Transcript
Speaker: So nobody noticed, right? You don't think anybody. It's not like a big deal. No one's here. Yeah, no, probably not. And no one's knocking on this little cap in the woods.
Speaker: So for those of you who did notice, we weren't here last week. We had some things that we were working on, including my health. I was i was sick. I had an upper respiratory infection. So much fun. You know, when life gives you dilemma, you got to make the lemonade.
Speaker: We were using this time to focus on developing some stuff. Oh, yes, dating our equipment, making sure that it was going to give you the audio quality that we didn't have in the original. Absolutely. for Yeah, ah we're fine by the seat of our pants over here. So we're learning a lot about audio editing, video editing.
Speaker: audio setup, audible levels, file formats, compression, all these beautiful things. But ah you know, when went like I said, so cheeky, but very seriously, ah while we were not here, we were not present, we were thinking of you guys.
Speaker: ah We did re -upload that with improved audio, so very good if you want to give that a listen, by all means. And let us know if that comes up again. We would very much like to know. And we've been definitely working on a lot of things. um Sometimes these delays, they they happen for a reason, and it's so that we can or anybody can provide with a, you know, higher quality product. That's why Half -Life 3's been delayed so long.
Speaker: Half Life 3 is never coming out. Half Life 3 might actually come out, okay? There's been some recent developments in there. They met they had a Half Life 2 documentary come out. They didn't have to make that. And they're sort of sort of openly talking about things that were on the cutting room floor, which is actually an amazing website. ah What is that called? I think it might just be cutting room floor.
Speaker: But let's say, yeah, it's the gutting room for TCRF ah dot net, but that is literally. Well, there's a couple of games that just got added to there. ah We are talking to you on the week following the news of not only the tragic passing of the massively influential Tacoma directors, not enough. he He was a worldly presence. He was a.
Speaker: He was an aesthetician. He he knew. He say what? Auteur. He was an auteur. He was a Kubrick ask, you know, German expression is inspired. Crazy man with the camera. And he gave us such amazing pieces as Mahalan Drive and Blue Velvet and.
Speaker: you know weird things like those ps3 commercials so we did bring it back to video games but on top of the passing of this man on top of that news earth blade was cancelled the very very exciting in a world of exciting metroidvanias and a world of hollow knights and a world of metroid dreads There was so much excitement built up for Earthblade. It was the game done by ah I don't know the names exactly, but the team behind Celeste and Celeste blew the pants off of everybody that thought they had known everything about 2D platformers. And they were planning to take that same level of expertise over to the Metroidvania genre. And it is such a gosh darn shame that they're not going to be able to do anything with it. It definitely look it had like it had its um
Speaker: It's it it looked like it had some lore that looked sophisticated. I can only describe it as the concept art as as Undertale esque. Honestly, it really did seem like there was a full kind of ah creatively conscious between the three main designers in a nice world that they were excited to explore, but.
Speaker: They released a full statement, I read the whole thing. it it come It came down to really just creative motivation. There was creative differences amongst the team, but nothing so severe that it didn't sound like it ruined any you know any anyone's career. It seemed like everybody was very positive, but they just simply said that we cannot fulfill this. And there's there's a lot of reasons to cancel something to delay to something. Sometimes you're sick, sometimes you gotta, ah you know, put the resources where they matter. Sometimes you get bought by Disney, you know, sometimes Disney is not very cool and maybe is very litigious with some of their properties, making Kingdom Hearts three take forever. And if you're really lucky, Disney doesn't have anything at all to do with your cancellations or delays. But ah you know what, that doesn't stop them all. What? So, you know, I thought it'd be kind of fun if we talked about some of our delays and cancellations because
Speaker: On top of being a source of, you know, much to our chagrin, all of these games sort of exist in a in a nice nostalgic place of our what could have been, you know, when something's in your imagination, it's perfect because it's not real. You you have the best game of all time already in your head right now.
Speaker: And it's perfect. And it's never going to happen because as soon as you do make something tangible in the real world, there's there's there's choices to make, there's consequences, there's, you know, a little bit of this means you don't get some of that there's, it's not always a, a you know, a matter of resources. But sometimes it is, you know, sometimes you spend those resources wrong. I'm looking at you Kingdom Hearts three. Well, um I have to have to stand by that as well and just say,
Speaker: You know, there's been some pretty great games that I was really excited about that just never happened. I think it's been documented at this point that ah I'm a substantial fan of the Lunar series.
Speaker: And after Lunar 2, the head of Working Designs was saying forever. Yeah, we're working on Lunar 3. We're working on Lunar 3. Can you help the audience out with Lunar? Because even some RPG aficionados will not know about the intricacies of like, tell us working designs, because I what I know about working designs is everything that they made was this sort of like, had this air prestige, their box art would just be next level, everything that they were, they were ah particularly well known for like translating games well, right? Right. They did some spectacular translations. ah Lunar obviously being their big, like shining star. That was their Final Fantasy killer, right?
Speaker: Yeah, and honestly, I think if lunar had been allowed to continue it would have released on all the system see Sega CD Sega Saturn, PS one, except in in America, you know, we only got What was it, the PS1 version and the Sega CD? We didn't get the Saturn version. Saturn is definitely a lot more ubiquitous in Japan, though. um But I mean, they also put out, you know, the localization of Magic Knight Ray Earth, the video game on Saturn, which is great. ah Vanguard Bandits, which holds the distinction of being the very first tactical RPG that I played. ah You know, the Ark the Lad collection. Oh, yeah, the Ark the Lad collection with number three having a main protagonist actually named Alec.
Speaker: How about that? That's true. um And then ah you know the growl answer. Growl answer. that's what you That's what we do on this podcast. We growl answers.
Speaker: That's right. um But rather unceremoniously, they were just kind of like, okay, we're done. And in 2005, and anything that they were working on just kind of went along with it. So lunar is a is a big one that to me, just hurts. Yeah, they they had their properties divided up. They had, you know, crappy lunar games, arc the lad went nowhere.
