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How Anime Shaped Our Gaming Taste with TubaGuyTristan
13 Plays3 days ago
Tony is joined by Twitch Streamer and Musician TubaGuyTristan (who has a Masters in Tuba). The two recap the Bandai Namco, Capcom and Arc System works showcases before talking about the Anime they grew up on that helped influence the games they played, and anime games in general, and Video Game Music. They also recap the last 2 weeks of gaming headlines and cover what games are set to come out mid July 2025.
Follow Tony: https://www.twitch.tv/tonysgamelounge
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonysGameLounge
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Follow Tristan: https://www.twitch.tv/tubaguytristan
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tubaguytristan.bsky.social
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Join the Official Tony's Game Lounge Discord: https://discord.gg/xXyvjaCsXp
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Disclaimer
00:00:00
Speaker
Disclaimer, all views expressed on this podcast represent the host and his guest and not the companies or agencies they are associated with.
Meet the Hosts and Guest
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Tony's Game Lounge, a bi-weekly podcast that covers everything in the world of video games, TCG, tabletop, and more. Here's your host, Tony 14. everybody. Welcome back to another brand new episode of Tony's Game Lounge. I am your host as always, a Tony 14.
00:00:29
Speaker
And joining us this week, honestly, I will say one of the most fun usernames I have seen. It is up there with the likes of my alt account, Lasagna Luigi.
Tristan's Musical Background
00:00:39
Speaker
We are joined by Twitch streamer, TubaGuyTristan.
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello. Hello. Tristan, welcome to the podcast. Oh, thank you for having me. Quick question before I get get into a couple things. what is What's the story behind your ah your your name? your name the Behind my handle?
00:01:00
Speaker
um Well, do you want to take a wild guess? You play the tuba. That is an incredible guess. Yes, that is exactly right. So I actually i have a master's degree in tuba.
00:01:13
Speaker
Oh, shit. And yeah my my main gig, my job is as a private music teacher. I teach piano, tuba, trombone, and euphonium, French horn, trumpet, and music theory.
00:01:24
Speaker
God damn. Wow. I bow down to you and your music ah credit credibility. God, that is incredible. Praise No, that's sick. A master's in tuba. That is...
00:01:39
Speaker
That must be like a really cool thing to like brag about to people that you meet for the first time. It is and it isn't, you know? Because you can be like, oh yeah, no big deal. I've just i've studied music for a long time. Like, oh, that's so cool. What do you play? Guitar? Drums?
00:01:53
Speaker
Tuba. I play tuba. But it's fun to say, though. It is. It is fun to say.
Tristan's Gaming Preferences
00:02:01
Speaker
It's very fun to say. Well, ah because you're brand new here,
00:02:07
Speaker
We get to start off with the loading screen where you get to give us your favorite video game, video game character, and video game soundtrack. All right. Load me up. Well, ah these won't necessarily be like favorite one of all time because I like a lot of different games, a lot of different styles and things, but I can give you, a i can answer the questions and give you a couple examples. Absolutely.
00:02:30
Speaker
um Favorite game. I am a big fan of Pokemon. i I grew up like I was in elementary school when the initial bout of Pokemania hit.
00:02:42
Speaker
Not to date myself or anything, but like in the 90s, Pokemon was big. Yeah. um And if I were to like pick one, I'd probably go with HeartGoldSoulSilver, the remakes of Gen 2. Yes.
00:02:56
Speaker
um Because Gen 2 was like my game as a kid. i were like I remember playing Pokemon Crystal on my Game Boy Color. In fact, I have a Pokemon Crystal tattoo.
00:03:08
Speaker
um And the remakes, they did a great job with Hard Gold, Soul Silver. Were they perfect? No, of course not. um But they have that like upgraded version of the original Gen 2 games.
00:03:21
Speaker
ah Plus that like nostalgia factor. So ah big, big fan of those. Big fan of those. I too am a big fan of HeartGold and SoulSilver. I even like we even had like the big deluxe version where I came with the Pokey Pokometer. the Pokewalker. Yeah. If you still have that, that's worth it. Okay. So I don't care.
00:03:41
Speaker
I don't have it anymore. I did sell it for like the fortune it was kind of worth. Good for you, then. ah i have I have both in box with Pokewalker. Oh!
00:03:55
Speaker
I have no intention of selling either of them, but i am I am very happy to have those on my gaming shelf. Nice. Nice. What about video game character? ah character. Well, again, I'm not going to point to one and say this is just my all-time number one, but a character that I've enjoyed recently, and surprise, surprise, it's also from a Pokemon game.
00:04:16
Speaker
ah Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. There was... Mixed bag for me. They did a lot of things right in that game. They did a lot of things kind of wrong.
00:04:26
Speaker
ah The performance issues on the switch were something. You know, performance issues that aren't really fixed until you get the switch to it. All of a sudden, windmill. Yeah, when the windmill is windmilling.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, we'll we'll see what happens with that. I actually don't have a switch to yet. I'll probably get one eventually. um But one of the one of the characters I did enjoy, though, was the school director Clavel.
00:04:50
Speaker
You know what? Based take. Clavel? Pretty cool. They leaned into his goofy nature. He gives like, and especially when he like masquerades as Clive with the pompadour kind of haircut.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah. gives Gives big Steve Buscemi Hello Fellow Kids vibes. yeah It really is. And it made me chuckle. The whole team star storyline with that
Gaming Music Insights
00:05:16
Speaker
too is just, it's pretty fun.
00:05:18
Speaker
but yeah yeah i enjoyed that uh i don't know how i felt about the like the different battle style in the star bases but clavel slash clive just it tickled me it tickled me i liked him a lot nice and uh gaming soundtrack Soundtrack. Now, I've listened to a lot of game soundtracks, unsurprisingly. The music usually ah will make or break a game for me.
00:05:44
Speaker
um I love a game with good music. Again, I don't know if I can point to one favorite, but I recently played through a Journey. Oh, like indie atmospheric, like climb up the mountain sort of game.
00:06:00
Speaker
And the music in that one in particular just really struck me. It was a it was a gorgeous soundtrack. Yeah, they do really great soundtracks. I'm actually I'm really looking forward to their next game.
00:06:12
Speaker
that I know it comes out soon. and It's, ah oh God, a Sword of the Sea or something like that. I'm blanking on the name, but it comes out very soon.
00:06:25
Speaker
I'll have to check that out. i actually hadn't heard that that was coming. But as I mentioned ah earlier, ah you know before we before we started recording, I am a filthy casual. ah yeah ah Yeah.
00:06:36
Speaker
Okay. Well, those are some great choices. And we'll be talking more about gaming music and especially how you see um having a huge music background, ah how you see gaming music probably differently than a lot of other people.
00:06:53
Speaker
um We'll be getting into that
The State of Live Service Games
00:06:54
Speaker
later. But before we do, we got some hot takes to get into. So Tristan, what is your video game hot take? See, I don't know that this is the hottest take, because I mean, i I know a lot of people will agree with me, but it's kind of a hot take against the current... and it's It's railing against the current situation that a lot of game companies are shoving down our throats.
00:07:22
Speaker
These live service games, these games that come out unfinished, these games that like... they're They're, you know, they have DLC that they want you to buy if you want to really enjoy the game for real. It's like, okay, you can get the base game, but if you really want to enjoy the experience, you got to buy the $10 add-on pack and the $6 add-on pack beyond that.
00:07:43
Speaker
Just stop, guys. Just make a complete game. yeah Make a complete game. Take as long as you need to finish it. I'll wait. And then release that complete game for us to enjoy.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah. It's not the hottest thing. I think a lot of people would be with me on that. Yeah, it's it's a pretty. I wish the game developers would be with me on that. If only, you know, the way gaming has gone a little bit of corporate greed and whatnot. You know who did that really well recently? Baldur's Gate 3.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yes. Aldersgate three, like sure. They've, they've made some patches and stuff, but they launched a game that was a complete game in and of itself. It was a full enjoyable game and the patches were just quality of life improvements and they were free patches.
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, all the patches were free. Their last patch, which added a but like a new subclass for everything, also free. it We need more of that. we need We definitely do need more of that. I mean, i will say Astro Bot's also kind of done the same thing with all of its additional stuff. It's all just been free add-ons. And actually, speaking of Astro Bot, because I don't have it ah anywhere else, it looks like the new Astro Bot free ah update did just come out as well.
00:09:01
Speaker
um Because I saw a thing on Twitter and looks like they added Cloud and Sephiroth as little astrobots into the game as new astrobites to find. So I will be playing that after we are are done recording this this today.
00:09:14
Speaker
Heck yeah, you'll have to tell us how it is. I will. We'll hear that next week. And before we get into our headline of the week, I do just want to also ah let everybody know that the Ghost of Tsushima, sorry, the Ghost of Yotei State of Play that is on the 10th, because we're recording on the 10th, we will be covering that next week.
00:09:34
Speaker
As ah we are recording before that happens. So the ghost of Yotei news we'll have for you in the next episode. As moving on to our headline of the week. Well, there were a couple summer showcases, but the biggest one that happened, I would say the most ah put together one ah was the Bandai Namco summer showcase, which was hosted by Sidney Goodman and SeaDog VA.
00:10:00
Speaker
ah And they announced, they talked about, announced a couple new games, talked about some games that we did see from Summer Game Fest, and we'll get right into those. Starting off, they announced the brand new My Hero Academia game, My Hero Academia All's Justice.
00:10:17
Speaker
um This is, looks like it's going to come out later this year. Um, it's going to be an arena fighter, just like the previous titles, uh, based entirely on the final story arc of the game.
00:10:31
Speaker
um and unlike the other two, my hero one's justice, uh, all of class one, a will be playable and they're introducing, cause I don't, I played one justice one and two. don't,
00:10:44
Speaker
Remember that there was kind of a tag system, but it was like a pretty bare bones one. So I think there it looks like they're making a ah better tag system with the game. Okay, you'll you'll have to help me out because I'm not as familiar with this these games here. What what is this tag system?
00:11:02
Speaker
uh tags have you ever seen gameplay for marvel versus capcom 3 or the marvel versus capcom games i have not okay so basically you have the ability to switch your character on the fly in battle and so it's their it's their health bar then takes over ah your other fighters health bar um but if that one fighter still goes down You're basically able to switch your between like three fighters in between a match.
00:11:30
Speaker
um You don't lose the round until one of your heroes or characters loses all their health. And then it continues on with you having two and your opponent having three still. And then it goes back and forth like that.
00:11:41
Speaker
okay all right all right i think i follow yeah tagging in and out like like a like like wrestling match almost yeah i was i was gonna say that sounds very much like yeah yeah hence where the term tag yeah makes sense makes sense yeah so uh that's cool i'm i'll i don't know if i'll play it Uh, cause you know, I, I still need to catch up on my hero. I'm only like a season behind now. I think like I need to watch the most recent season that came out.
00:12:08
Speaker
And then, uh, it sounds like though, that this game will be coming out before the final, the final, final season. of my hero so they will they are doing their own adaptation of how the ending is going to go i mean obviously we know how the end is going to go if you've read the manga because the manga is done they have that to work from but it'll be the first like animation wise i guess that we'll get to see of the finale of the story. All right.
00:12:38
Speaker
So that's kind of cool, I guess. um But so I believe it's going to launch either right as the final season starts or sometime during that final season.
00:12:48
Speaker
Well, that'd be cool to have like a a launch at the same time. So it'd be good f promo for them, right? Absolutely. Yes. um We then got a couple more details for Code Vein 2, which is Souls-like game from Bandai Namco.
00:13:03
Speaker
um We got a couple of new details from the dev team story-wise. We're time traveling 100 years to the past, um and the story will unfold in both the past and present. um It's a 2026 release. If you played the first Code Vein, it's basically anime Dark Souls from what I vaguely remember. Yeah, I've not played it, but that's exactly how I've heard it described.
00:13:24
Speaker
Yeah. but So it's it's just more it's anime Dark Souls, but with time travel. So anime Steins Gate Dark Souls. But all right.
00:13:35
Speaker
Darker, probably much darker. I feel. Sign me up.
00:13:40
Speaker
We then got a but like our last look at like some gameplay for Patapon 1 plus 2 as the game is out now. um But they just like, oh, here's a little last trailer, some gameplay that we're playing with Seadog to...
00:13:54
Speaker
to just ah showcase the game before launch. um We then got a trailer for Toa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. This releases September 19th. Oh, that's a, it's a roguelite with eight characters to pick from. It's very Hades coded.
00:14:11
Speaker
um And the two characters they showed off are Rekka and Nishiki. And Nishiki is a buff koi fish.
00:14:20
Speaker
ah That's great. i'm just yeah i'm I'm just thinking of Buff Magikarp as you described that. Yeah, basically. The game starring Buff Magikarp is fantastic. Yeah, and so those are some of the characters. If you check out the gameplay for it, it's as is very Hades coded. Very, very Hades coded. It looks like you take either take control of two characters per run, or there's a co-op options as well.
00:14:43
Speaker
um They did specifically say... um But definitely give it a check. um Then i weren i wasn't expecting to get any news about this, but we got ah there's an update coming to Death Note Killer Within. This is the Death Note Among Us game.
00:15:01
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, for which you very much went under the radar last year. It was free on PlayStation for a short for a month ah as part of the PS Plus program.
00:15:12
Speaker
um Well, they're adding some new roles into the game, and that update is coming summer 2025. ah So if for those who have been enjoying playing as El or Kira, yeah, El or Kira.
00:15:28
Speaker
yeah Yeah, those are the characters. Yeah, I'm like, wait, I'm like, a for a second, I'm like, wait, no, they're the same. No, it's Light. Light is Kira. I'll take a potato chip and eat it. So we got that update coming summer 2025. And then we got a new deeper look at shadow labyrinth. This is the dark Pac-Man game that comes out July 18th to celebrate Pac-Man's 45th anniversary.
00:15:56
Speaker
um Happy birthday, Pac-Man. So this is a a sequel to the secret level if people if you remember secret level that little animated that series on oh on amazon amazon that that was like each episode an episode was one of my favorite ones yeah so this is that's a prequel to the game that pac-man episode that is prequel to this game we play as swordsman 8 and puck because
00:16:27
Speaker
As Scott Pilgrim once said, did you know Pac-Man used to be called Puckman? Because he looks like a puck. I'd forgotten that.
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, ah so that is, there are a protag. It's a Metroidvania. ah The four main bosses of the game, believe it or not, are but called the G-hosts, and each one is a different color. Red, pink, orange, and blue.
