
You must have been like top 50 people. i get
01:04:46
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:04:46
jscerbo
Well, I did like so somebody did the math on it and I saw so 12,000 like ah bundles or whatever.
01:04:53
Justin Chou
30th.
01:04:55
jscerbo
That's 1% of 1% of the entire player base of.
01:04:55
Justin Chou
30th anniversary.
01:05:01
jscerbo
of PlayStation fives. So there's 60 million PS fives in circulation.
01:05:02
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:05:05
jscerbo
So you take 1% of that and that's like whatever like, you know, 12, it will like 120,000 units.
01:05:09
Alex
6 million, that's 10%, 600,000.
01:05:13
jscerbo
And then 1% of that 12,000 units. It's like nuts. It's crazy.
01:05:18
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:05:18
jscerbo
It's insane.
01:05:20
Justin Chou
Super jealous man. It looks so sick. It looks so sick.
01:05:22
jscerbo
i
01:05:23
Justin Chou
I'm, I'm happy I got the controller, but still so sick.
01:05:25
jscerbo
The controller's dope. I did also get a portal. I don't know why I just, I just could. I was like, let me just get this and I'm maybe I'll hold onto it. I don't know if people are reselling it or anything.
01:05:33
Justin Chou
I mean, it's a 30th anniversary edition. Like there's, they're not making more of them. And if they do make more of them, I will be buying it, but like, otherwise.
01:05:38
Alex
Wait, is the, is the portal 30th edition?
01:05:39
jscerbo
I. Yeah, so the the, so the, the base, the regular edge controller, the, or the regular controller, the edge controller, the pro. The slim and the, the, uh, what's called portal are all.
01:05:56
jscerbo
30th anniversary.
01:05:56
Justin Chou
35. Yeah.
01:05:58
jscerbo
From my understanding, all of the retailers are going to get the PS five slim and the dual sense controller.
01:05:58
Alex
Wow.
01:06:06
jscerbo
But I think the edge, the portal and the PS five were exclusive to the first drop on PlayStation Direct.
01:06:12
Justin Chou
Hmm.
01:06:14
jscerbo
So it's like those were like the special special ones.
01:06:16
Justin Chou
Do the coolest thing about the console 30th anniversary edition, like the PS five pro is that they're actually numbered.
01:06:23
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:06:23
Justin Chou
They're actually numbered. And I was like, when I saw that and like it's engraved on the, uh, on the shell, I guess on the, one of the c flaps, I'm like, damn, I want that so much more now.
01:06:34
jscerbo
Yeah, it's pretty, it's definitely really cool. I feel ridiculously lucky and now I'm like, I don't, do I open it? I feel like, like I want to use it. I genuinely think it looks awesome.
01:06:43
Justin Chou
Yeah, you should use it. I mean, you can clean it as long as it's not going to get banged up unless it does.
01:06:44
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:06:47
jscerbo
Just going to leave that plastic on the front.
01:06:48
Alex
You're a gamer first and a collector second.
01:06:50
jscerbo
Yeah. Pretty much actually. Yeah.
01:06:53
Justin Chou
I don't know, man.
01:06:53
jscerbo
Uh,
01:06:54
Justin Chou
If, if they make, if i I mean, if I was thinking about this too, it was like, if I get a PS five pro and they make some like D brand or some shit and makes the same colors, I would buy that the colors look so cool.
01:07:05
jscerbo
du It would it will 100% happen. I wouldn't doubt that for one second.
01:07:09
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:07:11
jscerbo
That's absolutely going to happen.
01:07:12
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:07:13
jscerbo
So this is interesting. So this stuff tells into this new story. So when preorders went live, it was obviously a fiasco. It was an absolute nightmare to get into that queue.
01:07:23
jscerbo
Like I said, you you sure heard all the hoops that were jumped through to make this kind of stuff happen. So these systems have not gone live in Japan yet. So what I think is there's 12,000 units and they had certain allocations for the UK, a certain allocation for the US s and a certain allocation for Japan. So Japan's have not gone live yet. I believe they go live, says October 14th.
01:07:50
Justin Chou
It's so weird that it's going live later than the US.
01:07:53
jscerbo
Yeah, I don't understand it either. But the way that they're hosting their pre-owners, and this I think is absolutely fascinating. So for the US, no restrictions.
01:08:04
jscerbo
You've got jerks like me with six browser windows open trying to make it happen. There's no restrictions on these things.
01:08:07
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:08:09
jscerbo
Well, it was one one unit per customer, but that was kind of like the basis.