Speaker: Which did they do? Sulfi? What was that shooter they did? Was it Vanark? Yes, Sulfi. They did. Sulfi. I was right. Oh, wow. OK, well, that's cool. I I know Square does Sulfi now. ah They had Project Sulfi on the place on the Xbox 360 and they changed the spelling of it for some weird reason. um Not my square.
Speaker: Another one that really sticks out to me, ah though it hasn't been canceled. At this point, I think it might should be. I'm talking about Star Citizen. Okay. a Darn dishute. Argh. I think i I think we're okay. The sensation won't bother us. Star Citizen, how many monies are in that game right now, Oli?
Speaker: uh monies i have no idea anymore i know uh i know it's been in production for just about 20 years and i'm immensely disappointed because the the creator chris roberts i i loved his uh his wing commander like universe and when star citizen was announced it was like it's the going to be the spiritual successor to wing commander and to have the same themes and it's going to be like a persistent, always there universe and have, and I, I've played, it's not, it's not Lincoln. It, it feels like it has this distinction where it's trying to be as like second life as possible.
Speaker: like Like from the onset, it looks like one of those games where it's about like resource collecting and management and you know, you got to have your your spaceship take all these cargo just to the other planet do Hickey and you know, just it just seems like a never ending cycle of cycles. And it's a never ending cycle of side quests. OK, well, I mean, I'm not far. Yeah, no, like so for anybody that doesn't know how much bull blubber is on this whale, I'm going to let you know right now it is nine figures.
Speaker: It is a Concord is for the record. PlayStation's recent disaster of Concord was a 250 million dollar mistake. There is something to be said about that. There's absolutely nothing for that. And that goes to show ah you should stop shoving live service games that are all trying to be. You can only have one game be the one game, right? You cannot all be making.
Speaker: The same game in all be requesting more like unless you're gonna make the days longer I mean start a star citizen is dedicated to this creative design, right and While I appreciate strongly appreciate that It's about it's about time to put that out. Yeah, what's what's the end game? Is it when they finish the narrative? Is it when the guys stop paying the money? ah Because okay, i'll I'll let you guys know the last I read the last I checked and And I i hope i'm ah hope it's funnier right now. but' It was like 600 million dollars. and it all It's all crowdsourced.
Speaker: And it's all crowd sourced. Who do you think is doing that? Is it it's some of it's the the idiot schmucks who, you know, are choosing between their insulin and their star citizen. But ah most of their most of that money is coming from just just like I don't know who some of those weird guys that you know, buy every skin in FIFA and like get all the just get so many V bucks in Fortnite. I just There's there's those yeah types of people that go hog wild on the aesthetics of the game and they do so purely for the money. I mean, don't get me wrong. I've spent $30 on the Viva Pinata skin for my ship in Sea of Thieves. I'm a fool. OK, I'm stupid. I'm not here to claim that I'm not, but I'm not.
Speaker: like a stupid that's hundreds of dollars in the hole. If I wanted to buy every skin in Final Fan, every every additional cosmetic and and sound and and all that stuff in Final Fantasy 14, it would be like twenty five hundred dollars, I think.
Speaker: Uh, which is already have seen, but it is nowhere near the absolute unrecognizable blu of Star Citizen. I'm glad you talked about it. I wasn't going to talk about it. I was going to be nice because I know you really do have respect for that Chris Roberts had. Oh, bless your heart. When did it did ah you lose it? You still had some remaining after that. You saw the movie, though, right?
Speaker: By the way, I did download those Wing Commander games. I will let you know how I like them. Yeah, they're they're really good. That movie was not. They're very of their time. It's ah yeah, it's it's very charming. There's a lot of them, a lot of Wing Commander games. Well, they've got a really impactful story. And I think that's part of what ah turned me off on Star Citizen's early access stuff.
Speaker: I was interested as someone who's never heard, never had heard of Chris Roberts. I was in like ninth grade, I think when I heard about Star Citizen and it appealed to me by virtue of truthfully being a Gary Oldman fan. I knew that Gary Oldman was going to be in that game. He was one of the actors that they had pinched to do the story. Is is is that Squadron 42 or whatever?
Speaker: um Or is that did that just never happen? I could have sworn. but Yeah, that's it's it's now not one game. It's two. Maybe that's how they're justifying that ah gigantic price tag. be none ah But yeah, it is called.
Speaker: It is Squadron 42. Yeah, he's he's doing it looks like Squadron 42 cast. Yeah. Okay. Yes. The one with like Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill. Well, Mark Hamill's in like half of this past is in the in the Wing Commander games, Mark Hamill and.
Speaker: john And Gillian Anderson. Yeah. Is Gillian Anderson the one from X -Files? Yep. All right. Sorry. There's one Gillian that I recognize, and that is Gillian Jacobs from Community. Yeah, that one would be Gillian as opposed to Gillian. Goodness, you're right. Sorry. Goodness, you're right.
Speaker: um
Speaker: Buzzing. All right. So I mean, maybe. Maybe with the with the story mode, it'll be entertaining as it is right now. The. I didn't play Squadron 42, but I wasn't. Here's the thing. Is it more entertaining than a game like Undertale? That's like crowdsourced by a Kickstarter, which is already, a you know, and in and nine times out of ten, that's a red flag.
Speaker: But, I mean, it's it's signed, sealed, delivered, it's finished, and you could buy for like 15 bucks, and it's done. Maybe not the best example, but I just, my thing is, ah is how good does it have to be at this point, when you are almost a billion dollars, and and um that is? Almost a billion dollars in 20 years. Dude. It was announced in, I wanna say 2006,
Speaker: Is it really been that long? They've been they've been harping on that promise for a while. This this weird promise of. I don't know what because like the more I know about MMOs, the more I realize m MMOs kind of do have an end.
Speaker: you know there's there's always repeatable quests whatever but ah generally there's an end to the content um even with the biggest MMOs star citizen operates like one of those games where you find out it like you're reading a game informer if you're me back in the day and You read like a top 10, you know, game but purchases in games and you read about like someone spent like, you know, fifteen thousand dollars buying someone's, you know, Sims account or something. ah Just real quick aside, pre -production began in 2010, but I remember hearing rumors about it while I was still living in Oklahoma, and that was 2006, 2007 when I moved.