00:16:56
Speaker
ah The colors of the ghosts from the original game. And we get to, they're they're fighting. it like It looks really, really cool gameplay.
00:17:06
Speaker
um It's, I'm looking forward to this game a lot. And I did look at the price. This game is only like 40 bucks Canadian. and that's not bad that's not bad that's not bad market it like we're used to spending 80 to 100 bucks on a triple a title yeah that's not unreasonable it's not unreasonable at all so i'm looking forward to that uh we then got a brand new trailer for little nightmares 3 which is out over um there will be a demo at san diego comic con for the game so for those who are attending that will
00:17:39
Speaker
get to play get first hands on. um They also talked about like after the new trailer dropped, they also announced everything that's going to come with the deluxe edition of the game.
00:17:50
Speaker
um So the deluxe edition will include an expansion pass with two additional chapters for the game. And if you pre-order the game, it'll come with an enhanced version of Little Nightmares 1, which I'm sure they're also probably going to sell separately as well.
00:18:05
Speaker
um But nice to see an HD remake for the first game. I loved the first two. i played them both in October in previous years. Nice. And as like as spooky month games. Oh man, they are our fun little romps.
00:18:21
Speaker
I've heard really good. that I've heard nothing bad about the little nightmare games. If you've not played them, highly recommend. Do it around Halloween. Turn off your lights and enjoy. will do uh everybody's golf hot shots which is coming out september 5th got a last little showcase um we got we got the pac-man demo uh because you can play pac-man in the game because it's just ah a golf game uh there's a new some new game modes coming to the game it was pretty just but it was basically like here's the gameplay it's pac-man golfing what more do you want
00:18:56
Speaker
ah So very, very nice. ah Then we got a trailer for Super Robot Wars Y, which apparently this is a franchise. The Super Robot Wars franchise has been a thing for a while. This drops August 28th. This is a grid-based tactical robot RPG.
00:19:12
Speaker
And this features the robot and mechs across a bunch of like anime. So you got Gundams. You got the mechs from Code Geass. You got the mechs from Godzilla and more.
00:19:27
Speaker
And you can fight Godzilla in the game, too. That sounds like fun. ah Yes. We're to talking about anime later in the show, but ah I definitely grew up watching some Gundam.
00:19:38
Speaker
So August 28th, that comes out. We then got basically kind of a repeat trailer from what we saw at ah Summer Game Fest for the Blood of the Dawnwalker, which comes out next year.
00:19:50
Speaker
And a couple other details. It's an open world action RPG. There will be narrative choices that do affect how the story plays out. And there's a day-night cycle where that day you're using your human skills. At night you have your vampire skills.
00:20:05
Speaker
Uh, then we got some tech in eight news specifically for Fakum ROM, who is available right now. As you are listening to this podcast, Fakum ROM is out. Uh, so now we just await for armor King.
00:20:18
Speaker
Um, and then the game will be, and, uh, you know, hopefully all the balances they make, make the game good again, because that lot that people are still very angry about how that last patch was. Oh boy.
00:20:32
Speaker
um Then we got an update for Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, of all things, because Kakarot is getting the Daima DLC, part one of two, and that drops July 17th, which puts you in control of Daima Goku to explore the Demon Realm with ah his Daima friends.
00:20:52
Speaker
ah So that part one comes out July seventeenth Don't know when part two will be coming out. ah Then we got to my favorite part of the show, Digimon Story Time Stranger, which drops October 3rd, which also had a separate trailer release um before the Bandai Namco showcase, um which was a new system, which went over the systems in the trailer. So the personalities of Digimon are being overhauled from the other story games, Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory.
00:21:25
Speaker
um They can change depending on your interactions with them. The Digifarm is overhauled entirely from what it looks like. ah You're going to get these agent skills, which are skill trees based around the different crests from the anime.
00:21:40
Speaker
And X-Arts, which are basically your new alt or cross arts, which are your new ultimate combos and attack buffs and all that stuff. As for what they announced in the Bandai Namco showcase, there's going to be over 450 Digimon, which is 150 more than what, or 100 more than what was Times, Hacker's Memory Cyber Sleuth.
00:22:03
Speaker
or a hundred more then what was in time hacker' memory and cyber sleuth That's a lot of Digimon. It's a lot of Digimon. ah The key areas that you will be traveling traversing around are Tokyo and the digital world, um which is great because we actually get to go to the digital world for ah these modern Digimon story games.
00:22:25
Speaker
um There are now seven main attributes instead of just four. Obviously, data, vaccine, and virus, and free are returning, and they did announce one of the new attributes is called variable.
00:22:38
Speaker
We still don't know what the other two are yet. ah As for element wise, there are two brand new elements getting added alongside the fire, water, plant, electricity, wind, earth, light, darkness, and null. Null just being normal type.
00:22:54
Speaker
ah Steel and ice types are being added into those. ah And as for how weaknesses will work, they still follow the basic triangle for attributes where vaccine beats virus, virus beats data, data beats vaccine.
00:23:14
Speaker
um But there's also going, but determining... what a Digimon is weak to will no longer use the basic element triangle where it was like fire beats plants, plant beats water, water beats fire, electricity beats wind, wind beats earth, earth beats electricity, light and dark beat each other and null is just neutral.
00:23:38
Speaker
It's going more of like how the Persona games had it where each Digimon will have unique um strengths and weaknesses. Where it's like weak to certain elements, but strong against others.
00:23:52
Speaker
um So they are going more in that direction now. um As for your party slots your team members, they're going the way Digimon, where you will have six party slots open for your own team yeah instead of... Yeah, this is feeling more and more Pokemon-esque. Yeah. ah and So instead of the 12 that we got in the Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory, it's now six, but then there's like three slots for Guest or Digimon, one of them being a dedicated slot for Ageomon, who will be with you for what looks like most of the story.
00:24:25
Speaker
um But you will be able to access your Digimon storage anywhere, so you'll be able to switch out your party Digimon in an instant. That's a nice quality life touch. Which is very nice. um And boss battles will be featuring unique mechanics and having, if you bring specific Digimon with you, they'll be able to trigger specific things in the fight.
00:24:45
Speaker
ah It was very cool. um And that they have that whole segment, a nine minute segment ah available individually on YouTube as well. And that was everything from the Capcom, not the Capcom, the Bandai Namco showcase.
00:25:00
Speaker
ah That other one. Yeah, I say that because we'll be getting into the Capcom showcase a little later too. Any final thoughts on any of those, Tristan? I mean, just that Digimon game, the more you described it, the more I thought it sounds like Pokemon.
00:25:14
Speaker
ah yeah For those who are looking forward to Time Stranger, I highly encourage, give Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory a playthrough um because the base of those games is what's coming to Time Stranger.
00:25:28
Speaker
I have heard very good things about those ones. so They are incredible games. I only just i just i finished the um Cyber Sleuth not that long ago I'm working on Hacker's Memory right now.
00:25:42
Speaker
and They're great and they go on sale for like I think they're on sale on the Switch for like five bucks right now. Oh, that's great. Yeah, so... I mean, i i love Digimon so much because it is it is kind of a parallel to Pokemon. They came out around the same time. They came out around the same time. Digimon actually came out first.
00:26:00
Speaker
and And just like in in Pokemon, for instance, I'm going to do the comparison, though. And i i I mentioned earlier, I liked how goofy director Clavel was. Well, I mean, in Pokemon, you get, you know, cute little thing, slightly bigger thing, bigger thing still with angry eyes, you know, like that's the evolution tree. Whereas in Digimon, you've got like kitten to cat to hot lady to dragon. Like where do these things come from?
00:26:24
Speaker
got your it's fun. it's got You got ah Training 1, which is Tiny Little Blob. Training 2, which is Bigger Blob, a.k.a. your Coromon. Then you got Rookie, which is your Agumon.
00:26:37
Speaker
Then you got Champion, your Graymon. Your... Ultimate is next, right? ah Mega is next. Mega next? Which is Metal Graymon.
00:26:52
Speaker
um I thought Metal Greymon was an ultimate, wasn't he? No, War Greymon is ultimate. Really? Okay, I i must be mixed up. And then after ultimate, it's ultra. Okay. And ultras would be like your Omnimon.
00:27:06
Speaker
Okay, okay, okay. i haven't i haven't I must admit, I haven't kept up with Digimon as I have with Pokemon. So my my knowledge is probably 10 to 15 years out of date in that area. Yeah. Or is it Mega? Oh, God, no. i'm Is it Ultimate before Mega? Hold on. We're both like frantically Googling it now. I need to frantically Google this actually thing.
00:27:29
Speaker
Why am I? Oh, Mega. There it is. Yeah, Mega. Yeah, so it's Champion u Ultimate Mega. In English. In English, specifically. Champion Ultimate Mega, and then they're beyond that is Ultra.
00:27:41
Speaker
Okay, yeah. And that's your Omnimon, Alphamon, Apoclamon type stuff. There. Jeez.
00:27:53
Speaker
ah you would think i You would think after like playing a month of Digimon, I would have that on lockdown, but I still don't. Oh, no. It's all good. All right, well, um with that out of the way, it's now time for us to dive into everything else that happened in the past two weeks.
00:28:08
Speaker
ah Let's jump into the Week in Review. Recapping the major stories of video games and the world of tabletop, looking over recent releases and reports from the Game Lounge crew, it's the Week in Review.
00:28:21
Speaker
And to kick it off, some of the games that came out in these past two weeks, Mecha Break officially came out for free. Angry Birds Bounce is available on mobile devices. Patapon Replay came out.
00:28:34
Speaker
EA Sports College Football 26. Islanders New Shores. And Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4. Which is a lot of fun. I've been playing the Tony Hawk game. Lots and lots of fun. It is just as good as 1 and 2's remake.
00:28:50
Speaker
As for gaming news, starting off with a couple of showcases that also happened, the Capcom showcase, which was mostly just them rehashing everything that they showed off in the, uh, Summer Game Fest.
00:29:06
Speaker
Uh, they started with prague Pragmata, which they played the exact same trailer that they did at Summer Game Fest. Um, but they showed off a little bit more gameplay where it's your puzzle action game where,
00:29:20
Speaker
as Diana, you're you're at you're basically doing puzzles while you're moving around and in combat to disable enemies' armor before you can actually damage them.
00:29:32
Speaker
um So that's essentially the main loop of gameplay that you'll be doing. um We did get a brand new Street Fighter VI trailer for Sagat, who will be coming out August 5th.
00:29:44
Speaker
And we also got ah we're also getting swimsuits for essentially every female character as well. And i yeah you can go look at those on your own time.
00:29:56
Speaker
The Gooners are out in full force. They are. ah We got some new news for Konitsugami Path of the Goddess, the Switch 2 version specifically. um It's getting mouse controls.
00:30:07
Speaker
And then there's some DLC coming to the game. The Otherworldly Venture um will be available as well as ah coming out later this month, ah Yashichi Waves, which is changing the music to an 8-bit style that you can switch to.
00:30:23
Speaker
Uh, then we got some more details for resident evil requiem. Um, we're who the, we, they essentially did the same thing where they played a little bit of the trailer that it showed off at summer game fest, uh, where we got to see a bit more of grace Ashcroft.
00:30:38
Speaker
Uh, the devs did say that Leon was planned to be the protagonist for this game. So it's possible. We'll actually get to see Leon in the game as well. um both the game will have both first and third person perspectives that can be switched at will um we're returning to raccoon city 30 years after the events of resident evil 2 and uh the game comes up february 27th 2026 and you can find more dev interviews on the official resident evil requiem website
00:31:11
Speaker
And then they got into their big thing, which was the Monster Hunter Wilds second update, second title update. ah So they showed the trailer for that and then got into all the details for essentially the remainder of the show.
00:31:23
Speaker
ah So we get Laguerra Chris. like like I'm going to butcher these names. um whose first debut was in Monster Hunter 3 Tri. There's going to be an underwater battle for a section of that fight.
00:31:38
Speaker
And Seragios, who first debuted in 4 Ultimate, will also be added. um In a future update, you will get to fight the Ark-tempered Uth Duna. Photo mode will be coming to the game um Some new sorry subdu settings and an update to photo mode.
00:31:53
Speaker
um You'll be able to swap between Eric and Alma for your guides. There's going be new support hunters and new event quests, including ah Fender Guitar Collaboration.
00:32:04
Speaker
where if you complete a limited time quest that comes to the game, you'll get an emote that lets you play a Fender guitar. na I was, you said a Fender guitar collab. but And I immediately thought that Fender was launching a monster Hunter wilds, like patterned guitar.
00:32:23
Speaker
And I was so curious to what that would look They might be doing that I don't know if Fender's announced anything, but they might be doing that too. So maybe stay tuned that. Dude, love gimmicky instruments.
00:32:35
Speaker
i'm still I'm still Loki trying to get my hands on a Hello Kitty Stratocaster. Nice. ah There's also going some DLC for four new dance emotes, some cosmetic hair packs and pendants. And there's also going be the seasonal events of the Festival of of a Accord Flame Fate.
00:32:55
Speaker
um The roadmap that they laid out for when everything's coming out, The title update too is out right now. July 23rd to August 6th will be Flame Fate. July 30th to August 20th, you'll be able to fight Uth Duna.
00:33:08
Speaker
And the 27th of August to the 24th of September is when the Fender guitar collab will happen. So there's still time for Fender to announce, hey, the reason we're doing this is because we also have a Monster Hunter guitar in the works.
00:33:22
Speaker
So... Look forward to all of those. And also late September, ah title update three will be coming to the game as well. um Then a more showcases. The other showcase Arc System Works, which also had a bunch of weird stuff ah that was shown off.
00:33:42
Speaker
ah They did not show any Marvel token, which is their new fighting game that they announced at Summer Game Fest. um But here's everything that did they did show off.
00:33:54
Speaker
ah Starting off, Dear Me, I Was. It's coming out later this summer. This is a game for the Switch 2 exclusively. And it is promoted literally word by word.
00:34:07
Speaker
A textless adventure game designed, quote, for women to feel more positive after playing, end quote. I don't know what that means. What do you mean?
00:34:19
Speaker
I mean, i it could mean many things, but I'm glad that they're trying to do something because... ah You gotta admit, the gaming um community is a little toxic towards female players i sometimes. Completely undeservedly so. We want to, you know, accept everybody, encourage everybody to enjoy video games, but people are dicks sometimes.
00:34:42
Speaker
Yeah. um I don't know. I feel like it's just like a weird way to word that, you know? suppose, yeah, they could have phrased it differently, but I... I don't hate the way they phrase it. The game is rotoscoped. So it's shot in live action and then drawn over with the animation style that they use. That's really neat. I love rotoscoping.