01:08:12
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:08:14
jscerbo
So in Japan, what they're doing is they're adding a stipulation onto your ability to purchase these items, which is you need to have a PlayStation playstation network account that has at least 30 hours of activity logged on PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4.
01:08:32
Justin Chou
Oh, interesting to avoid scalpers.
01:08:34
jscerbo
which i to avoid scalpers and I think that is so awesome because like there was almost part of me that's like I wish there was a like a trophy requirement or something like some level of indication for like your dedication to the platform that like shows that like you're the target demographic for this thing rather than just some eBay jerk picking it up you know.
01:08:35
Justin Chou
That makes sense.
01:08:39
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:08:57
jscerbo
So this at least moves in that direction and I think that that's such a cool idea like very very
01:09:00
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:09:01
Alex
There's part of me that wants to be mad about this for some reason, but I can't figure out a reason why it's a bad idea.
01:09:08
jscerbo
You can be mad that they didn't do this for the U.S. They should have done this for the U.S.
01:09:11
Justin Chou
yeah
01:09:12
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:09:14
Alex
that is out i
01:09:14
jscerbo
So it's.
01:09:15
Alex
I'd love to be in the room when they decided like, why 30 hours? you know like what How did they figure that number out?
01:09:19
Justin Chou
Yeah It's at least two games maybe at least one Yeah Yeah
01:09:19
jscerbo
Hmm.
01:09:23
jscerbo
They're like, so they didn't even finish the Witcher.
01:09:23
Alex
Or one good one.
01:09:25
jscerbo
They didn't even finish.
01:09:25
Alex
yeah or you They didn't even get halfway through.
01:09:27
jscerbo
They didn't. It's like they so they played God of War and a little bit more like.
01:09:32
Alex
Yeah, that's that's that must be like the average, the the low end of the bell curve for average time spent on their console or something.
01:09:33
jscerbo
Yeah, it's funny.
01:09:39
jscerbo
Oh yeah. I mean, they absolutely have that data. So they're probably like, okay, like people, like people don't start getting hardcore until this point, you know,
01:09:42
Alex
Yeah.
01:09:47
Justin Chou
How many scalpers right now have bought a PS five, like a regular, and then just have it on for a day, basically.
01:09:48
Alex
Yeah.
01:09:51
jscerbo
Oh, it just turned it on.
01:09:53
Alex
I would.
01:09:54
jscerbo
Yeah, I'd say it.
01:09:54
Alex
Yeah, absolutely.
01:09:55
Justin Chou
Yeah. Right. and Yeah.
01:09:55
jscerbo
That's it. That's it. Listen, when the game changes, when the game changes, you change with it.
01:09:57
Alex
They shouldn't have announced this. Why did they announce it?
01:09:58
Justin Chou
Right. That's so funny.
01:10:01
jscerbo
But yeah, very.
01:10:02
Alex
They should have announced that at 29 hours before launch.
01:10:05
Justin Chou
That would have been fucking hilarious.
01:10:06
jscerbo
Now. Yes. Yes. Hilarious. So yeah, pretty cool. We'll see how it all shakes out then. Justin, you just have to make a Japanese PlayStation account.
01:10:16
Justin Chou
I was, I was like, how badly do I want this? Don't you'd probably need a Japanese address as well.
01:10:22
Alex
VPN.
01:10:23
jscerbo
Hit up your friend Summer.
01:10:23
Justin Chou
No, I mean, like, like actually, yeah.
01:10:24
Alex
Oh, like actual address.
01:10:24
jscerbo
like You've got friends in Japan.
01:10:26
Justin Chou
Where's it going to? Uh, it's going to California. Uh, yeah.
01:10:30
Alex
Get a PO box.
01:10:31
Justin Chou
What'd you say?
01:10:32
jscerbo
I said, you've got friends in Japan, we've got friends in Japan. Just be like, listen, man.
01:10:35
Justin Chou
Yo, avalanche.
01:10:36
jscerbo
Yeah, be like be like Jared, we need you to we need you to do this for us, it's very important.
01:10:39
Justin Chou
Yeah. So the key is six browsers. Can you do that for me?
01:10:44
jscerbo
Six browsers. All right, we got two more pieces of news. We're gonna save the best for last. So next, we got an update on Assassin's Creed Shadows, the upcoming feudal Japan-centric Assassin's Creed game.