Speaker: Okay, so it was it was in the talks. What was Chris Roberts working on before? Before that, it was the Wing Commander games. So when did when would Wing Commander 5 come out? Was that the last one? ah Wing Commander, yeah, Wing Commander Prophecy. Yeah. Was it Privateer as well?
Speaker: Yeah, private the privateer series is kind of like it's set in the same universe. So yeah, he the he last thing he did was in like 97 looks like. so Wow, yeah, Chris Roberts then left Origin and he's been working on Star Citizen since he fell off of Freelancer, which was in 2003. And Freelancer is the same exact concept in a lot of ways. It's a space trading game. And that's that's what I was sort of describing earlier. And I'm it's funny that I wasn't too far off from their Wikipedia pitch.
Speaker: But yeah, it's it just seems like a classification of trade because like when I want to trade something but when we play D and &D, for instance, you know, if I need to use an item, I just subtract it. Like, OK, see if it has a really good implementation. OK, if I think the.
Speaker: Um, this loot system you go out, you do some adventures, you're always vulnerable. I think that's maybe what's what Star Citizen was going for. You know, this like you got to go out, but then you got to bring it back. You got to make sure everything's, you know, save. You got to man the cannons. you There's a lot of preemptive planning. There's a lot of things that can go wrong. And I think that that is on its own. Pretty interesting. Yeah, but don't we don't we already have that game at this point? Like no man's sky did it. Yeah, i'm better.
Speaker: No man's sky has my my absolute heart in zero hours of of my gameplay. I have never played that game. I have seen it played. It's one of the few games I've actually I don't do a lot of streaming, you know, in my personal life. I like a lot more edited content than live content. I know that's hypocritical. I'm sorry. You know, at the end of the day, ah we have that game of about 15 times over. It was a novel idea in 2006. It was truthfully. It's one of those games. It's like and it's perfect in your imagination.
Speaker: because what they're trying to do is I guess create as many stressors as possible. And that's not always a fun game. That is not always a fun game make. um but There's we need to have a whole Star Citizen episode. I don't know if you have any friends that you actually played with that you might want to bring on. The only person that I could that I could still talk to that played a wing commander with me would be my mother. ah you be win Ironically, the friend that introduced me to wing commander
Speaker: ended up becoming an Air Force pilot, and he passed away. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I definitely want to say ah to your friend, thank you for playing with my friend.
Speaker: Ironically, his name is also Ali. You're kidding. That's serious. That is beyond. That's that's doubly weird for me, because when I type in a l i in my phone, I it's it's between Ali right here or Ali, my fiance. So, OK, homeboy was sick over here. Let's talk TV before we talk. We're going to we we're going to talk a lot of cancellations because um I need you all to know about Steam Chronicles 2, Steambot Chronicles 2. I need you all to know how I feel about Dante's Purgatorio. I need you to know the pain in my heart that when I think of scale bound and all the success of Platinum games in our modern multiplayer world with Elden Ring getting a but full on sequel.
Speaker: that is exclusively multiplayer. but I mean, no basically encouraged to be exclusively multiplayer. Well, I mean, if you want to talk about TV, you recommended a ah TV series to me ah that was also famously delayed.
Speaker: Oh, yes. um Severance. Yeah. that is like Part of what I did while I was sick. I watched the ah the first season and the first episode of season two and there was what three years between those two seasons. It's I don't know if it's three years. It certainly could have been because I want to say I know Ben still or had the idea when he was just getting back together with his wife, I believe.
Speaker: Severance is the show right now. Everybody that has seen it understands why it's the best show on television right now. All the insulation that exists from you know, trying to get the manager to trying to talk to the boss that can actually like affect your life. We all feel that and severance kind of dances with it. And then it dances with it even more. You know, I live in the corporate structure these days. Yes, you do. And that doesn't bother me. I'm very fortunate that I have good leaders above me that I very much appreciate.
Speaker: um that said, what really caught my attention was it's the the the mystery. like and So far, I'm still trying to figure out why I'm watching this show. I feel pretty confident in who I'm rooting for and obviously the the corporation, you know to avoid to avoid too many spoilers, ah the corporation is very cult -like. The entire show seems to like hinge on the question of what that is.
Speaker: So there's a there's some pagan imagery. That's an understatement. That's an understatement. There's a lot of understatement. I mean, when when the founder. The imagery around the founder is almost venerated like a deity. There's a I mean, even in the first shot of the episode of the first episode when he first walks into the building, there's a giant stone mural of the founder's face. And it's like it's very obviously meant to be an analog for cults. Yeah, it's there's there's some worship going on. It's like a big old sex cult with none of the sex and a lot more like waffle parties.
Speaker: It's like ah the what's really interesting to me is they don't know what they do. There's there's a bunch of blind. You're not wrong. It's a cult for sure. ah But I don't think that that's the interesting thing or or like the the question. They they have these numbers that they have to look for and they just know it when they feel it. But something that is revealed in episode two of season two, I will say, is that They actually might be important for them to do this work. Like it might be. i You still don't know. But that's the thing is you were talking about the the way you don't even know why you're watching it. But it it leads you with these just, you know, M &Ms on the floor. And we are all just ah James Woods and family guy just being like, oh, piece of candy. Oh, piece of candy. Oh, piece of candy.
Speaker: And we're just picking it up. We're not thinking about the bigger picture until, gosh, we have walked from the bathroom all the way downstairs in the backyard into the front and garage. And we're like, what, what, what did I just do? What journey have I done? Because between like the the four characters, four actors, there's eight characters and some of them have opposite of agendas of their innies versus their outies or their workies.
Speaker: So so it's kind of interesting, though, because it is a series about the question of what they're doing. And as I'm watching it, I'm thinking, why am I watching this?
Speaker: I'm enjoying every episode. It's almost as meta commentary. It. Yeah. So it's kind of a neat. ah It's kind of a neat thing, but it was delayed mostly because of Covid. um And the the weight was worth it. The weight was worth it. The payoff was so grand. Is there any. Is there like the. So you only had to wait a little bit. You had to you didn't have to wait at all. You got to go right to season two. Yeah, I mean, I haven't watched the second episode. I guess that came out yesterday or today. I'm just saying you got to you did not have to experience any time in between that cliffhanger in season one and ah the next moment. Let me just say.