00:35:02
Speaker
um So you got that. So you you do got that. So again, no specific release date yet, but sometime this summer. ah Then we got a new show for Double Dragon Revive, which comes out October 23rd.
00:35:14
Speaker
ah You can pre-order the game to get an exclusive game, Double Dragon Dodgeball. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. If you can dodge a dragon, you can dodge a ball.
00:35:27
Speaker
ah That sounds harder to do. It does, but I feel like if you can dodge a dragon, you can dodge a ball easily. Uh, then we've got a trailer for solemn, which is a rogue them up from dotemu, which is coming out later this year.
00:35:42
Speaker
Demons night fever, uh, embrace being evil. This is from the former dis Gaia creator and his brand new studio. And this is coming out next year. Uh, there was no gameplay that they showed. It was more just an announcement.
00:35:56
Speaker
Uh, then, um, and I didn't think we'd see this game coming back, but it's come back. Bubble Bobble is getting a new entry called Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons, which is coming out winter 2025.
00:36:10
Speaker
um then we got a new trailer for Hunter Hunter Nen Impact, which drops July 17th. This is a 3v3 tag battle fighting game. Um, but the roster seems a little small. Uh, only 16 characters at launch.
00:36:27
Speaker
ah Now, I've never watched Hunter Hunter. Nor Okay, I so i but i was going to ask, because you you've probably seen a lot more anime than I have. I was going ask, have you seen Hunter Hunter? Is this roster size like, okay? That's not one I've ever gotten into, so I really couldn't tell you. Sorry.
00:36:44
Speaker
Hey, no, that's fair. We then got a new trailer for some Under Night In-Birth 2 system. Celeste Izumi, the next character, will have a demo at Anime Expo. So that Anime Expo just happened. So if you played the demo, let us know how it was.
00:37:00
Speaker
And they did announce that Under Night In-Birth 2 will be a main title at Evo this year. So it'll be on the main stage. And lastly, they showed off Damon and Baby.
00:37:13
Speaker
which is a top-down action game that's going to be coming out sometime in the future. And that was all of the game showcases in these past two weeks. Moving on to your headlines, starting off with something big from Xbox that was not great.
00:37:30
Speaker
Xbox has canceled the perfect Dark Reboot game and has closed the studio working on it, ah the initiative. Boo! This comes as massive layoffs hit the studio.
00:37:43
Speaker
ah Other games that got canceled were Rares Everwild and a new MMO that was in development um at ZeniMax. who did gave us the Elder Scrolls online.
00:37:56
Speaker
So, yeah, a lot of things canceled that Xbox. A lot of ah people laid off. Hate see Yeah, you really hate to see it. um But that's... um At least we now know not to look forward to that Perfect Dark game anymore.
00:38:16
Speaker
Unlike people who are still holding on to hope for ah beyond good and evil to still, because, you know, Ubisoft hasn't outright canceled that yet. ah In Red Dead news, Red Dead Online has just gotten some brand new support with a new set of online missions to do as part of the Strange Tales of the West Volume 1.
00:38:38
Speaker
ah In repo news, the new repo update has been released, adding a brand new museum map and some new items, including a photon blaster, pulse pistol, some wings, and more.
00:38:51
Speaker
Ooh, I love more. Yes. In Nintendo Switch Online news, ah Super Mario Strikers has been added to the GameCube NSO library, which is a great addition, especially considering the new Strikers game that came out on the Switch was just kind of meh.
00:39:14
Speaker
From what I heard. GameCube is a goaded console. i am so happy that Nintendo is bringing a lot of these games back. I am too, because it means that some of the games that i don't have in my collection will hopefully have a price decrease.
00:39:31
Speaker
I'm praying that that's the case because I collect them. Speaking speaking of that, i was very fortunate. I picked up both Super Smash Brothers Melee and ah Mario Kart Double Dash.
00:39:44
Speaker
Back when GameStop, which was then EB Games and now GameStop. and It's going to be EB Games again yeah soon. Anyway, when they were phasing out the GameCube as like a console that they regularly stocked games for, yeah i got both of those games at eight bucks a pop.
00:40:02
Speaker
Oh my God, that's steal. And they're e easily worth 50 plus now. Yeah, they are. What the fuck?
00:40:12
Speaker
You think? I know that they've put opened up a couple stores in the States. Do you think that we'll actually get to see any of these GameStop slash EB Games retro stores come to Canada? Oh, hope so.
00:40:23
Speaker
I hope so. Will we? We'll see. But I would love that. Yeah. In Assassin's Creed news, Matt Ryan, the voice of Edward Kenway, has hinted in a fan interaction that there might be a remake of Assassin's Creed Black Flag coming soon.
00:40:39
Speaker
Do they need to remake it? Didn't that launch for like... Was it a 360 game? It was a 360 game. It did start on the 360.
00:40:48
Speaker
Okay, I mean, i suppose they've made some upgrades to graphics and the like since then, but like, it feels like a lot of the games that they're just putting out remasters for these days are, they don't need it. They don't need it.
00:40:58
Speaker
I think Unity onwards does doesn't need it. So... I can see the argument for Black Flag, sure. Yeah, because you've done it, you've remastered... You know what, no, you know what Assassin's Creed needs to remaster? The first fucking game.
00:41:16
Speaker
ah Honestly, I love how janky the first one is. Do you know some of the behind-the-scenes stories for that one? Very few. things Things like the fact that the horse that you ride on in Assassin's Creed 1, they didn't actually model a horse in the game. They just took a human model and weirdly like rearranged its bones to look horse-shaped.
00:41:37
Speaker
What the fuck? I know. What? ah Why? Why? You could have just bought... They didn't have time. a lot of a lot of the side climb no A lot of the side quests and the fetch quests and the like the the busy work that keeps you playing the game for longer was added in the like few weeks before launch because one of the head developers gave the game in its like beta format to his son to try.
00:42:02
Speaker
he like, hey, this is the game we're going to launch in a month. What do you think? And he tried and was like, I don't know. it was kind of boring. They needed more variety in the missions. And then suddenly they were like scrambling to add more content to the game.
00:42:14
Speaker
I think if they ever do remake the first game, I feel like it would have to be like a like a proper remake. A remaster wouldn't do it. It would need to remade. No, a remaster would not because you can't even swim in that game.
00:42:27
Speaker
No, it would be cool. It would be cool, but I love some of the behind the scenes nonsense that happened. if If you guys want a good laugh, go look it up yourselves, please. well Please do.
00:42:40
Speaker
ah Dave the Diver's Jungle DLC is being delayed, but to make up for it, the devs are bringing back the Godzilla content pack, and they are expanding Ichiban Kasuga's vacation and until the end of next year now.
00:42:56
Speaker
you've got both of those to do. uh, Dying Light 2 is collabing with Ballotro. um the pack playing on Ballotro's, uh, little updates is called the Friend of Aiden bundle.
00:43:10
Speaker
This adds two new quests, which when completed, give you a ceremonial dagger based on the Joker card in the game, a Joker charm, and the best part, which might be nightmare fuel for some, Jimbo's outfit.
00:43:25
Speaker
So you too can look like Ben Starr when he cosplayed Jimbo of Ballotro, which is absolutely hilarious. Have you seen um Ben Starr's cosplay, Tristan? No, I sure haven't, but I'm going to go look it up after the today's episode. Look it up. like just just Just Google Ben Starr Jimbo, and you'll understand why it's so great.
00:43:51
Speaker
Hold on. I'm going to do this right now. Yeah, I want to hear your reaction to this. Ben Star Jimbo. Star with two R's, yeah? Two R's, yes. ah Oh my god. Yeah.
00:44:02
Speaker
I mean, I kind of like it. yeah So you can like look like that in Dying Light 2 now. which is, can I look at that in every game, please? Uh, maybe, maybe, uh, in some Pokemon news, Pope Leo has signed a pop Leo Pokemon card after a fan's recent visit to the Vatican.
00:44:26
Speaker
That is now the holiest of all the Pokemon cards.
00:44:31
Speaker
But but glad I'm glad somebody actually did that. i'm I'm glad the Pope had a sense of humor about it too, you know? like Yes. Absolutely. So that's great. And also in Pokemon news, there will be a brand new Pokemon Presents on July at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific.
00:44:50
Speaker
um And we'll probably be getting more news on Legends ZA, updates to all their mobile games, and maybe some news about Pokemon Champions, hopefully. And maybe about their next mainline game, too.
00:45:05
Speaker
I would love to know about the next mainline game. And I mentioned earlier, I don't have a Switch 2 yet. i'm ah I'm waiting for the Legends ZA, like... ah What's the word I'm looking for?
00:45:16
Speaker
um Oh, my God. um English is my first language. i am I'm really hoping that they announce like a Legends ZA themed Switch 2. Like, you know what i'm talking about? A bundle, yes. The bundle with the special dock and stuff.
00:45:32
Speaker
I bought a Switch um when um Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee came out. And I bought the bundle that included the special Switch dock that has Eevee and Pikachu on it.
00:45:44
Speaker
And i I want to get the same thing for the Switch, too. So I'm hoping they announce that at that Pokemon Presents. Yeah, that would be it would be really cool. I think it's very realistic that we should get it. um also uh on nintendo and the switch really quickly after january 30th 2026 the nintendo game voucher system will be uh sunlighted or sunsetted um so it's going away it's going away it's leaving but i think this means it might be introducing because it's not on the switch 2 yet you can't do it for switch 2 games you can only do it for switch 1 games currently um
00:46:20
Speaker
Um, so any, if you, if you buy the voucher, it's still going valid for up to 12 months after you purchase it. And they will still be adding games after the, after January 30th to this program. So you can still hold onto to it and get a game next year from it.
00:46:38
Speaker
So you don't have to waste your vouchers. You can still hold onto them up to a year later.
00:46:47
Speaker
Uh, On some GameStop news as well, that's also Switch related, the infamous stapler that GameStop used on a couple Switch 2s that cracked the screens.
00:47:01
Speaker
um Well, that's being auctioned off for charity. is Is it really? it is Oh, fantastic. ah Proceeds will benefit the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.
00:47:14
Speaker
That's good. at least At least they're putting it to good use. They are. ah
00:47:22
Speaker
The Square Enix news. Square Enix has been celebrating Final Fantasy IX's 25th anniversary by still not announcing a remake. A remake that people are like essentially smoking so much copium for right now. Still hasn't been announced.
00:47:40
Speaker
But we do have a picture book written by Kazuhiko Aoki and illustrated by Toshiyuki Itohana. And it is coming to the West on May 2026. twenty twenty six So we should get a picture book, guys.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yay!
00:47:59
Speaker
um in Resident Evil news Resident Evil Survival Unit is a new mobile game that was announced at Anime Expo it's being marketed as a real time strategy mobile game and more details will revealed later on um in games shutting down news EA is finally shutting down Anthem servers because let's be real who the fuck was playing Anthem still I don't even know what that is so Anthem was years ago, like back on the PS4, Xbox one days, Anthem came out as like the new destiny killer. It didn't kill destiny.
00:48:39
Speaker
Okay. It did not see much traction actually, but it was very destiny like, uh, and now the servers are finally shutting down January 12th, 2026. twenty twice six They will be shutting them down and ending support for the game.
00:48:55
Speaker
In Hades news, Supergiant Games have gone on record saying that the last of the early access content for Hades 2 has been released. Meaning, it's very likely that when the next update does come out, which will be the official launch, it's it could be this year still.
00:49:14
Speaker
So look forward to that. Hades two people um that have not played the game in early access. I have played the game. I have played Hades two. I have put in a lot of hours into that game. it is fantastic. I love that game so much. Is it as good as Hades one?
00:49:29
Speaker
I didn't like Hades one as much as I like Hades two. Really? Because I yeah thoroughly enjoyed Hades one. I haven't, I liked Hades one for what it was, but I enjoyed it. I liked it for what it was, but I didn't care for how they, how you had to get, um, essentially had to like boost your difficulty to get new items, to continue progressing people and stuff like that.
00:49:55
Speaker
Um, for all your runs, I liked how he's too has a much better system for that. And that's my biggest gripe between the two games.
00:50:08
Speaker
Uh, in peak news, the developers of peak put out a bug fix that only affected those using the peak unlimited mod, um which is the essentially up to 20 players can play at the same time on a single game.
00:50:22
Speaker
um And they have stated that they also are chill with the mod users. Let's go based game devs. Based game devs. ah In Activision news, Activision has pulled a very specific PC version of Call of Duty World War II days after release, following reports that the game suffers from a remote code execution exploit.
00:50:43
Speaker
This affects the so-called Xbox PC version of COD World War II that was just released on PC Game Pass. The game remains available still on Steam and through Battle.net.
00:50:56
Speaker
um It's some big story news for The Last of Us. Neil Druckmann, you know, lead writer, guy behind Last of Us from Naughty Dog.
00:51:07
Speaker
Well, he is leaving The Last of Us HBO alongside Part 2's co-writer, Hayley Gross. Ooh. that or gross. How do you pronounce it?
00:51:18
Speaker
ah Despite there still being two more seasons of the show. Yeah. Two more. I thought it was only one more, but no, it's two more. Druckmann says that he's stepping away, not because of bad vibes or anything, just, just to focus on other naughty dog projects.
00:51:35
Speaker
Don't really know how I feel. I mean, to be fair, i don't know how well the writing is going to go for season three, considering season three of the show is going to be entirely Abby's storyline from the second game.
00:51:49
Speaker
So we'll see how people feel about that when the season three does release. Although that means I do not know what season four is going to be. I did not know it was getting a season four.
00:52:02
Speaker
I'm assuming season four will probably just be the last bit of the game from the second game. Maybe. Guess we'll find out, huh I guess we will. ah In Ready or Not news, the SWAT sim Ready or Not's recent Steam reviews dropped to mostly negative recently in the wake of changes to the game's content to meet console standards that were, if not wildly, vocally perceived to be a censorship by a number of fans.
00:52:28
Speaker
The changes are mostly some nudity, violent stuff, specifically dismemberment for dead bodies, but not live bodies. um void interactive did address the changes even saying that the pc version only had six minor changes is made uh even with the statements that they made players are still somehow mad although in the discord in the official ready or not discord somebody asked can we just like mod this stuff back in and they said yeah you could but Like, oh no, why are so mad about this? it feels so like It feels so stupid. It's six minor things just so they can meet some cons console standards.
00:53:11
Speaker
I mean, i guys it sounds like people whining for the sake of whining, you know? Honestly, yeah. um Despite this, though, the player base of the game has gone up because of this.