01:11:01
Justin Chou
yeah
01:11:02
jscerbo
So this game was originally targeted to come out. I think it was actually this month. Yeah, and it got pushed all the way back to February 14.
01:11:08
Alex
This month or next? Yeah.
01:11:13
jscerbo
That was the new release date. So bought a couple more months. Odd that this would happen shortly after the announcement of Yotei.
01:11:20
Justin Chou
Yeah. Hmm.
01:11:23
jscerbo
But
01:11:23
Alex
Kind of a bad luck, right?
01:11:25
jscerbo
Definitely a bad look. I feel like there's just a lot going on at Ubisoft
Industry Speculations and Ubisoft's Challenges
01:11:31
Justin Chou
Ubisoft specifically. Yeah.
01:11:31
jscerbo
that just, yeah, that's just raising some eyebrows.
01:11:35
jscerbo
It's, yeah.
01:11:36
Justin Chou
They're underselling like crazy, aren't they? And like not doing well. A lot of people are asking questions and then to have like a delay of like a major IP like this, it's like, uh, and it's going to be in the next year, which means that it's not going to even like make it for the, the current, like, I don't know, earnings report.
01:11:53
Justin Chou
It's going to look like shit.
01:11:55
jscerbo
it's It's absolutely gonna look like shit. I mean, this is one of their biggest movers, you know, there there is some interesting comments.
01:11:59
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:12:02
jscerbo
So this was in a press release from Ubisoft. I don't know if you guys click the link in there, but there's some very fascinating comments at the bottom.
01:12:06
Justin Chou
Mm hmm.
01:12:09
jscerbo
After they announced this delay, they're talking about how like they're basically disappointed with their like earnings over the last couple of quarters. And there's this final comment here from Yves Guimont, the co-founder and CEO. And he says, finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately.
01:12:35
jscerbo
I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment first company creating games for the broadest possible audience. And our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy." Just kind of a weird comment to close their thing out with. Like, what are you talking about?
01:12:58
Justin Chou
What is the polarized comments I need to know?
01:13:00
jscerbo
Well, that's what I mean, like like saying like, is it because there's a black eye in this Assassin's Creed shadows game? So they think that it's some kind of like woke thing.
01:13:08
Justin Chou
But apparently,
01:13:10
Alex
Were they but they talking about outlaws? Because there's a lot of talk about how that game and how it's not doing so great.
01:13:18
jscerbo
Well, that game was just crap, wasn't it?
01:13:19
Alex
And I don't and i don't know if she would.
01:13:20
jscerbo
I thought it it just released in a fairly broken state. Why do I feel like Liz would know way more about this than we would?
01:13:27
Justin Chou
Cause she loves Assassin's Creed. No, I'm just joking.
01:13:28
jscerbo
It does.
01:13:29
Justin Chou
I don't think she would.
01:13:31
Alex
Yeah, this is I know Kyle. Is it Bossman? Is that how you pronounce his name?
01:13:33
jscerbo
yeah Yes.
01:13:34
Justin Chou
Yeah, bossman.
01:13:35
Alex
Yeah, he had a whole thing on this, too, in one of his most recent videos. But it's yeah it it's kind of baffling and like the way that they're speaking about this and the way that they're approaching this this delay.
01:13:47
jscerbo
Well, that kind of comment just reads to me like you're speaking from the back foot. You know what I mean? Like, you're trying to make up for something bad that happened. And it's like, no, man, you like you you you addressed it, like don't address it.
01:14:01
jscerbo
Like just, just make good things. and Nobody will care.
01:14:04
Alex
it it It's in such PR speak, too.
01:14:05
jscerbo
you know Yeah.
01:14:09
Alex
Yeah, it's just really, it's like nothing, and like a nothing burger.
01:14:12
Justin Chou
Uh, so on games radar, they do go into this a little more. It says for full transparency. It's worth noting that. Gail Mont, uh, didn't explicitly link the polarized comments he addressed with the blowback to Assassin's Creed shadows. But it's safe to say that what he's referring to is, uh,
01:14:32
Justin Chou
Commenting on the issue is, uh, is doing anything to diffuse the controversy around, uh, Yusuke and shift the con conversation away from his ethnicity and towards the game itself and the lead up to the recently delayed, you know, February 14th game.
01:14:38
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:14:45
jscerbo
Yeah, yeah, so so it is about the there's a black there's a black eye in this game.
01:14:46
Justin Chou
Yeah. Stupid.
01:14:49
Alex
Yeah.
01:14:50
jscerbo
It's just it is it is real.