Speaker: I mean, if you haven't watched silo, um you're missing out for one, but I watched that one while it was airing. And I had to survive that cliffhanger. And it was a much bigger cliffhanger, I think then, you know,
Speaker: So we're not being sponsored in any way, but let me just say Apple TV is definitely the best streaming service going on right now. um It's the only one that for one is affordable at the 4K level. It also uses ah lesser compressed bit rates when it is transferring the audio and the video files. So you are actually getting like darn near 4K disc clarity if you have you know decent enough internet. If you think something sounds better or looks better on Apple TV, there's it's there's an actual reason for it.
Speaker: Well, there's also the fact that I think just about every show they've put out has been extraordinarily high quality, just very good production, solid scripting. um And they are Netflix in the 2010s, early 2010s, like they're killing it. So Ted Lasso is far and away like the greatest bundle of joy you could get in a television show that doesn't pander.
Speaker: like it's it's it's very sincere and honest and upfront with its it's not kid like in its ah execution but it is kid like in its approach you know it's it's very ah it's it's very mature but it's it's for adults
Speaker: So, but yeah we, you the difference was worth the wait, and you know we talked about, ah you talked about Kingdom Hearts three ah earlier.
Speaker: um but then ah you You mentioned that ah Disney holding onto rights was part of the reason. The other reason that Kingdom Hearts 3 took so long is because the guy that that was supposed to be directing it that's number yeah was supposed to be was busy working on another game for over a decade.
Speaker: So are we are we doing this? Are we are we going? Yeah. and Talk about talking about that. This is when we get to give me the microphone and I get to explain all of the needless, frustrating mess that is Final Fantasy versus 13, AKA Final Fantasy 15. So for those that don't know, Final Fantasy 15 is the greatest compromise that has ever been put to a video game.
Speaker: Um, it started with this sort of Harry Potter meets hot topic moody teen sitting in the back of a car.
Speaker: He's about to go to this, you know, ridiculously black, but opulent city. ah It's just, you know, paneled glass. He's fighting up and down a building. He's got these weapons floating around him and it just reads like everything good. That was about final like Kingdom Hearts and it's, you know, weightlessness and it's ah you know's fierce, quick action. It's anime hairstylings. It's.
Speaker: just its charm and presence. All of the things that Tetsuya Nomura was doing great work at Square Four, all of it was bleeding in to Final Fantasy Versus 13. This was part of the Fabula Nova Christalis franchise from Square was going to contain Final Fantasy type zero um Final Fantasy 13 and the 13 trilogy and it was gonna also include versus 13. There was an entirely different thematic element of death that they could not get through other countries sensors. So
Speaker: In other countries, there's a big the whole point of Final Fantasy is that it's a brand name that you could trace all across the world. There are people in Saudi Arabia that are ginormous Square Enix and Final Fantasy fans. There are people in, you know, South Korea. There are people in America. There's so much um brand confidence in Final Fantasy that it needs to recoup this intense dollar budget worldwide.
Speaker: They were not going to allow several countries will not allow death to be worshipped in any sort of way. So the whole point of Final Fantasy 13 versus 13 was the there was this. um The only thing we ever got was concept trailers and. um In these trailers, you get a really big sense of what the game is about. There's this much bigger. um There's this worshiping of death that's going on that is nowhere to be seen in Final Fantasy 15. There is a girl named Stella, a different white blonde girl, not at all similar to the white blonde girl we ended up with.
Speaker: Um, and just her entire character was was totally different. A lot of people has people have spent just, you know, so much time conceptually breaking apart, you know, just like a string cheese just peeling back layer after layer until they get to the bottom of what was going on. What is believed to be the intent was that our main character in Final Fantasy versus 13 was going to be part of a a society that worshiped death. He was going. He was sick as a child, much like Noctis was. And that's something they still kept in 15 when they adapted it. But he was going to be basically somebody who had gotten so close to death that ah he was able to see the dead. It was very heavily implied that Stella, the girl he was talking to, is actually dead. On top of all this, um
Speaker: because of all of just these big concepts that they couldn't boil down, they couldn't compromise on. It just got delayed and it got delayed and it got delayed. One day we're all at E3 and we all look up what was the guy we now know to be Noctis and they they do this thing where they change it from Final Fantasy versus 13.
Speaker: Slash marks becomes Final Fantasy 15 first numerical title action RPG Final Fantasy. It is to be directed by Tetsuya Nomura. It was if it feels like an awful plot that we ended up with in 15. It's because it is. Um.
Speaker: There was a lot that they could have done to fix it. There's a lot that they did to just try to make it a to to just compromise it out the door it alage to salvage it exactly. There was three writers and I believe two of them, if not all three that wrote Final Fantasy 15. It was their first writing job ever. So there's a whole lot of just wrong and rank in Final Fantasy 15 Final Fantasy 15.
Speaker: is what you get when you have a whole bunch of concept art, a whole lot of good vibes, a an overall concept in a in a swimming pool of concepts. And it just like they turned the boiler on and we just got a whole bunch of just concentrated stuff at the bottom.
Speaker: And I don't I have a lot to say about what. Let me just say it's how to enjoy Final Fantasy 13 versus 13 or Final Fantasy 15 is to know that all that we got is good and interesting, but playing that game and imagining what could have been that to me was so much fun. I loved Kings Glaive. I love the Kings Glaive movie with Aaron Paul and.
Speaker: and All the all the silliness surrounding it. I think it's a fun fun time I but we're really the last thing I'll say about it is Do you know did you you beat 15 right? You didn't enjoy it too much, right? and I didn't care. I didn't care for it. I Enjoyed it quite a bit because I was satisfied with what I got. But again That game could have been something entirely the heck else especially when um, do you know about the DLC wave? Did you ever do the DLC? I Uh, no, I haven't. So it is often said that the DLCs of Final Fantasy 15 are the best part of it, and they had one complete wave and it was ah all of the the homies that you're with. You know, you were playing as Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis all got their own DLCs. First off, the other thing that's amazing about that game is how those characters changed over the course of it. I really did like it. Um, got very good.