00:53:23
Speaker
Well, good. If they can meet more of those standards, it means their game will reach more people. So that's yeah probably net positive. Also, just all the drama as well. Speaking of drama, ah i was debating whether or not I wanted to cover this story or not, but you know, i like i kind of have to.
00:53:42
Speaker
The Stop Killing Games initiative. ah So it has reached the number of signatures needed for both the UK and EU petitions. Two separate ones. One for the UK government, one for the EU government.
00:53:54
Speaker
ah They even crossed a million signatures on a petition, which kind which is which forces the UK government to actually look and discuss the initiative in Parliament. However, the founder of the initiative did say that some of the signatures are most likely not legitimate and theorizes there are only six to seven hundred thousand that are.
00:54:15
Speaker
That's still a lot of signatures. It's still a lot signatures. um Now, you can I'm not going to go into what exactly this is. You can do your own research on this because this is a whole big thing and there are various sides to this.
00:54:28
Speaker
um If you want more details, Google the whole Stop Killing Games initiative and why it's got all this traction it did because of Pirate Software having...
00:54:39
Speaker
being against this. And there's now a lobbyists lobbies going on about this from Ubisoft, EA and Activision. And like, again, this unlike petition, like change.com, where it's just a petition to sign this stuff and you pass it on to whoever, this is a whole government thing. And that's in Europe.
00:55:03
Speaker
It's not even in America. This is all European right now. it's because of some European laws and they're looking at trying to get these things changed. And it's a whole deal.
00:55:14
Speaker
I highly encourage people, if you have not done research on this, please do research on this because this is a big deal. um but There are various sides of it. So please look over everything carefully and form your own opinions on this. This is a very, very big story.
00:55:31
Speaker
And that's all going to say about it. It's big enough that I, a filthy casual, have at least heard vaguely about it. Yeah. And lastly, in some really great news, the SAG-AFTRA video game voiceover strike is officially over.
00:55:46
Speaker
After a year of negotiations, the SAG-AFTRA video game voiceover strike has officially come to an end with members of the guild approving the 2025 interactive media agreement.
00:55:58
Speaker
Hallelujah.
00:56:01
Speaker
Power to the unions. Let's go. Yes. Power to the unions. We love good working conditions. Screw ai Yes. Thank God. ah Moving on to our ongoing game news, starting off with FF 14. The Moogle Tomestone event is on now until the release of 7.3.
00:56:19
Speaker
And on July 24th, the next live letter from the producer will be talking all things 7.3, including the release date. In Fortnite Epic Games news, the FTC has announced plans to send $126 million in refunds nearly a million Fortnite players who say they were charged for unwanted in-game items like cosmetic skins.
00:56:43
Speaker
The Consumer Protection Agency is also reopening the claims process, allowing additional players affected by the issue to file claims of their own. The refunds and reopening of the claims process is a result of a 2022 lawsuit against Epic Games.
00:56:56
Speaker
The Fortnite developer agreed to pay $245 million dollars in a settlement after the FCC claimed that Epic has used deceptive practices to bamboozle players into making unwanted purchases.
00:57:10
Speaker
um In Marvel Rivals news, Season 3 has started, which will be adding Blade, Phoenix, and a symbiote skin for Captain America and more to the game. Very nice. I'm looking forward to it.
00:57:23
Speaker
In eSport news, a Fortnite tournament player, Sebastian Araujo, who has won more than $6,800 from tournaments and has now been caught cheating, now owes Epic Games $175,000. $175,000.
00:57:36
Speaker
thousand dollars Araujo was banned from Fortnite June 6, 2024, after he was busted using a direct memory access device in a Fortnite tournament in order to get around anti-cheat measures.
00:57:50
Speaker
Now, instead of mending his ways and returning to the light, um he created three fake accounts between June and October 2024, and used a hardware spoof in order to keep playing. Over that four-month stretch ah that it happened, Araujo took part in at least 18 tournaments, winning $6,850.
00:58:11
Speaker
Epic then filed a lawsuit against Araujo in December 2024, and over these last two weeks, the ruling came down, and the defendant apparently ignored the whole thing!
00:58:23
Speaker
So Epic scored a default judgment of $168,550 for and Copyright Act violations and another $7,000 in attorney fees. When they do get the money from Araujo, will be going to Child's Play.
00:58:38
Speaker
Guys, don't cheat at video games. Just get good at the game. Just get good, Forehead. practice.
00:58:46
Speaker
But seriously, though, like people... yeah Gaming and esports has become such a big thing now, right? And it's there's so much money tied up in it that people are going to great lengths to try and have an edge. But just don't cheat, guys.
00:59:00
Speaker
don' Don't cheat. Just don't. Just don't do it. yeah Yeah. You're going to get caught. that You're going to get caught. It's not going to be good. It's unsportsmanlike, and you're in esports.
00:59:11
Speaker
Yeah. B sports.
00:59:16
Speaker
Uh, TCG news, starting with Pokemon black bolt and white flare release July eight Uh, which is, uh, which means if you're listening to this podcast, uh, it'll be out, uh, very soon.
00:59:30
Speaker
On Yu-Gi-Oh! News, Duelist Advance is out now. Justice Hunters releases at the end of the month on the 31st of July, and the 2025 Mega Pack Bundleton on September 4th.
00:59:42
Speaker
um Magic the Gathering, Edge of Attorneys, August 1st. Spider-Man set, September 26th. Avatar The Last Airbender, November 21st. And the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair drops.
00:59:52
Speaker
There are three sets available on July fourteen It always blows my mind the collabs that Magic ends up doing. ah they get so many like interesting card sets. yeah i don't I don't play Magic either. I just think it's neat.
01:00:09
Speaker
It is. ah In Glorkana releases, Fabled releases September 5th. And in the Digimon TCG, Cyber Eden, July 25th. At the Sinister Order, September 19th.
01:00:20
Speaker
Hacker Slumber, October 18th. Billion Bullet, ah sometime in October. And the Tamer's Evolution box, Rise of Digimon, in December. And in tabletop news, Deep Rock Galactic's board game has put a trio of expansions on Kickstarter to raise funds for.
01:00:35
Speaker
And as of recording this, they have raised over $1.4 million Canadian. or million dollars canadian and know turns out two things I forgot to mention one one other story Castle Crashers is getting DLC 17 years after its initial release no Castle Crashers yes ah my ah it was announced earlier today that we are recording this that is getting DLC um it looks like you can like build your own Castle Crashers with this DLC as well I also forgot to mention hey GDQ has happened
01:01:11
Speaker
um as to act as a time of your listening to this. So we will we have full numbers on how much the event raised ah for chair for Doctors Without Borders.
01:01:21
Speaker
um But also, do just want to give a shout out to some of my homies who are there. Dawn and Emerald, who did get to run the Sonic Adventure 2 Archipelago category with Savick and Hex Speedruns on the couch with them.
01:01:35
Speaker
i'll just want to give a shout to the homies who have all been on the podcast. Do go check out all of their episodes. from the past ah because there there's some cool people and we've had all four of them who on the podcast before so do go check out those episodes.
01:01:49
Speaker
Alright, with that it's time for us to move on. I'll look ahead to see what games are coming out in the next two weeks. So here's what should be on your radar from July 14th to 25th.
01:02:00
Speaker
From AAA titles, indie hits, hidden gems, and hot pieces of garbage, here are the games coming out that should be on your radar. And starting off, no releases on the 14th, but on the 15th, Destiny 2's new expansion, The Edge of Fate releases.
01:02:16
Speaker
Eden Zero comes to PS5, Series X, and PC. And Ericsome, The Stolen Dream, comes to the PS5, Series X, and PC. On the 16th, Hunter Hunter, Net Impact, PS5, Switch, and PC.
01:02:27
Speaker
On the 17th, Donkey Kong Bonanza for the Switch 2, Neon Abyss for the PC, Robocop Rogue City Unfinished Business DLC for the PS5 Series X and PC, and Shadow Labyrinth for the PS5 Series X Switch, Switch 2 and PC.
01:02:43
Speaker
No releases on the 18th. On the 21st, though, The King is Watching comes to the PC. On the 22nd, Luto comes to the PS5 Series X PC. Monument Valley 3 comes to everything but the Xbox One and Switch 2.
01:02:55
Speaker
Undermine 2 comes to the PC. Wild Gates comes to the PS5 Series X and PC. On the 23rd, Doronko Wonko comes to the Switch. And Wheel World comes to everything but the Switch systems.
01:03:08
Speaker
On the 24th, Hotel Galactic comes to the PC. Killing 4.3 comes to the PS5 Series X and PC. Split comes to the PC. Super Mario Party Jamboree gets the Switch 2 version.
01:03:21
Speaker
Moochong Fallen Feathers comes to the PS5, Series X, and PC. And on the 25th, Grounded 2 comes the Series X and PC. No Sleep for Kaname Date from Eye the Somnium Files comes to the Switch, Switch 2, and PC.
01:03:36
Speaker
Ratatan comes to the PC, and Wild Hearts S comes to the Switch 2. And those are all your game releases. Now, some of the bigger ones, starting off Destiny 2's new expansion,
01:03:49
Speaker
I'll have to talk to my destiny insider to see if it's any good. So we might be hearing from our destiny insider Jackson, uh, at a later date, probably after his wedding. Shout out to my boy. He's getting married it soon.
01:04:01
Speaker
Congratulations. ah But we do got Eden Zero um based off of the third work of Hiro Mashima, the creator of Rave Master and Fairy Tail.
01:04:12
Speaker
um This is based off of Eden Zero. ah It looks interesting. I want to kind of play it because I watched the first season of Eden Zero. I liked it.
01:04:22
Speaker
And then, you know, studio switched and they haven't dubbed the second season. And I'm like, oh But I want to watch it dubbed because that's how i watched the first season.
01:04:33
Speaker
it's also how I watched Fairy Tail. Yeah, once you start something either dubbed or subs, it's hard to make the switch. Yeah, it's it's why I won't watch the rest of Psyche-K because though they've dubbed the first season and then studio switches. It's like, yeah, we won't dub the second.
01:04:47
Speaker
And I'm like, no, oh but then you dub the final season ah that's on Netflix. And it's just, oh, it's a mess. um But we got that coming out.
01:04:58
Speaker
um Obviously the biggest release, ah Donkey Kong Bonanza on the 17th. I'm very excited for that. um I'm going to be playing that on launch. um Very excited for that and Shadow Labyrinth the same day.
01:05:13
Speaker
um So my wallet will hurt a little bit that day, but not too much. um Mind Valley three. I'm excited for if you play, I've played the first two Miami Valley games last year and then they put, they released why the Valley three as a Netflix games exclusive for so long that it's finally coming to steam and, um, uh, everything else down, which is nice.
01:05:39
Speaker
Um, other than that, Mario party, Jamboree switch to version has a mouse mode. um I'm kind of neutral about Wuchong Fallen Feathers. I don't really care or don't care about the game.
01:05:53
Speaker
It's just kind of there for me. But I am excited for No Sleep for Kaname Date because this is the third Stomniophiles game. Although I'm a little sad that it's not coming out on PlayStation.
01:06:05
Speaker
It's only ah like a Switch 2 PC exclusive from the sounds of it. So a little sad about that, but I'm still going to play it. we we We'll be playing that on stream. As we did with the other two Somnium Piles games.
01:06:19
Speaker
ah Do you have any thoughts on any of the games that are releasing, Tristan? I probably won't be playing any of these on launch myself, but I know I have some friends who are very excited about that Donkey Kong game.
01:06:31
Speaker
Nice. All right. Well, with all of that, day gara it's time for us to dive into our main focus. ah Here's what we're talking about this week in the game launch. Conversations of past and future games, the state of the gaming industry, how big decisions affect gamers and anything else that's important to us.
01:06:49
Speaker
Here's what's going down this week in the Game Lounge. And our first topic of the day, we're talking a little bit of anime, anime games, maybe some stuff that we grew up watching, that kind of stuff.
01:07:02
Speaker
So, Tristan, I'm going to throw you the floor for with this first question. what What did you grow up watching that was anime, anime-like? That is a very good question. Now, earlier I dated myself a little bit because I said I was you know i was a kid when Pokemania was hidden. I remember trading cards in the schoolyard sort of thing.
01:07:23
Speaker
And the anime that I got into growing up... was really centered around the bionics anime block on YTV here in Canada.
01:07:36
Speaker
um And they ran that for a number of years. and And I was in you know those formative years of like middle school, high school. And that was pretty much the only way I had, at least, of like watching anime. Because we had cable TV.
01:07:52
Speaker
but like crunchy roll wasn't really a thing. I, I didn't have the American stations that ran like adult swim. I didn't, I didn't have that. So for me, it was just whatever YTV deigned to play for us.
01:08:07
Speaker
Yeah. I was the same way growing up. It was like, all right. What as a kid, young kids, like what, what's on YTV? Cause that was, it was YTV,
01:08:17
Speaker
You had PBS after school, which had a couple things. You Treehouse. I didn't even have Treehouse. Oh, you didn't even have Treehouse? Because we had we just had basic cable. We had like we had basic cable, too. I thought Treehouse came with basic cable. 25, 30 channels. That's all I had. Wow. And like half of them were news.
01:08:36
Speaker
I mean, yeah. yeah So i I watched Bionics, which was the Friday night anime block. And it later, ah some years later, they moved it to a Saturday morning before then just axing the segment altogether.
01:08:50
Speaker
Yeah. because Part of that, I think, had to do with the CanCon guidelines. That makes sense. Where in the mid-2000s, even early 2000s, mid-2000s, a lot of anime that was localized and dubbed for the North American market was actually dubbed in Canada.
01:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, we had a set we had a separate dub for Dragon Ball. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We didn't get Rock the Dragon. We had Dragon, Dragon Ball. Zzzz. Yeah, exactly. i watched I watched that as a kid. So um like they they would play the ones that were dubbed in Canada, right? Yeah.
01:09:23
Speaker
And I think when more of the dubbing moved to the States, to you know Funimation and and those those companies, the Canadian stations were were less and less likely to carry it because it no longer qualified as CanCon.
01:09:36
Speaker
So in Canada, we have we have, you know, Canadian content requirements where broadcasters have to put out a certain amount of content produced, at least in part, in Canada. Yeah. And that, I think, was was why the the segment eventually got dropped.
01:09:52
Speaker
Yeah. why you See, I never grew up with, but like, I knew of Bionics, but I never actually stayed up because I was young. never got to stay late. I'm a few years older than you are, I think. Yeah, I never got to stay up late enough to watch it. Like, I watched Vortex in Saturday mornings.