01:14:50
Justin Chou
Yeah, but that's real. isn't I mean, there was, it's historically accurate.
01:14:53
jscerbo
It's like, but just move forward by by addressing it. It's just like, you know, it's drawing attention to something that you weren't trying to draw attention to in the first place.
01:15:02
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:15:02
jscerbo
Now you did the bad thing. Like you did the thing that you didn't want people to notice you for, you know.
01:15:07
Justin Chou
I mean, do you think he's, he's catering to the investors who may be people who don't like, like woke slash like progressive agendas, you know? And like, so they think that all of these comments are shedding Ubisoft and like a woke company light.
01:15:21
Justin Chou
And so he's trying to make an, uh, he's trying to address that and saying like, listen, we're not doing that. It's just about making good games. I mean, he's doing this for the stakeholders, I'm assuming.
01:15:29
jscerbo
Oh, for sure.
01:15:29
Justin Chou
I know.
01:15:30
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:15:30
Justin Chou
Definitely.
01:15:30
jscerbo
I mean, it's definitely a public comment and they are a publicly traded company. So I don't know. It it just seemed like kind of weak, you know, kind of misinformed.
01:15:38
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:15:40
jscerbo
I don't know.
01:15:41
Justin Chou
Hmm.
01:15:41
Alex
Uh, on the, uh, on the more tangible side of things, like, uh, they pushed it to February, which is actually a pretty stacked month.
01:15:47
Justin Chou
Haha.
01:15:51
Alex
so like quick, quick list here, like civilization seven kingdom cup deliverance too. Okay. Assassin's Creed shadows, but then you have a vowed, like a dragon, the game that I won't play and monster hunter wilds.
01:16:04
Alex
Like those are all coming out within like two or three weeks of each other.
01:16:08
Justin Chou
Oh, damn.
01:16:08
jscerbo
Yeah, monster monster hunter wilds is going to suck up all the oxygen in the room, I think.
01:16:13
Justin Chou
Can I say as a side has a side, much harder wilds definitely will. I've been watching more videos on a vowed. I kind of, I'm kind of interested in it. It's looking kind of, it's looking really good.
01:16:21
Alex
Yeah, why not?
01:16:22
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:16:24
jscerbo
Okay.
01:16:25
Alex
Yeah. Good studio. Most cool. Good ideas.
01:16:29
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:16:29
Alex
Nice cover art. What's not to like?
01:16:30
Justin Chou
It comes out 10 days before monster hunters. So I'll get at least 10 days worth of gaming out of that before I put it away forever and never, never play it again.
01:16:35
Alex
That's right.
01:16:38
jscerbo
That is it. All right. Let's get into this last topic. Another interesting one that I wish that was here for, but she'll be back next week.
01:16:46
Alex
We can talk about it again.
01:16:48
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:16:49
jscerbo
So there has been an update about details regarding the story of Kingdom Hearts 4.
Kingdom Hearts 4 Reboot Discussion
01:16:55
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:16:55
jscerbo
I'm just going to read this article from ScreenRant. It says, Kingdom Hearts 4 director Tetsuya Nomura has revealed that the next game in the series won't be a direct sequel so much as a total story reboot.
01:17:07
jscerbo
The Kingdom Hearts series has, especially since recent entries, become notorious for its convoluted lore. Its it's impenetrable naming conventions and willingness to hop between A classic collection of Disney movies doesn't help, not to mention it's a penchant for Final Fantasy cameos. Kingdom Hearts 4 doesn't have an official release window yet, but its earliest details have been revealed in a new interview with Tetsuya Nomura. So this is interesting.
01:17:40
Justin Chou
Hmm.
01:17:41
jscerbo
I mean, I think everyone would agree that nobody knows what the hell's going on with Kingdom Hearts, just in general, you know, narrative or otherwise.
01:17:46
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:17:51
jscerbo
Maybe they're trying to make it standalone. You know, I feel like I remember a conversation that Nemora had where he was talking about how heavily Kingdom Hearts was leaning on Disney and Final Fantasy to do the heavy lifting for it.
01:18:05
jscerbo
Like that's why there was a lot of Final Fantasy in the first game and like significantly less in the games that followed to to zero in three.
01:18:10
Justin Chou
Like none in front of MC. I mean, can yeah, right.
01:18:13
Alex
I don't think there was any in 3, right?
01:18:14
jscerbo
None zero other than a moogle.