Speaker: Yeah, the the presentation was excellent. The if if like 15 different things were different about 15, it could have been a perfect game. But we'll get to that later. So they actually had this this really amazing idea of how to. Totally bring the narrative back together because it is very fractured and it's very clumsy. They were going to release this episode, Arden. They already had a full realized script together. They had the first episode of the second DLC wave released.
Speaker: And then they just dropped it. It was too expensive. Too much money is gone. We're moving on to Final Fantasy 16 and I don't blame them. I think um I think Final Fantasy has had the biggest identity crisis. You know, we're talking like Capcom, the late 2000s, early 2010s level of just.
Speaker: Brand cluelessness, not understanding what made Dead Rising cool, not understanding what made Street Fighter cool, not understanding what made, you know, ah them cool in the PS2, PS1 era, which was all these bold new IPs. And they're finally only now just starting to really get that again. But Square also really struggled with understanding what it is that they brought to the table. And as animation got better, as everybody got better at doing like anime hair and, you know, all these other Japanese franchises started to get way better.
Speaker: It just sort of, they made a lot of poor decisions and they financially wrecked themselves. You know, 15 walked so that 16 could run, and 16 kind of jogs, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I was gonna say 16 isn't terrible, but it's a fantasy by way of Devil May Cry.
Speaker: It's yeah. Well, I mean, it's literally the combat designer from Devil May Cry. I didn't have I loved that. I thought the combat was good. It's way too easy. That that game as a character action game is far too simple, far too easy. But it has a really good story.
Speaker: The soundtrack is phenomenal. Really good story. um Really good story. Really good soundtrack. The opening. The opening is like five hours. Absolutely jaw dropping. ah the the um The voice acting that we get from Ben Starr. Phenomenal. He does all three eras in ah Clive's life.
Speaker: And every single one of those is is unique in a different way. And that in itself is really interesting because it's not something that's really been done in the Final Fantasy series before. The in the DLC that that we actually got this time around, like, did you finish 16? I did, but I haven't done the DLC.
Speaker: Nor have I am in the same boat. I'm going to get in on PC because, OK, I haven't even gotten to talk about it the only game I've really been playing. I've been playing this meta game called learning how to do all this crap so that I don't, you know, ah yell at my fiance with all of my game passions and I can yell it into this microphone instead. But I'm sure she's grateful.
Speaker: I mean, to be honest, she's the best listener I've ever met in my entire life. There are things I she remembers every one of the cousins in Katamari. She, you know, she remembers so much that I don't even remember I've told her. ah She's my favorite. And if she hears this, hi. But I mean, as far as like.
Speaker: I don't think there's another game that that fills me with the sadness that I think Final Fantasy versus 13 fills me with. It was they like I would watch that trailer with my stepbrothers at the time. We. We really missed that game. I think maybe PT is probably the only other one where I.
Speaker: I just feel robbed. I feel robbed. They had an idea. OK, also the third act of Metal Gear Solid Five. I'm so upset by that. Oh, we don't have the time. Well, it's on episode. So back to P .T., though, if if for anybody who's not familiar, um it was meant to be a Silent Hill game. Would you call it a demo? So demo proof of concept.
Speaker: Here's I would it's a proof of concept. That is exactly what it is because demos are a smaller bit of a bigger generalized experience. This was not going to be what the rest of the game was. This was just one small minigame esque idea that totally set the vibe. What it did was it set the vibe for what you knew the rest of the game was going to be. So before I say this about this, have you ever played Blair Witch?
Speaker: Yeah, the the Blair Witch game. Did you get to the last level? No, the last level is so PTSD. That's all I'll say. No, There's the one the the part of it where it's the guy with the flashbacks to his. Yeah, I'm in the military. Yeah, well, ah I'm in the military. I have slept since then, but it was the I had to go into the mine.
Speaker: Yeah, ah yeah, it's like the minor the house but I just remember you get through it. it's So essentially the thing about PT is that the geography of the building doesn't make sense. You are going continuously in the square, square formation. Okay, and every time you go down the so you walk forward, you take a right at the there's a 90 degree turn, you take a right, right, and you go again, you take a right, you go again, you take a right. And when you look forward, there's stairs that go down.
Speaker: And those stairs that go down end you up right exactly where you started. And every single time you do this, it's you're wondering, what do I have to do? What do I have to do to make it not do these things that it's doing? And what it's doing is the eyes start to follow you on the pictures, the small details that you recognize to be comforting, change the atmosphere, place tricks on you.
Speaker: there is somebody that is always following you and you don't know where they are and there's only a couple places that they can be. So PT is from its raw datum, datum, just playing with you in the most meticulous, sophisticated ways, minimally too. These are not over, they know they're not beating you over the head. You'll probably walk down this hallway 15 times before something really changes. But when it changes and the way it changes,
Speaker: it it offends you, it disturbs you, it robs you. PT was going to be something and and it was a Silent Hill game. Yes, but that isn't really that's that's only one small piece of the puzzle. The other piece is that Kojima right after his 10 year over at the Metal Gear Solid store.
Speaker: was finally going to do something, you know, new interesting and of worth worthy of his talents. And Silent Hill hadn't had a game produced by Team Silent, who is, you know, the forefront of that that game's identity hadn't been doing anything since Silent Hill four and like oh, wait.
Speaker: Well, and you do know that the other person who was working on PT with Kojima was Guillermo del Toro. Yeah. Yeah. He is. He's Pan's Labyrinth, my brother. That's right. Gosh darn. He knows how to disturb. He has put so much work in his his monster designs. Dude, have you seen Pacific Rim? Mm hmm. His monster designs are something else, man. His Kaiju's.
Speaker: Oh, so that was going to be oh and the hellboy hellboy one and two man. God, he made some he made some disturbing stuff. Yeah, i I mean, I was really looking forward to it. And after Silent Hill for the room, anytime I heard Silent Hill, I was just like, OK, whatever. Also, this is a good chance to mention that ah Resident Evil and Silent Hill both were predesessed by Alone in the Dark, but we don't talk about that now, do we?