01:10:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah, but that's which eventually they moved the anime to Saturdays. Yeah, i I watched that, but that was really, like, aside from, like, The Zone, which was like always, you know, always watch that. ah You know, it's kind of, it's funny now. Cause I get to tell people like, it's funny that like I got to work cause I work under YTV's parent company.
01:10:31
Speaker
Um, with with with my real job and uh there there was a time where uh me and i got to essentially work at the same company as carlos from wife from the zone for a short amount of time before a before you know entertainment canada got completely axed yeah well it is what it is right yeah yeah yeah and i remember so on on fridays it was what was playing because it started around like 8 And the big ones that were running at the time, I remember, were Naruto and Bleach.
01:11:07
Speaker
and the In the Bionics block specifically. And then later in night, they would run... ah What was running? Ghost of Michelle Standalone Complex, which to this day is still one of my favorite anime.
01:11:19
Speaker
I know that. i Wasn't Inuyasha one of them too? Inuyasha was another big one. Yeah, I was just talking to someone the other day about how I have a couple of the Inuyasha movies on DVD that i special ordered through Blockbuster Video.
01:11:32
Speaker
behold i know. i remember that. I believe there was also gun one of the Gundams. It was Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. Those are the Gundams that I watched as a kid when I made reference to that earlier.
01:11:48
Speaker
Very much those with Kira Yamato, Jesus Yamato. And there was also Gundam SD, the 3D looking Gundam show where the Gundams came to learn their own character. they were Like the Gundams were alive, like ah like a robot almost. I remember seeing that one, but like I didn't watch it. Like I saw ads for it and i was like, oh, that's not my thing. That's not real anime.
01:12:12
Speaker
Yeah, that was CGI like model. yeah that Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, that was also there, too. I remember that. And then obviously Dragon Ball Z and yeah, yeah, yeah. They also had at one point Witch Hunter Robin was another one that aired, I think, although I don't remember that show as well.
01:12:31
Speaker
I can't say I know that one. And Fullmetal Alchemist. The original, like the first Fullmetal Alchemist. Not Brotherhood. I remember watching that and Bionics 2. Really? Wow. Yeah. Like 2003, 2004.
01:12:44
Speaker
If I was just a little older, I probably would have been i probably would have stayed up to watch all of those. They had some good ones. They did. They did. Wow. they had some They had some stinkers too, but they had some good ones. And then they had all their mainstream stuff ah right before or during the in the early days. It would be during the zone because I know Pokemon and Digimon used to be part of the zones lineup.
01:13:06
Speaker
Yeah, I remember watching some Digimon on the zone. I think Sailor Moon was as well. It was. In fact, the voice of ah the little pink haired one was done by Sugar, one of the hosts of. the Yeah. Oh, my God. You're right. I completely forgot about that. Yeah.
01:13:19
Speaker
She's still ah she's still active as like a radio host in Toronto, I think. Oh, really? That's awesome. I think so, yeah. And she was in a couple of movies as ah side characters. Nice. At least I think she's still doing that.
01:13:32
Speaker
I hope she is. she was i hope she is. she's she I wish her like the two people that influenced my childhood the most are Sugar and Carlos. And i I just wish them both the best.
01:13:43
Speaker
you know Exactly. But, yeah, no, like... I'm trying to think, like, legit, like, the enemies that you got to watch through Biotics, I didn't. Like, I was stuck with, like, the daytime Pokemon, Digimon, whatever four kids had on with the Saturday morning block.
01:14:01
Speaker
So... so Kirby right back at you yeah um even though it's not like anime it's very anime like with Chaotix yeah it's got some of the same aspects same elements it was just i think it's Europe it's a European based like it was a European i think it was European at least I actually it was it it might have been American i couldn't tell you for sure.
01:14:27
Speaker
i know that Winx Club was European. Oh my God. Yeah, they ran Winx Club, didn't they? They did. Jeez, that's a name I haven't heard in a while. Yeah, and that I was like, I was shocked to find out that like after like the four kids run of it, it still went on for like another like four or five seasons afterwards with a completely different art style.
01:14:52
Speaker
I had no idea. Yeah, neither did I. like I knew the first like three seasons of the show that were on for kids. but i Because like I would always like do my best to like wake up early enough to watch all the four kids stuff. because but Primarily for Sonic X. Because I'm a Sonic fan. I'm still Sonic fan.
01:15:12
Speaker
I gotta watch Sonic. I gotta go fast.
01:15:16
Speaker
But like ah it ended up being like, like Chaotix ended up being a good one until Chaotix eventually got, went to Teletoon, I think later on.
01:15:29
Speaker
Cause remember, I vaguely, i have vague memories of Chaotix being on Teletoon. I don't know why, I think it did. Teletoon is one of those ones that when I was really young we didn't have I had Teletoon as a teen we it wasn't until like I was a teen that we got Teletoon and Family Channel and it's like oh we have access to everything else now let's go all the good stuff I can watch Bakugan Man, I still wish I had had access to Adult Swim earlier because like now one of my favorite anime is Cowboy Bebop, which initially aired in North America on Adult Swim.
01:16:08
Speaker
But because I didn't have Adult Swim, I was introduced to that so much later. And I wish I had experienced it sooner just because it's a lot of fun. Listeners, if you've not watched Cowboy Bebop, it is required reading. It is homework. Go do this now.
01:16:23
Speaker
Well, I guess I have required reading after this episode. There's a lot I haven't watched. Like, I haven't watched FMA. I haven't watched Cowboy Bebop. I haven't watched. I haven't really watched any Dragon Ball either or Naruto.
01:16:38
Speaker
I'm maybe like 100 episodes in on One Piece. Oh, my God. You're trying One Piece. That's a commitment. i You see, so you see i can i tried it I started it last year. I haven't watched a single episode post-Alabaster yet.
01:16:51
Speaker
Of all those ones you just rattled off, by the way, if you're going to watch either of the Full Metals, watch Brotherhood. Yeah, because it's... ah It's truer to the manga story. Yeah. Because with the original one... Not that the first was bad, but they ran out of source material. Yeah, it was like they aired it while it was going on and they had to come up with their own ending.
01:17:08
Speaker
Exactly. And it it wasn't bad the way they took it. It was just very different from the the source material. And so a lot of like diehard fans didn't like it that much. Yeah. ah brotherhood Brotherhood is, I think, better overall and closer to the source material. But it doesn't do those first 10 or 20 episodes quite as well because it relies on you...
01:17:28
Speaker
Having knowledge of the original series, like having watched the first chunk of the first season, um like set. So they really condense a lot of those like character building episodes that they had in the first series into like a handful of episodes in order to get to the meat of the plot sooner.
01:17:45
Speaker
So basically watch the first half of the first FMA and not even the first half, just like the first 10 to 20 episodes. Okay. I would need to look up exactly like where the best spot to make the switch from one to the other would be because they do introduce some characters in the early episodes of Brotherhood that you kind of need to know about, but they drastically condensed several other of the important storylines because that had already, they'd already been adapted well in the first series.
01:18:14
Speaker
Gotcha. Okay. That's good to know. Because I did not know about that at all. I mean, you can just watch Brotherhood and it's still fine and it still sets you up. It's almost like they they did the intro a little bit better in the in the first adaptation. Okay. That's good to know.
Anime Influences on Gaming
01:18:31
Speaker
um I will share this. My first anime wasn't... and like I would say my first official anime that wasn't like... um the Pokemon or Digimon, because I know a lot of people don't really consider like their Saturday morning cartoons as like their first anime for people who did well anime. anime such a general term, right? Because it just refers to all animated works coming out of Japan. Japan, but what first one that i Sorry, go ahead. go ahead sorry first one that i seriously got into was Fairytale.
01:18:59
Speaker
Okay. And it was just because they had the first four episodes on YouTube for free to watch. um Oh, well, that's a good hook. That's a good hook right there. Yeah. So I watch those. I'm like, yeah, I'll watch this.
01:19:13
Speaker
And specifically, I got into it because I'll ask this. Did you ever grow up watching Rooster Teeth or a Achievement Hunter? Not really. I like I know of them, but I never really watched them a lot.
01:19:25
Speaker
So if you know the series Rage Quit, which was on Rooster Teeth, yeah. The guy who did that, Michael Jones, voices Sting in Fairytale.
01:19:36
Speaker
And around that time, when he said that when he said he was voicing that character, i'm like, oh, cool. I should go check out this anime. um So I pop it into YouTube. First four episodes are free. I'm like, sure, let's give it a watch. I'm like, oh, this is cool.
01:19:49
Speaker
Let's watch it. I can't wait to see where Michael's character comes in. It's not until like the end of like the first series. That's a lot of episodes. That we're introduced to Sting and Rogue. right I must admit, I actually I didn't get into fairy tale. I watched a few episodes and I just I decided there were other series that I'd i'd rather be watching. So I moved on. But I've heard the people who like fairy tale like it a lot.
01:20:12
Speaker
So no it's it's is good. it's It's very got his corny power of friendship stuff. But it's it's good. Maybe I just seen too much of that on other shows and it didn't hit as hard for me. Who knows?
01:20:25
Speaker
But I wanted to mention, because we were talking about um ah the more general aspect of like anime is such a broad topic, right? Like technically, yeah, Pokemon, Digimon, absolutely anime, because it's just it's animated works coming out of Japan.
01:20:37
Speaker
um And when I first mentioned to one of my older brothers, because I i have five siblings. um I know. When I was talking to one of my older brothers, I must have been a teen at the time. And he's he's significantly older than me.
01:20:50
Speaker
I was like, you know, oh, yeah, I've been I've been getting into anime. I went to an anime convention with a friend of mine. um And this is back in the 2000s when anime conventions were not nearly as big as they are today.
01:21:02
Speaker
And he's like, anime. and I'm like, yeah, you know, like animated shows and stuff from Japan. He looks me because, oh, you mean Japanimation. Oh my God, that is a term I have not heard in yeons.
01:21:14
Speaker
Right? You know, that's what anime was referred to before people in the were just like, ah we don't want to call it that. It's cooler to call it anime. That's what they call it in Japan. Wow. And so like, it's so broad a term that there are anime for kids, you know, Pokemon, Digimon, whatever. And then there are anime with very much more adult themes and they all kind of fall under that one really broad category. It's it's hard to differentiate them or decipher them or categorize them sometimes depending on what you're looking for.
01:21:46
Speaker
the No, definitely. um But the ones that we grew up on are definitely the ones that I would say define us the most. So did watching these shows translate to how you would get into certain video games?
01:22:03
Speaker
Yes and no for me, at least personally. um Having watched a bunch of anime as a kid, I did play a bunch of like anime and anime-adjacent games. a lot of JRPGs. I played some like fighting games that were directly pulled from the anime that I was watching at the time.
01:22:19
Speaker
Pretty sure like I have ah um a Bleach game for Nintendo DS where it's just like a little side-scrolling fighter sort of thing. um And i I think it helped me find what games I wasn't into.
01:22:32
Speaker
Because as we get older too, right, our our tastes change and the anime that I enjoy now is not even close to the anime that I grew up with. Yeah. Some of those anime will still have that like nostalgia factor and I'll go rewatch them sometimes.
01:22:46
Speaker
But i feel like, like a lot of things in life, experiencing different things doesn't just help us figure out what we like. It also helps us figure out what we don't like. um so certain anime games...
01:23:02
Speaker
didn't didn't hit for me. Do you know which ones specifically they were? ah It's hard to put a pin on them. Like I mentioned, I have one of the bleach games for DS, but I would have to go, you know, hunting through a box to see I still have it. But it's a lot of the like,
01:23:20
Speaker
Because i was like very much one for one going from the anime that I'd been exposed to to the games, it was a lot of like the bad tie ins. Like, you know how ah movie video games are often awful. Oh, yes. You know, like the Batman Begins video game, which is just to tie in and sell more movie tickets to Batman Begins. I have that one.
01:23:38
Speaker
I also have that one. It's not great. I haven't played it, so I can't say anything. I've played it a bit. It's pretty mediocre. and But like, I feel like it was kind of similar with the anime, the direct anime games that I played.
01:23:53
Speaker
And they kind of taught me, they're like, maybe these aren't the types of games for me. But at the same time, in finding what I didn't like, I've kind of been steered more towards I do. And a lot of the anime-inspired but not necessarily directly related to an anime specifically um are games that I often enjoy.
01:24:14
Speaker
For instance, I recently started playing for the first time Nier Automata. Oh, yes. At the recommendation of a friend of mine. And it's not based on an anime, but it is very obviously like anime, Japanese sort of inspired, right? Like that is, that's that's it.
01:24:33
Speaker
And I've been thoroughly enjoying it. No spoilers, mind you. I'm not all that far into the game. i've I have actually not played Nier Automata. I have played FF14, which includes... in which if ah By the way, folks, because of how Nier Automata is, if you want the full experience of Nier Automata, it is recommended that you also play the hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV all the way to Shadowbringers and complete the Nier Automata Raid series, ah which, by the way... Is canon for Nier Automata?
01:25:04
Speaker
No way. I had no idea. yeah I thought you were just going on about the Final four final Fantasy XIV meme. No, no, there's ah with the all the collabs that have been in Final Fantasy 14.
01:25:19
Speaker
I believe that the developers of Nier have said that it's canon. No way. ah Interesting. and In any case, like, so I definitely now i i appreciate games that take inspiration from anime and that sort of culture and those themes and styles. Yeah.
01:25:39
Speaker
um But I don't like you mentioned to my hero academia fighting game earlier. That's not a game I'm going to go play. yeah You know what I mean? And i I know it's for some people, people who love hero are going to go nuts for that game.
01:25:52
Speaker
Yeah. But over the years and and growing up trying that sort of game, I've just I've learned it's not for me. yeah I think we've actually seen like a big resurgence of like the anime game genre.
01:26:04
Speaker
Specifically, it's mostly thanks to Dragon Ball Sparking Zero. have heard good things about that one. A lot of people grew up playing the Budokai games specifically, and this is essentially the latest entry into the Budokai series.
01:26:18
Speaker
um So a lot of people yeah I was even considering getting it and I don't i never even watched Dragon Ball and I'm like I would play this. to be fire the the The Dragon Ball Z games in particular I feel like left a sour taste in my mouth because I had I cannot remember the title for the life of me but I had this really awful Dragon Ball Z game for the Game Boy Advance I think it was.
01:26:42
Speaker
That was like, it is universally panned as like one of the worst games. Hold on. I'm just going to look up terrible Dragon Ball Z game.