01:18:15
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:18:17
jscerbo
There was a moogle at the end. But I know that that was an effort to distance that like that character, you know, the character of Sora and his role in the story from the rest.
01:18:29
jscerbo
And I think maybe that that's intentional. So going into a reboot like this, I I wouldn't say that I'm opposed to it. But I'm also highly skeptical that they would be able to stick the landing on a complete reboot when we're this deep into these characters.
01:18:43
jscerbo
Like, how are you going to touch on? ah ah Like, I would imagine you're not going to retcon every character. You know, people still care about Roxas and Aqua and Xehanort and all this shit like, you know what I it mean?
01:18:55
Justin Chou
Uh, if you scroll down a little bit, it even says like what they know about the story. It's like, by the way, yeah, other series main characters like Tara, Ventus, Aqua, and Roxas will play diminished roles in kingdom hearts four.
01:19:06
Justin Chou
So they might be not really play. They might be revamping the entire story. I don't know.
01:19:12
jscerbo
It's gonna be called Kingdom Hearts 4, a boy named Sora.
01:19:13
Alex
Yeah.
01:19:15
Justin Chou
yeah
01:19:17
Alex
I have to assume it's going to look sort of like what DC and Marvel do when their storylines get too freaking convoluted and a mess that they just wipe this like clean. And like, you'll see all the characters that you know, and there's like the story resembles, you know, what you know and love, but they're going to go in another direction. I don't know if it really works for this. I mean, marsh I don't know. It's like such a mess. And the.
01:19:42
Alex
The third one didn't really have a good direction at all.
01:19:46
jscerbo
It also didn't really like land in a good place at the end.
01:19:50
Alex
so like, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think, I don't know. Maybe they'll have other, like it'll be Disney and square characters and I don't know that square is characters and another crossover.
01:20:05
Alex
I don't know. Like you could, they got to jazz it up at some point and like, it can't just, you can't just keep running up the same thing.
01:20:10
jscerbo
Yeah, I mean, the shame is is, and this is just for me personally, but my entire appeal to Kingdom Hearts in the first place was the crossover of Final Fantasy and Disney. It was just a very unique novel.
01:20:20
Alex
Yeah, so weird.
01:20:23
jscerbo
I can't believe this is actually happening kind of situation.
01:20:26
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:20:27
jscerbo
And the character Sora I did think was pretty cool. But the greater story of Kingdom Hearts, I would say, like I mean, I know that I would not be agreed with by any fan, but it's like what I find to be the least compelling part of the game.
01:20:30
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:20:42
jscerbo
It's it's just too much like I like the kind like the action combat of it. I like that you can exchange the different abilities and stuff. And I did like, you know, the Final Fantasy member varies like that.
01:20:55
jscerbo
was That was fun.
01:20:56
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:20:57
jscerbo
So to reset it and have it just I don't know what the focus is going to be. Why do I why am I like projecting? You know, Sora wakes up and there's like a storybook next to him called Kingdom Hearts.
01:21:09
jscerbo
And like but all the other games are just this storybook that he was reading or something, you know.
01:21:11
Justin Chou
Dude.
01:21:13
Justin Chou
It doesn't sound like, it doesn't sound like you're wrong. Like later in the article, it does say like, no more explains during a young jump interview. It's not, it's not not so much a perfect recreation of Tokyo. He's talking about Kingdom Hearts four and the city that is apparently called quadratum. And then he's like, but quote unquote, but an unreality in reality.
01:21:32
jscerbo
Yeah, that sounds exactly right.
01:21:33
Alex
See, they they can't help themselves. They can't help themselves.
01:21:37
jscerbo
yeah
01:21:37
Justin Chou
He goes on and it's like a lot of people like what this article is speculating screen rent is saying that could there be a split like a divergence almost like how ocarina time is I think that's what they're going to ocarina of time is for the the zell Legend of Zelda timeline right where it like diverges into multiple timelines where this one is like could it be something about Sora's opening line when he says is any of this for real or not
01:21:47
jscerbo
Yeah.
01:21:50
jscerbo
tabline
01:22:02
Justin Chou
So they they might do the whole like I woke up in a hospital and I was in a coma for three years paying them hearts for I don't know
01:22:02
Alex
Come on.
01:22:07
jscerbo
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know either. It's, it's weird. I mean, it's definitely a weird thing, but you know what? I, while I am no stand for this series, I also feel compelled to play the numbered entries, ah you know, like I didn't play dream drop distance or birth by sleep or three to one, whatever.