Speaker: I mean, Alone in the Dark was a was a thing. ah ah A lot of the like, like the survival horror aspects and elements were still there. It's just a thing. All I ever think of when I think of a Alone in the Dark is the you a bowl movie.
Speaker: Yeah, me too. That's all I thought of for a while, because they're it's sort of like with art, the lad just just dropped off of existing. So we've talked about a lot of, you know, people making decisions, ah good, bad, ugly, but at least they were the ones in the chair with the finger and the signatures.
Speaker: Can we talk about Steambot Chronicles 2? Do you know the story? Do you know where I'm going with this? I've never even heard of Steamboat Chronicles. Steambot Chronicles is something that everybody should at least start up on YouTube and just watch the opening because the game welcomes you like an old friend. You open it and it's like welcome to Steambot Chronicles. Hope you brought your good time hat.
Speaker: you know it's it's an amazing time. So Steambot Chronicles, imagine the color scheme aesthetic of like about Kiria Chronicles, maybe with a little bit more pastel kind of coloring and give it some Katamari um Goofiness, goofiness in some controls you actually because the whole point of Steambot Chronicles, it's called Steambot because you're moving. It's like a nineteen it's a reimagining of like 1920s. If war was not fought with tanks, but instead like these like wooden and metal mechanized like walking robots ah in Japan, it was known as bumpy trots bumpy trotto. And it was a just a good time. It had a couple more games released in Japan than it did here.
Speaker: It was on its way to becoming this big franchise, and it was totally eviscerated, along with, I believe, set -size SMA Toshi 4 at the time, and a couple anime that, you know, I can't remember at the moment, but a lot of work was destroyed in the tsunami of 2011.
Speaker: We lost a lot of really good games. I think ah ah think that Tsunami actually did a couple of studios in for good. and that's when And that's when Japanese game studios learned how to store copies of their games offsite.
Speaker: Yeah, for anybody that doesn't know all the one, two, three rule, you got, you know, to you have one off site, two copies of the drives and, you know, a third in the cloud. I don't know. That's it. Right. It's I'm i'm i'm close if I'm not right. But that's something I just said that really always rubbed me the wrong way. That was um a franchise that really had.
Speaker: the potential to be a Katamari. It could have had like 17 sequels. it It really did have that vibe. um It's something that I think they could have made an arcade game out of. They could have it would have been up there. It could have been Japan's Fortnite. You know, it just it had a world that I just really wanted to see more of. But ah I mean, there's there's more naturalistic ways to destroy something. You got the good old Studios being bought by Disney we talked about earlier. we lost the Star Wars games Battlefront three co tour three Star Wars 1313.
Speaker: Thirteen Thirteen. Four Unleashed three. Come on now. Goodness. um Well, and no, I mean, ah looking into Star Wars ah Force Unleashed three, that is the the character, the character, Starkiller is the character that people most want to see pulled from legends into the main Star Wars universe. Absolutely. He's such a popular character. And Disney is just kind of like with him. They don't know how to make it happen.
Speaker: They don't know how to make anything really happen with that Star Wars now, do they? I mean, I enjoyed Ahsoka and Andor was really good. I heard Ahsoka was actually really mid. ah i Here's the thing, I i i got a i gotta to reevaluate them Star Wars films. And Five is still the best one. The Last Jedi was actually a pretty good movie. The Last Jedi Scoundrel.
Speaker: It's not bad. It's just i I actually the more I think about the conversation that takes place instead of maybe some of the actual zoom, zoom of some lightsabers.
Speaker: You know, I there's there's a certain soap opera poppiness to it. I love it. And it is definitely the real battle. But I even think the dialogue and stuff just could have been handled better. And they they got that whole episode one thing of like switch flip flop in between like cheery walk scenes, you know, just indigenous driving the crap out of some adults.
Speaker: The sequel trilogy as a whole was just kind of unrealized. I i have this so even talk about hot takes. I think eight was phenomenal. I think seven and eight were good. I think eight was a great response to the ah safe, you know, platitude filled seven. That was just a revamp of four in ah with with not doing enough different, which it's about the safest movie in the Star Wars canon, right?
Speaker: Um, and it really was there the turmoil that came with the production of nine, because nine is where they had to to land the statement. You know, you did all these beautiful flips. You're like a gymnast. You did all these beautiful flips. yeah You got the right start. You got the right jump. You'd flailed a bunch in the air. But God bless America. Did you not stick the landing even a little bit? What what is the story of Star Wars? Even gosh darn it, you know, what is the greater story of enlightened dark?
Speaker: No, because now there's pretty much everybody's a little bit gray. Yeah, and there's Yeah, for real. Yeah, no, it's no longer soap opera simplicity. And like, again, I think eight could have done a really meaningful dissection of that and still walked away. Pretty great. I think they're B and C stories could have been better. ah Um, I think I'm, I'm, I think Kylo Ren was a poorly portrayed um representation of that gray.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Yeah, it's a little trade because Adam Driver is a phenomenal actor, ah poorly written. I think I think honestly, if they had just stuck the landing with.
Speaker: I think I think Finn needed to have something anything something like anything really. But ah I don't all do respect. I've seen I've seen all of Star Wars. um The reason I enjoyed to soak us so much was because it's very much a sequel to own wars and rebels. And if you want some great Star Wars storytelling, watch rebels.
Speaker: I heard Rebels is great. Rebels looks good. Rebels, I was really OK when they were a little bit more cautious, but they severely overestimate, one, how much we are interested in more Star Wars and two, ah they don't understand franchise fatigue, man. they They ain't got it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Speaker: um you know It's kind of interesting that we're talking about Star Wars right now because you know when you when you think about it, Star Wars is this huge, huge franchise that everybody waited you know between episode well between Return of the Jedi and episode one. There was you know just about 20 years. And then 12 years between ah episode three and when episode seven came out,
Speaker: And so there's this huge thing and in each case, everybody was very initially disappointed with how it how it turned out. um I mean, there's that famous joke in the movie fanboys, where, you know, they did this whole movie about trying to go see it beforehand. And the last line of the movie is, but what if it sucks?