01:26:52
Speaker
The Legacy of Goku? That might be it. That might be it. And i Yeah, that's 100% it for the Game Boy Advance. Wow, let's go. First search for the win. And it was terrible.
01:27:08
Speaker
and That game was unplayable without the invincibility cheat. Oh. Like, you could not get through the first area unless you popped on that, you know, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A nonsense, like whatever the code was.
01:27:22
Speaker
you would just get stomped. It has a sequel. ah god I know. i know. crazy. There's even a third one. Oh, wow. And I think that one also kind of soured Dragon Ball Z games specifically for me because I've heard great things about the Budokai games and same with Sparking Zero.
Anime-Based Games and Adaptations
01:27:42
Speaker
And... um I just, I don't want to touch Dragon Ball Z game because of that bad childhood memory. That's fair. um Thanks to my, ah you know, getting into anime as a teen, um mostly for me, like bigger animes and stuff like that.
01:27:59
Speaker
And like all the Shonen Jump stuff. I and ended up playing ah one of the J-Star fighting games, which is essentially all of the Shonen Jump protagonists all put into a fighting haven't heard of those, but that's wild. Yeah, so like, do you know Jump Force?
01:28:16
Speaker
i number i I did have a Shonen Jump subscription when I was a teen. i have not kept up with Shonen Jump. So I'll put it. Jump Force was essentially the last of these and it did horrible.
01:28:28
Speaker
Like they butchered the game. But before Jump Force, there was the J-Stars games. So you would have the likes of essentially every popular anime. So that Shonen Jump ever like had published. So there was Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach,
01:28:46
Speaker
um but you have like some more obscure stuff psyche k was in that one you had koro sensei from assassination classroom um what else was in there um oh what's the work akira toriyama's work before dragon ball arale arale chan I couldn't tell you. Sorry. You had that. You had the likes of Beelzebub, Guitama.
01:29:15
Speaker
um Yu-Gi-Oh! has made a couple appearances in the games prior because Yu-Gi-Oh! was the Shonen Jump. That's true. it was, wasn't it? I remember getting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards with my Shonen Jump subscription. In Jump Forest, you could play as Yu-Gi and Kaiba and fight with Dark Magician and Blue Eyes White Dragon. They would summon them and fight people with it.
01:29:36
Speaker
um Like Jump Force, like they if you ever get a chance, like these are like the big, hey, what if all the anime multiverses just collided into one and they all had to fight each other?
01:29:47
Speaker
i mean, that does sound entertaining. If it was a well-made game, it could be fun. i mean, the story is just all right. if People were more like, oh, Goku fighting Luffy, let's go. For the diehard fans of those characters, I'm sure those games were phenomenal.
01:30:06
Speaker
yeah For everyone else, they were probably just cocking their head going, what?
01:30:11
Speaker
Yeah. No, definitely. um yeah Talking about recent stuff, what what would you say is the most recent like actual anime game you have played?
01:30:24
Speaker
That is a very good question. And I'm going to take 30 seconds to shamelessly scroll through my Steam library to see if I can come up with an example or but because I haven't played them all that recently i'm trying to think for myself and I think oh god what is don't even know what my most recent one is actually shit maybe I don't know that I have a single like directly animated video game game in my library here wow it's more of just like the
01:31:01
Speaker
The ones that are like, oh, this is anime-inspired. Yeah, that like take some cues from anime, but aren't necessarily, um like I got a couple of JRPGs.
01:31:12
Speaker
um I guess on a technicality, mine would be Persona 5X because Persona 5 does have an anime. Oh, does it? Okay, i' but Persona 3, does that have an anime? Yeah, persona so Persona, the Persona anime series is actually quite interesting when you look at it because obviously Persona 4, the animation came first.
01:31:31
Speaker
Oh, well, technically, technically, sorry, there was a Persona anime that was based on, that was entirely separate. Like, I can't even remember what it was called, but it was basically a Persona anime, and the only thing that, like, the the way they did Personas was weird, but everything else was very Persona-like, and Akihiko, a grown Akihiko, is in it as a cameo.
01:31:54
Speaker
Okay. ah I can't remember what it was called. like Okay, I'm going to Google this because I... Persona... Anime... I suppose I have one of the Naruto fighting games. Trinity Soul. Persona Trinity Soul. That's what it was called.
01:32:09
Speaker
That came first. And it was an original Persona story, all anime all anime based. It was just alright. Or bad. Depending on how you decide. I can't remember if Persona 3, the movie series, came first or Persona 4, the animation, came first.
01:32:27
Speaker
um But basically, Persona 3, anime-wise, it got four movies. Um, and it, didn that's how it told the events of the game. It was just interesting. I actually didn't know that I've played persona three, but I've not seen the anime adaptations. Yeah, it's, it's, it's all right. I've watched it. It's just very all right.
01:32:46
Speaker
Some of the original songs that Lotus juice and the singer of P3 did were great. Uh, but it was just all right. I think persona for the animation is the best animated persona series and the persona five, one, uh, uh,
01:33:01
Speaker
ah ha play the game don't watch deep don't watch d5 animated it's okay all right uh i just i had a thought i had a thought um you were asking about uh direct like anime games that i've played i have uh naruto clash of ninja too for oh i have that one i i have both clashing well there's the third one but it's the third one's japan only yeah but i have both of those on my game cube as well i have not touched them yet
01:33:34
Speaker
i have I have not actually yet played the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games. Yeah, because the newest one is like Naruto Boruto Clash of the... I know that they've like made this like essentially ultimate version of it, where it's like, I think it's damn near the main Naruto stuff and the main Boruto stuff all in one.
01:33:59
Speaker
I don't know about that one. I have the first four, it looks like, but I haven't really played them. gee ah Jeez. Yeah, i'm i'm I'm going through my whole Steam library here, and the answer is not a whole lot.
01:34:12
Speaker
um I think, yeah, as I said, growing up, I played some on the consoles I had. You know, the Naruto one on the GameCube, the Bleach one on DS. And it kind of... they they Left a sour taste in my mouth in the sense that they helped me learn what I didn't want in a game.
01:34:28
Speaker
Yeah. but Now, not to say I don't like anime. I still love anime. Yeah. huge we But I've kind of separated them in my mind, I think, a little bit between like anime TV series and games inspired by anime.
01:34:45
Speaker
um And I like them. I like them separate. That's fair. ah If you could have you ah an yeah ah anime game made for anime series, what would be what be like your dream anime game?
01:35:00
Speaker
Okay, that is a double-edged sword question right there. Because the answer is Cowboy Bebop. But it would have to be done extremely well.
01:35:12
Speaker
Yeah. what What kind of game would you see it being? like I mean, okay. So for those for those who aren't familiar with Cowboy Bebop, are you familiar with the TV show Firefly? i i am familiar with, ah you know, it that's how essentially Nathan Fillion kickstarted everything. and that Yeah, it was one of his big breaks for sure. of his big breaks. What was it? what Was it only one season?
01:35:34
Speaker
They got canceled after like half a season. And for stupid reasons, we can get into it later if you want to just go completely off topic. But the reason the reason I bring it up is because Firefly was basically a ripoff of Cowboy Bebop.
01:35:46
Speaker
Okay. Like Firefly was a North American live action version of Cowboy Bebop. Before Netflix gave us a live action version cowboy. Yes. Which again was a disappointment for completely other reasons.
01:35:58
Speaker
Watch the original anime Don't watch the Netflix Cowboy Bebop Just stay away from the Netflix Good casting choices but bad Execution If Netflix Just don't watch a Netflix live action anime Adaptation Just watch the originals Don't watch the Cowboy Bebop Don't watch the Death Note one Especially did watch the Death Note one that's no better he i do death note one No matter how bad you want to see Bryan Cranston as the voice of... how it was I thought it was Willem Dafoe.
01:36:30
Speaker
wait. I thought it was Bryan Cranston. I thought it was Walter White. Voice, actor. No, it was Willem Dafoe. It was Willem Dafoe. Oh. Yeah.
01:36:42
Speaker
I mean, Bryan Cranston would have been a great voice choice too, but I loved Willem Dafoe. He was the star of that movie. and An otherwise terrible movie. Yeah. Yeah.
01:36:53
Speaker
well the Okay, that makes so much more sense. actually that's like That's actually kind of a nice choice. yeah That's actually a kind of a great choice for casting Ryuk. What the fuck? I know. It works. As I said, he was a standout in an otherwise pretty bad movie.
01:37:06
Speaker
Yeah. But the reason the reason I went went back to that, so context. Cowboy Bebop is kind of like a found family-ish sort of thing, but they're space bounty hunters. it's It's a Western in space.
01:37:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's very much a Western in space. And so, like, I could envision a game where you're not necessarily playing the characters of the the anime, but it's, like, set in that world where you're playing as, like, a space cowboy, you know?
01:37:34
Speaker
And I think that would be really cool. And yeah, okay, if the game developers wanted, they could have cameos from characters that appear in the series. There could be, you know, side quests that include events or or whatever, but...
01:37:46
Speaker
I think a game set in that world would be a lot of fun. Sort of like a cyber punk, like an open world, and ah open world game in the cyber, it not the cyber, in the be cowboy bebop universe. Yeah, sort of. And like the missions would be things along the lines of, you know, tracking down bounty heads, collecting your bounties. The characters would, you know, have their own ah motivations and personal stories. That's something that I think the anime did really well was that like each character had an interesting and unique backstory and it influenced the decisions that they made and and the characterizations of them in that way. So I think
01:38:24
Speaker
ah a well-written character-driven game set in the same world as Cowboy Bebop could be really cool. It would also have the potential to be absolute trash. so Yeah. yeah that you You were right by saying a double it is very much a double-edged sword for something like that.
01:38:47
Speaker
They could go the route of all those terrible Netflix adaptations where it's like, we just need to throw as many quote unquote iconic moments from the series into the game as possible and the fans will eat it up.
01:38:59
Speaker
Spoiler alert. No, they won't.
01:39:03
Speaker
ah Yeah, no. My dream, I would like to see... My big one is I would like to see Fairytale because there are two fairytale games that are available in the West right now that cover the major arcs.
01:39:18
Speaker
I would like to see a proper Fairytale game where it's like more like along the lines of Sparking Zero where it's like a fighting game with fair eat all the Fairytale characters. ah you go And they actually do like what the Budokai games did like where you go through all the story arcs.
01:39:34
Speaker
I would like to see that for Fairytale because I think... that would be much more appealing than what the games are currently for me. And that that style of game works really well, too, for series that are like largely action-based, right? Largely action-based and have a huge cast of characters. Because Dragon Ball Z is just it's just a bunch of dudes chucking fists at each other. That is the show. yeah And that's why Sparking Zero works so well. It translates perfectly to a fighting game. Yeah.
01:40:01
Speaker
It absolutely does. And I think that a lot of Shonen games could take a page out of that. Shonen manga could take a page. Shonen series could take a page out of what the Budokai and Sparking Zero have done and just translate to themselves as instead just focusing, oh yeah, we're just go to focus on this one specific arc for the game.
01:40:25
Speaker
Because it's like, well, you're limiting... your sales off of that because one, new people aren't going to purchase that game because it's, if it's like it was once with all's justice for my hero coming out, it's the final arc. Like if you have nobody's going want to start there.
01:40:43
Speaker
Yeah. Nobody was going to want to start there. So, is kind of like a double-edged sword in itself where it's like, yeah, for the people who do watch, the who have either played the other Once Justice or have watched the anime all the way through, then yeah, it's theyll they'll most likely get it. But like, for a new person coming in, it's very not newcomer friendly.
01:41:06
Speaker
Not a good jumping in point. Like, unless they reveal at a later date that they're actually... They say, oh, yeah, all the other story arcs are here, too. In which case, this will be the best My Hero Academia game ever.
01:41:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that'd be cool. But I doubt they'll do it. But I doubt they'll do that because of how they're promoting it being just the final arc. I don't see it happening. And I feel like that is a big downside that a lot of anime games have. That it's like, if we don't put...
01:41:35
Speaker
from starting point to the very ending point of where it is currently. that it's not going to do well. Otherwise, they have to make like an anime exclusive or a game exclusive story.
01:41:49
Speaker
And sometimes the sometimes are good, sometimes they're bad. I think the Black Clover game, Quartet Knights, did a good job with its unique story um that they had for the game. ah Story was great. Gameplay was weird because the gameplay was, with doing the story mode single player, it's like playing Overwatch, you're playing Overwatch against bots, essentially. Really? Like it's hero shooter.
01:42:12
Speaker
it's a Yeah, that's so that was the Black Clover game in a nutshell, is the hero shooter. But, like, you know, the online is dead. That's not a style of game that I would have pegged for an anime game, you know what I mean? but Specifically for Black Clover, too, of all things. I love Black Clover, by the way. I'm excited that they finally announced that the new season. Yeah, coming gal announced the new season recently, didn't they? I'm have no clue how excited... We have been sitting on a cliffhanger for the Spade Kingdom for so long!
01:42:41
Speaker
Like, yeah, so the manga's been continuing on. The reason they did was so the manga could get far ahead so they could animate stuff. They would have source material on which to base it. But I'm so fucking happy right now. Oh my god. this man some Black Clover stat!
01:42:56
Speaker
ah It's great. I highly recommend Black Clover. It is really, really good. It's really good. Um... Anything else you want to add before we move on to our second topic? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You made a comment earlier that um it just had sparked an idea for me. It's something that I'd like to see more.
01:43:13
Speaker
Where if it's a game where it's like the first game covers this arc and the second game covers the next bit and the third game covers that, nobody's going to want to buy the first game and... and um you use that as a jumping on point.
01:43:25
Speaker
It'd be nice to see more developers and publishers, like if it's say the third one in a series, include like the first two for severely discounted prices as like a bundle.
01:43:37
Speaker
That would be good to advertise that be like, Oh, don't just buy the third in this series. If you buy the third in this series, now you get the first two for five bucks each, you know, and you get that with steam sales all the time. Yes. But it'd be, it'd be nice to see the developers, you know, market their games with that in mind.
01:43:56
Speaker
Oh boy. I can't wait to but but purchase one piece pirate warrior five, which comes with all the other four games with it too. Again, Steam sales do it all the time. But like, what if in order to promote the new game, they very intentionally ran a bundle discount? You don't see that as often as you might like.
01:44:16
Speaker
Yeah, I wish we did. Yeah, we do. I wish we would see more of it, though. I definitely do. Yeah. Okay. Uh... Anything else to add before we jump into our subject second second topic, Tristan?