01:22:23
Justin Chou
same I'll buy them I don't know if I'll play them
01:22:24
Alex
i
01:22:29
jscerbo
Like I didn't play any of those games. I played chain of memories for like a second, but it's really,
01:22:34
Justin Chou
That was because it came out like directly after kingdom hearts too. And everybody was still on that kingdom hearts too high.
01:22:39
jscerbo
Yeah, exactly. But like now, like I'm kind of like I always just want to know because I have enough skin in the game to want to see it through. But I mean, this doesn't move me in one direction or the other.
01:22:53
Justin Chou
Yeah.
01:22:54
Alex
I mean, Sorry, Sorry, um you know I, we are kind of giving it shit, but this actually kind of makes me more compelled to play the next one because I bought three and barely played it because it was, and there's some mechanical issues too, like just the way that the game flowed and it just felt like an old game, but the overall story, like it's so convoluted and so messy.
01:23:03
jscerbo
OK.
01:23:06
Justin Chou
Same.
01:23:17
Alex
And so like you feel it every step of the way where there's just all these names and characters and cloaks and
01:23:23
jscerbo
Yeah, it's it's oppressive.
01:23:23
Alex
and shit that just it. Yeah, it it muddles up everything. So a fresh start is kind of appealing to me, even if it's kind of a weird decision to I don't know, we give it a shot.
01:23:34
jscerbo
Yeah, no, I'm I'm with you on that. i I think the the crux of it, right, is like if it's a fresh start, then why do I care about these characters? Why do I care about this game? You know what I mean? Like I care about this game because the combat is cool and I like the idea of crossing over worlds like Final Fantasy and Disney. But because that's been taken out of focus on the last game, now I'm like, OK, well, is this just Like, like, what does that mean?
01:24:05
Alex
Yeah.
01:24:05
jscerbo
If we reset everything, is it just an action RPG?
01:24:06
Alex
Yeah.
01:24:08
jscerbo
Like, is it just a random action RPG now? Like, can we not depend on these other elements of the series that I liked about it in the first place to really get me on board? Like, I just don't know. And now I'm like, I'm fully speculating, right?
01:24:18
Alex
It's a fair question.
01:24:20
jscerbo
But, you know, I don't know.
01:24:23
Justin Chou
Something that some lasting, like just the last little tidbit on the whole kingdom hearts situation, like that young jump, uh, interview also mentioned like that, uh, no more, uh, he's mentioning that he only has a few years left and he would like to finish the Sora story before he retires, which then gets out all the fans in this like tizzy of like, well.
01:24:43
Justin Chou
If a game takes like three to four years, I mean, if it's kingdom parts four, it's probably going to take 11 years. But like, if it's going to take like a bit of time, this could be, he could be stepping down in the next like half a decade, maybe. And if no more is out, does that mean, how does that affect all of the other final fantasy games?
01:25:01
jscerbo
Good question.
01:25:02
Alex
I don't know.
01:25:03
jscerbo
That's a great question.
01:25:04
Justin Chou
Maybe they'll be better.
01:25:09
Alex
Shots fired.
01:25:10
jscerbo
Shots fired.
01:25:10
Justin Chou
Just joking, just joking, just joking.
01:25:10
jscerbo
We shall see.
01:25:13
jscerbo
Yeah. I'd be curious to see what Liz says. Maybe we'll revisit this topic when she's back next week, just so we can get like the real fans perspective, you know.
01:25:18
Justin Chou
Hmm.
01:25:22
Alex
Yeah.
01:25:23
jscerbo
We shall see. All right, fellas. Well, that does it for all of our news this week. We will have more to discuss on next week's podcast. We will also have a ah pretty special preview episode of the podcast as we lead up to the steam next fest activation so definitely be sure to check out our discord where we have the info around steam next fest that's coming up quick that's october 14th so october 14th very special our next podcast is going to be our not our last podcast but the podcast that will take place before the week of the 14th we have a lot of plans for the week of the 14th all the way to the 21st we'll discuss those in more detail be sure to check out our newsletter when we drop that as well as in the discord where we'll be discussing the occurrence for that whole week
01:26:19
jscerbo
But yeah, very much looking forward to that. And thank you to all of our listeners for hanging out with us tonight. Until next time. Thank you, Alex. And thank you, Justin.
01:26:29
Justin Chou
Thank you, Justin.
01:26:29
Alex
Thanks everyone.
01:26:31
jscerbo
All right. And we will see you all on the next one. Bye, everybody.
01:26:35
Alex
Feel better, Liz.