Speaker: Oh, is fanboys the one where they're trying to find George Lucas to show them episode one? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, in the story, the movie itself was great. And i episode one, ah you know, all these years later is something that people enjoy a lot more. And maybe that'll be true about the sequel trilogy in 20 years as well. Who knows? But there will be, you know, you've got these these things that people waited years for and it was Disappointing when it finally happened. um I'm looking at you mighty number nine. Dang, that game's getting a lot of play on this podcast. You'd think we liked it, dude. Okay. Mighty number nine, some trash, man. But at least they followed through. I mean, dude, the overwatching, whatever happened, in the overwatch to why does it exist instead of to take my phone number overwatch to is the sequel that nobody asked for.
Speaker: it's it really It's the only sequel that like strips parts. It's straight up like a, but it's it's it's an overall worse product. It's like they smashed the mirrors of your car and gave it back to you. and They're like, no, it's got more features. So, you know, but we talk about all these games that, uh, you know, they, they came out and they weren't, weren't all that great or they were delayed forever. Um, one thing that we haven't talked about is this kind of new thing that's been going on.
Speaker: Uh, this early access, uh, going on for a little while, but I actually think that, uh, that, that early access could be the answer to, um, you know, these delays in games. Because one of the biggest reasons they get delayed is they're still, they're still sorting out what to do with it. I don't like it. I don't like early access.
Speaker: Yeah, but I mean, there's some of them that are really good. Like Phasmophobia is a lot of fun. Baldur's Gate 3 was on Early Access for a couple of years. And look how great of a game that is. And it only turned out that way because of feedback from Early Access. It just has to be done right.
Speaker: You're you're absolutely right. It's in it. you're You're right on like a couple different levels. First off, the I would say the other reason we don't get delays is we also get severely unpolished games. You know, we we also get Fallout New Vegas, which is to this day like the most respected and appreciated Fallout game.
Speaker: But on release, they were it was critically panned. It was awful. It it still is like, ah you know, struggling on its. There was actually a bonus that they were going to get, as is often reported in the games industry. I don't know if you guys know this um games live and die by their Metacritic store. People get bonuses. People get ah Christmas or bonuses based on the Metacritic score. That game, I believe, has a 79.
Speaker: on Metacritic and that game is absolutely in 92, 93 if it was to be released you know today on PC with all all the mods that people have done for it. Early access is on its own, not bad. There's actually a really good example of a game that people are not liking very much. Have you ever heard of a game called Hyper Light Drifter? No.
Speaker: Hyper Light Drifter is kind of insane. It's like what if you took the vibes of Attack on Titan and ah put it through a whole bunch of purple and magenta. um it It honestly has some of the most wicked and wild.
Speaker: animation I've ever seen. And to be honest, I think the first game kind of skates totally on its its aesthetics and its vibe. I don't think the gameplay isn't that good. And the reason I can say that was a little bit more confidence now is one I have a podcast and to this game, although it's got vibes, and it's great at those vibes,
Speaker: It had a s sequel in the works. They are taking, they're doing what Risk of Rain did, which is, you know, take their 2D, one game and make the second one 3D. Same thing with Anadine. It's sort of of a famous enough trend when your first game does well that you make the second indie game 3D. It's it released and it's on early access right now and it's getting Dog, but reviews, you know, ah critically banned. ah It's pretty bad. um Having said that, I just said at risk of rain, too, was an early access and that's a game I got an early access and benefited from a game. I also got an early access and hated was rust. I hate rust. I don't like survival games. I don't like survival games either.
Speaker: they They play you, you do not play them. I at least play MMOs and I'd log out, but I'm talking, I would have friends come over. This particular friend could not drive. He would set up his Xbox at my house on like a Friday and like I'd go home, I'd sometimes have work and he would be like, hey man, can I so can i stay over? Like, can I just stay here so I don't lose everything? The point is, is that it played my friend and it tried to play me.
Speaker: Well, not today. So those are valid points as well. But I think ah I think there's a careful balance, right? Baldur's Gate 3 released when when it was ready ah after going through the early access period. um Maybe those games went through early access and they weren't actually ready.
Speaker: or maybe they were never going to actually be ready. But then you have other games like Pow World and Phasmophobia that I mentioned earlier that are pretty much permanently in this early access stage. And when they're releasing updates and like, you know, events in game for like holidays, it's like, okay, is it really still early access? Yeah, what's up with Phasmophobia? Is that crap still ever, you know, it is that going to be Star Citizen on like a much smaller scale?
Speaker: Also, Palworld is, you know, Party City, Fortnite, and Pokemon. Asmophobia, I really like. um I've played it in VR. I've played it on PC and I've played it on PlayStation ah because it's somehow early access ish on PlayStation now as well. It's on PlayStation? Yep. That's funny. I got it. I got my PC going. and I I've actually been doing the opposite. You know, I've been taking games from my PlayStation collection and I'm doing what I can to get DRM free games when I can because when I like supporting not steam if I can, which I would encourage you all to do. um They are not listed publicly, so it's not possible to know how rich they are. ah You know, I say that in air quotes, but ah they're quite rich. um That's also how we get a half life three.
Speaker: Well, that is, but ah no, we haven't gotten it. And Gaben has just a fleet of mega yachts. He literally he does. He has the same mega yacht that was owned by the guy that used to embezzle for an entire with the prime minister of that country. Or what was it like type? I don't know. I don't know the country, but this guy. Gabe.
Speaker: I'm just saying, I'm just saying, you know, the success of steam is what could get us half life three someday, eventually, or, you know, I'd be okay with just another portal game.
Speaker: So here's what in my dream of dreams, truthfully, because I don't know how many people know this. This is an episode about delays and, you know, canceled games. Do people know? or and And maybe my brother was just filling me with, you know, his his perfect video game in his head. But there was I feel like there was a lot of discussion about blending the the portal and half life universes but they're even portal. They're setting the same universe.
Speaker: They are, yeah. Black Mesa is referenced several times in, ah you know, especially in the song that is sung in Portal. um And that's more than just a a superficial level reference. it's There's something in the in the way that both of those games handle, I don't know, I guess, ah ah interaction. Yeah, well, no. um they're They're set in the same universe. They use the same game engine.