01:44:30
Speaker
Uh, addition? What's two plus two? Uh, four? Very good. Let's move on. Yeah, let's go! You're getting ready for another night of adventuring with your friends and you realize, wow, I haven't leveled up and it's been two whole sessions.
01:44:45
Speaker
Well, I have the solution for you. Just ask your game master again. Your GM will understand that after a straight RP session and one encounter with a bunch of CR1 goblins, your level 8 character needs to be thrown a bone.
01:44:59
Speaker
Forget about experience point counting or preset milestones the GM had already established. Asking your GM again is the tried and true solution that does not come across as annoying at all.
01:45:11
Speaker
So did you level up? Just ask your GM again. ah And I'm very excited about this one because we're talking music because obviously you have master's on the
Video Game Soundtracks and Music Composition
01:45:22
Speaker
tuba.
01:45:22
Speaker
ah So I feel like first off, the the big question I want to ask is because you have this master's in music, how do you you obviously see music in a very different light than I would say the average person.
01:45:38
Speaker
And so what is it like for you when it comes to video game soundtracks? Like, obviously, it's um a bigger part for you is the soundtrack of a game. So how has the music that you've listened to or that you play and make affect your game taste?
01:45:57
Speaker
That is a good question. And I'd say, I mean, part of it is is ah the same as most people would experience when playing a game in the sense that like, if a soundtrack is good, I'm going to notice.
01:46:08
Speaker
If a soundtrack is bad, I'm also going to notice, but for very different reasons. But i think I just kind of...
01:46:18
Speaker
When a soundtrack is well made, but not just like appropriate to the game that it's for, but like cleverly made, I catch more of those details and they just they make me smile when they're good.
01:46:33
Speaker
You know what I mean? And in that sense, I kind of appreciate the music in ah in a different way. I'll give you an example here. Yeah. Yes, please. I'd love to hear one. I'm not sure if you knew. Maybe you do. I don't know. I don't know how common knowledge this is. But when I realized that, I was like, oh, that's a neat touch.
01:46:49
Speaker
Is that um in the Zelda music, for instance, um Zelda's lullaby and the Ballad of the Goddess. It's the Ballad of the Goddess is the same tune, but in reverse and faster.
01:47:04
Speaker
ah Oh, I did not know that actually. You know, Zelda's lullaby. yeah and um bu but but but um bu bu ah It's the same intervals, same melody, same tune, just flipped and sped up.
01:47:24
Speaker
That's interesting. Wow. And when i when I realized that, I was like, that's a really cool touch. you know So when you get little references to like if it's a long established series or even though just little references to music earlier in the game, right? there's ah There are these things in in music, where if you've ever heard the term of motifs.
01:47:42
Speaker
Yes, i know i i know a little i i thankfully i know a little bit because my brother did go to music school for one year before they axed program. Oh, God, I'm sorry to hear that.
01:47:56
Speaker
Shoutouts to Red Deer College for that one. So, yeah, um of our middle but you may be familiar with with ah some of what I'm talking about then. But right you get motifs which are like little musical figures that you hear repeated over and over over the course of a piece.
01:48:11
Speaker
And you also get what's called light motifs, which are like little repeated figures, but that are tied to specific characters or themes or events or things. Right. Yeah. And yeah.
01:48:22
Speaker
when these leitmotifs are used in really creative ways to kind of blend together so that you you feel a sense that like this music makes me think of this character or or fits this moment.
01:48:36
Speaker
And it's like very carefully crafted to do just that. A great example of this, and this is this is a tradition that dates back to like opera from German opera. Richard Wagner was very, very good at leitmotifs.
01:48:47
Speaker
Okay. um I actually have what is often referred to as the Tristan cord tattooed on my back.
01:48:56
Speaker
ah We'll get into that later. Again, if you want to go a little off topic towards the end. um But another great example of this is and this isn't video games or anime, but it's ah the Lord of the Rings films.
01:49:08
Speaker
ah And Howard Shore, Canadian composer, Howard Shore did the music where like each character or thing has its own like signature motif that he weaves in and out of each other in order to ah tie in the soundtrack to what's happening on screen. Oh.
01:49:28
Speaker
in in really creative ways. it's really cool. That's cool. I will have to listen for that when I eventually watch the War of the Rings trilogy. Oh, if you have not seen the original trilogy from the early 2000s, again, required reading for any fan of fantasy. Yeah, it's been required reading for a couple of years. Oh, yeah. Those movies are 25 years old and they still hold up.
01:49:48
Speaker
I did a full rewatch of them a couple of weeks back. Oh, nice. Extended editions. I was about to ask. Absolutely. Was that standard or extended? Oh, extended all the way. It's a 12-hour commitment, but absolutely worth my God. That's a whole half day of Lord of the Rings. Oh, my. yeah Oh, yeah.
01:50:06
Speaker
We started at, like, 10 a.m., m and we finished at 10 or 11 p.m. with breaks for bathroom and food. Wow. ah So for you what are you, what are some, like, the more iconic, for you, what is, like, the most iconic video game song or soundtrack for you?
01:50:21
Speaker
Oh my God. but You're forcing me to pick a lot of like one, the most iconic. I know. With the loading screen earlier, like I can give you some examples, but I can't point to one and be like, this is the best one ever.
01:50:33
Speaker
um But the the music for Zelda is phenomenal. they have always been incredibly well-crafted. And even with the more recent ones, like Breath of the Wild, and I haven't played Tears of the Kingdom yet. It's on my to-do list this summer.
01:50:46
Speaker
Nice. But um but like with Breath of the Wild, they completely reimagined the music, right? Because over the over the last 25, 30 years, whatever it's been, a lot of the Zelda themes from the original games have been adapted and modified and tweaked and...
01:51:03
Speaker
And then when Breath of the Wild came out, they were like, we're going to completely reimagine the music and sound design for this game. um And so that's why you actually don't hear a lot of the like iconic themes is because they went in very specifically with the goal of creating new music for that one.
01:51:19
Speaker
um But the way that they ah mixed it together so that there are often like transition periods between one area to the next... go You know a game is lazily put together when you just you leave one area and you get to the next and the music is just like a hard cut from one and then an immediate start to the next tune?
01:51:39
Speaker
you know what I mean? Yes. Kind of. You've got the music of one area and you like step through through a door into the new zone and that previous music just cuts out and the new soundtrack tune begins.
01:51:52
Speaker
Yeah. that's just It always strikes me as so lazy to do that. And I really loved how in Breath of the Wild, they always had they programmed it so that there would be like points in the music where a transition could start.
01:52:06
Speaker
And then when you left one area and got to the next, the game would would look for the best point in the music, the best one of those transition points. And make it sound more natural. When it reached that point in the music, it would then blend into the transition sound and into the new music.
01:52:19
Speaker
ah the new music And I thought that was really, really um like cleverly put together in the soundtrack that way. it's it's It's nice when you hear that because I especially love that like just with regular music when like I'm listening to a full album. and it's like And my best example of this is like A Thousand Sons from Linkin Park.
01:52:41
Speaker
It's like the first, I want to say six or seven tracks all essentially transition, like listening to it like back to back like that, is like it feels like one whole song. Yeah, absolutely. And I wish more games would adopt that um that mentality rather than just like, okay, they're leaving one area, they're going to the next, we're just going to fade one out and start the next one.
01:53:00
Speaker
Yeah. ah Like, you can do it, but it it risks... losing a bit of the immersion that you get as like a gamer going from one fantastic zone to the next it very much depends on also the game like a game like Doom where it's just heavy metal track after heavy metal track I feel like it doesn't I feel like that having the hard cut works out a little better because it's all, you you you you have the same like bass line of like your drums and heavy guitar, like for essentially each hit. So it's like, it blends well a little better, but it's still like each one's very much unique and different.
01:53:37
Speaker
it It can work. It can work depending on the scenario for sure. But I'm, I'm just kind of saying that like when a game makes those little tweaks or has those little um elements to them where it like, you can just tell that,
01:53:51
Speaker
a lot of thought and care was put into the music and the sound design, it enhances the experience. For me, definitely. and like i who ah Sorry, go go for it. you I was just going to say, side note, um the game devs for Doom did that composer so dirty. i'm Oh yeah, Nick Gordon, yeah. yeah ah But you want to know who did Nick Gordon?
01:54:10
Speaker
A funny thing about Nick Gordon, um the brand new Tony Hawk Pro Skater game. Sorry, just going to repeat that for me? For some reason, I lost connection briefly. ah the brand new Tony Hawk Pro Skater game ah if you pre-order the game you get Doom Slayer and you get a Revenant to play as okay they also put in five tracks from Doom and two of them are and two of them are from the the mi are Mick Gordon I mean, he he did great work. His music for the Doom games was phenomenal. but you can So you could listen to some Mick Gordon tracks while you skateboarded Tony Hawk. I love that.
01:54:46
Speaker
It's ah only on the pre-order. Only on the pre-order. Only on the deluxe deluxe edition. but The deluxe edition only. interesting i will point that out but it's quite funny that you you can do that uh you can just skateboard as doom slayer while listening to uh uh like i i can't remember the rip and rip and tear rip and shred yeah rip and tear i think yeah you can listen to that and uh skateboard and do a do a kickflip just do a little kickflip just do a little flip
01:55:21
Speaker
just do that um oh shit what was my uh two of the games that i think that i i praise for their sound design and soundtrack are metal hellsinger and hi-fi rush i played metal hellsinger for the first time maybe like six months ago and it was cool it's a fantastic game it was cool i liked i liked how they incorporated the soundtrack into the gameplay itself Yeah, it's it's such a unique experience with that. I i love it so much um because of that. And also, you know, so good old Serge Tankian on the the final track for the final boss there. Oh, so it's so good. It's such a great soundtrack. And I love how they design it so well. We're like each time you get further into the stage, more and more get added to everything.
01:56:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah when you get when you get the combo bonuses, it adds more layers. and But even like further into the stage, as you get further into the stage, it's like, okay, now we'll actually play mike more of the song as well.
01:56:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. it's It's really cool. And then Hi-Fi Rush... I mean, i don't know that one. It a great game.
01:56:35
Speaker
you You if you play metal Hellsinger, I think you'll love Hi-Fi Rush. It is. Check it out. Yeah. Hi-Fi Rush. It is by Tango Gameworks. um The same people who did the evil within one and two.
01:56:51
Speaker
um And it is just a fantastic game. And the voice of Sonic ah Roger Craig Smith is the villain. Cool. Yeah. definitely Definitely worth it. I would i would recommend that. um And then, like, I would say of modern gaming soundtracks, ah because of how big it got it and even charted on the Billboard Classical charts was Expedition 33.
01:57:19
Speaker
That's another one that I've been meaning to play and I've heard incredible things about it. So if you're, if you're also saying that soundtrack is cool, I'm going to go give it a listen. Yeah, I would definitely. Yeah. Like the, like I have not seen a video game soundtrack chart billboard like it did.
01:57:36
Speaker
That's true. Hey, that's not a common thing. It was at the top of the classical list, classical music. It topped the chart.
01:57:46
Speaker
That's cool. It's very cool. And it's it's really cool to see like it did that. You know what? which I mean, that was that's that's an interesting point because earlier I mentioned um Journey, right?
01:58:00
Speaker
it's It's nice to see like smaller studios because it was... Was that one done by and a quote-unquote indie studio, or was it just like a smaller che Because it was a bunch of people who had experience on AAA games, but then wanted to do their own thing. Sandfall ah is the dev studio.
01:58:16
Speaker
Team of 30, plus like all the people that they outsource. but it's thirty thirty thirty The four team core team. Core team, 30 devs, all former Ubisoft. Yeah, there it is. i knew I knew they were all from another studio initially.
01:58:30
Speaker
But like i I find, as a general rule, that soundtracks are almost always better from indie companies because they just they care more. Yeah, I think there are a few exceptions. They more about details. Of course. I mean, Zelda is a Nintendo classic. Yeah, Nintendo is a big one. Same with Pokemon. The Pokemon soundtracks are consistently good.
01:58:51
Speaker
Yeah, they're consistently I think like people who remix the Pokemon soundtracks can do have done amazing things. like and Insane in the Rain's jazz Pokemon album. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the one you're talking about. Yeah, like that one I know got a huge positive reception with that release.
01:59:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that one was cool. But like, as you said, there there are some exceptions for some of the big name guns, but it's as a general thing, I often find it's the smaller studios that pay more attention to the details because they're it's more important for them, whereas the bigger studios are just concerned with churning out as many games. Like, we've got a recipe to print money, so we're just going to keep doing that.
01:59:29
Speaker
Yeah. and another they won't they don't necessarily have bad soundtracks, but they just they don't have standout soundtracks either. least. Yeah. Another one, Final Fantasy, all of their soundtracks.
01:59:40
Speaker
Yep. All of their soundtracks. I don't think there's ever been a bad soundtrack for a Final Fantasy game. Oh, 100%. I went to go see um like a Final Fantasy live in concert, orchestra concert some months back and it was phenomenal.
01:59:54
Speaker
Was it, was it Distant Worlds? ah It was Final Fantasy 6. six Oh, the 6th Orchestra? a One of the others. It was like 6 and 10 or 6 and 9. I can't remember exactly which I remember it was 6.
02:00:09
Speaker
That's cool. It was 6 and something. In September, I'm going to see Distant Worlds, which is the 14 and 16 Orchestra. Nice. so Well, enjoy. It's going to be great. I'm so excited.
02:00:20
Speaker
Those concerts were always good. Yeah, no, it actually brings me to my next question of, I guess, yeah ah certain video game composers. um Are there any standouts for you? ah Oh, my God, I'm drawing. up You said his name multiple times to the first Doom guy. ah Nick Gordon.
02:00:38
Speaker
but Yeah, yeah. He did phenomenal work on those those games. I'm really sorry to hear how he was treated. um And for those who aren't familiar with the the whole drama and story behind it, just know that if you're listening to the like fancy soundtrack that was packaged out with the collector's edition for Doom Eternal, you're not actually listening to his work necessarily. like All of the tunes and music are of his compositions, but he did not put that album together.
02:01:07
Speaker
Oh. So if if you want to go look up the the details behind it, he got really shafted on that project. And that album actually does not best musically represent how he would have linked his tracks together.
02:01:23
Speaker
I didn't actually know that that was part. i know that he I know that he got shafted really hard from that whole thing. I didn't realize that's ah another thing that happened with that. That's one of the things that happened in the sense that the studio did not did not sign the contract for him to work on that album until far too late.