Speaker: But Half Life 3 was always we were always supposed to see there was this ice level and in this ice level, there was this big so like boat submarine that was like. not working and it would had all these aperture logo, aperture science logos and and and decorations and aesthetics. And it was said that like, that was where you know, we're gonna see some ah portal stuff like maybe you get the portal gun in Half Life. It'd be cool as hell. It'd be interesting. i mean A crowbar and a portal any day. I mean, really, when it comes to Half Life three, it's still all just
Speaker: Hyper conception until conjecture. Yeah. So it's it's yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, though, I do I do really think that delays in games can be a really good thing as long as they're not stuck in what the industry likes to call development hell. Mm hmm. Duke Nukem forever action over here. Yeah.
Speaker: And when it comes to the games that were long delayed and then canceled by studios that still exist, like Blizzard with Starcraft Ghost or Nintendo with Star Fox 2, Capcom, Mega Man Legends 3, these games. Square Enix with Sleeping Dogs 2. They tried to turn it into an MMO and they ruined it. I love Sleeping Dogs. Give me Sleeping Dogs 2, baby.
Speaker: So, but I mean, maybe maybe the reality is that those games weren't shaping up to be what they wanted to wanted it to be, and it wasn't going to be a quality, and that's why they decided to cancel it. I'm pretty sure that's what happened with Starcraft Ghost. ah What about when a game is nearly complete, part of a recognized franchise, and from a celebrated creator from a studio that has money to burn?
Speaker: I'm talking about the dissolution of American McGee. His third Alice game, Alice Asylum, literally was they did not allow him to use the Alice copyright. So they just told him no. And he lost.
Speaker: his he He chose to to leave. He's a very worldly man. He he has his own company making plushes in China. All I'm saying is ah is the guy that made you know Doom 4, E1M on Doom 4, he had a lot of good things going for him and the company just stepped in and didn't want to play their part. You have Metal Gear Solid 5 Kojima has given these people their flagship franchise. He has set up an entire like two three act structure saying the Butler did it. And then right when we see the Butler about to do it, the game just ends super unceremoniously, incredibly out of touch with respect to the universe. And it's
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, there's there's also instances like Star Fox to, you know, Nintendo had that done for like 20 years, didn't release it until they felt like making some goodwill with the Super Nintendo Mini. But like, that's a game that should have released far, far, far. And then I played it and I was just kind of like. Yeah, Star Fox two is kind of meh, but I mean, it didn't have to be.
Speaker: ah And that's probably why they didn't release it. But again, ah you know, Yoshi cookie came out that we could have gotten Star Fox to. You know, they they didn't care that much about diluting their brands. God darn given me like three F zeros ever. Well, that got replaced by Mario Kart. One of those being by Sega.
Speaker: the best of them being by Sega. Anyway, I think that's literally scale bound. I want to talk about the scale bound and Titanfall three and Dante's purgatorio. Those are the the last of the games I want to mention. ah You beat Dante's Inferno um and then he literally steps out and he sees like what you can imagine to be like a heaven ish purgatory like it's a little more heavenly than purgatory should be.
Speaker: But dude, those games made me read Dante's Inferno. I mean, if you can believe it, I didn't read it in its original Italian. Why not? I'm not because I'm not Dante Alighieri and this is in the 1400s and I didn't get exiled. OK.
Speaker: because Beatrice, he also only saw Beatrice like once, just so you know, Dante's Inferno is a whole lot of like a it's like a ah sexual ish sexual. Well, it's it's kind of a fantasy. The games are sexual. The original novel is like, but it's oh, it's about more types of corruption. It's about all types of corruption. I don't have anything insightful but to say about Dante's purgatory or Dante's Paradisio. All I'm saying is I would have killed like we got four Darksiders games.
Speaker: I would burn all of that to the ground if it meant we got Dante swinging swords at Mr. Heaven himself. Honestly, so um I could just go without those games anyway. The Darksiders. No good.
Speaker: I mean, to be honest, a lot of people would say the same thing about Dante's Inferno, but I really I liked that game and I recognize it as a pretty not great game. But here was my experience. OK, I just got a war. I was in like eighth grade and one of my friends told me, dude, you got to get to the last level. Everything's different. And I got to the last level and it was. Is a good and good beginning, good ending. Terrible middle. It doesn't sound like a description of a good game.
Speaker: It's only the description of this podcast. how All right. ah Well, jokes and jerks aside, it's been great talking about some of the things that ah I've been screaming into some void for some time. Are you sure that's not your soul? I mean, that's always a little bit screaming, but they can they can find my screams with my bones when I'm dead. There you go.
Speaker: all I'll ever be is bones. I'm bones now and I'll be bones tomorrow. Good bones to all of you, by the way. If you wanna bone us, you can find us at Delon Lon Ranch where the only milk we bone is to milk the good bones out of life. If you need to find us, um you can hit us up at dadpods over on Twitch and our Is that it? Is it just on Twitter? We have the Facebook page. That's ah how to enjoy. Don't forget the ellipses. ah If you still have the Facebook page and you are not you know destroyed by the negativity of it, ah find us on Facebook. We're probably the most positive source of anything you'll have on there all day. Maybe ever. ah We're going to be streaming a lot more. We're getting our our technologicals down. um
Speaker: I am still finishing my last semester in school, so it's a little tough to commit the, hopeful you know hopefully last semester of my life, ah being taught crap before I get to teach the the world. But... um You're teaching the world now? Hey, I'm trying, baby. I'm trying. But yeah, we're we're over here trying to do what we can to spread some good words. And if you have a good word for us, please leave it down below in the comments section.
Speaker: ah We would love it. Make a friend. No one's no one's in here to have a bad time. ah Do me a favor and you know, use one or three exclamation marks, please do not do two. That really bugs me. um Anyway, is there anything else you'd like to say to the people of the internet? Well, thanks for listening. We're always glad to to speak to you and we would love to hear back from you. So say something do something cool for someone just make make someone a food make someone a burrito ah just do something cool um make it a game all right you will not be rewarded and i will never know about it you should do it anyway