02:01:41
Speaker
And then they were on a crunch, and then they just had one of their sound designers kind of rip music from the games and hastily smoosh them together with little regard for musical form and structure.
02:01:54
Speaker
And that's why some of the tracks just kind of randomly cut from one to another. ah And he has he has come out and said, he's like, this is bad musical form, and I would have done it differently, but they didn't ah hire me properly for it.
02:02:08
Speaker
Yeah. Damn. Holy fuck. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to get into all the details because it is a deep dive into how poorly he was treated. by oh definitely.
02:02:19
Speaker
I can totally see his frustration with the the studio and i I hope his future projects are less difficult. Yeah. ah He does great work.
02:02:30
Speaker
Koji Kondo with the Zelda games, ah the Pokemon games. um What are specific video game composers?
02:02:42
Speaker
um What's his name? Crap.
02:02:48
Speaker
What's his name? What's his name? Oh, yeah, that's his name. Toby Fox, who did. all toby Oh, yeah, Toby Fox. I forget because he does every he did everything for right. Undertale, Delta Rune. He did some of the poke he did some of the music for Pokemon. Yeah, and he's battle theme in Scarlet and Violet.
02:03:04
Speaker
And he also had a hand in the area zero a zero area zero area zero tune, too. He's done some excellent work. So I would I would definitely be keeping an eye out for any project that he's tied to.
02:03:17
Speaker
Yeah. um Me personally. um Oh God. So can the composer for FF 14. Oh yes. Yeah. The soundtracks for that game in particular are great.
02:03:30
Speaker
Yeah. He 14 and 16 composer. So can is great. One of my favorites of all time. Surprisingly going to drop a fun fact. ah Do you know who one of the one of the composers for the desk the first destiny was.
02:03:46
Speaker
First, I mean, no, clearly. el It was Elton jean Elton John wrote music for the first Destiny? No way. Yeah, because I had it.
02:03:58
Speaker
ah I'm going double check to make sure that it is. But Elton John. ah Worked on a bit of Destiny stuff.
02:04:10
Speaker
That's good for him. That's cool.
02:04:15
Speaker
And yeah, that's ah it's interesting that it happened, but he yeah I mean, that man has worked on a lot of projects over the years. so Yeah, but yeah, he he has credits in but he has credits on the Destiny soundtrack.
02:04:32
Speaker
Man knows how to write a song. He does. I guess so. this one's This one's not a game composer necessarily, but ah an
Music Practice and Video Game Instruments
02:04:40
Speaker
anime. And she might have done some games. I'm not sure.
02:04:43
Speaker
um But any any project that I see the name Yoko Kano tied to. yeah She was the composer for Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex, ah Darker Than Black Season 1, which are all some of my favorite anime.
02:04:56
Speaker
Any project that I see her name um attached to, I'm just like, oh, the music for that's going to be good. Yeah, no, that's a definitely good one. um Another one that I am a big fan of, I'm just trying to remember the name of because... Yeah, it was. It was Yokoshimamora.
02:05:17
Speaker
uh kingdom hearts the composer oh yeah yeah okay those games have some pretty good music in them for sure shimamora is another big one of mine because i believe shimamora has also done a couple final fantasy games too if not like final fantasy-esque games um so yeah shimamora is another one of my favorite composers that i love listening to uh definitely some good music there um Final question I got for you before we move on to the bonus level, just because we are getting a little long for time here.
02:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, no worries. Because you are ah bit of a musician yourself. had A bit of a musician, yes. A bit of a musician. That describes me to a T. That's music that you've listened to inspired like projects that you've done.
02:06:06
Speaker
Absolutely, yes. And i was I've been waiting for this question so I can shamelessly plug. i Yes, excellent. I mean, you mentioned at the beginning there that I stream periodically on Twitch, which is true.
02:06:19
Speaker
um All of the music that I use on my channel, like my my opening, ending, be right back, scream, whatever, I wrote all that myself. Oh, yo, that's sick. I do my own audio production for that 100%.
02:06:32
Speaker
um I have done some projects creating backing tracks for friends who wanted to like sing covers of anime and video game songs. um So for instance, my friend, Dania Luxu for, I think it was an event back in like October or something, wanted to sing a little bit of the Hunt Showdown Rise Up Dead Man.
02:06:55
Speaker
So I had to listen to the original version of that and try and create a backing track for her to sing over. which was a fun challenge ah because obviously I do not have the same sample packs that the composers are yeah the band that, that originally wrote and recorded that song we're using.
02:07:11
Speaker
So I had to kind of listen back, figure out musically what was going on in the song, choose samples that would get me at least close to the, the sound that they were using and work from there.
02:07:25
Speaker
And then actually most recently, i I recently joined a band with ah a couple of friends of mine ah playing anime cover songs where we're hoping to be playing some ah local anime conventions, comic book, video game conventions, that sort of thing over the next year or two.
02:07:44
Speaker
Ooh, that's sick. Yeah. What's the, ah what's the band's name? If may band is called Killjoy. You can find them on Instagram at Killjoy is a band. That's cool. That's sick. ah Looking forward to that.
02:07:57
Speaker
Hopefully, if you go Canada wide, maybe if you come out West here. Well, you never know. I mean, I know i know we were talking about, um so i'm based I'm based in Ottawa. nation Yeah, I'm based here out in Alberta.
02:08:11
Speaker
yeah Yeah, near the other side of the country. Yeah. ah pretty Pretty far. For those who don't know geography, Canada is huge. um He's tomb two time zones over.
02:08:23
Speaker
Yes. Anyway, but I know there have been talks of not only just playing in our local scene, but of going out to Toronto, Montreal, other um other events. So maybe eventually we'll head a little farther west. Who knows? Hey, well, if you ever do, I'll be sure to to stop by and listen to some sweet anime covers. <unk> I'll poke you when I know what's going on with that.
02:08:43
Speaker
yeah Or if I ever find myself in a out east and during one of those conventions. Yeah, I mean, if you ever if you ever fly out for something like Anime North in Toronto or Otakuthon in Montreal.
02:08:55
Speaker
Anime North is the big one. Anime North is the biggest anime convention in Canada hosted in Toronto. that Because I remember last last year last year or two years ago, they had Survive Said the Prophet perform.
02:09:08
Speaker
and i And I know that because friend of the podcast, uh, back Ryan Mac went to go see them and is actually friends with Yosh, the lead singer. Nice.
02:09:20
Speaker
Which is crazy. I haven't been to Anime North in a few years now, but went in 2022 was the last time went. nice um but yeah anyway we didn't play either of those uh this year but i i think there's been whispers that we're gonna try and get in there in future years who knows hey i look forward i look forward to hearing from it it's uh it's still a very very early very early thing yeah so all right well i think with that we're gonna dive on into the bonus level and start wrapping things up
02:09:55
Speaker
Crazy lists, great deals, and recapping gaming history. It's all here in the bonus level.
02:10:03
Speaker
All right. and Starting off, Tristan, we got Game Clash. This is a little tournament bracket style thing where every week we have a different theme and you, the guest, get to decide the winner of each match. for oh my God. ran No pressure.
02:10:18
Speaker
No pressure at all. So I figured since you're a musician here, we got, we, it's only fair that we have all the video iconic video game instruments.
02:10:29
Speaker
Okay. Are you ready? Are you ready for this? I'm, ah I'm looking at the brackets. Now you're going to have to help me with a match number two, but all the others, I think I could pick a winner from. All right. So starting off, we got the Ocarina of time itself versus the iconic harp of the bards of final fantasy.
02:10:47
Speaker
Ooh, Oot. Ocarina of time, baby. Very Oot of you. ah Match two, we've got the dubstep gun from Saints Row 4, which is a gun that shoots dubstep versus Nevin from Devil May Cry 4.
02:11:06
Speaker
Oh, no, or was it three? It was three, not four. Or was it four? It was three or four. I think it's from Devil May Cry. Anyway, Devil May Cry is the guitar that Dante kills that that demon and that demon turns into a guitar.
02:11:17
Speaker
I don't know either of these properties very well, but the idea of a dubstep gun tickles me. So I'm going to go with that one. All right, and Dubstep takes the win there. Match three, we got the Rock Band Drums versus the Samba de Amigo of Rock Maracas.
02:11:35
Speaker
Rock Band Drums, baby! and for the last match of the quarterfinals, the Trombone of Trombone Champ versus the DJ Hero Mix Board.
02:11:49
Speaker
i'm goingnna I'm going to put this to you. Which one do you think I'm going to pick? Trombone Champ? That is a very good guess, sir. and Let's go. Trombone Champ is such fun little I streamed that one on launch, and it is so goofy. I love it.
02:12:07
Speaker
gotta do everything all right go moving on to the semi-finals the ocarina of time versus the dubstep gun i'm gonna go out for this one and we got the drums versus the trombone trombone all right grand finals the ocarina of time versus the trombone champ this one one hurts me in my soul because as much as my heart wants to say trombone gonna give it to the ocarina of time And the Ocarina of Time just barely sneaking by the the trombone.
02:12:43
Speaker
It was a close match, folks. It was so close. ah But the Ocarina of Time does it for the most iconic video game musical instrument. I think there should be more, honestly, that are more than just guitars, because there's a lot of guitars.
02:12:59
Speaker
There are, yes. There should be more unique ones. I'd like to see more unique ones. I would too. um Moving on to this week in gaming history from July 14th to 27th. Here's what happened in the past.
02:13:14
Speaker
Starting with some major events on July 15th, 1985, James Volant plays Joust for over 67 hours on a single coin with four 20-minute breaks in between.
02:13:29
Speaker
A world record for any arcade game. His record high score, 107,216,700. one hundred seven thousand two hundred sixteen seven hundred
02:13:38
Speaker
$260,700. $107 million. $107 million, Jesus. That's a lot of points. It is. It is a lot of points. ah On July 20th, 2005, the Entertainment Software Rating Board re-rated the video game Grand Theft Auto San Andreas from mature adults only.
02:13:56
Speaker
Did they do that, really? yeah i didn't know. Now they might have re-rated it again back to mature years later, but back in 2005, they did that.
02:14:08
Speaker
um Moving on to game birthdays. Time to feel old. Here are some game birthdays coming up within the next two weeks. Starting off on the 15th, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic turns 22. KOTOR 22 years old?
02:14:23
Speaker
yeah
02:14:25
Speaker
On the 19th, Final Fantasy ten in Japan turns 24. Oh my god. On the 20th, Bastion turns 14. On the 21st, Little King's Story turned sixteen but tune two turns 2 turns 8.
02:14:39
Speaker
a On the 24th, the Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition that was on the PlayStation Portable turns 18. On the 26th, Sports Resort turns 16 Catherine turns 14. On Cornelius Mario turns 35. And also on the 27th, Mario 64 turns 26.
02:14:53
Speaker
ah july twenty seven dr cornelius barrio turns thirty five odd and also on the twenty seventh mario golf turn para golf sixty four turnss twenty six
02:15:07
Speaker
ah Moving on to Tony's game poll. um This is a seasonal poll that we have every season. It changes up this season's poll. Tristan, what franchise deserves a new game in 2025, 2026 that has not been announced yet?
02:15:23
Speaker
You know what I'd love to see? And you can correct me if it hasn't been announced. I mean, there have been talks about it for years. and So i I'm not up on all the news like you are, but...
02:15:34
Speaker
Have they announced ah Bioshock 4? They haven't, actually, believe it or not. would I would love to see a Bioshock 4. We have they like a spiritual successor that we know of, but no like actual Bioshock.
02:15:48
Speaker
What's the spiritual successor that they've announced? Judas. Judas. And this game looks great. They showed it off in the Game Awards, but like it was supposed to come out March this year, and we haven't heard any details so about this game in forever now, and I'm getting worried.
02:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, I've got some bad news for them. It is well past March of this year. Yeah. So hopefully we'll get new details soon about the game because I want to play it because it's very Bioshock inspired. I believe it's like some of the original team of Bioshock or like the original creator of Bioshock.
02:16:20
Speaker
Those were cool games. I would love to see more Bioshock games. Oh, absolutely. ah Your deals of the week that are coming up, ah ah your Epic Free games from July 10th to 17th are Figment 2 and Skyracket.
02:16:33
Speaker
ah And also, Steam Summer Sale has just wrapped up, so there aren't really any other sales going on right now aside from just your standard specials. Your achievement of the week is in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 plus 4.
02:16:46
Speaker
You look like Tony Hawk, which is to enter photo mode while skating as Tony Hawk. And the game of the week is Donkey Kong Bonanza because it's going to be a lot of fun.
02:16:57
Speaker
And Tristan, if there is a game old or new that you would recommend to our audience audience right now, what game would that be i got I got two recommendations for you. One's a game, one's an anime, because those were largely the topics we've been talking about.
02:17:10
Speaker
Absolutely. Game. Go play Pokemon Heart, Gold, Soul, Silver. Anime. Go watch Cowboy Bebop. That's good. If you can afford to play, if you can afford a physical copy of Heart, Gold, Soul, Silver, go get that. Otherwise, just emulate it. Those are expensive.
02:17:27
Speaker
All right. Well, that Tristan, we have made it to the end. We did. We made it. Round of applause for us. Yay! ah Where can we find you on the internet?
02:17:38
Speaker
Where can you find me? You can find me pretty much anywhere um at the handle tuba guy, Tristan. I'm on, well, not very active on Twitter, but I'm on blue sky, Instagram, Twitch.
02:17:51
Speaker
ah You can find me on YouTube. There are two channels. One is tuba guy, Tristan clips where I periodically post clips from streams. I'm really inconsistent about it, but I do post sometimes.
02:18:05
Speaker
And the other is tubaguytristanirl, where sometimes I bring a little camera with me and go do fun stuff in real life, and I edit together a little videos. Nice. um But yeah, best bet if you want to find me, just look for tubaguytristan.
02:18:19
Speaker
You'll end up on one of my pages. Excellent. And of course, you can find me at Tony's Game Lounge everywhere. Twitter, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube. We got new YouTube shorts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after a brand new episode of a podcast.
02:18:34
Speaker
ah So be sure to check out the highlights of the podcast and we stream ah periodically on Twitch as well. ah Tristan, thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. It's been fun.
02:18:45
Speaker
And thank you, the listener, for tuning in Be sure to like, share, and follow the podcast on whatever platform you're listening to this on. ah We will be back in two weeks' time with another brand new episode right back here in the Game Lounge.
02:19:00
Speaker
Bye! Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Tony's Game Lounge. New episodes release every two weeks. Make sure to follow, like, and share the podcast on your streaming service and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and X.